Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I entered the Lin household as a maid when I was ten and was assigned to tend the kitchen fires for Granny Shi.

I tended those fires for five years, and in that time Granny Shi and I grew very close.

At first, she thought I was hopelessly clumsy.

Later, she realized I was not clumsy at all. I simply needed time. Once I had enough of it, I learned to control a fire to perfection.

Whether she was stir-frying, stewing, or steaming, my fire always suited her needs exactly.

That helped secure her position as head cook.

Then she began to worry that I might leave.

She feared that, like the other maids, I might try to find a place serving one of the mistresses in the inner courtyards.

Or climb into a master’s bed and wrangle myself the title of concubine.

I told her I would never do either.

She did not believe me.

After worrying for five years, she finally stopped.

Then she started scolding me for being too content with my little patch of earth.

What kind of maid had no ambition at all?

“Who says I have no ambition?” I protested.

Granny Shi pointed at the potatoes and corn I had just raked out of the embers. “Is that your ambition?”

I gently peeled away the potato’s blackened skin, releasing a mouthwatering aroma.

The soft, fragrant potato went straight into my mouth.

I closed my eyes in bliss.

Granny Shi glared at me. “Give me half.”

I immediately handed it over with a grin.

She loved them too.

After taking a bite, Granny Shi said, “You’re the most innocent-hearted girl I’ve ever met. You shouldn’t spend your whole life chained to a stove.”

“But Granny Shi, this is where I want to be.”

Granny Shi laughed. “What promise.”

What was wrong with tending fires?

The Lins were rich. They burned good firewood and fine charcoal, and even their kindling caught easily.

I had spent five years tending their fires and had never once tired of it.

No one else wanted to come to this corner of the house.

The person I saw most was Granny Shi.

I did not have to watch anyone’s expression or curry favor.

I might be a servant, but I did not have to grovel.

And best of all, I had Granny Shi.

She was a classic case of a hard face hiding a tender heart. Whenever something she cooked turned out especially delicious, she always let a little “go missing” into my bowl.

Truthfully, I ate better than the masters.

I was the first to taste every dish straight from the wok.

That was when the flavor was at its best.

Where else could I ever find a job like this?

Ever since transmigrating here, I had wanted only one thing: to keep my job tending the Lin family’s fires and quietly survive until the end of my days.

I felt beneath the stove for a small hollow where I had buried my monthly wages.

No scolding, plenty of good food, and money left to save. There truly was no better work than tending a fire.

The Lin family’s young master, Lin Ze, was betrothed to Cui Wan’er, the legitimate daughter of the Cui family.

They were to marry after Cui Wan’er’s coming-of-age ceremony.

But heaven is fickle.

The day before the ceremony, Madam Cui complained that her chest and shoulder hurt. She sweated profusely from the pain. Even the finest physician in the city could not save her. Three agonizing hours later, she died.

A heart attack!

I knew what it was as soon as I heard the symptoms.

There was no saving her in ancient times.

She would have needed thrombolytic treatment followed by a stent. Those were modern techniques; herbs alone could not provide the emergency care she needed.

When I told Granny Shi, she was stirring porridge with a large ladle.

“By law, a daughter must mourn her mother for three years,” she said. “The Lin family will have to do something.”

I assumed they would break off the engagement. Young Master Lin was already eighteen, after all, and few men in this age remained unmarried so long.

Madam Lin and Madam Cui had been close friends since girlhood. Years ago, they had arranged a childhood betrothal between their children.

Madam Lin adored Cui Wan’er, who was three years younger than her son, and treated her like her own child.

To foster affection between the two, she frequently contrived opportunities for them to meet. She had never placed a woman in her son’s bedchamber, hoping the young couple would belong only to each other from beginning to end and remain loving for life.

But after Madam Cui died, Madam Lin had second thoughts.

Madam Cui had treasured Cui Wan’er above everything. To give her daughter a perfect coming-of-age ceremony, she had personally overseen every detail and exhausted herself with worry and work.

In the end, she died one day before the ceremony.

Could Cui Wan’er be destined to bring death to her mother?

The suspicion troubled Madam Lin. She secretly sought out a fortune-teller. Knowing the gravity of the matter, the man worked with great care. After three days of calculations, he told Madam Lin that Cui Wan’er had not brought death to her mother; she merely had meager fortune.

Meager fortune was not reason enough to end the engagement.

Madam Lin abandoned the idea.

But meager fortune also meant she could do nothing to advance her husband.

Madam Lin began to feel that making her son preserve his chastity for Cui Wan’er had done him an injustice.

To make him wait another three years for a girl who could bring him no good fortune hardly seemed worthwhile.

After much deliberation, she decided the engagement could stand, but her son’s bedchamber could no longer remain empty. It was time to give him women.

She would choose a bedchamber maid for him, and the Cui family signaled their understanding.

After all, wealthy men of Young Master Lin’s age usually had whole flocks of wives and concubines already.

After discussing it with Master Lin, Madam Lin decided to choose two maids from within the household. Their histories would be known, and they would be less likely to cause trouble.

