The moment Minglan stepped through the gates of the Weibei Marquis Mansion, she sensed the atmosphere was off. Her instinct was to slip away, and she immediately smiled and said: “My maternal aunt recently sent over a jar of bracken, so I brought some for Sister Zhang. There’s nothing particularly urgent, so I’ll take my leave now.”

The one who had come out to greet her was one of Zhang Shi’s personal nannies, surnamed Fan. Minglan had met her several times before — she was the most composed of them all — yet now her eyes were faintly red. “The Marchioness of Gu is an honored guest. If you were to leave just like this, our Madam would surely fault us for not knowing our manners.”

Minglan had no choice but to follow her inside. As they walked, she asked: “Is Sister Zhang well?”

Nanny Fan’s voice was hoarse: “Something’s not quite right.” She paused, then added, “The Duke’s wife has also come, and has already gone to fetch the Duke. I was waiting outside.”

Hearing that even the Duke of Ying was being summoned, alarm bells rang loudly in Minglan’s head. But they had already reached Zhang Shi’s courtyard, and to turn around and leave at this point would be truly rude, so she had no choice but to press on, cursing herself inwardly a thousand times for her rotten luck. Had she known, she would have sent Gu Tingye in her stead!

Upon entering the main hall, she found it completely empty. Nanny Fan led Minglan straight to the side chamber west of the main room. The courtyard was full of maids and older female servants coming and going, all in a hurry, carrying water and basins, yet making very little noise. They continued westward, and before they even reached the door, voices could already be heard from inside, along with low sounds of weeping.

“…I don’t blame you for holding onto feelings for your first wife. After ten-some years of marriage, it’s only human nature.” This was the voice of Madam Zhang. “But my daughter was formally betrothed through all six rites and granted marriage by imperial decree. Are you saying my Zhang family’s daughter has no one else to marry, that she needs your brother-in-law Shen to take pity on her?!”

Then a low male voice: “Mother-in-law, please calm your anger. This matter was truly unexpected…”

Minglan was mortified. She turned and glanced at Nanny Fan, lowering her voice: “Your household has much to deal with today. Perhaps I should come another time…” Before she could finish, the maidservant standing at the doorway had already lifted the curtain and announced inside: “The Marchioness of Gu has arrived.”

— Damn, what a quick mouth, Minglan thought, gritting her teeth inwardly.

Silence fell inside the room. After a moment, Madam Zhang’s voice came from within: “Please invite her in at once.”

Minglan steeled herself and walked in. The room was already packed with people. Madam Zhang sat in a chair with a handkerchief, pressing it repeatedly to the corners of her eyes. The Weibei Marquis Shen Congxing stood at her side with a grim expression, while Xiao Zou Shi huddled in a corner, weeping quietly.

Upon seeing Minglan, Shen Congxing lowered his hands and spoke with difficulty: “Sister-in-law Gu has come.”

Minglan quickly curtsied to Madam Zhang and said: “I trust you are well, Aunt. I trust you are well, National Uncle.”

Shen Congxing was actually quite good-looking. Though past his mid-thirties, he still stood straight-backed, tall and upright, with a handsome, distinguished face. Minglan had met him several times before. Right now his face was overcast like a storm, but upon seeing Minglan, there was a flicker of relief in his eyes. It was only later that Minglan learned that before her arrival, Madam Zhang had already been crying for quite some time and had scolded Shen Congxing thoroughly in front of everyone, putting him in a very difficult position.

The atmosphere in the room was strained. Minglan had no choice but to speak first: “I received a jar of bracken today and, thinking Sister might enjoy it, brought it over. How is Sister Zhang…?” She felt her own question was rather foolish the moment she asked it. Looking at this scene, how could anyone be well?

Madam Zhang wept: “Good child, you remember her like this — I won’t forget your kindness.” She choked and said, “Guifen… she is about to give birth…”

Minglan had already guessed something of the sort, but was still mildly startled: “Isn’t it still about half a month away?” She clearly remembered that Changfeng’s wife, Liu Shi, had a due date half a month earlier than Zhang Shi’s, and Liu Shi had not yet given birth.

