Liu Yinniang burst out cursing. “Has everyone dropped dead that she has to call me by name? I am not her Jin family’s foot-washing slave!”

But there was nothing to be done. Once the mistress had given an order, whether it was washing feet or handling chamber pots, she had to do it if told.

Her resentment practically billowed like smoke. If there had been an invisible bell jar over the Hou residence, she could have punched holes straight through it. She heard Nanny Kong answering on her behalf from outside, and, grinding her teeth, pulled the binding straps from the cabinet, wrapping them around herself as she spat under her breath: “Trollop — I’ll see how long she keeps this up. Sitting on the nest without laying any eggs. Sooner or later she’ll fall right into my Jue’er’s hands. Wait and see — a gentleman takes his revenge over ten years. Another ten years, until Jue’er is grown, and then we’ll deal with this worthless hag properly!”

Her mouth ran on, but practically speaking, nothing could be done. She gave instructions to Xue Pan to finish the incense pattern before going out, then made her way to Jin Shengyu’s courtyard herself.

By now the sky had grown dark. Lamps had been lit indoors and out. As she passed through the gate, snowflakes began drifting down overhead — fine and scattered, like flung salt.

Her footsteps slowed almost imperceptibly. In the warm amber glow of the lanterns lining the path, she watched the snow travel through the air between heaven and earth. As she watched, she was reminded of the days long ago when she had kept a wine stall. That same bitter cold, that same snow falling — Jiang Heng had ridden past the market on horseback, and the mud splashed by his horse’s hooves had ruined her wine cups. He had dismounted and come to apologize. The young man he had been then, full of vigor and earnestness, his whole face sincere — she had been certain she could make him lose himself in her, and never change.

A decade and more had passed in the blink of an eye. Those years had indeed brought her all the love and favor she had longed for. After the County Princess died, her own standing in the household had briefly reached its peak… But then Jin Shengyu came through the door, and everything reversed. Jiang Heng drifted elsewhere, and she was reduced to answering Jin Shengyu’s beck and call like a lowly servant. Sometimes it was almost more than she could bear. She had been in this household for over a decade, attending on the master all that time — and now she was being slighted by this newcomer. Even if she poured out this grievance to Jiang Heng, he would not care anymore…

“Why isn’t Yinniang here yet?” A maidservant called out from the covered walkway: “The Lady is waiting.”

Liu Yinniang came back to herself and quickly replied. She entered the main hall, rolled up her sleeves, and arranged her expression into something approximating a smile before stepping into the inner chamber.

“I was late — I lingered in the courtyard watching the snow for a moment. Please forgive me, Lady of the House.” As she spoke, Liu Yinniang knelt and removed Jin Shengyu’s foot coverings, lifting both feet into the basin of hot water.

Jin Shengyu cast her a cool glance. “Quite the mood you were in — stopping to admire the snow, no less.”

The jab left Liu Yinniang with nothing to say. Naturally she felt it keenly, but she could not let it show on her face. After all, the humiliations she had endured these past months were nothing new — she was reprimanded as routinely as meals were served. She had grown used to being scolded, and could still keep a smile in place and ask whether the pressure of her hands was to the Lady’s liking.

Jin Shengyu continued with her barbed words: “In the end, you have really studied the art of waiting on people. None of the household maids can compare to you. With such accomplished skills, did you ever attend on the County Princess in her time?”

The mention of this pricked at Liu Yinniang’s heart. In the early years, the County Princess had truly never made things difficult for her in this regard — she had been a proper Lady of the House, a hundred times better than this second wife. Placing people side by side only made the County Princess’s virtues stand out all the more by comparison.

But this was something she could not say aloud. Liu Yinniang replied: “The County Princess had her own longtime maids — she preferred not to have unfamiliar hands attending to her.”

“Well, if the service is good, wouldn’t one grow familiar soon enough?” Jin Shengyu smiled slightly. “The truth is, the first Lady of the House was simply too gentle in her nature — unlike me, with my sharp tongue and difficult ways, harshly treating the concubines in my household. But you must try to understand my situation. The new Yinniang Wei and Yinniang Zhou are both occupied attending to the Master, which leaves only you free. If not you, then who would I send for?”

