Lin Lan

Li Lan's Fortune

Li Lan's Fortune

The region of South Yangtze River (, Jiangsu and Zhejiang) Capital City Nanjing

Chapter 1

It was mid-morning when Li Lan woke up. She found her wrists tied along with a few others. She was in a large carriage that had around ten people within. Everyone there had found their own space to huddle up in. Her head ached and she felt nauseous. She raised her head to find she had been sleeping on another girls' thin knees. The girl smiled at her and pointed to her head as a way of explanation. Li Lan reached up to touch her face and found a large bump on it. The road was bumpy by giving her head some padding with the young girl's legs was it prevented her from getting further injured. She nodded gratefully and slowly sat up.

She touched her head and remembered talking to her father. He had been crying. There had been a flood and many of the villagers were starving. She had been picking roots nearby when he had called her back early. Her mother was sick, her brothers were too young, and her father was desperate. She caressed the bruise on her head. She understood why her father wanted to sell her but she hadn't wanted to go. She was nine years old this year. She wasn't particularly pretty but she wasn't ugly either. What if she ended up in the red-light district. Xiao Mei's family next door had wanted to sell her a few months earlier. She had been her best friend. She had wanted to run away together but Li Lan didn't go because she had to look after her sick mother and two little brothers. Li Lan sighed and only hoped her father used some of the money to get her mother medicine.

The girl next to her coughed bringing her out of her thoughts. She looked around. The girl next to her was around fifteen or sixteen years old. She was very fresh looking with pale and fair skin. Her countenance appeared frail and delicate. She wore the same rough commoner's clothing as herself. She looked at the girl's fingers and saw tender hands without many calluses. Li Lan's heart leapt but decided not to ask or get involved. They were all girls whose ages ranged between ten and eighteen. Each wore a dull and lifeless expression and those who didn't were crying into their arms. The air inside the carriage was depressing and stagnant to the point that Li Lan felt like she was suffocating.

The days spent on the carriage were very difficult. The space was too small and they couldn't even stretch out their legs. Being hungry was one thing but having to use the bathroom was a hassle. The carriage only stopped once a day for them to relieve themselves. If they wanted to go again they had to hold it until trafficker Qian's caravan fleet stopped for the night to rest. The fleet was very long with around ten or so horse carriages and a few caged cars. It wasn't clear where this batch of people was going to be sold.

Li Lan had briefly thought of escape until Shen Hao, the girl next to her, reminded her that Trafficker Qian had tight security around her caravan. Li Lan had been unconscious for three days already there was no way she could be familiar with the wild and mountainous countryside as well as the harsh society of the outside world was not one where a weak female wanderer could survive. The best case would be to wander the streets as a beggar and the worst would be to get kidnapped and sold into those filthy places. Especially for girls who had decent appearances, the outside was full of difficulties.

Shen Hao had explained that becoming a servant or slave was better than wandering homeless outside where perhaps you would end up in situations far worse than servitude. Shen Hao had explained how she was a lady's maid before with a good life but had been at the wrong place at the wrong time so was being sold. Shen Hao argued she wasn't used to servitude but having constant food and a warm bed. In this chaotic time becoming a servant wouldn't be a loss. Shen Hao didn't explain exactly how she ended up in such a place and so Li Lan didn't ask. Everyone had their own secrets.

The carriage continued to proceed bringing with it suffering and sadness. In order to maintain the speed the trafficker provided very little food. The girls received a single piece of flatbread a day and two sips of water, keeping them in a state where they barely wouldn't die of thirst and starvation. The people in the carriage gradually grew thinner especially Shen Hao. Her originally skinny body now showed signs of emaciation. Yet the weaker her body became the brighter her eyes became. Shen Hao refused to remain sullen.