Perched on a bale of hay in the front of the wagon, the eight-year-old tried not to look as though she was listening to every word her father exchanged with the merchants flanking him.  Usually, they came inland to Sichuan to trade with Hua Zhou and other farmers, but - for reasons Mulan hadn’t discovered, because it was at this point that she had been found eavesdropping on her parents - this year, those farmers who could came to the port city.  Hua Zhou had offered to take his daughter along, to his wife’s dismay, but Nai Nai had sided with her granddaughter.  "When else will she have the chance to travel so far?“ Mulan’s grandmother pointed out.  "There will be enough time for her to spend at home when she’s married.”

Now, Mulan frowned in frustration - not because she was thinking about marriage, but because it was difficult for her to follow the bargaining between the three men.  Many of the words they used were completely unfamiliar to her ears, and there were only so many questions she could ask of her baba later without being reprimanded, gently, that it was none of her business; that business was for husbands and fathers.  Giving up for now, she slipped from the cart and went around to the front of it, stroking the horse’s soft nose.  Khan snorted, as if petulant that she hadn’t attended to him for several hours, only to go soft-eyed and relax as she scratched behind his ears and murmured silly children’s stories, all because he liked the sound of her voice.

Hua Zhou glanced at his restless daughter.  Rather than stop his negotiations to speak to her, he raised one eyebrow and inclined his head.  But Mulan understood.  With a grateful smile, she drifted a little ways away from the cart, looking around interestedly at the stalls that surrounded her.  Of course in this part of the market it was all crops, when her own father was selling wheat that could be turned into noodles or miàn jīn, but it only meant that Mulan knew next to nothing about the way that sacks of rice and shining yellow corn had come to Shànghǎi as well.  What it also meant was that when she realized the fruit stalls were right around the corner, her mouth watered and she quickened her pace, towards piles of vivid pomegranates, lìzhī and star fruit.