After the fruitless confrontation at Jin Shengyu’s household that day — the one in which Liu Shi had gone and returned with nothing to show for it — she went home and took to her bed for several days in a fury. When she subsequently heard that Jiang Heng had gone behind her back and exchanged betrothal gifts with the Jin family, she immediately burst into tears of rage, throwing chairs and pounding tables, nearly smashing everything in her room to pieces.

With a crash, a vase shattered at her feet. Xue Pan furrowed her brow. “A’Niang, if you must rage, go ahead — but why smash things in your own room? Once they are destroyed, do you not have to replace them? And does replacing them not cost money?”

“Money, money, money!” Liu Shi spat at her furiously, her eyes red. “Is it money that matters, or your own mother’s life! Did you not see — that day at the Jin family, how badly I was humiliated? And that heartless father of yours — rather than standing up for me, the moment they said one word, he was wagging his tail and rushing to complete the betrothal. Truly infuriating enough to kill me!”

She wept and heaved great ragged sighs, slumped in the round-back chair. Xue Pan felt she had grown more short-tempered with age — she simply could not keep a steady head anymore.

“If you ask me, A’Niang should never have gone to the Jin household at all that day. Those complaints about hardship, relayed through others into Jin Shi’s ears, would have been a hundred times more effective than going in person to weep. After all, she is nothing but a woman who was thrown out by her husband — she has every reason to be eager for a man to take her in. Why would she pass up a household like the Kaiguo Marquis’s without good reason? A’Niang should instead have been even more attentive and considerate toward Father — and at the critical moment, brought Jue’er forward. Perhaps Father, seeing Jue’er’s face, might have thought better of it and changed his mind. Now that you have made such a scene, Father is backed into a corner — if he doesn’t go ahead and bring the woman in as his second wife, how will this be settled? A’Niang spent over a decade making herself small before the Countess — how have you managed to forget all your skills at exactly the wrong moment? Jin Shi hasn’t even come through the door yet, and already you have made an enemy of her. When she does take charge of the household, A’Niang, what do you plan to do?”

Liu Shi stared at her blankly, then after a long while said, “What do you know — the Countess was easy to manage, and she wasn’t a woman of ruthless means. As long as I kept my manner humble, she would not trouble me. But this one is different — she is a formidable figure, and a fearsome one. If I give an inch, she will take a mile. If I were any more submissive, she might just sit on my head. The only reason I deal with her at all is for the sake of you children — and here you are, no sense of gratitude, not a word of sympathy for how hard my life is, just pointing out everything I have done wrong.”

Xue Pan looked away. “I wouldn’t dare point out A’Niang’s faults. I just feel there was no need for A’Niang to go head-to-head with her.”

“Hindsight is easy!” Liu Shi retorted. “If I had managed to ruin this match, would you still be saying that?”

Xue Pan fell silent, lowering her head and twisting her handkerchief. She murmured, “You have been making scenes all this time and still couldn’t get Father to make you the official wife — I suppose that is simply your lot in life. Now that Father is taking a proper first wife, I don’t see it as an entirely bad thing. At least when the three of us — my brother and sisters — make our own matches someday, having a proper first-wife mother to step forward on our behalf makes it easier for everyone.”

Liu Shi rounded on her furiously. “You are a thankless ingrate — I scheme for your benefit in everything, and in the end you are all going to go pay your respects to a stepmother? Do you think that woman is actually going to regard you as human beings, or pull together a decent match for you?”

“She’s already thirty — do you really think she can still bear children?” Xue Pan shouted back defiantly. “She has no legitimate son. In the future, Jue’er naturally falls under her name. How could she not count on Jue’er to see her through old age?”

Having said her piece, Xue Pan stormed back to her own courtyard in a huff. Liu Shi burst into even louder weeping. “Such a fine daughter I have raised — before the situation has even taken shape, she is already going over to Jin Shi’s side.”

Kong Nanny had no choice but to remain by her side offering comfort, saying that the Yiniang should stop crying. “Er Niang has a blunt temperament — you gave birth to her, don’t you know her? Why make yourself upset over a child’s words? Right now what matters most is thinking about how to make things right with the Master. No matter what outsiders do, as long as the two of you are in accord, Jin Shi can only look on helplessly. In the end, she is the one coming into your household — unlike last time, when she had all that swagger on her own turf at the Jin residence. In terms of people on our side, surely we are not afraid of her?”

Liu Shi thought it over, and at last calmed down. “Go later and invite Qin Granny and Shen Granny and a few of the others over for some wine. Tell them that from here on I will add a string of cash per person per month — in exchange for keeping a close watch on every move everyone makes in this household. As long as they remain loyal to me, I will never shortchange them.”

