Chapter 5
By the time the servants carried me inside, the people of the marquis’s household had carefully bandaged my leg.
I was still looking warily around, my mouth half open to ask a question.
Nanny Xu, who had been waiting outside, heard me and bustled in, telling me everything about the household’s situation.
The woman who had saved me in the street yesterday was the marquis’s wife, Shen Wanrou.
And Shen Wanrou was Prince Ning’s third legitimate daughter.
Three years earlier, after my father injured Shen Jue, Prince Ning’s heir, the princely household had begun to decline.
Prince Ning had thought highly of the celebrated military commander Su Chi, Marquis of the Northern Marches. He married his dazzling youngest daughter to him, hoping the alliance would preserve his precarious power.
But his calculations soon came to nothing.
The old Marquis of the Northern Marches had helped the late emperor found the dynasty, only for the emperor to seize the throne ahead of him.
After inheriting the title, Su Chi won the love of the people in his domain and repeatedly repelled the invading Di Rong.
In peaceful times, there would have been nothing wrong with His Majesty granting him a domain to govern separately from the court.
Now, however, war flared everywhere. Fearing that Su Chi’s achievements overshadowed his own authority, the emperor sought to chastise him. On the pretext of factionalism and self-serving alliances, he forced him to defend this city.
Already ambitious, Su Chi became still more determined to take the throne under that pressure.
Not long after their marriage, Shen Wanrou had followed her husband into his demotion.
Listening to Nanny Xu, I broke into a cold sweat.
The woman who had saved me yesterday was the sister of the very man responsible for Father’s death.
Oblivious to my unease, the nanny continued. “If you ask me, you’re blessed, miss. With madam favoring you, there’s no limit to your prospects.”
As she finished, Shen Wanrou came toward me in splendid clothes, surrounded by elderly servants.
“You’re awake?” She took my hand warmly. “I read your papers and learned you came from the capital too. It can’t have been easy, ending up here.”
Her features bore a marked resemblance to Prince Ning’s heir.
Every smile, every movement of her brows brought back Father’s suffering.
But my caution seemed to please her.
After a few pleasantries, she stopped circling the matter and explained why she had saved me. “I don’t mean for you to be merely a maid. In Xicheng, there are few respectable girls with your beauty and gifts. I feel we were meant to meet. Why not stay here and serve my lord alongside me?”
My heart jolted.
She wanted me to become Su Chi’s concubine, sharing her husband.
I answered shakily, “I’m only a common girl. Your saving me is already a blessing beyond anything I deserve. How could I presume to hope for more?”
Her smile deepened. “There’s no hurry. Give me your answer once you’ve recovered.”
Yet when she left, there was a faint, unmistakable threat in her smile.
The marquis’s household ruled this place. If I refused, disposing of a powerless commoner would be as easy as crushing an ant.
But Shen Wanrou and Su Chi seemed a loving couple. Why put a concubine between them?
Puzzled, I quietly questioned Nanny Xu.
I learned that five years earlier, when assassins attacked Su Chi, Shen Wanrou had thrown herself in front of an arrow meant for him.
It struck her abdomen, damaging her health. She had been recuperating ever since.
That was why, despite the marquis’s devotion, she was so eager to put another woman at his side.
Nanny Xu looked regretful. “His lordship has always cherished madam. After that exhausting journey, with her so frail, how could he bear to make her suffer in bed? Madam is thoughtful, which is why she’s arranging a concubine for him.”
Conflicting feelings crowded my heart: uncertainty, helplessness, resentment.
For her husband’s pleasure, Shen Wanrou was using the debt I owed for my life to force me into concubinage.
Yet everyone else saw her as kind and generous.
As if refusing would make me an ungrateful fool.
Before long, I understood.
In a world at war, a commoner who received even the scraps from a noble’s table was already extraordinarily fortunate.
My life counted for nothing beside a noble’s dignity.
Though the marquis guarded Xicheng, chaos already reigned outside its walls.
Sensing disaster, those with savings fled with their families. Those who could not escape were sold as “two-legged sheep” for food, or captured by Jiang’s soldiers to die in their camps.
Leaving this household would mean certain death.
Father had won me this chance to live. Instead of pouring my hatred into Shen Wanrou, I could give her what she wanted and take what I needed.
I asked Nanny Xu to carry my answer.
When Shen Wanrou learned I had agreed, she sent a wealth of nourishing foods to my room.
She took my hand and smiled. “Here in Xicheng, to have someone so considerate serving my lord alongside me—I should be thanking you.”
But how could a noble daughter of Prince Ning’s house ever be an ordinary woman?
It could never hurt to be careful.