Inside the carriage, Dowager Lady Geng was fuming. “That old jackal grows more insufferable with age — not a shred of courtesy left in him. So they won’t discuss the marriage, fine, but what gives them the right to humiliate us like that? We were fools to show up on their doorstep and invite their mockery.”
Lady Geng had long since given up hope. She stared blankly out of the carriage window, her expression hollow, as though her soul had left her body.
Dowager Lady Geng had never been able to abide her daughter-in-law’s habit of wilting at the first sign of trouble. She scolded her: “Don’t sit there looking like a drowned hen. So we can’t secure a noble bride from the capital — there are still families of rank and distinction back home in Xihua. At the very worst, if we can’t have the eldest daughter, a second daughter would do perfectly well. Fangzhi is a grown man with a promising career ahead of him. Surely he isn’t going to die a bachelor!”
Lady Geng turned to look at her, taking a long moment before she spoke. “Mother, can the daughters of families back in Xihua truly compare to the noble ladies of the capital? What families of rank and distinction? Are there even any officials above the fifth rank back home? The rest are merchants — they may have money, but their origins are too humble to hold their heads up in society. And if you put them beside a Commandery Princess…” She paused. “Mother, doesn’t that humiliate you?”
A mother watching her son’s matrimonial prospects crumble entirely — how could that not be agonizing? Jingcheng had once had such a brilliant future ahead of him. Had he married the Princess of Kaiyang, Duke Weiguo would naturally have lent his brother-in-law a helping hand. If the right side won, he would have risen with the tide, his achievements surely surpassing even those of his father.
And now? He had muddled himself into a complete mess, spending his days tangled up with a live-in maidservant. A man who had once been perfectly decent had been thoroughly corrupted.
Dowager Lady Geng’s face darkened. She knew full well that the girls back home could not compare to a princess, but now that the princess refused to marry into the family, what could be done? A living person could not hang themselves on one tree forever. If there was no salt, brine would do — why be so particular?
In the end, the two women entered the house in stony silence, parting ways without so much as a word of farewell.
After the servants who had accompanied them had seen to everything, they returned to their duties. The Wang family’s nanny had barely stepped through the inner gate when she was summoned into Xu Xiangning’s small courtyard.
Xu Xiangning was seated in a narrow band of sunlight near the doorway. When she saw the woman enter, she immediately rose to her feet. “Nanny, what did the princess say?”
Nanny Wang had long since been won over by Xu Xiangning, and she recounted everything she had heard, word for word. “The Dowager Lady and the Lady went all out this time. The Dowager Lady offered to give away half of her own personal assets to the princess as a gift, and the Lady even agreed to it — saying that as long as the princess was happy, she could perfectly well set up her own household outside. And even with all that, Dowager Lady Hu still refused.”
“So in the end, how did they leave things? Did she refuse outright, or did she say she was willing to discuss it further?”
Nanny Wang said: “Dowager Lady Hu has seen every kind of spectacle there is — she was once an honored consort in the imperial palace. A few trifling inducements were never going to move her heart. She refused on the spot, saying the princess would absolutely not marry into the Geng family. You can set your mind at ease, miss. But Dowager Lady Hu did ask about you, and the Lady’s account to her was that you had already been given medicine, the child had been aborted, and that you would be sold off before long.” She laughed a little. “I thought to myself at the time — they tried deceiving them once before and got caught, and if they try it again, Duke Weiguo will probably lead soldiers straight to the Jie Envoy’s residence!”
But Xu Xiangning’s heart had gone cold. She knew this was no lie. Had Dowager Lady Hu agreed to give them another chance, she believed the first thing they would have done upon returning home was to carry out exactly what they had said.
Fortunately… they had refused. She had escaped with her life by sheer luck. Sometimes she truly felt sorry for herself — her life and dignity hanging entirely on someone else’s whim. What the princess had said was not entirely just encouragement: it was the truth. Only by becoming the official wife could she and her child live like real people.
