“No need,” said Shiyiniang. “Nanny Wang is over there, and she will be on hand to assist.”

Zhuxiang said nothing more.

Shiyiniang dismissed Jiexiang and kept only Hupo behind to speak privately, telling her in full detail of Xu Lingyi’s intentions: “…He had originally meant to delay things a little, so that the marriage might be arranged with greater dignity. Who would have thought it would become all the more urgent instead.”

Hupo’s face flushed red, but knowing this was a weighty matter for the household, and that Shiyiniang had confided in her in all sincerity, she suppressed her embarrassment and said: “Being able to help the Fourth Young Master through this auspicious rite is an honor to me. For Madam to say such things only puts me ill at ease.” She paused, then lowered her voice by several degrees. “Only — now that Yanrong is leaving, who would be best suited to take her place at Madam’s side?”

Shiyiniang lifted the lid of her teacup and lightly swept the floating leaves aside. The delicate ringing of porcelain against porcelain added a crisp, cool note to the quiet room.

“Let Yanrong help choose someone,” she said.

Hupo thought it over. This was indeed a kind of grace — Yanrong would depart with her dignity intact. She asked: “Shall I tell Yanrong of Madam’s wishes?”

Someone would need to go and hint as much to the Cao family. No matter who delivered such a message, it would leave traces — better that Yanrong arrange it directly with the Cao family herself.

Shiyiniang considered a moment, then nodded slightly. She beckoned Hupo closer and murmured: “As for Cui’er — bring her a message. The Marquis has said that in a few days’ time, he will send her family to a farm estate in Jiangnan. If she agrees, she is to do her best to counsel Qin Yiniang to stay quietly at home and not go running about speaking carelessly. With the Second Young Master still here, there remains at least a thread of hope. But if the matter cannot be contained — even with the Second Young Master as protection, given the Marquis’s temperament, there will be no good outcome for her.”

In such matters, sooner was better than later. Hupo acknowledged her instructions and went to Qin Yiniang’s quarters.

What had truly transpired that night, the maids and matrons in the room did not entirely know.

Xu Lingyi had entered without warning. All those serving inside had been sent out to the courtyard, and Linbo and Zhaoying stood guard at the doorway. From a distance, one could only hear Qin Yiniang weeping. When the Marquis emerged, his face was dark and grave. He asked which of the women was Qin Yiniang’s personal attendant, then instructed Cui’er: “No one is to enter. Watch your Yiniang carefully. When she has thought things through, come and report to me.” The servant women in the courtyard, recalling the inspection of the premises earlier, naturally kept as far out of the way as they possibly could. When word spread that Yi Yiniang had been wandering the house in the middle of the night and had crossed paths with Xu Sizhun, and knowing the close bond between Qin Yiniang and Yi Yiniang, people assumed Qin Yiniang had been caught in the backlash of another’s offense — and they began to worry again about Xu Sizhun’s illness. If something were to happen to Xu Sizhun, Qin Yiniang could not expect to fare well either.

Among those in the courtyard, some who had received kindness from Qin Yiniang lamented her ill fortune; others who had fawned upon her in the past deliberated whether to go seek her favor now; still others who had suffered under her hoped she would be gone quickly. But with no reliable word from Xu Sizhun’s side, everyone waited and watched.

Seeing Hupo arrive, a sharp-witted matron came forward at once.

Hupo lowered her voice and said: “I have a private word for Cui’er.”

The matron recalled how Cui’er always addressed Hupo warmly as “elder sister,” and thought that in this uncertain time, Hupo had surely come to look out for Cui’er. Whatever benefit Cui’er received would extend to Qin Yiniang, and by extension to everyone else. She smiled broadly and said: “Miss, rest assured — please wait a moment, and I will quietly call Cui’er out for you. My room is rather untidy, and there is a draft at the door — do come inside and shelter from the wind…”

* * *

Shiyiniang called Nanny Song in and spoke with her: “…Lvyun is no longer young. Please help find her a good match.”

Nanny Song had weathered much in the Xu household. Her thoughts turned in a thousand directions, yet she asked nothing further. She curtsied in acknowledgment, and Shiyiniang returned to the old dowager’s quarters, accompanied by Zhuxiang.

Yuban was standing beneath the eaves, personally lifting the curtain for Shiyiniang, and said with a smile: “Nanny Tao has just arrived and is speaking with the old dowager in the inner chamber.”

Shiyiniang nodded to her and entered the inner chamber.

Nanny Tao’s low, anguished sobs struck her the moment she stepped inside.

Shiyiniang now saw that Nanny Tao was prostrated at the edge of the heated couch, clutching Xu Sizhun’s small hand and weeping with heartbroken grief. The old dowager and the Second Madam stood behind her — the former dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief, the latter with a slight frown, quietly urging the former to compose herself. Xu Sizhun’s wet nurse had been pushed to the side, weeping alone in a corner.

Seeing Shiyiniang enter, Second Madam visibly relaxed and said soothingly: “Mother, the Fourth Sister-in-law has come — if you continue like this, she will be distressed too…”

The words were barely out when a gaze sliced across the room — sharp as a serpent’s flickering tongue, cold and sinister — and Shiyiniang jolted, instinctively pressing a hand to her abdomen.

When she looked again, that gaze had already retreated beneath heavy, drooping eyelids, and the face had shifted into an expression of sorrow.

“Fourth Madam!” Nanny Tao rose to her feet, sobbing, stepped forward, and gave Shiyiniang a bow. “These past days I received the Fourth Young Master’s generous gift of a great basket of rice dumplings, and I was deeply grateful. In the mountain village, there is little of worth — but behind the house grows a fine stand of banana trees, so I had some leaves cut, made a few palm-leaf fans, and sent them into the household for Madam and the young masters and young ladies to enjoy as a novelty. But the one who brought the fans had no sooner entered the city than he heard that the Fourth Young Master had fallen ill. Without even stopping to rest, he turned back and told me. I was so worried I came straight through the night. Madam…” Her voice broke, tears streaming freely. “When I left, all was well — how could things change so completely in the blink of an eye?”

