Chapter 8

Jiang Qihe’s home was not in the capital.

The day he received the marriage decree, he gathered the betrothal gifts his elders had saved for him and set out straightaway.

When he arrived in the capital, he went directly to the Xia residence without stopping to rest.

I had just enough time to finish embroidering my bridal veil.

He could not stay in the capital for long. Less than a month after the lantern fair, he sent a letter asking whether I would agree to an earlier wedding.

After three years of recuperation, the tribes beyond the frontier were stirring again.

His forebears had guarded the border. He could not remain at ease in the capital.

His suggestion suited me perfectly.

Once I agreed, he simply informed Father that the wedding would be brought forward.

It was an imperial marriage, after all, and the groom was a fourth-rank officer. On my wedding day, the Xia household made a reasonably festive show.

After helping me into my wedding robe, Hongyu scrubbed at her face.

“If only your mother could see you.”

I took her hand and smiled. “While Mother was alive, I couldn’t give her a good life. But now I can finally take you with me to live well.”

Hongyu smiled through her tears, carefully wiped her hands with a handkerchief, and fetched my bridal veil.

Having comforted her, I suppressed the faint unease in my heart.

The smile Li Wujin had worn in the moonlight that night kept returning to me. I had been on guard day and night. At last my wedding day had arrived without any trouble.

But just as Hongyu was about to lower the veil over my head, my foreboding came true.

My third sister, Concubine Wan’s daughter, burst into the courtyard, screaming,

“I won’t marry him! I won’t leave the capital!”

She wore a blazing red wedding robe.

One by one, she tore the ornaments from her hair and threw them to the ground.

Concubine Wan came running after her. Clutching the bent ornaments in distress, she scolded,

“You wretched girl! Your father has given you such a fine marriage. If you can’t be grateful, must you make a scene on your wedding day?”

Then she saw me standing in my doorway. The color drained from her face.

Only then did she realize where her daughter had run.

“When was Third Sister betrothed?” I asked without expression.

Concubine Wan fluttered her handkerchief. “Oh, I just finished her wedding robe and had her try it on today.”

She tapped her own mouth. “My fault. I made a joke, and she took it seriously.”

If I believed that, I would deserve whatever suffering came my way.

Before I could question her further, Third Sister began shouting.

“If you dare do it, why not say it? What are you afraid of? Didn’t you just tell me Fourth Sister has no one to stand up for her, so even if she finds out, she can’t make any trouble?”

Having shouted at them, she smeared the makeup across her face and turned to me.

“You don’t know, do you? They want me to take your place today and marry that brute Jiang Qihe!”

Concubine Wan screamed and tried to cover her mouth.

Third Sister struggled and cried. “Father may not know, but don’t you? Yu is coming to propose the day after tomorrow! He just passed the provincial examination. Didn’t you say he had a splendid future?”

Since there was no hiding it, Concubine Wan stopped caring that I was there. She called two older servants to seize Third Sister and take her back to redo her hair and makeup.

“Compared with the others who passed that year! Who knows how long it’ll take him to earn the highest examination degree? And he’s only a commoner. Even if he passes, he might never receive an official post. Marry Jiang Qihe now, and you’ll be an official’s wife at once!”

Ha.

The Xia family, a house of learning?

I spat on that. They were full of gutter schemes.

If they gave me no way to live, I would take them down with me.

Crash!

I took the teacup Hongyu handed me and smashed it at Concubine Wan’s feet.

She saw my bloodshot eyes, and her scream caught in her throat.

“Hongyu,” I said quietly, “bring me a flame.”

Burn it.

I would burn it all.

None of them would have peace.

“My, Fourth Sister. What a temper.”

The woman’s voice was sweet and seductive. Before she appeared, it slithered in like a venomous snake.

Suddenly, my tiny courtyard was ringed with people.

The maids and older servants took their places, then parted to make a path.

The mistress walked in with my fifth sister, Xia Huairou.

Xia Huairou was not her birth daughter. When her own mother died suddenly when she was ten, she had willingly placed herself under the mistress’s care.

Over the years, she had followed Xia Linlang into more than enough mischief.

Even the servants called her “a bodhisattva’s face with a serpent’s heart” behind her back.

Today, that saintly face wore an exquisite wedding robe as well.

Xia Huairou pointed at Hongyu and me. “What are you waiting for? They know now. Do you want them running outside to ruin this for me?”