Madam Sun was only twenty-five that year, just three years older than Weisheng He. She had married into the family less than ten years ago and had no children of her own. She wore a half-new mauve outer jacket and a silver hairpin. Her appearance was plain without looking shabby, and her face held just the right amount of grief.
The moment she entered, she took Weisheng He’s hand.
“Yanming’s wife,” Madam Sun said in her soft, delicate voice, “I know you’re suffering. Yanming is gone, and I’m grieving too. But listen to your mother. You’re still young. You have a long life ahead of you.”
Weisheng He looked down at Madam Sun’s hand, coldness creeping into her eyes.
She had never expected Madam Sun, with whom she had always gotten along fairly well, to join forces with them.
Madam Sun seemed completely oblivious.
“Observing mourning sounds noble, but only someone who has actually lived through it knows how hard it is. You have four children to raise by yourself. The older ones make trouble, the younger ones cry, and you don’t even have anyone to help you. The clan says they’ll look after you, but every household has its own life to manage. How much can they really do?”
She sighed, her eyes reddening.
“I’m a woman too. I understand how difficult this is for you. You can’t throw away your entire life for the sake of an empty reputation.”
Weisheng He suddenly smiled.
Did none of them think to coordinate their stories? Or did they know perfectly well that my remaining a widow benefited them, and this was all they could come up with?
“Mother,” Weisheng He said evenly, “you’re right. Observing mourning is indeed difficult. But when Yanming was alive, he treated me well, treated the children well, and treated the clan even better.”
“When Father was alive, who kept the Li family’s salt business running? How many people in the clan depended on that business for their livelihoods? Was there ever a year when Father and Yanming shortchanged the clan by even a single coin of its share?”
Her gaze moved from Madam Sun to Li Boyong, then to the three aunts, before finally settling on the coffin in the center of the mourning hall.
“Father and Yanming never failed the clan in any way.”
“And yet Yanming’s body is barely cold, and here you are in his mourning hall, right in front of his remains, urging his widow to remarry while the mourning is still fresh.”
Her voice rose sharply.
“Are you even human?”
The accusation was filled with such grief that it struck like a stone dropped into a porcelain bowl, shattering the fragile calm everyone had struggled to maintain.
Everyone froze.
Weisheng He dropped to her knees on the cold stone floor with a thud, startling them all.
“Yanming!” She threw herself over the coffin, her voice piercing with anguish. “Look at your wonderful clansmen! You’ve only been gone a few days, and they’re already forcing your wife to remarry! They’ve forgotten everything you did for them! They’ve forgotten everything your father did for them too! This whole family, from old to young, inside and out, is nothing but a pack of heartless ingrates!”
She sobbed until her entire body shook, looking utterly pitiful.
Shanhu hurried over to help her, only to be shoved away.
Weisheng He’s father had been listening from outside the mourning hall. At last, he could no longer restrain himself and stormed out from behind the curtain.
“Li Boyong! My daughter may have married into the Li family, but she is still a daughter of the Weisheng family! Whether she remarries, and when she remarries, is her own business and the business of our Weisheng family! What does any of that have to do with you? Since when is it the Li family’s place to decide? Get one thing straight. She married into your family. She wasn’t sold to you!”
Li Boyong’s face flushed red.
“Once Yanming’s wife married into the Li family, she became one of us.” He rose to his feet. “Now that Yanming is gone, she’s a young widow with four children. It is only right and proper for the clan to arrange a future for her. We’re doing this for her own good!”
“For her own good?” Weisheng He’s father raised his voice. “You’re urging her to remarry in her husband’s mourning hall, and you call that doing it for her own good? Why have I never heard of another widow in the Li family remarrying while her husband’s mourning period was still fresh?”
Weisheng He’s mother entered and wrapped her arms around her daughter.
“When Yanming was alive, all of you depended on him and his father for your livelihoods, and then you certainly acted as though you cared about my daughter. But the moment Yanming died, you turned on her and started bullying a widow! Is there no law left in this world?”
