His voice trembling, he said to Concubine Zhao, “The principal wife has spoken. To argue back is sheer disrespect. Get down on your knees and admit your fault!”
Concubine Zhao stared at Father in disbelief.
Father: “Kneel!”
Terrified, Concubine Zhao trembled. Only then did she pull Shen Wanyong down with her, and the two reluctantly knelt.
But she was still unwilling to give in. Raising the hairpin, she offered it to Madam. “Madam, this piece of evidence really was found in Miss Ning’s room. It’s a keepsake my mother left me, an ornament once worn by a consort of the previous dynasty. You can’t buy anything like it on the market anymore…”
Madam took the hairpin from Concubine Zhao, narrowed her eyes, and examined it closely.
Then, without another word, she threw it to the ground.
“What a worthless piece of junk.”
The room fell silent.
Everyone was stunned.
Concubine Zhao had been in the Shen household for more than a decade, and no one had ever dared throw one of her things.
Concubine Zhao herself was stunned.
She stared at the hairpin on the floor, forgetting to cry.
Madam looked coldly at my father. “My lord, do you really think a daughter of mine, Lục Giáng Vân, would steal something like this?”
When my father could only stammer in reply, Madam turned and ordered her dowry maid, Nanny Wu, “Bring me my jewelry box.”
Madam rarely wore makeup or jewelry.
Usually she wore only plain clothes, her long black hair pinned up with a wooden hairpin.
Even I hadn’t known she had a jewelry box.
Nanny Wu quickly returned with two servants carrying an enormous sandalwood chest.
When it was opened, the room blazed with color.
Meng, my father’s newly wedded concubine, had once been a palace maid and seen many things. Even she cried out in astonishment.
“Good heavens, this is tribute jade from the Western Regions. The mines were exhausted decades ago. I’ve only ever seen this kind of luster in the bracelet owned by the old imperial consort.”
“And there are coral pearls! One of these could fetch ten gold bars on the market, yet Madam has an entire string of them!”
Concubine Zhao’s face went blank.
Shen Wanyong stared, dazed, at the chest full of precious jewels and rare treasures.
Her eyes held confusion, astonishment, and resentment.
In my previous life, she had spent so many years by Madam’s side and never known that the room, cold as a snow cave, concealed such a trove of jewels.
Madam paid no attention to anyone else. She simply turned and beckoned me over. “Come here and pick out a few things.”
Me: “Huh?”
It took me a moment to process what she’d said. I hurriedly waved my hands. “They’re too precious. I can’t accept them…”
Madam chuckled. “You’re afraid to accept a few pieces of jewelry? You’re my daughter. Everything I own will be yours to inherit one day.”
In an instant, every envious gaze in the room fell on me.
Shen Wanyong glared at me, her eyes practically dripping blood.
Concubine Zhao’s face had turned ashen, but she still struggled to make one last argument. “Madam, I know Miss Ning grew up by your side, enjoying wealth and honor and holding the status of a legitimate daughter. My daughter can’t compare to her.”
“You wish to protect Miss Ning, and no one dares disobey you. But in this vast Shen household, can the principal wife and her legitimate daughter really do whatever they please? Are the lives of us concubines and illegitimate daughters not lives too?”
Madam looked toward Concubine Zhao and suddenly smiled.
Concubine Zhao had never feared Madam when her face was as cold as ice.
But now Madam smiled—a perfectly calm smile—and Concubine Zhao shuddered.
Madam kept her eyes fixed on Concubine Zhao but spoke to Nanny Wu. “Bring them in.”
Nanny Wu understood. She turned and went outside. A little while later, two household guards dragged in a disheveled maid.
Shen Wanyong cried out, “Xiao He…”
Concubine Zhao pinched Shen Wanyong viciously. Shen Wanyong swallowed the words that had been about to leave her mouth, but her body still trembled uncontrollably.
She couldn’t help trembling. The maid named Xiao He was lying facedown on the ground, her face covered in blood, all ten fingers crushed between wooden boards, her flesh mangled.
The women in the room screamed in fear and turned away, but Madam remained calm, speaking in an utterly level voice:
“This afternoon, Nanny Wu saw this maid running around the courtyard, making a commotion to lure away the guards on duty.”
“Later, she appeared in the room again. As she left, a passing household guard saw her looking very flustered.”
“I sensed something was wrong, so I took it upon myself to question her in my lord’s stead.”
“This is the written confession. Xiao He signed it and left her fingerprint. My lord may read it.”
Madam gave a slight wave, and Nanny Wu handed my father the confession bearing a fingerprint.
As if anticipating how Concubine Zhao and the others would argue back, Madam calmly cut off every avenue of retreat. “To prevent anyone from claiming I tortured her into confessing, I summoned the clan elders to witness the questioning in my capacity as mistress of the Shen household. They can all testify that every word this young maid said is true.”
My father held Xiao He’s confession in one hand, and the other trembled incessantly.
He had never imagined that Madam could be so formidable.
Ever since marrying into the household, this woman had kept quiet. He thought her dull and paid her little attention, while she preferred to spend her time in a quiet corner of the Buddhist shrine, devoting herself to spiritual practice.