Kong Nanny acknowledged this, and was just about to say something more when a young manservant from outside came in to report that the Master had returned.

Liu Shi was taken aback — she had not expected Jiang Heng to come back at all. During his last five-day rest period, he had been busy with the betrothal visit to the Jin family and had not even sent someone back to Youzhou with a word — she grumbled under her breath: “A new love still remembers the old one — the Marquis is truly constant of heart.”

Kong Nanny naturally urged her to rein in her mood — welcoming the Master was the first priority.

Liu Shi grumbled with her mouth but still felt a small gladness in her heart — he had at least remembered to come back. So she smoothed the worry from her face, applied a fresh layer of powder, and went to the front courtyard to receive him.

Jiang Heng had always had a kind of broad ease about him, as though nothing were amiss. He came through the door and, as was his habit, asked whether everything was well at home, giving no sign of any intention to explain what had been happening outside.

Liu Shi attended to him while he wiped his face and changed his clothes, then saw him settled in the round-back chair with his tea, before at last picking up the thread with a pointed air. “I hear the Master has already exchanged betrothal gifts with the Jin family?”

Jiang Heng gave an unhurried sound of acknowledgment. “I forgot to let you know — it is settled. The twelfth of the ninth month is the wedding day.”

Liu Shi wrung her handkerchief and said nothing. She had been waiting for him to notice, to come and say a few words of comfort. Instead, after a long wait, he showed no sign of paying attention, and she felt more aggrieved than ever. She quietly dabbed at her tears. “The Master now no longer cares in the least what becomes of me.”

Jiang Heng heard this and turned to look at her. “There is no point bringing this up anymore. It was your own fault to begin with — going to their residence to provoke them. Who is there to blame?”

“I didn’t even say anything, and she was already busy establishing her authority over me. She isn’t even through the door yet and she is treating me this way — once she becomes the mistress of this household, will there be any place left for me at all?”

Jiang Heng had no patience for this kind of talk. He frowned. “Enough. It is settled now — what can be done? You ought to curb that temperament of yours. You cannot rely on my favor to excuse yourself from all propriety and decorum.”

Liu Shi was stunned. “I have no propriety and decorum… You never used to say that about me, Master. Now that there is a new person…”

“Everyone was new once. You were new once too. If I had not elevated your position, would you have three children? Would you be where you are today?”

That truly struck her speechless. This man, who had always seemed so soft and manageable, had unexpectedly said something so cutting when he finally chose to be cold. Liu Shi could not stop her tears. “In those days you and I were drawn to each other, Master — you were good to me because you cared for me.”

Jiang Heng’s vacant gaze drifted up toward the ceiling beams, and he murmured, “In those early days with the Countess — was it not the same? Ardor on both sides, neither one able to bear parting from the other. Then I met you in the market district, and the whole marriage fell apart — and still I never neglected you for a moment. These past dozen or more years, you know very well how I have treated you. Now I am asking you to think of the bigger picture — think more of the children. The Marquis household cannot go on in this state; it will collapse sooner or later. Do not go on putting the children’s futures at risk for your own desires.”

Liu Shi was left with nothing to say, thinking — was this retribution? Those who ruin another person’s marriage will in time find their own ruined in return? She had only ever understood the joy of being the one who came after — never imagining there would come a day when she herself became the cautionary example. And truly, the taste of it was not easy to bear.

“Obstructing the Master’s remarriage is not thinking of the children…” She gave a bitter smile. “I am simply reluctant to let go of all these years of feeling between us. I did not want some fierce woman to take you from me.”

Jiang Heng’s expression suddenly changed. His voice went cold. “She will be the mistress of this Marquis household before long. If you keep calling her a ‘fierce woman’ with that mouth of yours, however she chooses to deal with you later, you will have brought it entirely upon yourself.” He cast a look of utter weariness at her and pressed several words through his teeth. “In all the time before now, you knew when to advance and when to hold back — how have you become this way?”

How had she become this way? Did he truly not know? If a woman could live each day in peace and ease — painting, arranging flowers — who would ever be so full as to stand toe-to-toe fighting another woman over a man?

Liu Shi tried once more to rekindle some trace of his old feeling for her, looking at him with bleak, desolate eyes. “Master — I have no one in this world but you.”

Jiang Heng said that was not right. “You still have three children. They will always be your flesh and blood — so you ought to think more for their sake. Once the Lady of the household comes through the door, if you cannot get on with her, simply stay in your own courtyard. As long as you do not hover in front of her face, she will likely not bother to make trouble for you.”

