The General and the Ghost Writer Chapter 1

When I was seven, my father stuck a piece of straw in my hair and sold me to a human trafficker.

Later, like a piece of cargo, I was resold by the trafficker to a nanny working for the Sterling family.

The nanny twisted my ear and dragged me in front of the young miss.

"This stray bone from the outside needs to be taught a lesson." I shrank back, daring not to speak.

The young miss frowned, but said nothing to her.

Instead, she started talking to me about independent personalities, women's liberation, and "Mr. Democracy and Mr. Science."

I didn't understand a word.

But for the first time, I felt like a real person, standing tall and upright.

* * *

I was born strong, ate a lot, and wasn't much to look at.

My parents never liked me.

When I was seven, a drought hit. The harvest failed, and the village was starving. My father stuck a piece of straw in my hair—a sign that I was for sale—and led me to the trafficker.

He traded me for two measly pieces of silver.

Clutching the money, he smiled so wide his eyes disappeared. He turned and left without a single glance back.

I stood next to the trafficker. I didn't chase him, didn't cry. I didn't even ask why he didn't want me anymore.

The trafficker wasn't a bad person. She didn't mistreat me or let me starve. She kept me for a few days, taught me some basic manners, and then sold me to the Sterling family, a high-ranking political household. The woman who came to buy me was a thin, stern-faced woman the trafficker called Nanny Wen.

She looked a bit fierce. "From now on, you're a maid in the Sterling household. Behave yourself."