The storm over the family division at the Marquis of Yong Chang’s residence had been raging for over half a month, when the eldest son of the Liang family finally returned to the capital at the beginning of the second month. No sooner had he finished reporting for duty at the Board of War than he hurried home, first falling to his knees before his stepmother in floods of tears, begging her forgiveness in every possible way. Then, in front of the assembled clan members, he delivered a harsh rebuke to his wife for her ignorance and foolishness. To add to the theater of it, he slapped First Young Madam across the face right there and then. After that, he lamented to the other three brothers about how their late father had hoped the brothers would stand as one and sustain the family’s future prosperity through cooperation. And finally, under the warm and approving gaze of the clan elders, the four brothers wept in each other’s arms. Madam Liang’s lips twitched slightly. The four daughters-in-law stood awkwardly to one side, each churning through her own thoughts — all of them too young to keep their faces fully composed. The performance was concluded.

“So — no family division after all?” Minglan said, caught between laughter and exasperation.

Liu Shi sighed and nodded, then hesitated and asked, “Sixth Sister, do you think the eldest son of the Liang family… truly didn’t know what his wife was doing?”

Before Minglan could reply, Hualan gave a contemptuous click of her tongue. “How is that even possible? It was all an act. No wonder they all say the Liang eldest is something else — capable of bending and stretching, shrewd and decisive. And yet he would do something this wishy-washy and laughable!”

Minglan thought for a moment and ventured carefully, “The way I see it — the eldest son of the Liang family had originally been counting on claiming the hereditary title based on his achievements. When that was dashed, his resentment and disillusionment led him to the thought of breaking away and becoming independent. He hadn’t thought it through fully, but he let something slip to First Young Madam in a letter.”

Liu Shi and Hualan listened, nodding, and urged her to continue.

“The family division was an idea born from the eldest son of the Liang family’s bitter frustration after losing the peerage — he hadn’t thought it through carefully. But First Young Madam, who had long harbored this very wish herself, saw the wind and ran with it, and truly went ahead and stirred up a fuss. What she hadn’t counted on…” Minglan gave a slightly sardonic smile and stopped there without finishing the thought.

“What she hadn’t counted on,” Hualan finished with a laugh, “was that proud Madam Liang, who had never in all these years bothered herself with household matters, would suddenly become sharp and formidable — rallying her relatives, building up her position, and making her arguments fair and sound. Dividing a family before the forty-nine days of mourning are even complete was embarrassing no matter how you looked at it. The eldest son of the Liang family suddenly realized things had gone badly and pulled back from the edge. How unfortunate for First Young Madam — she ended up being made to suffer the ‘bitter flesh’ scheme!”

Liu Shi, hearing these two sisters-in-law analyze things so fluently, found that it matched nearly perfectly with what Second Young Madam had quietly confided to her. She couldn’t help inwardly marveling at how many sharp and clever children the Sheng family had produced — it was just a pity that the two most foolish ones had both fallen to her. Her husband was tolerable, at least — he was willing to take her advice. But that sister-in-law of hers was another matter. Ah.

She already knew the eldest Liang son was without loyalty, and that division was inevitable sooner or later. The right thing to do was to encourage her husband to make progress — and once the three years of mourning had passed, to quickly produce a son. The way things stood, the concubine’s offspring could only bear one daughter, no matter how favored she was — what use was there in competing with her? Truly — a clever face with a muddled heart inside.

While this thought turned round and round in her head, troublesome and headache-inducing, the sound of children’s laughter drifted in from outside. It turned out Minglan had had Xiaotao open one half of the window to let out some of the charcoal fumes.

The weather was still nipping with cold air, but the courtyard of Jiaxi Residence was quite spacious. Luzhi was leading a group of young maids in sweeping up the accumulated snow. The ground was still lightly frozen, and the girls giggled and horsed around — some grabbed thin sheets of ice from the ground and stuffed them down each other’s collars or sleeves, others pushed and slid around on the ice, wobbling unsteadily. Fortunately they were all bundled up in warm, thick layers, and no one got hurt; every one of them had flushed, excited little faces.

The people inside the room watched them with amusement. After a moment, Minglan felt a slight chill and called to Xiaotao to close the window again.

Hualan smiled as she turned back in. “Come to think of it, Fourth Brother was born right around this time of year. I remember that year, I was still out in the courtyard playing in the wind, when someone came to report, ‘Young Miss, you have another little brother.’ I hadn’t thought much of it — but the old wet-nurse beside me started right in on her usual litany: ‘No more running wild, it’s time to carry yourself with dignity.'”

Minglan covered her mouth with her handkerchief and laughed. “I’ve heard from Nanny Fang — when Elder Sister was small, you were terribly mischievous. Grandmother and Father both doted on you and couldn’t bear to scold you, which drove the nurses nearly to despair. Every time another child was born in the household, they’d say the same thing for a few days, just hoping Heaven might be merciful and let it finally inspire Elder Sister to set an example for her younger siblings!”

Liu Shi listened and laughed too. “I never would have imagined it — Elder Sister is so poised and refined now. Everyone outside sings her praises for being a model wife and mother. That old wet-nurse really ought to see her now.”

