Chapter 2

“Zhiwei, this is only a misunderstanding. Let's go inside and perform the wedding bows first. We can discuss the rest afterward.”

From behind the curtain, I asked, “Inside which house?”

“The Pei house, of course.”

“There's an illicit lover at your gate, red mud, and a mother chewing paper. I'm afraid of getting dirty.”

The sedan bearers shook with laughter.

Pei Jinghe lowered his voice.

“If you do this, who will dare marry you afterward?”

“Before today, I thought you would.”

I let the curtain fall.

As the bearers lifted the sedan, Madam Zhou suddenly looked back.

The Pei clan elders had arrived.

More than ten white-haired old men blocked the end of the street. Our families had signed a marriage contract, they said. Once a bride had left her own gate, there was no question of carrying her back.

At their head was the Pei family's Third Great-Uncle, leaning on a cane.

“A married woman follows her husband. If Miss Shen returns to her family today, both clans will lose face. Madam Jiang was merely overanxious and went too far. A few words of reprimand will suffice. Jinghe hasn't rejected you. What more are you making a fuss about?”

I stepped out of the sedan.

It was awkward talking from inside, especially with so many of them.

I needed a clear view of which one was the most shameless.

“Third Great-Uncle, are you saying that as long as the husband doesn't reject her, his family may accuse the bride of unchastity in the middle of the street, and it doesn't matter?”

“Elders have their reasons.”

“Then my accusation that Madam Jiang is having an affair with her stepson is a junior's reasoning.”

His beard bristled.

“Absurd! How can you say such things without evidence?”

I clapped.

“Exactly. Would you say that a little louder, so the people at the back can hear?”

The crowd laughed again.

Only then did Third Great-Uncle realize he'd argued my case for me.

Madam Jiang hastily interjected.

“It's not the same! Her lover testified!”

“Her supposed lover has admitted that Young Master Pei gave him his clothes. He was carrying a Pei purse and a written promise of payment.”

“If that makes him a witness against me, there's even more evidence of an affair involving Madam Jiang.”

I pointed at Pei Jinghe.

“He gave Zhao Er the clothes.”

Then at Madam Jiang.

“She let Zhao Er out through her back alley.”

Finally, I pointed to the spot where Zhao Er had knelt.

“And all three of them performed a little play in the street today. Their coordination was admirable.”

“By Pei family rules, all three should be examined.”

Several Pei women had been watching from inside the gate. At the words “all three should be examined,” their expressions changed.

For years, Madam Jiang had used her authority over the household to keep them under her thumb in the name of chastity and obedience.

A widow went out once too often, a daughter-in-law stayed with her parents a little too long—she had to question them about it.

Now that the fire had reached her own doorstep, none of them would shield her.

An aunt in brown spoke first.

“If Third Great-Uncle says no one may make accusations without evidence, then the accusation against Miss Shen cannot stand either.”

Another woman said, “Zhao Er came from our house. We should first find out who paid him, before the whole clan gets dragged into this.”

Third Great-Uncle turned and scolded them for siding with an outsider.

The aunt in brown gave a cold laugh.

“When you wanted Miss Shen examined, you said it was for both families' honor. Now that it's our own people, you've suddenly remembered what shame is.”

Another, older daughter-in-law stepped forward.

“Last year, I went home to care for my sick mother and stayed five extra days. Madam Jiang made me kneel in the ancestral hall for four hours. She said I must have been misbehaving outside. Third Great-Uncle said then, too, that family rules must be upheld.”

His face darkened.

“This is an internal Pei family matter.”

“The elders blocking the Pei gate today belong to the Pei family. Why does it become an internal matter only when I speak?”

Madam Jiang sharply ordered a steward to drag her back inside.

He didn't move.

The woman stepped right out into the street and raised her trouser legs.

Two old, dark bruises still marked her knees.

“If we're investigating, investigate everything.”

“First find out what rules Madam Jiang imposed on each daughter-in-law. Then find out whether she follows them herself.”

“Once that's done, I'll go for an examination with Miss Shen.”

One by one, the women inside the gate came out.

Their complaints were all small things.

Returning a quarter of an hour late from visiting their parents. Giving a length of cloth to a brother from their own family. Being unable to serve their mother-in-law tea during their monthly bleeding.

Madam Jiang had recorded every one.

Whenever someone disobeyed, she brought out the list to settle accounts.

Third Great-Uncle accused them of making the family a laughingstock.

But I thought that if they didn't stand up and speak today, they would go on kneeling for the rest of their lives.

It wasn't the women stepping forward that had brought shame on the Pei family.

Someone had turned the rules into a rope.

When it bound other people, they called it family tradition.

When it tightened around their own necks, they called it disgrace.

Seeing that the clan could no longer suppress the matter, Madam Jiang abruptly changed her tone.

“I listened to a scoundrel and misunderstood Zhiwei today. I apologize to her. The wedding will proceed as planned.”

Her apology weighed nothing.

If I refused it, I would be unreasonable.

If I accepted, she could use today against me whenever she wanted.

At the first quarrel between us, all she would need to say was, “I overlooked your past,” and I would have to kneel and thank her.

This marriage could not go ahead.

“Here is the marriage contract between the Shen and Pei families.”

