What had begun that evening as a clear interrogation of Lin Yiniang’s culpability had somehow, at some point impossible to identify, gone entirely off course. The accused had become the accuser. The original matter — investigating the cause of Wei Yiniang’s death — had somehow, without anyone quite noticing how, transformed into a thorough investigation of a case in which the first wife was persecuting and oppressing a secondary wife. The transition had unfolded so subtly and fluidly, like an antelope hanging by its horns in the night — no trace to be found, no footprint to follow. The audience, without quite realizing how it had happened, found themselves entirely drawn into this reframing. In truth, listening carefully, Lin Yiniang had not directly accused Wang Shi of anything. And yet somehow every single word she spoke seemed to hint at something — so much so that even Yao Yiyi, a professional who had spent years attending court hearings, found herself listening along and coming away with the impression that Wang Shi had wronged and framed this woman.
Lin Yiniang’s dramatic sacrifice of dignity produced swift results. Sheng Hong suspended his disciplinary measures, and the very next day went to Lin Yiniang’s rooms and sat briefly with her. Lin Yiniang dismissed the others present and, with a small covered cup in the official Chenghua style painted with polychrome designs, brewed Sheng Hong a rich and full-bodied pot of Tieguanyin tea — steeped to exactly the depth he had always preferred. When he then saw Lin Yiniang in nothing but a thin and simple white silk garment, her full dark hair dressed in a single cloud-bun with only a small plain silver hairpin of twisted wire and flower motif — not a single ornament of pearl or jade — a look of genuine, unadorned fragility upon her beautiful face, like a delicate flower barely holding itself upright — by the time he arrived, whatever anger had burned in him, half of it had already cooled and retreated.
“You said yesterday, before everyone else, that you had nothing whatsoever to do with Wei Yiniang’s death — is that truly your position?” Sheng Hong spoke coldly. He had, at least, spent enough years navigating the official world that he still remembered what he had come to discuss.
Lin Yiniang’s eyes glistened with tears. “Master preserved my dignity by not pressing me in front of others — how could I not know it? Since Master has come today to speak with me privately, I too am willing to lay everything out plainly. Wei Yiniang was brought in for Master’s sake. And before her, there was one after another — Xiang Yiniang, and Ping Yiniang. Everyone in this household, from top to bottom, understands why — it is simply because they could see that Master cherishes and dotes on me, and Madam was displeased. In this household, I stand alone and unsupported. Without some reliable and capable people around me, I do not know how I would be mistreated. I could not let Feng Ge’er and Miss Mo suffer either. And so I kept my gate closed, kept my own affairs to myself, and made it a practice never to involve myself in anything. I did this for one reason only: to keep myself safe. That night, when the incident with Wei younger sister began — yes, I did hold back, in my heart. I did not want to get entangled in it. But to say I deliberately intended to take her life — that is a false and groundless accusation. Hong-Lang, Hong-Lang — I may have ten thousand faults, but please — consider Feng Ge’er and Miss Mo. The teacher was only just the other day praising Feng Ge’er for how well he has been reading.”
Sheng Hong’s heart stirred. He made no response, lifted the teacup, and drank. Lin Yiniang slowly moved to sit beside him, her head resting gently against his shoulder, and continued in a soft voice: “Hong-Lang — I know your nature thoroughly. When we first pledged ourselves to each other, you gave me your word — you swore you would never let anyone make me suffer indignities. It was for that reason alone that you set up a source of income for me — land and shops to give me some standing within this household, to let me hold my head up. Your kindness toward me, Hong-Lang — how could I not know it? If I had acted with the cruelty and treachery of a wolf, may Heaven and Earth strike me down.”
Her voice came in soft, winding tones — a sweetness so thoroughly integrated into her very nature that even a solemn oath emerged from her lips sounding like a tender murmur. Sheng Hong felt his expression gradually ease. He was about to reach out and draw Lin Yiniang close — and then, suddenly, the words he had spoken to the Old Madam of the Sheng household came back to him. He withdrew his hand and pushed Lin Yiniang back.
