A friendly reminder: leave your brain at the door, and bring your own imagination.
The blazing sun hung high in the sky; even the cicadas had exhausted themselves and hidden in the shade of the trees to cool off. Yet Li Qu was forced to kneel in the courtyard, sun-scorched until she looked like a wilted eggplant—limp and listless.
“Wiping out your entire clan, nine generations and all, wouldn’t pay for the Old Madam’s life!”
“Being chosen by the Old Madam to serve as a concubine for the masters—what fortune! You must have cultivated that blessing for eight lifetimes!”
“And yet you dared to block the Imperial Commissioner’s carriage in the middle of the street and accuse the Old Madam of abducting women!”
“You didn’t even bother to find out what kind of powerful family the Zhou clan of the Two Rivers and Eighteen Waterways is—and you dared to offend them blind!”
Nanny Xu strode over to Li Qu, raised a rattan whip, and brought it down hard on her back. The pain made Li Qu gasp sharply.
“Ever since you entered this household, you’ve been waited on with fine clothes and rich food—not a hint of hardship has touched you. Consider this one lash of the whip a lesson to remember!”
With that, Nanny Xu put away the whip and changed her tone.
“Just look—the Old Madam fainted from anger because of you, and all she wants upon waking is to punish you with a single lash. That’s all.”
“The Old Madam is the kindest old lady in all the world.”
“But you—you were born with rebellion in your bones, and you deceived her so cruelly!”
At those words, Li Qu wanted to laugh.
Kind?
Because Li Qu happened to be the nine hundred and ninety-ninth woman to enter the city through the north gate since the start of the charity drive, and because her age matched that of the Zhou family’s Third Master, they had coerced and bribed her into becoming Third Master Zhou’s concubine—and that was kindness?
If she hadn’t played the clever, charming girl and lulled them into letting down their guard, how would she ever have had the chance to leave the estate and block the Imperial Commissioner’s path, exposing the Zhou household’s abduction of women in broad daylight?
“Thank heavens the Old Madam wasn’t seriously harmed. Otherwise, it would be no more than you deserve to taste the agony of death by a thousand cuts!”
Nanny Xu was not making empty threats. In the region of the Two Rivers and Eighteen Waterways, the Zhou clan held a special force: the canal troops.
People said that on land, the Xiao clan reigned as emperors; on the water, the Zhou clan ruled as uncrowned kings.
The Great Qian empire’s very operation depended on the stability of its waterways.
The Zhou clan’s standing could well be imagined.
After delivering her warning, Nanny Xu lifted her skirts and walked toward the veranda.
On the veranda, bamboo blinds shaded the sun, and ice basins radiated a cool chill that drifted, with the waving of a maid’s fan, toward the master of Jinxiu Hall.
Zhou Jin lounged lazily in a rocking chair, eyes closed, resting.
Li Qu lifted her eyelids to glance at the scene on the veranda, then lowered them again.
But alas—man proposes, Heaven disposes.
She had never imagined that the Imperial Commissioner would be none other than the Zhou family’s Third Master, Zhou Jin.
She hadn’t even set foot in a courtroom before Zhou Jin hauled her back to the Zhou estate and made her kneel here in punishment.
Things had come to this. To kill or to carve her up—it was all the same to them.
Li Qu closed her eyes in bitter resentment, hating this rigidly hierarchical, heartless feudal society of male dominance.
No matter what sounds came from the veranda now, they could not stir her heart in the slightest.
She had transmigrated into this world before birth, yet into the lowest stratum of society—a family too poor to keep food in their mouths.
She had struggled through this ignorant world, striving only to live a comfortable life.
But she had been born into a girl’s body, forever a step below men, thwarted at every turn.
From a closed-off village controlled by her clan, she had struggled all the way to financial freedom, and finally had a chance at freedom itself—only to be wrecked at Hezhou.
Heaven has treated me so unfairly!
Suddenly, a voice as clear and cool as jade sounded by her ear: “Since you don’t wish to be a concubine of my Zhou household, I won’t force you.”
She jerked her head up—and saw that, at some point, several more people had appeared on the veranda. Among them stood a tall, six-foot servant with a face pocked with acne scars, his handsome dark eyes staring blankly at her.
Zhou Jin’s personal attendant Huaiqiu snapped, “Hurry up and kowtow to thank him for his grace!”
The burly servant hurriedly knelt and gave thanks.
Nanny Xu, standing not far from the man, hesitated, wanting to speak but stopping herself, her eyes fixed on Li Qu with an anxious look.
Only after Zhou Jin left with his people did Nanny Xu come down from the corridor in exasperation. “Madam, why give up being a proper mistress? Are you really going to follow Chang San, a man who hauls night soil?
Let this old servant take you to apologize to the Old Madam. As long as the Old Madam speaks up, Third Master won’t refuse to keep you.”
