Fu Tingyun and Yu Wei looked at each other in bewilderment.
After standing there for who knows how long, the door creaked open again. The woman curtsied to Fu Tingyun and smiled: “Sorry to keep the young lady waiting. Our mistress invites you to the hall for tea!” Then she respectfully ushered Fu Tingyun inside.
Why was she going to see her sister-in-law instead of her mother?
It was said that her mother was bedridden, and her sister-in-law managed the household. Naturally, when visitors came, they would first see the sister-in-law!
Fu Tingyun told herself this.
As long as she could see her family, everything else could come gradually.
Fu Tingyun and Yu Wei followed the woman into the residence.
Now she understood why Master Lü had described their residence in Shijia Alley as “perfectly square.”
This courtyard’s main gate faced east. The yard was longer north to south and narrower east to west. The main building had five rooms with doors facing the gate, which meant in summer they would face the afternoon sun, hot and stuffy. The second room from the east served as the main hall, with its doors wide open. Upon entering the courtyard, one could see the landscape painting in the center and the black-lacquered armchairs on either side. To the north were two wing rooms: one was the kitchen, and the other had its door tightly closed, seemingly the servants’ quarters. To the south, a protruding wall blocked the western two rooms of the main building. The corridor was dark even in broad daylight. Fortunately, outside the south wall was someone’s garden with several jujube trees whose branches extended into the courtyard. Below the south wall grew several pots of pomegranates and two pots of oleander, adding a touch of vitality to the courtyard.
How modest! It didn’t even compare to the residences of respectable stewards in her Fu family.
Fu Tingyun was secretly shocked and wondered: wasn’t her mother supposed to be ill? Why couldn’t she smell any medicine throughout the courtyard?
Without showing her surprise, she sat in the armchair near the south side, with Yu Wei standing silently behind her.
There was the sound of a door opening behind her.
She turned to see a round-faced woman wearing a patterned light green jacket enter.
This must be her sister-in-law?
Fu Tingyun was somewhat uncertain. She stood up with a smile, her gaze quickly sweeping over the woman.
The woman was only twenty-five or twenty-six years old, with fair skin and a slightly plump figure. Her hair was styled in a round bun, adorned with two pearl flowers, and her ears bore a pair of gold willow leaf earrings. She smiled before speaking, appearing very warm.
The woman who had led them in smiled and introduced her: “This is our mistress.”
Fu Tingyun’s eyes brightened, her face becoming all smiles as she affectionately called out, “Sister-in-law.”
Her sister-in-law was slightly taken aback.
“I don’t deserve such courtesy from the young lady,” she said while secretly examining Fu Tingyun. “Please sit! I hear from Dong that you’re from Weinan. That’s my mother-in-law’s hometown. In that sense, we’re not strangers. However, my mother-in-law is unwell and hasn’t received outside visitors for some time. If you have any matters, you can tell me just the same!” Then she sat in the main armchair in the center of the hall, smiling at Fu Tingyun. Though her tone was polite, her words conveyed coldness and distance, as if Fu Tingyun were some poor relative who had come to the capital to beg for favors.
Fu Tingyun’s smile froze on her face. It took her a long while to recover. Just as she was about to speak, the woman called Dong by Fu’s sister-in-law brought tea. Fu Tingyun swallowed her words.
Unexpectedly, after serving the tea, Dong did not withdraw but stood behind Fu’s sister-in-law with the tea tray in her arms.
Fu Tingyun frowned almost imperceptibly and said in a low voice: “I have something to say to the mistress. I would request that the mistress dismiss your attendants.”
Fu’s sister-in-law just smiled and said: “Dong is my wet nurse. Whatever you have to say, young lady, just speak openly. It won’t be a problem.”
She was guarding against Fu Tingyun.
Fu Tingyun felt momentarily bewildered.
How had things come to this?
In her memory, her sister-in-law would smile at her ingratiatingly, patiently play with mud with her, help her bathe, and read beautiful poems to her… What had changed everything so drastically?
Yu Wei, seeing Fu Tingyun slightly distracted, quickly poked her back. Fu Tingyun came to her senses, pursed her lips, and said softly: “I have important matters to discuss. It would be better if we had privacy.”
Fu’s sister-in-law’s expression showed slight displeasure. After thinking for a moment, she nodded to Dong. Dong gave Fu’s sister-in-law a look that said “don’t worry” and quietly left, closing the hall door.
“Now can the young lady speak?” Fu’s sister-in-law’s expression had grown colder.
“Sister-in-law!” Due to the earlier episode, Fu Tingyun’s earlier joy at meeting relatives had inexplicably vanished without a trace. Her voice became calm and rational. “I am Fu Tingyun!”
Fu’s sister-in-law changed color abruptly: “You, what did you say?” She stood up hurriedly, her sleeve sweeping across the teacup beside her. The cup toppled on the table, and the green tea leaves scattered across the black lacquered square table with its endless “wan” pattern, as well as on Fu’s sister-in-law’s skirt. “You, what did you say?” Ignoring the mess, she asked again, her body trembling like a sieve, her face turning pale and ashen.
“Sister-in-law…” Fu Tingyun had just called out when the door was suddenly pushed open with a bang. Dong rushed in with a panicked expression: “Mistress, what happened?”
“Nothing, nothing!” Fu’s sister-in-law’s face showed complete shock. Instinctively rejecting Dong’s intrusion, she said, “I just accidentally knocked over the teacup. It’s nothing to do with you. Miss Fu and I still have things to discuss. Please go out first!”
