Chapter 1

In the end, my elder sister died that winter.

She had been pregnant five times and lost two of the babies.

She had borne a daughter and a son.

The last birth killed her. Her blood soaked through the dragon-and-phoenix quilt Mother had sewn for her herself, with all its wishes for children and grandchildren.

She had married far above her station, into a noble household in the capital. Father was only a fourth-rank official serving in the provinces. Mother and I traveled day and night, but we still arrived too late to see her alive.

At the funeral, Mother almost cried herself to death. The marquis’s guests crowded around with their consolations.

“Your eldest daughter was brought up like a precious jewel. Everyone in the capital praised her virtue. In her seven years here, her parents-in-law cherished her, she and her husband lived in harmony, and she had two beautiful children.

“Such a pity she had a weak constitution. Even with all the care this household lavished on her, she never recovered her strength.

“Her life was short, but she enjoyed every blessing while she lived. A fortunate woman. You must try to take comfort in that, Madam!”

A weak constitution?

As a child, my sister had been a little monkey who could climb any tree. After she married, every visit found her more haggard than the last.

Fortunate?

Who had been fortunate—my sister, or the marquis?

He had gained a virtuous wife to manage everything for him and bear his children. Five pregnancies in seven years. It was hardly an exaggeration to say she had given her life for him.

And although Marquis Shen Yixuan had no acknowledged concubines, he had several bedmaids.

Now my sister was dead. He shed a few tears before her coffin, and that made him a man who treasured his first wife. Everyone said she had been blessed with a good life.

What sort of blessing was that?

Our elder brother had visited her in the capital when she was five months pregnant. Everything had been normal then. How had she suddenly died in labor?

Her most faithful maid, who had come with her when she married, had also vanished without explanation. Something was wrong.

Anger choked me. I was about to answer back when I caught sight of the gray that had appeared in Mother’s hair overnight, and the children by the coffin, too young to understand. I swallowed my words.

I wanted my sister to keep her dignity in death. Some people had no such consideration.

Madam Xu, the wife of the marquis’s second brother, had never got along with my sister. Suddenly she seized my hand and began asking questions with an air of great affection.

“Is this your second daughter, Madam? What a pretty girl. Has she had her coming-of-age ceremony yet?”

I pulled my hand away in disgust. She behaved as though she had noticed nothing, pointing to the children by the coffin and dabbing at nonexistent tears.

“My poor sister-in-law, taken so soon. My little niece and nephew have lost their mother before they’re old enough to know what it means. You ought to think about their future, Madam…”

She wanted me to become the marquis’s second wife.

My heart dropped. Mother shot to her feet and pointed straight at Madam Xu.

“Think? Think about what? My perfectly healthy daughter married into this house seven years ago, and now she’s dead!

“What is there left for me to think about? Except that my child was too softhearted, and blackhearted creatures tormented her behind her back until they killed her!”

Madam Xu flushed and opened her mouth, but a fierce glare from the marquis’s mother, who had been silent until then, stopped her.

For my sister’s sake, Mother had spent years smiling at every relative in that household. No one had expected her to demand answers in public. They hurried to soothe her.

That evening, the old marquis and his wife invited Mother into the inner hall for a private conversation.

Three months after the funeral, the Ministry of Personnel approved Father’s transfer to the capital. He was promoted to head of the Office of Transmission, a third-rank post.

My sister’s life had become a rung on Father’s ladder.

In the carriage home to pack our belongings, I hovered between waking and sleep. A tear fell onto my face, so like my sister’s.

“Once someone dies, it’s like a lamp going out. We have to think of the living.”