Chapter 3

Chapter 3

During my three years in the Zhao household, life had, in all honesty, been tolerable.

My parents-in-law were reasonable people.

When they learned Zhao Yunzhou refused to consummate our marriage, they beat him severely and had him carried to my room for me to nurse, hoping we might develop some affection.

At the time, I even admired him a little.

He had kept his promise. He had not dragged me into his affair, and he was willing to endure such punishment for Concubine Song. One could at least call him devoted.

I did not want to defy my parents-in-law and earn their resentment, which would only make my life in the household harder, so I did not have Zhao Yunzhou carried out.

I ordered the maids to bring water, clean him, and dress his wounds.

Then Concubine Song knelt outside my courtyard.

Tears streamed down her face. She said nothing and merely knocked her head against the ground until blood appeared on her brow.

I walked outside and said calmly, “He is asleep. When he wakes, I will have him carried to your courtyard.”

She raised her pale face and forced a smile.

“I trust you, Madam. I simply do not know whether my husband will.”

Without warning, she slammed her forehead to the ground once more. Then she cried out, clutched her abdomen, and collapsed to one side as red stained her skirts.

She had miscarried.

Right outside my courtyard.

It was the first time in my life I had faced anything like it.

I could not imagine anyone using her own unborn child as a weapon to frame another woman.

I had her carried back to her courtyard and summoned a physician. Then I waited outside.

My parents-in-law arrived.

When they saw me standing there, disappointment crossed their faces.

“She is in such a state, yet you remain outside. You do not even know enough to go in and see her?”

After a moment’s hesitation, I followed them into the room.

The physician declared that Concubine Song had miscarried because she had knelt too long.

Aggrieved tears slid from the corners of her eyes.

Her maid protested angrily, “Madam made a rule forbidding my mistress from entering her courtyard. My mistress was worried about the young master and had no choice but to kneel outside and beg.”

My parents-in-law turned and glared at me.

A smile flickered over Concubine Song’s lips, so quickly that it was gone almost at once. Her face returned to its gentle, sorrowful mask.

My parents-in-law sentenced me to kneel overnight in the ancestral hall.

Once inside, I did not kneel. I laid my head on the table and slept.

The hall was damp and bitterly cold.

By morning I understood something clearly: however kind my parents-in-law might be, they were Zhao Yunzhou’s parents. The Zhao family’s interests would always come first. If I threatened those interests, they would not care whether I was innocent.

When I emerged, Concubine Song was waiting outside, supported by a maid.

She smiled at me sweetly.

“Some rules are better left unobserved, Madam. After all, they were not laid down by anyone of importance.”

“I hear your birth differs from mine only in that you have parents. Though certain parents are worse than useless-they are burdens who ruin their own daughters.”

“Your knees must hurt terribly. Please take good care of yourself.”

She departed in triumph, turning before she left to wink at me.

“Thank you, Madam. The finest husband in the world belongs to me now.”

Her supposed miscarriage achieved everything she wanted.

It filled my parents-in-law with guilt toward her and resentment toward me.

It made Zhao Yunzhou pity her more and loathe me more deeply.

So many benefits from a single miscarriage. Quite a profitable bargain.

Unfortunately for her, she had forgotten one thing.

I had a temper.

When I proposed those three rules, I had genuinely meant to keep the peace and stay out of their way.

Since she refused, then war it would be.

Some vicious curs had to be beaten into submission before they learned whom they could not afford to provoke.