The father looked pleadingly at the middleman, who was standing behind the rich man gesturing to the father to agree to the deal.

‘If you don’t agree he will leave. You will regret it later. Whether or not they will live another two days is hard to tell. If they die, what will you have to sell?’

The father looked at the mother. There was no reaction.

‘Alright,’ he said, shaking his head in utter disappointment.

Without betraying any signs of satisfaction, the rich man instructed the middleman to get a bag of rice from the carriage. The middleman left the scene.

The man in the silk clothes took out some silver coins from a beautiful bag and started counting them. The middleman returned in a while, followed by the coachman, who was carrying the rice in a jute bag.

The girls looked at their parents, at their house and then at their brothers sitting in the corner. There was not a trace of emotion in their tired eyes. Handing over twenty silver coins and a bag of rice, the man in the silk robe left, followed by the middleman and the coachman. Behind them, the two girls followed with mechanical steps.

When everyone had gone, Ho Han and his brothers walked unsteadily towards the bag of rice. Their pale eyes were glowing with wild greed. With a thunderous yell the father smothered the glow, and together with his wife dragged the bag into the house. Ho Han and his brothers followed. Their starved bodies were thrilled. Today they would get to eat rice.

Asking the mother for a vessel, the father put some rice into it. He took the remaining rice from the bag, divided it into several small packets and hid them in different places. Then, having bolted all the doors and without making a sound, they ate the cooked rice. The steaming aroma from the rice wiped off the memory of the two girls who’d just been sold. Their faces lit up with hope. They would move to Kwangchow, now that they had money.

Tired after their meal, they fell asleep only to be rudely woken up by a group of starving villagers who demanded that they share their rice. ‘We know that you have rice in your house. Give us rice.’

‘There is no rice. Where would we get rice from?’ the father cried.

‘Where have your two daughters gone? We know you have sold them. Now give us some rice.’

The people with whom they’d lived for years had suddenly turned alien. Disregarding Ho Han’s father, they marched in and turned the place upside down. When they left, they took away almost all the packets of rice and the silver coins that Ho Han’s father had hidden. The parents cried bitterly. Ho Han and his brothers stood still, terrified out of their wits.

‘Our rice! They have taken our rice!’

*

At the touch of her mother’s hand Lailin returned from the distant past and looked up. Handing her a cup of tea, her mother walked away, smiling gently.