Lin Yiniang, who had always had an instinctive feel for Sheng Hong’s temperament, had not expected to be pushed away. But not a trace of it showed on her face. She simply looked up at Sheng Hong with eyes still shimmering with tears. Sheng Hong held her gaze for a moment, then spoke in a low, steady voice: “The matter of Wei Yiniang will be considered closed here. I will instruct the household — no one is to speak of it again. But from this day forward, I have several things I need to make clear to you.”
He clasped his hands behind his back and stood at the edge of the platform. “In this matter, I too bear fault — for doting on you excessively and indulgently, until I lost sight of the teachings of the sages. The principle is: seniority must be observed, and primary and secondary must be clearly distinguished. A household like ours does not engage in the practice of merchants and tradespeople — the nonsense of calling a concubine an equal wife, which is a disgrace. No matter how wrong she may be in ten thousand ways, she is the first and you are the second. You owe her the proper observances of courtesy. From this day on, you will dismantle your separate private kitchen. I will also discontinue the personal allowances I have been providing you. The number of maids and serving women in your quarters will be the same as for everyone else in the household — nothing more generous, nothing more lavish. If you wish to give gifts to people, you may spend from your own funds. All matters will follow the household regulations. I imagine that over these years you have accumulated considerable personal savings — more than enough for your needs. You are to observe proper conduct going forward. Pay your respects to Madam daily. If you are unwell, every other day will suffice. But have the people in your quarters exercise restraint — they are not to speak impertinently or without proper deference toward Madam. If I hear of any such conduct, they will be beaten and sold without exception.”
Lin Yiniang’s expression drained of all color, her heart running cold. She was about to begin her defense — but Sheng Hong did not pause. He continued: “I am not an unreasonable man. I know that you and Madam have been at odds for a long time, and I do not expect you to become warm companions overnight. But you are to make the first gesture of submission. I will not take back those properties I gave you — that is still yours to rely upon. But the managers who oversee them can no longer be appointed by you on your own authority. Those two kinsmen of yours in Quanzhou spent their days drinking and attending entertainments, their display of importance exceeding even my own — that kind of person is never to be engaged again. Their conduct reflects upon the name of the Sheng household, and that I will not allow. As for Feng Ge’er and Miss Mo — they shall remain with you. If you truly have their good at heart, you would not have allowed things to come to this point. Think of those two children now.”
Lin Yiniang had come prepared with a great many things she wanted to say. Yet when she heard Sheng Hong’s final words, she fell silent. She understood that Sheng Hong needed to continue his official career — needed to maintain an unblemished record of personal conduct — and so could not allow anyone to seize upon flaws in his private life. What Sheng Hong had just laid out amounted to requiring her to accept a position of submission and reduced standing — but he had not stripped her of her property, and he had not separated her from her children. This was the bottom line. Her involvement in Wei Yiniang’s death had been, in truth, very substantial. To have the matter dissolved and put away like this was already a remarkable stroke of fortune. She was a perceptive woman, and she knew when to acknowledge success and step back. Whatever resentment burned inside her, she ground it down and swallowed it. She rallied herself, summoned her composure, and turned her attention toward being warm and agreeable with Sheng Hong.
After spending a comfortable interval in Lin Yiniang’s quarters, Sheng Hong proceeded directly to Wang Shi’s main rooms — there was still a harder battle to be fought.
He came to Wang Shi’s rooms and, as before, dismissed all the servants, leaving only the two of them in the inner chamber to talk. After relaying to Wang Shi what he had just discussed with Lin Yiniang, Wang Shi’s face flushed with barely suppressed anger. “Your heart’s treasure — when have I ever dared to say a word? You manage things however you wish — when have I ever dared object?”
