Seeing Madam Qin walk out, Xianglan quickly stepped aside. After waiting a long while without seeing Cao Lihuan emerge, she peeked into the doorway. She saw Cao Lihuan standing dumbfounded in the hall, staring blankly as if in a trance. Xianglan thought to herself: “They say Madam Qin is formidable, and it’s truly so. She must have given Miss Cao quite a dressing down, otherwise she wouldn’t be in such a state.” She wanted to go in but feared being scolded while Cao Lihuan was angry, yet standing outside wasn’t appropriate either. After much consideration, she steeled herself to enter, saying softly: “Miss, don’t just stand there, please sit down and rest.”

After repeating this several times, Cao Lihuan’s eyes finally moved as she came to her senses. Seeing Xianglan standing submissively beside her, anger suddenly erupted. She reached out and struck Xianglan hard twice, cursing: “You worthless servant! Where were you when your master was being bullied earlier? Now you know to come out and call souls! I’ll show you calling! I’ll show you! You presumptuous thing, a mere servant daring to slight me, I’ll beat you to death! Beat you to death!” She cursed while beating Xianglan viciously, venting her anger.

Xianglan was stunned by the blows, and by the time she realized what was happening, her face had already received two solid slaps. Her heart was filled with grievance and resentment. She had originally planned to say, “Miss, please take care of yourself, don’t get angry.” But with such injustice, she couldn’t utter such submissive words and could only kneel on the ground, gritting her teeth as tears flowed.

After beating Xianglan severely, Cao Lihuan’s anger subsided somewhat. Catching sight of maids peeking in their direction, she stopped, noticing Xianglan’s swollen cheeks that would be hard to hide from others.

She kicked her viciously and said: “Useless thing, hurry up and get out of here!” Then she straightened her clothes and walked out, her thoughts turning: “I absolutely cannot leave the Lin family, otherwise all these days of effort will have been for nothing. Now I can only quickly go beg that old creature from the First Branch, plead with her to let me stay, and ask Zhao Yuechan to put in a few good words for me. Tsk, I’ll have to spend more silver to smooth things over – that woman Zhao Yuechan won’t help for free!” Standing outside Shouxu Hall’s courtyard, her hatred grew as she thought about it, and she vindictively tore off and crushed some leaves to vent her anger.

Xianglan wiped her tears with her sleeve and tremblingly stood up. Her face was burning, her whole body ached, and her heart felt as heavy as if it carried a stone weight. She took out her handkerchief and wiped her face hard, rearranged her hair, and spoke softly to herself: “Chen Xianglan, in this world there is naturally more suffering than joy.

Today, just think of it as being bitten by a dog. You must endure humiliation until the end – eventually, your day will come.” She took a deep breath, dabbed her eyes again with the handkerchief, and not daring to linger in the room, tugged at her clothes and hurried out with a lowered head.

The beaded curtain in the hall parted as two people emerged from the side room. One was fifteen or sixteen years old, of medium height, wearing fine but plain clothes, with a powdered complexion and jet-black eyes, looking like a golden youth – this was Lin Jinting, the legitimate son of the Lin family’s Second Branch.

The other was slightly older than Lin Jinting and a head taller, with a fair complexion, long eyebrows, beautiful eyes, and a high bridge to his nose – truly a handsome man with elegant bearing. He wore a somewhat worn blue silk robe with an old gold-woven belt set with agates, one of which had fallen out and been replaced with an ordinary red stone, but everything was washed immaculately clean and neat.

This person was named Song Ke, courtesy name Yifei, the nephew of Second Madam Wang. Wang’s second elder sister had married Song Fang, the son of a family friend of the Wang family. Song Fang had passed the provincial examinations and, through family connections, secured a minor position in the Court of Judicial Review, gradually working his way up to the fifth rank.

The family had been harmonious until three years ago when Song Fang suddenly died of acute illness, leaving behind one son and one daughter. Song Ke’s mother, Aunt Song, was of gentle disposition and suffered much scheming and humiliation in the Song family, so Song Ke took his mother and sister Song Tanchai to live separately.

Madam Wang shared a deep sisterly bond with Aunt Song and, sympathizing with their declining fortunes, had written to Beijing requesting Madam Qin’s help. Madam Qin found Song Ke to be intelligent, ambitious, courteous, and kind-hearted, developing some fondness for him, and arranged for him to study together with Lin Jinxuan and Lin Jinting. When they returned to Jinling, Aunt Song also felt homesick and followed with her children.

Lin Jinting frowned and said: “How can that cousin act like such a common shrew? How can someone like that stay in our home? Fortunately, Elder Sister-in-law is going to drive her out – I think it would save trouble to expel such a person as soon as possible.” He muttered for a while, and seeing Song Ke silent, pushed him and asked, “What are you thinking about?”

Song Ke, hands behind his back, said: “I’m afraid she won’t be driven out – she won’t get past your family’s Old Master. You know how Old Master cares most about face and absolutely cannot let others speak ill of him. How could he drive away an orphaned girl with no parents and let people point fingers at his back? Old Master and Old Madam both dislike her but must keep up appearances – they’ll just spend some silver to settle her.”

