The Da Qing Dynasty.

The thirteenth year of the Chengshun reign. In the capital city, at the Jingchuan Earl’s residence of the Pei Family.

In the inner quarters of the household, a cradle of rosewood — handed down through several generations and long since worn to a lustrous sheen — stood ancient and stately. Lying within it, flailing his tiny fists about, was none other than the eldest legitimate grandson of the Earl’s residence: Pei Shaohuai.

The infant was fair and clean, not yet seven months old, still unable to sit upright, yet far from placid — one moment kicking off the silk coverlet draped over him, the next waving his little hands in a bid to grasp the tiger-head cloth pouch and rainbow embroidered ball hanging above him, and the next bursting into a fit of gleeful giggles.

His features were well-formed; even at so young an age, his brows were striking, his eyes bright and open — the sort of child that made people ache with fondness.

Pei Shaohuai’s birth mother, Lin Shi, wore a honey-pink silk robe, embroidered only lightly at the collar and cuffs, her hair arranged in a cascading cloud bun — the picture of gentle refinement.

Taking advantage of the child’s contented self-amusement, she drew out her sewing basket and resumed the needlework she had left unfinished the day before, occasionally giving the cradle a gentle nudge and exchanging playful little exchanges with the baby.

……

Of course, no one could have known that, for all his innocent appearance, this infant harbored the mind of a grown adult.

He had originally been Li Nian, a person of a later era, who — at the moment his allotted years ran out — found himself transplanted into the pages of a novel, reborn as Pei Shaohuai of the Jingchuan Earl’s residence.

In his previous life, Li Nian had been born into a family steeped in scholarly tradition, warm and harmonious. But when he was three years old, doctors discovered he suffered from a rare and incurable illness — one that would cut his life short. His parents, heartbroken yet resolute, did not give up on him. They poured everything they had into raising him well, taking him to travel far and wide, so that his time in this world would not be wasted.

His father often said: “There is so much knowledge in this world — every bit you learn is a bit more you’ve gained.” He taught him never to give up on himself, to study and sit examinations like any ordinary person.

Li Nian earned a place at a fine university.

But during his second year, the illness began to manifest. His body weakened day by day, and within half a year, he lay confined to a sickbed, his consciousness fading.

He could dimly recall those final moments — his mother’s voice, barely holding back her grief, speaking to him with tender calm: “Nian’er, our bond in this life has come to its end. Do not linger. Let go, and go find your new bond.”

A few minutes later, the heart monitor sounded its urgent, rhythmic alarm……

As for the world into which he had been transplanted — it was a novel Li Nian had once read, titled The Rise of the Concubine’s Son.

The story followed the illegitimate son of an Earl’s household — a young man of lowly standing who, scorned and overlooked, carved out his own path through sheer perseverance, climbing the ranks of the imperial examination system step by step until he had restored his family’s glory.

This concubine’s son — enduring in obscurity, unyielding in adversity, measured in success — was a character of remarkable appeal.

The only complication was that the character Li Nian had become — “Pei Shaohuai” — was in the original novel a wayward, pleasure-seeking wastrel who squandered the family fortune before coming to an ignominious end. The concubine’s son named Pei Shaojin was, in fact, his younger brother.

As for the rest of the novel’s plot, Li Nian recalled only the broad strokes. The finer details would likely come back to him as he encountered people and events — and even then, not necessarily in full.

……

Li Nian had transmigrated at birth, and though he was now half a year old, his mind had only gradually cleared over the past half-month.

For those first six months, Li Nian had been at the mercy of an infant’s instincts — his vision blurry, his thoughts murky and muddled, sleeping most of the time. On the rare moments he was awake, there was always someone hovering before him, cooing “Huai Ge’er” and “Tuantuan” at him.

Now that he had grown a little larger, Li Nian had slowly grown accustomed to this small body. Only half a month ago had he begun to truly come to himself and take stock of his situation.

His previous life had been ill-fated — struck down by a strange illness before he could experience so many things. Perhaps this transmigration was the “new bond” his mother had spoken of; it ought to be cherished. No matter how much lingering sorrow he felt, he resolved to bid farewell to “Li Nian” and embrace this new identity of “Pei Shaohuai.”

He had found a new bond — and so, too, would the version of him in that other world.

This was what he told himself.

……

……

The forebears of the Pei Family had followed the founding Emperor of the Da Qing Dynasty through campaigns across the land, rendering great service in battle, and had thus been granted a hereditary peerage. Generation after generation it had passed down, and so this — outwardly respectable — household had come to be.

