chapter 2
The next day, Gu Xinlan came home with a gold buyao hairpin.
She made me arrange her hair, pinned the ornament into place, and admired herself from every angle.
“Huaixia, what do you think? Is it pretty?”
“With your beauty, Young Mistress, anything would look lovely on you.”
Pretending to marvel, I reached out to touch it.
“What exquisite workmanship. It must have cost a great deal.”
Gu Xinlan looked slightly embarrassed. “Oh, Madam gave it to me. I imagine it was expensive.”
I rolled my eyes where she could not see.
The box from the Treasure Pavilion was still sitting to one side. Did she truly think I was an idiot?
In my previous life, she had stolen only my bonus, which had not been enough to buy much. This time, with far more silver in hand, she could not wait to spend it on jewelry.
It suddenly occurred to me that Gu Xinlan had not always been like this.
She had never been especially close to us, but she had once been a decent mistress. Her festival gifts were modest, yet she never withheld them.
The change seemed to have begun after she fell into the water two years ago.
When she woke, her personality was completely different. Her mouth was suddenly full of strange talk about equality and freedom.
I studied her and wondered whether some evil spirit had taken possession of her.
Possessed or bewitched, it had nothing to do with me.
I had been foolish enough to let her ruin me once.
Not in this life.
…
Half a month later, the capital held a spring banquet.
Gu Xinlan was meant to attend with the other noble young ladies. The gathering was called a flower-viewing banquet, but in truth, the families were there to inspect suitable matches for their marriageable sons and daughters.
The Gu family took it very seriously. Gu Xinlan had a new dress made and brought out her finest jewelry.
But on the morning of the banquet, she woke to find her face swollen and covered in tiny red bumps. She looked utterly disfigured.
With a scream, Gu Xinlan hurled the mirror to the floor.
“My face! My face!”
The banquet was now impossible. Gu Xinlan’s birth mother, Concubine Liu, went weeping to Madam Gu and claimed that someone had tried to harm her daughter.
Terrified that suspicion might fall on her for poisoning a concubine-born girl, Madam Gu immediately reported the matter to Old Madam and demanded a thorough investigation.
The result surprised everyone.
Madam Zhang had slipped a small amount of almond powder into Gu Xinlan’s food. Gu Xinlan had broken out in rashes whenever she ate almonds since childhood. As an old servant of the courtyard, Madam Zhang knew it.
Madam Gu stared at her in disbelief.
“You have served in Third Young Mistress’s courtyard for nearly ten years. Why would you harm her?”
Knowing she had been exposed, Madam Zhang no longer bothered to hide anything. She glared venomously at the veiled Gu Xinlan.
“This old servant knows she is guilty, but Third Young Mistress brought it upon herself!
“For Old Madam’s birthday, every branch was given silver to reward the servants and let us share in the celebration. My grandson had broken his leg. We were waiting for that bonus to buy his medicine!
“But Third Young Mistress kept every coin. My poor grandson is the only boy born to the Zhang family in three generations. Without money for medicine, his treatment was delayed until he was left lame!
“His betrothal was broken as well. She ruined my entire family. I only marred her face for a few days. For the sake of our old ties, I showed her mercy!”
Everyone was stunned.
Old Madam turned to Gu Xinlan with a frown.
“Is this true?”
I hurried forward and dropped to my knees. “Old Madam, please judge fairly. Young Mistress did not withhold our bonuses. She donated them to a temple to pray for us!”
I lowered my head, a cold smile tugging at my lips.
I knew better than anyone where the money had truly gone.
The gold buyao bought with those ten taels was sitting in Gu Xinlan’s hair at that very moment.
It was time to give her a little push.
Gu Xinlan blinked, then nodded quickly.
“Huaixia is right. I did not withhold their bonuses!”
Her face filled with grievance.
“I only wanted to earn merit for everyone. I never imagined they would hate me for it.”
Madam Zhang gave a cold laugh and pointed at the ornament in Gu Xinlan’s hair.
“Then where did Third Young Mistress’s new gold buyao come from? That piece is from the Treasure Pavilion. It costs at least ten taels!”
Before Gu Xinlan could stop me, I protested loudly,
“Third Young Mistress said Madam gave it to her. She did not buy it herself!”
All the color drained from Gu Xinlan’s face.
By now, Madam Gu understood everything. She spoke at an unhurried pace.
“Is that so? Perhaps age has affected my memory, because I cannot recall ever giving you that hairpin.”
She looked at Gu Xinlan coolly.
“Lan’er, since you claim you donated the silver to pray for everyone, tell us which temple received it. Then there will be no misunderstanding.
“We would not want anyone saying that I mistreat a concubine-born daughter, pay her too little, and force her to steal her servants’ bonuses.”
Gu Xinlan panicked. She stammered but could not produce an answer.
A moment later, Old Madam thundered,
“What disgraceful conduct!”
Concubine Liu immediately threw herself to her knees and kowtowed through her tears.
“Old Madam, Madam, this was all my doing. In a moment of madness, I made a terrible mistake!
“I bought the gold hairpin and lied to Lan’er that Madam had given it to her. Lan’er gave me the money to donate to the temple. She had no idea I kept it!
“Please punish me, but Lan’er truly had nothing to do with this!”
Everyone present knew Concubine Liu was taking the blame for her daughter.
Gu Xinlan exhaled in relief and hurried to agree.
“Yes, Grandmother. I truly did not know Mother had kept the money!”
Old Madam gave her an icy glance.
“Concubine Liu embezzled the servants’ reward money. Give her twenty strokes of the cane.”
It sounded far better for a concubine to steal than for an unmarried daughter of the household to do it. The reputations of the Gu family’s young ladies could not be tarnished before their marriages.
For a delicate beauty like Concubine Liu, twenty strokes were a severe punishment.
Old Madam was clearly furious with Gu Xinlan despite the fiction they had accepted.
By the twentieth blow, Concubine Liu’s back was a mangled mess. She drew more breaths out than in.
The servants carried her back to her room. I could not help feeling disappointed.
Concubine Liu had taken the fall, and Gu Xinlan had escaped without punishment.
Back in the courtyard, Gu Xinlan took her anger out on me. She forced me to kneel and snapped,
“Look what your rotten idea caused!”
When I suggested keeping everyone’s bonus, her eyes had shone brighter than anyone’s. Now that it had gone wrong, she blamed me for everything.
She was the mistress and I was the servant. If she had truly objected, could I have held a knife to her throat and forced her to steal?
I pinched my thigh hard enough to squeeze out tears.
“Young Mistress, you have always said that everyone is equal and that you see me as a sister. I was so grateful. I only wanted everyone to share in the blessing and appreciate how considerate you are toward your servants.
“I truly had no idea Concubine Liu would keep the money!”
Gu Xinlan choked on her reply.
Those had been her own words.
Besides, I had always appeared utterly loyal, and I had just defended her with all my might. She could find no excuse to punish me.
But I had still underestimated her.
The next day, she claimed to have dropped a strand of seed pearls in the courtyard and ordered me to find them.
Each pearl was no larger than a grain of rice. How was I supposed to recover all several hundred of them?
I knew she was venting her anger on me, but there was nothing I could do. I crouched on the ground and searched one tiny patch at a time.
As though my luck were not bad enough, a fine rain began to fall. It soon became a downpour.
Water streamed down my face. Soaked through and shivering with cold, I kept sifting through the mud for those seed pearls.
I did not know how long I endured it. At last, unable to bear any more, I tried to stand and rest.
The instant I rose, my vision went black and the world spun.
I crashed to the ground and lost consciousness.