6.
Shu Yan was confined to her room. My parents were too ashamed to face me and tell me that my engagement to Xue Lin had been called off.
I told my parents I would choose a husband for Shu Yan from among the soldiers under our command. After they married, he would take her to live on the border, far from the capital, Shangjing.
The shameful affair between her and Xue Lin would be over, too. My parents agreed. My eldest sister was to tell Shu Yan, still locked in her room, while my older brother was to inform Xue Lin.
When Xue Lin saw how determined our family was to send Shu Yan away to marry, he turned his attention to me instead. At the same time, I began attending all sorts of banquets in the capital, growing closer and closer to the Second Prince.
Xue Lin had his page send me several letters, but I tossed every one of them away without a second thought. The Second Prince polished his longbow and chuckled. “I understand you less and less, Second Young Lady.”
In my previous life, after Xue Lin became emperor, he massacred senior officials to reclaim power, stirring up public resentment.
Before long, the Second Prince, Xue Xing, led the senior officials in joining the cause of clearing the emperor’s side of corrupt influences. They killed Xue Lin before the palace hall, then stepped over his head and claimed the imperial throne.
I drew my bow and loosed an arrow. Two wild geese fell in the woods. He clapped with a smile. “Second Young Lady, your aim is excellent.”
I lowered my bow and turned to look into his peach-blossom eyes. “I want the general’s residence to stand firm and unshaken. I want my family to be safe.”
His smile deepened. “Then do your best to become empress—and be sure to choose the right prince to back.”
I curled my lip. “The Shu family will never produce an empress. What we want is simple—not fame or rank, but Xue Lin’s head on a platter.”
The smile vanished from his eyes, replaced by a shadowy look. “From what I hear, he and your Third Young Lady have consummated their relationship.”
My heart skipped. Everyone in the capital knew him as an idle prince. So that had all been an act.
I made my position clear. “The Third Young Lady of the general’s residence will soon be replaced.”
Xue Xing looked intrigued. “Really? Then I’ll await good news from you, Second Young Lady.”
7.
Just as I’d expected, when Shu Yan learned we planned to marry her off to a soldier and send her to the border, she wrote to Xue Lin, begging him to take her and elope.
I read every word of the letter she’d written to Xue Lin, then added two lines in her handwriting: [If we elope and have a child, once our parents find out, they’ll have no choice but to let us marry. By then, what’s done is done, and Father will surely help you claim the throne.]
The next day, I delivered the letter to Father. Then I had someone pretend to be Shu Yan’s maid and pass Xue Lin the message, repeating the contents of the letter to him.
Since he couldn’t gain anything by pursuing me now, he had no choice but to keep pursuing Shu Yan. Even if it meant taking a desperate gamble, he had to try.
After all, he had no maternal family to rely on. Father read the letter and flew into a rage, nearly fainting with fury.
Mother was silent for a long time. At last, she said through her tears, “All the other children in this family are sensible. She’s the only one who’s been spoiled and manipulative since childhood. If things go her way, she’ll sweet-talk everyone into a good mood. If they don’t, she’ll do the most shameless things.”
“This time, we absolutely cannot indulge her any longer!”
I saw the disappointment in my parents’ faces as they looked at Shu Yan, but that still wasn’t enough.
What I wanted was to make them give up on the youngest daughter they’d always favored completely.
8.
As instructed, the maid caring for Shu Yan came to report at the appointed time: Shu Yan had knocked her unconscious, put on her clothes, and escaped.
Father’s face went dark. He hurriedly sent people to the Third Prince’s residence, only to learn that the Third Prince had left the capital on a pleasure trip.
Mother was so furious she spat blood, utterly despairing. “She’s trying to drag the entire general’s residence down with her!”
I fell to my knees, weeping. “There’s only one way to keep the general’s residence safe now.”
My parents asked in unison, “What way?”
Choking back sobs, I said, “We must announce to the world that Shu Yan isn’t a daughter of the general’s residence. She was born on the border. Say that Yun Dao was switched at birth, and that Shu Yan was only the midwife’s daughter. Yun Dao is the true daughter of our general’s household.”
My parents fell silent. I didn’t rush them; I wanted them to think it over carefully. But in truth, I wasn’t going to give them time to think.
After I left, my eldest sister received my message and took poison. In the past, only Shu Yan would have done something like this. Because Shu Yan was so shamelessly loud about making a scene, the family’s attention had always been on her.
My eldest sister was kind and gentle. She never wanted to worry our parents, so she put up with everything. And what did that get her? It just goes to show that a child who cries gets more love than one who knows how to behave.
By the time the imperial physician saved my eldest sister, she was barely clinging to life. To drive Shu Yan, that cancer, out of the general’s residence, my sister had resolved to be cruel to herself.
She used what little strength she had to push away Mother’s hand as she clutched at her, weeping. With a bitter smile, she said, “If you only love Shu Yan, then what does it matter whether I live or die? Better to die cleanly now than live to be reviled and die after something happens.”