Shiyiniang was at a loss for words.

In the end, it was her own negligence.

This was something that could have been avoided entirely.

She felt a quiet shadow fall over her heart.

She had always thought that with Xu Sizhun staying beside the old dowager, and with someone as experienced as Nanny Du watching over him, nothing should go wrong. But she had not thought it through carefully: Nanny Du was already over fifty, responsible for attending to the old dowager, watching over Xu Sizhun, and managing the countless matters of the old dowager’s household — how could she possibly be attentive at every hour of every day?

If only she had been more thoughtful at the time, and arranged for a steady, honest, and dutiful matron — someone like Nan Yong’s wife — to stay in the room with Xu Sizhun!

But what use was there in saying any of this now?

Watching from where she stood, Nanny Tao’s heart — already seared to anguish from the moment she heard of Xu Sizhun’s illness — did not grow calmer at this sight. Instead, it roiled and billowed with rising smoke.

She was putting on a show of guilt now, acting the penitent. Where had all this concern been before?

Zhun Ge’er was the flesh of her flesh, cherished beyond measure — the child she would sooner cover in thorns herself than see suffer so much as a scratch on his little fingernail — and yet he had been ruined like this by Shiyiniang’s negligence. This was more painful to her than being put to death outright.

At that thought, she could not help but turn and look at Xu Sizhun lying on the couch.

The bright morning light streamed through the glass window and fell across his face. His skin was sallow, the circles beneath his eyes bruised and dark, as if he were a person beyond all hope of recovery.

If she had not planted a few trusted eyes within this household, would they not have even informed her if Zhun Ge’er had died?

The thought flashed past, and Nanny Tao felt as though a blade had been driven into her heart.

She had been tarred by Shiyiniang with a name she could not wash off — innocent or guilty, she was stained. For Zhun Ge’er’s sake, for Tao Cheng’s sake, she had best suppress her longing for him and watch from a distance, letting the ladies of this household rest at ease… She had thought this way and acted accordingly — and what had come of it?

It felt as though a covenant had been torn to pieces — as though she had been betrayed.

Nanny Tao shook with rage.

Yet she knew: Shiyiniang’s sword hung poised above her head. Any move she made would bring it down without mercy.

She had only to endure. She could only endure.

And thinking so, she felt all the more desolate.

Nanny Tao’s tears rolled freely as she prostrated herself at the edge of Xu Sizhun’s couch and wept softly once more.

The old dowager’s heart was ill at ease as well.

Among all her sons and grandsons, none had cost her such care and worry as Xu Sizhun. And yet in the end, this child and she seemed to have no true bond of fate.

Seeing Nanny Tao’s grief, the old dowager felt a pang of sorrow in her own chest, and her eyes blurred with tears.

Second Madam quickly supported the old dowager by the arm. “Mother, please do not distress yourself — did Doctor Liu not say that Zhun Ge’er will be all right, that he will recover soon…” As she spoke, she gave Shiyiniang a meaningful look, urging her to stop Nanny Tao from continuing this weeping.

Shiyiniang suppressed a quiet sigh and stepped forward, saying in a low voice: “Nanny Tao, please don’t cry any longer. Zhun Ge’er has been frightened, and this is precisely when he needs rest and peace. If you disturb and wake him, what then…”

The moment Shiyiniang uttered the word “frightened,” Nanny Tao’s mind began to churn like a pot set to boil.

You still have the face to mention “frightened” — if not for you, would Zhun Ge’er have been frightened by anyone? In the inner courtyard, in the middle of summer, at the hour of xu — and Zhun Ge’er was reduced to this state… Anyone claiming it was accidental — who would believe it? And now you say I might wake him? Who is it that truly wants him to have no peace?

Nanny Tao’s fury blazed.

Thinking of the old dowager’s fondness for Shiyiniang, and of how much Xu Sizhun would still need to rely on the old dowager in the years ahead, she forced herself to stand up. But as she turned, she saw Shiyiniang standing four or five paces from Xu Sizhun’s couch, one hand resting on her abdomen in a protective gesture.

Her mind reeled with a thunderous roar.

Why had all of this happened?

Was it not because she was carrying that ill-begotten child in her belly, and thought she could do as she pleased — that she had begun to look at Xu Sizhun with resentment, and even wanted him out of the way entirely? Had she forgotten entirely how she had entered this household? How the First Young Madam had treated her?

An ungrateful wretch!

A pity that the First Young Madam, brilliant in all her ways, had not been spared by time — else why would she have brought this ungrateful creature in?

If the First Young Madam could know of this from beneath the earth, she would not know a single day of peace!

Nanny Tao’s face twisted into a grotesque expression.

“Shiyiniang, you wretched woman — I will fight you to the end!”

Better this than to go on being held by the throat by Shiyiniang. At the very least, she could bring down the cursed thing in that belly of hers — let her feel the knife-sharp pain of such a loss, let her know what it was to bear a hatred carved into the bone…

In a flash of fire and flint, she flung herself at Shiyiniang without a second thought.

Shiyiniang was stunned.

In all her years, no one had ever raised a hand against her.

And by the time the old dowager and Second Madam registered that something was wrong, Nanny Tao’s hands were already nearly at Shiyiniang’s throat.

Both women cried out in alarm, faces pale and flustered, calling out “Shiyiniang!”

Xu Sizhun’s wet nurse was also so startled by the sudden turn of events that she stood frozen, staring blankly.