Sheng Hong drew a slow, deep breath. “Don’t think I don’t know. I have only two questions for you. First — Senior Master Wei’s household was perfectly well, with nothing wrong at all. Yet you chose, of all times, to arrange for the two of us to visit them precisely in the days before Wei Yiniang was due to give birth. Second — there were four serving women in this household who knew how to assist with childbirth, one of them an attendant you brought from your own family on your wedding day. Whose orders have those women always followed? You know better than I do. Third — how did it come about that I returned to the house so conveniently — arriving just in time to see Wei Yiniang’s final moments?”
Wang Shi’s heart gave a small jolt inwardly, though her outward manner remained unhurried. “I have done nothing in my life to weigh upon my conscience — no ghost comes knocking in the night for me. On the day I left, I had a physician examine Wei Yiniang specifically — and she was found to be in perfectly sound health. The physician in question was none other than Physician Liao — the one Master trusts most. If Master does not believe me, go and ask him yourself. He confirmed that Wei Yiniang had worked hard throughout her life before she was married, that her physical constitution was naturally robust, and that she would very likely be able to deliver without a midwife. But once I was gone, Lin Yiniang took it upon herself to slip cold and harmful things into Wei Yiniang’s food and drink, day after day — and that is what caused the labor to become obstructed. Lin Yiniang has money and connections enough — people inside and outside the household who answer to her. Even if my wedding attendants refused to act for her, she certainly had no shortage of people she could use. She is simply too clever with words, and Old Madam — Old Madam listens to everything she says. There are midwives all over Quanzhou — yet Lin Yiniang dragged the matter on for hours before finally sending for one. Whether it was Lin Yiniang’s deliberate intention or her household’s willful negligence — the responsibility lies with her. Hmph. My own hands are clean and I stand without shame. Yes, I used a small stratagem or two — but it was only to observe how Lin Yiniang would respond. Had she held no murderous intent, Wei Yiniang would have been perfectly safe managing on her own in her own courtyard, with no one lifting a finger to help — and still delivered the child without incident.”
Sheng Hong did not dispute this. Instead, he nodded repeatedly. “The full details of this matter, I have long since investigated and verified. In this affair, Lin Yiniang bears very significant responsibility. But to say that she truly intended to kill anyone — it doesn’t quite rise to that. One can only say that Wei Yiniang’s fate was thin — and that the two circumstances converged precisely on that day. As for your wedding attendants — they had always been at odds with Lin Yiniang on their own account, and their delay was not an intentional act. Things have come to this pass. Do you really expect me to actually have Lin Yiniang executed to pay for a life? If those two children were to harbor resentment — how could this household ever know peace?”
Wang Shi’s anger flared. She twisted away from Sheng Hong and refused to look at him, squeezing and wringing her handkerchief.
Sheng Hong sat down beside Wang Shi and spoke to her in a gentle, measured tone: “These past years, you have endured much. Have no fear — from this point forward, I will no longer indulge Lin Yiniang as I have done. You are her senior and she is secondary. You are the wife I wed through full and proper rites — the woman who will share with me the honor of the ancestral hall in years to come. No matter what Lin Yiniang does, she can never surpass you. She is the one who should be greeting you each morning and evening, pouring your water, and waiting upon you.”
Wang Shi felt a flash of pleasure and looked back at him with a smile. “And you can bring yourself to that?”
Sheng Hong embraced Wang Shi’s waist and gently stroked her. “There is nothing I cannot bring myself to. In all matters, the honor and standing of the Sheng household must come first. Lin Yiniang, however important she may seem, cannot be more important than the dignity of this entire household. You must step into the role of a first wife of proper bearing. But remember — you must first observe your own conduct correctly. If you yourself do not stand on upright ground, how can you expect others to submit? The Old Madam…”
Wang Shi, under these gentle attentions from Sheng Hong, had already half-melted inwardly. It had been so long since they had been this close and warm together. “I know I have my own failings. Have no fear — as long as she keeps to her proper place, I will not oppress her, and I won’t lose my temper and make scenes with you anymore. The children are all this old now — would I really lower myself to compete with her for jealousy and rivalry?”
