Chapter 1
I had just turned eight when I was brought to the estate. My youngest sister was a little younger, having celebrated her sixth birthday not long before.
I heard the steward tell the mistress, “These two are the household-born servants of the most suitable age. Their parents are honest, dutiful people.”
“How thoughtful of you. Girls raised in the household are more trustworthy, and they certainly know the rules better than outsiders,” the mistress said.
“Mother, I want the younger one!” The moment our young miss saw our faces, she chose my sister.
I knew better than anyone how adorable my little sister was. When that child turned her charms on you, your heart simply melted.
But the mistress frowned instead of granting her daughter’s wish. “She is too young. You may find her difficult to use.”
No matter how the young miss pleaded, the mistress would not relent. At last, the steward stepped in to smooth things over. “This old servant neglected to mention that the two are blood sisters. Perhaps…”
The mistress sighed and studied our faces for a moment. “Very well. The girls can keep each other company.”
From that day on, we sisters remained beside the Minister’s eldest legitimate daughter.
We were named for our appearances: Mingyue, Bright Moon, and Fanxing, Myriad Stars.
Mingyue was naturally my pretty younger sister. Fanxing was me, with the faint freckles scattered across my cheeks.
Our young miss was clever by nature, but lively and restless. Nothing tormented her more than the calligraphy exercises her tutor assigned.
So she ordered me to imitate her handwriting and complete the tedious work in her place.
At first, the tutor spotted the deception and punished us. But with time, my hand grew so similar to hers that even the two of us could scarcely tell them apart.
To make it easier for me to do her lessons, the young miss asked her mother to let me study alongside her. The mistress saw through that little scheme at once.
She agreed anyway. Tutor Li was far too exacting, she said; who knew why he burdened a girl with so much schoolwork?
One day after class, Tutor Li asked me to stay behind and handed me a sheet of paper.
It was an assignment he had given the young miss several days earlier—one I had, of course, completed for her.
“There is a simpler way to solve this,” Tutor Li said.
He had probably known about my deception for a long time and merely pretended otherwise.
“Take this book home and find the answer yourself.” He handed me a volume and left.
Tutor Li returned as usual the next day. The young miss had arranged to go boating with several other girls and hurried out as soon as her lesson ended.
I rose to see Tutor Li out. As we walked, I told him that I had finished the book the day before, and we began discussing its contents.
At first he listened absently. Then he stopped in his tracks and stared at me.
“Good,” he said three times in a row.
I did not understand his reaction. I had merely repeated what was written in the book.
From then on, besides teaching the young miss each day, Tutor Li gave me questions to work through on my own.
When I was ten, he told the mistress that his learning was too shallow for the position and offered to recommend another teacher.
That year, in secret, I became a disciple of Master Cen of the School of Mathematical Studies.
More than once, Master Cen lamented, “Such gifts, and yet they had to be born into a woman’s body. What a pity. What a terrible pity…”
I did not understand why he pitied me.
Household-born servants like my sister and me were fortunate merely to wait upon our masters in person. We had even learned to read and been allowed to study. That already counted as a good life.
When I was fourteen, Master Cen asked what I intended to do with my future.