Liu Yinniang’s face burned bright red. She was inwardly trembling, barely managing to hold her hands steady. Jin Shengyu had such a talent for piercing remarks. If she had any spirit left at all, she would have walked out long ago rather than sit here with open eyes and still-breathing lungs, enduring this mockery. But then she reminded herself — the futures of her three children were entirely in this woman’s hands. Short of flattering her and making herself agreeable, she had no other recourse for now. The most pressing matter was to first coax her into arranging Xue Pan’s marriage. As long as Xue Pan was settled in a good family, she would have something to lean on in her old age, and one day she would find a way to rise from this.

With that thought, all her anger dissolved into endurance. She put her smile back on and said: “What the Lady says is quite right. I am only sitting idle in my courtyard as it is — being given the chance to serve the Lady is my good fortune. Between you and me, Lady, I have been sitting quietly reflecting on my past behavior, and when I think back on what I used to do, I am so ashamed I can barely hold my head up. The Lady is generous to still give me a place in this household, and to have gone to the trouble of engaging those etiquette instructors to teach the young ladies the proper conduct of a great capital family. I have nothing but the deepest respect for the Lady, and if the Lady gives me one word of command, I would walk into fire for her.”

Jin Shengyu let her talk herself breathless, and gave no more than a thin smile. Only a fool would take her at her word.

But sometimes playing the fool was not such a bad idea. She could put on a show of compliance while Jin Shengyu played her own game in return. She said only: “The young ladies will one day go to other families as daughters-in-law. If they are without propriety, the one who gets blamed will not be you, but me, their stepmother.”

Liu Yinniang said yes: “I also understand the Lady’s difficulties. Such a large household for the Lady to manage alone — and the capital is nothing like Youzhou. All the social obligations among the great families, the comings and goings, everything falls to the Lady to oversee. But at least our Yun Pan will always be here to help the Lady, since we are family after all.”

At that moment, a maidservant brought a bucket of warm water. Liu Yinniang took it and carefully topped up the foot basin, easing Jin Shengyu’s feet back in — and just then, Nanny Cen came in from outside to report.

Nanny Cen bowed to Jin Shengyu. “My Lady asked earlier about the matter of granting Yinniang Zhou her freedom — I have looked into it. As long as one presents the relevant documents and the Master’s personal seal at the county office and files for a change of household registration, it is done.”

Liu Yinniang, hearing this out of the blue, gave an involuntary start. Yinniang Zhou had originally been a maidservant from the General’s residence, deliberately arranged to be brought into this household to fascinate the Master — why would her status as a free person be settled so quickly? A free concubine and a bond-servant concubine were entirely different things. Previously both of the new women had been of the same bondservant status, and they had at least stood on equal footing. But now that Zhou was to be given her freedom, would she not immediately be ranked a full step above herself?

Her thoughts swirled in confusion, and without meaning to she applied a little more pressure to the foot she was massaging.

Jin Shengyu’s brow creased. She let out a sharp “ouch,” and abruptly pulled her foot from the water, splashing Liu Yinniang from head to waist. “And what have I done to offend Yinniang now, that she is kneading my foot like it is dough?”

Liu Yinniang was startled, and hastily took the towel from the maidservant without even sparing a thought for her wet clothing, wrapping it around Jin Shengyu’s foot. She laughed somewhat sheepishly: “There are two pressure points that are especially good for relieving fatigue — I was hoping to let the Lady try them…”

Relieve fatigue? More likely release pent-up anger.

Jin Shengyu swallowed her irritation and dismissed it with a cold smile. She turned to the maidservant at her side: “Go and fetch Yinniang Zhou’s bond papers.” Then she turned to Nanny Cen: “Go to the county office first thing tomorrow morning — better to have it done promptly than to let things drag on. With all the upheaval in the capital this year, who knows whether the household registration rules will be rewritten next year. Better to settle everything while we can. And once the child arrives, it will sound better all around.”

