Chapter 2
Edward Quan ·
Father looked down and saw the scar on Mother's face. His concern quickly faded.
Remembering the fortune-teller's words, he loosened his hold and merely told a maid to take her back to her room.
Only after she was standing steadily did Mother ask softly, “Aren't you going to ask why I'm soaked?”
“Hasn't Yue already explained?”
His voice was impatient.
“Mother told you to exercise for your own good. Stop using your pregnancy as an excuse to make trouble all day.”
I ranted inside her belly for a long time, furious. Mother only lowered her eyes and murmured assent.
Concubine Qiao took Father's arm and led him back into the warm room.
He had been home less than half a day. Mother's remote courtyard still had no charcoal, and no one asked about the basin of icy water.
After that, Concubine Qiao kept a low profile for three months.
Once Mother's pregnancy was more stable, Grandmother acted as though nothing had happened.
As the birth drew near, a servant came to say Father was waiting at the riding grounds outside the city. He had something important to discuss with her.
Mother thought he was finally willing to see her alone. She made a point of changing into clean clothes and carefully covering the scar on her face.
But I caught a faint medicinal smell and immediately grew tense.
Concubine Qiao's laughter drifted in from outside the stable.
She stood beside Father, holding a bowl of red-date tea.
“Just in time, Sister. Our husband has bought a gentle mare. He wants you to try riding her.”
Mother was nine months pregnant. How could she ride a horse?
She was about to refuse when Grandmother's servants invoked the family rules. A woman of the Gu family, they said, could hardly be unable even to mount a horse.
Father's face darkened too.
“Just one circuit of the riding grounds. I'll be right beside you. Nothing will happen.”
When the bowl of tea reached Mother's hands, I finally recognized what had been hidden in it.
Saffron.
“Don't drink it!”
Mother's hand shook.
The bowl fell, splashing dark red tea into the mud.
Concubine Qiao's expression froze. Then she smiled again and ordered the horse brought over.
I heard my half-sister humming smugly and understood at once: the tea had only been their first move.
Something was wrong with the horse too.
Mother was helped onto its back.
At first, the mare walked very slowly. But as she passed Concubine Qiao, she suddenly went wild.
The reins cut Mother's hands. She was jolted so violently that she nearly flew out of the saddle.
Father hurried after her.
Several grooms tried to block the horse's path, only making it more frenzied.
By the fence, Concubine Qiao had just begun to smile.
I kicked the right side of Mother's belly with all my strength.
In pain, Mother instinctively pulled the reins to the right.
The maddened horse wheeled around and reared, heading straight for Concubine Qiao.
She had no time to dodge. The horse's shoulder knocked her to the ground.
My half-sister's thoughts instantly turned into a scream.
As the mare struck Concubine Qiao, Mother fell from its back too.
Blood quickly stained both women's skirts.
Concubine Qiao clutched her belly and cried out for her child.
Mother gritted her teeth, shielding me.
Two midwives hurried over.
The moment they felt the women's bellies, both their expressions changed.
Both women were clutching their stomachs.
They were going into labor!
4.
Only a wall separated the two birthing rooms.
As soon as Grandmother and Father arrived, they rushed straight to Concubine Qiao without so much as a glance at Mother.
Grandmother gripped the midwife's hand, repeatedly insisting that saving Concubine Qiao's baby must come first.
Father stood by the bed wiping Qiao's sweat. Every cry of pain made his brows draw tighter.
Mother had only one elderly midwife. Even she was called next door twice, leaving Mother to endure it alone.
Mother trembled all over with pain, but she kept biting the corner of the quilt rather than cry out, afraid I could not bear it.
I nestled close to her heartbeat and told her over and over, “Hold on, Mother. I'll be born safely, and you'll live too.”
Next door, my half-sister was still gloating.
“Hear that? I'm the little princess the whole Gu family treasures.”
She went on smugly.
“I'll be born before you.”
“As soon as Grandmother sees my face, she'll name me her heir.”
Not long afterward, a newborn's cry rang out from the other room.
The midwife carried the baby out, smiling so broadly her eyes almost disappeared.
“Congratulations, Old Madam! A beautiful little girl, with features like a celestial child's.”
Grandmother took her. One glance was enough.
“Excellent! Bring the family genealogy!”
“This child will be called Gu Mingzhu. Now this is a face worthy of the Gu family.”
Leaning weakly against her pillows, Concubine Qiao asked through tears, “I've given the family an heir. Doesn't that count as a great service?”
Father held her hand.
“As soon as that ugly child next door is born, I'll write a letter of repudiation and make you my lawful wife.”