Thinking back on her childhood silliness, Hualan also shook her head with a rueful laugh. “Poised and refined is too kind a word. Ah, my old nurse was the one who raised me from infancy and looked after me for many years. She was getting on in years, so she went home to enjoy her children and grandchildren long ago.” She pointed at Minglan and said to Liu Shi, “This one was well-behaved from the time she was small — told to eat, she ate, told to sleep, she slept, never causing any trouble. Not like Fifth Sister, who was like a firecracker — never a moment’s peace. Ah, in the blink of an eye…” She clucked her tongue several times, lamenting the swiftness of passing years, and then asked after the progress of Sheng Changdong’s marriage.

Liu Shi laughed. “In all this busyness, I almost forgot to mention — I was just about to say. Might I ask Sixth Sister to pass word over there? Just say that our father-in-law is entirely pleased, but that since there are still elders above who have not been consulted, it wasn’t proper to act without their knowledge. Someone has already been sent to ask. We only await the elder’s reply before coming to pay a formal call to propose.”

Minglan also smiled. “There’s no rush — no one is free over the New Year period. I expect they are probably too busy to think about it just now either.” Sheng Hong never cut corners on matters of surface propriety — no one would be able to find fault with any of his formalities.

After seeing off Hualan and Liu Shi, Minglan had just thought to have the wet-nurse bring Tuan Ge’er over to play, when Che Niang came swaying in with her generous figure, and the moment she sat down she could not contain her eagerness. “Madam, about the matter of finding a husband’s household for Miss Fengxian that you entrusted to me — there is some progress.”

Minglan was rather surprised. “That quickly?” She also laughed. “Elder Sister, you have real talent!”

Che Niang made no pretense of false modesty and said with unabashed satisfaction, “Hmph — without this much ability, how would I manage in this line of work?”

Listening to Che Niang explain, Minglan learned that the man’s family name was Guo, from a prosperous family in a market town in some distant county. Both husband and wife were capable people who had accumulated over a hundred mu of fertile farmland. The wife was five or six years older than her husband, already past fifty this year, and their eldest son had married the year before.

Guo’s wife was aging and losing her looks, and wished to take in a comely young woman to attend to her husband. A daughter of a condemned official was the best choice — easier to manage than a well-born concubine, yet more proper and restrained than a woman from a place of entertainment.

“As long as Madam gives the word, the person can be sent over within the next few days,” Che Niang said.

Minglan was eager for it to be settled, and immediately sent Cuiwei to ask Fengxian.

Half a day later, Fengxian came, her cheeks faintly flushed. She stood before the hall with mincing small steps, and Minglan patiently sat through half a cup of tea’s worth of self-lament about her sad fate before hearing her ask, shyly and evasively, “Is there anything better available?”

Minglan’s expression grew stern. “There is — just the other day several estate managers came to bring New Year gifts, and they mentioned there are still several dozen strong laborers without wives.”

Seeing her expression, Fengxian quickly replied that she was willing to go. Only then did Minglan soften, and had barely exchanged a kind word or two with her when Fengxian’s small face flushed red again as she asked “what does that gentleman look like.”

Minglan: …

Fengxian: “And, erm — how much dowry does Madam plan to give me?”

Minglan: …

Fengxian: “It’s such a long journey — it would be inconvenient to bring furniture and such. Silver would be best to carry.”

Minglan: …

An enemy’s woman, sent to cause trouble, being housed and fed, then having a husband’s family found for her, and now — on top of all that — being sent off with a dowry. Minglan sat in long silence, genuinely unable to accept that she had sunk so low as to become a saint.

From then until the day Fengxian was sent off, Minglan refused to see her again. She agreed to give twenty taels of silver as a dowry and allowed Fengxian to take the jewelry the Gan family had originally sent with her. But just before she was walked out the door, Luzhi made a thorough and brisk search through the baggage in Fengxian’s traveling trunks and pulled out a pair of small, exquisite azure-glaze-on-white phoenix vases with a rotating inner vessel in the Ru ware style, and another hand-warmer with a hanging jade pendant in powder-purple glaze with gold tracing.

Che Niang also wiped a bead of sweat. “I had originally thought she was a frail, delicate woman of literary sensibility.”

Minglan sighed inwardly. The price of being a literary woman was not small. Take her own dear little sister-in-law, Miss Gu Tingcan — since getting married, she had gone without a sound. The Princess’s residence kept tight order; there was nothing to inquire about, no gossip to be found. It was only through Xiao Shen Shi hearing a snippet of news from Madam Zheng that she had come to tease Minglan: “Your little sister-in-law really does love to show off — when Young Madam Han led several families of young ladies to organize a poetry gathering, she swept the top prize.”

And Zhang Shi had occasionally mentioned in passing that — as if to help a new bride adjust more quickly — two weeks after the wedding, the Princess had sent a nanny over to teach her proper conduct and etiquette. Six months later, she added another one. A year later, she sent two more.

While other mothers-in-law enjoyed filling their sons’ rooms with personal attendants and Yiniang, this Princess kept sending nannies — a rather remarkable difference.

That was the power of the imperial family. Living in the Princess’s residence, on a good day, she might say “we’re all family here, no need for formality.” On a bad day, she would call down all thirteen periods and two hundred fifty subject divisions of the rules of propriety upon you, extended to full length with no possibility of early completion, until you had no grounds for complaint at all.

The world was hard — a woman of literary talent fared no better than a practical homeowner.