Hearing this, Liu Shi had finally given up every last hope. A man whose heart is already set on someone else cannot be held back. His heart had tipped entirely toward Jin Shi, and he was imagining how that woman — driven out of her first husband’s home — would come in and rebuild a respectable household for him.

So be it. She straightened her spine, let out a long, slow breath. “I thought the Master had come back having thought through how to settle things for me and the children.”

Jiang Heng was reminded of it only when she said so. “Oh — right. I actually came to discuss the matter of purchasing a residence in the capital. I have settled on a property — seven or eight thousand taels ought to cover it. How much do we have in the house right now?”

Liu Shi sucked in a sharp breath of air. “Seven or eight thousand taels? Where would we find that kind of money!”

Jiang Heng had not managed the household accounts before, but he had taken a brief look at the ledgers after the Countess passed, and at that time the public account had held six thousand taels. Adding in rental income from the shops and the yields from the estate, if the house truly had less than seven or eight thousand taels of silver on hand, that would mean a very significant discrepancy in the accounts.

He fixed his eyes on Liu Shi. “Think carefully before you answer. Are you certain you cannot produce it?”

Liu Shi hedged and said, “Truly that much is not available. The Countess’s funeral had to be arranged, the monthly stipends for the household servants paid out, the young masters and misses needed for their studies — and every day there is rice, oil, firewood, and salt. Every item requires money. The Master has not had to manage the household and does not know how costly it all is.”

Jiang Heng gave a cold laugh. “If I remember correctly, just the condolence money received when the Countess passed came to three thousand taels — was that not enough to cover the funeral costs?”

Liu Shi said, “But of course — just the water-and-land ritual ceremonies alone required three sessions, and it was the Master who said we must do it properly.”

“Is that so? Marrying off a legitimate daughter cost only three hundred taels, yet holding one funeral required three thousand taels? Were the meal offerings perhaps made not of rice but of pearls?” Jiang Heng waved his hand with irritation. “Just tell me — how much is there on hand right now? I need to make the deposit and secure the property before someone else gets to it first.”

Liu Shi hesitated at length and finally said, “Including the bank notes from the goldsmith’s shop, it comes to roughly two thousand taels…”

“What?” She had not even finished speaking before he cut her off with a shout that made her flinch into silence. “Two thousand taels? Two thousand taels? Liu Yanqiao — you truly have a way with managing the household. I ask you today and you say two thousand — come back in another two days and I suppose there will be only one thousand left! In just one short year, the family’s savings have been whittled down to this pittance. If this household goes on under your management, sooner or later even the house itself will no longer be ours. Get out! Truly, get out! Go back to your Liu family and live with those brothers of yours — would that not suit you far better?”

He was more furious than she had ever seen him, pacing in circles, face iron-gray as he pointed at her. “Fine — fine! You think I don’t know you’ve been sending money to those two brothers of theirs. Where did the money for them to buy houses and land and take concubines come from — you know perfectly well! It was one thing when you helped them a modest amount here and there — I said nothing. But now look at this — the household can’t even produce money when it’s needed. What are you still doing in the Jiang household? Go back to your Liu family and live with your brothers — wouldn’t that be more to your liking?”

He had never had such an outburst, and Liu Shi could not help but feel a flicker of fear. Of course the household surplus was not a mere two thousand taels — she had kept four thousand taels hidden away for herself, not wanting to see that money fall into Jin Shi’s hands. She had three children. Surely when the time came for Yu Pan and Xue Pan to marry, she couldn’t turn to Jin Shi with her hand outstretched? And if Jin Shi chose to be difficult and gave only two or three hundred taels, the girls would spend their whole lives at their husbands’ houses being talked about!

So she had to plan ahead. And now that there was half a mistress of the house, let her figure out where to get the money for the residence. She herself was, after all, the unimportant concubine. Once they had it all sorted, she would simply go along and live there — what business was it of hers how they pulled it off? This would be the first real test of the incoming wife, and she was curious to see how Jin Shi would manage to make something out of nothing. So even if Jiang Heng raged and thundered, she still said the same thing — there was no money. Handing over two thousand taels was the greatest concession she was prepared to make. She had originally thought of not putting out even a single coin, and let them sort out the mess themselves.

Jiang Heng fumed for a long while, then had her bring the ledgers, and went over them himself in a fruitless and increasingly vexed mood — but he never normally paid the accounts any attention, and faced with rows of small characters, he could make nothing of them. He slammed the ledger down in fury, face white, and said, “Are you truly trying to make me look like a fool in front of my new wife? What good does it do you if I lose face?”