Pei Shaohuai’s paternal grandfather — Pei Pu, the Earl of Jingchuan — had but one son: Pei Shaohuai’s father, Pei Bingyuan.

Pei Bingyuan had first married the legitimate daughter of the Ning Family of the Anyuan Earl’s residence. But Ning Shi was a woman of frail fortune — she fell gravely ill with a lung ailment. She was kept carefully and nursed along, and for a time it seemed she might recover. But during the depths of winter, her condition worsened again and again; even the Imperial Physicians summoned to her bedside could do nothing. In the end, she left behind a pair of young daughters, and departed this world.

As Pei Bingyuan was the sole heir of his line, it was unthinkable that there be no son — and so, in due time, Lin Shi was brought into the household as his wife.

That is to say: Lin Shi was his second wife.

And Yu Yi, the handmaid who had served at Ning Shi’s side as her personal attendant from her maiden home, was now known as Concubine Shen — Pei Shaojin’s birth mother.

As it happened, both Lin Shi and Concubine Shen had each first borne a daughter before later giving birth to a son. Pei Shaohuai had entered the world a few days before Pei Shaojin — making him both the legitimate and the eldest grandson.

These were the family relationships Pei Shaohuai had spent the last few days piecing together. He thought to himself: this is not a bad household to be born into. Not among the wealthiest of the great families, but free from want in food and clothing — and the family dynamics here were considerably simpler than those in many other noble households.

The infant’s body was still so small, ill-suited to much deliberation. After only a brief spell of scheming, Pei Shaohuai had already grown tired and drowsy, overcome by a baby’s irresistible urge to sleep.

It was precisely at this moment that Nanny Shen entered the room, bringing with her the maidservant Qing He, who carried in her hands nearly half a bundle of dried bird’s nest. Nanny Shen wore a grave expression. She first dismissed the other maidservants and the pageboys waiting outside the door, then spoke:

“Now that there are only the few of us, mistress and servants, with no outsiders present — I dare to be presumptuous and speak a few words straight from my heart to Madam.”

Nanny Shen had originally been Lin Shi’s wet nurse and had later remained in the Lin household as a servant. Owing to her loyalty and capable management, she had risen to become a head attendant. When Lin Shi first married into the Pei household, she had not brought Nanny Shen with her. But after Huai Ge’er was born and she found herself short of trustworthy attendants, the Lin family had, only days ago, sent Nanny Shen, Qing He, and a number of other loyal servants over.

This was so that Lin Shi might have more people around her whom she could rely upon.

Lin Shi, seeing the gravity in Nanny Shen’s expression, did not understand the occasion. She set down her needlework and asked: “Nanny Shen, has something of great importance occurred?”

“Nothing of great importance, really — merely some small, everyday matters that have caught my attention, which I wished to discuss with Madam.” Nanny Shen lifted the bundle of dried bird’s nest and asked: “This bird’s nest — was it Madam who instructed Qing He to send it over to Fengyu Pavilion?”

Fengyu Pavilion was where Concubine Shen resided, along with her pair of children.

Lin Shi guessed roughly what Nanny Shen was getting at. She replied: “My elder brother sent this bird’s nest to me, and I found it to my liking, so I set some aside and had Qing He send it over to Concubine Shen.”

She added: “Even before Huai Ge’er was born, I had maids deliver many things to her quarters from time to time, and nothing untoward ever came of it. There is nothing to worry about.”

In Lin Shi’s eyes, she was not a petty or jealous sort of woman, and Concubine Shen was a well-mannered woman — they had always treated each other with mutual respect. There was nothing amiss in sending over a few things.

“Before Madam was married, your reputation for reason and generosity was known to everyone in our Lin household — who did not praise you for it?…… And yet, now is not then. This is no longer the Lin household.” Nanny Shen continued, her tone earnest and painstaking. “Madam may not be the sort to contend for anything — but others may not share your restraint. Your elder brother went all the way to Yangzhou especially to bring back such fine things. But servants’ hands are not always clean or careful; who can say whether someone along the way might tamper with something? If anything were to go wrong over at Fengyu Pavilion, truth and fabrication would be impossible to untangle — would Madam not be inviting trouble upon herself?”

She then turned to reprimand Qing He: “And you — what use is your discernment? Your elder master went to such trouble to send you here, and yet all you know how to do is run errands.”

Qing He hung her head and admitted her error.