At these words, Madam Zhang’s fury ignited instantly. She shot a fierce glare at Xiao Zou Shi huddled in the corner, then covered her face with her handkerchief and wept: “My poor, suffering daughter…”

The Shen family was sparsely populated — there was neither a mother-in-law nor a sister-in-law, nor any older female relatives from a collateral branch. Madam Zhang was weeping bitterly, Shen Congxing could not very well step forward to comfort his mother-in-law, and there was truly no one who could go and console her. Minglan looked around the room, and could only go over and support Madam Zhang, saying gently: “Aunt, please try to compose yourself. Sister is in labor right now — it is precisely the moment when she needs you to hold yourself together. You absolutely must not lose your head.”

Madam Zhang took these words to heart, and her weeping gradually subsided. She leaned against Minglan and slowly wiped her tears. Shen Congxing felt a slight loosening in his chest.

Unfortunately, before much time had passed, a female servant with bloodstained clothes came rushing frantically into the room and threw herself to the ground with a thud, crying out: “Madam, please go quickly — the young mistress is not going to make it…”

There was a thunderous roar in Minglan’s head. Madam Zhang was already staggering toward the door, and since Minglan had been right beside her supporting her arm, she followed along without thinking.

They passed through half the courtyard and arrived at the doorway of a side chamber. Outside the room stood rows of maids and female servants, passing out basin after basin of bloody water. Never mind the women — even Shen Congxing’s heart was pounding wildly.

From inside came wave after wave of weak, pained cries. Madam Zhang called through the window lattice: “Fen’er, you mustn’t let anything happen to you…” She made to go inside, but at that moment, a nimbly dressed young manservant came rushing into the courtyard, still clutching a riding whip in his hand. He knelt down on the bluestone slab before Madam Zhang and cried out loudly: “Madam, the Duke has arrived!”

Madam Zhang stopped in her tracks and immediately called into the room: “Good child, your father is almost here! You must hold on!”

Zhang Shi seemed to hear these words, for the pained cries paused for a brief moment. Then, in an instant, a female servant inside suddenly cried out in alarm: “Something’s wrong! Quickly, the cloth!” And then, a piercing shriek, heart-wrenching and soul-shattering, as though it had torn through every person there—

“Father — your daughter has fulfilled her filial duty!”

“The Duke!” The young manservant kneeling in the courtyard suddenly cried out.

Everyone turned to look. Standing there holding a corridor pillar for support, his entire figure trembling slightly, was an old man in military attire covered in dust.

……

Xiao Shen Shi’s face was ashen. Her fingers, tightly gripping the handkerchief, had gone white to the root. “Sister-in-law… she truly said that?”

Minglan wiped the cold sweat from her forehead and said weakly: “I have never heard such a cry in all my life. I couldn’t sleep for half the night after I got home.”

Seeing that Xiao Shen Shi’s color was still quite dreadful, she added by way of comfort: “At least the baby was born safely, and both mother and child preserved their lives. Don’t take it too much to heart.”

The previous day had been a truly terrifying ordeal. In the end, even a physician had been summoned. Zhang Shi had finally given birth to a baby boy by evening. The moment Minglan saw the situation ease, she made her escape home as quickly as possible. Upon seeing Gu Tingye, she declared outright that she must have accumulated eight lifetimes’ worth of bad luck — to have stumbled into the private affairs of someone else’s household like this — then recounted everything she had witnessed and heard. Husband and wife sighed over it at length together.

Minglan worried whether this might bring trouble upon her — would anyone try to silence her?

Gu Tingye laughed at that, thought for a moment, and said: “I suspect the Zhang family intends to make this public.”

Because she had slept poorly that night, Minglan slept soundly well into the afternoon the next day. By the time afternoon arrived, someone had already come from the Zheng General’s residence to call on her.

