Madam Gao saw her sister-in-law hanging her head dejectedly, and her tone softened involuntarily. “All right, all right! I have thought this matter through carefully. Although the Marchioness of Yongping is young, she is no simple woman. In just a few short months, she has already secured her footing in the marquis’s household — and that’s only the half of it. That day, I had originally intended to go and meet her, but as it happened, I witnessed a little maidservant spill tea on her. There were no other ladies present at the time, yet she remained warm and pleasant throughout. If she were not a gentle and magnanimous person, she would have to be a deeply treacherous one. If it is the former, then what more could be said once Rounal marries in? Having a good mother-in-law is worth more than anything else in the world. You know this yourself.”

Madam Xiang nodded. “With a mother-in-law backing her up, naturally there would be nothing to fear.”

“If it is the latter,” Madam Gao mused, “so long as there is no direct conflict of interest, someone of Rounal’s character would not be worth her effort to move against — it would be beneath her. Even if she turns out to be that sort of person, there is no need to worry. When the time comes, we need only make it plain to her that we want not a single coin of the Xu family’s assets, then propose a division of the household — I dare say she would be even more eager for it than we are…”

“Then wouldn’t our Rounal be at a terrible disadvantage?” Before Madam Gao could finish, Madam Xiang had already cried out. “How could that possibly do!”

Madam Gao pressed a hand to her forehead, drew several long, slow breaths, and then said, “She has now begun managing the household. If she is a person of honest and upright character, we need not fight for anything — she will set aside Xu Siyu’s share for him on her own. If she is a woman of deep scheming, never mind that she will eventually have children of her own and must plan for sons who cannot inherit the title — once she has savored the prestige of running the household, how many people could ever bring themselves to let it go? Twenty years at most, ten at the least, and even if the stewards inside and out are not all replaced by her, eight or nine out of ten would not dare stand against her. So long as she keeps all the Xu family’s profitable holdings in her own hands, within a few short years her dowry wealth will multiply many times over. The Marquis is more than a decade her senior. By the time he is old and muddled, she will still be sharp and clear-headed… By then, even if everything were divided equally, I fear there would be precious little left by the time it reached Xu Siyu’s hands. If we were to fight and claw for every scrap, we would only end up offending everyone in the Xu household from top to bottom. That would truly be a case of losing more than we gain!”

Madam Xiang still could not quite follow the reasoning, and hesitated. “But… but what if the Marchioness of Yongping cannot bear sons?”

“Why, all the better!” Madam Gao broke into a smile at this. “If she has no children of her own, she will be even more driven to hold power and accumulate wealth — for otherwise, who would look after her in old age? Think about it: if there is a mother-in-law not much older than yourself holding the reins of the household and never letting go, among all the future daughters-in-law, whose life would be the hardest?”

“Naturally, the future wife of the heir!” Madam Xiang blurted out.

Madam Gao smiled and nodded approvingly. “That’s right, that’s right — you have finally thought to use your head!” Her words made Madam Xiang flush.

“By that time, I fear the Marchioness of Yongping would not rest until she had that heir’s wife ground into submission,” Madam Gao said in a low voice. “You must understand — the Marquis’s purpose in arranging this alliance with our family was precisely to separate this eldest illegitimate son and clear the way for his legitimate second son to take precedence. There are certainly other arrangements in place. Knowing the Marquis’s character, now that he has made his move, Xu Siyu’s chance of inheriting the title is absolutely gone. There would therefore be no fundamental conflict of interest between our family and the Marchioness of Yongping. In that case, our Rounal would actually have the easiest time of all. She might even find favor with her mother-in-law and grow close to her.”

When there are many daughters-in-law, a mother-in-law always has her favorites and her scapegoats — someone to coddle, someone to keep at arm’s length, and someone to make an example of!

Madam Xiang listened and nodded repeatedly.

“That is precisely why I was reproaching you!” Madam Gao said. “What your brother-in-law did was certainly wrong, but this marriage itself is an extremely sound one.”

