The funeral procession slowly moved out of the alley.

Hua Zhi was walking backwards, unable to see what was happening behind her. When a soft cry reached her ears and the pallbearers came to a brief halt, her heart sank. Throwing propriety aside, she immediately turned around — and the sight before her left her breathless.

Along the main street of the southern district, a small platform had been erected at every other step. Each platform held incense sticks and burning candles, with paper money being burned. The people standing behind the platforms all wore ceremonial headbands and small mourning badges, their expressions solemn.

As the procession reached each position, the person standing there knelt to the ground, only rising again once the procession had passed.

Hua Zhi led her younger siblings in returning each bow, and the waves of grief seemed to wash back over her all at once. Weeping gradually rose from within the procession.

Even those who had come merely out of curiosity felt a pang in their hearts as they watched the once illustrious Hua Family brought to ruin in just a matter of months. A sense of shared mortality stirred within them — if even the Hua Family, which had stood unbowed for a hundred years, had collapsed so suddenly and inexplicably, who could say when their own turn might come?

The line of mourners offering tribute stretched all the way to the vicinity of the Hua Family’s ancestral burial grounds. Hua Zhi had received no word of it beforehand and had no idea when a sacrificial altar had been erected there. The altar held burning incense, candles, paper money, and offerings of fruit — modest in scale, yet overflowing with sincerity.

Hua Zhi led her siblings in a deep bow — both to honor their thoughtfulness and to acknowledge their righteousness.

Some of these people had perhaps once received her grandfather’s patronage, or had benefited from her father’s generosity. But the greatest reason so many had come forward was simply that they were all scholars. They revered her grandfather. They revered the Hua Family as a living emblem upheld by the scholarly world, and they were willing to brave the Emperor’s potential displeasure just to pay their respects.

She accepted this gesture on behalf of her grandfather, on behalf of the Hua Family.

The two parties bowed to one another, both with wholehearted sincerity.

By custom, an unmarried woman was not permitted to enter the ancestral burial ground. Hua Zhi raised no objection to this. She handed the memorial portrait to her cousin Bailin, then knelt at the entrance to the ancestral grounds and watched until the procession disappeared from sight before allowing Ying Chun to help her to her feet.

By this time the crowd had not yet dispersed. They were all looking at the eldest granddaughter of the Hua Family. Over the past few days, news had spread that the late Old Madam had bypassed all four daughters-in-law and entrusted the household to the eldest granddaughter — that was no longer fresh gossip.

The idle wealthy of the capital had been sending people to gather information about Hua Zhi, but what they had collected was woefully sparse. Apart from the broken engagement with the Shen Family, there was nothing else worth talking about. She had been raised in the capital, yet had never been seen at flower-viewing parties or garden gatherings that young ladies typically enjoyed, nor had any close friends from her social circle been identified. She seemed to have lived invisibly within the inner quarters of the Hua Family — until now, when she had suddenly emerged.

People were curious about both her character and her appearance. Had those who had gone to pay their respects not caught a glimpse of her and spread word that she was breathtakingly beautiful, everyone would have assumed the legitimate granddaughter of the Hua Family stayed out of sight because she was too plain to be seen.

At that moment, no small number of people were silently hoping a gust of wind might blow back her hood and let them see just how beautiful the eldest daughter of the Hua Family truly was.

But fate would not oblige them. The wind never came, and Hua Zhi boarded her carriage without her hood ever falling.

As the carriage gradually pulled away, Wang Rong in the crowd made a subtle gesture, and several figures concealed in the shadows swiftly fell into step behind it.

Though the residents of the southern district could not compare to the great mansion-dwellers of the northern district, this was still not a neighborhood just anyone could move into. They too had set out small offering platforms to see the Old Madam off, and in two households the lady of the house had personally presided over the tribute.

Hua Jing sat inside a canopied shelter, weeping softly. Her cries drifted out and wrenched at the hearts of those who heard them. Her appearance at that moment was nothing short of wretched — hair disheveled, the white strands at her temples impossible to conceal, eyes swollen red, wrinkles etched deep, her whole bearing in disarray. There was not a trace of the imperious authority she usually carried.

She silently cursed Hua Zhi for reducing her to this state, and in a fit of bitter resolve, she refused to tidy herself up — she made herself look even worse on purpose, waiting for others to see her.

After the earlier scene, everyone was now eager to know what had happened between Hua Jing and her family. Before long, several people arrived under the pretext of offering comfort, asking what had happened to her.

