Chapter 1

Father’s concubine was a woman he had redeemed from Yulan House.

She had served him since before he married.

I had heard that every courtesan at Yulan House was lovelier than a flower and highly skilled in pleasing men.

It was probably true.

That would explain why she remained Father’s favorite for more than a decade.

My younger sister was her only daughter, and Father doted on her too.

The year she was born, she was originally supposed to be brought to Mother’s courtyard to be raised.

But the concubine wept and begged Father, so in the end the child stayed with her.

Mother was generous and never made life difficult for the concubines.

Later, Father took several more concubines in succession.

Mother simply decided that each woman could raise her own children.

There were five young ladies in the Qiao household altogether.

I was the eldest and the legitimate daughter.

My sister was second in age, so we usually called her Second Sister.

The other three were still young, and I spent more time with Second Sister.

We laughed together and studied together.

We got along fairly well.

Once our lessons began, however, the concubine rarely let Second Sister go out.

Mother sent people to invite her over, but the concubine turned them away.

She said she would teach her daughter herself.

Mother remembered that she had served the household for many years and often kept Father company, so she did not press the matter.

Presumably, the woman knew where the limits lay.

Only at the Mid-Autumn Festival and on New Year’s Eve did all five of us sisters truly gather in one place.

Over the years, I seldom saw the concubine.

Mother never said it aloud, but deep down she still looked down on her.

“If your father hadn’t placed first in the imperial examinations, I would never have agreed to this marriage.”

Before he sat those examinations, Father had actually been a spoiled wastrel who frequented houses of pleasure.

Only when the family fortunes began to decline did he apply himself and become the man he was today.

The concubine had been his lover before his examination success. For old times’ sake, he still redeemed her and brought her into the household.

My impression of her never went beyond the way she played with her hair and smiled seductively.

Mother said such behavior was terribly frivolous.

Still, she never punished the concubine and paid her little mind.

Life passed quietly and peacefully enough.

Until that New Year’s Eve.

Father had arranged for us to return to our ancestral home in Jiangnan for the New Year.

Many branches of the Qiao clan lived there, along with numerous male and female cousins.

Second Sister and I were approaching the age of the hairpin ceremony, so we could not associate too closely with our male cousins.

Thus, when everyone was introduced, the two of us kept half our faces hidden.

But Second Sister lifted her eyes over her round silk fan more than once and smiled twice at the cousin across from her.

Those two smiles made his face flush.

For a moment, I saw the concubine in Second Sister.

Our cousin was already old enough to understand relations between men and women.

My heart sank.

Mother was perceptive, however, and had already noticed something amiss.

Without making a scene, she kept the two apart, then privately summoned the concubine.

For the first time, and right in front of Father, she demanded sharply,

“What exactly have you been teaching Yuniang?”

My sister’s given name was Yuniang.

She had grown fair-skinned and beautiful, as delicate as a willow in the breeze.

Yet there was nothing of a sheltered young lady in her bearing.

She looked more like a novice courtesan.