chapter 3
How could Matron Zhang, a cook, have carelessly served incompatible foods?
I took every coin she had left me and spent it on fine food and wine for Matron Wang, honoring her day after day.
At last, when she became drunk one evening, I learned the truth.
That was the day Ji Song had become engaged to a daughter of the Cui clan of Qinghe.
The stepson Zheng Ru had lovingly raised was about to marry. The sweet little boy who once called her “Sister” would soon belong to another woman.
Zheng Ru was angry and miserable, but she could do nothing. All she had was her spite, with nowhere to spend it.
So it fell upon Matron Zhang.
A master needed no reason to punish a servant.
There had been nothing wrong with the food that day. But Zheng Ru said there was, and her word made it so.
The woman who saved me with half a steamed bun, the woman who had waited for me to support her in old age, lay wide-eyed and screamed “I am innocent” through the night. She died in agony before dawn.
The cruelest joke was that a cook’s death finally made Zheng Ru and Ji Song recognize their feelings. They confessed their hearts and became an inseparable pair of “loving mother and son” once more.
No one cared that a lowly cook had died.
No one but me.
Kneeling before Matron Zhang’s memorial tablet, I swore to win justice for her.
Why did a servant’s life not count as a life?
Zheng Ru refused to treat me as a person. I would become one in spite of her, standing tall and unashamed.
I courted Matron Wang’s favor with even greater care. Apart from bare necessities, every coin of my wages went to her.
Through that connection, I soon moved from the outer chamber to the inner room and became the screen maid closest to Zheng Ru after Jixiang.
Only then did I discover how deeply ill Zheng Ru had become.
She watched her nominal son with suffocating care and found fault with his wife, Cui Yu, at every turn.
Both women came from the great old aristocratic clans, but Zheng Ru scorned Cui Yu as merely the legitimate daughter of a lesser branch, beneath her own noble birth. She mocked the young woman’s modest dowry, her softly rounded face, the supposed flaws in her manners.
She played the most exacting of mothers-in-law, forever demanding attendance and obedience.
Crushed beneath the duty of filial piety, Cui Yu suffered in silence and begged her husband to intercede.
That was exactly what Zheng Ru wanted.
She wanted to see Ji Song.
She wanted Ji Song.
Not long after the family banquet, Zheng Ru was suddenly stricken with a violent headache.
Matron Wang dared not delay. She sent word to the Marquis and summoned the household physician.
The physician had just finished his examination when the Marquis arrived.
“Her ladyship’s old complaint has returned. She must rest quietly.”
The Marquis offered a few careless words of comfort, then left for a concubine’s rooms.
Zheng Ru’s headaches had come and gone for years. At first he had worried, but he was a man, and a man’s patience never lasted. After she apologized for being unable to attend him properly and voluntarily brought several beautiful concubines into his household, he grew accustomed to her recurring pains.
The moment he left, Zheng Ru pressed a hand to her brow and moaned. “As always, summon the heir’s wife to nurse me.”
Matron Wang immediately ordered a maid to fetch her.
The girl chosen for the errand went white.
The Marchioness’s headaches always came at night, and she always demanded that Cui Yu nurse her. The newlyweds had enjoyed scarcely a peaceful night since their marriage.
Ordinarily, no servant would have dared object. But Cui Yu’s elder brother had recently won great military merit. At the banquet, the Marquis praised him lavishly, ordered Ji Song to treat Cui Yu well, and told him to accompany her home in two days.
If the Marchioness tormented her now, the young wife would surely hold the messenger responsible.
Zheng Ru did not care.
“What? Does my word no longer command obedience?”
She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Send someone else. Sell this blind fool tomorrow.”
They gagged the maid and dragged her away. Another servant went to deliver the summons, trembling all the while.
Cui Yu came in the end.
She bowed with perfect respect, showing no trace of resentment. Then she washed her hands and began massaging Zheng Ru’s temples.
“Good child. No one understands me as you do.”
“Without you tonight, the pain would surely kill me.”
The Marchioness spoke sweetly, but triumph curled at the corner of her mouth.
She flicked Matron Wang a glance. Understanding, the matron sent everyone away, then secretly dripped something into the lamp oil.
Half an hour later, Cui Yu’s limbs softened and her eyelids drooped.
Zheng Ru caught her hand at the proper moment. “Are you tired? I feel much better now. Rest awhile.”
Cui Yu rose to take her leave, but Zheng Ru stopped her.
“I cannot bear to be without you. Why not sleep for a while in the Green Gauze Pavilion?”
I saw Cui Yu force a smile. “Yes, Mother.”
Drugged by the incense, she swayed as the maids helped her lie down. Soon she had sunk into a deep sleep.
Zheng Ru gave a scornful laugh. “Prepare me for bed.”
The inner chamber bustled for some time before Matron Wang emerged, stretching her back.
When she saw me still serving as the screen, her eyes narrowed.
“Fugui, you have sense, which is why I am willing to raise you up. But there are some words I must remind you of once more.”
“A screen maid is an object. Objects cannot hear or see, and above all, they have no mouths.”
I said nothing. My back remained perfectly still; only my eyelids lowered slightly in acknowledgment.
She nodded in satisfaction.
“I am old. Her ladyship needs someone devoted at her side. Fugui, I believe you will do very well.”
I let wild delight flood my face at precisely the right moment.
Years of devoted bribery had not been wasted. Matron Wang’s approval meant the Marchioness, too, accepted my loyalty.
The day I had waited for was finally here.