Wen Yiniang’s voice dropped lower.
“I and my matron stood there facing each other for a moment, then I leaned back against the window sill and looked out again.”
“The east wing across the way was ablaze with lamplight, the shadows of people moving back and forth behind the paper windows. Tao Mama came in, stern-faced, with two maidservants. Not long after, the late Fourth Madam arrived as well. After roughly the time it takes to burn one stick of incense, the Second Madam came supporting the Senior Madam… Before two quarter-hours had passed, a sound tore out from the west wing — Qin Yiniang’s heart-rending wails, and the low, muffled weeping of the little maids.”
“My matron could no longer sit still. She sent someone to find out what had happened. Word came back that Tong Yiniang was gone — and what had fallen was a male infant.”
Wen Yiniang looked up at Shiyiniang. “After that, Qin Yiniang, empty-handed, followed the Senior Madam and the Second Madam to the Senior Madam’s quarters.”
Shiyiniang had been listening attentively throughout. When Wen Yiniang finished, she sat in silence for a long while, her gaze lowered in thought, then said slowly, “There are a few things I do not understand.”
Wen Yiniang leaned slightly forward. “Please ask, Madam.”
“You said Tong Yiniang and Qin Yiniang had long been accustomed to waiting on my elder sister, and so continued to do so even when with child. But what of you? You had matrons who had come from Yangzhou with you, and pregnancy was a delicate time — how did you also end up going to attend on her?”
Wen Yiniang was briefly ill at ease. “I was one, they were two…”
Shiyiniang shook her head gently. “Does Wen Yiniang know why I have come?” Without waiting for Wen Yiniang to answer, she told her about the matron Yi Yiniang had sent to relay her message.
Wen Yiniang had not expected Shiyiniang to share such a secret with her; she was very much taken aback.
“Though Yiniang is smooth in all directions, there are things you have never said that you ought not to have said. From this, I know you are a woman who understands what is what. There are certain matters I will not conceal from you.” Shiyiniang said this, then quickly redirected the conversation to the old affairs of the past. “From what Yiniang said a moment ago, it seems my elder sister, from the time she entered this household, had Tong Yiniang and Qin Yiniang thoroughly trained to obedience. If I am not mistaken, my elder sister must have been very strict with the two concubines — strict enough that they were afraid of her at heart — and so even when their bodies were only slightly improved, they would go to attend on her. And my elder sister did not refuse them. Your matron who came from Yangzhou saw all this clearly and understood well the risks and the benefits, so she also urged you to go and attend. Am I right?” She thought of the several concubines in the Luo household.
Wen Yiniang was silent for a moment, then softly answered, “Yes.”
That made sense. Otherwise there was no explaining what had happened afterward.
“There is one more thing I do not understand,” Shiyiniang mused. “By custom, when my elder sister married into this household, she should have brought her own personal maidservants with her. Why did she take Tong Shi as a concubine, rather than choosing one of her own maids?”
She very much wanted to know from which specific incident the estrangement between Xu Lingyi and Yuan Niang had first begun.
“The Marquis has always been rather indifferent to such matters,” Wen Yiniang said with some awkwardness. “I have heard that when the late First Madam first married in, she had also arranged for one of her personal maidservants to wait on the Marquis at night. But the Marquis found it troublesome and preferred to go to Tong Yiniang or Qin Yiniang’s rooms, so the matter came to nothing.” She paused. Thinking of how pointed Shiyiniang’s questions had been, and how candid her manner of speaking, she felt that her own evasiveness was rather small-minded in comparison. After a brief consideration, she resolved to be plain and direct. “Later, when our two families had settled the arrangements for me to enter the household, the Senior Madam feared that once I arrived I would use my charms to cause mischief, and worried the late First Madam might not be able to keep me in check. She wanted someone to hold sway over me, and so designated Tong Shi — who was gentle in temperament and attractive in appearance — to be elevated to concubine status. Rather than taking a new person into the household, elevating one of the two compliant bedchamber attendants was something the late First Madam was quite willing to see happen.”
