Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I wanted to beg my husband to let me go to school.

Jiang Yi was the first to jump out and object.

She said, “Young Madam has bound feet. You can’t even leave the inner compound.”

I said, “I can.”

She scoffed and challenged me to a race.

“From the north end of the passageway to the south. Just this one little path. Let’s see which one of us gets there first.”

The moment she finished speaking, she set off with the light, agile grace a young girl ought to have, walking away swiftly and nimbly.

I could only lift my feet in tiny steps. The moment I tried to go a little faster, I fell to the ground.

The maids rushed forward to help me up, drawing a smug smile from Jiang Yi, her eyes full of disdain.

She turned around and crashed straight into my husband’s arms as he returned from outside.

My husband frowned and reprimanded me.

“Don’t you know she’s with child? Why are you fooling around with her?”

Jiang Yi leaned against him and acted spoiled, her face charming and coy.

“Young Madam said she wanted to study, so I asked her what ‘tuo ma liu’ meant. She didn’t know and got angry from embarrassment, then insisted on chasing me.”

A distinguished guest in a Western suit, with refined, open features, walked up from behind my husband.

Our eyes met, and I recognized him at once.

Liu Suiwang.

He came from a prominent family in Shangjing and had been my husband’s classmate when they studied abroad. These days, most of our family’s business depended on the Liu Mansion.

He was exceptionally gifted and had excellent grades, though he carried a bit of the aloofness and arrogance common to sons of great families.

“Stop being rude.”

With one look from my husband, I knew he wanted me to withdraw at once.

So I would not make him lose face in front of his friend.

For having married such an old-fashioned woman.

I got to my feet and, on my tiny bound feet, walked to the entrance hall. But there, I stopped.

“Actually, you read it wrong.”

I turned back and said to Jiang Yi.

She froze. My husband had only taught her those few words in total, and she remembered them clearly. There was no way she could be wrong.

So she pointed at me with contempt and said, “What would you know?”

“It’s not ‘tuo ma liu.'”

I enunciated each word. “It’s ‘tomorrow.’ It means the day after today. It means the future.”

She was so furious she laughed, looking as if she were waiting for me to make a fool of myself.

“Young Madam secretly glanced through a few of my books, and now you think you can teach me?

“This is what Young Master taught me. I remember it perfectly.

“Young Master studied abroad. What would someone like you, shut up in the inner compound, know about pronunciation?

“Or are you saying Young Master taught me wrong?”

My husband’s face went cold. He ordered the old maidservant beside me, “Can’t you see we have an honored guest here? Hurry and take her away. What is she doing here, embarrassing herself?”

“Wait.”

Liu Suiwang stopped my husband. “Brother Beigui, how is it that your foreign language is still this stumbling?”

My husband’s mouth twisted. Liu Suiwang had stepped right on his sore spot.

“Back then, you never put any effort into learning foreign languages and always wrote Chinese notes above the words,” Liu Suiwang said with a smile, teasing him. “I never expected that now you can’t even compare to your own wife.”

At that, Jiang Yi’s expression changed, and she muttered, “…How is that possible?”

My husband’s face darkened, but he could not lose his temper in front of Liu Suiwang.

After holding it in for a long while, he only asked me, “Where did you learn that from? Some improper place?”

So it was true.

There really was a school down in that deep well.

I had to go down again!

But I needed to think of a way to make someone send me down without drawing attention.

“She must have crouched outside the study wall and stolen lessons,” Jiang Yi declared. “People like her, raised in the inner compound, are experts at those kinds of tricks!”

“Do you think learning one or two words will change anything? Do you think you’ll win back Young Master’s favor?

“You simply can’t stand that my belly can bear children, can you?

“A remnant like you is rotten from the root. Rotten starting with your mother.”

I slowly shuffled over to her.

For no reason at all, she shrank back and leaned into my husband’s arms.

My husband said to me, “She’s still young. Don’t lower yourself to her-”

Before he could finish, I raised my hand and slapped Jiang Yi hard across the face.

“You idiot who only knows ‘tuo ma liu.'”

The blow was so heavy it scraped the skin right off her left cheek.

No one reacted.

No one had expected the young madam, always so gentle and forbearing, to have a moment of madness.

To actually dare slap Jiang Yi in front of Young Master.

My husband shielded her behind him and snapped in fury, “Are you rebelling?”

I swung my hand back and slapped my husband across the face too.

“You half-baked fool ruled by your crotch.”

I swung my hand back again, stopping it in front of Liu Suiwang’s face.

“And you-”

Never mind. He was just a bystander.

He stared blankly, then raised his hand and gave me a high five.

The front hall fell into dead silence.

“You, you!”

My husband finally came back to himself and anxiously tried to speak, only to choke on his own saliva.

Covering her face, Jiang Yi shrieked in rage, “Lock her in the deep well!”

“You mustn’t!” the old maidservants in the manor tried to persuade them. “Many people have died in that place. It’s inauspicious!”

“Lock her in.”

My husband’s eyes lifted. Once the words fell, no one dared argue.

The crude iron chains were hauled up. Jiang Yi personally reached out and shoved me hard into the cage.

My husband did not come to watch.

He was a refined gentleman, after all. He kept his hands spotless.

Jiang Yi stared closely at my expression in triumph, wanting to see the fear and struggling she had imagined.

But I showed none of it.

My face was so calm it was as though she were the one about to be lowered down.

“Once you go down, you’ll be locked in there for three whole days!”

She emphasized it, trying to frighten me further.

Instead, I smiled.

“Still talking tough when death is at your door,” she said, stunned for a moment before slamming the cage door shut. “I very much look forward to seeing what you look like when you come back up in three days.”

The old maidservants beside us whispered in pity and discussed among themselves.

“Three days. Anyone trapped in there will go mad sooner or later.

“Young Madam is ruined this time.”

The iron chains lowered me down. The sounds above the mouth of the well grew farther and farther away.

The well water below, shimmering with silver flecks of light, came closer and closer.

With a click, the cage reached the bottom.

The water rose past my lips.

But I did not hear that strange melody.

Instead, I felt it-the faint suction coming from that hole.

It seemed to want to pull me in.

Holding my breath, I felt around and found the hole.

It was at least several times larger than before.