“Little ge’er, what’s your name and surname? Where is your home? And how did you come to be here?”
The moment Bai Chao opened his eyes, he had barely crawled out from where he had been hiding inside the hay cart when an old woman grabbed him and dragged him over to this man. His mind was still foggy, but the instant he got a good look at the man’s clothes, he was frightened wide awake.
Bai Chao had been terribly flustered to begin with, but when he spotted the kind big man who had given him a steamed bun at noon, he hurried behind him to hide.
“Big man, I’m not a bad person!”
He had only secretly curled up in the corn husks on the cart for a nap. He really hadn’t done anything at all! They mustn’t let the constable arrest him!
Luo Yang was feeling rather nervous himself. He had no idea how this little beggar had ended up hiding in his cart and getting hauled all the way home. To make matters worse, they had happened to run straight into a constable who had come to the house to verify the household register for conscription.
His grandmother, in her desperation, had actually grabbed the little beggar and shoved him in front of the constable, claiming that this was her grandson’s husband and that they were about to get married, so Luo Yang wouldn’t have to perform the compulsory labor required of unmarried men.
Luo Yang certainly had no desire to go.
Last year, someone from their village had gone to perform the labor and lost his life. This year was supposed to be even worse. He had heard that the conscripted laborers would be sent all the way to the northern frontier, thousands of miles away, a region inhabited by barbarians for generations. Nine out of ten people sent there wouldn’t make it back alive—and even if they died, they would die far from home.
Just thinking about it was miserable.
Besides, he was the only child in his family. If something happened to him, what would become of his family?
But there was no time to worry about that now. If he didn’t clear things up, he was already in trouble. From the way the constable had looked at him just now, he was probably suspecting that Luo Yang was a trafficker who had kidnapped the little beggar and brought him home.
“Constable, it’s like this… Please, sir, be magnanimous and don’t hold my grandmother’s foolishness against her.”
The truth was this:
That morning, Luo Yang had happened to help a little beggar in the county town. Then, when he ran into him again at noon, he gave the child one of the steamed buns he had with him before going off to take care of his business.
Who could have known that after Luo Yang left, the little beggar would crawl into the corn husks in his cart and hide there, following him all the way home?
Once Luo Yang had explained everything, his family—especially his grandmother—became visibly anxious. But he had already made the situation clear. No matter how frantic they were now, it was too late to change anything. All they could do was stare hopefully at the constable and pray that he wouldn’t hold their foolish words against them.
The constable was from the neighboring village. He merely glanced around the little courtyard before waving a hand at the Luo family, signaling that he wouldn’t pursue their earlier nonsense.
But he still had questions for the child standing before him.
His gaze returned to Bai Chao.
Seeing how frightened the child was, Luo Yang hurriedly coaxed him in a gentle voice. Bai Chao stood beside him with a bird’s-nest of hair and a little blackened face.
“You’re so young. You can’t keep wandering around and begging all by yourself. Come on, tell the constable properly where your home is.”
Bai Chao had been trembling with fear, but the moment he heard the word home, a flicker of hope appeared in his heart. He finally gathered enough courage to answer honestly.
“My surname is Bai. My name is Chaochao. My home is in a really, really big village. Bad people caught me and brought me here.”
Bai Chao was still frightened. The man questioning him looked short and chubby, and he seemed as though he might have a good temper, but the single character meaning constable on his uniform was enough to command fear and respect.
Bai Chao knew that people like this were very powerful. Everyone had to bow and scrape before them. If anyone made them unhappy, they would be arrested, beaten with wooden boards, and thrown into prison.
They were terribly frightening.
He had to answer properly.
“Bai Zhaozhao, is it? What do you mean, some big village or other? Tell me exactly where your home is. That way I can return to the county office and have a travel permit issued for you, so you can get home sooner.”
Having apparently listened to a whole lot of nonsense, the short, plump constable sounded somewhat impatient. Then he couldn’t help muttering a few words under his breath. He seemed to find the name Bai Zhaozhao rather novel.
The moment Bai Chao heard him say Bai Zhaozhao, he hurriedly explained.
“My name is Bai Chao. Bai, like white and clean, and Chao, like morning and evening.”
“But you just said your name was Bai Zhaozhao.”
The constable rolled his eyes at him, thinking that Bai Chao was a rather strange name too.
Around here, very few ge’er used the character Chao in their names. It was generally a name used for young men.
Bai Chao shrank his shoulders under the man’s stare and carefully defended himself.
“That’s what my papa calls me.”
Seeing him like this, the constable didn’t dwell on the matter of his name. Instead, he returned to his earlier question.
Bai Chao answered honestly.
“I forgot how to get home. I can’t find the way back.”
He only remembered that his family lived in a big village. He couldn’t remember anything else.
The short, plump constable was a clever man. Seeing the child like this, he seemed to realize something. He examined Bai Chao’s face more carefully.
Fair and clean?
Not at all.
The child had a little blackened face instead, along with a pair of eyes that stared straight ahead without the slightest hint of guile.
Putting that together with the answers he had given, the constable finally understood.
So he was a fool.
The constable immediately lost whatever interest he had in the matter. He merely nodded, then raised his chin toward the Luo family gathered nearby.
