“Secret decree from Prince Jin[1]A prince’s title, with “Jin” identifying the title rather than a personal name. The story does not specify a dynasty or the title’s exact historical rank. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3722839_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3722839_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });: The Zhao family’s Third Miss[2]A household form of address identifying the third daughter by her place among the daughters, rather than by her personal name. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3722839_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3722839_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); is spoiled and domineering, wanton by nature, shameless in word and deed, lazy and idle, and cruel-hearted.
“Fearing that her continued existence would bring dishonor upon her family, I hereby order her death. In consideration of the twelve years she served by my side, I grant her the mercy of leaving her body intact[3]In historical Chinese settings, a death sentence that left the corpse whole could be presented as a form of mercy; practices varied by period. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3722839_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3722839_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });…”
As the eunuch[4]Eunuchs served imperial palaces in various capacities, including as attendants and messengers; their duties varied across dynasties. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3722839_1_4').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3722839_1_4', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); announced the decree in his shrill voice, a strip of white silk was forcibly wound around Zhao Yushu’s slender neck.
She struggled desperately, clutching the silk with both hands and trying to loosen it, fighting for a little room to breathe.
But it was no use. The servant holding the silk tightened his grip, and with a sharp crack, the sound of bones breaking rang through the room.
Zhao Yushu’s eyes were bloodshot, and even as she died, she stared wide-eyed, taking in the expression on every face in the room.
First Madam[5]The principal wife of a household, whose status ranked above that of her husband’s concubines. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3722839_1_5').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3722839_1_5', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, who was always preaching the compassion of a bodhisattva[6]In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a being associated with the pursuit of enlightenment and compassion for others. The comparison highlights her professed kindness. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3722839_1_6').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3722839_1_6', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, turned her head slightly, as if unable to bear watching, and avoided looking directly at Zhao Yushu being strangled.
But the corners of her lips, faintly curved upward, betrayed how pleased she was.
The younger brother who used to take her hand and say, “Third Sister is the best,” then ask her for sweets, spending money, and help securing an official post, stood expressionlessly in the middle of the crowd, watching her neck finally snap. If anything, his expression seemed to ease.
And Second Sister, who was always saying Zhao Yushu was shameless, had disgraced the family, and had dragged down its reputation, watched her struggle and die with undisguised glee.
Every one of these people had once been her family.
Every one of them had received her help and benefited from her when they were at their most desperate and helpless.
When the family fell into ruin, she had sold herself through tears to save their lives and spare them some suffering, buying them all a chance to survive.
Now that their lives had improved and they no longer needed her, did they think she was useless and could be thrown away like rubbish?
Zhao Yushu’s beautiful eyes were wide open. Her tragic, blood-red pupils were like clear mirrors, reflecting every face in the room. She died with her eyes unclosed.
The slatted shutters were simple yet elegant, and the gauze curtains on the bed were embroidered with gold thread. A girl of about fifteen lay with her eyes closed.
Her brows were tightly knit. Even in her sleep, tears kept slipping from the corners of her eyes, as if she were trapped in some terrible nightmare.
“I can’t accept this…”
“I can’t accept this…”
Faint murmurs kept escaping her throat, but her voice was as muffled as if a wad of cotton had been stuffed into it, barely audible.
The beautiful woman keeping watch beside the bed saw her lips moving and leaned closer, hoping to make out what she was saying.
“Third Miss, what do you want? Are you thirsty?”
Just then, the girl’s eyes flew open. She sprang upright with a thump.
The moment her eyes opened, a deep, blood-red fury gathered in them, and her brow was wreathed in malice.
Her gaze seemed to belong to someone who had suffered a grave injustice: hurt, yet seething with hatred, and beneath that hatred lay a bone-deep urge to kill.
What fifteen-year-old girl had a look like that? She seemed more like a vengeful ghost that had crawled out of hell.
“I can’t accept this!”
The words burst from her in a piercing cry as her eyes opened, but before she could finish, her vision blurred.
Concubine Liu[7]A concubine was a recognized secondary partner of a man, with lower household status than his principal wife. “Liu” is her surname. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3722839_1_7').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3722839_1_7', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); had just leaned forward to hear her muttering when the girl abruptly sat up and slammed her head into Concubine Liu’s face.
“Ow!”
Concubine Liu cried out, covering her sore nose as she quickly retreated.
Zhao Yushu had also bumped her head, reddening it. Somehow, that collision seemed to knock her awake from the nightmare.
She covered her face, her gaze traveling from far to near, from the ceiling to the gauze curtains above the bed.
Then she looked from the maids attending her in the room to the woman sitting beside her bed, holding her aching nose, tears glimmering in her eyes.
“Mother?” Zhao Yushu’s gaze trembled. It was as if a lifetime had passed. After a long moment, she finally managed to speak, her voice shaking.
Concubine Liu, still rubbing her nose, was startled by the word. The softness on her face instantly hardened, and she slapped Zhao Yushu.