When word spread, every pretty maid in the estate began to preen herself and find excuses to wait on Madam Lin.

Granny Shi looked at my face, blackened beyond recognition by smoke. “I’ll save you some rice water. Wash your face with it every day and you’ll look like a different person within ten days.”

I held up a potato. “Can I roast one today?”

The kitchen had a heavy workload, so I could not roast many. I was only asking for one.

“Can you please show a little sense?” Granny Shi said.

I rubbed my stomach and gave her my most pitiful look.

She sighed and gave permission.

Madam Lin chose two pretty, sweet-talking girls. One served at her side, while the other was the steward’s daughter, born into the household. Both were women she trusted and were loyal to her alone.

“Madam chose them long ago,” Granny Shi said. “That so-called selection was merely a performance for the young master.”

“Of course. Any mother-in-law would make sure the women around her son were on her side.”

Granny Shi gave me a reproving look. “Listen to you, as if you know everything. You’ve never even married.”

“But I hear plenty.”

Senior and junior maids from the inner courtyards loved coming to chatter in front of an inconspicuous fire-tending girl like me. Whether anything had happened or not, they would drop by to wag their tongues.

Granny Shi pressed a hand to her forehead. “After hearing so much, how have you still not learned to be shrewd?”

“Why do you spend all day circling me instead of currying favor with Madam?”

“Because in my heart, you’re my mother. You matter far more than Madam. When you grow old, I’ll take care of you.”

Granny Shi froze.

I meant every word.

I had transmigrated into the body of a ten-year-old girl who had been wandering for reasons unknown, dressed in rags and shoes with several holes.

Not long after I arrived, hunger made me faint in the street. At the time, I thought dying might not be so bad. Perhaps I would simply transmigrate back.

I did not die.

Granny Shi, who had gone out to buy firewood, spotted me and had someone carry me back to the Lin estate. She begged Old Madam Lin to keep me as her fire-tender.

The old lady agreed. She had eaten Granny Shi’s steamed egg custard and tofu for decades without tiring of either, and she was willing to grant Granny Shi a favor for the sake of those dishes.

Granny Shi gave me the name Shi Dou.

I worked with her, and together we received one monthly allowance, a little more than she had earned alone.

Every time it was paid, Granny Shi handed my share to me.

She never kept a single coin.

One year ago, Granny Shi told me, “We didn’t know where you came from back then, so no indenture was ever signed. You’re a free person.”

“Last year, I asked the old madam to register you. You have papers proving you’re a free commoner.”

That was when I decided I would care for Granny Shi in her old age.

Now that I had solemnly said it aloud, tears streamed from her aged eyes.

She had never had a son or daughter.

She had never dreamed that anyone would support her in old age.

And now my promise made her cry.

She believed I would keep it.

I had grown up under her watch for five years. She knew my temperament through and through.

Granny Shi had originally signed a lifetime bond, but before Old Madam Lin died, she had converted it into a term contract.

If the masters were satisfied, Granny Shi could ask to retire and return home.

Provided, of course, they were willing to release her.

After the old madam passed away, Granny Shi’s treatment in the household worsened considerably.

Madam Lin disliked people who had belonged to her mother-in-law. But Granny Shi did not get in anyone’s way, and her tofu was genuinely delicious, so Madam Lin kept her. Her treatment, however, was no better than that of the most ordinary maid.

Granny Shi had wanted to leave for years, but she was alone and had nowhere to go.

Now I had promised to support her.

She had something to look forward to.

“Someday, when we’ve coaxed Madam into a good enough mood to let me go, the two of us will open a little shop,” she said.

I was delighted that she had accepted me as her daughter.

I wrapped my arms around her plump body.

She was warm and fragrant.

Fragrant like spicy stir-fried shredded potatoes.

I had found myself family in this world.

A mother who could cook.

But human plans are no match for fate.

Cui Wan’er was determined to have Young Master Lin, and she took an interest in everything that concerned him.

Choosing bedchamber maids was not a great matter, yet she came to inspect the candidates in person.

Afterward, word arrived from her.

Young Master Lin could have a bedchamber maid, but not two. The girl must not be exceptionally pretty or skilled at charming men, lest she distract him and impede his studies.

Madam Lin’s face flushed red, then went white.

Her son’s studies had always been a sore point.

Lin Ze first sat the examinations at fifteen and had never passed.

The messenger added that Miss Cui had said the Lin household’s fire-tending maid seemed suitable.

I was peeling a potato when I heard.

The shock nearly made me throw it across the room.

Thinking I must have misheard, I asked, “Granny, what did you just say?”

Granny Shi was beaming. “What is yours by fate will always find you; what is not can never be forced.”

“Our Shi Dou was born to have this fortune.”

“When Miss Cui said ‘the fire-tending maid,’ she really meant me?” I pointed at myself in disbelief.

Granny Shi nodded. “You’re the only maid in the estate whose sole duty is tending fires. The rest are boys who take turns.”

Surely not.

That was one colossal turn of fate.

Granny Shi grinned so broadly that a second chin appeared.

