The Paper Daughters of Chinatown - Heather B. Moore Page 0,74

that she still had deep bruises showing from the switch. She combed through her hair, then twisted it back. Next, she put on a silk dress; then she straightened the coverlet on her bed. She wanted nothing from the bedroom except for the pearl bracelet. Everything else would be too hard to conceal.

She was ready when Ah-Peen Oie entered the room with another man. The Chinese man was thin, but his sharp eyes missed nothing. Would he find her bruising and thinness repulsive?

Moments after looking at her, he turned to Ah-Peen Oie. “I don’t want a troublemaker.”

“She has learned her lesson,” Ah-Peen Oie said.

The Chinese man walked over to Mei Lien. She tried not to draw away. Getting out of this house was a must. And she didn’t want to give this man any reason to leave without her. When he walked around her, Mei Lien didn’t move.

Finally, he negotiated a price for Mei Lien, and moments later, she was walking out of the house with him. The morning sun was bright, and Mei Lien had to squint against the light as her new owner led her to a buggy. The smells and sounds of the busy street assailed her senses. It had been months since she had been outside, and she didn’t know what to look at first.

The man ushered her into the buggy, and almost immediately it set off down the street.

Mei Lien peered out the window at the shops, the people, a dog running alongside a boy, the food stalls . . . all that she had been missing. And where would this new owner take her? Into another house? Or worse?

The buggy slowed at a corner, then passed a tailoring shop. The Chinese lettering was yellow, bold, and seemed to be shouting at her. She knew it wasn’t Huan Sun’s shop, but it reminded her of him. How was he doing? Had he recovered his money? Of course not. Zhang Wei would have made sure of that. He didn’t want the competition. For her.

Another corner, another shop, more people, more sounds and smells . . . and life.

Mei Lien had no life. She was a slave of the worst kind. Her life was no longer her own to live, and if she never saw her mother again, what did anything else matter? She was now away from the clutches and control of Ah-Peen Oie, only to be thrust at a new owner.

Glancing over at the Chinese man, Mei Lien moved as close as she could to the door of the buggy. Only a single latch separated her from the streets. From freedom. She might die on the streets if she escaped, but perhaps that would be a better fate anyway. Or she could try to find Huan Sun’s place. Beg him for mercy to hide her. Would he be able to get her back on a steamship to Hong Kong?

The buggy slowed to go around another corner, and Mei Lien’s hand found its way to the door latch. She didn’t think, didn’t plan, she only acted. Pushing down the latch, she opened the door and jumped.

She landed hard on the cobblestones, and after rolling a couple of times with the momentum of the impact, she scrambled to her feet. Sure enough, the buggy had drawn to a halt, and she heard yelling from her new owner.

Mei Lien looked left, then right. She had no time to decide where to run. Nothing was familiar to her. She picked an alley across the street and headed for that.

“Stop her!” the man yelled after her.

Mei Lien didn’t slow; she didn’t look for any other options. She only ran toward the alley. Once between the buildings, she continued pounding along the street until she found herself in a courtyard filled with plants and statues. She saw a ladder leading up to the rooftop.

Her hands trembled against the rungs as she climbed the ladder, and she missed a step and almost fell. But finally she reached the top. Turning, she wrenched the ladder away from the wall and pushed it over. The owner came into the courtyard, saw her, and screamed, “You will pay twice for this.”

Mei Lien ran across the rooftop. She jumped to another roof and kept running. Tears streaked her face, and her heart beat faster than a rabbit’s, making her wonder if it would give out, but she didn’t care. She had never felt this free in her life. If these were the last moments of her