Before the matter here had been settled, an anxious page’s voice came from outside. “Young Master! Young Master has withdrawn from the academy!”
My older brother had studied hard for years and passed the provincial examination at a young age. With just a little more effort, he could secure a place in court.
He was the heir Father had devoted himself to grooming. No one was more heartbroken and furious than Father when he learned my brother had quit his studies.
As soon as my older brother stepped into the courtyard, Father slapped him. “You ungrateful wretch!”
My older brother didn’t wipe the blood from his mouth. For the first time, he answered Father with a bitter sneer. “If I’m an ungrateful wretch, then what is Shu Yan? And what are all of you?!”
Furious, my older brother dragged Father into my eldest sister’s room and held up the wounds on her fingers for him to see. “Father! Look at your daughter’s hands! Embroidery is something every young lady in a respectable family has to learn. Has she ever failed to study it seriously?”
Then he picked up my eldest sister’s paintings. “Open your eyes and look at these! Your own daughter painted them with all her heart. So why shouldn’t she be known as the greatest beauty in the capital?”
He grabbed me and brought me before Mother. “Mother, this is your own daughter. How many times have you seen her? How many outfits have you made for her? What have you ever given her?”
“For the sake of our family, Father carried her to the border before she was even weaned. All these years, she’s wielded swords on the battlefield and fought to kill—has she ever not risked her life? She risked her life for the honor of our whole family, but what have any of you given her?! Even her one marriage alliance was stolen from her and handed to that little slut Shu Yan!”
“And me!” My older brother’s eyes reddened. Choking back tears, he said, “I’ve never dared take a single day off. I studied to earn a degree, so our family could establish itself at court. No matter how bitter the winter, I never dared rest; no matter how hot the summer, I never dared put down my brush. But now, because of your favoritism and indulgence, it’s all over!”
He laughed wildly. “If that’s how it is, then instead of waiting for the Censorate to impeach us and have us stripped of our offices, we might as well all be buried with your precious daughter now.”
Inwardly, I praised my older brother and eldest sister for their excellent acting. But then I suddenly came to my senses.
This was the injustice they had borne for years. These were the words from the bottom of their hearts. My older brother’s and eldest sister’s tears weren’t an act. They were the blood and tears of years spent silently enduring it all.
9.
At last, Father made up his mind. This time, Mother no longer wavered either; instead, she put everything she had into arranging this family-reunion banquet.
When word spread that Yun Dao and Shu Yan had been switched at birth, and that Yun Dao was the general’s true daughter, the capital was in an uproar. At the banquet, someone asked where Shu Yan was now. Before I could answer, Mother smiled and replied, “Naturally, she’s where she belongs. She’s gone to her birth mother.”
At last, Mother had come to her senses. Only if those words came from her could the general’s residence’s reputation be fully protected.
The implication was clear: the general’s residence had cast her out. Whoever she followed now, whether she eloped with someone or married someone, had nothing more to do with the general’s residence.
The mother of the young lord of the Chu family was attending one of our banquets for the first time. “No wonder she was so arrogant and unreasonable. Anyone would think every young lady from the general’s residence was like that. After all this commotion, it turns out she was just an impostor.”
After Shu Yan spoke disrespectfully to Madam Chu and struck her daughter, the Chu family immediately broke off the engagement. My eldest sister was devastated by this and shut herself away from then on.
Lately, I’d often taken her out to meet guests, and at those banquets she’d run into Madam Chu several times. After a few encounters, Madam Chu saw how my eldest sister treated others and understood that she wasn’t like Shu Yan.
The wall between them was gradually coming down. Just yesterday, Madam Chu had sent my eldest sister an invitation to visit her residence and admire the flowers. My eldest sister wept with joy.
She and the young lord of the Chu family had been childhood sweethearts, deeply in love. Because he refused to break off their engagement, he was still wandering around the military camps, while my eldest sister had never remarried.
Yesterday, my mother kept looking at the Chu family’s invitation, her fingers trembling. “It’s my fault. It’s all my fault.”
Mother hadn’t slept all night. By today, she had made up her mind completely. Only then did I tell the people outside the door to stop blocking Shu Yan and let her in.
Her venomous gaze swept around the room before finally landing on Yun Dao. As if possessed, she lunged at her and tore at her clothes. “Take them off! Those are my clothes. What gives a lowly maid like you the right to wear them? I’m the Third Young Lady of the general’s residence!”
Xue Lin came in from outside, too. He had come to stand up for Shu Yan. Not everyone knew about the two of them, but rumors had certainly been circulating.
As long as Shu Yan was the general’s Third Young Lady, everything could be worked out. But if she really turned out to be a midwife’s daughter, not only would his plans fail, he would become a laughingstock throughout Shangjing.
How could a prince of the realm bear the shame of eloping with a midwife’s daughter? So whether or not Shu Yan was the general’s Third Young Lady, Xue Lin had to make sure she became one today.
I restrained Shu Yan as she went wild, while my older brother blocked Xue Lin with disgust. “Third Prince, what brings you here?”