Chapter 3

In my memory, my mother was both stern and gentle.

She was icy toward my father and unsparing with the shopkeepers and clerks.

Only with me did she spend what patience and tenderness she had in this life.

When I threw myself into her arms, she pushed aside her ledger and abacus and cupped my face.

“Lishu, you needn’t compete with anyone for a man’s affection. A man’s love is the least dependable thing in the world. It vanishes in an instant and is worth nothing.”

As she spoke, she coughed up blood, leaving her handkerchief streaked with red.

She’d always been frail. When she was a child, a physician had declared she wouldn’t live past thirty.

My grandfather had wanted to keep her by his side, but she’d married my father without hesitation.

Not for love. Local officials had turned on my mother’s family. Even after hundreds of thousands of taels of silver had been spent, they still faced groundless charges and imprisonment for the entire family.

Mother understood then that commoners couldn’t fight officials, much less merchants, whose standing was lower still.

However great your fortune, even if you could rival a nation in wealth, one word from those in power could turn it all to nothing.

So she chose my father with painstaking care and married into the Wen family.

“My life will be short. My parents, brothers, and sisters have loved me, and I have nothing with which to repay them. All I can do is free future generations of our family from this lowly status, so our descendants will no longer be at others’ mercy.”

At her insistence, my mother’s family could only send her into the bridal sedan with tears in their eyes.

Once she became a nobleman’s wife, their own standing naturally improved. With my father as a connection, the local officials no longer dared act recklessly.

Over the years, Mother used his influence to help her family considerably.

Several of my uncles married daughters of minor officials. Several aunts were able to marry men who had passed the provincial or preliminary imperial examinations.

My cousins, boys and girls alike, all had better choices.

My mother’s decision had been right. So she also took great pains to befriend Yan Changxi’s mother and arrange our betrothal as children.

Before she died, she warned me that if he failed me, I should leave at once and find a better match.

“Lishu, most men in this world are faithless. Never lose yourself in them. Remember that power and wealth will never betray you.”

So when Yan Changxi abandoned me for Lihua, I didn’t wait for him.

I turned around and married Wei Zhao.

He held no examination degree, but the title of earl was there. No one dared take liberties.

Originally, I hadn’t been a suitable match, and he would never have noticed me.

Not until I “happened upon” his mother while visiting the graves in deep winter.

Sleet had suddenly begun to fall, and fallen rocks blocked the road.

In the bitter cold, I invited Lady Wei into my carriage for shelter.

She saw luminous pearls set into its walls, silks and satins laid inside with fox fur and tiger skins. Even the little table was made of golden-thread nanmu wood, and the incense was a rare imported treasure that money could scarcely buy.

Her eyes burned with envy. She hurried to ask whose daughter I was.

I told her plainly. She sighed. “Your father comes from the nobility. Why did he have to marry a merchant’s daughter?”

I suppressed my displeasure and continued entertaining her.

When the road cleared, she prepared to leave, but kept stroking the gold-embroidered fox-fur cloak she wore, unwilling to let it go.

I took the opportunity to say she should wear it home. Taking it off so suddenly might make her catch a chill.

She was flattered. “Something so precious—how could I?”

I smiled. “It’s only a fox-fur cloak. Things like this are nothing to me. If you don’t mind it, please take it.”

Lady Wei began to form a plan.

After returning home, she stroked the cloak all night, then summoned Wei Zhao.

Their household was in decline. Mother and son had long since pawned and squandered its valuable things.

Without a new source of income, how could they keep up appearances?

They discussed it for another three days. Finally, Wei Zhao agreed.

He came to seek my hand, bearing lavish gifts.

They both thought I’d been caught in their scheme.

But I was willing.

I wanted to do business, yet merchants were despised—and I was a woman besides.

Only with the title of countess could I make even the most arrogant men treat me respectfully, not daring to look down on me.

My mother-in-law liked my business acumen but thought my public appearances disgraced the household.

I paid no mind. Having the steward send her some trinket was enough to delight her. Sometimes she even made introductions for me to more noblewomen.

Wei Zhao, meanwhile, paid me little attention. Since Lihua’s return, he’d used my name as an excuse to become very close to her.