After moving to the new location, Cao Li Huan was deeply unhappy. Every day, she would shut herself away with Hui Er to curse Madam Qin several times. When anger rose in her heart, she would take it out on Xiang Lan, while speaking coldly to Si Qiao: “Who knows if you’re pretending or not well, lying in bed like a corpse every day, living better than your mistress. It seems I’m supporting another grand lady here – such airs!”

Hearing this, Si Qiao had to endure the pain and get up, limping as she served. Cao Li Huan then complained about her clumsiness and sent her to do needlework. Si Qiao was unskilled and often couldn’t finish embroidering a single flower in a day, inevitably earning more scolding. Xiang Lan felt pity and would help her with the work when free.

As Si Qiao embroidered, tears would start rolling down her cheeks. Xiang Lan immediately nudged her, whispering, “Why are you crying? If tears splash on the fabric, that female demon will swallow you alive! Quickly dry your tears – what are you feeling sorry for yourself about? We’re all enduring the same. Whether you spend the day happy or miserable, it’s still just one day. You need to think more positively.”

Si Qiao wiped her tears with her sleeve, sobbing, “I don’t think I can endure this…”

Xiang Lan said firmly, “Whether you can endure it or not, you must endure. What else can you do – hang yourself? Sometimes it’s like this: when you think there’s no path ahead, who knows if it might be ‘dark willows and bright flowers hide another village’? Sometimes when you think everything is perfect and limitless, who knows if there’s a cliff ahead that will shatter you to pieces…”

“What are you saying? You’re scaring me.” Si Qiao rubbed her arms and was about to say more when they heard Cao Li Huan calling from the courtyard: “Xiang Lan! Xiang Lan!”

Xiang Lan responded and hurriedly put down her embroidery frame to go out. Cao Li Huan wanted her to fetch water again. As she dragged the water bucket out and returned with water, she saw a short, stocky man standing at the courtyard gate.

Xiang Lan pretended not to see him and tried to walk past with her head down. Their current quarters were right next to the second gate, and since moving here, Cao Li Huan often had her trusted servant Si Shun come over to discuss matters. Cao Li Huan was a calculating person. When her parents died, she and her brother had schemed over the family fortune, and she had secured a sum of money for herself, buying a small estate in the suburbs of Jin Ling and letting her wet nurse’s family manage it. This Si Shun was her wet nurse’s son, in his twenties. Though short, his appearance was fairly decent, and he seemed capable, but he was addicted to drinking, gambling, and visiting brothels. His thoughts never ran straight, and he particularly focused his efforts on women, having affairs with two young widows and spending freely in brothels, giving him an air of sleaziness. Though he had a wife at home, after coming to Jin Ling and occasionally seeing some maids from the Lin household, he immediately felt his wife was like a fat pig compared to the Lin family maids, who all had slender waists and were more beautiful than celestial maidens. Since then, whenever he came to the Lin house, he would dress up carefully, hoping to seduce some pretty maids, but none paid him any attention.

Now, Si Shun was standing idly at the courtyard gate when he unexpectedly saw a beautiful girl carrying a wooden bucket walking toward him. His eyes immediately widened, his soul taking flight, feeling that even the famous courtesans he spent five taels of silver a night on were now like dirt. He hurriedly approached, putting on a smile and saying, “Sister, is that heavy? Let me carry it for you.” He reached for the bucket, trying to touch Xiang Lan’s hand in the process.

Xiang Lan had heard about Si Shun from Cao Li Huan and Hui Er’s conversations, so she recognized him immediately and was on guard. Seeing him approach, she quickly dodged away, keeping her head down and saying, “No need,” as she walked inside.

Si Shun wouldn’t let it go, following her while fanning himself with a folding fan, thinking himself handsome and refined as he smiled eagerly: “Sister, do you serve Young Lady Cao? How have I never seen you before? Meeting you today feels so familiar – perhaps we were fated in a previous life?”

Xiang Lan found his words both amusing and annoying, keeping a straight face as she walked forward. Si Shun continued chattering: “Sister, do you serve Young Lady Cao? I heard her say the manor gave her someone called Si Qiao, who’s as beautiful as an immortal maiden, clever and skillful, truly living up to her name – could that be you?”

Xiang Lan stopped and turned around with a stern face, saying, “What business do you have here? This is the inner quarters – if you keep barging in, I’ll scream!”

Seeing Xiang Lan’s cold expression only made her seem more alluringly aloof to Si Shun, making him even more excited. He smiled and said, “Young Lady Cao sent me…”

“If Young Lady called you, you should wait at the gate! Only enter when she summons you. Don’t you know the rules? Your shameless behavior brings disgrace to Young Lady Cao!” With that, she abandoned the water bucket and stormed inside.

Entering the room, she saw Si Qiao wasn’t there, with half-embroidered butterflies and peonies left on the kang bed. Xiang Lan picked up the embroidery frame, and after finishing one leaf, she quietly opened a small gap in the window to look outside. Seeing Si Shun had left, she finally went out to carry the water bucket to the tea room and poured it into the copper kettle to boil.