Liu Yinniang’s mind was still on the matter of Zhou’s change in status. Her eyes followed the maidservant who went to fetch the documents — but then she heard the second part of Jin Shengyu’s remark, and went completely still. She asked in astonishment: “Did the Lady just say… Yinniang Zhou is with child?”

Jin Shengyu said yes: “She has not had her monthly flow in two months, and felt suddenly dizzy earlier this afternoon. The physician was called to take her pulse and confirmed she is already pregnant.”

Liu Yinniang’s heart lurched. She could not bring herself to believe it and said, forcing a smile: “But Yinniang Wei and Yinniang Zhou only recently became proper Yinniangs last month…”

Jin Shengyu gave her a peculiar look. “They may have been attending to me in the main rooms, but that does not mean the Marquis only looked and did not touch.” She sighed lightly. “Men — you can never trust them. I tried to keep things proper, but there is no way to watch over this kind of thing at every moment. The Marquis seemed quite well-behaved outwardly, but underneath he has more than enough scheming of his own — and you are a woman who has been through it all yourself. Surely you know what I mean.”

Every word was aimed straight at her. Liu Yinniang was hit from two sides at once, and her head was beginning to swim.

Of course — what man could look at a young and lovely woman and resist, with his heart being gnawed away day after day? Sooner or later he would find a way to reach her. Jin Shengyu had gotten what she wanted — whatever she wished for came to pass. Liu Yinniang had no choice but to sit and listen to them discuss it all, until Jin Shengyu dismissed her, and she made her way back to her own courtyard in a daze.

The moment she was inside, she sat down on the bed and began to cry. She felt her entire life had been without value. First she had scraped by in the cracks left by the County Princess. Then she had barely managed to outlast her — and then Jin Shengyu arrived, bringing two more women with her, squeezing at her from every side day after day, with no end in sight.

Xue Pan had not yet returned to her own room, and hearing her mother’s sobs, came out from the inner chamber.

By now Liu Yinniang’s weeping had become a fixture of daily life — Xue Pan wrinkled her brow and said: “A’Niang, try to take a broader view. This is hardly the first time you have been humiliated by her. All this weeping, all this weeping — don’t ruin your eyes over it. That is just what they want.”

Liu Yinniang raised her head from her handkerchief, her eyes raw and red. She spat: “What do you know! I’ve suffered every indignity there is — a foot-washing would never make me cry. I’m crying because of what your father has done. Turns out while Yinniang Wei and Yinniang Zhou were attending to him in the main rooms, he had already gotten himself entangled with them. Now Yinniang Zhou is with child, and Jin Shengyu is seeing to having her officially freed.”

This unexpected news rocked Xue Pan as well. She was considerably startled. “Father is that old and can still produce a child?”

Liu Yinniang gave her a withering look. “Men can still father children at sixty. Your father is only forty.”

The age was not really the point — what was unsettling was everything else. Xue Pan said: “Yinniang Zhou was also of bondservant status, and now she is to be freed — that puts her above A’Niang immediately, doesn’t it? And right now Jue’er is the only boy in the family. What if Yinniang Zhou gives birth to a son, and Jin Shengyu takes the baby and raises it as her own legitimate son? Then what becomes of our Jue’er’s future?”

That was exactly it — the situation was fraught with danger on every side. It felt hopeless.

From where Liu Yinniang and her daughter stood, this was the most serious crisis the household had faced since Jin Shengyu arrived. The crisis could not simply be left unaddressed — though neither of them stopped to consider that with Jiang Heng now surrounded by concubines on all sides, solving one problem would only leave the next one to follow.

Xue Pan had been spoiled to the point of extremity in her thinking. She said through clenched teeth: “With this new child to count on, Jin Shengyu will care even less about us. She has been putting off any discussion of my marriage at every turn. If the baby comes and she takes it to raise in her own courtyard, she’ll have eyes only for that child — and we will all be done for.”

