Candlelight flickered, two fireflies drifting.
Ever since Zhou Jin left, Li Qu had been crying nonstop, and everyone in Fanghua Courtyard was on edge.
Nanny Xu urged Li Qu to eat: “Madam, please have something to eat first to settle your stomach.”
Li Qu leaned against the soft pillow, not sobbing, but tears welled up from time to time—everything went without saying.
Nanny Xu said, “The doctor hasn’t come yet. Perhaps it’s not as serious as you think.”
Li Qu shook her head. “This has nothing to do with the doctor. This is about your Third Master. Your Third Master doesn’t like me, boo-hoo-hoo…”
“Don’t be afraid, Madam. Though Third Master’s temperament is a bit cold, you were taken in as a proper concubine at the Old Madam’s request, with a blessing from the abbess of Yinghua Temple.
You’re the one who can bring prosperity to our Third Master, so he won’t lightly cast you aside.”
“What’s the point of him not chasing me away? The matchmaker ties the red thread, a blissful union with two hearts rejoicing. I’ve made up my mind—I want to live my whole life devoted to your Third Master, but he doesn’t cherish me at all. My stomach hurts so much, boo-hoo-hoo…”
Hearing this, Nanny Xu sent Hongguo off again to hurry the doctor along.
Everyone in the room was deeply worried.
The doctor, summoned with such repeated urging, assumed it must be some terminal illness and came rushing—his shoes even fell off as he ran. But after taking her pulse, he discovered it was merely a matter of the woman’s monthly cycle, and he was instantly annoyed.
“It’s perfectly normal for a woman’s monthly cycle to be occasionally irregular. Why all this fuss!”
Nanny Xu pressed quickly: “It’s only her cycle? Nothing else?”
“The young lady is still of tender years. She must moderate her bedroom activities and keep her spirits light. Otherwise there’s nothing serious. I’ll prescribe a remedy to regulate her, and next month she’ll be back to normal.”
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Li Qu also felt secretly reassured.
After all, her health was her own.
The doctor wrote out the prescription, and Hongguo retrieved the shoes the doctor had dropped.
After seeing the doctor off, Nanny Xu smiled and comforted Li Qu: “Rest easy, Madam. It’s nothing serious.”
Only to find that Li Qu had actually dozed off, slumped against the soft pillow.
Looking at Li Qu’s damp long lashes, Nanny Xu shook her head: If she’d known this would happen, why did she do it in the first place!
The next day, Li Rong came to deliver the medicinal tonic to Li Qu.
Li Qu leaned against the soft pillow on her reclining couch, her lips pale.
Li Rong set the medicine bowl beside Li Qu’s hand, glanced at the medicinal compress applied to Li Qu’s lower abdomen, and sighed: “Mother says taking that medicine all day isn’t good for you!”
Li Qu feigned sleep and didn’t respond. Hongguo brought a fruit platter, and Cuiguo served tea.
Li Rong glanced at the two maids and coughed lightly: “I was so busy fetching and brewing medicine for Third Sister this morning that I haven’t had breakfast yet.”
Hongguo asked with a gentle smile: “Does Second Miss have any dietary restrictions?”
“Cough—no vegetables.”
Hongguo couldn’t help but smile: “One moment, Second Miss.”
When Hongguo brought out a bowl of shrimp noodles with more shrimp than noodles, Li Rong was in excellent spirits.
After finishing the bowl, she felt warm and content inside: “Delicious!”
Then she looked at Li Qu: “Third Sister, the medicine gets more bitter as it cools. I had someone look it over—it’s a first-rate tonic prescription.”
Li Qu opened her eyes, glanced at Li Rong’s mouth glistening with oil, tossed her a handkerchief, then got up to drink the medicine.
The Chinese medicine was very bitter, but since Nanny Xu had been watching over her all morning, she couldn’t refuse to drink it.
Li Rong chuckled, took the handkerchief to wipe her mouth, then tucked the handkerchief into her sleeve.
Li Qu set down the medicine bowl, her face scrunched in bitterness: “I want to have a private word with Second Sister. You may all withdraw.”
The servants withdrew, and Li Rong quickly picked up the candied fruit from the table and popped it into Li Qu’s mouth: “Mother sent you something good.”
She pulled a bottle from her clothes and handed it to Li Qu: “There’s not a speck of meat on our table these days—all our money went to buying this medicine for you.”
“This medicine has far fewer side effects than the avoidance soup. You take it afterward. Ahem, but Mother says you’re still young, so you must take care of your body.”
Mother Li was a disfigured woman—her whole face looked as if it had been scalded by boiling water, hideously ugly. She was poor, mute, and had been picked up by Father Li, himself despised by his own parents, to make do with as a wife.
Who would have thought that the children Mother Li bore would all be stunningly beautiful?
Mother Li’s origins were a mystery. She had a graceful figure and was well versed in the affairs of the bedchamber. Li Qu guessed she had once been a favored concubine in some great household.
As for how she had fallen to her current state—
Some standard inner-household conspiracy theories would explain it well enough.
That was one of the reasons Li Qu loathed the idea of becoming a concubine in a noble house.
As a concubine, whether you were treated as a human being or a beast depended on nothing more than a word from the master or the noble madam.
“Um, they say a woman never forgets her first man. Third Sister, are you sure… hmm, hmm?” You’re leaving?