Grandmother immediately proclaimed Gu Mingzhu the heir and ordered the gold lock and jade ruyi scepter already prepared in the storeroom to be brought out.
My half-sister was delighted. She babbled in her swaddling clothes while deliberately boasting to me in her thoughts.
“Everything the Gu family owns will be mine. You and your mother can get out.”
In our room, Mother heard the laughter next door. Tears slipped toward her temples.
I pressed close to her heartbeat and comforted her.
“Don't be afraid.”
“The more they laugh now, the more humiliated they'll be in a moment.”
Another hour passed before the midwife finally brought me into the world.
The room fell utterly silent.
Holding me, the elderly midwife seemed to forget to breathe. After a long while, she found a piece of coarse cloth and carefully covered my face.
Mother asked weakly, “The baby… Is something wrong?”
The midwife shook her head, then nodded.
“I've delivered babies for decades. I've never seen a child like this.”
No one next door paid any attention to those words.
Concubine Qiao made a show of concern.
“Over in Sister's room… Are they still alive?”
Grandmother said coldly, “With looks like that, death would save us trouble.”
Father was busy playing with Gu Mingzhu. Only when Concubine Qiao urged him to go over and make his lawful wife give up all hope did he reluctantly rise.
A maid was sent to look first.
But the moment she saw me, the basin in her hands fell straight to the floor.
When she returned, she could not get out a complete sentence.
“The eldest young miss's face… I—I've never seen such a beautiful baby!”
Concubine Qiao laughed.
“Surely she's so ugly she's frightened you senseless?”
Grandmother told the maid not to spoil the mood. But Father had already gone to Mother's bedside.
He looked at the cloth over my face and sneered.
“However ugly she is, we'll have to look.”
Mother tried to stop him, but her hand fell back, powerless.
Father reached out and lifted the coarse cloth from my face.
5.
Sunlight slipped through a gap in the window and fell across my face.
No one in the room spoke.
I had, most inconveniently for them, been born as lovely as snow and jade. My skin was fair and translucent, and my newly opened eyes were as dark and bright as freshly rinsed grapes.
Father's hand stopped in midair.
He could no longer force out the words “ugly thing.”
Tired of waiting for news, Grandmother brought Gu Mingzhu in herself.
When she saw me, her eyes first widened.
Then she immediately thrust the baby in her arms at a maid and hurried to the bed.
I smiled up at her, my eyes curving.
Grandmother looked at me, gave a laugh, tipped backward—and fainted.
The room dissolved into chaos.
Father sent someone for a doctor but could not bear to put me down. He could only carry me back and forth beside the bed.
Weak from childbirth, Concubine Qiao dragged herself in, hoping to enjoy Mother's humiliation.
But as soon as she saw my face, her own expression froze.
Gu Mingzhu shrieked in her swaddling clothes. No one had the attention to spare to soothe her now.
Her thoughts rang out, piercingly sharp.
“Impossible! The fortune-teller said you were ugly. Why are you prettier than me?”
I gave a tiny yawn and deliberately snuggled deeper into Father's arms.
He immediately ordered the windows shut tight, afraid even a breath of cold air might touch me.
When Grandmother woke, her first question was whether I had fallen.
After examining me, the doctor said, “The eldest young miss is strong and healthy. She hasn't been hurt at all.”
Only then did Grandmother breathe freely. Then she rounded on the maids.
“How dare you leave Madam without attendants while she was giving birth?”
The gold lock, jade ruyi scepter, and two boxes of jewels just promised to Gu Mingzhu were all moved to Mother's room.
The storeroom steward ran back and forth three times, replacing the cradle, brocade bedding, and baby's silver bowl with better ones.
Declaring the remote courtyard too cramped, Grandmother cleared out her own warmest courtyard on the east side that very day. She even ordered the threshold lowered, afraid I might trip over it when I learned to walk.
The maids who had once treated Mother with indifference crowded outside, competing to serve her.
They even raced each other to bring her water.
Mother looked at these suddenly eager faces without surprise or the slightest awe at her newfound favor.
She simply recognized, one by one, the people who had laughed at her on that snowy night.
She did not lose her temper then and there. Instead, she told the steward to rearrange the duty roster and keep those people away from my cradle.
Grandmother opened her private storeroom too, sending over jadeite and warm jade she had treasured for years.
“Only the best is good enough for this child.”
Seated by the door, Concubine Qiao could not help speaking.
“Mother, Mingzhu was born first.”
Grandmother glanced at the swaddled baby, complained about her unpleasant crying, and even ordered her carried farther away.
Barely two hours had passed, yet Concubine Qiao's courtyard no longer had so much as a bowl of hot soup. Her attendants had all been sent to help move Mother into her new rooms.