Chapter 5

Seven months remained before Eldest Miss Yin’s wedding.

Madam Yin’s arrangement had me working in her daughter’s courtyard by day and returning to Yin Zonglin’s bed at night.

I had crossed into another world only to experience the life of a beast of burden working two shifts.

Yin Zonglin’s favorite refrain was, “If my sister bullies you, come tell me.”

As if Eldest Miss Yin had any desire to make my life difficult.

Stepping on someone else to display virtues he did not possess was an instinct engraved in his bones.

He had no idea that his sister and I spent each day discussing murder.

We studied the rise of the Cao family, the circumstances behind Master Cao’s paralysis, his relationship with his second wife, Ninth Young Master Cao’s habits, weaknesses, health, disreputable friends, and trusted servants.

We spent a great deal of silver and secretly hired several outsiders, collecting every useful detail piece by piece.

I analyzed the man for Eldest Miss Yin. “He grew up watching his father beat his mother and learned by example. He is intensely controlling and possessive, selfish and suspicious. Polite to outsiders, vicious to those closest to him.”

A textbook domestic abuser.

Eldest Miss Yin understood the term by then.

“Abuse runs in families,” I told her. “Paralysis can too.”

A mere maid ought not to have known such things, but she was clever enough not to interrogate me.

“We’ve spent a great deal these past few days.” That concerned her more.

She had caused a scene before Master Yin and wrung two thousand taels of private dowry money out of him.

Yet from beginning to end, she never told Madam Yin the truth about Cao.

“If Mother tells me to obey, I’ll be heartbroken. If she sells her own dowry to pay Father’s debt for my sake, I’ll resent it. Better that she knows nothing.”

We went to the Pavilion of Treasures to choose jewelry.

The moment we entered, we saw Yin Zonglin and Du Ruohua standing side by side at the counter, a perfectly matched couple from behind.

“I knew you disliked Chunyi, so I sent her to my sister long ago,” he was saying. “Next year she’ll follow my sister to the Cao household and never trouble your eyes again.”

Du Ruohua paused, the jeweled hairpin in her hand trembling slightly. “The Cao household?”

Yin Zonglin sounded carefree. “Don’t worry. My sister may intend to have her serve Ninth Young Master Cao, but that man is hard to please, and with my sister keeping her down, she’ll be lucky to become even a concubine. Does that make you feel better?”

Du Ruohua answered with a flat hum and casually set down the exquisite hairpin.

I did not know that this brief encounter would alter the fate I had fought so hard to grasp.

In the carriage, Eldest Miss Yin sneered. “Second Brother certainly knows how to talk.”

I winked. “Want to make a wager?”

“On what?”

“Tonight, the second young master will tell me he can’t bear to lose me.”

She laughed. “I’m not gambling with you. You won’t get a copper from me.”

I wrote an exhaustive plan, covering everything from how Eldest Miss Yin might conceive Ninth Young Master Cao’s child as quickly as possible after marriage to alternative plans, and which districts of Gusu offered the best prospects for purchasing land, houses, and shops.

I had studied finance and business administration, politics and international relations. I spoke several languages, played music, painted, rode, and shot. I was convinced my abilities could help Eldest Miss Yin seize control of the Cao family and establish herself in Gusu.

Then one day, Nier—who had grown happier with each passing day—came running to me in a panic.

“Sister Chunyi, the second young master has…he’s given you away.”

It was like having a basin of ice water dumped over my head. It took a long time before I understood that Yin Zonglin had treated me as an object and handed me over as compensation.

He had caused trouble at the academy and broken a classmate’s jade pendant. It was not priceless, but it was an ancestral treasure.

The scholar, Shen Guanfu, was twenty-five. Poor and physically frail but stubbornly principled, he insisted Yin Zonglin make amends.

Shen Guanfu was talented and admired by several teachers. Yin Zonglin did not want the dispute to grow.

Du Ruohua’s cousin happened to study there as well. Whether deliberately or not, he stepped in as peacemaker. “I hear the pendant was a talisman meant to preserve the Shen bloodline for generations. What a pity Brother Shen is already twenty-five without children—or even a betrothal.”

“Why not compensate him with a girl? He can take her home and continue the family line. She’ll be more useful than a cold piece of jade.”

“Give him that senior maid of yours, the one called Chunyi. She looks fertile.”

“Surely Brother Yin isn’t reluctant?”

Yin Zonglin was not reluctant. Shen Guanfu refused.

In the end, Shen Guanfu’s mother, who worked as a cook at the academy, happily signed the papers. Yin Zonglin gave her my bondservant contract.

Talent alone did not win a man an official degree. A thirteen-year-old licentiate who had once astonished everyone, Shen Guanfu was still only a licentiate at twenty-five.

He and his widowed mother lived in crushing poverty. He had failed the provincial examination again and again, yet ordinary young women did not satisfy him. Finding him a wife was harder than finding his mother a second husband.

She had begged relatives, pleaded with matchmakers, and argued with her son until the matter of his marriage had nearly driven her mad.

Now a wife had fallen out of the sky—a senior maid from a wealthy household, better educated than most common daughters. Whether Shen Guanfu agreed did not matter. His mother accepted me and meant to take me home. Once raw rice became cooked rice, she believed, the matter would settle itself.

And I was a slave. From Yin Zonglin’s side to his sister’s courtyard and then to the Shen household, my wishes meant nothing.

“Come. We’re going to the Shens,” Eldest Miss Yin said, gripping my hand. “This may not be bad. Your contract belongs to Shen Guanfu’s mother now. A free man cannot marry a slave. If he wants you as his lawful wife, he’ll have to secure your manumission first.”

She had once asked Madam Yin for my contract. But as we grew close, Madam Yin feared that I might manipulate her daughter after the wedding and had refused to release it.

“Jiang Chunyi, this is an opportunity,” Eldest Miss Yin said firmly.

At last, I calmed down. Warmth began returning to my frozen limbs.

Nothing was more exhilarating than a chance at freedom.

“Sister Chunyi, you’re so clever. You can make a good life anywhere,” Nier said.

Eldest Miss Yin marched off, rolling up her sleeves. “Second Brother sold my maid without a word to me. He owes me an explanation.”

She made such a scene that she extracted another two hundred taels, all of which she gave me as a dowry.

I went to bid Yin Zonglin farewell. After years as master and servant, I at least owed him a kowtow.

As I approached the study, I heard Du Ruohua’s cousin laughing. “Shen Guanfu thinks himself so noble. The man is too poor to eat, yet his eyes are still fixed on the heavens. Once he and your maid marry, we’ll tell him she’s a worn shoe you’ve already slept in. Ha!”

Yin Zonglin sounded equally amused. “Brother Du has avenged me nicely. I thought at first you had some other motive. You were right about one thing, though—my maid is fertile. She’s already lost three pregnancies. Who knows whether Shen Guanfu can make her conceive?”

“How could Shen Guanfu compare with Brother Yin?”

The drawn-out tone was filthy with insinuation.