Jiang Heng was truly out of options. On a previous visit to the Shuguo Duke’s household, he had clearly stated that Si Si would leave from his home when the time came, and that as her father he would send her dowry along later — but now, having learned she had secured such a prestigious match, he was reversing himself, saying he wanted to bring her back. He hesitated, feeling he had no face to go and retract his words.

If Liu Shi was willing to go, it was not a bad approach. A woman, unlike a man, is not bound by every word she speaks — having another person meant more room to maneuver. The whole situation had been caused by her in the first place. If she were to make a trip, lower herself, and acknowledge her fault, Si Si would have her honor restored, and the resentment in Madam Ming’s heart might dissipate. Perhaps the matter could then be resolved.

Ah, when he thought about it now — his only legitimate daughter. If she were not carried out of the Kaiguo Marquis household in an eight-bearer palanquin, his standing among colleagues at court would be a matter of no dignity at all. There was also the Duke of Weiguo — they served in the same court, and their paths would cross constantly. When they met, would the Duke call him father-in-law? Or continue to address him as Marquis Jiang?

To resolve this dilemma, the best course was to bring her back before the wedding procession. So he immediately ordered the carriage prepared, and the following morning set out early for the capital.

Liu Shi, riding in the carriage, had her own calculations. Last time she had overreached and suffered for it, and it might jeopardize her children’s futures — making amends now was still not too late. There was another matter: next year the Emperor had changed the court schedule, and the Kaiguo Marquis household would need to acquire property in the capital before the year’s end. Once they were all living in the same city, if Yun Pan and Madam Ming were intent on making things difficult for her, she was ultimately only a concubine, and the document of her servitude was still in their hands. This bow would have to be made sooner or later — better to brace herself and go now. If she could clear the air between them, she might even gain the Duke of Weiguo as a backer, which would be good for Xue Pan and Yu Pan as well.

But the journey to the capital in such blazing heat was truly miserable. The carriage had been stocked with ice, but it had all melted by halfway, leaving no choice but to prop open the window and fan oneself. They arrived at the city gates in the early afternoon, and by the time the carriage drew up before the Shuguo Duke’s household, the sun was already leaning westward, just touching the low east wall of the residential quarter.

Jiang Heng sent a page ahead to present a calling card, saying they sought an audience with the Shuguo Duke and his wife. After a short wait, the steward came out with his hands clasped and said, “His Grace has accepted an invitation from the Chief Councilor and is not in the household today. Marquis Jiang, please come back tomorrow.”

The Shuguo Duke’s temper was as fiery as Madam Ming’s — facing both of them at once would be too much to withstand. With only Madam Ming present, perhaps it would be easier to speak.

Jiang Heng said, “If I cannot see His Grace, seeing the Madam will do.”

The steward, hearing this, could only step aside and gesture inward. “In that case, Marquis Jiang, please wait in the cool hall — I will go and announce your arrival to Madam.”

Jiang Heng expressed his thanks, and led Liu Shi inside, following a maidservant to the hall on the east side. Liu Shi sat down and seemed somewhat ill at ease. Jiang Heng noticed and felt a rush of tenderness — it took character to come here knowing she would be coldly received. As the saying goes, to advance is death, to retreat is also death. If Madam Ming was truly unreasonable, then so be it.

Inside the inner courtyard, Madam Ming had already been informed. Told that Jiang Heng had come with a woman, she knew at once it was a last resort — pushing that young woman out as a shield. She was privately amused. “Liu Shi imagines herself favored, but she amounts to no more than this. Jiang Heng is the sort of man who can only share in prosperity, not in adversity. Today he brings her along so I can vent my anger.”

Nanny Yao stood to one side and asked, “Shall I inform the young lady?”

Madam Ming said there was no need. “Those down-and-out sorts — why disturb her? Let her stay quietly in her chambers. Don’t go stirring up her peace of mind.” As she spoke she rose and smoothed her overcoat. “I’ll go deal with them myself.”

Crossing along the wooden corridor, she could see from a distance two people sitting in the cool hall — Jiang Heng, his head tilted, saying something in Liu Shi’s ear.

