“Nonsense.”

Xie Zhifei sighed deeply.

“My father’s judgment of people has never been wrong. If he said she was good, then she must be good. My father’s study still displays a piece of Shi Shui’s calligraphy in slender gold script.”

At the mention of slender gold script, Mama Xia’s last bit of suspicion vanished.

If not for that piece of slender gold script calligraphy and that poem, the title of top courtesan would have been hers.

If she had won top courtesan, then the one the scholars competed to see would have been her. And the one redeemed today should also have been her.

“Good my ass. She’s just a pretentious whore.”

Mama Xia’s stomach churned, and the resentment and bitterness she’d suppressed for half a lifetime suddenly surged up, even changing her voice.

“You tell your father that everything about her was fake. Even the virgin blood on the handkerchief was fake—that scholar bit his own finger and stained it with blood. I’m the genuine article!”

Finally, it came.

Xie Zhifei’s hand gripping the wine cup trembled slightly. He simply set down the cup and placed his hand on Mama Xia’s head, gently rubbing a few times.

“So Mama has been holding a bellyful of resentment. Do you want to tell me about it?”

Mama Xia’s mouth reeked of alcohol, her eyes held tears, and a pair of eyes that no amount of powder could hide the aging stared fixedly at Xie Zhifei.

Most men’s tenderness in this world was actually feigned, but character and the innate goodness in one’s bones couldn’t be faked.

Even if Mama Xia were dead drunk, she could still distinguish who was truly kind and who was falsely kind.

The man before her had no lust in his eyes, no disdain—only a trace of pity and sympathy.

Mama Xia’s blood heated, and tears burst from her eyes. “Don’t you want to know which family’s young lady I was?”

Xie Zhifei looked at her and said gently, “If you don’t want to say, then don’t.”

“I want to say!”

If she didn’t say it now, she herself would almost forget that she too had once stood at the pinnacle of the clouds.

Mama Xia: “I am the daughter of Marquis of Guangping Fu Ling. My given name is just the character Bao.”

Xie Zhifei was so shocked he almost cried out.

Marquis of Guangping?

She was actually the daughter of the Marquis of Guangping?

Mama Xia was quite pleased with the shocked expression on Xie Zhifei’s face.

The Marquis of Guangping was her great-grandfather.

Her great-grandfather was a military officer who had followed the Founding Emperor in campaigns north and south. After pacifying the realm, he was awarded the title of Marquis of Guangping based on merit.

The title was hereditary for three generations. By her father’s generation, the Marquis of Guangping’s household had actually already declined.

Her father was a complete lecher. At the household’s peak, there were twelve concubines, and his lovers and mistresses outside were countless.

With a household full of wives and concubines, he only had one son under his knee, and that son was an idiot.

The idiot son was called Fu Yuan, her full brother from the same mother. Their birth mother was Sixth Concubine.

When Sixth Concubine was seven months pregnant, she already knew she was carrying twins, but never expected that after fighting for her life to give birth, she’d deliver an idiot son.

The daughter born a quarter-hour earlier was healthy and normal, not only beautiful but also clever and bright.

Sixth Concubine’s heart was full of hatred—deadly hatred. An idiot son wasn’t enough to elevate her from concubine to primary wife.

“Do you know how terrifying a woman’s hatred can be?”

Mama Xia cackled with laughter.

“Killing me would be bloodless, flaying me would be meatless, and she couldn’t openly beat or scold me, so she could only make straw dolls, write down birth dates and times, and stick needles in them every day. When one doll was full of needles, she’d replace it with another.”

Xie Zhifei’s expression gradually grew grave.

“My life was hard—I survived.”

Not only did she survive, but the primary wife saw she was clever and kept her by her side to raise, even hiring a teacher to instruct her in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting.

Though the Marquis of Guangping’s household had declined, it still had valuables. The most valuable were the household’s eight golden flowers, each blooming beautifully.

The primary wife calculated well. If the men were no good, didn’t they still have the young ladies? As long as the eight golden flowers married well, the marquis’s household would have its day.

Xie Zhifei didn’t need to hear the rest to know the outcome.

Five of the eight golden flowers married out, and none met a good end.

First Young Lady Fu died in childbirth—one corpse, two lives.

Second Young Lady Fu married south and had an affair with a guard—she was drowned in a pond.

Third Young Lady Fu contracted a strange illness and died within a few years of marrying into her husband’s family.

Fourth Young Lady Fu had an illicit relationship with her brother-in-law. After being discovered, she threw herself into the river.

Fifth Young Lady Fu married a military officer. The delicate young lady ultimately died under her husband’s fists.

Most suspicious was Fu Ling’s idiot son. On New Year’s Day, he went with his family to burn incense at a temple, got separated, and couldn’t be found no matter how they searched.

The Fu family even specially invited an eminent monk to perform rituals.

The monk calculated and said the ancestors had killed too heavily, and karmic retribution had fallen on the descendants. He also said this retribution was only beginning.

Just as the monk finished speaking, the household raiders arrived.

It turned out that to fill the household’s deficit, Marquis Fu had colluded with the grain warehouse managers in the Ministry of War, replacing good rice with old rice and secretly selling it outside.

On the day of the raid, Fu Ling supposedly drank half a catty of liquor, grabbed a knife, and charged into the inner quarters, killing all twelve concubines except his primary wife.

Two of his youngest daughters also perished.

The current Mama Xia probably hid under the primary wife’s bed, thus escaping disaster.

After killing everyone, Fu Ling gave himself a final knife strike, ending his dissolute life. His lawful wife swallowed gold and killed herself in prison.

The Fu family affair caused an uproar back then—everyone in the capital knew about it. Years had passed, yet people still discussed their family matters.

“I entered the Jiaofang Bureau at fourteen and was rigorously trained by a madam for two years.”

Mama Xia cupped her cheeks with both hands and laughed softly. “The madam said I was the most beautiful and cleverest young lady she’d ever seen. She said I would definitely win top courtesan and become immensely popular in the future.”

Fourteen when she entered the Jiaofang Bureau.

Trained for two years, competing for top courtesan at sixteen.

So Mama Xia should be forty-one this year, four years younger than Shi Shui.

Xie Zhifei feared she’d reminisce endlessly, so he asked, “You were more beautiful than Shi Shui and younger—how did you lose to her?”

“Do you know what Shi Shui’s background was?”

Mama Xia lowered her voice mysteriously. “Her father was the teacher of the former Crown Prince—a proper scholarly family!”

“No wonder my father said her status was noble.”

Xie Zhifei’s face showed perfectly calibrated surprise as he sighed. “So she had such a background.”

“Noble my ass. Once you enter the Jiaofang Bureau, you’re all selling smiles. Who’s more noble than whom?”

After cursing to her satisfaction, Mama Xia continued, “Do you know who came most often to select the top courtesan?”

“Who?”

“A bunch of sour, stinking scholars with empty pockets. Not a couple taels of silver between them, yet their eyes all perched on top of their heads. Bah! A bunch of poor, pedantic wretches.”

Xie Zhifei went along with her tone. “Then you being second place must have felt truly wronged.”

Exactly!

It was the first time anyone had felt wronged on her behalf. Mama Xia felt the man before her was wonderful in every way, wanting to dig out her entire heart and give it to him.

“That’s not all I’m wronged about. Do you know how many of her father’s disciples and grand-disciples were sitting in the audience?”

Xie Zhifei’s pupils suddenly constricted. He and Yan Sanhe had both overlooked something.