Chapter 1

My throat suddenly began to tighten.

I clapped a hand over my mouth, barely stifling a retch.

How could this be?

Why was my husband the one adding the drug?

In my last life, I had always believed Shen Rou had drugged him because she could not bear to give up the Qi family’s wealth.

Later, when I had won and reached the end of my natural life, I had considered that she had been only fifteen. Perhaps it had been a moment of folly.

What had never occurred to me was that she might have been innocent all along.

She had not put the drug there.

My husband finished, then calmly tossed the paper that had held the powder into the brazier.

The flames swallowed it in moments.

Just as they had swallowed the truth of this affair. Just as Shen Rou’s life had been swallowed in my previous lifetime.

No wonder the servants I sent to investigate had never discovered how she had brought the drug into the house.

A woman had few chances to go out.

If Shen Rou had spent money on something, there should have been a trail to follow.

Men faced no such restrictions.

No one checked when Qi Wenkai went out, what he bought, or what he brought home.

Seeing that he was about to leave, I hurried behind the screen and crouched there, making myself as small as I could.

Qi Wenkai, how much more was there that I did not know?

Once he had gone, I stepped out from behind the screen, troubled by a new doubt.

Shen Rou was certainly pretty, and she had a gentle, pleasing disposition.

But her position in the family made her a particularly unsuitable choice of concubine.

Before he took her, our household had been harmonious.

I learned to manage the household from Mother, and we discussed everything together.

Shen Rou spent each day at Mother’s side, so she and I soon grew close.

With Mother and Shen Rou around me every day, I had someone to turn to about household affairs and company whenever I was bored.

Even when my husband was away, life was full and pleasant.

After Qi Wenkai made Shen Rou his concubine, everything changed.

I resented both her and Mother. I even wondered whether Mother had deliberately raised a girl to become my husband’s concubine, simply to make my life difficult.

From then on, a trace of suspicion colored all my dealings with Mother. I remained perfectly respectful, but we were never close again.

As for Shen Rou, I hated her with a teeth-grinding fury.

To compete with her, I even bought a freeborn woman to become Qi Wenkai’s concubine, just to draw some of his affection away from Shen Rou.

For more than twenty years after that, Shen Rou and I fought in the open and behind each other’s backs, while friction constantly arose between Mother and me.

The household was a shambles.

Taking Shen Rou as a concubine had come at an enormous cost.

Why would Qi Wenkai do it?

Unable to work it out, I decided to find an excuse to keep Shen Rou out of the heated pavilion. First I had to prevent what was meant to happen today.

Shen Rou lived with Mother. I told a maid to bring the portraits of the young gentlemen I had considered for her, then began introducing them to the two women.

Embarrassed, Shen Rou covered her face and tried to leave, but I caught her before she could.

“No one is asking you to make up your mind this instant.”

“Just look at them and get some idea of who they are. Then you can think about what sort of man you would prefer.”

Mother nodded her wholehearted agreement. “Ruoyin is right. This is a decision for the rest of your life.”

“A family’s standing and public reputation are one thing. The atmosphere at home and the relationships within it are quite another.”

She picked up one of the sheets, nodding in approval.

“Your sister-in-law is thorough. She has written about each household on the back of the portrait.”

“Once you are married, you will be living among your mother-in-law, your husband’s brothers’ wives, and his sisters.

“Whether married life is happy depends more than half on them.”

“In a fortunate household, the women all get along. The sisters-in-law are so close that the husband is almost superfluous.

“Where the women quarrel, they are forever pestering the man to decide who is right. However fond a couple may be of each other, that will wear on them eventually.”

Sure enough, Shen Rou stopped trying to leave and began peeking at the portraits and the notes on their families.

But something stirred inside me.

It was as if lightning had split the cloud in my mind, leaving nothing but a terrible, searing clarity.