Madam Ming had seen Liu Shi twice at her sister’s funeral. At that time, a plain face beneath white mourning garments had struck her as nothing remarkable. Today, dressed in ordinary home clothes — a wide-sleeved robe in parrot-green, with a pale undergarment beneath — seated sideways in the round-backed chair, the woman, well past thirty, still possessed a figure of effortless allure.

Madam Ming gave a contemptuous laugh to herself. A creature that trades in looks — no matter how elevated she might become, she could never shed that air of brazen vulgarity deep in her bones.

She came along the wooden corridor, and the maidservants at the door announced loudly that Madam had arrived. The two people in the cool hall rose to their feet. Jiang Heng clasped his hands in a deep bow. “Elder Sister.”

Liu Shi also offered a curtsy, gracefully dipping in a posture full of gentle submissiveness — the kind that pleases men, but grates on women’s eyes.

Madam Ming paid them no mind, walked directly to the head seat and sat down. Smiling, she said, “Marquis Jiang has almost certainly heard that Si Si’s wedding is approaching, and has come specially to add to her dowry, I presume?” She glanced around the hall with exaggerated ceremony. “But where are the trunks? I don’t see any.”

Jiang Heng knew she was deliberately mocking him. He said with some embarrassment, “Elder Sister, I have come to bring Si Si home. I failed to think things through beforehand — I assumed her marriage would still be a year or two off. I never imagined the betrothal would be settled so quickly. These past two days I have thought it over repeatedly: since she is to be married, she ought to be at home first. If nothing else, it is a matter of good fortune.”

But Madam Ming, having heard him out, gave an unsympathetic snort of laughter. “You didn’t fail to think things through — you simply miscalculated how bright a future the child would have. You were quite certain of it: after the Dongchang Commandery Duke’s family broke the engagement, and with her reduced to relying on others, you assumed she had no prospects for the rest of her life, and let her drift outside. You never expected things to turn around so dramatically — with the Empress Dowager stepping in as matchmaker. Now you have panicked. You fear losing this excellent match, and you fear the Duke of Weiguo will make things difficult for you in the future. So you rushed here to reclaim Si Si. Am I right?”

The truth of the matter was plain to see — even a blind man could read it — yet to say it aloud had the ring of deliberate provocation.

Jiang Heng faltered. “Elder Sister has misunderstood — what father in the world could bear to abandon his own daughter…”

“There is one,” said Madam Ming, cool and sharp. “Marquis Jiang is just such a man. What did you say last time? You said to let Si Si remain in our Duke’s household, and when her marriage was settled, you would send along the dowry — that she would even leave from our household… Those words are still ringing in my ears. How is it that Marquis Jiang has forgotten them already?”

Seeing Jiang Heng left entirely without a comeback, Liu Shi had no choice but to intervene. “Madam…”

“Shut your mouth!”

The sharp command cut off Liu Shi’s words. Madam Ming raised her hand and pointed directly at Liu Shi’s face. “What manner of creature are you, to dare open your mouth in my presence? When your Lady was alive, did she not teach you propriety? Now that the Lady is gone, you come to my household to play at being a person, thinking I am good-natured enough to listen to your prattle — you had better not have miscalculated!”

Liu Shi’s face went pale. Though her station was not high, these years in the Marquis household she had enjoyed some standing thanks to Jiang Heng’s favor. To be pointed at and berated like this was truly humiliating. But having come here today with the sole purpose of bringing Yun Pan back, enduring a little indignity was unavoidable. She had prepared herself beforehand: she was just a woman — face was not so important. If it achieved the goal, what did a few sharp words matter?

So she lowered herself and said plaintively, “Madam, please do not take offense. I know my station is lowly. I have been bold enough to come today because I truly wish to apologize to the young lady. It was my foolishness — I trusted the wrong maidservant’s words…”

Madam Ming spat in contempt. “You were born with a pair of eyes — were they there just for decoration? If you had truly cared for the young lady, how could you fail to recognize her own figure? You sent away all the people from her courtyard, conspired with traitors inside the household, and wrote the whole thing off — only your Marquis believes you. Coming here to spin tales for me — you are far too green for that. A shameless creature like you who cannot be presented in decent company: the mud on the bottom of my foot is worth more than you. You managed the Kaiguo Marquis household for a few days and forgot even your own name — truly imagining yourself the mistress of the house, daring to stand straight and talk back to me! All right — I have no time to squabble with you. While I have not yet ordered anyone to drive you out, take yourself out of this household at once. Otherwise, when it turns into a scene, none of us will look good.”