This was now the second time Shiyiniang had heard Wen Yiniang describe Tong Shi as gentle in temperament. “From what you say, Tong Shi’s elevation to concubine came entirely from her gentle temperament?”
“Indeed!” Wen Yiniang nodded. “And even Qin Yiniang — she was elevated because she appeared round-faced and easy to bear children, and seemed slow and guileless.” She paused, then said with a good deal of feeling, “Had it been otherwise, not even the late First Madam, let alone the Senior Madam, would have spared them. The two bedchamber attendants in the Third Master’s rooms, for instance, were dismissed and married off by the Third Madam for quarrelling over jealousy. And the two bedchamber attendants in the Second Master’s rooms — after the Second Master died, the Second Madam had them married off. Had this affair never come to pass, Tong Yiniang and Qin Yiniang would have had the best outcomes of all.”
From slow and guileless to bribing a Taoist woman to place a curse on Xu Sizhun — this was what people usually meant when they said the serpent of a man’s heart is never full.
Shiyiniang sighed softly.
The two fell silent.
“You said Qin Yiniang went alone to the main room to report the matter,” Shiyiniang said after a moment. “As I recall, your rooms were in the rear courtyard just behind the main rooms — at most a quarter-hour’s walk. Yet you said your knees had gone stiff from kneeling and still no one had come, and Qin Yiniang had been gone so long. How was it she took so long?”
“When Tong Yiniang both mother and child died, the Senior Madam, on the grounds that the late First Madam’s nerves were fragile, placed Qin Yiniang in the Second Madam’s care,” Wen Yiniang said. “The Second Madam looked after Qin Yiniang’s daily life attentively until the Second Young Master was born, at which point Qin Yiniang and the Second Young Master were moved to the west wing where the Second Madam lived. At first I kept my distance from Qin Yiniang to avoid suspicion. Later, when Zhen Jie’er was born and the Second Young Master became the Marquis’s only son, I was even less able to move toward them. When we encountered each other at the morning and evening salutations in the late First Madam’s rooms, we would nod and each go our separate ways quickly — we did not even exchange more than a word. Gradually we had no dealings at all. It was only after the Marquis returned and the main courtyard of the Xu mansion was rebuilt, and I and Qin Yiniang were both moved to the east wing of the main courtyard, that we began to associate with each other again. But the events of those years were too deeply entangled, and neither of us ever raised them again. Some of what I know was discovered by my matron and passed on to me — I cannot be sure it is entirely accurate.”
Wen Yiniang drank a mouthful of tea, then realized it had long since gone cold. She gave Shiyiniang an apologetic smile and went to brew a fresh pot herself.
“When Tong Yiniang began to bleed, the matron in that room flew into a rage and spent all her effort berating the little maid who had been attending Tong Yiniang at the time. It was Tong Yiniang herself who, feeling extremely unwell, had the little maid who served Qin Yiniang come and call Qin Yiniang back.” Wen Yiniang poured Shiyiniang a fresh cup of tea; Shiyiniang murmured her thanks. “When Qin Yiniang returned and saw that Tong Yiniang’s undergarments were soaked through with blood that would not stop, she was seized with fright. Not daring to give orders to the matron in the room, she told two little maids to attend to Tong Yiniang and went herself to the main room.”
Wen Yiniang sat down and drank from her cup.
“The late First Madam had only just come back from the Second Madam’s and had barely lain down. Qin Yiniang told a little maid to go in and report that Tong Yiniang was not well. The little maid said the late First Madam had just thrown a tremendous fit of temper, and suggested that if it was nothing urgent, it could wait until tomorrow — or else she could find Tao Mama, and that would do just as well. Qin Yiniang asked where Tao Mama was, and the little maid said Tao Mama had just returned to her own room. Qin Yiniang went to Tao Mama’s room. Tao Mama was in the middle of washing up; a little maid made her wait for a while before going in to announce her. Tao Mama asked Qin Yiniang what the matter was. Qin Yiniang, who was never very articulate, grew flustered before Tao Mama’s severe manner and stumbled and stammered through her explanation for a long time without managing to make herself understood. Tao Mama grew impatient and told her to stand in the courtyard — when she had thought it through clearly, she could come back and say it. Qin Yiniang had no choice but to kneel down and beg Tao Mama to go and look in on Tong Yiniang. Only then did Tao Mama change her clothes and follow Qin Yiniang to the east wing room.”