She lowered her head and touched her stomach. “Four months along already, and his own flesh-and-blood grandchild at that — how cruel a heart the Lady must have.”
Nanny Wang hesitated, speaking haltingly: “It was only said to deceive Dowager Lady Hu. There is no need for miss to take it as truth.”
Xu Xiangning gave a bitter smile. “No need to take it as truth? If some noble lady agreed to this marriage on the condition that I and the child be dealt with first, just watch whether the Dowager Lady and the Lady would take it as truth then.”
So there was no room for hesitation now. No matter how much Geng Fangzhi doted on her, he could not defy his parents’ wishes in the end. The fire of that broken engagement two days ago still had embers — she might as well use the wind to add fuel, and let all of the capital know her name. Since you showed no mercy, do not blame me for showing no loyalty. Once Geng Fangzhi’s reputation was utterly ruined, no family would ever be willing to give their daughter to him, and then, whether or not she became his official wife, she would reign supreme. As for his career — that was beyond her concern. In any case, the Geng family’s fortune was substantial enough that none of them would starve.
With her mind made up, she moved immediately to act. In the southeastern corner of the Geng estate stood a corner tower, built during the original construction of the mansion as a viewing pavilion. It was at least three stories tall. Since it had been built flush against the street, the road below was busy with passing pedestrians. If she staged a scene up there, she was sure to draw a crowd, and as long as the onlookers joined in the uproar, her purpose would be achieved.
“In the time it takes one incense stick to burn, go and report to the Dowager Lady’s and the Lady’s courtyard. Tell them I am going to jump from the corner tower.”
The maidservant let out a startled cry. “Miss, why would you do such a thing?”
This girl had always been a little slow. Xu Xiangning had to explain: “It’s not real. I am only going to give them a fright. If I don’t do this, becoming the official wife will be a hope I can never realize in this lifetime.”
After giving the maidservant her instructions, she turned and went outside. Fortunately, at four months along, she could still move with reasonable ease. There was a ledge about a foot wide along the outside of the corner tower’s railing where a person could stand. She carefully stepped onto it, gripping the railing tightly with both hands. The northwest wind was so biting that even breathing was an effort, but the stronger the wind, the more it would reveal the curve of her belly. Braving the bitter cold, she watched the crowd gathering below grow larger and larger, and finally opened her throat and wept as loudly as she could.
The onlookers pointed and murmured. “What’s going on? A woman with a big belly wanting to end her life — now that is a strange sight.”
There were those who knew the backstory and explained to the others nearby: “Isn’t this the live-in maidservant who was returned on the very day Duke Weiguo’s mansion called off the engagement? Let all those women who would rather be a rich man’s concubine than a poor man’s wife come and have a look. They think entering an official household means a lifetime of comfort and riches — little do they know that even the food in a noble family is not easily eaten. Here she is, heavy with child and still fighting for her life.”
Others sneered: “You think being a live-in maidservant with a child is the same as an official wife being with child? A man gives one shudder, and so many children never get to be born. As long as a man is willing to sow, there isn’t a piece of ground he can’t grow something from.”
Views flew back and forth. There were those who felt genuine sympathy, and naturally those who were simply there to enjoy the spectacle.
On receiving the news, Dowager Lady Geng and Lady Geng finally emerged from the house and made their way around to stand beneath the corner tower. Dowager Lady Geng was deeply displeased. “What has gotten into you, child? You always used to know how to conduct yourself. What are you playing at today? Come down from there at once — if you have something to say, say it properly.”
Xu Xiangning was hardly going to let such an opportunity pass. She wept: “Dowager Lady, I know that as long as I am alive, I will only drag down the Third Young Master. You went to Duke Weiguo’s residence again today to plead your case. If the princess changes her mind, there will certainly be no life left for me. But if the princess refuses, it means I am the one who has ruined the Third Young Master. No matter how I think about it, there is no way out for me. It would be cleanest simply to die.”