The best outcome, then, was to maintain the status quo — all the Hou household’s children remaining those of Liu Yinniang, so that even if Jin Shengyu had her moment of triumph, the outcome would still fall to them in the end. Xue Pan did not mince words before her mother, and even said with a certain viciousness: “It would be best if Jin Shengyu simply died, and all at once. Those two new women are only bold because they have her backing — if she falls, they will amount to nothing. A’Niang has been in the Hou household for more than ten years; her roots run deeper than theirs. If that time came, A’Niang could take back authority over the Hou household, and we could live again as we used to.”

Liu Yinniang looked at her daughter, slightly taken aback. “Jin Shengyu — perfectly healthy, not yet thirty — just like that she dies?”

Xue Pan sneered. “What if Father turns out to have a tendency to outlive his wives? If that reputation gets out, no matter what clever scheme Yun Pan comes up with, no one will dare step through the Hou household’s gate again.”

But that was, after all, a human life — and Jin Shengyu’s birth parents were both still living. If anything were to happen, they would never let it rest.

Liu Yinniang, though she too wanted to reclaim power, could not bring herself to take something so extreme. She thought it over, and settled for a lesser alternative: “Let’s think of a way to get rid of the child in Yinniang Zhou’s belly first.”

Xue Pan gave her mother a helpless look. She felt that all the troubles Liu Yinniang found herself in today were precisely because she was too irresolute. Nothing she ever did went far enough.

Even in dealing with Yun Pan back then — not daring to actually kill anyone, and staging the fake death of a maidservant instead — only to let Yun Pan run to the capital and stumble into such an excellent marriage. And now, the same again with Jin Shengyu: hesitating, shrinking back, not daring to do anything decisive, settling for small jabs, treating each problem only as it came.

Well — that was simply the size of her nerve, and there was no point expecting great things of her. Xue Pan had no interest in getting involved in these sordid affairs. She said her farewell and went back to her own courtyard.

That night Liu Yinniang could not rest well. She tossed and turned on the bed like a fish in a pan, not managing to close her eyes until the fourth watch of the night.

What weighed on her more even than Yinniang Zhou’s pregnancy was the matter of Zhou being freed. She herself had been grinding away in this household for more than ten years, and to this day was still of bondservant status. Yet Yinniang Zhou had been freed the moment she conceived her first child. Yinniang Wei would probably not be far behind. Only she herself — pressed down under Jin Shengyu’s hand — would likely never escape her bondservant status until the day she died.

Men — truly the most unreliable creatures in the world. Sleep beside you, and everything is wonderful, everything is perfect. The moment they roll over to someone else’s bed, you are forgotten without a trace, as though you had never existed.

Liu Yinniang wept a whole vat of tears. When she woke and saw the large wet patch on her pillow, she stared at it for a long while — and finally, in a moment of grim resolution, she called Nanny Kong in, motioned for her to close the door, and then laid out all the plans she had been turning over in her mind.

Nanny Kong listened, and her face took on an expression of difficulty. She hesitated: “Yinniang, would it not be better to think this over — this is not a small matter. If even the slightest thing goes wrong…”

“Then make sure nothing goes wrong,” said Liu Yinniang. “I thought about this all night. While the second young lady’s marriage is still not settled, we cannot let another child arrive in this household. Otherwise Jin Shengyu will use it as an excuse to say she is too occupied to arrange Xue Pan’s match — and the delay would be entirely justified. I want nothing else right now. Only for Xue Pan to be matched with a good family. Once she is there to help her younger sister and brother, I will not need to beg Jin Shengyu for every little thing anymore. Nanny, Xue Pan’s whole future is on this — if my good daughter truly wastes her youth here, that would be exactly what they want. Yun Pan would laugh her head off.” She reached out and gripped Nanny Kong’s hands, pleading: “All the kindness you have shown me, Nanny, I keep it in my heart. One day, when these children all have their own standing in the world, I will not forget you — I will do everything I can to see your children and grandchildren advance as well.”

