Chapter 2

I told Li Ruolan not to see Xie Bi for the next few days.

Her maid grew anxious.

“Won’t that drive the master straight out of the house? That woman would love it!”

I remained perfectly calm.

“What do you know? Your master and mistress have just quarreled. Seeing each other now will only make them resent each other more. Better to leave him alone for a while and give him time to think.”

Li Ruolan saw nothing wrong with the plan. She gazed forlornly out of the window.

“Then I won’t see him. He’s so heartless. I don’t want to see him either.”

Oh dear. When would she grow out of this mournful, poetic nonsense?

Her helplessness tried my patience.

“Staying away from him doesn’t mean you’re to sit here sighing over the seasons, my lady. You won’t be idle.”

Since discovering Xie Bi’s mistress, Li Ruolan had been miserable and fretful, unable to sleep at night. She looked haggard, as though she had aged several years.

I had the small kitchen prepare nourishing bird’s-nest soup and soothing medicinal meals for her every day.

I made sure she went to bed early each night, to rest both body and mind.

No news of Xie Bi was allowed to disturb her.

She was young and healthy underneath it all. Within a few days, her complexion had improved considerably.

Then I ordered hair oil and cosmetics prepared, new clothes cut, and new jewelry made.

Li Ruolan hesitated.

“We still have a household to support. Isn’t this rather extravagant?”

I let out a scoff.

“You scrimp and save, my lady, and your husband spends every coin you put aside on houses and land for another woman. Don’t you feel cheated? Stop letting hollow praise for your virtue trap you. If you won’t treat yourself well, why should anyone else?”

She stared at me in astonishment. After considering my words carefully, she made up her mind.

“You’re right, Aunt Chun! If I won’t care for myself, who will?”

I nodded approvingly. At last, a little sense was getting through.

Yet once she was newly dressed and looking at herself in the mirror, she hesitated again.

“Do you mean for me to compete for his favor, Aunt Chun? How would that make me different from those lowborn women? How long can a woman hope to hold a man by her looks?”

There was no saving this stubborn fool. Propriety had ruined her.

“If you won’t fight for yourself, my lady, are you really going to shave your head and become a nun?”

“I…” She faltered.

“As long as you still care even a little, you have to fight. Don’t imagine that fighting lowers your dignity. Real skill lies in drawing him in by holding him off—competing without seeming to compete. Sitting still and waiting for a man to repent on his own is what fools do!”

Just like old Xie’s lawful wife: Xie Bi’s mother, and Li Ruolan’s proper mother-in-law.

She had seemed so virtuous and generous. In truth, she had kept every woman in the household firmly in her grasp.

Now that had been a formidable woman.

Li Ruolan nodded, only half understanding.

No one had ever explained such things to her before. At home, they had merely taught her to be a dignified young lady who knew her place.

Now she had suffered, stumbled, and battered herself bloody before realizing that every path she had been taught to follow led nowhere.

None of those old lessons about how to conduct herself could help her.

From now on, she would have to work it out for herself.