Candlelight flickered, and two fireflies glimmered in the night.
Ever since Zhou Jin left, Li Qu had been crying nonstop, leaving everyone in Fragrant Splendor Court on edge.
Nanny Xu urged Li Qu to eat. “Concubine, have something first to settle your stomach.”
Li Qu leaned against the bolster pillow. She made no sobbing sounds, but tears welled up from time to time. Everything she felt was written in her silence.
“The physician hasn’t arrived yet,” Nanny Xu said. “Perhaps it isn’t as serious as you think.”
Li Qu shook her head. “This has nothing to do with the physician. It has to do with your Third Master. Your Third Master doesn’t like me. Wuwuwu…”
“Concubine, don’t be afraid. Although Third Master is a little cold by nature, you’re the good concubine Old Madam secured for Master after seeking a marriage divination from the abbess of Yinghua Temple.
“You’re someone who can bring prosperity to our Third Master. He won’t dismiss you lightly.”
“What’s the point if he doesn’t send me away? The Matchmaker God has tied us together with a red thread; a beautiful marriage should bring joy to both hearts. I’ve made up my mind—I want to spend my life wholeheartedly with your Third Master, but he doesn’t care about me at all. My stomach hurts so much. Wuwuwu…”
At that, Nanny Xu sent Hongguo to urge the physician again.
Everyone in the room was filled with worry.
The physician was summoned again and again. Thinking it must be some kind of terminal illness, he came running at full speed, even losing one of his shoes along the way. But after taking Li Qu’s pulse, he discovered that she was merely menstruating and immediately became annoyed.
“It’s perfectly normal for a young woman’s menstrual cycle to be irregular from time to time. Why all this fuss?”
Nanny Xu pressed him for details. “It’s only her monthly period? Nothing else?”
“The young lady is still quite young. She must practice restraint in the bedchamber and keep her spirits pleasant. Other than that, there’s nothing seriously wrong. I’ll prescribe a decoction to regulate her body, and her cycle should be normal again next month.”
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Li Qu secretly relaxed as well.
After all, her health belonged to her.
The physician wrote out a prescription, and Hongguo also found the shoe he had dropped.
After the physician was sent away, Nanny Xu smiled and comforted Li Qu. “Concubine, rest easy. It’s nothing serious.”
Then she discovered that Li Qu had already fallen asleep, slumped against the bolster pillow.
Looking at Li Qu’s damp, long eyelashes, Nanny Xu shook her head. If only she had known this would happen today—why had she done it in the first place?
The next day, Li Rong came to deliver Li Qu’s medicinal decoction.
Li Qu leaned against the bolster pillow on a beauty couch, her lips pale.
Li Rong placed the bowl beside her hand. Glancing at the medicinal pouch warming Li Qu’s lower abdomen, she sighed. “Mother says it’s not good to take that medicine all the time!”
Li Qu pretended to be asleep and didn’t respond. Hongguo brought over a plate of fruit, while Cuiguo served tea.
Li Rong glanced at the two maids and cleared her throat. “I was busy buying and preparing medicine for Third Sister this morning, so I haven’t had breakfast yet.”
Hongguo asked with a gentle smile, “Does Second Miss have any dietary restrictions?”
“Ahem. Vegetables.”
Hongguo struggled not to laugh. “Second Miss, please wait a moment.”
When Hongguo brought out a bowl of shrimp noodles with more shrimp than noodles, Li Rong’s mood improved greatly.
After finishing the bowl, she felt warm and content. “Delicious!”
Then she looked toward Li Qu. “Third Sister, the medicine will be even more bitter once it gets cold. I had someone examine the prescription—it’s a top-grade formula for regulating the body.”
Li Qu opened her eyes and glanced at Li Rong, whose lips were speckled with oil. She tossed her a handkerchief, then sat up and drank the medicine.
Chinese medicine was terribly bitter, but Nanny Xu had watched her all morning. Li Qu couldn’t refuse to drink it.
Li Rong chuckled, used the handkerchief to wipe her mouth, and then tucked it into her sleeve.
Li Qu set down the bowl and pulled a bitter face. “I want to have a private word with Second Sister. All of you, go outside.”
Once the servants had withdrawn, Li Rong hurriedly grabbed the candied fruit on the table and stuffed one into Li Qu’s mouth. “Mother asked me to bring you something good.”
She took a bottle from inside her robes and handed it to Li Qu. “There isn’t a trace of meat on our table anymore. We spent all our silver taels buying this medicine for you.”
“This medicine has far fewer side effects than the contraceptive decoction. You take it afterward. Ahem—but Mother said that you’re still young, so you need to take care of yourself.”
Mother Li was a disfigured woman. Her entire face looked as though boiling water had been poured over it, leaving her unbearably ugly. She had been poor, mute, and despised by her parents until Father Li brought her home, making do with her as a wife.
Who could have expected that every child Mother Li bore would have exceptional looks?
Mother Li’s origins were a mystery. She had an elegant figure and clearly understood matters of the bedchamber. Li Qu suspected that she had once been the favored concubine of a wealthy family.
As for why she had fallen into her present state…
A few theories about inner-household schemes were enough to explain it.
That was one of the reasons Li Qu hated the thought of becoming a highborn family’s concubine.
As a concubine, whether one was treated as a person or a beast depended on nothing more than a single word from the master and the noble principal wife.
“That is… I’ve heard people say that a woman never forgets her first man. Third Sister, are you sure you… mm?” Are you really going to go through with it?