“But she’s a petty person – keeping her here will only disturb the household peace. If she corrupts some of the young ladies and ruins the Lin family’s reputation, making it hard for them to marry well, that would be terrible.” Lin Jinting sighed and continued, “That little maid who was beaten is truly pitiful, suffering undeserved misfortune, and didn’t even know to beg for mercy when beaten – she must have been beaten senseless.” He remembered how the girl knelt on the ground while Cao Lihuan slapped and beat her, her delicate body trembling like autumn leaves in the cold wind, face full of tears, looking especially fragile and arousing sympathy. After Cao Lihuan left, she tidied herself up before leaving with a lowered head, whispering something, afraid others would notice she had been beaten by her master, making her seem even more pitiful.

Song Ke smiled and called Lin Jinting by his courtesy name: “Xiuhong, you’re still so soft-hearted. No wonder your elder brother teases you, saying that when your great-grandmother’s mourning period ends, he’ll personally send you two beautiful women who can sing and talk, surely more understanding and sensitive than your Suju.”

Lin Jinting blushed and glared: “What nonsense are you talking about? Don’t learn bad habits from my wastrel brother – I couldn’t handle the beauties he sends… Besides, Suju was given to me by mother… she’s served me since childhood.”

Seeing Lin Jinting’s embarrassment, Song Ke stopped teasing him and just patted his shoulder as they walked out together. In the hall, Song Ke suddenly noticed a small white silk flower on the ground, remembering it had fallen from the beaten maid’s hair, and his lips curved up sardonically. Xiuhong said the maid was pitiful. He saw her as quite shrewd.

Earlier, watching through the window crack of the east side room as Cao Lihuan and Glass Cup fought, while other maids and servants were either holding people back or blocking them, only she stood far away, though calling out “stop fighting,” clearly not wanting to get involved. When Snow Cup scolded her, she ran up deliberately to take a kick, then made a great show of falling and refusing to get up, but was the quickest to scramble to her feet once the madam left.

Later in the small hall when she was beaten, though she appeared pitiful with tears streaming down her face, after Cao Lihuan left, she didn’t run away crying but methodically arranged her clothes and hair, not crying at all anymore! She could swallow such grievance instantly and later said to herself: “Chen Xianglan, today just think of it as being bitten by a dog. In this world there is naturally more suffering than joy – you must endure humiliation until the end. Eventually, your day will come.” Though her voice was soft, Song Ke’s senses were keener than most, and he heard every word clearly, immediately astonished.

When faced with grievance and frustration, instead of wailing or wallowing in self-pity, she showed strength and determination, knowing that endurance would eventually lead to success. Such insight and fortitude were hardly fitting for a thirteen or fourteen-year-old maid – even grown men rarely possessed such qualities! From afar, he saw the girl’s resolute expression, and for a moment seemed to see another person.

That person was only two or three years older than this girl, similarly delicate in build, originally from a noble family before falling to ruin in a single night, often wearing such stubbornness and tenacity in her brow, enduring the greatest grievances and suffering while single-mindedly protecting him… Sometimes when he thought of his distant previous life, it seemed like a strange dream.

Song Ke walked to the hall entrance, then suddenly turned back to pick up the small white silk flower from the ground. He held it to his nose and smelled it – it still carried a faint fragrance from her hair. Hearing Lin Jinting calling him, he quickly tucked the flower into his sleeve and strode out.

As for Xianglan, upon leaving she saw Cao Lihuan begging to see Madam Qin outside the main hall, blocked by the door-keeping matrons. After several attempts to force her way in were thwarted, Xianglan thought to herself: “The matter in the room earlier must have become serious, otherwise why would Cao Lihuan rush out to find the First Madam?” She didn’t want to follow Cao Lihuan, but all the maids and matrons in the courtyard had seen her come out of the small hall, so she had no choice but to walk over with a lowered head.

Cao Lihuan was indeed formidable and strongly built. Getting her chance, she pushed past the two matrons blocking the front, lifted the curtain, and went in. Xianglan was right behind Cao Lihuan but was swept into the room by the intercepting matrons. At this moment after the meal, Old Madam Lin was reclining on the luohan bed while Madam Qin sat on an embroidered stool, leaning forward to talk with her. Second Madam Wang sat on the other side, personally peeling hazelnuts for Old Madam Lin.

Old Madam Lin started and looked toward Madam Qin. Madam Qin frowned but spoke calmly: “Why have you come? Didn’t I tell you to go back? With elders present, you barge in without being announced – you’re becoming increasingly ill-mannered. Are those guarding the door all dead? Quickly remove her.”

The two matrons immediately came forward to take her away. Xianglan, stuck inside the room, didn’t know whether to advance or retreat, so she shrank her neck and stood by the door, thinking that if Cao Lihuan was taken out, she could follow along; if Cao Lihuan stayed, she would stand there playing dead.

Cao Lihuan struggled left and right: “Let go! Let go!” Then fell to her knees with a thud, crying: “Old Madam, save me!”