Madam Xiang pouted but did not argue back as she usually would have.

Madam Gao looked at her with fond amusement and drew her sister-in-law into her arms, speaking to her gently as though soothing a child. “In a little while, write your brother-in-law a letter and relay to him everything I have told you today. At the end, simply say that you are worried Rounal might not receive a fair share of the Xu family’s assets in the future, and that you wish to give her a more generous dowry…”

Madam Xiang stared at her sister-in-law in astonishment and stammered, “But Yijia has not yet married. And there is still Roujin and Rouqian…”

Madam Gao could not help herself and jabbed a finger firmly at Madam Xiang’s forehead. “You! Who told you to actually hand over the family property to Rounal? I am asking you to send your brother-in-law a subtle hint. Think about it — if he learns that even though you are at odds with him, you have handled the important matters with perfect steadiness and not a trace of confusion, won’t his heart feel as sweet as if he had swallowed honey? After this, would he dare make any major decisions without consulting you? You know that Yixi and Yijia are not yet married, that Roujin and Rouqian are not yet betrothed — do you think your brother-in-law does not know this as well?”

Madam Xiang tugged at Madam Gao’s sleeve and acted coy. “Dearest sister-in-law!”

Madam Gao did not indulge her in laughter. She composed her expression and said seriously, “You treat me as someone close to you, and I likewise do not treat you as an outsider. There are some things I have cautioned you about before. You find my reminders tiresome, yet today I must caution you once more.”

Seeing that her sister-in-law was speaking earnestly, Madam Xiang also put away her smile, sat up straight, and said with respectful deference, “Please do instruct me, Sister-in-law!”

Madam Gao gave a slight nod and said, “Money is a dead thing; people are living. Where there are people, there need be no worry about money. You must learn to distinguish what is primary and what is secondary. It is only when there are no people that one needs to keep a firm grip on money. When there are people, keeping a firm grip on the people — that is what truly matters.”

Was she reminding her not to act willfully in the future?

Madam Xiang said solemnly, “I will remember it!”

Madam Gao was still a little uneasy and urged, “Take, for example, that sum of private money your mother-in-law quietly gave your sister-in-law as a trousseau gift. Why do you think I told you to bury it deep in your heart and say nothing? It is because your brother-in-law believes that when his mother was ill, you served her with wholehearted devotion, yet at the end she did not leave you a single coin of private money. Not because you were lacking in any way, but because his mother did not care for him. You suffered on his account. And so he has always felt he owes you a debt, and in all things, large and small, he yields to you. In matters of money and property, we need not quibble. But if your brother-in-law were to think that his mother left you nothing because you did not serve her attentively enough — that you failed in your duty as a daughter-in-law — then we need not endure him at all, and we need not give him an inch. We would want every last coin of the household in our own hands…”

“I understand everything Sister-in-law has said,” Madam Xiang quickly replied. “That is why all these years I have said nothing of it.”

Madam Gao nodded with satisfaction and turned to give instructions about the banquet: “…Send out the invitations — invite the Fifth Madam of their household, the eldest young miss, the second young miss who just completed her first month, and all the young masters. Frame it as a thank-you banquet for the Xu family. Others who see it will not read anything more into it. After all, the previous Marchioness of Yongping has not yet finished the full mourning period. Even if people were to meet face to face, nothing could be stated openly on the spot, so we still have room to maneuver.” As she said this, a thought came to her, and she added, “And remember to include this in the letter as well… The matter of Ciyuan Temple — though the fault was ours, we have now invited them to our home. That counts as making amends for the earlier offense. Your brother-in-law will know that you understand the greater picture and that you have saved face for him — he can only be pleased.”

Madam Xiang gave a slightly embarrassed murmur of assent.

Madam Gao thought it over and said, “Never mind — wait until you have written the letter to your brother-in-law and let me read it. Once I feel it is right, we will send it off to him.”

