Chapter 4

Half a month after Chunying died, Shangguan Yao was found to be pregnant.

The old madam sent her many rare treasures, and the Marquis rewarded her lavishly too.

Tonics poured into her courtyard day after day.

Yet we often saw her frowning with worry, counting something over in her mind.

At three months, the physician congratulated the Marquis and declared that she was surely carrying a strong, healthy boy.

Shangguan Yao knew that a son would secure her position as mistress of the household.

We no longer saw her chasing butterflies or skipping about the courtyard.

Instead, she lay in her bedchamber, quietly nurturing the child.

At last, after ten months of pregnancy, her labor began.

When the black infant’s head emerged, the midwife was startled.

Every maid present stared in horror too.

Then, without warning, Bai Su began slaughtering them.

“They were merciless! They didn’t even spare the nine-year-old child waiting outside the screen to bring water!”

Tears streamed down the midwife’s face.

That nine-year-old had been her daughter.

She had always wanted to pass her craft on to the girl. Her daughter had small hands, and sometimes helped pull a baby free during a difficult birth.

She had brought her along to help keep the mother safe.

Instead, she had led her to her death.

“Girl, send word to the Wang family in Xikou Lane. Tell them to flee!”

The midwife coughed up a mouthful of blood.

I pressed her acupoints at once and dragged her from the pile of bodies.

But by the time I had settled her somewhere safe, gathered my sister’s remains, and hurried to the Wang home in Xikou Lane, I was too late.

In truth, I could never have reached them in time.

Their courtyard had caught fire on the very night Shangguan Yao gave birth.

Not one of the dozen or so people inside had survived.

I thought of my brother-in-law and followed the address my sister had given me. Blood covered the ground in his courtyard.

The house was empty. He must be dead.

I rushed back to the Marquis’s estate, burning with hatred and desperate for revenge, only to learn that Shangguan Yao had received handsome rewards from both the old madam and the Marquis for bearing a legitimate son.

Her black infant had also become a frail little boy with snow-white skin.

Dozens of lives, perhaps a hundred, had paid for the disaster she had caused.

And she remained above them all, more precious than ever.

In that moment, I decided that even if it cost my life, I would trample her into the mud.

I would leave her rotting there in agony, wishing she were dead.

To destroy someone, first drive them mad.

Flattering Shangguan Yao and pleasing her was no hardship for me.

At first, she had arched her brows when the Marquis came and gave me a second look.

Much as she loathed him, she disliked sharing a husband with anyone else. She found it dirty.

I knew how to read a face.

When he returned the next day, my face was covered in spots.

I had brought them out with medicinal brews. They spread in a greasy mass, making me look like a toad.

The Marquis frowned involuntarily at the sight.

He stopped looking at me and took the baby from the wet nurse instead.

This was his only male heir. He could never hold him enough.

“My lord, Sheng’er has put on weight again these past few days.”

At such moments, Shangguan Yao always played the loving mother, leaning against the Marquis’s shoulder to gaze at the child.

“All thanks to you, my dear.”

The Marquis praised her.

In fact, she never held the baby at all in her daily life.

She hated his crying.

Once, when he cried, she even took up an embroidery needle to sew his mouth shut.

“My lady, you mustn’t. His lordship comes to see the young heir every day, and the old madam visits often too. If he has any injuries, I’m afraid…”

Only after my warning did Shangguan Yao wave for the baby to be carried away.

She leaned beside the window.

“A worthless substitute. What right has he to live like this?”

Her eyes lowered toward the rockery in the courtyard.

Her own child, the one who could never see the light of day, was buried there.

“Once I conceive again, I’ll strangle that little bastard.”

She muttered viciously to herself.

Someone as poisonous as she was always kept such promises.

But after the young heir’s birth, the Marquis stopped spending the night there.

He came only for meals and a look at the child, then left.

Shangguan Yao did her utmost to be gentle and accommodating, but could never make him stay.

I prepared the finest fertility medicine for her. It nourished her until her face was rosy and her body burned.

Night after night she clutched her porcelain pillow, unable to sleep.

Her temper grew worse and worse.

She broke a maid’s hand simply because a bowl of soup had not been filled to the brim.

After tripping over a threshold, she made the two maids supporting her kneel in the courtyard for three days and nights.

The blazing sun nearly killed them.