Chapter 2

When her confinement ended, Shangguan Yao became mistress of the Marquis’s household, having borne its first legitimate son.

Yet though the old madam had relinquished her authority, the servants would not obey their new mistress.

I suggested that my lady ask the old madam for their deeds of servitude.

Whoever held those deeds had the right to sell them. Only then would the servants fear her.

A few crafty old retainers relied on their years of service and the absence of any binding contract to behave outrageously.

I advised making examples of them: beat them hard with staves and dock their wages.

After that, the servants dared not step out of line.

And for easing Shangguan Yao’s troubles, I was promoted to first-rank maid.

A first-rank maid earned one tael of silver a month, twice what my sister used to receive.

Before we were sold into service, my sister and I had known good days too.

Our father had owned an apothecary and worked as the town physician.

Mother bled to death giving birth to me. For as long as I could remember, my sister had looked after me.

Father loved us too, and taught us everything he knew of medicine.

My sister learned pressure-point massage; I understood medicinal herbs.

When I was seven, the court began conscripting men, and Father was taken away.

A year later, word came that he had died in battle.

As soon as my uncle and aunt heard, they sold our shop and made plans to sell both of us.

My sister was only fourteen then. She argued with them, promising to hand over all her future wages to our aunt.

Only then did my aunt consider keeping me.

But three years later, her son needed money to marry, and she turned her attention to me again.

My sister begged on her knees. She asked that I not be sold for life, promising to keep sending our aunt money.

Our aunt reluctantly agreed and sold ten years of my service instead.

In the Shangguan household, my sister treated me as a stranger in front of others.

She only spoke to me when we were alone.

That way, she said, she could look after me better.

At the time, she attended the Minister’s elderly mother.

The old lady liked the way my sister kneaded her shoulders and massaged her legs.

Out of that fondness, she changed my sister’s lifetime deed to a fixed-term contract.

Two years ago, the old lady died. Having heard of my sister’s skill, Shangguan Yao kept her close to attend her.

A year ago, my sister’s contract expired.

She left the household and married Brother Xue, who had waited ten years for her without taking another bride.

Brother Xue had been Father’s apprentice. After Father died, he became a dispensing assistant at an apothecary in the city.

When my sister gained her freedom, he spent every coin he had saved over those years on a small courtyard house.

He gave her a home, and said that when my own contract ended, I should come and live with them.

My sister’s days should have been peaceful from then on.