Dong looked suspiciously at Fu Tingyun, whose face had also turned somewhat pale, murmured an acknowledgment, and respectfully withdrew.
The creaking sound of the closing door was like a revelation that jolted Fu’s sister-in-law back to awareness.
Her teeth chattering, she sternly said: “Where did you come from, you fraud? How dare you impersonate a relative of an official family! Everyone in Huayin knows that my husband’s younger sister died of illness. Stop this nonsense! Leave quickly, or else when I call the yamen runners from the Shuntian Prefecture, you’ll be beaten with bamboo rods.” She urged again, “Why aren’t you leaving?”
Fu Tingyun had considered many possibilities, and this was one of them. She could even understand it—when a sister-in-law whom you’d only met once suddenly returns from the dead, anyone’s first reaction would be to assume they were facing an impostor.
If that were so, why had her sister-in-law instinctively called her “Miss Fu” in front of Dong?
Her sister-in-law acknowledged in her heart that she was Fu Tingyun, yet still tried to frighten her away.
She also recalled the wariness in Dong’s eyes when she had first presented herself as a fellow townsperson from Weinan…
Fu Tingyun suddenly felt as if she had fallen into an ice cave, her body growing cold.
Her sister-in-law had received prior instructions!
And who had given these instructions?
Fu Tingyun dared not think further.
Somewhat numbly, she said: “Sister-in-law and I have only met once, so naturally you don’t recognize me. Please let me see my mother. Whether I am genuine or false, my mother will know.” Considering that her sister-in-law was just a daughter-in-law with parents-in-law above and a husband to answer to, and might not have final say in family matters, she added considerately: “You needn’t put yourself in a difficult position!”
Fu’s sister-in-law’s expression fluctuated uncertainly.
She had heard about her husband’s younger sister’s situation.
Different from what was told to the outside world, her father-in-law had said that his daughter had been kidnapped by refugees.
As a woman herself, she had privately grieved for her sister-in-law.
So when Fu Tingyun first entered, she merely thought she looked somewhat familiar but didn’t connect the dots. Only when Fu Tingyun revealed her name did she suddenly understand. If nothing else, just by the five or six parts similarity between the siblings’ features, she believed Fu Tingyun wasn’t lying.
For a woman married into the Fu family, regardless of her background, the first thing was to learn the Fu family’s teachings for women from the elders. She knew the rules of the Fu family. Moreover, after what happened to her sister-in-law, her father-in-law had specifically called her in to give her instructions…
Thinking of this, her eyes involuntarily fell on the gold plum blossom hairpin with jade inlay in Fu Tingyun’s hair.
It belonged to her mother-in-law. On the second day after she married into the Fu family, when she served tea to her mother-in-law during the formal recognition ceremony, her mother-in-law was wearing this plum blossom hairpin. The pin was inlaid with a fine piece of jade, so green and lustrous that it seemed like flowing pond water. Even she, coming from a prestigious family, had envied it. Since Fu Tingyun had been kidnapped by refugees, how had she managed to keep this hairpin safe?
Fu Tingyun’s current background was unclear… Even if someone from a noble family loved her for her beauty, how could they marry her?
She was probably…
Thinking of this, she bit her lip and said, “Wait here,” then turned and went into a side room. She quickly returned with a money pouch in hand.
“Here are twenty taels of silver, my private savings. I can’t give you more than this,” Fu’s sister-in-law stuffed the money pouch into Fu Tingyun’s hands. “You should leave quickly! It would be trouble if my father-in-law or your brother returned. You have your own life to live now. Like me, I’ve never returned to my parents’ home since I got married. Just think of yourself as a married daughter…” As she spoke incoherently, trying to comfort Fu Tingyun, she pushed her towards the door.
“Sister-in-law!” Fu Tingyun clutched the money pouch, feeling a warmth in her heart. “I’ve been wronged! I came here specifically to tell mother and father about this. Please let me see my mother just once!” Fearing her sister-in-law wouldn’t believe her, she quickly pointed to Yu Wei, who stood with tears brimming in her eyes. “This is my maid. They’ve investigated how Zuo Junjie framed me…”
“Fu…” Fu’s sister-in-law didn’t know how to address her and called out vaguely, “Even if that’s true, what difference does it make? Your engagement to the Yu family has already been broken, and our family has told everyone you died of illness.’ You have your own life now, why dig up these matters? Besides, the mother-in-law is truly ill. When she’s not thinking of you, she’s fine, but when she remembers you, she cries day and night without stopping. Not only have her eyes been damaged from crying, but this has also caused a rift between her and her father-in-law. You know that the father-in-law has always respected the mother-in-law. While serving in the capital, he would rather have us, his son and daughter-in-law, attend to her than take someone into his household to serve him. Now, father-in-law and mother-in-law are both over forty, at the age where they should be enjoying their grandchildren. If you persist like this, you’ll only make them suffer more. Consider it as repaying them for raising you—please, be kind and let them have some peace and good days!” As she spoke, she took Fu Tingyun’s hand with tears in her eyes. “I am ten years older than you. Listen to me! Some things, with time, will fade. Just accept that you weren’t fated to marry into the Yu family and become an official’s wife.”
“With time, things will fade!” Fu Tingyun murmured, repeating her sister-in-law’s words. She stood dazed in the Fu family hall, her expression slightly vacant.