“Judging by his accent, this child was probably trafficked here from another place. And he’s a little simple-minded at that. Since he doesn’t remember where his home is, there’s no way for him to return. What you said earlier—does it still count? If it does, and you truly want him to become your family’s husband, you can let him stay and register his household here. Just follow the procedures for registering displaced people. In that case, your son won’t have to pay the late marriage tax this year, nor will he have to perform the compulsory labor.”
The constable was considerably more relaxed now. Anyone of unknown origins naturally had to be questioned thoroughly. If the Luo family had actually kidnapped him, the constable would have earned himself a major merit for uncovering it.
What a pity.
The Yan Dynasty imposed severe punishments on human traffickers, and anyone who captured one could receive a substantial reward.
Now that the Luo family was no longer under suspicion, if both sides were willing, the marriage could naturally go ahead.
Seeing the Luo family nodding so vigorously that their heads nearly fell off, then looking at the foolish ge’er, who wore an utterly bewildered expression, the constable kindly added a few more words.
“If you don’t want to become this family’s husband, you can come back to the county office with me. Quite a few disaster refugees from neighboring prefectures have arrived in the county recently, and the magistrate has arranged relief centers for them. You’re a ge’er, so there should be somewhere for you to go. We can find you a family to marry into later.”
“Wait, wait, wait!”
Bai Chao hurriedly waved his hands.
He rubbed his flat, empty stomach, then turned his gaze toward the kind big man. He began seriously examining the man who had been so kind to him.
“Big man.”
Bai Chao waved at him.
Luo Yang was no longer as utterly at a loss as he had been earlier. He didn’t want to perform compulsory labor, but neither did he particularly want to marry someone of unknown origins.
After weighing the matter carefully, he had already made up his mind.
He was just about to say something when the child beat him to it. Bai Chao rose onto his tiptoes and covered the side of his mouth with one hand, looking as though he wanted to whisper a secret to Luo Yang.
Luo Yang bent his knees and lowered himself.
Bai Chao leaned close to his ear. As he glanced around at the courtyard they were standing in, he whispered,
“Big man, will you hit me?”
“What? You’re already…”
Luo Yang had originally intended to say, You’re already grown up. Of course I wouldn’t hit you.
But then he remembered that it wasn’t as though he had never hit an adult before, so he changed his wording.
“If you’re my husband, then of course I won’t hit you.”
Regardless of age, he wouldn’t hit his own husband. Since he was little, Luo Yang had never seen his father raise a hand against his mother.
Those words clearly won Bai Chao’s favor.
But Bai Chao wasn’t finished.
“Then will you give me food?”
“I will. If I have one bite, you’ll have one too. Even if I only have one bite, I’ll give it to you.”
As he spoke, Luo Yang secretly glanced toward his parents. He knew that his father would go without food himself in order to save it for his mother.
“Mm.”
Bai Chao was reassured.
Now he wasn’t afraid anymore.
He looked firmly at the constable, pointed at the big man who had brought him home, then pointed at the modest little courtyard. With absolute certainty, he declared,
“I’m willing! I’m willing to become his husband!”
Bai Chao still knew what compulsory labor meant.
The big man was a good person. And Bai Chao wanted to eat his fill. He didn’t want to keep living as a little beggar.
So he was willing to become this family’s husband.
With the matter settled, the constable once again instructed them to draw up the marriage contract and register it with the county office as soon as possible. Then he hurried off to the next household.
Only after the government official had left did everyone finally breathe normally again.
The entire family gathered around Bai Chao, their eyes fixed on him as they looked him over.
Luo Yang’s grandparents were both wearing deeply wrinkled expressions.
Earlier, they had been too anxious to do anything but find someone to placate the constable. Now that they had a chance to look more carefully, they couldn’t help thinking that this child was rather too shabby.
They couldn’t even tell whether the child was a young man or a ge’er.
Were they really going to let him marry their grandson?
Bai Chao, however, had no time to care what the Luo family thought of him.
All he knew was that he would be living here from now on.
At that moment, he was completely absorbed in inspecting his new family.
The Luo family’s house was neither dilapidated nor particularly impressive. The three small rooms had actually been built from three different materials.
The central main room was a wooden house, and the boards were dark gray with age.
The rooms on either side were made of rammed earth and brick. Judging by their condition, they had probably been built only a few years ago.
As for the kitchen and latrine behind the house, Bai Chao hadn’t gotten around to looking at those yet.
It was autumn harvest season, and several bundles of golden corn hung from the beams of the Luo family’s main room. Beneath the eaves, several serrated sickles for cutting rice lay on bamboo winnowing trays.
One glance was enough to tell that harvest season had arrived.
There was grain in the house.
And they even had a big horse.
Their life surely couldn’t be too bad.
The corners of Bai Chao’s mouth secretly curled upward.
He was just about to continue inspecting the house when someone grabbed him and pulled him around to the back.
“Mother, forget everything else for now. I’ll wash him first. There isn’t a single clean spot on this whole child!”
At that moment, Luo Yang’s mother had no time to worry about anything else.
All she wanted was to scrub this little black-faced boy clean.
[1]In many danmei / BL or gender-role fantasy novels, Ge’er refers to a distinct gender category of men who can bear children jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3397398_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3397398_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
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