“How did things come to such a pass, perfectly out of nowhere?” Xiao Shen Shi had also received word the previous night, but the Zheng household would not let her stir, so she sent a few female servants to make inquiries. What they reported back was not at all clear.

Minglan let out a sigh. “It started from something trivial.”

After Zhang Shi became pregnant, the physician who came to check her well-being arrived once every ten days. Each time, Xiao Zou Shi would feign some ailment — a headache, a sore foot — and detain the physician for about half a cup of tea before letting him go. It hardly delayed things significantly, but it served to add to Zhang Shi’s irritation, which gave Xiao Zou Shi some satisfaction.

Zhang Shi by nature was cool and reserved, and could not be bothered to argue with her. But the nannies attending her had long been quietly seething.

One morning, the physician arrived as usual, and Xiao Zou Shi performed her routine and detained him for a while. Unfortunately, at just that moment, Zou Shi’s eldest maternal uncle and his wife happened to come for a visit. Knowing the physician was a renowned doctor in the city who had come to take Zhang Shi’s pulse, they made a grand show of authority and had him examine them both from head to toe, along with a number of costly medications — all to be billed, of course, to the National Uncle’s household.

With that delay, nearly half a day had passed. This time, not only the nannies but even Zhang Shi was quietly incensed. They had more or less reached an unspoken understanding with Xiao Zou Shi — ordinarily, detaining the physician for a short while was one thing, but this time he had been gone for far too long.

Zhang Shi sent someone to fetch him. In a moment, a young maid returned in tears, saying that the Zou maternal uncle had declared the messenger disrespectful, and had the servants bind her and give her a beating. Zhang Shi’s anger was finally stirred. Ignoring everyone’s protests, she took her swollen belly and went personally to demand an explanation.

The Zou maternal uncle and his wife were thoroughly arrogant. They said a great many unpleasant things, humiliating Zhang Shi to her face in front of everyone. Zhang Shi grew furious, and the people on both sides began shoving each other. Xiao Zou Shi, seeing the situation turning dangerous, rushed out to mediate. In the chaos, Zhang Shi was somehow knocked to the ground. The scene erupted into disorder, and the Zou uncle and his wife took advantage of the confusion to flee back home.

The reason Minglan knew all this in such detail was that the previous day, after being frightened nearly witless, she had sat in a corner drinking tea to steady her nerves — and had heard everything while sitting there. “How could she have gone into labor so early?” — she had asked that question almost offhandedly, yet Nanny Fan, standing beside her, had immediately and without hesitation recounted the entire sequence of events, giving Minglan quite a shock. Thinking about it afterward, an experienced nanny who had been with Madam Zhang as part of her dowager household would not be the sort to speak carelessly. If she dared say all of this, then clearly the Zhang family had no intention of letting the matter rest quietly.

And the most remarkable part was yet to come.

After Zhang Shi gave birth, Madam Zhang went inside to offer a few words of comfort, and once her daughter had drifted off to sleep, she seemed as though possessed — she flew into a frantic rage and denounced Xiao Zou Shi furiously. Shen Congxing had barely offered two words in defense before Madam Zhang pointed directly at his nose and berated him as blind.

Then one of the nannies knelt down and announced in a loud voice: “Does the Marquis truly believe Zou Yiniang is a good person? She has been deceiving you for a very long time.”

She then laid bare the matter of Xiao Zou Shi jumping into the water to save the child of the Elder Zou Shi — claiming it had all been a fabrication. It turned out that at the time, her pregnancy had already been unstable, and the physician had long said the child could not be saved. So the Zou family had conspired to stage this scene, so that Shen Congxing would always remember Xiao Zou Shi’s devotion to him.

Naturally, Xiao Zou Shi refused to admit it. Madam Zhang declared that her daughter had long since investigated the matter thoroughly, but had held her tongue for the sake of household harmony. Now that things had come to this point, she no longer cared about anything — the physician who had attended to Xiao Zou Shi’s pulse at the time, the physician who examined her after she fell into the water, the prescriptions from before and after, and the female servant who had lured the child to the edge of the pond…

It was when Madam Zhang went out to summon the witnesses and evidence that Minglan seized her chance and made her swift escape.