Li Qu looked at Li Rong. “Second Sister, don’t tell me that you look down on this one and that one, refused to marry, and dragged things out until now because you’re hoping someone will force you to love him?”
“Don’t drag me into this. Look at the oddballs Mother picked for me. A butcher? A waiter? The lame Third Brother from next door who sells soles? Would you marry any of them?”
“Zhang Dachuan the butcher is honest and reliable. Lin Er is an orphan with excellent emotional intelligence and a handsome face. And the lame Third Brother next door isn’t actually lame. He isn’t ugly, either, and he’s fond of you.”
Li Qu felt that none of those things were the most important point. The important thing was that none of those men had parents to support. If she married into one of those families, she would be mistress of her own household. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
Unexpectedly, Li Rong said, “None of them have parents. That’s not a sign of longevity. I don’t want to become a widow.”
“They didn’t die of illness.”
“They were killed by their own bad luck.”
Li Qu: “…”
Li Rong knew that Li Qu was the least likely person to believe in such talk, so she quickly changed the subject. “All right, all right, enough about me. I’ll ask you one last time. You’ve really decided to… mm?” To run away?
Li Qu gave a soft hum.
Li Rong cleared her throat. “Mother says that what Third Master Zhou did can’t really be called forcing a woman. At most, he was overwhelmed by his feelings and didn’t know his own strength!”
Li Qu threw the medicinal pouch she had been holding against her abdomen at Li Rong. “With his status, if he had even the slightest affection for me, he wouldn’t have forced himself on me.
“It’s precisely because he doesn’t feel anything for me that he dared to do whatever he pleased!”
“Then how did you offend him? Was it only because you reported him in the street? If that’s really the reason, then his feelings toward you probably aren’t entirely innocent.”
So Li Qu told Li Rong about Chang San.
Upon hearing it, Li Rong’s face filled with indignation, regret, and exasperation. “After all your usual caution, you actually brought disaster upon yourself with your own mouth?”
Li Qu didn’t want to sink into endless regret. She closed her eyes and leaned against the pillow. “Second Sister, if Mother’s health allows her to travel, you should leave first.”
“You really don’t feel reluctant? With Third Master Zhou’s face… there must be plenty of women scrambling to become his concubines.”
To put it bluntly, Li Rong felt that if she and Third Sister had entered the city in the opposite order, she would have eagerly agreed to become Third Master Zhou’s concubine.
He had money, looks, and power. What kind of heaven-sent marriage was that?
Li Qu frowned and looked at Li Rong with a solemn expression. She was just about to say something when a sudden knock sounded at the door. Nanny Xu then pushed it open, her face alight with delight.
“Concubine, Master has sent some things over. Please have a look.”
Several maids then carried boxes and stood in front of Li Qu one after another.
Before Nanny Xu could do anything, Li Rong sprang up from the couch and eagerly opened one.
“Wow! There are so many purple pearls!”
Nanny Xu beamed. “An entire hu. We can have a set of hair ornaments made for Concubine. If there are any left over, we’ll add a few smaller pieces for Second Miss. Second Miss, please don’t think them beneath you.”
Li Rong’s eyes shone. “I won’t, I won’t. I’d be delighted even if you gave me only one.”
“Second Madam has already prepared gifts and sent them to Jishui Lane. There’s also a special introductory gift for Second Miss.”
The implication was clear: the Zhou Residence had recognized Li Qu’s status as a concubine of the Zhou family’s third branch.
Li Rong’s bright-eyed expression faded. She glanced in surprise at Li Qu, who was resting with her eyes closed against the bolster pillow.
Without Li Qu’s approval, the Zhou Residence certainly wouldn’t have openly sent gifts to Jishui Lane.
There was a saying that once one had too many lice, one no longer feared itching.
Li Qu had even dared to accuse the Zhou Residence of forcing a woman in broad daylight. Who knew whether the Li family might not throw the Zhou Residence’s gifts back at them and make the Zhou Residence lose face?
She awkwardly pointed at the jade hairpin on the tray. “My Third Sister likes gold-inlaid jade.”
After saying that, she no longer had the mood to admire Third Master Zhou’s generosity. She merely praised his lavishness, then sat down to one side.
Meanwhile, Nanny Xu followed the rules and cheerfully instructed people to register and inventory the gifts Zhou Jin had sent. “Whatever Third Master gives belongs to Concubine as her private property.”
Before the items had been fully recorded, word arrived that Huai Chun from Embroidered Splendor Hall had brought the people responsible for making clothes for Li Qu.
Li Rong lifted the tea served by a maid.
This time, she was certain that Li Qu had done something.
Unfortunately, the sisters hadn’t had much time to talk earlier, so she had no idea what Li Qu’s current situation was in the Zhou Residence.
The seamstress merely took Li Qu’s measurements before withdrawing.
Li Qu had yet to find the chance to have a proper conversation with Li Rong when Auntie Li arrived on behalf of Old Madam to deliver gifts to her. Second Madam came next.
Several concubines from the Zhou family’s second branch came as well. They conveyed that they knew Li Qu was unwell, so they hadn’t come to disturb her. Once she had recovered, they would arrange a time to gather.
The people from the Zhou family’s first branch were in the capital with First Master and were not at the residence.
Zhou Jin of the third branch had neither wife nor concubine.
At present, Second Madam was managing the Zhou Residence.
By the time this wave of visitors had been sent away, it was nearly lunchtime.
While Nanny Xu went to arrange the midday meal, Li Rong moved close to Li Qu. “What’s going on? What are you planning to do, Third Sister?”