And so they all sat together over tea, exchanging pleasant conversation.

From the words passing back and forth, Chu Linlang pieced together a general picture.

This young lady Yin Xuefang’s father had once served as a clerical official in Jiao City. The position was modest, but the household was reasonably comfortable. He had worked for years under the elder Mr. Zhou as a direct subordinate and superior, and the two men had been proper colleagues for many years.

Yin Xuefang’s mother, Liu Shi, had also been a close friend of Zhao Shi from their unmarried days. When the elder Mr. Zhou was still alive, the two families had visited frequently, and the children had played together. When counted up this way, Yin Xuefang and Zhou Sui’an had been childhood companions in the truest sense.

It was said that on the hundredth day after Yin Xuefang’s birth, the eight-year-old Zhou Sui’an had cradled the infant in his arms and refused to let go, shouting at his mother to let him take her home to keep.

Unfortunately, the elder Mr. Zhou had later become entangled in a lawsuit, lost his post, paid out a great sum in compensation, and died of illness not long after. The Zhou household, left with only a widow and her children, returned to their ancestral home in the countryside of Jiangkou, severing contact with the Yin family.

As for Yin Xuefang — she had originally been married, but her husband was short-lived: not two years into the marriage, he fell from a horse, broke his neck, and died.

Her husband’s family was vicious and cruel, insisting that Yin Xuefang’s fate was hard and had brought death to her husband, and heaping endless scolding and abuse on her head. They also pressed her to remain a widow and adopt a nephew from the clan to carry on the family line for the deceased son.

The Yin family, unable to bear watching their eighteen-year-old daughter waste her youth in widowhood, quarreled with the husband’s family and brought her home.

Because the parting with her husband’s family had been so acrimonious, that vicious mother-in-law had gone around ruining Yin Xuefang’s reputation everywhere she could.

Now that this young woman carried the stigma of a hard-fated widow who brought death to her men, her future marriage prospects were a cause for worry.

Once Chu Linlang had understood the background of this mother-daughter pair, and seeing that she could not naturally work herself into the conversation, she excused herself on the pretext of freshening up and left her mother-in-law’s courtyard early.

Xia He noticed her mistress’s listless, downcast mood and asked in a low voice: “My lady, there are guests in the house — isn’t it a bit improper for you to leave so early without keeping them company?”

Chu Linlang washed her face, flicking the water droplets off with some force, and let out a cold huff: “Guests? More like she treats this place as her own home already. They’ll be much more comfortable without me sitting there.”

Xia He blinked, her voice dropping lower with worry: “Are you saying… the Old Madam wants to arrange for our Senior Official…”

Chu Linlang said nothing. She simply finished changing her clothes, then picked up her sewing basket and sat with her head bowed, splitting thread with her fingertips.

Xia He couldn’t hold back a quiet sigh. Not that the Old Madam could really be blamed for it. The mistress had been married into the Zhou household for seven years now, and had yet to give the Zhou family any children.

No matter how virtuous a woman might be, failing to produce an heir was the foremost charge against her. The mistress had the misfortune of running straight into that very first sin.

Zhao Shi had never thought much of Chu Linlang’s family background to begin with. But her son had been insistent, and with the Zhou household in dire straits at the time, what was done was done, and she had grudgingly accepted this daughter-in-law.

And then this daughter-in-law, capable as she was, could not conceive. In recent years, Zhao Shi had repeatedly and earnestly urged her son Zhou Sui’an to take a concubine, but Zhou Sui’an had refused every time.

For this, Chu Linlang was genuinely grateful. In private, she had sought out physicians and medicines, burned incense and prayed at temples, hoping to one day give her husband a child.

Unfortunately, whatever divine favor had guided her to Zhou Sui’an seemed to have been entirely used up at that moment of their meeting. All her efforts over the years had come to nothing.

Xia He, who always took her mistress’s side, sometimes couldn’t help but wonder whether the problem might not lie with Senior Official Zhou.

But three years before, Zhou Sui’an had come home from a trip and brought back a five-year-old girl, telling his wife with an expression of guilt that before their marriage, he had been drinking with classmates and gotten recklessly drunk, and had accidentally gotten a singing girl who entertained at banquets with child. Now that singing girl was gravely ill and could only send the child back to the Zhou household.

It had come out of nowhere — a child appearing out of thin air — and Xia He and the other maids had been completely stunned. But none more so than Chu Linlang, who had always believed her husband to be a man of pure and unblemished character.

Had it been the early days of their marriage, learning that her husband had behaved so recklessly with another woman would certainly have sent Chu Linlang into a furious confrontation with Zhou Sui’an.

But seeing the girl — her features so like her husband’s — their mistress had taken to her bed for three days without a word. When she finally spoke, it was to say to Xia He, with a self-mocking laugh: so it really was she who couldn’t conceive after all.

Her husband’s recklessness had been before their marriage — dwelling on it served no purpose.

After ten cold days toward Zhou Sui’an and many promises from him that the drunken night had been the only time and would never happen again, Chu Linlang could only take a practical view of things and raise the girl called Yuan’er under her own name.

To conceal Zhou Sui’an’s youthful indiscretion, the girl’s age had been deliberately understated by a year, making her seven by current count. With Zhou Sui’an’s many reassignments since then, the timing was conveniently obscured — no one was likely to press the matter.

No one had expected that just as things had settled down, Zhao Shi would stir up more trouble and make more waves for her daughter-in-law.

Chu Linlang finished washing her face and began cutting the fabric for the official collar. She also instructed Xia He to divide what she had bought into three portions — handkerchiefs and hairpins for her mother-in-law Zhao Shi, her young sister-in-law Zhou Lingxiu, and the guest Yin Xuefang.