On the other side, Lady Geng despised this little strumpet to her core. She could see exactly what the girl was after — playing at retreat in order to advance, further destroying Jingcheng’s reputation so thoroughly that no woman would marry him, thus securing her own position once and for all.
Having lived for decades, what underhanded schemes had she not seen? Did the girl really think this paltry trick would frighten her?
“Haven’t you disgraced us enough already? Why not climb even higher, so the whole capital can get a proper look at your face?” Lady Geng said coldly. “You’ve put on quite a show. Now come down!”
But Xu Xiangning only wept louder and more wretchedly, sobbing: “I know… I know the Lady has no room for me. If I come down today, it is still death for me. I would rather jump from here and be done with it.”
Lady Geng actually rather hoped she would jump, and nearly could not stop herself from urging her to do so — but the matron attendant beside her whispered a warning: “My Lady, so many eyes are watching. You must not say the wrong thing.”
Indeed. One wrong word, and it would spread through the streets that she had driven her son’s live-in concubine to her death — and this concubine was, moreover, with child. That would pile injury upon the Geng family’s already damaged reputation, harming not just the Third Young Master but every descendant of the Geng line.
Lady Geng swallowed her rage, grinding her teeth until they nearly shattered. These past few days had been the darkest of her entire life — a nightmare she dared not look back on.
She wanted nothing more than to walk away, but that too would only provoke the crowd’s anger and contempt. She had no choice but to suppress her fury, even out her tone, and say: “Whatever you wish to say, come down and say it. Standing at that height — if not for your own sake, think of the child.”
Xu Xiangning seized upon these words as another opening for fresh lamentations: “It is I who have wronged this child, having him take root in the belly of such a lowly mother, dragging him with me time and again to the edge of death. Rather than making him suffer along with me through this life, it would be better for mother and child to leave this world together, and let everyone rest in peace.”
Xu Xiangning had originally been placed in Geng Fangzhi’s quarters by Dowager Lady Geng — an arrangement Lady Geng had fiercely opposed at the time, making it an unspoken battlefield between the two women. In the long years that followed, Xu Xiangning had been like a die: whoever threw her well, won. This time was no different. So Dowager Lady Geng was more anxious than Lady Geng, and more desperate for her to come down from that ledge.
“What on earth are you raving about? Who agreed to let the two of you die? The Geng family has never mistreated those in its household — after all these years, surely you understand that?” The Dowager Lady spared no effort in her coaxing: “Good girl, you should not be agitated right now. It is so dangerous up there — please, come down quickly.”
Xu Xiangning refused. “I want to see the Third Young Master. I have something I must ask him.”
Lady Geng rolled her eyes to the heavens. This little strumpet was getting bolder by the minute, running one scheme after another.
She personally was done being played for a fool. They had just stood before Dowager Lady Hu and solemnly sworn the child had been aborted — and then the moment they arrived home, this enormous spectacle broke out. If the Li family came to hear of it, they would be even more thoroughly disgraced.
She, a titled Lady, being made to look like a fool by a live-in maidservant — she would have liked nothing better than to strike the wretch down on the spot, never mind what became of her. She turned to the matron beside her and said quietly: “Have someone slip up behind her and restrain her first.”
Xu Xiangning had timed everything carefully. Geng Fangzhi always returned from the yamen at around this hour. Barring any unforeseen delay, he would walk right into this feast she had laid out.
Sure enough, she spotted a figure on horseback at the far end of the long street, drawing closer. Her eyes lit up with exhilarated joy, and she seemed to rise up off the ledge as she called out at the top of her lungs: “Third Young Master! Third Young Master!”
Geng Fangzhi rode up and, seeing her suspended in mid-air like that, was so frightened his soul nearly fled his body. He leapt from his horse and shouted up at her: “Have you lost your mind? Come down from there!”
Xu Xiangning shook her head. “Third Young Master, I have three questions to ask you.”
