I was the only heir to the chief of the Fu Stockade, but I was a woman. So my father raised three child bridegrooms for me. They were to become both my future husbands and the stockade's future chiefs. In other words, whoever married me would become the chief.
Yet even though they owed this power to me, they had never thought much of me. I assumed the men of the stockade simply couldn't bring themselves to bow before a woman. But then I saw Fu An pull my maid into his arms and whisper, “Rui'er, I'll never love anyone else but you. As for the Goddess, once I become chief, I'll make sure she's nothing but an empty shell.”
During the sacrificial ceremony, my father asked which of the three I wanted to marry. Remembering how cold they had all been toward me, I casually pointed to the man in the middle of the stockade. “I'm the Goddess, so I'll marry the finest man in the stockade. Him!”
“The High Priest, Gong Nan?” My father froze. “Gong Nan? He's lying there motionless, nothing but an empty shell. Do you really want to marry a living corpse?”
