Chapter 7
Wei Zhao was all show.
On the surface, a graceful, gentle gentleman. Underneath, hypocritical, weak, arrogant, and conceited.
Never mind fighting an enemy. He couldn’t even lift a spear.
But the gossip outside grew louder. People said he was vain and incompetent, all talk, with neither scholarly nor martial ability—the most useless of men.
Naturally, I’d spread those rumors. My mother-in-law didn’t know that and was frantic when she heard them.
“Why not sit the examinations and make them see you differently?” she urged.
Wei Zhao felt as though his head would split.
He hated studying and feared death. He wanted neither path.
He would make no effort, yet craved pleasure and couldn’t let go of wealth and luxury.
I kept busy all day, rushing about in apparent anxiety.
Household spending was tightened. Even my mother-in-law’s usual bird’s-nest soup was stopped.
She summoned me, lectured me, and called me unfilial.
I knelt and cried, “I’ve failed in my duty. Something terrible has happened to the business. I’ve been borrowing from one place to cover another, but now I truly can’t keep going.”
She knew nothing of business. Seeing how thin and haggard I looked, she didn’t much suspect me.
“Everything was fine. How did it come to this?”
I faltered. “It isn’t poor management. It’s… those merchants were too treacherous. They made me suffer an enormous loss. A million taels of silver, poured away for nothing. And my mother’s family—several cousins were lured into gambling debts. Even selling the banking house couldn’t cover the shortfall…”
My mother-in-law sat stunned in her chair.
Wei Zhao didn’t believe it at first either. But when he visited the shops, the managers and clerks were all sighing in despair. Some had already slipped away.
He asked for the ledgers too. Every few pages he glanced at showed alarming holes.
The forged accounts were crude, but more than enough to fool an ignorant wastrel like him.
Finally convinced, he returned and cursed me, saying I’d betrayed his trust and shaken the very foundations of the household.
That wasn’t all. Creditors came to the door, and I had to sell off my dowry.
My mother’s family came to borrow money too. I quarreled fiercely with them and declared I would never see them again.
Wei Zhao watched, consumed with anxiety.
But he could do nothing. He could only stand by as I dismissed servants and sold estates.
Overnight, the great household declined beyond even its former hollow state.
Just then, a dignitary in the capital died. Wei Zhao and I went to offer condolences.
Looking at the coffin in the mourning hall, I sighed. “That old gentleman toiled all his life and only found peace in death. How exhausting.”
Wei Zhao looked at the burial goods, waving his fan. “He’s dead. What use will those things be in the underworld?”
I said, “Indeed. Better to travel the mountains and rivers with the one you love while you’re young, free as clouds and wild cranes.”
His fan stopped. He looked thoughtful.
Before long, Wei Zhao fell ill and took to his bed.
The physician called it an internal ailment.
I looked aghast. “I’ve never heard of it!”
My mother-in-law wailed without tears. “It runs in the Wei family. I thought Zhao had escaped, but now he’s ill too. Once it begins, there’s little time left.”
I sank to the floor, clutching my head and weeping.
“A million in debts still unpaid, and my husband has so little time! What are we to do?”
My mother-in-law wiped her eyes and comforted me.
“Zhao can no longer be relied on, but this household still needs you. Take care of yourself and prepare his funeral.”
Wei Zhao was truly impatient.
In less than a month, his “life was spent.”
Before dying, he took my hand.
“Lishu, I’ve treated you well. I turned a merchant’s daughter into a countess.”
“Remember my kindness. Remain chaste for me all your life, and take good care of my mother.”
“I’ve lived in wealth. I don’t want to be a pauper in the underworld. My burial goods must be lavish. Bury every valuable thing in the house with me.”
I said, “But the debts…”
My mother-in-law scolded me. “Heartless creature! My son is dying, and you still care about that? The living can find a way to get by. The dead come first. Don’t you know that?”
I could only obey.
That night, Wei Zhao died.
As he’d instructed, I buried a great many things with him, almost emptying the household.
By coincidence, three days after his death, a fire broke out at the Yan residence. Wen Lihua too was burned to nothing, not a bone remaining.
That was all my mother-in-law knew.
She thought the two had followed their plan and gone off with the lavish burial goods to live rich and carefree lives.