Li Qu looked at Li Rong: “Second Sister, don’t tell me that the reason you’ve looked down on every suitor and dragged your feet until now, refusing to marry, is that you’re hoping someone will force himself on you?”
“Don’t turn this around on me. Look at the freaks Mother lined up for me to meet—a butcher? A waiter? Bo Sanlang next door who sells shoe soles and limps? Would you want any of them?”
“The butcher Zhang Dachuan is as handsome as jade and honest and kind. Lin Er is an orphan with remarkable emotional intelligence and good looks too. And Bo Sanlang next door isn’t really lame—he’s not ugly either, and he’s fond of you.”
Li Qu thought none of that was the most important part. The most important thing was that none of these men had living parents to care for. Marry into such a household, and she would be the one in charge. What a delight that would be.
But Li Rong said, “None of them have parents—a sign they won’t live long. I have no wish to be a widow.”
Li Qu: “Their parents didn’t die of illness.”
“They were doomed by their sons’ fates.”
Li Qu: …
Li Rong knew Li Qu was the last person to believe in such claptrap about fated doom, so she quickly changed the subject: “Fine, fine, fine, forget about me. Let me ask you one last time—have you really decided… hmm, hmm?” To run?
Li Qu gave a soft “mm.”
Li Rong coughed: “Mother says what Third Master Zhou did doesn’t really count as abducting a maiden—at most it was him being unable to restrain himself and not knowing his own strength!”
Li Qu tossed the medicine packet she’d been holding against her belly at Li Rong: “A man of his standing, if he had even half a shred of true feeling for me, would never have taken me by force.
It’s precisely because he has no feeling at all that he does as he pleases!”
“Then how did you offend him? Was it just the matter of filing that complaint in the street? If so, I’m afraid his intentions toward you aren’t clean.”
So Li Qu told Li Rong about the Chang San affair.
Hearing it, Li Rong’s face filled with anger, pity, and chagrin: “And you’ve always been so careful—yet disaster came from your own mouth?”
Li Qu didn’t want to sink into endless regret. She closed her eyes and leaned against her pillow: “Second Sister, if Mother’s health allows the journey, you should all leave first.”
“Do you truly feel no reluctance? With Third Master Zhou’s face… plenty of women would be lining up, begging to be his concubine.”
To put it bluntly, Li Rong felt that if she and Third Sister had simply entered the city in each other’s places, she would have been only too delighted to become Third Master Zhou’s concubine.
Rich, handsome, and powerful—what a heaven-sent match that would be!
Li Qu frowned and looked at Li Rong with a serious expression. Just as she was about to say something, a knock at the door abruptly sounded, and Nanny Xu pushed the door open, her face beaming with joy.
“Madam, the Master has sent someone with gifts. Please take a look.”
Then maids filed in, each carrying a tray, and stood before Li Qu.
Before Nanny Xu could even lift a hand, Li Rong leaped up from the couch and eagerly opened the boxes.
“Wow, so many purple pearls!”
Nanny Xu grinned from ear to ear. “A full hu of them. Later we’ll have a set of jewelry made for Madam. If there are any left over, we can add a few small pieces for Second Miss—Second Miss mustn’t look down on them.”
Li Rong’s eyes lit up. “Look down on them? I’d be delighted with even a single one!”
“Second Madam has already prepared gifts and sent them to Jishui Lane, including a special welcome gift for Second Miss.”
The implication was clear: the household had acknowledged Li Qu’s status as Third Master’s concubine.
Li Rong’s eyes dimmed, and she shot a surprised glance at Li Qu, who was leaning against a pillow with her eyes closed, resting.
Without Li Qu’s approval, the Zhou household would never have openly sent things to Jishui Lane.
As the saying goes, when you have enough lice, the itching doesn’t bother you anymore.
Li Qu had even gone so far as to publicly accuse the Zhou household of abducting a woman by force. Who knew—she might well do something like throwing the Zhou household’s gifts back at them to humiliate them.
Li Rong awkwardly pointed at the jade hairpin on the tray. “My third sister prefers gold inlaid with jade.”
Having said that, she lost interest in admiring Third Master Zhou’s generosity. She remarked that it was a grand gesture, then sat down to the side.
Meanwhile, Nanny Xu, following proper procedure, smilingly arranged for someone to register and catalog the gifts Zhou Jin had sent. “Whatever Third Master gives becomes Madam’s private property.”
The items had barely been registered when word came that Huaichun from Jinxiu Hall had arrived with tailors to make clothes for Li Qu.
Li Rong picked up the tea a maid had served her.
This time, she was certain Li Qu had done something.
Unfortunately, the two sisters hadn’t talked much earlier, so she had no idea what Li Qu’s situation was now in the Zhou household.
The tailor took Li Qu’s measurements and then withdrew.
Before Li Qu could have a proper chat with Li Rong, Auntie Li arrived bearing gifts from the Old Madam, followed by Second Madam.
Then came several concubines from the Second Branch. They sent word that, knowing Li Qu was in poor health, they hadn’t come to disturb her, but once she was better, they would arrange a time for a small gathering.
The First Branch of the Zhou household was in the capital with the Eldest Master, not at the residence.
Third Master Zhou Jin had no wife or concubines.
At present, Second Madam managed the household.
By the time this wave of visitors had been seen off, it was nearly lunchtime.
While Nanny Xu went to arrange lunch, Li Rong sidled up to Li Qu. “What’s going on? Third Sister, what are you planning?”