Lin Shi felt that Nanny Shen was seeing the matter in too slanted and too severe a light — and yet, she could not deny that the nanny’s intentions were truly in her best interest.

Nanny Shen’s words were never entirely without reason.

Seizing upon the opportunity, Nanny Shen lowered her voice further and said: “I have only been in this Earl’s residence a few days, and yet even I can see that the Old Madam tends to look down upon our Lin family — as though she thinks it was the Lin family that overreached in this match — and she has never been especially fond of Madam since you married in. If there were further troubles stirred up within these walls, would that not only deepen her displeasure?”

The match between the Pei and Lin families was, in truth, an uneven one.

Outwardly, the Pei family told others that Pei Bingyuan had taken the younger sister of an eighth-rank official as his second wife. But behind closed doors, those with eyes to see could tell that the official title was merely a nominal position purchased by the Lin family’s eldest patriarch — the Lin family were, in truth, merchants.

Lin Shi knew all of this perfectly well. Nanny Shen’s words crept into her heart like tiny ants boring ever deeper, and for a moment she furrowed her brows in contemplative silence.

Seeing that Lin Shi had not spoken, Nanny Shen gathered her courage and continued: “This old servant is being bold today — speaking only these divisive sorts of words in front of you, my mistress — but I do so because my heart is truly with you. Madam, things are not as they once were. However kind a nature you possess, you must first think of Huai Ge’er…… It is fortunate that your womb was determined enough. Just imagine — if your labor had been delayed by a few days and Concubine Shen had given birth first, the legitimate grandson would not also be the eldest grandson. Would that not have been a grave injustice to our Huai Ge’er?”

Nanny Shen’s meaning was plain.

At the mention of Huai Ge’er, Lin Shi’s maternal instincts surged, and her brow furrowed more deeply still.

……

There in the cradle, Pei Shaohuai — already thoroughly exhausted — had been taking in Nanny Shen’s words in a half-attentive daze, yet managed to piece together the gist well enough.

The sum of it was simple: a reminder to Lin Shi not to be naively soft-hearted, to be ever on guard against potential schemes — particularly those involving the hereditary title.

As for what manner of woman Concubine Shen was, Pei Shaohuai had not yet had any direct dealings with her and naturally could not make a fair judgment. However, he recalled that throughout the novel, from beginning to end, there was never any instance of Concubine Shen harming others. The few scattered descriptions of her were largely of her urging her son to apply himself diligently to his studies and make his own way in the world.

It was Lin Shi who, in the novel, was slowly undone — driven by the incessant goading of the servants around her and the fierce protectiveness of a mother’s heart, until her once-gentle nature twisted by degrees into something rigid and ruthless. Her actions grew ever more extreme, until one day it all came to light, and she was repudiated.

The child had become the very thread that drew her into a dead end.

“The servants’ incessant goading” — Pei Shaohuai thought to himself — this Nanny Shen was undoubtedly one of them.

The Lin family had sent Nanny Shen with the best of intentions, wanting Lin Shi to have less to worry about. And Pei Shaohuai could hear plainly enough that the woman’s loyalty was genuine — only that her loyalty was misdirected.

She was not, after all, a nanny trained in the ways of a great noble household. She went about things only on the surface level, forever fixed on immediate gains and unable to think in longer terms.

The Lin family had, in this matter, brought about the very opposite of what they intended.

As for the title of Earl of Jingchuan — in Pei Shaohuai’s estimation, the Pei family’s days of glory were long past. Three generations without an official post, hovering at the margins of the imperial court, already on a declining path — no matter how loudly that peerage was proclaimed, it was nothing more than an empty name.

Besides, for all its prestige, who could say that some future Emperor upon his accession might not simply strip it away?

To exhaust oneself scheming and fighting over such a thing — would that not be a family consuming itself, only hastening its own fall?

A harmonious household was a prosperous household. If the family could get along peaceably, it would allow him to study and sit the imperial examinations in peace — that was the right path.

……

Having made up his mind, Pei Shaohuai resolved to help his mother break the impasse and bring Nanny Shen’s speech to an end.

And so, suppressing his drowsiness with great effort, he forced his eyes open and surveyed where Nanny Shen was standing — right beside the cradle, as it happened.

Pei Shaohuai shifted slightly onto his side, took aim, and — whoosh, splash —

A stream of an infant’s urine shot out, to his great satisfaction.

After which, he pulled the silk coverlet to himself, pursed his little mouth contentedly, and at last settled into the sound sleep he had long been craving.