Chapter 5

The upheaval left my mother-in-law furious and the servants terrified.

I took the opportunity to bribe a household physician. A month later, he duly announced my pregnancy.

The whole household rejoiced. My mother-in-law guarded me as dearly as her own eyes.

Indignant, Xiao Zhuye once complained to her that he had never so much as laid a finger on me.

She responded by ordering an increase in his medicine.

She had grown up within the walls of a great house. She might know nothing of the Thirty-Six Stratagems of warfare, but she had a shrewd mind, which saved me a great deal of talking.

Late one night, I tended the candle flame and lazily trimmed my nails with a pair of little gold scissors.

Snip. Snip.

The sound was crisp. At every cut, Xiao Zhuye flinched.

I had bound his hands with silk and stuffed his mouth with cotton. Cold sweat covered his face; his eyes bulged with terror.

In the moonlight, my vast shadow lay over him.

I forced him to cooperate, but Xiao Zhuye only shook with fear and pain from his injuries. In the end, he could not do as I wanted.

I washed my hands and said nothing. I merely gave a contemptuous little laugh.

Hearing it, he turned deathly pale, so ashamed and furious he seemed ready to die. At last he abandoned his attempts to oppose me. He behaved himself and tended his injuries every day, earning me praise from my mother-in-law.

A little over a month later, my pregnancy was stable and Xiao Zhuye had gradually settled down. I asked my mother-in-law’s permission to visit my family.

In the sedan, he cautiously poured my tea and water, attending to every need. Our gifts filled ten carts, making others envy me.

The slightest frown from me made him quake.

“As they say, family shame stays within the family. I trust you know what you should and shouldn’t say?”

My voice was indifferent. Though his face remained dark, he didn’t dare object and swallowed his resentment.

He merely closed his eyes. His eyelids twitched, his eyes shifting beneath them: plainly he was plotting something.

Secure in his illustrious family and military achievements, he had never taken anyone seriously. Every emotion was written on his face. His malice was blatant, his stupidity easy to read.

I curved my lips.

At the Wei house, the doors were tightly shut. Two plain mourning lanterns hung outside, looking bleak and desolate.

The moment a servant heard our arrival announced, he put on a grieving face and began to howl without tears.

“Master! Madam! Your son-in-law is here!”

The courtyard gates slowly opened. Father and my stepmother, dressed entirely in mourning white, came out supporting each other.

Seeing Xiao Zhuye carried from the sedan, both burst into floods of tears. “We heard about the fire! Ah Qiao, my poor daughter! Dead so young! Where is her body, son-in-law? Let us see her one last time…”

Xiao Zhuye froze. His brows gradually drew together. “No, that’s not—”

The Xiao steward approached with the gift list. My stepmother’s eyes lit up. She started to snatch it, but Father pinched her, and she barely restrained herself, dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief.

With great dignity, she said, “Ah Qiao is the daughter I raised myself. No amount of gold or jewels can replace her!”

“Unless…”

Her eyes clung to the heavy chests being carried in one after another. Impatiently she opened one. “Unless you pay more—ah!”

She clapped a hand over her mouth and recoiled several steps, all color draining from her face. “What… what is this?”

Father hurried over and opened the chests one by one.

When everyone saw their contents, they couldn’t help taking a step back.

Inside lay a row of heads, dried as hard as wooden carvings. Sealed in quicklime, they were well preserved; their final contortions of terror and agony were still vivid.

My stepmother suddenly shrieked hysterically. Clearly she had recognized the estate steward.

He had been her own cousin. In those days he had looked after me with particular care, afraid I might fail to die.

Because of that family connection, I had treated him most tenderly. I had worked on him for a long time with the bluntest knife, afraid he might die too soon.

Father’s beard shook with rage. Trembling, he cursed, “That wicked girl… that wicked girl!”

“Quite right, Father.”

I stepped gracefully down from the sedan and stood smiling before them. “Those servants deceived their masters and abused their power. Mother is kind, but we cannot allow the rules of the Wei household to be broken. I took the liberty of killing them all as a warning.”

“A… a warning.”

My stepmother’s voice quavered and floated away. Suddenly she pressed a hand to her forehead and crumpled.

“You’re not dead!”

Father stared, then turned stiffly, moving his arm and leg together. “I’ve just remembered I have official business. I must go.”

Ignoring my stepmother on the ground, he took to his heels.

As he ran, he shouted, “Servants! Protect your master!”

The servants scattered like startled birds. In a blink, only the Xiao household’s people remained in the courtyard.