Hua Jing shook her head and wept all the louder, calling out for her mother.

Her pitiful weeping naturally drew sympathy, and someone said, “What is it that you can’t speak of? With your mother not yet cold in the ground, they’re already treating you like this — as a married-out daughter, no less. That is too much.”

“No one is bullying me, no one…”

“Everyone saw it with their own eyes. There is no precedent for a junior treating an elder that way — isn’t that right?”

A few more women had gathered outside the shelter, all neighbors from the surrounding area. They had clearly come hoping to hear some inside account of the Hua Family’s affairs. But living in the capital, they were not without their wits — they gave only vague murmurs of acknowledgment, carefully refusing to commit to any opinion.

Hua Jing didn’t need them to take sides. She only needed their mouths to carry the story.

After a good deal of dawdling, Hua Jing finally opened her mouth, voice choked with sobs. “Before mother passed, she had me return home and instructed me to look after the family from now on. I never imagined mother would be gone so soon after. I truly did not take anything — the Hua Family is in such a state, how could I bring myself to take anything from them? Why will they not believe me? I am also a daughter who married out of the Hua Family!”

Families tearing into each other over gain was a common enough occurrence among prominent households. Precisely because it was so common, it was all too easy to believe — and more than a few among them wore expressions of unsurprised understanding, as if this confirmed what they had already suspected. They had simply not expected that the Hua Family, renowned for its propriety, would have a falling-out of this kind. If this got around, a century of good reputation would be destroyed overnight.

A barely concealed excitement flickered across several faces. The thrill of watching something break stoked their senses, and their voices rose without them noticing. “It was the eldest daughter of the Hua Family, wasn’t it? Isn’t she the one managing the household now? I don’t know what the Old Madam was thinking, passing over all the daughters-in-law to hand things to her.”

Hua Jing neither confirmed nor denied it. She only cried louder.

The others needed no further telling. They exchanged glances, and one of them stepped forward to offer comfort. “The truth will speak for itself. You have kept faithful vigil in this cold weather despite how the Hua Family has treated you — that alone proves the sincerity of your heart. The Old Madam, watching from beyond, will surely be comforted that her affection for you was not wasted.”

“Well said — the truth will speak for itself.” Hua Zhi descended from the carriage, seemingly oblivious to the awkward looks on the women’s faces. She did not step closer, but stood beside the carriage and asked, “Aunt, are you saying that your niece has bullied you?”

Hua Jing had thought she had gained the upper hand — that no matter what Hua Zhi said, she would not be able to talk her way out of it, since Hua Jing was the elder. But hearing those words spoken so bluntly, a faint unease stirred in her heart.

Before she could respond, Hua Zhi gave a small nod and continued, “Actually, that is not inaccurate. It was indeed I who refused to let you through the Hua Family’s door.”

The onlookers all drew back slightly, but their ears were straining forward. They looked at Hua Zhi with undisguised astonishment. The face beneath the hood was not entirely clear, but from what was visible — the half of her face exposed — one could see the beauty spoken of in the rumors. Whether there was more to her than a pretty face, however, remained to be seen.

Hua Jing had no idea what move Hua Zhi was about to make, but she could not let this opening to cut her off slip by. She raised her haggard face and said, voice catching, “I only wanted to come home and keep vigil beside mother. I had no other intention.”

“By the order of our grandmother’s final wishes — from this day forward, Hua Jing shall have no part in the honor or disgrace of the Hua Family, and Hua Jing is not to set foot inside the Hua Family’s doors again!”

Hua Jing’s mouth fell slightly open. Suddenly she was frightened. She feared Hua Zhi would say something worse. She wanted to stop her — but it was already too late.

“You could not keep your own husband in line, yet during our grandmother’s illness you asked her to hand over your niece’s personal maidservant to become a concubine for your husband — so enraging our grandmother that she coughed up blood and died from it. Aunt — who, in the end, bullied whom?”

“That is not true — you — you are making wild accusations!” Hua Jing panicked. This was not how it was supposed to go. How dare Hua Zhi be so bold! Wasn’t she afraid of making it impossible for the Hua Family’s daughters to find husbands in the future? Wasn’t she afraid no one would want her either? How dare she!

Hua Zhi looked at her with cold eyes. “Hua Jing, I will never forgive you.”

For every measure of grief our grandmother felt in that moment, I will make you suffer tenfold — no, tenfold is too little. Nothing less than eight or ten times would be enough.

We have all the time in the world.