Before she finished speaking, Liu Shi fell to her knees with a thud, sobbing. “Madam, I truly know I was wrong. Through my negligence, I caused our Master to be parted from his own flesh and blood — I am ten thousand times guilty. Madam, our Lady is gone. The Marquis misses her dearly, and only the young lady can ease the Marquis’s heart. Madam is a great and compassionate person — please show mercy and let our young lady go home with her father.”

Making herself small, submitting with pliant softness — this was Liu Shi’s habitual trick. Kneeling, slapping herself, summoning tears — all of it managed with just the right pitch of pathos, and just the right quality of delicate helplessness to stir a man’s pity.

But this approach worked on Jiang Heng. Madam Ming watched as if at a performance, and said with cool mockery, “Don’t flatter me. I am by no means compassionate — I am, in fact, quite merciless.” She walked a circle around her, clicking her tongue. “What a pitifully appealing little creature — too bad I am not a man and feel no urge to spare beauty. Don’t bother laying a trap for me, either. I am not the one detaining your young lady — your own Marquis was the one who relinquished his legitimate daughter with his own mouth, and now he comes back asking for her. What do you take our Duke’s household for?”

Seeing that Madam Ming was unyielding, Liu Shi resorted to sheer persistence, knocking her head to the floor again and again. “I beg you, Madam — please let our young lady come home. In my next life I will become an ox, become a horse, to repay Madam’s great kindness…”

This groveling display of shamelessness, smearing herself as she went, was truly insufferable. Madam Ming’s temper flared. She turned to Jiang Heng and said, “Marquis Jiang, control your concubine — do not let her come to my door to make a spectacle.”

Jiang Heng found himself caught between two impossible positions. He knew this approach had no effect on Madam Ming, and reached down to help Liu Shi to her feet.

Liu Shi was still in the midst of her performance and threw off his hand, continuing to knock her head against the floor, sobbing as she did. “Madam — please have mercy. You also have children of your own.”

She refused to be dissuaded, so there was no one to blame but herself. Madam Ming actually grew calm, turned, and sat back down in the round-backed chair. With an icy voice she said, “Knock. Keep knocking for me. Until I say stop, you knock yourself to death right here. When you schemed your way into the Lady’s household back then, I imagine this was the very trick you used. Coming through my door today, you had it all figured out — I am a Duchess with an imperial title, surely too dignified to do anything rough to you, and so you pull this kind of shameless act in my household, thinking to coerce me. A pity you’ve picked the wrong tactic. I am notorious throughout the capital for my fierceness — if you dare be shameless before me, I will beat you until your flesh flies off in pieces, so you understand what you are dealing with.” She raised her voice: “Someone come!”

The several maidservants and matrons on hand all snapped to attention and stepped half a pace forward.

Madam Ming fixed her gaze on Liu Shi and said through gritted teeth, “Bind this incorrigible wretch and throw her outside. If she dares struggle, haul her to the magistrate’s office. Marquis Jiang may not see fit to discipline her, but someone will. Don’t think that bearing three children gives you license to act as you please, and that the document of servitude has no power over you. A lowly concubine making a scene in a Duke’s household is a crime — she can still be sentenced and banished!”

The matrons and maidservants, having received their orders, truly rolled up their sleeves to take hold of Liu Shi. All of them were experienced hands in the inner household — one grabbed Liu Shi by the hair, ready to act, and was barely blocked by Jiang Heng, who rushed forward in a panic.

With one hand shielding Liu Shi’s disheveled hair, he turned to Madam Ming. “Elder Sister, why must you press so hard?”

Madam Ming gave a cold laugh. “Press hard? If not for the fact that you are Si Si’s birth father, and that the title on your back was given by my Ming family, I would have had this muddle-headed fool of yours beaten long ago. I am telling you plainly — abandon the idea of taking Si Si back. The flesh and blood that my sister brought into the world through so much suffering will never be sent to the Jiang family’s door to be ill-treated!”

There was clearly no room for any further negotiation. Jiang Heng helped Liu Shi to her feet, declared harshly, “We are leaving,” and turned to go.

A Kaiguo Marquis, reduced to such a wretched state by his own concubine — it was truly pitiable.