But now he realized that, without saying a word, this woman had taken care of everything.
She was astute and had caught the infiltrator long ago.
By the time the trouble truly erupted, she had already finished questioning her.
Yet she had remained strangely calm, waiting without a word for the other side to make the first move.
Now the matter had become public, and even the Shen clan elders had been brought in to witness the questioning. No matter how much he wanted to protect Concubine Zhao and Shen Wanyong, he could no longer shield them.
Xiao He was so terrified that she kept kowtowing:
“Please spare my life, Master! Please spare my life! It was all Miss Dung and Concubine Zhao who ordered me to do it. They said they’d give me three hundred taels of silver once it was done…”
My father’s face went deathly pale.
He lowered his head and looked at Concubine Zhao and Shen Wanyong, kneeling on the ground.
Shen Wanyong was trembling with fear. Concubine Zhao, more experienced than her daughter, had tears in her eyes as she looked at my father, pulling out every trick she knew as she pleaded pitifully, “Master, I’ve served you for more than ten years. Please save me…”
Madam cut Concubine Zhao off and went straight to my father. “I have just one question for you, Master: theft is a serious offense, punishable under the family rules by thirty strokes of the rod. What about making a false accusation?”
My father looked at Concubine Zhao, who was weeping as if she were about to faint, then at Madam. He said nothing, but his silence was a plea.
“Madam,” my father said softly. “They were in the wrong, but it doesn’t amount to making a false accusation…”
At those words, even the servants could no longer bear it.
My father favored his concubine over his wife, to an unforgivable degree.
When I was accused of theft, he hadn’t even investigated the matter before he wanted to punish me under the family rules.
Concubine Zhao and Shen Wanyong had made a false accusation, with irrefutable evidence against them, yet he wanted to let them off lightly.
Everyone looked indignant. Only Madam remained as calm as still water.
She said coolly, “Oh? Is that what you think, Master?”
Before my father could answer, Madam gathered her skirts and turned to leave, leaning on Nanny Wu’s arm. “I had thought that the family’s shame shouldn’t be aired in public, and hoped you would handle the affairs of the inner household fairly. But it seems you’re so busy with official matters that you’ve lost your wits. You can’t even settle the affairs of your own household, so…”
“We’ll report it to the authorities.”
Before she had even finished speaking, my father’s face went deathly pale.
He shouted, “Stop her!”
The Shen household servants surged forward to surround Madam and block her way.
But Madam raised her eyes, and a dozen household guards immediately stepped forward to shield her.
They were all old subordinates of the old general and took orders only from Madam. Faced with these iron-tower-sized guards, the ordinary house servants were scared out of their wits and couldn’t help backing away.
Seeing Madam about to leave the courtyard, my father finally had no choice.
He covered his face and let out a cry of anguish. “Someone! Drag Zhao and that unfilial daughter of hers away and beat them!”
07
Under a sky glittering with stars, I sat in the courtyard with Madam, shelling lotus seeds.
From the distant courtyard came the repeated screams of Concubine Zhao and Shen Wanyong.
Madam wiped her hands and said coolly:
“You must be laughing at me inside, thinking that I had the power to fight back all along, yet spent all these years refusing to fight or compete, living in humiliation.”
I placed the shelled lotus seeds on a snow-white porcelain plate. “You didn’t fight because my father wasn’t worth fighting over.”
After a moment, I added, “But, Madam… if you love someone, you should still fight for him at least once.”
Madam’s hand suddenly stopped.
The night was cold as water, and the moonlight dim.
Long afterward, I heard her let out a soft sigh. “I know.”
Yes, I knew.
08
Over the years, whenever I accompanied Madam to the Buddhist temple outside the capital to burn incense, I would always meet a certain monk.
The monk always wore a worn gray kasaya, yet his features were as beautiful as an ink painting.
Everyone called him Master Chenyi.
Some said Master Chenyi had once been the most exceptional young general in the capital, proud and commanding in silver armor.
He and Madam had grown up together, childhood sweethearts. The sword was a token of his love, given to Madam.
“A Vân, when I return, I’ll marry you.”
But on that campaign, a hundred thousand soldiers perished in the Western Regions, and the young general never returned.
Madam had once thought of dying with him, but in the end, she couldn’t bring herself to die.
She married, but from then on she was little more than a lifeless log.
Ten years later, the young general returned.
He crawled back from the depths of hell, risking everything to see the woman he loved again.
But the woman he had once loved was married.
The young general didn’t want to disturb her. He took vows at a temple outside the capital, and from then on his dharma name was Chenyi.
…
All of this was only rumor.
I had seen Madam and Master Chenyi meet at the temple with my own eyes.
They greeted each other from afar with their palms together, like moonlight on a mountain—unattached, without regrets, like strangers. Without hearing those rumors, no one would have thought they had ever known each other.
Only once, Madam fell ill with a high fever that wouldn’t break. No matter how much medicine she took, she didn’t get better.
My father was with Concubine Zhao. The little maid went to summon him several times, but Concubine Zhao’s people stopped her each time.