“But it was already too late!” Shiyiniang said gravely.
“Tong Yiniang had already miscarried, and the bleeding would not stop; she had also lost consciousness,” Wen Yiniang nodded. “Tao Mama grew frantic then and sent someone in haste to report to the late First Madam. When the late First Madam rushed over, Tong Yiniang was already barely breathing in and barely breathing out — she clearly had no hope of surviving. The late First Madam did not dare conceal it, and quickly sent someone to report to the Senior Madam…”
“At that time, the Xu household was in the most desperate of straits,” Shiyiniang murmured softly. “The old Marquis had passed away, the Seventh Prince was embroiled in the succession struggle, the Marquis’s future was clouded with uncertainty. What the Marquis household needed most at that moment was a male heir. First, the Marquis had inherited the title and was now the main branch — the Third Master and the Fifth Master had both become branch families. If the Marquis had a descendant, the bloodline of the main branch would be continued. Second, if the late Emperor wished to move against the Xu family, the Marquis having an heir at least provided room to manoeuvre, to protect the Xu title by some means. Without one, if the Marquis had no heir, there would be no cause to justify using strength — strength could not be brought to bear. And the Yongping Marquis household would be nothing but a footnote in history.”
“Yes,” Wen Yiniang gave a faint nod. “At that time the Fifth Master was still young and had no children; the Third Master had only one elder son, and one could hardly ask the First Young Master to be adopted into the Marquis’s name and break the Third Branch’s line of incense. So when the Senior Madam saw the situation, she trembled with rage all over and did not speak a single word — she simply turned to leave. And then Qin Yiniang, who had been collapsed over Tong Yiniang’s bed weeping till she nearly died, suddenly fainted…”
“Fainted?” Shiyiniang looked at Wen Yiniang in astonishment.
“She fainted!” Wen Yiniang said with certainty. “It was the Second Madam who pinched the acupuncture point between her nose and upper lip, and then used a needle to prick her middle finger, and only by these means was she brought round.”
“So the Senior Madam decided to place Qin Yiniang in the Second Madam’s care?” Shiyiniang reflected. “And as a result, the Second Madam fulfilled the Senior Madam’s trust — Qin Yiniang gave birth safely and soundly to a healthy and lively firstborn son, Xu Siyu.”
At this point, the outline of events had grown faintly visible.
Because Yuan Niang had been very strict with the two concubines who were of maidservant origin, this had in turn shaped the attitude of the household servants toward those two concubines. When occasional factors collided with inevitable consequences, a fundamental change had occurred.
Qin Yiniang might have been somewhat slow and guileless, but she was not without sense. She was somewhat timid in the presence of sharp-witted masters like the Senior Madam, the Marquis, and the Second Madam — yet Shiyiniang had once overheard her talking with Wen Yiniang, and though her words were not exactly nimble, they were clear and comprehensible. When Tong Yiniang started bleeding, something of such magnitude — even if Qin Yiniang had been ever so frightened, even weeping, she should have gotten Yuan Niang out of bed. So how had a little maid’s single word sent her obediently off to Tao Mama’s instead? And how had she then meekly stood and waited when Tao Mama’s little maid told her to wait?
When one added to this Yi Yiniang’s words, and the look of guilt on Qin Yiniang’s face when Shiyiniang had asked her to go pay respects at the tomb of the Fifth Branch’s deceased concubine…
Something stirred in Shiyiniang’s heart. She asked Wen Yiniang: “When this affair had come to pass and the Marquis returned, how did the Senior Madam account for it to him? Do you know?”
“I know,” Wen Yiniang said. “The Senior Madam told him that Tong Yiniang’s pregnancy had not been stable, and the child had miscarried at four months. Since it happened at night, the physician did not arrive in time, and the woman could not be saved either.”
“And the Marquis?” Shiyiniang said. “Did the Marquis not ask further?”
* * *