The men of S

Chapter 1: The Wild Rose in the Silver Shop (1988) As Xu Meiling shattered the jade bracelet for the third time, she heard the familiar footsteps. Seven-year-old Bai Yutong was standing on her tiptoes, peering over the counter, the fragments of** reflecting a strange light in her pupils. “Mom, are these the teeth spat out by the Pixiu?” she asked. “Stop talking nonsense!” Xu Meiling hurriedly swept away the broken jade with a feather duster, her eyes stinging at the bruise on her daughter’s wrist. That man had come again last night, reeking of alcohol and the smoke from the billiard hall. She stroked her daughter’s soft, ear-length hair, recalling the words her husband had spoken when he pressed his fingerprint on the divorce agreement: “With these two burdens, you’ll just have to stick to your broken silver shop for life.” The glass door jingled as a wealthy lady in Xiangyun silk, carrying a platinum bag, stepped inside. Bai Yutong suddenly wriggled free from her mother’s grasp and, standing on her tiptoes, took down a jade Maitreya from the top of the display case. “Auntie, this laughing Buddha will help you find your lost diamond ring,” she said. The lady was startled and began searching her handbag, eventually finding the lost five-carat yellow diamond in a compartment. Xu Meiling looked at her daughter’s face, now stamped with a lipstick mark, remembering the teacher’s complaint from last week about this little demon who had put caterpillars in a boy’s pencil case. Now, in her childish voice, Yutong was saying, “But the laughing Buddha says it wants a sister in a red dress to keep it company.” As the lady left with the jade worth three million Taiwanese dollars, the evening glow filtered through the Baroque carved windows, stretching Yutong’s shadow into a vine covered with thorns. From the street corner, the melody of “Snow is Burning” drifted in, and Bai Yuxuan rushed in holding a half-melted ice cream. “Sis! I’ve collected all of Wu Qianlian’s stickers!” Xu Meiling was polishing the Swiss watch left by her husband, the second hand sweeping over the beach in the photo with his mistress. Suddenly, she grasped her eldest daughter’s shoulders. “Remember, a beautiful woman either becomes the most precious jade or the hammer that smashes it.”