Chapter 2

Chapter 2

He made taking a concubine sound like he was informing me to set out an extra pair of chopsticks.

In the span of a heartbeat, a smile was already plastered across my face.

“Dalang has worked hard for half his life. It is only right that he enjoy himself now.”

He froze.

I stepped closer and looked at the new lines at the corners of his eyes, my voice trembling. “You joined the army at seventeen and fought over a hundred battles in more than twenty years. You were made a duke and awarded honors. Forget some legitimate daughter of a marquis’s household-even a princess of the imperial clan would be worthy of you.”

His mouth opened. All those words of “You are not allowed to make a scene” stuck in his throat, and after a long while, he finally forced out, “My lady… are you agreeing to this?”

“Why would I not?” I smiled gently. “Dalang has won fame and rank. I am respected at home because of whom? Is it not because Dalang risked his life for it?”

His eyes reddened.

The year I married him, he was from a fallen household, and I was a country girl.

When he went to war, I sewed his winter clothes. When he was wounded, I brewed his herbal medicine.

My mother-in-law was bedridden for three years, and I cleaned her filth and tended to her every need without letting him worry for a single day.

“My lady…” He took my hand, his rough palm burning hot. “Rest assured. Even if I marry a hundred noble ladies, you will still be the principal wife. No one will ever surpass you.”

I drew my hand back and straightened his collar. “It is enough that Dalang remembers my goodness.”

“I do! Of course I do!”

“Then I would also like to ask Dalang for a pledge to set my heart at ease.” I took a step back. “The eldest son inherits the family estate. Chengye is nineteen now and has trained under you in the barracks for three years. I would like to petition for him to be granted the title of Heir Apparent.”

He nodded readily. “As he should be! I will submit the memorial tomorrow!”

“There is one more thing.” I took a packet of medicine from my sleeve and poured it into the tea. “Please, Dalang, drink this bowl of medicine.”

He went still.

“Sterility Decoction.”

He flung his hand away. “Have you gone mad?”

“Do not be anxious, Dalang.” I gently stirred the tea and blew on it. “Hear me out.”

He glared at me, the veins on his forehead throbbing.

“Madame Zhou is eighteen this year. She was once the legitimate daughter of a marquis’s household, raised in luxury and privilege.” I looked at him calmly. “For a woman like that to marry you as a concubine, what does she want? Your age? Your rough temper?”

His lips moved.

“What she wants is your title, your power.” I placed the tea in his hand. “But the Zhou Family has miscalculated. Your title, Duan Qing, was bought with your life. Who inherits it is for you to decide.”

He said nothing.

“If you drink this bowl of medicine, once Madame Zhou enters the household and cannot bear a child, she will not be able to harbor crooked ambitions.” I looked at him. “When she realizes she cannot give birth and starts causing trouble, you can simply blame it on me. Say I, this jealous shrew, did it. You will remain clean, and all the fault will be mine.”

He held the teacup, the tea inside trembling faintly.

“But think of the other possibility.” I lowered my voice. “Madame Zhou enters the household, and her first child is a son. Will she not think: why can my son not inherit the title? She, a noble lady of golden branches and jade leaves, became your concubine. Why should her son rank below Chengye?”

His Adam’s apple bobbed.

“When the time comes, she will make a scene, and her family will join in. The imperial censors will impeach you for favoring a concubine and neglecting your wife, and the Emperor will scold you for being unable to manage even your own household.” I sighed. “You have fought wars all your life. Must you still play mind games with women in your old age?”

Wind blew in through the window, making the candle flame flicker.

“Our sons-Chengye in the military and Chengping in scholarship-are both at a crucial stage. We cannot let some plaything affect our children’s futures.”

His muddied gaze cleared considerably.

Heaven had treated me kindly, giving me two clever sons.

My children were not only my protective talismans; they were also among Duan Qing’s few weaknesses.

He suddenly said, “I will drink it.”

He stared at the foam floating on the tea, closed his eyes, and drained it in one gulp.

After drinking, he set the teacup down with a bang. “You are right. I have fought wars all my life. Why should I, now that I am old, still be schemed against by women? They want their grandson to inherit my title? In their dreams!”

A smile appeared on my face as I took his rough hand again.

“Exactly. Our three children have followed you on campaigns east and west and suffered no small hardship. This ducal title should naturally be enjoyed by our own sons.”

He nodded, clasped my hand in return, and patted it gently.