Madam Ming watched the two of them walk step by step out the main gate, then called after them in a clear voice, “If you are displeased, you are welcome to bring a court complaint. Jiang Heng — how you climbed to where you are today, I think you have quite forgotten. Keep consorting with that treacherous woman, and the day will come when your dignity is in tatters and you will weep for it!”

At last the two of them crossed the threshold and boarded the carriage, and were gone. Madam Ming turned to Nanny Yao and said with a huff, “I thought Liu Shi had some particular trick up her sleeve. It turns out it is nothing but soft acting, relentless pestering. Her man is only the more tender toward her for it now — even without having brought Si Si back, she has not come away empty-handed.”

Nanny Yao folded her hands and smiled slightly. “A woman who came up from the marketplace — she latched onto a man of power and used every method she had. What else has she got? And that Marquis Jiang, doing everything she says — that young woman calculated that if she brought the young lady back, she could use her to benefit those three children she bore.”

Madam Ming sniffed. “What a joke. She dreams of becoming the official wife, thinking her children would benefit — but she does not see that her station is fixed and immovable. Even if Jiang Heng were to elevate her, the noble ladies of Youzhou would still not regard her. If she were clever, she ought to have served the Lady devotedly, and in pleasing the Lady, had those three children recorded under the first wife’s name. Then when it came time to arrange their marriages, the Lady would have stepped in on their behalf, and they might have found decent matches.”

What a pity that a woman of market origins could not understand such things. She only knew that whatever was hers — whether person or object — must be held tight in her own hands for it to truly belong to her. Today Jiang Heng had come to reclaim the girl, and it was surely Liu Shi’s idea. Had Madam Ming not been mindful of her own dignity, she truly would have given Liu Shi a thorough beating to avenge her sister. She had always had the greatest contempt for this manner of affected, overwrought performance. If her own household had produced such a meddlesome concubine, would she have tolerated her to this day? She would have found a pretext to have her beaten to death eight hundred years ago!

While they were still speaking, they passed through the inner courtyard gate, and raising her eyes, Madam Ming saw Yun Pan standing in the middle of the path. Yun Pan called out, “Aunt,” and asked, “Did my father come?”

Madam Ming reached out her hand and took hers. As they walked, she said, “He came with that young woman. That young woman put on quite a performance before me — weeping, laughing, knocking her head on the floor — all in hopes of taking you back. I sent them packing.” She paused, then asked, “Si Si, do you resent your Aunt for acting without consulting you and sending them away?”

Yun Pan shook her head. “I should thank Aunt for protecting me and not letting me return to that household. Were it not for this marriage, they would never have thought to fetch me. If I went back, Liu Shi and the two younger sisters would make repeated visits and, given their conduct, would only bring ruin to my name.”

Madam Ming smiled. “Good girl — you understand it yourself, and so your Aunt’s mind is at ease. The greatest danger in life is an unsteady footing. Even with iron hands, one cannot prop up someone who sways from side to side. After this, they will not come after you again — just busy yourself preparing for the wedding.” Then she gave a sound of recollection. “Oh — I nearly forgot. Tomorrow is the Chief Councilor’s wife’s birthday. She is holding a banquet for guests. You will come with me. Everyone attending is a lady of name and standing in the capital. It is your first time showing your face in society — aim not to dazzle, only to be steady. Word will reach the ears of the Duke of Weiguo’s Grand Lady and Princess Liang’s wife, and how they see you will determine their impression of you going forward. You must be most careful.”

Yun Pan said yes. To be honest, whether in Youzhou or the capital, life in this circle was the same — one had to learn to be tactful. Fortunately she had no bad habits to speak of. She would simply move through the world in her plain and measured way: no one would take a particular shine to her, but no one would particularly dislike her either. That was quite enough.

Madam Ming, however, was delighted. She let out a sigh of “oh my” and exclaimed, “I have never once brought my own child to a banquet before! Those people always ask after Mei Fen, and I never know what to say to them.”

Now things were different. She had someone she could bring out — and Madam Ming’s long-cherished wish to show off her own child to the world was at last fulfilled. The earlier fury that Jiang Heng and that woman had stirred in her had quite dissipated, and with the thought of tomorrow’s banquet in mind, the petty and laughable antics of those insignificant people felt entirely beneath her notice.