Chapter 2

For nine generations, the Su family had practiced “washing away daughters.”

Every baby girl born into the family had to be drowned by her own mother, after which her father would chant prayers to send her soul on its way.

Countless infant girls’ souls drifted in the well behind the house, while incense burned without end in the clan’s ancestral hall, generation after generation.

A diviner had said that the wife of the tenth-generation clan heir would bear twins, a boy and a girl. Once that tenth generation had washed away its daughter, the family’s merit would be complete.

That boy would raise the Su family to heights it had never known.

My mother’s first pregnancy was with twins.

While she carried us, she enjoyed a spell of extraordinary arrogance.

As a new bride, she was spared all the usual mistreatment and could do whatever she pleased in the Su household.

Even Father fawned on her shamelessly. He sent away his concubines, stopped frequenting the pleasure quarters, and stayed home at her side every day, waiting for the birth of that boy destined for such exalted rank.

On the day Mother went into labor, the mist outside her room glowed like fire, brilliant as sunset clouds, as though a true dragon had descended to earth.

Everything went so smoothly.

Until she gave birth to two girls.

Father flew into a rage. He smashed the chicken soup stewed for Mother and ordered the troupe of musicians and performers to get out.

He found a hemp rope and ranted about strangling his daughters.

Mother was even more distraught.

Still covered in blood, she seized the midwife’s sleeve and screamed at her to cut open her belly and take out the boy hidden inside!

Amid the chaos, Su Futang and I had been abandoned on the floor. Instead of crying, we began to giggle.

The sound made Father’s skin crawl. He summoned the diviner to examine us.

The diviner straightened his robe and said unhurriedly, “The Su family’s resolve to wash away its daughters was insincere. Heaven has punished you by turning a true dragon into a phoenix.”

“Now all we can do is look carefully and determine which of these children was meant to be the boy.”

Father frowned. He wanted to denounce the man as a liar, but could not bring himself to declare nine generations of his own ancestors gullible fools.

Mother, however, climbed from the birthing bed and pointed at me without hesitation.

“She has more hair, and her voice is softer. You can tell she’s the one who was always a girl!”

“Drown her!”

With one pointing finger, Mother set Su Futang and me on different paths.

To be certain, they did not drown me immediately.

Instead, Mother confined me to the back courtyard and named me Su Yao’er—a child meant to die young. I was kept out of the family genealogy and hidden from outsiders. My sole task was to die as soon as possible.

Su Futang, meanwhile, was raised as “the Su family’s only daughter.” Mother dressed her as a boy from childhood and sent her to an academy, and to the riding grounds to learn horsemanship and archery. She grew up bold and dashing.

Quite unlike the women confined to the inner household.

In time, even Father, who never came home, could tell Su Futang from Su Yao’er at a glance.

Mother grew smug again. “No one knows her child like a mother. I knew that little bitch Yao’er was the accursed daughter!”

Unfortunately for her, though I lived on leftovers and dew, and was forever ill, I showed no sign of dying young.

Every day I lived was another day people wondered whether Mother had chosen the wrong child.

So when the late emperor ordered the Su family to present a maiden for his harem, Mother could scarcely wait to send me in my sister’s place.

Before I left, she smiled at me for the first time. “Be a good girl and go, Yao’er. Don’t give the game away.”

“Once you’re in the underground tomb, bless your sister. Help her rise in the world, and bring wealth and glory to the Su family.”

The only thing I took from the Su household was my personal maid, Xiaohui.

I looked at the poisoned wine, then at her. “Xiaohui, won’t even you help me?”

Xiaohui tilted her head and ducked behind Su Futang. “Is that even a choice? If it weren’t for the eldest miss, I would never have served an accursed daughter like you!”

Helplessly, I spread my hands and lifted the cup. “Sister, none of us knows what lies ahead. I hope you won’t regret this.”

With that, I drained the wine and fell to the floor.

Su Futang looked at me, conflicting emotions in her eyes. “Xiaohui, drag her into the hills behind the nunnery and feed her to the wolves. Make certain no trace remains.”

But she did not know that my consciousness had gone nowhere. It had become a pair of eyes, keeping watch at her side.