The three aunts refused to back down.
Third Aunt stood and planted her hands on her hips.
“Yanming’s mother-in-law, that’s not fair at all! How are we bullying her? We’re thinking of her future! As her parents, do you really want your daughter to remain a widow for the rest of her life?”
“Whether she remains a widow is her own decision!” Weisheng He’s mother gave no ground. “If she wants to remain one, we’ll support her. If she wants to remarry, we’ll find her a good family ourselves! Either way, it’s not your place to tell her what to do!”
The women on both sides faced off, each voice shriller and each torrent of words faster than the last. They were like two packs of beasts fighting over territory, fur bristling and necks stretched long.
Weisheng He hid in her mother’s arms, her gaze frighteningly cold.
While everyone’s attention was caught up in the argument, she quickly shot Shanhu a look.
Shanhu had served Weisheng He ever since she married into the Li family, four or five years by now. Mistress and maid had long since developed an unspoken understanding.
The moment she received the signal, Shanhu quietly slipped out through the rear door of the mourning hall.
The guests had only recently boarded their carriages.
Some had already left, but most had not yet set off.
Shanhu practically stumbled over herself as she rushed outside.
“Please wait! Honored guests, please wait!”
Breathless from running, she started with the last carriage and worked her way forward, pleading for help at each one.
“Please go back and take a look! Something’s going to happen to our Young Madam!”
The carriages stopped.
The first person to step down was the Assistant Prefect of Weiyang.
He had already been preparing to leave, but when he heard Shanhu shouting, he ordered the driver to stop.
“What happened?”
Shanhu dropped to her knees, her face covered in tears.
“Lord Zhou, the clan head and the others are forcing our Young Madam to remarry right there in the mourning hall. She refuses, so they won’t let her go! Our Young Madam only just gave birth. She hasn’t even finished her postpartum confinement, yet she’s been working herself to exhaustion arranging the funerals of the two masters. She’s so frail that a gust of wind could knock her over. She truly can’t withstand any more of this!”
Lord Zhou’s expression changed.
People in the carriages behind him began sticking their heads out as well.
They were all guests who had come to attend the funeral. Most were merchants from Weiyang, though several were government officials.
The Li family was the largest salt-merchant household in the area and frequently dealt with government officials. Of all the guests who had attended that day, Lord Zhou had the closest relationship with the Li family.
“Forcing a widow to remarry?”
Lord Zhou frowned.
“Lead the way. I’ll go back with you and see what’s happening.”
When the other guests saw this, they followed Shanhu back as well.
Each had different thoughts about the situation.
Some genuinely believed the Li family’s behavior was improper. Some were curious. Some merely wanted to watch the spectacle.
Others suspected something more sinister.
Was the Li family trying to drive its daughter-in-law to her death so they could petition the imperial court for a chastity memorial arch?
There had been precedents for such a thing.
In the previous dynasty, widows who remained chaste were sometimes formally honored by the court with memorial arches, bringing benefits to their clans. But some families feared that a young widow might eventually fail to remain chaste, so they resorted to various means to force her to “die for her chastity,” allowing the family to claim the rewards sooner.
If that was what the Li family had in mind, they had truly lost their senses.
There was an old saying that imperial authority did not reach the countryside.
Such things might be possible in remote villages where powerful clans held sway and clan law outweighed state law.
Even if someone died, no one might investigate.
But the Li family lived in Weiyang City.
Weiyang was famous not only throughout Jiangnan. There were few cities in the entire realm that could rival its prosperity.
And the salt administration of Weiyang was renowned throughout the realm.
This was hardly a place where clan law could be allowed to stand above imperial law.
If someone died because of this, the matter would certainly be reported to the imperial court for the Emperor’s judgment.
The Li family was only a merchant household, with no powerful patron to shield them. If they truly attracted the Emperor’s attention, how many heads could they possibly afford to lose?
The guests quickened their pace and poured back into the mourning hall.