Chapter 2

When she followed the signal and brought the guests to catch the pair in bed, only to find her own mother there, the expression on her face was truly something to behold.

These details were not fit for Father’s ears.

All he needed to know was that Lingrou had drugged me and the shameless young lord had violated Madam Liu. That was enough.

I thought about it all night and finally found a way to save our family.

If Madam Liu could move Father with her sincerity, their old affection would naturally revive.

Before dawn, I had the serving women take her from her heated bed to the rear courtyard.

Beside the snow lay a small mountain of dirty clothes. The steward set a wooden basin before her.

“No food until you’ve finished all of this.”

In a thin old robe, Madam Liu crouched in the north wind like a branch of white plum blossom about to snap beneath the snow.

I sat warming myself by a brazier under the covered walkway, watching her scrub one garment after another.

Whenever a maid tried to help, I called her back.

I had devised this ordeal so Madam Liu could win Father’s sympathy. If others interfered, how would he see her sincerity?

She washed clothes for more than ten days. Her hands split with chilblains, and her fingers swelled until she could barely grip the cloth.

Father passed through the rear courtyard twice without even slowing his steps.

I considered this carefully. Clearly, she had not suffered enough.

So I told the steward to give her the sweeping and wood-chopping as well.

Once she was too exhausted to stand, Father was bound to soften.

But before Father changed his mind, my brother Jiang Huaiyu came home on leave from the academy.

One look at Madam Liu’s miserable state, and he beat the steward, then took his birth mother back to his own courtyard.

Next, he stormed into my room and smashed my vase and dressing box all over the floor.

“Bully my mother again and I’ll have Father throw you out!”

My face went pale, but I patiently explained.

“You’ve misunderstood, Huaiyu. Everything I’ve done was to help Father forgive Mother.”

He would not listen. Raising his chin, he walked out.

I was deeply saddened.

Huaiyu was Father’s only son, the hope of the entire Jiang family.

He was almost sixteen, yet a few words from someone else were enough to send him smashing up his elder sister’s room. What if he offended someone powerful when he went out into the world?

Madam Liu was now a servant. She could no longer discipline him with the authority of the mistress of the household.

As an unmarried girl, I was even less suited to managing a growing boy.

It seemed we simply had to have a new mistress.

Accompanied by several stewards, I urged Father to remarry.

At first he refused. Madam Liu’s scandal had ruined our reputation, he said. No respectable young lady would agree to marry into the family.

“Precisely because our reputation has suffered, Father should marry a dignified, virtuous new wife.

“Lingrou and I are both of marriageable age, and Huaiyu’s future needs consideration too. The household cannot remain without someone to manage it.”

He began to waver.

I promptly recommended Shen Mingwei, eldest daughter of the Minister of Rites.

Her father had favored a concubine over his wife and driven her mother to her death.

His second wife had used mourning as an excuse to delay Mingwei’s marriage until she was over twenty and still unmarried.

She needed to leave the Shen family. Father needed a second wife from a distinguished, respectable house.

Two unfortunate people could rescue each other.

The Shen family quickly agreed.

On the day Shen Mingwei entered our household, neither Lingrou nor Huaiyu attended the ceremony.

Furious that Father was marrying someone else, Madam Liu had taken to her bed. Her two children stayed by her side.

On the wedding night, just as Father entered the bridal chamber, they knelt outside the door, crying.

“Father, Mother is so ill she may not survive! She keeps calling your name!”

He scolded them for making a scene. If she was ill, they should call a physician.

Huaiyu knocked his head against the ground and said the physician had diagnosed a sickness of the heart. Only Father could save her.

Father had always doted on those two. A few words were enough to soften him. Without even lifting his new bride’s veil, he hurried to Listening Rain Pavilion.

Shen Mingwei lifted the red veil herself and instructed her maid to keep silent. Word of what had happened on her wedding night must not spread.

I was very pleased.

A young lady raised by a distinguished family really did know how to behave.

Afraid she might misunderstand my siblings, I went into her room to apologize.

Not only did she refrain from blaming me, she gave me a jade bracelet of beautiful translucence.

“I’ve only just arrived and know little of the household’s past. I shall need your guidance, Eldest Miss.”

I happily agreed.

Madam Liu had taught me that filial piety came first among all virtues. Now that Shen Mingwei was my lawful mother, of course I had to respect her.

I sat with her until late at night. Father still did not return.

The next day, he settled Madam Liu in Listening Rain Pavilion beside the main courtyard and sent her former maids back to serve her.

At breakfast, he and Shen Mingwei occupied the seats of honor. Their manner was as polite as that of newly acquainted guests.

Lingrou and Huaiyu arrived much later.

As Lingrou presented her tea, the cup suddenly tilted and scalding tea spilled all over her skirt.

Her eyes instantly reddened.