Sheng Hong, sensing Wang Shi’s tone soften considerably, pressed forward — drawing Wang Shi close and speaking softly in her ear, coaxing and playful, until Wang Shi’s cheeks flushed red and her breath grew warm: “My dear — you are a young miss of a great household, and you understand well that a disordered household is a ruined household. Let us look forward from here. Hualan will be coming of age soon — the matter of her marriage is right before us. If any unsavory matters from this household were to circulate outside, would that not harm Hualan’s prospects? Hualan is my firstborn daughter — and she is legitimate-born. I want to find her a husband who is the very best in all things. At that time, I intend to enjoy the full authority of a father-in-law.”
Wang Shi’s face broke into a beaming smile. “Master is absolutely right. I shall listen to Master in all things.”
Yao Yiyi lay in the adjoining room. Yesterday she had finally, for the first time, managed to drink a full bowl of fragrant chicken-shred and rice porridge — and today she felt somewhat more spirited. She lay sideways on the cushion platform, unable to sleep. Once again, against her will, she had heard every word of a private conversation between a married couple.
Well — how to put it?
The disorder of the Sheng household had its roots in the rise of Lin Yiniang. And it must be said that her choice to give up the possibility of becoming a proper wife to someone outside, in order to become a secondary wife within this household, showed that she had read Sheng Hong correctly from the very start — she aimed precisely. She was no Yoer — the unwitting secondary wife from the famous novel, taken in without quite understanding her situation. She had chosen Sheng Hong because she understood that he was a man whose temperament would not be ruled by a wife. She also understood the loneliness and difficulty of Sheng Hong’s early years as a secondary-born child, and she used that understanding as her precise point of entry — securing for herself an unassailable position within the Sheng household.
Yao Yiyi felt there was little point in placing blame on Master Sheng Hong the elder. One could only observe that a man’s capacity to forgive the woman he loves is without principle, while the respect he shows a wife he does not particularly love is entirely conditional. Sheng Hong, a educated man of his era, did observe the rules of propriety — but as an ambitious young official with a measure of idealism about him, he still had genuine needs when it came to feeling and connection. To him, Wang Shi was very much an arranged marriage. Had the two of them worked to nurture the relationship after the wedding, even an arranged marriage can grow into a bond of deep devotion. Unfortunately, Wang Shi made too many mistakes in this regard. Lin Yiniang, on the other hand, was for Sheng Hong the product of freely chosen love — two people carrying on in secret, hidden from the rest of the world, suppressed and forbidden — and the more suppressed a feeling, the more intensely it burns. At that time, Sheng Hong had doubtless been genuinely moved in his heart.
Xu Zhimo’s ardent devotion to Lin Huiyin and Lu Xiaoman, contrasted with his cold and heartless treatment of Zhang Youyi, made it almost impossible to believe these could be the actions of the same person. Measured against that celebrated poet, Sheng Hong still showed considerably more restraint.
It must be said that Lin Yiniang had a keen eye and even better fortune. Sheng Hong was not the weak and foolish type — he had climbed from secondary-born status to the position he held today entirely through his own efforts. He understood very clearly that the two most common ways in which a concubine is made to suffer at the hands of a primary wife are: the comforts of daily life, and the raising of children. And so, in one decisive stroke, he solved both problems by giving Lin Yiniang an independent source of income. With money, the spine naturally straightens. And he had also broken precedent, insisting that Lin Yiniang raise her own children herself.
