Chapter 2

By the time I had been washed and dressed and brought before Eldest Sister, she was kicking a shuttlecock around the courtyard with our other sisters.

The shuttlecock flew high and struck Third Sister squarely in the face.

She cried out in pain, covered her face, and crouched down.

Not one of the other girls dared go to her.

Eldest Sister laughed and ran over to me.

She looked me up and down, smiling radiantly.

“I hear you’re mute? That’s perfect. A mute won’t wag her tongue and make trouble. Follow me from now on. If you behave, I’ll treat you well. If you don’t, I’ll sell you—”

But I was a daughter of the Luo family whose name had been entered in the clan register. I might have been born to a lowly woman, but I was not a household slave. How could I be bought and sold like an object?

I did not dare argue.

I merely nodded my assent.

Before I came, Nanny Chang had told me that Eldest Sister had already had several companions. Every one of them had eventually been sold or driven from the estate.

She told me to remain a diligent mute at Eldest Sister’s side.

Only then could I survive.

Eldest Sister was pleased by my obedience and pulled me into the shuttlecock game.

I saw that the bridge of Third Sister’s nose had swollen, and blood covered her face.

Her personal maid pressed a silk handkerchief to it in a panic, taking care all the while not to make a sound.

Third Sister’s face had gone white with pain, yet she did not dare utter a single cry.

Only when she left did I catch the flash of hatred in her eyes.

“Send something tasty to Third Sister’s courtyard later so she can recover. Otherwise Mother will nag me again.”

Eldest Sister tossed out the order without concern, then turned back to her laughing game.

She was still reprimanded later that day.

Without making a sound, I took two strokes of the discipline ruler in her place.

Eldest Sister looked at the two red welts on my already bony palm. Then she turned, snatched several pastries from the table, and stuffed them into my mouth.

Patting my head, she said, “Ninth is the best!”

Then she pouted and muttered, “Why can’t Third Sister become mute too?”

The matrons beside her hurried to coax their precious little mistress, begging her not to say such things lest Mother hear and punish her again.

Eldest Sister only giggled and paid them no heed.

I understood. Whenever Mother punished her, it was no more than a token reprimand to silence the complaints from the rear courtyard.

And even if the punishment were real, I would suffer it in her place.

I neither tattled nor cried out in pain. In Eldest Sister’s eyes, a mute little follower like me suited her perfectly.

When Eldest Sister was happy, she naturally treated me better.

In a short time, aside from taking her punishments, I lived comfortably enough and even grew a little rounder.

The daughters born to concubines, led by Second and Third Sisters, would glare whenever they saw me. They envied me, despised me, and shut me out.

They called me “the lapdog that can’t bark.”

They said I would spend my whole life as Eldest Sister’s pitiful little shadow.

But I thought they were far more pitiful than I was.

Just over a month later, relatives from a collateral branch of the Luo clan arrived and took Third Sister away.

That branch had no children, they said, and intended to adopt Third Sister as their own daughter.

Third Sister’s mother wailed and beat the ground. She fainted before Luo Hongsheng several times and went repeatedly to beg his principal wife for mercy.

Third Sister had a younger half brother born to the same mother, who had been raised in the main household.

Mother decided to return him to his birth mother’s care.

I heard that Third Sister’s mother was beside herself with joy. She did not even go to see her daughter off on the day Third Sister was taken away.

For the rest of my life, I never heard news of Third Sister again.

And my own days beside Eldest Sister grew easier still.