Chapter 4

Life went on as usual, without a ripple.

The only change was my steadily growing belly.

The quiet broke in my sixth month of pregnancy.

Qiu Yan, not yet four, had apparently walked twenty li to the Shen residence.

The gatekeeper told me he looked no different from a beggar: painfully thin, his face and clothes filthy.

I was astonished.

His father had received a hundred taels for leasing me out. How had the boy come to this?

I wanted to see him.

Nanny Qi frowned and stopped me.

During the term of the lease, I belonged to the Shens. Why should I meet anyone from my husband’s family?

I sighed and took her hand.

“He’s such a little child. Something must have happened. Please let me ask him.”

I pleaded humbly for a long time before she finally agreed.

The moment Qiu Yan saw me, he tried to throw himself at me. Nanny Qi held him back.

He wept.

“Mother, I miss you. Come home.”

“Without you, nobody washes my clothes or cooks for me. Father left me with the auntie next door. He only gives her twenty copper coins a month, so she makes me eat leftovers every day.”

I bent slightly.

“Twenty coins? Why is your father so stingy? Of course they’d neglect you.”

Qiu Yan lowered his head and picked at his fingers, as though afraid to meet my eyes.

“Father spent all the money on banquets and gifts. He wants to become the prefect’s protégé, but…”

He didn’t finish. He didn’t need to.

To a poor family like ours, a hundred taels was an astronomical sum.

To the Shens, it wouldn’t cover a month’s wages for their servants.

To the prefect, it was beneath notice.

Qiu Bingzhong thought a hundred taels could buy him connections. He was dreaming.

Still, this gave me an idea. I could turn his scheme to my own use.

Originally, I had only intended to dispose of Shen Shanliang after the birth and use the baby to gain control of his estate.

But the Shens alone wouldn’t be enough to take me higher.

How could I move from commerce into government? That was the difficulty.

As a woman in this feudal age, and a leased wife at that, I had no way of approaching officials.

Now Qiu Bingzhong had brought himself to my door. Wasn’t he the perfect intermediary?

All these calculations took only an instant.

I lowered my eyes, then looked up with a loving mother’s expression, gazing tenderly at Qiu Yan.

“My poor Yan. You’ve suffered so much. Look how thin you are!”

“Mother will get you something to eat.”

I turned and met Nanny Qi’s displeased gaze.

Head bowed, I wheedled and pleaded, promising repeatedly that I would never send money to support my husband.

Only after seeing how humbly I begged did she leave, tacitly giving her consent.

I took Qiu Yan to the kitchen.

With more humble requests, I persuaded the cooks to leave, then fetched food for him.

While he ate happily, I found a food basket and filled it with flatbreads and steamed buns.

As I handed it to him, I whispered,

“There are two meat pies at the very bottom. One for you, one for your father. Remember to eat them while they’re hot, once you’re outside.”

However clever a child was, he couldn’t hide everything.

His eyes widened, as though asking how I knew his father had come too.

I tapped his forehead helplessly.

“Twenty li, including mountain roads? How could a little imp like you get here alone? Your mother isn’t a fool.”

He pursed his lips, clearly disagreeing.

When we went out, Nanny Qi was waiting at the door. She insisted on checking the basket for anything smuggled inside.

When she reached the two meat pies underneath, she looked up at me.

I averted my gaze, pretending to feel guilty.

She said nothing about the pies. She dropped the covering cloth back over the basket and called loudly toward the street.

“This is the only handout you’ll get.”

“Send the child to beg for food again, and we won’t let him through the gate!”

Those words were aimed at Qiu Bingzhong, hiding outside.

Everyone could see what was going on.

Her indirect scolding was sharp, but she did not make things difficult for little Qiu Yan.

He left with his basket, as he had hoped.

From a distance, I watched him reach the end of the lane. A pair of large hands seemed to reach around the corner and take the basket.

Only then did I relax.

Qiu Bingzhong would probably find my message.

Beneath those two meat pies, I had laid my own handkerchief. Using charcoal dust from the kitchen hearth, I had written one sentence.

“If you wish to become the prefect’s protégé, collect my letter from the top shelf of the second cabinet at Duanjinxuan Cloth Shop, ten days from now between nine and eleven in the morning.”

Qiu Bingzhong was clever. He should know what to do.