Such a beautiful, socially adept woman—if she were willing, she would surely have a place in Third Master’s household in the future.
Nanny Xu believed that only a girl like this deserved to be Third Master’s concubine—he who was as elegant as a jade tree in the wind!
And only a girl like this could complement Third Master, who was as cold as ice!
Li Qu knew nothing of Nanny Xu’s thoughts, but from the fragments she had picked up with her ears, she reached one conclusion.
She pointed at Chang San and asked Nanny Xu for confirmation: “Third Master Zhou has given me to him as a wife?”
Nanny Xu hurriedly made excuses for her Third Master’s actions: “Because of the Old Madam’s fainting spell, Third Master is still in a fit of anger. Please get up quickly.”
With Nanny Xu’s supporting hand, Li Qu staggered to her feet from the ground.
She was now of commoner status, with no way to pursue the question of by what right Zhou Jin had disregarded her wishes and married her off.
Because this was simply not an era where one could reason things out.
Nanny Xu skillfully rubbed Li Qu’s knees and calves, advising her, “Our Third Master was born into a family of wealth and prominence. He could have entered officialdom through his family’s privilege, yet he won the position of Tanhua—third place in the imperial examination—entirely on his own merit. Truly a dragon among men, a phoenix among birds.”
“Madam, this opportunity is a match made in heaven. You must seize it…”
Nanny Xu chattered on, but Li Qu couldn’t take in a word. She stared fixedly at Chang San, and once her legs could carry her, she staggered over to him, tilting her head up and looking into his eyes. “Are you a household-born servant?”
“Y-yes.” Chang San’s ears flushed red with embarrassment, and he avoided Li Qu’s gaze.
Concubine Li had become famous for her beauty the very day she entered the household, and later she charmed every master and mistress, big and small, so her reputation had long since spread among the servants.
“Are you a night soil hauler?”
“My mother said that by year’s end she can beg the Old Madam’s grace to release me from service. My parents bought ten mu of good farmland outside the city!”
By then, he would be a free commoner with land, no longer needing to haul night soil!
He said this solemnly, then realized that the ten mu of farmland he took such pride in, and his elevation from servitude to commoner status, seemed utterly insignificant before Concubine Li in her splendid clothes with her ethereal beauty. He suddenly became flustered and at a loss.
Unexpectedly, Li Qu smiled. “Leaving the household? Leaving the household is wonderful!”
It was the most genuine smile she had shown since falling into Hezhou a month ago.
What do they call it—light at the end of the tunnel!
This was exactly that!
Away from oppression, toward freedom.
Rather than high walls and deep courtyards, fine clothes and rich food, scheming and fighting over one man while imprisoning herself within drawn boundaries—she wanted a leisurely, carefree life.
For this, she had schemed for six years. Six whole years!
From Yan to Hezhou, every step carefully planned, pouring out her heart and blood!
And just barely—just barely!—her scheme had nearly been ruined in Hezhou!
Li Qu laughed until tears came. “Brother Chang San, let’s find a place to have a talk!”
Against the native powerful clans of Hezhou, she was outmatched and could only be at their mercy.
But handling a household servant? She was ten parts certain.
No matter how Nanny Xu went on in her ear about how pleasant life would be as a concubine of the Zhou household, Li Qu paid her no heed.
She smiled and gave Nanny Xu a respectful bow: “Thank you for taking such meticulous care of me this past month.”
Nanny Xu felt as though she were seeing the Li Qu from before the incident—always greeting people with a bright, gentle smile, like a breath of spring.
Before Nanny Xu could say anything, she saw Li Qu grab Chang San’s sleeve and run toward the courtyard gate.
Nanny Xu was inwardly distressed: “Madam, please think this through!”
“Think it through? With a heaven-sent opportunity like this, hesitating even a moment would be my own fault!”
She had to leave the Zhou residence quickly, leave Hezhou. She would go south to Wan County and reunite with her eldest sister and brother-in-law.
Then, with the whole family together, she would provide the money and rely on her brother-in-law’s official position for protection—she needn’t fear a life of ease.
She had saved up a great deal of money just to live comfortably!
With this turning point at hand, the first step was to learn about Chang San’s family situation.
Chang San answered nearly every one of Li Qu’s questions without reservation.
Chang San’s parents both worked in the main kitchen. His mother was skilled at making soups and had won the favor of the Second Madam.
His father was a purchaser for the outer courtyard of the main kitchen—a lucrative position.
Chang San had two sisters and no brothers. Because he was ugly and didn’t get along with others, he worked alone as a night-soil collector.
The whole family lived off the Zhou residence as hereditary household servants—nothing more remarkable than that.
Once she understood Chang San’s family background, Li Qu bared her sharp canine teeth.
She was never a purely kind person.