As for Si Shun, after being rebuffed by Xiang Lan, he found her fiery temperament even more charming, thinking her anger made her even more beautiful. His heart was scratching like a cat’s when he heard Huai Rui call him inside. He returned to Cao Li Huan’s room, where she gave him two tasks: first, to bring two baskets of fresh pears from the estate for Madam Qin’s upcoming birthday; second, to deliver a message to her brother Cao Gang that Zhao Yue Chan had agreed to a flower and tree procurement job, just waiting for Madam Qin’s approval, so her brother should be patient. After giving instructions and some reward money, she was about to dismiss him when Si Shun suddenly fell to his knees, kowtowing twice and saying, “Young Lady, no, no, Grandmother, blessed ancestor, if you don’t grant this request, I won’t be able to go on living!”

Cao Li Huan was startled and asked, “What matter?”

“Just now I saw a maid carrying water – I don’t know if she’s Si Qiao, the maid the Lin family gave you that you mentioned. As soon as I saw her, I lost my soul! If Young Lady could arrange to marry her to me, I’ll divorce my wife immediately and serve Young Lady like an ox or horse for life – I’d gladly give up my life!” He kowtowed again with loud thuds.

Cao Li Huan knew Si Shun was a lecherous scoundrel and looked down on him, but she had no one else more useful at hand, so she usually turned a blind eye. Behind his back, she had often cursed him with Hui Er as a “lustful donkey who trembles at the sight of women, can’t control his crotch, thinks of nothing but debauchery all day – a wretch who won’t die well.” But to his face, she had to maintain a pleasant demeanor to keep him working for her. Hearing his words, she thought for a moment while lifting her teacup for a sip: “Si Qiao? The water-carrying maid? What did she look like?”

Si Shun knelt stiffly, gesturing as he described: “She was… very beautiful, with fair delicate skin, large eyes, a slender waist, wearing her hair in maiden’s buns and a moon-white skirt…”

“Enough, enough.” Cao Li Huan understood the description and smiled coldly. “I guess you wouldn’t be satisfied with Si Qiao – that maid is Xiang Lan from the Lin family. You’d better give up that idea.”

Si Shun wouldn’t accept this: “What’s wrong with a Lin family maid? They all serve Young Lady anyway!” He shuffled forward on his knees, putting on his most ingratiating smile and giving Cao Li Huan a meaningful look. “My dear Young Lady, you know my heart has always been utterly loyal to you. If you grant me this, you’ll be like my second parents, my saviors. After all, I’ve served you faithfully these years – if not merit, at least I have put in the effort…”

Cao Li Huan found Si Shun’s attempt at intimacy disgusting and moved back, saying coldly: “Enough, enough – look at your petty desires!” But thinking it over, although Xiang Lan was somewhat foolish, not very worldly or calculating, she was hardworking and easy to control, plus skilled at needlework – Cao Li Huan had intended to keep her. The only problem was her beauty; if kept around after Cao Li Huan’s marriage, she would be in trouble. But giving her to Si Shun would be different – it would secure Si Shun’s loyalty, a servant’s wife couldn’t cause much trouble, and she’d have an easily controlled slave in the future. Thinking it through, it seemed sensible. She wasn’t a kind person to begin with, focused only on her schemes with no concern for karmic retribution or others’ lives. After some thought, she devised a vicious plan. Seeing no one else in the room except Hui Er sleeping in the warm alcove, she said, “What you propose… might not be impossible…”

Si Shun reacted as if receiving an imperial edict, eagerly leaning forward. As Cao Li Huan spoke, he nodded rapidly like a pecking chicken. Finally clapping his hands, he said with a grin, “If this succeeds, I’d die happy.”

Cao Li Huan smiled warmly: “I always knew you were sensible. I don’t ask you to remember my kindness – just serve me well in the future to repay my consideration.”

Si Shun repeatedly said, “Understood! Understood! I won’t forget!”

Cao Li Huan clutched her handkerchief, her smile turning cold. In truth, she knew in her heart that she was jealous of Xiang Lan! Though that little wretch was just a maid, she carried herself with an air of authority, as if born to be a master, with dignified and noble gestures that Cao Li Huan found hateful. Though she tried various ways to torment and suppress her, and Xiang Lan appeared obedient and compliant, Cao Li Huan still vaguely felt she had never truly broken that proud spirit.

Cao Li Huan’s eyes gleamed coldly – she wanted to see how proud that spirit would remain after being married to a sleazy scoundrel!

Behind the screen, Si Qiao trembled violently. There was a back door behind this screen, and earlier when Cao Li Huan had asked Si Qiao to take two flower pots to the sun in the courtyard, upon returning, just as she was about to close the door, she heard Si Shun mention her name and boldly hid behind the screen to eavesdrop. What she heard left her in a cold sweat.

Si Qiao returned somewhat dazedly to the small room she shared with Xiang Lan. Entering, she saw Xiang Lan helping with her needlework using an embroidery frame. She sat down absentmindedly on the kang bed but immediately stood up with a pain in her buttocks. Xiang Lan laughed: “How could you sit so soon? You’re still limping when you walk – after a couple more days of medicine it will be better.”

Si Qiao looked at Xiang Lan’s smiling face, and though words came to her lips, she swallowed them back, saying nothing.