“Mother, I behaved badly last night. It’s only right for you to punish me.”

Huaiyu helped her up, then pointed at Shen Mingwei.

“You’re this vicious, and you think you can be my mother?”

Father told him to apologize. Instead, he accused her of deliberately scalding Lingrou.

In the end, Father merely said Huaiyu was young and asked his new wife to be more forgiving.

Shen Mingwei did not argue. She gently let the matter pass.

She even comforted Father.

“The children simply miss their birth mother. In time, they will understand.”

That made him feel all the more guilty toward her. For several nights in succession, he stayed in the main courtyard.

The more she yielded, the more Huaiyu thought her weak and easy to bully.

A few days later, she and I were walking in the garden when we met him carrying a tabby cat.

For once, he addressed her respectfully.

“Mother.”

Her steps faltered. Quietly, she retreated half a pace.

But he held the cat out toward her.

“I’ve just acquired this rare breed. Please stroke it, Mother.”

Many servants stood nearby. If she refused his goodwill, people were sure to say the new mistress mistreated her stepchildren.

She could only reach out.

The moment she touched its back, the cat went wild and sprang at her face.

I pulled her aside, but a sharp claw still drew a bloody line across her cheek.

She fell to the ground, clutching her lower belly, her face suddenly white.

Huaiyu doubled over with laughter.

“Frightened by a mere cat! How useless.”

The physician hurried over.

Shen Mingwei was nearly two months pregnant. The fright had endangered her pregnancy.

When Father heard, he flew into a rage and meant to punish Huaiyu severely.

She stopped him.

“The Third Young Master was only playing. If he has a restless temper, why not invite a strict teacher to instruct him at home? Nothing settles the mind like study.”

Praising her generosity, Father immediately arranged to bring in a renowned scholar who had retired to his hometown.

Huaiyu hated studying above all else. Convinced that the new mistress was tormenting him deliberately, he drove the teacher away within days.

Before leaving, the old scholar delivered his verdict:

“Mediocre ability. Insolent disposition.”

Utterly humiliated, Father beat Huaiyu in front of everyone.

Spoiled from childhood, Huaiyu could not bear the indignity. He had a furious argument with Father.

In his anger, Father sent him back to the academy and forbade him to come home except on holidays.

After Huaiyu was sent away, Shen Mingwei told me to close the door.

She took the spilled teacup from her sleeve.

A very thin film of oil clung to its base.

“When Lingrou offered the tea, she kept her fingers on the rim. She didn’t spill it by accident. She deliberately threw it over herself.”

I nodded. I had seen it too.

Then she asked why the tabby had suddenly gone wild.

I had found some powdered catnip in the scented pouch Huaiyu dropped. Its smell made cats extremely excited.

He had rubbed the powder onto Shen Mingwei’s sleeve and waited for the cat to spring at her.

“If you knew, why didn’t you expose him beforehand?”

“He would have denied it.”

I handed her the pouch.

“Now the cat has scratched someone, the powder is still there, and the garden servants all saw it. Even if Father wants to protect him, he’ll have to consider whether the child you carry will agree.”

For the first time, Shen Mingwei looked at me seriously.

She no longer saw a simple, slow-witted stepdaughter in need of care. She began discussing the household staff with me.

I pointed out the stewards Madam Liu had installed in various posts and told her which bookkeeping offices answered only to Lingrou.

She did not dismiss them all at once. Under cover of checking accounts and purchasing supplies for the new season, she gradually replaced them.

Before Madam Liu and her children noticed, the keys, account books, and storerooms were all in her hands.

That was why, after Huaiyu drove his teacher away, Father could send him back to the academy without hesitation.

Those who had once concealed his mistakes had been reassigned. The teacher’s criticisms reached Father word for word.

Without Huaiyu’s racket, even Lingrou dared not cause trouble.

Shen Mingwei could tend to her pregnancy in peace. At last, quiet returned to the inner household.

I was more certain than ever that persuading Father to remarry had been an excellent idea.

The good days did not last.

The Duchess of Ding brought Lu Chengze to our door herself to discuss the wedding date.

His scandal with Madam Liu had become the talk of the city. I had asked to end the engagement long ago, but Father suppressed the matter.

Our family ranked below the duke’s. He did not dare offend them first.

He had assumed they would withdraw for the sake of their own dignity. Instead, they pressed more urgently than ever.

Lu Chengze asked to speak with me alone.

In the garden, wearing an expression of deep devotion, he explained that he had been framed. I was the only woman he had ever cared for.

I said I believed him.

After all, I was the one who had sent him to look after Madam Liu that day. He really was not lying.

Delight spread across his face. He immediately said he wanted to marry me as soon as possible.

Tearfully, I shook my head.

“But you have been intimate with my mother. If I still married you, what would people say?”