Chapter 4

The next morning, I had barely got up when I found Shen Yixuan sitting beside me, fully dressed. His voice was mild.

“Only just getting up? Once you’re mistress of the household, you won’t have the luxury of such easy mornings.”

I curled my lip, ready to argue. Then something weighed on my wrist. I lifted it and found a jade bracelet of exceptional translucence.

He turned his head awkwardly. “It was in the storeroom. It suits you.”

A slap, followed by a sweet. That was all.

The family was simple enough. There were only three branches.

The eldest and second sons were born to the principal wife; the third was born to a concubine.

Yet the marquis’s relationship with his full younger brother was exceptionally cold.

My sister had once told me that when the old marquis was posted away from the capital, Shen Yixuan was too young to go. He had been left with his maternal grandparents. Since his mother had not raised him, she felt little affection for her eldest son.

She had raised the second son herself. His wife, Xu Yinghui, was also her niece. Her favoritism toward that branch had cost my sister dearly.

Fortunately, the old marquis had become obsessed with alchemy and the pursuit of spiritual cultivation. With no interest in official duties, he had petitioned to pass his title directly to his eldest son.

Otherwise, when he died, we might have had another Duke Zhuang of Zheng crushing his younger brother at Yan.

After paying our respects to the ancestors, we went to greet the old marquis in the family shrine on the hill behind the residence.

We waited a quarter of an hour. Then a maid told us that, as a man devoted to cultivation, he did not concern himself with worldly affairs. We were to do as we pleased.

Next we went to Shoukang Hall to greet the old madam. Her maids said she was exhausted from the previous night and had not yet risen.

Shen Yixuan began asking one anxious question after another, all but ready to fetch the household physician. Just then, laughter came from the inner room.

“You little monkey! Run out of things to give your friends, have you? Back here to rummage through mine! What am I to do with you? Very well. Your brother received a three-foot red coral tree as a wedding gift yesterday. Take that for your schoolmate’s housewarming.”

Shen Yixuan stiffened. I lowered my head and pretended I had heard nothing.

Nearly two hours passed before the old madam finally emerged and leisurely accepted the tea we offered her.

She said nothing about handing over management of the household. Only that I was young and should learn from Madam Xu whenever anything arose.

After my sister died, household authority had passed to Madam Xu.

The old madam plainly meant it to stay with the second branch.

Shen Yixuan left to attend to his official duties. I returned to the main hall to receive my two sisters-in-law and summon the household stewards.

Madam Bai, the third brother’s wife, was already waiting when I entered. She kept a low profile and was known throughout the capital for her good temper.

I had tea and refreshments brought at once, then gave her a gift to mark our first meeting.

I had expected Madam Xu to be late. I had not expected to wait patiently until almost noon and still see no sign of her.

In the end, I called in the stewards and let Madam Bai introduce them while we waited.

They all arrived, received their gratuities, and stood filling the room.

Madam Bai sighed and advised me quietly:

“Don’t wait any longer, Eldest Sister-in-law. I expect Second Sister-in-law has gone to attend Mother at her meal.”

Before she finished, a woman’s bright laugh rang out beyond the door.

“Everyone in this household knows how busy I am running things. Yet Eldest Sister-in-law has spent the whole morning waiting for me! You really are young. Such an earnest soul.”

Madam Xu entered in a brilliant red ensemble, wearing a complete set of kingfisher-feather jewelry. She glittered more magnificently than I, the new bride.

She came forward smiling and took my hand.

“What a foolish girl you are, Sister-in-law. Waiting for me has even kept you from meeting your other little sisters! Come in, all of you!”

Five young maids in different outfits crowded in. They looked like bedmaids.

Madam Bai clearly recognized them. Her face changed, and the stewards began whispering.

“Mother knows you’re young, and I’m a few years older. She asked me to help you. Your sister’s beauty and character were praised by everyone in the house. She had only one failing… She and Eldest Brother were so devoted to each other that he didn’t have a single concubine. Malicious people were bound to call her jealous.”

“I know how close you and your sister were. I’ve brought these little sisters of yours today. If any takes your fancy, why not keep her as a concubine? If none does, there’s no reason to leave them hanging about. We may as well send them all away today.”

It was a clever opening blow. Before all the stewards and servants, she kept calling the bedmaids my little sisters.

Dismiss them all, and I would be branded a jealous wife. She was forcing me to keep one or two as Shen Yixuan’s concubines.

That might have worked on my sister, who had loved him. It would not work on me.

I would have been delighted if these bedmaids kept him thoroughly occupied. Better still, they could arrange a rota, so he never had to come parading in front of me.

With that thought, I laughed warmly.

“Excellent, excellent! You’re quite right to instruct me, Second Sister-in-law.

“Though five is a little few. On a ten-day rota they’d each only get two turns. I’ll gradually add more later.

“Very well, then. All five of you: those born into the household will become concubines, and those bought from outside will be senior concubines! We’ll choose dates for the banquets. With careful planning, the marquis can spend a whole month being a bridegroom!”

“What are you doing? Have you no regard for the marquis’s reputation?”

Madam Xu had not expected me to take all five at a stroke. Alarmed, she tried to stop me.

I smiled with studied innocence.

“I’ve only just married in. Mother specifically told me to listen to you in everything. What a grand household this is, with so many rules! Who would have thought it was a younger brother’s wife’s place to manage her elder brother-in-law’s bedchamber and choose his concubines?”

Madam Bai, who had long suffered Madam Xu’s bullying, covered her lips. I could still hear her laughter escaping.

The matrons among the stewards went red holding theirs in. Some failed and laughed aloud.

“You! You! You!”

Madam Xu’s face burned. She had never encountered anyone as brazen as me. Thoroughly humiliated, she gave a cold snort, covered her face, and left.

She was so agitated that she nearly tripped on the way out.

Madam Bai laughed too, but after a while she grew worried.

“You won the exchange, but if the marquis hears of it, it won’t do you any good.”

I patted her hand reassuringly.

Who said husbands were the only ones allowed to put their spouses in their place?