Chapter 7
By daybreak, the three of them had stopped fighting.
I was half asleep when their arguing woke me.
“You were both supposed to be helping,” my husband said. “Instead, you both tried to steal my wife. Shameless!”
“Brother Lu,” said Shen Zhiyan, “if you’ll agree to a divorce, the children Miss Su and I have will call you their godfather. They’ll care for you in old age and see to your funeral.”
“In your dreams! I’m not divorcing her. Any child my wife has is my child.”
Pei Shuyuan, who had been silent all this time, spoke up.
“Then choose me. I won’t ask her to divorce you. I’ll soon be going to the capital for the imperial examinations anyway. Once I’m gone, you’ll have nothing to worry about.”
My husband asked what I thought. I said I would do as he wished.
So he agreed.
Shen Zhiyan was reluctantly eliminated.
A few days later, my husband brought Pei Shuyuan into the room.
He was awake, but his hands were bound and his eyes covered.
…
As my husband went out and shut the door, I couldn’t help asking, “You’re not going to drop out of the sky again this time, are you?”
His muffled voice came from outside. “Don’t worry. I’ll be right here guarding the door. Any longer than one stick of incense, and I’m coming in to haul him out.”
Oh. There was a time limit too?
“Sister-in-law, we’d better make the most of it.”
…
The third time my husband brought Pei Shuyuan to my room, he insisted most vehemently on going without the blindfold.
My husband refused.
I didn’t dare agree either, though Pei Shuyuan kept begging me to take it off.
A month later, I was diagnosed as pregnant.
In fact, starting just a few days after my first time with Pei Shuyuan, my husband had summoned a physician every day to take my pulse.
As soon as the pregnancy was confirmed, he threw Pei Shuyuan out.
It happened to be time for Pei Shuyuan to leave for the capital anyway.
He left without looking back.
My husband and I returned to our peaceful life.
After carrying her for ten months, I gave birth to an adorable daughter.
My husband was utterly besotted with her. Whenever he had a free moment, he spent it caring for her and keeping her company.
He remained just as attentive to me, finding every possible way to please me each night.
Still, after so much of the imitation, it was hard not to miss the real thing.
Perhaps he sensed what was on my mind. One day, he suddenly handed me a lock.
He said he had bought a courtyard house in the county town, and a handsome man as well. He didn’t know whether the man would suit my taste, so I should go and see.
If I didn’t like him, he said, I could send him to work the fields on the estate and buy another myself.
I was deeply touched.
With a husband like this, what more could a wife ask for?
That very day, I took an ox cart into town.
My husband truly understood me.
When our daughter was three,
we acquired a new neighbor.
Apparently, he was quite an important official.
Neither my husband nor I gave it much thought.
Our village had beautiful scenery and had produced many distinguished people. Plenty of high officials and nobles bought land and built houses here to retire to.
One day, someone knocked.
Holding our daughter, my husband cheerfully opened the door.
Then, almost as soon as it opened, he slammed it shut again.
“Who is it?”
“No one. A stray dog passing by bumped into the door.”
He had barely finished speaking when the knocking came again.
“Open up, Sister-in-law! I’m back! My darling daughter, open the door for Papa! I’m your real father…”
(The End)