At a moment like this, nothing else mattered. Geng Fangzhi agreed: “Ask.”
She sniffled against a nose half-frozen by the wind. “I want only your honest answer. First question: do you have me in your heart?”
Lady Geng let out a scoff. She was so revolted she nearly couldn’t bear it, and she averted her gaze with a silent curse.
Geng Fangzhi found that women always fixated on such things — truly tedious. He replied: “We already have a child together. Why are you still asking this?”
A good answer. The child was the answer in itself. Xu Xiangning was satisfied, and asked again: “Second question: between me and the Princess of Kaiyang, who do you choose in the end?”
What a cutting question. The onlookers watching this scene practically vibrated with excitement and called out: “Say it! Who do you choose? Speak up!”
In his heart, Geng Fangzhi was genuinely torn. During that period of cultivating Hui Cun’s goodwill, he had found himself slowly drawn to that proud and noble young woman. After all, most men were always reaching for something new. The princess had represented, for him, a summit he desperately wished to conquer — far more of a challenge than a concubine who did nothing but flatter and please him.
But now Xu Xiangning was threatening her own life, leaving him no room to negotiate. He had no choice but to pacify her first. “You. I choose you.”
Lady Geng felt her face was now simply the mud beneath her feet. She closed her eyes in despair.
On the other side, the servants who had been sent to creep up behind Xu Xiangning had finally reached the railing. They crept forward to seize her — but in a moment’s misstep, managed to grab only her sleeve.
Xu Xiangning wrenched herself away with all her strength. This opportunity was too precious to lose. With so many witnesses, she still had one final, most critical question she had not yet spoken aloud.
But the servant refused to let go of her sleeve, and she was afraid he would drag her forcibly back inside and cost her this moment. She shoved at him hard, and turned her head toward Geng Fangzhi: “Third Young Master—”
In her desperate, wholehearted resistance, she struggled so violently that the servant lost his grip. As she twisted back to grab the railing, her hand found nothing. To the gasps and cries of horror from the crowd below, she fell straight down from the height.
Geng Fangzhi, heart lurching, rushed forward with two servants to catch her — but a pregnant woman falling from several stories had tremendous force behind her. They caught her, though not entirely. He was knocked flat beneath her, and heard the sharp crack of bone. He knew immediately that something was badly wrong. The pain was overwhelming. He tried to lift his right arm and found he could not. He looked at Xu Xiangning — she was still conscious, but her face was chalk-white, great drops of cold sweat rolling from her forehead. She clutched her belly and groaned in agony.
The thoroughly shaken Dowager Lady Geng and Lady Geng finally came back to their senses. “Quickly — carry them inside! Fetch a physician!”
Servants rushed in from all sides and bore them both into the courtyard. Lady Geng watched the chaos around her with a sunken heart, listening to Xu Xiangning’s cries rise and fall, and knew the child was almost certainly lost. Bad enough on its own — but worse still was the discovery that Jingcheng’s right arm had been broken beneath her weight. In times like these, even if it healed, it might never be right again — and for a military man who wielded sword and blade, what did that mean?
Lady Geng fainted from grief. She only cursed herself for marrying into such a household — stumbling through those first years in a daze, until catastrophe had finally been brewed.
Dowager Lady Geng had forgotten about Xu Xiangning entirely by now; all she could do was hover over the physician tending to her grandson, pressing frantically: “How does it look? Will it heal properly in time?”
The physician did not dare make any promises, and equivocated: “He must not exert the arm in the slightest for now. It requires careful rest and recuperation. I shall prescribe some medicine — taken over two months, with daily steam-washing using elderwood water, it should gradually improve.”
What did “should gradually improve” mean? Those words offered no certainty at all.
Dowager Lady Geng was in a panic. She looked from her son standing nearby, his face clouded with worry, to the grim and pallid face of her grandson — and collapsed into the armchair, weeping her heart out.
The midwife came out from the inner chamber. She wiped her hands and shook her head.