Liu Shi thought, with a grim private sadness: the face you lose now is no longer mine to share in — it is your second wife’s. So let it be lost. We may still be under the same roof, but we are already strangers.

She put on an expression of helpless resignation. “Master, the accounts truly have only two thousand taels — otherwise I would not have been reduced to this, letting Second Sister go to the young lady to borrow money. I have been worrying day and night about the cost of setting up the new residence — the Master has no idea. As for my two brothers — the Master says they bought houses and land and concubines on money I gave them, but that would be grossly unfair to me, and I cannot accept it.”

Jiang Heng had no answer for her, and at this point truly saw through her entirely. This woman had never been of one heart with him. She had fawned on him and sought his favor only because he happened to be the person of highest standing she had encountered in her life’s journey. Had it been anyone else — a Zhang or a Li — she would have been just as warm-eyed and tender-smiled, every bit as devoted. She had been nothing but a common wine-seller’s girl from the beginning. How had he ever convinced himself she was deep in feeling and faithful to the bone? Twelve years she had been deceiving him. To think he had wronged his first wife for the sake of such a woman — truly, he had been blind then. Now, looking back, he could only regret it bitterly.

“Enough.” He said, spent. “There is nothing more to say — the more we talk, the less of even this last shred of feeling remains. Since there is no ready money on hand, then this residence cannot be held onto. I will go out shortly and find a buyer, sell off the properties and settle everything here cleanly, and then move the whole family to the capital.”

In truth Liu Shi was reluctant, but to keep her four thousand taels safe, she gritted her teeth and bore it. “In all things, the Master decides.”

Jiang Heng looked at her, heaved a sigh, clasped his hands behind his back, and walked out the door. No one would ever know the wretchedness and exhaustion of a man who went about in the blazing sun, scrambling for buyers, all while putting on a composed face for outsiders — telling anyone who asked that he likely wouldn’t be coming back to Youzhou much anymore, that an empty house sitting here still required people to watch over it and might as well be sold.

But this was the worst possible time to sell. Court officials were flooding into the capital, and with so many vacated properties in Youzhou suddenly on the market, finding a suitable buyer was genuinely difficult.

In the end only one merchant household was willing to come forward with four thousand taels — a rock-bottom price, and even then only because it was the late Countess’s former residence, and the buyer wanted to absorb a little of the prestige of a household that had produced a Duchess.

Jiang Heng negotiated with him, saying four thousand taels was far too low, feigning a reluctance to sell. The other party deliberated and added two hundred taels — that was truly as far as they would go. Take it or leave it.

Jiang Heng had a mouthful of old blood lodged in his chest that he could not spit out. In the end he simply had to swallow it. He wiped his face and said all right, handed over the deed, took the silver, and went home.

Back home, Liu Shi asked how much it had sold for. He looked at her without expression. “Why? Do you want to hold onto it for safekeeping? So you can go on filling the gaps outside?”

Liu Shi had nothing to say to that. She had concealed those four thousand taels, and inwardly she felt a faint, creeping regret — she feared that because of that money, she and Jiang Heng would truly grow estranged beyond repair. But then she thought it through again: since the man was already lost, keeping the money was better. As long as the money was in hand — let the moon descend alone in the west!

But packing up an entire household to move was truly laborious. In the blazing summer heat, over a hundred li of road to travel, the whole family to be taken — and Jiang Jue kept wailing and making trouble, so that Yu Pan had to spend her time and energy soothing him.

Xue Pan was also bitterly unhappy. “All this fuss — it’s like fleeing from disaster.”

Liu Shi told her to stop talking. The four of them — mother and three children — crammed into a tiny carriage compartment. The road was slow with traffic, and it took nearly two full days before they finally reached the capital.

The new residence had not yet been secured, so they could not move in — they could only take up temporary lodging on Small Goods Lane. That tiny courtyard, now packed with over thirty people, was like an emergency shelter thrown up for disaster victims after an earthquake.

Jiang Jue was still crying and carrying on — he wanted to go to school, he wanted a teacher. Liu Shi spat at him, “Since when have I ever seen you this enthusiastic about studying on any normal day?”

Jiang Heng took no notice of any of them, his mind still fretting over the shortfall of two thousand taels needed to purchase the property. He had thought about borrowing from a colleague but could not bring himself to ask. After much deliberation, he arranged to meet with Jin Shengyu, and asked her, with not a little awkwardness, whether it might be possible to make a trip to Si Si’s — just to get through this immediate difficulty, and he would repay it with interest afterward.