Chapter 5
I smiled wickedly.
“An unattainable flower on a snowy peak? You are nothing special.”
His pupils quivered, his face taut with humiliation.
I hated that cold, world-weary face. I hated even more how, every time Wei Yun humiliated me, he would dismiss it with an indifferent remark.
“Sisters are only playing. No harm was done. If anyone dares spread a word of it, they will answer to me.”
So I squeezed especially hard.
I watched his detached, indifferent mask crack apart inch by inch.
My smile deepened.
“What do you suppose would happen if I opened the door right now and let the servants see the eldest young master in such a sorry state?”
His eyes turned bloodshot, his face blazing with shame and rage.
“You shameless woman. Let go of me.”
Instead, I tightened my grip maliciously.
“So that dead-fish face of yours can make other expressions.”
“How lovely. A little redder would make you even more tempting.”
As I spoke,
I deliberately squeezed harder.
Wei Yu’s lips trembled. Mortified almost beyond endurance, even his voice weakened.
“What do you want?”
I smiled, leaned close to his ear, and enunciated every word.
“I want you to stay far away whenever you see me.”
“An unattainable flower? With a little pressure, I can snap you off at the roots.”
My voice cooled into a razor-edged warning.
“If any of you three siblings provokes me again, I will show no mercy.”
“I do not live in the Wei household for free. The Chu family has paved the road that will carry both you brothers into the capital. That is an exchange, not charity.”
The doorframe rattled when I released him and shoved him against it.
Then, with a creak,
I opened the door and stepped outside.
“I do not always know my own strength. This time was only a little scuffle. Next time, His Majesty may gain an elegant new eunuch at his side.”
“The eldest young master prizes propriety and reputation, but you should know those things are worthless in my hands.”
Wei Yu’s breath caught.
His face went white.
From then on,
the disgraced Wei Yun stopped gathering her little clique and dared not provoke me casually.
Wei Shu hid whenever he saw me, desperate to preserve his third leg.
Wei Yu remembered the utter contempt and humiliation in my eyes when I held his weakness in my hand, and made a point of staying far away.
I enjoyed three peaceful years in the Wei household.
Then a letter came from the Chu family.
On the birthday of the Third Prince—now Prince Ning—he had deliberately requested an imperial marriage for a Chu daughter.
The groom was none other than Shen Zhouci, who had joined hands with the Ning family in every rotten deed.
My second sister’s grief bled from every line of her letter. Page after page described her misery.
Shen Zhouci had a childhood sweetheart whom he called his sworn brother.
The two were inseparable and committed every sort of disgraceful act.
That sworn brother was Ning Shutang, Prince Ning’s cousin and the Noble Consort’s own niece.
Her father, stationed on the distant frontier, was a formidable general.
Under the banner of being a general’s fierce daughter, she behaved as wildly as she pleased and flouted every social boundary.
Disguised as a man, she took a pack of wastrel young lords drinking at pleasure houses.
When the courtesan queen sat in Shen Zhouci’s lap, Ning Shutang threw hot tea in the woman’s face and disfigured her.
Afterward, she spread her hands and declared without shame,
“A man’s chastity is the finest betrothal gift. She tried to insult you with that ruined body and destroy your future perfect marriage. As your brother, I could not stand aside.”
Shen Zhouci paid a large settlement but announced publicly,
“Shutang would take a blade for her brother. A little silver is nothing.
If that woman dares damage Shutang’s reputation, I will see her rot in the street.”
Not long afterward,
Ning Shutang hosted a horse race. Shen Zhouci happened to praise the flower in Miss Zhao’s hair.
Ning Shutang charged her horse into the spectators and trampled Miss Zhao’s arm until it broke.
Miss Zhao went white with pain.
Ning Shutang merely sighed.
“A spirited horse hates red. Miss Zhao deliberately wore a bright red flower and enraged my horse. Now its coat is damaged—what am I to do?
My father sent this Ferghana horse from the frontier. A mere concubine-born daughter could never afford the compensation.”
Shen Zhouci hurried to mediate.
“She was wrong to wear a red flower, but a woman’s love of beauty is understandable.
She drove the horse into a frenzy and damaged its coat, but Miss Zhao also broke an arm. The injuries cancel each other out. Let the matter end here.”
“Shutang, do this for me. There is no need to trouble His Majesty.”
Ning Shutang exhaled in relief.
“For my brother’s sake, I will let it go this time.
But Miss Zhao, please stay away from any gathering I attend in the future. Neither my horse nor I like you.”
Trading lines in perfect harmony, they dismissed a deliberate assault as though it were nothing.
Miss Zhao was an unfavored concubine-born daughter, so naturally no one sought justice for her.
Because she had humiliated the Zhao family, she was quietly sent out of the capital within days.
The moment the imperial marriage decree reached the Shen family,
Ning Shutang eagerly began making trouble for my sister Xiyue.
My second sister accepted an invitation to the Shen residence to view plum blossoms with Shen Zhouci and his sisters.
Ning Shutang arrived uninvited, slinging an arm around Shen Zhouci as they laughed and wrestled.
My sister saw everything but dared not object. She tried to make herself invisible.
She refused to respond to a single insult, taunt, or warning.
Shen Zhouci declared before everyone that Chu women were dull, his disgust plain on his face.
Ning Shutang still would not relent.
She cornered my sister, who had slipped outside for air, on a wooden bridge.
With a taunting sneer, she suddenly lashed a whip toward my sister’s face.
Startled, my sister lost her footing and fell into the freezing pool below.
It was the depth of winter, cold enough for dripping water to turn to ice.
My sister nearly died.
Ning Shutang merely slapped the whip against her palm and said carelessly,
“I did not touch so much as a hair on her head. She jumped into the water to frame me. That woman is devious and unfit to be a wife.”
“Ah Zhou, listen to your brother. If you marry a woman like that, the rest of us will suffer endless resentment.”
“Forget it. You two are betrothed; you should be the devoted pair. Escort your precious darling home. I am all alone, so I will ride back to the capital by myself.”
Without another word, Shen Zhouci chased after her and swung onto her horse.
“She is nothing. How could she compare to you? Come on. I’ll take you drinking.”
Ning Shutang looked helplessly at my sister, her expression openly provocative.
“What can I do? Brothers are limbs; women are clothes. If Miss Chu wants to become our sister-in-law, she will have to get used to it.”
The two rode away together on the spirited horse.
They left my sister, drenched like a stray dog, to return home alone
and become the laughingstock of the entire capital.