But this, in turn, meant that all proper hierarchy dissolved. As time went on, Lin Yiniang bore children, and Wang Shi found herself unable to reclaim Sheng Hong’s affection. Lin Yiniang’s position grew increasingly secure, and she began to cultivate her own supporters. Gradually she reached a point of rivaling Wang Shi’s authority — a two-faction household, from top to bottom, with the flames of their conflict burning hotter with every passing season. And Yao Yiyi’s current body’s birth mother — Wei Yiniang — had been precisely the innocent bystander caught in the crossfire of this standoff between wife and concubines.
The Guliang Commentary states: “Do not elevate a concubine to the position of a wife.” This was to say — a concubine had no standing to be legitimized as a primary wife. A man with concubines and no wife was still counted, by convention, as unmarried. If a primary wife died, the husband — even if surrounded by chambers full of concubines — was still considered a widower and was expected to seek a proper wife from a good family through proper betrothal rites.
But rules are fixed while people are not — and besides, this was only a social convention, not a matter of law. And so there were always those who slipped through the net. Such was the happy case of Jiao Xing in the famous novel — a rare fortunate few whose concubine status was legitimized. Such examples were not common, but they were not unheard of.
Yao Yiyi was a person who dealt in law. She understood that at its core, the laws of feudal society existed to protect men’s interests. Once the entirety of a man’s interests and attachments transferred themselves to a woman other than the primary wife — the primary wife yielding her place, however sorrowfully, was a pattern that had always existed. Tragic — but fortunately, not frequent.
The unfortunate Chen Shimeye who was struck down by the legendary judge’s blade was not punished for taking a second wife while the first was still living — but because he had committed a murder. A man was not executed for bigamy. Of course, in the feudal world of strict propriety, a man like Sheng Hong who had ambitions for his official career could not afford to let any such matter damage his reputation.
In those first years, Sheng Hong had plunged himself into the sea of his feeling for Lin Yiniang — unwilling to return to shore. Yet he was, after all, a man of reason and principle — a feudal scholar-official, not a Republic-era poet whose mission was to break through feudal constraints. His ardor for Lin Yiniang was bound, eventually, to cool. And the intervention of Wang Shi’s maternal family accelerated the process.
The Wang family contributed resources and people, and even devised the strategy of the beautiful distraction — not a new scheme by any means, but perennially effective. From ancient palaces to ordinary households, it had worked reliably for generations. However — no one anticipated that Lin Yiniang’s fighting capacity would prove so formidable. Even sending several quite attractive young women to catch Sheng Hong’s eye had done nothing to draw him back. After all, Lin Yiniang was from an educated family background and possessed both beauty and refinement — when it came to talking with Sheng Hong about poetry and literature and the elegancies of life, even Wang Shi herself could not hold her own — let alone a few maidservants.
And so Wang Shi changed tactics entirely and found a young woman from an ordinary family who was in difficult straits — Wei Shi. She may not have had the most refined upbringing, but she possessed the single most direct and immediately effective advantage any woman could offer — beauty.
Sure enough: in matters of the heart, a thousand pounds of true love cannot compete with a single ounce of physical beauty. The moment Sheng Hong laid eyes on Wei Shi, he was captivated. She could not read — no matter, he would teach her. She knew nothing of poetry or painting or calligraphy — no matter, he would guide her. With her always at his side and her sleeve close to his, what pleasant evenings they passed. What’s more, Wei Shi had a gentle and honest nature, and Sheng Hong found that he had genuinely grown fond of her.
At this, Lin Yiniang grew alarmed. What she relied upon entirely was Sheng Hong’s favor. How could she allow anyone to sleep peacefully so close to her own territory? She was absolutely unwilling to let anyone trespass into what she considered her domain. She set out to make Wei Yiniang’s life very difficult — her initial intention had not been to take her life, only to cause her to lose the child, and ideally to ruin her health in the process as well.
But Wei Yiniang’s luck ran catastrophically against her, and she died all at once.
