Chapter 2

That was what he said.

Yet that very night, he came to my room to discuss something else.

Zhou Ziyuan first brought his hands together and bowed to me. Apology filled his eyes. After hesitating for a long while, he finally told me about the decision he had reached over the past six months.

“Yueniang, you’re clever. You must have realized I have feelings for Qianqian.”

He spoke with remarkable bluntness.

I was somewhat saddened, but I had been thoroughly schooled in the rules of a great household from childhood. Arranging concubines for one’s husband was one of a principal wife’s duties.

Mother had once told me,

if I had not conceived within two years of marrying into the family, I must arrange for my husband to take a concubine before either he or my parents-in-law raised the matter.

If I conceived soon after the wedding, I should do the same of my own accord, for a pregnant wife could not attend to her husband for many months.

One way or another,

I would inevitably have to find my husband a concubine.

It was only a question of when.

But Song Qianqian had declared that very day that she would never be a concubine, while Zhou Ziyuan had said he could never repudiate me.

How, then, did he intend to satisfy us both?

At my question, the guilt in Zhou Ziyuan’s eyes deepened. He clasped my hands and said slowly, “Qianqian is a very special woman. I originally meant to make her a high-ranking concubine, but she says she wants one man and one woman for one lifetime. She could never share a husband with anyone else. So…”

Zhou Ziyuan paused.

The guilt in his eyes grew more pronounced.

“So I have devised a way to do right by both of you. My whole heart belongs to Qianqian now, but I absolutely cannot wrong you. Your position as principal wife will remain yours, but from this day forward, I will never set foot in your courtyard again. I will treat her with all the honors due an equal wife. That way, I will not have failed Qianqian either.”

When he finished, he watched me nervously.

After all, if I turned on him then and there, the long friendship between our families meant I could ask his parents to defend me. Song Qianqian would not only lose any hope of status; for the good of both clans, she would certainly be driven from the estate.

But if I did that, whatever affection remained between Zhou Ziyuan and me as husband and wife would end as well.

This world was harsh toward women.

If he no longer cared for me, he could take any number of concubines. Our families’ alliance might prevent him from repudiating me, but he could still neglect me in private, and the servants would soon learn to flatter the favored and trample the forsaken.

For a long time, I said nothing.

A husband’s affections shifting elsewhere was an unavoidable thing, but I had never imagined it would happen so soon.

Mother had warned me long ago.

Few men in this world would sincerely devote themselves to a single woman. Countless men tired of the old and craved the new; affection fading with a woman’s beauty was commonplace.

Therefore, a wife must show her husband ample respect,

but give him as little of her love as she could.

That way, when her beauty faded and his affection cooled—when he looked at her as if she were a distasteful stranger—it would not hurt quite so badly.

I had always listened to Mother.

She had lived comfortably in a rear court full of wives and concubines, so naturally she knew how to protect herself. I could not go wrong by learning from her experience.

I did not agree at once. First, I asked, “If the only condition is that you never enter my courtyard again, all the authority due to the principal wife will remain mine, yes?”

At times,

real power in one’s hands mattered far more than romantic love.

I currently controlled the household accounts, and every affair in the estate, great or small, required my decision. The work was tiring, but so long as the authority remained in my hands, the servants would continue to treat me with respect.

Zhou Ziyuan nodded at once.

“Naturally.”

As though another thought had occurred to him, he added deliberately, “Qianqian has no attachment to such worldly things. She lives like some ethereal fairy. If you enjoy managing them, then you may continue to do so.”

No attachment to worldly things?

I suppressed a laugh and questioned him carefully on many other points.

Among them: even if he no longer entered my courtyard, would I still be free to come and go from the estate as his principal wife? Would I still attend every banquet in that capacity?

In short, apart from no longer seeing him, would anything else change?

He shook his head to each question and gave me one final reassurance.

“Only our marital relations will end. Nothing else will change in the slightest.”

Good.

I looked at the husband before me. It would be a lie to say I had never cared for him.

But his heart was no longer mine.

There was no point in trying to force it.

As for his promise to grant Song Qianqian the status of an equal wife, I treated it as a joke. The laws of our realm recognized no such thing.

In the end,

she would still be nothing more than a concubine with slightly greater prestige.

And a concubine could never become the principal wife.

The Zhou family held a hereditary title passed down through the eldest legitimate line. Once my son came of age, that title could belong only to him.

Every elder in the clan would recognize no one but my son.

So I agreed to Zhou Ziyuan’s request. With a suitably mournful air, I asked for the finest residence in the eastern wing and moved there with my son and daughter.

It was the most elegant corner of the entire estate. Zhou Ziyuan was fond of poetry, books, and refined surroundings, so the place had been designed to display his cultivated taste. There was a vast grove of plum trees where one could admire the blossoms over tea in winter, and a pond planted with lotus, perfect for enjoying the flowers in summer.

I had coveted the place for a long time, but Zhou Ziyuan had never allowed anyone to live there.

At last, I had a reason to claim it as my own.