Madam Xiang promptly agreed. Watching Madam Gao attend to every detail, large and small, she smiled and said, “If there is anything I do poorly when the time comes, Sister-in-law need only remind me!”

“When the time comes, I will not be going!” Madam Gao said with a smile.

“But how can that be!” Madam Xiang immediately protested. “Everything that has come to this point is entirely thanks to your efforts, Sister-in-law…”

Madam Gao shook her head, her expression grave. “The reason we were able to seize hold of your sister-in-law’s misstep is entirely because she should not have overstepped you and interfered in your household’s affairs. If I were to go as well, what would that make me? Would that not be the pot calling the kettle black?”

Although Madam Xiang knew her sister-in-law was right, the thought of having done so much to arrange this banquet at home — while the sister-in-law she admired and adored most would be absent, leaving her to entertain the elder sister-in-law she could not stand the sight of — still sat ill with her. She wanted to say something but could not bring herself to.

Madam Gao, who knew her sister-in-law’s temperament well, took it all upon herself and said definitively, “This is how it shall be. Say no more. And on the day of the banquet, do not let your words and heart be at odds — bring out your very best manner and receive the Xu family’s matriarch and the Marchioness of Yongping properly. Those women have seen much of the world, and you are a forthright person — a discerning eye will see through you the moment they pay careful attention. In which case you might as well not have invited them at all. It would only irritate everyone.”

Madam Xiang respectfully agreed, and on the day of the banquet, she did indeed bring out her warmest hospitality. The Fifth Madam sent word that her child was unwell and did not come; Xu Siyu and Xu Sizhun had to attend the academy; and Madam Xiang sent Xiang Yijia off to her maternal family. The matriarch came with Eleventh Young Lady, the Second Madam, Zhen Jie’er, and Xu Sijie. Zhen Jie’er and the three young misses of the Xiang family were old acquaintances, and Xu Sijie was at the age of carefree innocence, with no shyness around strangers. The children laughed and chattered and played happily together. Madam Xiang devoted herself entirely to attending upon the matriarch, and the Second Madam’s face carried a few more smiles than usual.

Eleventh Young Lady, however, noticed that the Xiang family’s house had no rear courtyard building, yet had a small garden — which she found quite unusual. She also noticed a row of poppies of various colors planted along the garden wall, which someone who did not recognize them might easily mistake for corn poppies. She walked over and bent down to examine them.

“That is a flower called the poppy,” came the Second Madam’s voice from behind her, sudden and unexpected.

Eleventh Young Lady turned around to see the Second Madam standing on the steps beneath the eaves.

The late spring sunlight fell upon her snow-white embroidered skirt, giving it a pristine, untainted quality, much like her pale, white face.

She walked over lightly, her snow-white, slender fingers gently cradling a large, fully bloomed crimson poppy. “It was your Second Elder Brother who obtained it for me from the distant Western Regions. I scattered the seeds in the courtyard on a whim, never expecting they would actually take root and bloom.” The Second Madam gazed at the flowers, her eyes full of tender affection.

For a moment Eleventh Young Lady was at a loss for words. After a long pause she said, “If I remember correctly, I do not think we have this flower in our garden. Second Sister-in-law, why not transplant a few stems over?”

“Some things, once moved to a different place, lose their original meaning.” The Second Madam narrowed her eyes and gazed into the distance at a stretch of purple poppies, a serene composure about her, as light as the clouds and gentle as the breeze.

From somewhere in the distance came the bright, cheerful laughter of Madam Xiang, and the garden fell quiet.

Seeing that the Second Madam had no further intention of speaking with her, Eleventh Young Lady smiled and said, “I will go check on Mother!”

The Second Madam smiled and nodded.

Eleventh Young Lady set off with her maidservants toward the octagonal pavilion where Madam Xiang and the matriarch were seated.

Just as she was nearly there, she could not help but glance back — there was no longer any trace of the Second Madam’s figure.

—