Starving, he followed the irresistible aroma to the dock—where Khitans were cooking fish and noodles. Terrifie…
Starving, he followed the irresistible aroma to the dock—where Khitans were cooking fish and noodles.
Terrified, he froze in a corner as the half piece of stolen bun slipped from his hand and was kicked around by the crowd. His eyes never left it.
A middle-aged man and a younger one kicked it first. The noodle cook followed, calling desperately, her eyes as desperate as his own for that precious bun.
The bun rolled to a girl shielding a frightened woman, and then blood spattered onto it. It came to stop beneath three dead bodies—a mother, father, and daughter—with a new box of lamp oil beneath the girl.
He tried to retrieve the bun, hoping no one would see, but a Khitan's blade rose above him, and the soldier kicked the bloodied bun off the dock into the river. In that moment, he knew he might never eat buns again.