Nanny Kong was caught between two loyalties. She had followed Liu Yinniang for more than a decade, and over the years her son had run the household procurement business and made a good deal of money. Now that the Master had brought in a new wife, the old order was likely to change — and with it, her son’s livelihood. For the sake of having something to fall back on one day, she had no choice but to help, even if she would rather not.

Nanny Kong sighed, and guided Liu Yinniang into the armchair to sit. “Yinniang need not worry — this will need to be thought through carefully. There is a medicinal herb I know called shattered bone, the root of slim bamboo leaf. It is exceptionally effective for inducing miscarriage. Yinniang Zhou originally came from Jin Shengyu’s family household. Ever since she entered this family with Jin Shengyu, Jin Shengyu has looked after her — including those winter tonics, which she often sends a portion of over as a gift for her…” She narrowed her eyes meaningfully and waited for Liu Yinniang’s response.

Liu Yinniang immediately grasped her meaning: “As long as we add the shattered bone to the tonic and get Yinniang Zhou to drink it, not only will Yinniang Zhou’s child be lost — Jin Shengyu will be implicated as well…” She pictured it, and broke into a delighted smile, clapping her hands: “That is a scheme that kills two birds with one stone. Nanny handles things so reliably! Then let’s not delay — go and see to it quickly. Take whatever money you need — as long as it’s done.”

Nanny Kong said: “Yinniang, take your time. The medicine won’t cost much — the difficulty is that the kitchen is no longer under the management of Granny Qin and Granny Shen. To make our move, we would need to go through several extra steps, and that means some palms would need to be greased.”

Liu Yinniang could not sit still in her chair. She got up and began to pace, tracing a path from the fire-tending girls to the maidservants who delivered the tonics. She grabbed Nanny Kong’s arm: “Don’t overthink it — focus on the lower-level maids who tend the stoves in the kitchen. The first-rank maids in each courtyard would never stand watch over the stove at every moment. Slip something in while they’re away — it wouldn’t be hard at all.”

Nanny Kong thought it over: “I recall that one of the rough-work maids brought along by Granny Shen is still working in the kitchen. I can find her and have a word — see if she can find a way to slip the medicine in.”

Liu Yinniang said good, and urged her to go quickly — adding a warning: “This is not a small matter. Be especially careful.”

Nanny Kong agreed, and after leaving the courtyard, went herself to a medicine shop and bought a packet of shattered bone root. The small paper packet hidden inside her garment felt like a live coal she was carrying in her chest.

But it was a coal she could not simply throw away — it had to be placed with care. She tracked down the rough-work maid named Qi Zi. First invoking Granny Shen’s name to warm her up, then offering twenty taels of silver, she finally managed to press the paper packet into her hands.

Qi Zi hesitated. “Nanny, what kind of medicine is this?”

Nanny Kong lowered her voice and lied smoothly: “It causes a rash when taken — once that household is busy sending for a physician, they’ll stop clinging to the Master so much.”

The goings-on in the courtyard up front were not something a lower-ranked kitchen maid would be privy to. Qi Zi half-understood and half-guessed — she assumed it was the usual sort of back-courtyard scheming among women, nothing that would cause any real harm, and she accepted the task without further worry.

Nanny Kong also drew out a ten-tael silver note and placed it in her hand, and with thoughtful generosity mapped out her future for her: “This money is enough for your brother’s wedding. Once the matter is done, I will give you the other ten taels. Think about your own prospects too — you can’t go on tending fires your whole life.”

Qi Zi looked down at the silver note in her hand, her fingers trembling slightly.

She had never seen this much money in her life. For someone of her station — coarse-labor, at that — the monthly allowance was barely seven or eight coppers, just enough to keep herself fed. Having anything beyond that was unthinkable. Now that this windfall had fallen from the sky, she stopped weighing anything else. She tucked it carefully into her clothing and said with solemn conviction: “Nanny, don’t worry. Leave it to me. I will handle it well.”