I took it from my sleeve, where I'd kept it all along.

Pei Jinghe's face relaxed. He thought I was offering him a graceful way out.

I gripped the two sides of the contract and pulled.

The paper was thick. It didn't tear.

A little embarrassing.

Mingzhu immediately handed me a small pair of silver embroidery scissors.

The beauty of having a sister is that she won't let your grand declarations fall flat.

I cut the contract in two and placed half in Pei Jinghe's hand.

“On the very day you came to fetch your bride, the Pei family publicly slandered me and paid a false witness.”

“The marriage is over.”

“Once we've checked the gifts your family sent, we will return them in full.”

“As for my dowry, not one thread of it will cross your threshold.”

Pei Jinghe clenched his half of the contract.

“Shen Zhiwei, don't regret this.”

“See that you pay Zhao Er the rest of his money first.”

“If you leave him waiting at the magistrate's too long, he might remember a few more things to say.”

On the way home, Mingzhu chanted beside my sedan for so long that I grew irritated and lifted the curtain.

“Whose soul are you praying for, exactly?”

“Your next life.”

“I haven't finished this one.”

“With all the bad karma you've earned today, I need to start gathering merit early.”

From another sedan, Madam Zhou sighed.

“Mingzhu has a point.”

“When we get home, copy out two sutras yourself.”

I said nothing.

Back at the Shen house, Madam Zhou brought out the register for returning the betrothal gifts.

When she reached the pair of wedding geese, she stopped.

Of the two live geese the Pei family had sent...

One was missing.

A missing goose was no great matter by itself.

The problem was that the goose wasn't all that was missing.

Madam Zhou had the steward open every chest.

Two lengths of cloud-pattern brocade had been replaced with inferior silk.

The box of pearls was half a catty lighter.

A set of solid gold jewelry was missing two hairpins.

The Pei family had delivered these gifts to us six months ago.

Every item had been checked when it arrived.

Afterward, as custom required, the gifts went back to the Pei house to be supplemented, then were returned to us just before the wedding.

Only the Pei family could have tampered with them in between.

Madam Zhou held the register, looking grim.

“If I'd known, I would never have advised you to accept this marriage.”

Then she glanced at me hastily, afraid I'd think she was trying to shift the blame.

I made a separate list of the missing items.

“When it was arranged, Pei Jinghe's father was still at the Ministry of War, and Jinghe himself held a scholarly qualification. Who could have imagined they'd dare swap out the betrothal gifts?”

“You helped me judge the man, Mother. You couldn't see into the bottom of every chest. It's not your fault.”

Mingzhu put down her chicken drumstick and interrupted.

“I said from the beginning he was no good.”

“You said that every time he came, he asked whether Father was home, and only remembered me after that.”

“I've always been an excellent judge of character.”

“Last year, you said your music tutor was a good man. Then he ran off with your tuition money.”

Mingzhu fell silent.

She lowered her head and resumed chanting.

Madam Zhou laughed at the two of us, but the corners of her eyes reddened.

After my birth mother died, so many people in the household had taught me how to guard against a stepmother.

My nurse told me to keep a close watch on my jewelry.

My aunt told me not to eat any pastries Madam Zhou sent.

Even Father had privately warned her not to mistreat me.

But no one had taught Madam Zhou how to be a mother to a stepdaughter so full of suspicion.

The first time she made winter clothes for me, she worried that fine fabric would make people accuse her of favoritism, while poor fabric would hurt my feelings.

She spent three days in the storeroom choosing.

In the end, she made Mingzhu and me identical outfits.

Only my sleeves were half an inch longer.

Because I felt the cold.

That sort of thing cost very little. It couldn't be entered in a dowry ledger.

But I'd remembered it for years.

Madam Zhou went still.

I was eleven when she joined the Shen family.

For the first two years, she had to ask Father before having new clothes made for me.

To make me take my medicine, she had to ask Grandmother.

Even when reprimanding a maid in my courtyard, she had to explain first that she meant no harm.

Later, when Grandmother fell ill, she tended her bedside for a full year.

I'd rarely managed to call her “Mother,” but in my heart I'd long since accepted her.

It was just that saying such things aloud felt embarrassingly sentimental.

We Shens weren't good at that.

Madam Zhou turned her face aside.

“Then I'll investigate.”

“Eat first.”

“Your marriage has fallen through. How can you still have an appetite?”

“We've been busy all morning. Bad people aren't going to stop me getting hungry.”

The kitchen brought out the meal prepared for my return to my parents' home that evening.

Mingzhu gnawed her drumstick and chanted at the same time, the words muffled by her mouthful.

I advised her to swallow before going on.

She shook her head.

“No time. Who knows what you'll do this afternoon?”

Madam Zhou had her own methods of tracing missing goods.

She couldn't solve crimes, and she didn't dare quarrel with frightening men.

But she'd managed a household for over ten years.

She knew which shopkeeper liked which tea, which matchmaker's daughter-in-law had just given birth.

She knew them all.

Two days later, she came back with three pawn tickets.

The Pei family had pawned the two gold hairpins and one length of cloud-pattern brocade.

The wedding geese hadn't gone to a pawnshop.

They'd been sent to Madam Jiang's birth family as betrothal gifts for her nephew.