Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I went to Butcher Liu’s house to buy some offal and overheard them discussing it as if it were established fact.

“What kind of place is a prince’s mansion? How could they casually give a village woman eighty taels?”

“Exactly. Even a prince’s mansion would need a long time to eat through eighty taels!”

“I heard the steward of Prince Zhong’s Mansion is notorious for his lust. Lady Wang brought back so much money and grain from him. Who knows what depraved things he did to her?”

“The thought of eating such filthy grain makes me sick. Bah! Back then, I even knelt and begged Lady Wang to give me some. If I’d known, I’d rather have starved to death!”

“Look at her, acting as if we’d received some enormous favor! Every time we see her, are we supposed to kowtow?”

My mother was beautiful.

Weaving had roughened her hands, farming had bent her back, and her face was covered in the marks of wind and frost, but she was still beautiful.

In their mouths, she was merely a pretty peasant woman who had obtained such benefits by relying on the only use a woman had.

I rushed out and shouted at them, “My family’s grain saved your lives, yet you repay our kindness with spite. Are you even human?”

“Little Ying’er, I didn’t make this up.” Butcher Liu gave a sly chuckle. “Everyone’s saying it. Besides, even without your family’s grain, we’d have gotten by. Whose family doesn’t have some surplus? You can’t say it saved anyone’s life.”

They had no way to repay such an enormous favor, so they repaid it with hatred instead.

When the rumors reached my father, he pretended not to care.

But in secret, he asked me, “Ying’er, tell Father the truth. Where exactly did your mother’s silver come from?”

I shouted angrily, “Zhao Manzhu gave it to us!”

Another month passed, and my mother’s belly became noticeably larger.

Yet when she went into labor, she was far short of ten months along.

Rumors spread everywhere, saying that my mother’s child was the steward’s bastard child, and that my father had become a living cuckold.

My mother was weak after giving birth. When she heard the rumors, she fell so ill that she could no longer get out of bed.

My little brother may have been premature, and he was weaker and sicker than ordinary children. That day, his whole body burned with fever. My mother called for my father again and again in a hoarse voice.

The local provincial graduate came to visit my father and discuss affairs of state. Before long, the villagers’ rumors came up.

“Dying of hunger is a small matter; losing one’s chastity is a great one.” The provincial graduate spoke solemnly. “To a scholar, one’s reputation is more important than the heavens. The fighting in the north is about to end, and once the situation stabilizes, the examinations will be held. This concerns your future and your ambitions.”

“People’s tongues are terrifying. It’s only a woman.”

When my mother dragged herself to find my father, he was carefully drafting a divorce letter.

My mother recognized the few words on the divorce letter. Her body immediately went limp, as if everything had been emptied out of her.

“Wang Zhengjun, well done… What a fine gentleman you are…”

My father frowned. “I know you’ve suffered, but a gentleman must know both what to do and what not to do! I’d rather our entire family starve to death than have you commit such an unrighteous act.”

My mother looked at him and laughed, then burst into tears and began pounding herself viciously.

My little brother was on the verge of burning out his last breath, while all the silver in the household had already been spent.

I took out the Golden Phoenix I kept close to my body and told Mother to summon a physician.

My father said, “You’re so young, yet you’ve already learned to hide things and scheme in secret. Your mind is far too calculating. Just like your mother.”

I didn’t know what he meant by hiding things and scheming in secret. I only wanted to keep the hairpin Zhao Manzhu had given me. If I brought it out, Father would take it and use its value to bolster his own reputation.

The physician came and fed my little brother some medicine, but said that he was already beyond saving.

Mother held him and paced back and forth, crying and praying.

In the second half of the night, my little brother breathed his last.