Chapter 5

I had heard that the eldest daughter had fallen into the water a while ago and become gravely ill. When she woke, her personality was completely different.

I glanced at her, picked up a pastry, and put it in her mouth with a smile.

“Eldest Young Miss, go and play when you’ve finished that.”

I didn’t want to acknowledge a fellow traveler. I told myself I was simply lazy.

I didn’t want friends now, or deep entanglements with anyone. I only wanted to keep my head down and survive.

But she rolled her eyes and said in her little child’s voice, “Zhou Tao! You’re such a coward. You won’t even admit you traveled through time.”

Ever since my birth mother died, I had called myself cautious. In truth, I had given up trying.

I didn’t want work. I didn’t want to know anyone. The only thing that could give me away was tai chi, which didn’t exist here.

I couldn’t practice that anymore, either.

“Eldest Young Miss,” I said, “what does traveling through time mean?”

She faltered. Her small face held a maturity that didn’t belong to her age.

“Zhou Tao, this feudal society has assimilated you.”

“How can you willingly become an old man’s concubine?”

“Oh,” I said dully. Perhaps she was right.

She was about to say more when Master Chen returned.

“Chen Yuan! Is that any way to speak to Concubine Zhou? Whatever else she may be, she’s your elder.”

“Apologize to her at once!”

But the girl stiffened her neck, said nothing, and slipped away in a flash.

Master Chen watched her go, helpless and furious. “Her mother has spoiled her rotten! I’ll have to find the time to teach her a proper lesson.”

Without a flicker of feeling, I poured him a cup of tea to calm him down.

“Master, she’s still young. There’s plenty of time to teach her.”

He sat in a pearwood chair and tugged at my hand. Slowly and unwillingly, I stayed beside him, obliged to put on an affectionate manner.

Being a concubine meant selling yourself. So did being a wife, I told myself.

Master Chen wasn’t a man obsessed with women, but even now he thought only of himself.

He leaned a little closer, making sure to tell me:

“I already have three concubines. It’s a private matter, of course, but some colleagues tease me about my fondness for pretty women. Especially since you’re so much younger than I am. Taking another after you would damage my reputation.”

“None of the others has given me an heir. The task of carrying on the family line falls to you.”

“You must give me a boy.”

I clenched my teeth and kept playing the innocent little thing.

Inside, I had cursed him a thousand times already.

A son, a son. Had it ever occurred to him that he might be the problem?

Just when I thought he would keep harping on the subject, he let me go.

“It isn’t proper to sit about like this in broad daylight.”

What a sanctimonious fraud.