As for her daughter Yuan’er, there were no such trinkets. As she always did, Chu Linlang simply bought her a small box of books, along with ink, paper, and brushes, and had Xia He take them over.

Just as the mistress had said, it was all thanks to Senior Official Zhou. Perhaps that was precisely why Chu Linlang treated her husband with a tenderness sometimes even greater than that of a parent — and even when Zhou Sui’an fell short, she bore it and made allowances for him.

In Zhou Sui’an’s mind, though, he could only assume his wife had entirely dismissed the enormous catastrophe she had caused that day and put it out of her head.

Zhou Sui’an was three years older than Chu Linlang. His features were even and proper, his figure not especially tall, but he had the refined, gentle look native to Jiangnan men — and although he was already twenty-six, he still carried a trace of youthful quality, handsome and graceful.

Even in the household’s most difficult years, Chu Linlang had never stinted on her husband’s clothing or daily needs. Zhou Gongzi going out to visit friends or colleagues was always in immaculate white, holding a folding fan, his bearing light and elegant — and wherever he went, he was praised as a handsome, refined, gem-like young gentleman.

He glared at his wife and demanded: “And you have the nerve to ask?”

“Chu Linlang, have you lost your mind? How could you do something like seize a prince by force? And to say such things in front of the Sixth Prince — do you know how close I came to being frightened to death inside that yamen today!”

Unfortunately, Chu Linlang’s maternal devotion to her husband went entirely unrequited by Zhou Sui’an, who came home fuming, kicking the door open in a fit of pent-up frustration.

Chu Linlang sucked on her fingertip and ventured carefully: “But the Sixth Prince didn’t press charges in the end, did he? Is my husband’s anger about something else then?”

She had assumed it had truly been an old acquaintance of the family paying an unexpected visit, and that the mother-in-law had happened to learn Yin Xuefang was newly widowed and let certain thoughts cross her mind.

The other maid in her room was called Dongxue. Blunt by nature and quick to speak her mind, Dongxue said directly: “My lady, don’t you know what the Old Madam has in mind? If you are this welcoming toward that Miss Yin, aren’t you practically giving your consent?”

Chu Linlang’s needle missed its mark again and pricked her fingertip. This time she said nothing, just quietly sucked on her finger and looked up at Zhou Sui’an with a meaningful, searching expression.

If not for his family’s decline, he would long since have had families of means competing to offer him daughters of proper match.

Seeing her untroubled air, Zhou Sui’an said helplessly: “All right — enough. The Sixth Prince rewarded you, which means he’s not going to hold this against you. For these next few days, don’t go out again — wait until the honored guests have all left. You said you’d kneel in the ancestral hall, didn’t you? Why are you still sitting here? Were those words in the public hall all for show?”

Zhou Sui’an, hearing this, shifted his posture slightly. His tone softened somewhat, but he did not follow Chu Linlang’s lead — instead he said magnanimously: “All right. The Sixth Prince has already rewarded you — there’s no point dwelling on it. For these few days, don’t go out, and wait for the honored guests to leave.”

Thinking about this, even after talking herself down, Chu Linlang felt a small flame beginning to flicker upward. But she kept her composure and probed on: “If guests have come, Mother would have her hands full — how would she spare thought to talk to me? By the way — when did you last see the Yin family?”

What she was worried about was that forged account sheet. If Situ — that pestilential nuisance — had truly picked it up, things would go very wrong.

The sheet was a forgery, and could never be made real. The official seal on it, examined carefully, could be told from a genuine one. If it came to that, she would simply deny it was hers — and what of it?

But seeing how Zhou Sui’an showed not the slightest surprise, just a touch of discomfort, Chu Linlang suddenly realized — perhaps the Yin family’s visit was not an impulse but something long planned.

Hearing Chu Linlang raise the matter this way, Zhou Sui’an leaned back slightly, said nothing further, cleared his throat, and replied with a trace of unease: “Oh — Father was indeed close to the Yin family. Mother, she… she hasn’t said anything to you, has she?”

Besides, that single sheet of paper, with no context before or after it, had most likely slipped out during all the getting on and off the carriage. If some passerby picked it up, it would end up as lining for an outhouse, nothing more.

Now that Chu Linlang had confirmed that Situ Sheng had said nothing about any forged account, she finally relaxed. It seemed that Situ Sheng had made conversation with her with no particular agenda — probably just the empty flirtation of a man with an eye for a pretty face.

Seeing Zhou Sui’an’s expression of confusion, Chu Linlang set down her sewing and added without hurry: “Father-in-law’s dearest friend — his family came calling. They go by the name Yin…”

When he threw open the door with a bang, Chu Linlang was embroidering the pattern on the collar, and in her startlement the needle pricked her finger. A bright red bead of blood welled up at once.

Even her husband had been informed by the mother-in-law ahead of time. She alone had been kept completely in the dark.

Dongxue rolled her eyes so hard they nearly disappeared. The Zhou household was comfortable now, but it was the mistress who had built it up single-handedly. Without her, that pair of mother and son — who couldn’t tell grain from chaff and had never done a day’s work — would be eating the wind even with official positions to their names.

Chu Linlang pressed her lips together, rose to help Zhou Sui’an change out of his official robes and into everyday clothes, then stood at the window and watched him leave the courtyard to pay his respects to his mother.

In ordinary circumstances, Zhou Sui’an would have hurried over, worried, to apologize to his wife. But today, he only wanted to release the fright he had been carrying for half the day.

Chu Linlang kept her eyes fixed on his, moved to stand before him, her gaze steady: “Truly something else? Tell me in detail, my husband…”