Lady Geng ground her teeth together and cursed under her breath: “Cursed ill omen — ruining the child and ruining the Third Young Master both. At least all this commotion is over now.” She turned and called out: “Someone come here.”
The matron entered to receive her orders. Lady Geng raised her hand and pointed toward the door. “Call a broker and take this wretch away!”
This time her tone left no room for argument. She turned to her son, who looked as though he was about to plead again, and spoke before he could open his mouth: “If you still cannot bear to part with her, then go with her. In any case, I still have your older brothers — without you, it is as though I never gave birth to you at all. Do as you please.”
Not a single person dared utter a word of protest — not even Dowager Lady Geng. After all, everything that had happened today had its roots in her own indulgence of her grandson. Had she not placed Xu Xiangning in the Third Young Master’s quarters, none of these sordid events would have followed. The princess would not have broken off the engagement, and the Third Young Master would not have had his arm crushed.
And now — a possible crippled arm for life; his marriage prospects gone, his future gone. Dowager Lady Geng had nothing left to say but regret.
From within the inner chamber came the sound of Xu Xiangning’s faint, failing sobs: “My Lady… my Lady, I will never dare do this again. Third Young Master, Third Young Master, please plead for me…”
Two matrons hauled her off the bed. She was still bleeding, but no one gave a thought to whether she lived or died. Lady Geng’s only instruction was: “Be careful not to soil the room.”
The broker arrived quickly. In this condition, a person was usually handed over for nothing. After all, there was risk in this kind of business — the money might never be earned, and the buyer might end up spending several days feeding the person only to have her die. So most brokers were reluctant to take on cases like this.
But this was a longtime client — he would manage somehow. The broker looked the half-dead woman over and shook his head. “Selling her as a coarse laborer, and people still might not want her. Let’s see if we can move her to the outskirts.”
In the Geng household’s eyes, she was now worthless. Geng Jie Envoy simply waved his hand: “I don’t care where you sell her. Just get her out of here.”
The maids and matrons watching could not help but feel a flicker of compassion. Though it had all been of her own making, a woman barely past a miscarriage being dragged out and sold, in the dead of a bitter winter — the chance of her surviving seemed very slim indeed.
The man who had sworn undying devotion to her, in the end, was of no use to her at all. They watched as she was led away by the broker.
After she had gone, the jade-and-kingfisher hairpin she’d worn fell and rolled across the ground. Lady Geng saw it and crushed it underfoot, then addressed the household: “From this day forward, no one is to so much as speak that wretch’s name. If I hear that anyone has, they will share her fate.”
Everyone quickly and obediently agreed.
Geng Jie Envoy and Lady Geng returned to the main hall and sat in their respective armchairs, each brooding in silence.
Lady Geng, full of grievances, vented her bitterness: “I don’t know what sin I committed in my past life to deserve such things in this one. Well — satisfied now? We’ve made ourselves known to every soul in the capital, the child is gone, and his arm is in that state…” She pulled out her handkerchief and wept bitterly. “Where can I pour out all my grievance — such a good boy, and just like that, he is destroyed!”
Geng Jie Envoy sighed once, then again. “All right. This was his fate. There is no one else to blame.”
“No one else to blame?” Lady Geng’s voice rose sharply. “Shouldn’t we blame our old Dowager Lady? You are such a devoted son — you watched your mother ruin the Third Young Master and said not a single word, for fear of damaging your bond with her. But I will say it: our Third Young Master was entirely destroyed by her hands. And then there is the Li family! Nothing came of any discussion — we went to call on their Dowager Lady today in person, and I would have been on my knees before her. Not a kind word did we hear; only mockery, until we couldn’t lift our heads. I have never suffered such a humiliation in my entire life.”
Geng Jie Envoy’s face went cold. A gathering darkness spread slowly across his brow. After a long silence, he let out a low, contemptuous sound. “Li Chenjian… the road is still long. We shall see.”