“Waa… waa…”
“Waa, hic… waa, ah…”
The piercing wails of an infant echoed right beside her ears. On a wooden bed draped with white gauze curtains lay Chen Liyun.
Her face was pale, her lips chapped, and her withered hair yellowed. Though still trapped in unconsciousness, heavy tears streamed continuously from the corners of her closed eyes.
Abao.
It was her Abao crying.
Be good, Abao, don’t cry. Mother has avenged you. I have already avenged you.
Unable to form words, Chen Liyun could only let out agonized whimpers from her throat. She had taken revenge for her little Abao, but that wretched couple deserved to die. Even dying ten thousand times over could never replace her precious child.
Chen Liyun was the cherished daughter of the third master in Duke Dingguo’s Manor of the Great Qi Dynasty. Yet despite being a young lady of a ducal household, her father was only a concubine’s son. Even though he had distinguished himself enough to rise to the position of Vice Minister of Rites, she was still considered unqualified to marry Qi Hong, Prince Su, the fifth son of the reigning emperor.
Such an enviable match had originally belonged to her eldest cousin, the legitimate eldest daughter born to the duke’s heir and his wife.
No one could have foreseen the sudden catastrophe just before the wedding. Prince Su’s birth mother was found to be involved in the late empress’s death. In his imperial fury, the emperor bestowed a strip of white silk upon the consort to end her life and banished Qi Hong to the northwest frontier.
Once he left, he could never return without an imperial decree. His hopes of claiming the throne were completely shattered, and so was his marriage to Duke Dingguo’s Manor’s eldest legitimate daughter.
She was the direct daughter of the heir, doted on not only by her parents, but favored above all the other granddaughters by Duke Dingguo himself. No one in the entire manor could bear to see her suffer such a fate. Thus, eyes turned to her younger cousin, who was just a year younger and even more beautiful.
It was a pit of fire, a terrible trap.
Yet it was not just the distant relatives who urged her to take the eldest daughter’s place; even her own parents and brothers insisted on the marriage. When she refused, the entire third branch dropped to their knees, begging her. She knew her parents would not risk their necks to protect her.
She also knew that her marriage would bring them, and her brothers, great benefits.
Why?
Why were they both daughters of the family, yet her cousin was treasured while her own parents pushed her into the flames?
In such an era, she had no real choice. Refusal was not an option. If she did not yield, the mother who had raised and loved her for fifteen years would be cast out with a letter of divorce. Her wet nurse, who had always treated her like a daughter, and the loyal personal maid who had served her faithfully, would both be put to death on her account.
In the end, she married him.
Before the wedding, a single written contract severed all her ties with the Duke Dingguo’s Manor. She did it to be free of attachments, while the household undoubtedly rejoiced at the parting, as they treated Qi Hong like the plague at the time.
She had expected a life of endless misery, but to her surprise, Prince Su was not only handsome, but also gentle and easygoing. He never held it against her that she had been sent as a substitute by Duke Dingguo’s Manor. On the contrary, he felt she was suffering simply by staying at his side.
Those had been the darkest days of her life, and drawn by the faint warmth he offered, she accompanied him all the way to the harsh, desolate frontier. She never complained of hardship or exhaustion, doing everything expected of a wife, as well as things an ordinary wife could never bear.
She even ruined her health to save his life. By the time he fought his way back from the Northwest fifteen years later and ascended the throne, she was already twenty-nine years old, a queen without any children to her name.
After five long years of nursing her health, she finally conceived at thirty-four and gave birth prematurely to a daughter, Abao, at thirty-five. It was only a daughter, incapable of inheriting the throne, and the delivery had taken such a heavy toll on her body that she could never conceive again. Left with no choice, she urged Qi Hong, now the emperor, to take more concubines and expand the imperial lineage.
She believed she had done everything right in this life. Yet a palace servant’s boastful claim that she had birthed an imperial son cost her dearly: her poor daughter, not even a month old, was murdered. Worse still, the culprit was none other than her eldest cousin, the very woman once shielded and doted upon by everyone in Duke Dingguo’s Manor.
When the investigation pointed to her cousin, she refused to believe it. How could it be? Had her cousin lost her mind? Such a crime would drag both her maiden and marital families to ruin.
Only later did she realize that she was the fool, not her cousin. Long before her own pregnancy, her cousin had already conceived, and the child was Qi Hong’s. To secure the imperial succession for her own son, her cousin had every reason to eliminate Abao.
She shed no tears and made no scene, even telling Qi Hong with firm conviction that she trusted her cousin.
She ignored his hollow guilt. If he were truly remorseful, why had he not executed her cousin to avenge their daughter? Dead inside, she quietly buried Xiao Abao, helped select his concubines, obeyed his every word, and regularly invited her cousin to the palace to grant them opportunities to meet.
In less than two months, her chance finally arrived.
She had spent fifteen years with him in the Northwest, weathering countless storms. She was no longer the obedient Second Miss Chen.