“Why? How could she possibly choose me?”

I had always kept such a low profile.

“Miss Cui met you once and took a liking to you.”

When had we met?

After thinking for a long time, I vaguely remembered.

That day Granny Shi had gone out to buy ingredients. The sky was cloudless when she left, but half an incense stick later a light rain began to fall. I had just finished cleaning ash from beneath the wok and had not washed my face. I snatched up an umbrella and dashed out to meet her.

I ran so quickly that the rain splashed my face, streaking the soot into alternating trails of black and white. As I passed the gate of the Lin estate, I saw several richly dressed people alighting from a carriage. I paid them little attention, never imagining Cui Wan’er was among them.

Granny Shi said Cui Wan’er had glimpsed my frantic appearance, found it amusing, and taken a second look.

The Lin family steward, who had come to welcome her, immediately tried to ingratiate himself. He said I was the household’s fire-tending maid, a little slow and foolish but honest by nature. I had entered the estate five years ago; every maid who arrived with me had since risen in rank, while I alone continued to tend fires.

Cui Wan’er laughed on the spot.

“She does sound dutiful.”

“Very dutiful indeed,” the steward said. “She stays with the old woman who trained her and rarely leaves the kitchen. Her entire heart is in tending the fire.”

The steward supplied all this information eagerly, hoping to show the future mistress of the house his good faith.

Little did he know that his enthusiasm would ruin his own daughter’s prospects.

When Cui Wan’er inspected the two bedchamber maids selected for Lin Ze, she gave nothing away outwardly, but jealousy raged inside her. Both girls were sweet and pretty, especially the steward’s daughter. She was delicate and charming, exactly the kind men liked, with cheeks so tender that even another woman would want to pinch them.

Cui Wan’er clenched her fists in hatred.

As soon as she returned home, she sent word that the fire-tending maid seemed a much better choice.

Madam Lin nearly toppled over with rage.

All her work had been for nothing.

But she could not refuse the future mistress of the house without causing offense.

Madam Lin came to inspect me in person. At the time, I was intent on controlling the fire. Its glow lit my face, making it look red and shiny.

She watched for a while, then questioned people throughout the estate. Their verdicts were unanimous: quiet, dutiful, honest, steady…

How could I not be? For five years, I had stayed beside Granny Shi and devoted myself to tending fires.

Madam Lin sighed. “Fine. Let it be her.”

“She could stay beside Ze’er for thirty years, much less three, without ever distracting him.”

“We shall indulge Wan’er.”

For Cui Wan’er’s sake, she yielded and chose me.

Madam Lin first had Granny Shi break the news.

After Granny Shi’s persistent persuasion—and especially after I learned the monthly pay would be thirty times what I currently earned—I accepted without much struggle.

My understanding of a bedchamber maid’s duties was serving tea, making the bed, washing clothes…

I could do all of that.

As for sleeping with him, I doubted it would come to that.

The young master of the Lin family had seen every kind of beauty. He would have no appetite for me.

Granny Shi looked at me as if I lacked a piece of my brain and said that was not necessarily so.

I thought a woman who had never had a man in her life was indulging in fantasy.

After cleaning myself up, I went to see Madam Lin with a tranquil heart.

She examined me carefully from head to toe and every angle. No matter how she looked, she could find nothing remarkable about me.

She regretted the choice, but knew it was her only option. The Cui family could not yet be offended, so her son would have to suffer.

She adjusted her attitude quickly.

With a pleasant expression, she asked, “Shi Dou, do you have any requests?”

My eyes lit up.

I was allowed to make a request?

Her expression shifted slightly. She probably disliked the ambition that had suddenly appeared in me.

Suppressing her irritation, she continued on her own. “If you hope to be elevated to concubine, you must wait until—”

I interrupted at once. After bowing, I said, “Madam, Dou’er’s request is that after three years, you permit me to leave with Granny Shi.”

Madam Lin had been displeased by the interruption.

But after hearing my request, she stared at me for a long time.

Then she laughed—a sincere laugh.

“What a good child. You truly are a good child. I promise. Madam promises you.”

I returned to the kitchen in delight.

When Granny Shi heard, she was so excited that she hugged me and would not let go.

In three years, we would leave and begin our good life.

Only three years.

Once I was formally chosen as the bedchamber maid, word was quickly sent to the Cui residence. Cui Wan’er was very satisfied.

She devoted herself to mourning her mother, eating vegetarian food and praying to the Buddha with an easy heart.

The Lin estate was in an uproar for a time. Everyone was astonished.

The two girls who had hoped to rise from servants to mistresses were particularly heartbroken.

Yet strangely, not one person envied or hated me.

They pitied me instead.

A maid who knew nothing but tending fires?

Even after becoming a bedchamber maid, she would never win the young master’s favor.

And when she left, no man would want to marry a woman who had served in another man’s bedchamber.

Granny Shi said, “They dare look down on our Dou’er? One day their eyes will fall right out of their heads.”

I paid it no mind and handed her a roasted ear of corn with a grin.

She took it and bit down viciously.

Delicious.