Xiao Shen Shi’s lips were trembling violently: “…The Zou family… how dare they deceive us like that!”

Minglan gave her hand a consoling pat: “You thought so warmly of the late Sister-in-law, and it was out of that feeling that you treated the Zou family so generously. It’s not your fault.”

Xiao Shen Shi sat in a daze for a long moment, her expression shifting through several fleeting changes. Then, all at once, she collapsed against the headboard and broke into unrestrained sobs. Minglan was startled and quickly asked what was the matter, and only then did she learn the truth through her weeping.

“…I — I didn’t resent Sister-in-law because of the late one! I was deliberately kind to Zou Yiniang because… before we came to the capital, the Zhang family was already in the midst of betrothal negotiations with the Zheng family. It was only delayed because of the late Emperor’s passing. My… my husband had originally been meant to marry that Zhang Shi!”

Xiao Shen Shi wept until her face was flushed crimson, as though utterly overcome with shame. “…After I married in, my parents-in-law, brothers- and sisters-in-law — all of them could not have been kinder. And my husband treated me with such… Every time I thought about Sister-in-law living so unhappily, I felt just as though I’d stolen something. It weighed on me terribly…”

Minglan’s jaw dropped open, and her mind was in confusion for quite some time: “You heartless thing — if that’s how you felt, you should have treated her all the better for it!”

“I know I was wrong, I know it! From now on I will truly treat her well… I won’t pick fights with her anymore…”

Xiao Shen Shi wept until she could not speak, and threw herself against Minglan’s arm, sobbing without end. Minglan had no choice but to pat her on the back and offer comfort for a long while before Xiao Shen Shi gradually settled.

Zheng Da Furen walked in, followed by two female servants carrying bowls of broth. She had them set the bowls down and dismissed the servants, then sat down at the edge of Xiao Shen Shi’s bed and said gently: “You child — I told you not to go asking about it, yet you insisted on knowing every detail. Now that you know, you mustn’t keep fretting over it anymore… And you’ve been crying too — such a child you are…”

Xiao Shen Shi leaned against Zheng Da Furen and said quietly: “I’ve worried Sister-in-law. I will take good care of myself.”

“That’s the right spirit.” Zheng Da Furen stroked her head, then turned to Minglan with a smile: “You’ve seen a rather embarrassing scene today.”

Minglan waved her hands repeatedly to say it was nothing of the sort. But her heart went to that pale, fragile young woman — ah, had fate not been so unkind, the one leaning now in the arms of a warmhearted elder sister-in-law, peacefully tending to her pregnancy, ought to have been Zhang Shi.

When she returned to the mansion, she found Gu Tingye already back in their room, sitting in the rattan chair and amusing the little chubby one. Minglan changed her clothes and leaned over to sit beside him, then slowly recounted the day’s events. Gu Tingye listened, then shook his head with some displeasure: “This whole business has caused even the old Duke to fall ill — he did not attend morning court today.”

The Duke of Ying was by no means young. To earn the new Emperor’s trust and confidence, he had been exerting himself doubly hard.

Zhang Shi was the late-born daughter of the Duke of Ying and his wife, pampered dearly all her life. They had kept her at home until she was seventeen or eighteen without finding a husband who suited them, and her marriage to Shen Congxing had been one of necessity. The previous day, the old Duke had ridden hard from the western suburban camp, hurried all the way back, stepped into his daughter’s courtyard — and then heard that agonizing cry. Combined with the accumulated exhaustion of recent days, he had gone home and collapsed.

“The Emperor sent a physician to attend him. The physician said the old gentleman had been overworked for many days, and then received a sudden terrible shock, causing his blood to go out of harmony and his fundamental vitality to be injured.”