Wei Yiniang’s death jolted Sheng Hong into sudden clarity. Whatever the depth of his feeling for Wei Yiniang may have been — incomparable to what he felt for Lin Yiniang — she had still been a woman who shared his bed. Seeing her lying dead in a pool of blood, Sheng Hong finally understood that the internal conflicts within his household had reached a point of dangerous escalation. As an official who had spent years posted away from the capital in real administrative roles, Sheng Hong knew perfectly well that Wei Yiniang’s death was in truth the product of a household whose proper order had completely collapsed.
The savagery of the conflict between wife and concubines sent a chill through Sheng Hong. And so he resolved to take matters in hand — to restore a proper hierarchy to the family, it was necessary to abandon his excessive favoring of Lin Yiniang, to step back from that sea of feeling, and to stand in the position of the household’s patriarch — managing the family with evenhandedness and impartial authority.
Even so, he still did not dare to deliver Lin Yiniang and her children entirely into Wang Shi’s hands. He understood that the enmity between these two women was not something that could be smoothed away in a day or two.
Wang Shi had, in this exchange, obtained the essentials of what she wanted. Even if she still could not surpass Lin Yiniang in the matter of romantic love, she had at least recovered her singular standing as the undisputed mistress of the household. A primary wife is always alert and wary where concubines are concerned — particularly when faced with one of elevated standing — her sense of threat is all the sharper. Just as someone once said: it is either the east wind pressing down on the west wind, or the west wind pressing down on the east.
The reason a woman of high standing — like the first wife in the famous novel — could be so indifferent and unconcerned about her husband’s lesser concubine was that the disparity in their positions was simply so enormous as to make comparison absurd: one from a family of great wealth and power, the other a woman whose entire family were bondservants — not even free people — and who herself had been born into servitude.
The reason, on the other hand, that Wang Xifeng was so deeply threatened by Yoer while being entirely unbothered by Autumn Pear was precisely because Yoer was a noble concubine — and moreover, Wang Xifeng had been married for years and was already past twenty, still without a son to her name. By the rules of the time, this was already grounds for her husband to take a concubine without anyone’s objection — and it was only because of her powerful maternal family’s backing that no one had said a word. Once Yoer gave birth to a son, even if she would not displace Wang Xifeng outright, it would at the very least threaten her position. And so the moment Wang Xifeng heard about Yoer, she drew her blade and moved without hesitation.
The contest between wife and concubine is an exceedingly complex equation — encompassing intelligence, endurance, courage, family background, personal character, and of course luck. The odds, in general, still favor the wife. A concubine may hold a position of great practical influence — may effectively run a household — but the possibility of being formally elevated to the status of primary wife remains, even then, not particularly high.
Across the entirety of that long famous novel, with all its ill-fated women, only one — Jiao Xing — enjoyed that stroke of fortune. Whether the beloved attendant and the other unfortunate concubine were ever formally elevated in the continuation remains uncertain. And even if they were, it was a time of poverty and ruin for their respective households — hardly anything to celebrate.
And this poor Wei Yiniang was simply one of many ill-fated secondary wives. Her death was like a single small ripple in a vast sea — stirring a brief commotion, then swallowed silently without a trace. Afterward, Sheng Hong and Wang Shi, in the name of maintaining the household’s dignity and reputation, proceeded methodically to replace the servants — and Lin Yiniang herself, of course, would never speak of it. Gradually, no one in the Sheng household spoke of Wei Yiniang’s death anymore. Very few people even retained the knowledge that this beautiful, gentle, and frightened young woman had once died so tragically within these walls.
When Yao Yiyi’s thoughts arrived at this point, her will to live quietly began to recede again. She had neither a formidably capable concubine for a birth mother, nor was she born of the primary wife — her standing within the Sheng household going forward would be an extremely delicate thing. This incarnation had truly been one of those in-between situations: better than the worst, worse than the best. Far too much lacking when compared to those above her, yet not enough of a margin over those below.
How was she to live well in this world? Sheng Minglan — five years old, nearly six — began to think seriously about the question of survival.