“Are you sick again? How many times have I taught you? In this household, you have only one mother, and that is the master’s principal wife, First Madam!
“Don’t call me that again. If you do, I’ll hit you every time!”
The slap landed with a sharp smack, but Zhao Yushu hardly felt it.
Or perhaps, after having her neck snapped by force, no other minor pain or illness seemed like anything at all.
Looking at Concubine Liu, who had struck her yet was the one with tears in her eyes, a red nose, and trembling shoulders, Zhao Yushu felt her own nose sting. She touched the half of her face that had been slapped and called out again:
“Mother!”
“You child, don’t you understand what I’m saying?”
Concubine Liu slapped her again.
Zhao Yushu called through her tears, “Mother!”
Concubine Liu raised her hand once more, but this time, as she looked at Zhao Yushu’s tender face, already red on one side and marked with a handprint, her arm froze in midair. She just couldn’t bring herself to strike again.
Mother and daughter faced each other with tears in their eyes. Concubine Liu suddenly lowered her hand, clutched her chest, and burst into tears.
“What’s gotten into you today, child? Why won’t you listen to what I’ve taught you?
“What good would it do you to call me Mother? What could a lowly woman like me possibly give you? You’re trying to drive me to my death, to tear my heart out!”
Concubine Liu was usually fierce and domineering toward Zhao Yushu, the very picture of a harsh mother. This was the first time she had ever shown her vulnerable side.
Zhao Yushu could no longer hold back her own feelings. Weeping, she knelt on the bed and shuffled over to her mother, embracing her.
“Mother, I know. I know what you’ve been thinking. I was foolish before. I should have understood long ago that you were doing this for my sake.”
First Madam kept a tight rein on her concubines. Even if they had children, they were not allowed to raise them themselves; all the children were registered under First Madam’s name.
Many concubines loved their children too much to resist sneaking off to see them and spend time with them in private.
Concubine Liu alone acted as if Zhao Yushu did not exist after giving birth to her, leaving her in First Madam’s care and ignoring her completely.
If Zhao Yushu went to see her, Concubine Liu would scold and beat her, then order someone to take her back to First Madam.
In her previous life, Zhao Yushu had thought that Concubine Liu disliked her, so she had kept her distance from her too.
But after the Zhao family was convicted and the whole household exiled[8]Exile was a punishment involving forced relocation, often to a distant region. Depending on the offense and period, an offender’s family could also be punished. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3722839_1_8').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3722839_1_8', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, Zhao Yushu fell ill on the road, and no one in the family cared.
Only Concubine Liu, desperate to get her a packet of medicine, chose to use her body to appease the soldiers escorting them.
In the end, Zhao Yushu’s furious father beat Concubine Liu to death, accusing her of bringing disgrace upon the family.
When Zhao Yushu woke after taking the medicine Concubine Liu had paid for with her life, everyone silently let her believe the Zhao family was responsible for saving her.
If she hadn’t happened to overhear Zhao Lubai chatting with someone and treating Concubine Liu’s death like a funny story—
“Zhao Yushu and Concubine Liu really are just alike—so shameless. Whenever something happens, all they know how to do is use their bodies to please men and solve their problems.”
Thinking of how she had devoted her life to the Zhao family, only to die miserably at their hands, Zhao Yushu’s eyes flashed with a terrifying hatred.
Concubine Liu’s long-buried feelings had been exposed. What mother in the world did not love her own child? The girl had come from her own flesh and blood!
But Concubine Liu was lowborn, a thorn in the principal wife’s side.
If she ever showed affection for Zhao Yushu, the principal wife—with her pious words and poisonous heart—would surely torment her daughter mercilessly.
She could only see Zhao Yushu when the girl was ill. Even on ordinary days, she hardly dared say more than a few words to her!
Concubine Liu had been First Madam’s dowry maid[9]A female servant who accompanied a bride into her husband’s household as part of her marriage entourage. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3722839_1_9').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3722839_1_9', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });. Though she was beautiful, she was naturally timid and meek.
The two women wept together, but it was Zhao Yushu, the daughter, who held Concubine Liu and patted her shoulder to comfort her.
“There, there. Don’t cry, Mother. Be good.”
As she spoke, Zhao Yushu tried to figure out when she had been reborn[10]In Chinese rebirth fiction, a character returns to an earlier point in life while retaining memories of a previous lifetime. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3722839_1_10').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3722839_1_10', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.
Although she and Concubine Liu were mother and daughter, they had met alone fewer than ten times in their lives, always when Zhao Yushu was gravely ill and near death.
It was strange. When her father, Censor Zhao[11]A censor was an official in the imperial bureaucracy associated with overseeing officials and reporting misconduct. The specific powers of the office varied by dynasty. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3722839_1_11').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3722839_1_11', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, was in the emperor’s favor, Zhao Yushu had been raised by First Madam, pampered and carefully cared for, growing up in silks and fine foods.
