Chapter 2
I recognized the leader – it was Mike Bull, a notorious loan shark from town. He had once crippled a villager who couldn’t repay his debt.
“Jack Smith, your loan is due today. Pay up, with interest,” Mike growled.
I was shocked. Had my father really taken out a high–interest loan to marry Rose?
My father stammered, and Mike threatened to take one of his legs as payment.
Terrified, my father pointed at me with a shaking finger. “This is my daughter. Take her as payment.”
But Mike wasn’t interested in me, saying I was too ugly.
“But she’s healthy!” my father insisted. “You could sell any part of her body and clear my debt!”
I felt my eyes burning with angry tears. I knew my father was a beast, but I never imagined he’d stoop this low, trading his daughter’s life for his own safety.
Mike reconsidered, eyeing me like a piece of merchandise.
Just as he was about to drag me away, Rose’s voice came from inside the room. “Who’s making all that noise out there, disturbing my beauty cleep?”
Mike turned and saw Rose in the room. His eyes nearly popped out of his head.
“A vase maiden! You old dog, you know how to live it up, don’t you?”
One of Mike’s men whispered in his ear, “Boss, I heard these vase maidens are made from young virgins. They might not have bodies, but those lips, man…”
The man grew more excited as he spoke, rubbing his hands together and eager to get a closer look.
12:08 PM
<
I thought my father would refuse, but to my horror, he offered Rose as a bargaining chip. He said if they went in to “appreciate” the vase maiden, he could have a few more days to repay the debt.
Mike agreed immediately, grinning as he and his men entered Rose’s room.
They didn’t come out until the next morning, looking thoroughly satisfied. I had expected Rose to be devastated by the violation, but to my surprise, she wore a content smile, with traces of fluid still visible at the corners of her mouth.
I felt a chill run down my spine.
For the next few days, Mike and his men didn’t come back to collect the debt.
As I passed by Rose’s room, I heard her throwing a tantrum inside.
“They say men in their forties are like wolves, but how did I end up with such a wimp? If I had known, I would have married someone strong like Mike Bull. Send me back right now, I can’t stand another minute here!”
I was stunned by what I heard. Rose wasn’t disgusted by the men who had abused her, but rather longed for their strength? When she first arrived, she had seemed pleased with my father, but now she was full of contempt. It seemed she didn’t care for my father as a person, but wanted something from him.
Curious, I peeked through a crack in the door. What I saw left me shocked. The woman who had been so vibrant and alluring that morning now had dull, lifeless skin. Her once luscious red lips were now dry and thin, as if all the moisture had been sucked out of them. Even stranger, the lifelike patterns on her vase now looked wilted, like plants that hadn’t been watered.
What secret was this woman hiding?
To please Rose, my father actually invited Mike back. Mike was delighted, of course, and stayed in Rose’s room for three days and nights.
But when he emerged, I was horrified by his appearance. The once strong and robust man was now skin and bones, with sunken eyes and protruding cheekbones. He looked so frail that a gust of wind could have knocked him over.
I watched as he stumbled out of our house. When he reached the river, he lost his footing and fell in. By the time they fished him out, he had already drowned.
That night, Rose forced my father to find her another strong man.
Remembering Mike’s transformation, my curiosity got the better of me. I snuck around to the back of Rose’s room and peered through a gap
in the window.
What I saw inside made my eyes widen in shock and horror.
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