Gu Tingye sat their son on his lap and bounced him up and down. The little round ball of flesh giggled with delight, stretching out two plump little arms to circle around his father’s neck. Minglan lifted her handkerchief to dab the fine beads of sweat on the child’s forehead.

“After the morning court session, the Emperor went directly to the Empress’s palace chambers. Within no more than two hours, an imperial decree was sent from the palace to the National Uncle’s household — Zou Yiniang’s imperial title was stripped, she received fifty slaps from two palace nannies, and she was ordered to behave herself going forward and not cause further trouble.”

Minglan gave a soft sigh: “I heard from Zheng Da Furen that the National Uncle had actually already had Zou Yiniang confined to her quarters.” Fifty slaps — her face had likely been broken open from the blows.

Gu Tingye said: “The Emperor has been intending to use military force recently, and it is precisely the time when the Duke of Ying is needed. Yet now Shen’s household has brought on this trouble at exactly the wrong moment. How could the Emperor not be angered?” He had never approved of the Shen family’s attitude toward the Zou family. Gratitude is one thing, and right conduct is another — elevating a concubine to greater standing than the legitimate wife is a recipe for bringing a household into disorder. If one truly wished to repay Elder Zou Shi’s kindness, there were other ways to do it. Walking this crooked path had both harmed Xiao Zou Shi and implicated Shen Congxing himself, and might well end up dragging down Elder Zou Shi’s own children too.

“Word has come from the palace that the Emperor appears to have reprimanded the Empress.”

The palace walls had ears everywhere, and powerful families all kept their ear to the ground to varying degrees — Gu Tingye was naturally no exception.

“Was this first Madam Zou really such a remarkable person?” Minglan could not help asking.

Gu Tingye sighed: “A woman of true virtue and integrity — she gave of herself wholeheartedly, holding nothing back. When she passed, Shen very nearly didn’t survive it.”

Minglan arched one delicate brow and said with a light scoff: “But he did survive, didn’t he. Now he holds a high position, with a pretty wife and lovely concubine.”

— Impressive that he managed to endure it, she thought. Never mind glory for the ancestors or wealth and honor — if he truly couldn’t go on, he simply didn’t have to remarry. Hmph. Playing the devoted man — who couldn’t do that? She didn’t believe for one moment that the Emperor would have had his head for refusing to take another wife.

Gu Tingye watched her steadily. She had a slight pout on her lips, her brow faintly furrowed, an expression of barely-concealed disdain that she herself seemed unaware of.

“When deep feeling meets an unkind fate, it will always be a sorrow…” he said with feeling.

“But when feeling is shallow and fate is deep, the result is a mismatched couple.” The words flew out of Minglan’s mouth before she could stop them.

Gu Tingye immediately turned a reproachful glare on her: “In this world there are also those with both deep feeling and deep fate — couples who grow old together!”

Minglan quickly agreed: “Yes, yes, that’s true.” Simply admitting the mistake was not enough — she hurried to provide a supporting example: “The family of Elder Yu — aren’t he and his wife the picture of a devoted couple who have loved each other all their lives?”

Gu Tingye was at a loss for words. He raised his thick brows and stared at her for a long moment, then suddenly deflated, and sighed in resignation, reaching out to ruffle the hair at Minglan’s temples. Then he gathered this unreasonable wife of his, along with their son, into his arms — mismatched couple they might be, so long as they could live out their days together.

……

At that moment, there was more than one mismatched couple in need of consolation.

In the Weibei Marquis Mansion, in the side chamber of the main courtyard, the faint lingering smell of blood from a recent birth still hung in the air. Madam Zhang sat upright in the chair by the bed, her face bearing not a trace of the grief and devastation of the day before.

“This time even your father has been struck ill. If you still can’t see things clearly and squarely, you are unworthy of being a daughter of the Zhang family.”