“My lady is still the thoughtful one. I will never imitate those men who favor concubines and neglect their wives. Trust me.”

I nodded heavily, tears of emotion glistening in my eyes.

“I have always known that Dalang would never be an ungrateful wretch like Lu Cheng.”

Lu Cheng.

That coarse man who had started out as a bricklayer. How much hardship had Linlin suffered after following him? Once he had made a name for himself, he brought home as a concubine the daughter of a fallen civil official. In less than half a year, he had tormented Linlin until she was neither human nor ghost.

The day after I left Zhending Marquis Manor, news spread that Linlin had died of illness.

And that ungrateful thing, Lu Cheng, turned around and married a noblewoman as his wife.

He held a grand banquet and basked in his triumph.

His children by his first wife had not even emerged from the grief of losing their mother before they were forced to kneel before the new madam and kowtow.

That kind woman had shared half a lifetime of hardship with her man, only to end up like that.

I swallowed the towering hatred in my heart and looked at Duan Qing through smiling tears.

This face, weathered by wind, frost, blades, and war for twenty years, was rough, sallow, and dark, with an ugly scar on his left cheek.

His eyes were no longer clear. All that remained was murky desire.

The way he looked at me had gone from the focus of the old days to careless indifference, with disgust flashing through from time to time.

Even so, I gazed at him tenderly and murmured as if casting a spell.

“My Dalang has never disappointed me.”

…

After more than twenty years as husband and wife, I understood Duan Qing too well.

A crude man who had clawed his way up from the bottom still loved being praised, even after becoming a duke.

But those civil officials at court, men from generations of so-called pure and upright families, had never looked him in the eye.

“Vulgar mud-legged peasants” was the insult the civil official faction openly used for the newly risen nobles.

Yet that did not stop these remnants of the previous dynasty, who fancied themselves pure and upright, from sending them concubines and adopted daughters.

And those men would curse them as “sour pedants” with one breath, then happily accept and enjoy the gifts with the next.

Duan Qing was no exception.

The difference was that compared with that pack of dutiful sons and worthy grandsons, he at least had a little self-awareness and could be persuaded now and then.

Seeing the rare tenderness surface in his eyes, I decided to press my advantage.

“When will Madame Zhou enter the household? How about after Chengye is invested as Heir Apparent?”

I looked at him with a smile, my face full of understanding.

“Sometimes I truly envy her. The moment she enters, she gets to enjoy comfort. But I had to share half a lifetime of hardship with Dalang before earning the status we have today.”

I lowered my eyes and showed him my rough hands. In an instant, my eyes reddened.

These hands had served his bedridden old mother, dug him half-dead out of a pile of corpses, cut and sewed clothes for him, bandaged his wounds, washed his filthy garments, and even gripped knives and axes…

“But comparing oneself to others is enough to drive a person mad. Who can blame me for being born twenty years before her?”

Duan Qing silently held my hands. After a long while, he dropped the words, “I will go write the petition for investiture right now,” and strode away.

I watched him leave, my gaze settling on the empty doorway.

Eighteen years ago, when he left for war, I stood at the village entrance to see him off. He looked back every few steps. Back then, his eyes were full of me.

Now, all that remained in them was disgust he could not even be bothered to disguise.

He joined the army at twenty and fought until he was forty, finally crawling out of the mud to become someone above others.

But in his bones, he was still the little cowherd who had been ordered around by landlords. The moment he obtained a noblewoman, he eagerly plastered himself to her.

A man like that could share hardship, but not wealth and honor.

“Go bring me the account books,” I said to the son who had hurried over. “Starting tomorrow, you will learn to manage the family’s businesses.”

Chengye froze. “Mother, Father won’t agree…”

“He will hand them over,” I interrupted him.

He had drunk that bowl of medicine, and the guilt in his heart had not yet faded.

While I had the chance, I would seize control of the family assets. After that, if he wanted to take in any number of noblewomen, he could do as he pleased.

In any case, he would not be able to father children. There would be no real trouble.

And even if there was, I would not fear it.

If men do not fear being branded “ungrateful,” why should we women fear the paltry infamy of being called a “jealous wife”?

I rested my hand on the court robe embroidered with golden pythons and stroked it inch by inch.

The stitches were still the stitches of those years, but the person was no longer the same.

Yet I was still who I had been.

Thirty-eight years old, strong in body, with an eldest son I could rely on, a second son who studied well, and a sweet little daughter.

From this day forward, I would live for myself.