Yet she had become a complete invalid, her body frail and sickly.
Whenever a grand celebration was held in the capital and unmarried girls were given a chance to appear in public, she was sure to fall seriously ill.
Sometimes she was sick for three days, sometimes for ten days or half a month, lying in bed at death’s door.
But after Censor Zhao offended the emperor, lost his post, and the entire family was exiled, Zhao Yushu fell gravely ill only once, soon after their exile began.
After that, she became the healthiest of all the Zhao children. She often did the hard labor of three people by herself, yet never collapsed again.
At the thought, Zhao Yushu furrowed her brow and suddenly turned her sharp gaze to the medicine bowl by her bedside.
In her previous life, during the third year of the family’s exile to a bitterly cold region, Third Brother offended the local commandery governor[12]A commandery was a territorial administrative unit in historical China; its governing official’s title and powers varied by period. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3722839_1_12').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3722839_1_12', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });’s son.
He was thrown into prison, with his execution set for a later date. By then, Censor Zhao had already died of illness, and Third Brother was the Zhao family’s only male heir.
To save his life, Zhao Yushu went to Prince Jin and offered him her own life in exchange for Third Brother’s.
Prince Jin saw that her looks could be put to use and struck a bargain with her. After that, she went to live by his side.
Everyone said she was his bedchamber companion[13]The Chinese term tongfang refers to a woman in an intimate household role without the formal standing of a wife or recognized concubine. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3722839_1_13').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3722839_1_13', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, a woman with no acknowledged status, but they did not know Prince Jin was training her as a pawn.
He wanted her to become a beautiful blade that could kill without drawing blood, so he hired renowned teachers to train her in medicine and poison.
Zhao Yushu spent seven years by his side and learned a great many useful things.
Now, all she had to do was glance at the bowl and smell its contents to recognize it.
One of the ingredients was poisonous. The poison was not fatal, but even a small dose could cause a person to suffer a prolonged fever and weakness, leaving them bedridden for a long time.
So First Madam had already begun plotting against her while they were still in the Zhao household.
Zhao Yushu knew exactly when she was now.
When she was fifteen, the palace held the Spring Banquet.
The Empress graciously held a flower-viewing gathering at the palace, inviting all unmarried legitimate daughters[14]In traditional household hierarchies, children of the principal wife were distinguished from children of concubines; recognition under the principal wife’s name could affect a child’s standing. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3722839_1_14').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3722839_1_14', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); of officials in the capital to join in the festivities with the people.
Since Zhao Yushu had been raised under First Madam’s name from birth, outsiders considered her a legitimate daughter of the Zhao family too.
The very day First Madam heard about the banquet, she was overjoyed. She prepared flattering new outfits for both her own daughter, Second Miss Zhao Lubai, and Zhao Yushu.
She even sent Zhao Yushu many gorgeous and expensive pieces of jewelry, which angered her own daughter Zhao Lubai. Lubai bluntly accused her mother of favoritism.
First Madam scolded her daughter, saying Zhao Yushu was prettier than she was and more likely to catch the eye of some important person at court. If a prince or an imperial son took a liking to Zhao Yushu and she was fortunate enough to become a consort, it would bring glory to the family.
When word of it spread through the household, who didn’t praise First Madam for her kindness, saying she had no selfish motives and truly treated someone else’s daughter as her own, raising her up?
But Zhao Yushu’s body had let her down. The night before the Spring Banquet, she came down with a sudden high fever. The next day, she was unconscious and bedridden, and she missed her chance to rise from sparrow to phoenix[15]A metaphor for a dramatic rise in social status, often through marriage into a powerful family. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3722839_1_15').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3722839_1_15', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.
At the thought, Zhao Yushu glanced at the poisoned medicine bowl and let out a cold laugh.
First Madam knew perfectly well that Zhao Lubai’s looks paled beside hers, and that standing together would only make Zhao Lubai look worse. But she still wanted to preserve her good name in the eyes of outsiders, so she was always resorting to these petty tricks.
“Mother, what day is it now? How long ago was the Spring Banquet?”
She turned and softly asked Concubine Liu, who was still sniffling.
“The Spring Banquet? That was half a month ago.” As she spoke, Concubine Liu grew angry and swatted Zhao Yushu twice.
“You wretched girl. You were born without good fortune. Why do you always get sick at the worst possible time, never earlier or later?”
Though she hit her, the swats didn’t hurt at all—nothing like when the matrons[16]Senior female household attendants who could supervise or discipline younger members of a household. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3722839_1_16').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3722839_1_16', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); pinched the insides of her thighs.
Zhao Yushu’s heart clenched. In her previous life, her foolish father had angered the emperor on the seventeenth day after the Spring Banquet, leading to the whole family’s exile.
Now that half a month had passed since the banquet, it meant there were only two days left before the Zhao family was exiled: today and tomorrow!
References[+]