Zhang Shi had just changed into a fresh set of inner garments. After hearing what had just been said, she murmured hesitantly: “Mother, there’s no need to…”

“No need?!” Madam Zhang erupted in fury. She raised a hand and pointed at the infant cradled in the arms of a nanny beside the bed, raising her voice: “You are a daughter of our Zhang family, the legitimate wife of this Marquis household. And yet the servants of this household dared to lay hands on you — which proves just how far the Zou woman has extended her reach! Today they dare to shove you — tomorrow they might dare to take this child’s life!”

Seeing that her daughter had lowered her head and said nothing, Madam Zhang gave a cold laugh: “You had best see things plainly! You have married out, after all — how much can your own family truly help you? No matter how much effort they put in, it ultimately depends on yourself. While your father and I are still living, we can help. But once we are gone, and your elder brother and his wife are running the household — that is another layer of distance between you. What future then for this child?”

Zhang Shi lifted her head, a flicker of something stirring in her expression.

Madam Zhang pressed on earnestly: “A woman may be weak, but the moment she becomes a mother, she becomes strong. If you were alone in this, so be it — even if the worst came to pass, it would only be two old people heartbroken for a time. But now you have a child. Can you bear to see him live a crouching, cowering existence — neglected by his father, bullied by older siblings, looked down upon by the servants?”

The infant seemed to understand, letting out soft little sounds like a tiny kitten. Zhang Shi immediately took him into her arms. Looking at his small, red, wrinkled face, every last shred of her pride and lofty spirit dissolved, transforming entirely into a wave of maternal love.

She kissed the infant’s little face again and again, tears falling as she spoke: “Mother is right. I was thinking about things the wrong way. But now…”

The nanny who had been holding the infant quickly wiped Zhang Shi’s tears for her, then took the baby back: “My dear young mistress, you absolutely must not let tears fall during your confinement month. Today the palace sent people to administer slaps, and knocked out several of that wretched woman’s teeth. As long as you have the will, everything else can be managed. The Zou family, with their broken-down household — do they really think they can match themselves against ours? Hmph, they must be tired of living!”

Madam Zhang, seeing that her daughter’s resolve had turned, finally let a faint smile come to her face: “We are not cruel people by nature. Our original thought was that since Madam Zou died early, if you could simply get on amicably with her younger sister, that would have been perfectly acceptable. But who could have known that wretched woman would dare use her elder sister’s own children as props in a performance? The moment I knew that, I understood that her heart was not good, and that she would have to be dealt with…”

Zhang Shi suddenly raised her head: “Mother, when I first wanted to tell the Marquis, why did you stop me?”

“Foolish girl — what good would it have done to say it then? After all, it was she who had lost a child. The National Uncle might even have pitied her for it. Evidence like that must be kept in reserve until a critical moment, so that when it is used, it strikes with decisive force!”

Gazing at her mother’s cold, composed expression, Zhang Shi felt a chill in her heart.

The nanny, seeing Zhang Shi’s face still clouded with confusion, spoke with respectful deference to Madam Zhang: “The young mistress was raised at my breast — she was born with a guileless nature, how would she know these things? Madam, you will have to teach her gradually.”

Still patting the infant, the nanny continued: “The Shen family wronged her too — not only did they grant that wretched woman an imperial title, they elevated her at every turn, until the young mistress could neither touch her nor avoid being manipulated by her. No wonder she was so stifled. Well, things are different now. Let’s see if that wretched woman dares to step out of line again!”

Madam Zhang said gravely: “Even so — none of you are to lay a hand on her going forward!”

The nanny was puzzled: “Madam, why is that?”

“If she were truly gone, the National Uncle would start grieving for her again.” Madam Zhang gave several icy laughs. “I intend to keep the Zou family right where they are, so that those brothers of theirs will keep on causing trouble, dragging the Marquis household into one mess after another — all to be cleaned up by the Marquis himself. And you will still have to gently urge your husband to help. I want to see just how long his so-called deep devotion can hold up after being worn down day after day.”

The nanny laughed: “Understood, Your Lady’s servant. We will certainly not cause you any trouble.” She paused, then added, “Hmph — Madam and the young mistress are both of merciful hearts, yet the Zou woman still dared to trample on the Zhang family’s head. Did she not think to ask around first about who she was dealing with? It’s fortunate that Madam had prepared for this in advance.”

Zhang Shi said quietly: “Mother, I am completely recovered. Have the physicians sent home.”

In truth, the fall she had taken at the time had not been especially severe, and her life had not been in genuine danger during childbirth. It was only that in the midst of unbearable pain, feeling that her lot in life was pitiless and hopeless, she had cried out from the depths of despair — and now she understood it had all been her mother’s arrangement.

“Young mistress, that simply won’t do,” the nanny said at once. “Since we have put on this show, we must play it through to the end. That physician is one of our own people. Even if he is not treating any real illness, it is still proper to attend carefully to your recuperation. And later, young mistress, when you have given birth to a few more sons, old servant here will take care of them all for you.”

Zhang Shi looked at her old nurse’s face, full of tender affection, and felt a bittersweet ache in her heart.

“You and your husband have been cold to each other like this for so long — it’s no way to go on. You are thin-skinned and too proud to lower yourself first, so I needed to find you a stepping stone — if not this occasion, it would have been another.” Madam Zhang said with gravity: “This time has been a good opportunity. Not only has half the trouble been done away with — your husband must at this moment feel guilt and remorse toward you. When he next comes to see you, you must not give him a cold face again. For the sake of the child, you must yield and soften. When the moment calls for tears, cry. When you have grievances, speak them. When the time calls for gentleness, be gentle. Keep hold of that man for me — do you hear?”

Zhang Shi’s face burned, and she felt immense humiliation: “Mother, I’m afraid I’m not capable of that…”

“Not capable, you will make yourself capable!” Madam Zhang raised her voice sharply.

Zhang Shi’s body trembled, and the infant was startled into crying. The nanny quickly soothed him with a stream of gentle sounds.

Madam Zhang lowered her manner and said quietly: “Fen’er, do you remember Madam Liang from the Yongchang Marquis household?”

Zhang Shi nodded: “Mother has spoken of her before.”

Madam Zhang recalled the past with great sadness: “Ah, she was a close friend of mine from childhood — truly, in nature, exactly like you. At the time, she too had married someone she was not pleased with, and so she put on her small airs, keeping a cold face day after day. The rift between husband and wife grew, giving an opportunity to a chamber concubine, who managed to bear a son before her. Ah… I went to advise her, but she wouldn’t listen. And things have dragged on to this day — the illegitimate eldest son has now climbed above both her and her own children in standing.”

In fact, an illegitimate eldest son in a great household was not unusual. But once a legitimate son existed, the principal wife ought to make her plans early — either draw the illegitimate eldest to her side and cultivate genuine affection with him, or decisively see that he was raised poorly, to eliminate that future threat. For Madam Liang to have maintained such cool disdain and detachment, keeping her hands entirely clean and watching from afar — only to raise up an illegitimate eldest who had learned to swallow his resentments and was both sharp and capable — that was a truly rare outcome.

The affairs of the Yongchang Marquis household were naturally something Zhang Shi had heard of. Now, hearing the inner particulars, she felt a very different kind of weight in her heart.

Madam Zhang stood, then came and sat beside her daughter, stroking her back with tender affection: “Fen’er, where in this world is there anything that goes entirely as one wishes? The good days must be lived, and so too must the difficult ones — and they must be lived well.”

Zhang Shi held back her tears and nodded.

Madam Zhang held her daughter’s shoulders and said in a slow, distant voice: “Years ago, when I was granted an audience with the Empress Jing’an, she said a few words to those of us young women present — ‘Do not always say it is fate. If you do not press down upon fate, fate will press down upon you.'”

None of Madam Zhang’s usual gentleness and warmth was visible now. Her gaze was resolute, and her voice was low and deliberate: “The Empress Jing’an was such a good person — what a pity that she fell victim to the schemes of villains and was taken too soon. But those words of hers, I have kept in my heart to this very day, and I will not forget them for as long as I live! You — you must remember them too!”