She personally fed Qi Hong the poisoned wine and watched him take his last breath before sending for her eldest cousin. When she returned with Prince Cheng, another son of the late emperor, her eldest cousin was weeping over Qi Hong’s body, crying out that without him, she and their son had nothing left.
What should become of them?
They should die, of course, and be buried alongside her Xiao Abao.
Her cousin’s own words gave her all the justification she needed. It would look as though her cousin and Duke Dingguo’s Manor had poisoned Qi Hong for the sake of power, scheming to place their own heir on the throne.
That would make her cousin the Empress Dowager, ruling from behind the curtain, while Duke Dingguo’s Manor gained immense influence as the emperor’s maternal relatives. The temptation was undeniable.
Prince Cheng might never have harbored ambitions for the throne before, but he was no fool. Presented with such an opportunity, he seized it at once.
Qi Hong was dead, her eldest cousin was dead, and their son was imprisoned for life.
Duke Dingguo’s Manor fell to ruin. Not a single person who had aided her cousin, whether in the past or the present, escaped retribution.
She had her revenge, both for Xiao Abao and for herself.
Yet happiness still eluded her. Her Xiao Abao was gone, never to return.
Chen Liyun’s heart ached fiercely, and tears streamed down her cheeks in an endless torrent.
Chen Lihong walked in from outside carrying a red porcelain basin. Seeing the two older children weeping softly while the baby wailed, and watching Chen Liyun shedding tears before even regaining consciousness, she could not hold back her own tears.
“Daya, Er’ya, stop crying. If your mother wakes up and sees you like this, it will only break her heart further.” Setting down the faded basin, Chen Lihong soaked a towel in hot water as she spoke to her two young nieces. She gently nudged them aside, picked up the baby, and settled her safely on the inner side of the bed.
Only then did she begin softly wiping Chen Liyun’s face and hands. Her foolish younger sister had jumped into the river to end her life. Though rescued, she had merely been changed into dry clothes; since she was still in her postpartum confinement and forbidden from bathing, only her elder sister had thought to come and wash her down properly.
“Oh, Xiao Yun, why are you being so foolish? What good would it do if you died? What would happen to Daya, Er’ya, and Sanya? Sanya isn’t even a month old yet, and she already has a useless father. If you carry on like this, you might as well be taking her to the grave with you.”
“What era are we living in? Can’t you survive without a man? If nothing else, you still have me as your sister. As long as I have a bite to eat, I won’t let you and the kids starve. You fool, if you were awake right now, I’d want to beat some sense into you! What was the point of nearly killing yourself? Qi Hongwei didn’t come back, his parents haven’t said a damn word, and you’ve suffered for nothing!”
“Is Qi Hongwei really that great anyway? Even without him, with your looks, your temper, and how capable you are, do you think you couldn’t find another man? When the time comes, leave Daya and Er’ya with the Qi family, take Sanya with you to remarry, and your life will…”
Before Chen Lihong could finish, Daya, who had only just stopped crying, burst into tears again. This time, instead of quiet whimpering, she wailed at the top of her lungs, just like the baby. Hearing her sister, Er’ya copied her and began to bawl as well.
With a massive headache coming on, Chen Lihong pulled back the towel and turned to address her nieces. “Daya, Er’ya, you two…”
Daya cut her off with a sob. “Third Aunt, you’re… you’re mean!”
Er’ya chimed in, mimicking her sister. “Third Aunt is bad! You’re bad!”
Chen Lihong and Chen Liyun were twin sisters who looked almost identical, except that Chen Liyun had long hair while Chen Lihong wore hers short. Tucking her short hair behind her ear, Chen Lihong glared playfully. “You two ungrateful little things, what are you talking about? Calling your third aunt bad at a time like this?”
At only five years old, Er’ya did not really understand. Seeing that Chen Lihong looked just like her mother, she turned a bewildered look toward Daya.
Seven-year-old Daya, however, held her ground. “You are bad, Third Aunt! Dad already abandoned Er’ya and me, and now you’re telling Mom to leave us too! We don’t have a dad anymore, and you want us to lose our mom too… Bad Third Aunt!”
“I don’t have a mom anymore… Bad Third Aunt!” Er’ya repeated tearfully.
An awkward look crossed Chen Lihong’s face.
She had only spoken the honest truth. It was not that she did not care for her nieces, but if Chen Liyun wanted to remarry after the divorce, keeping just Sanya might be manageable.
Taking all three girls along would make finding another husband nearly impossible. If she chose not to remarry, how could a lone woman provide for three children? Putting them through school aside, simply feeding them would be a struggle.
Even so, saying all of that in front of the children had certainly been wrong of her.
She had no choice but to coax the two children. “Oh, that’s not true at all. Auntie misspoke. Bad Auntie!”
She lightly slapped her own mouth twice and said, “Auntie said the wrong thing, and I won’t say it ever again. Please stop crying, okay? You know how much your mother loves you. If you cry, it will only make her sad too. Come on, don’t cry.”
Er’ya gradually quieted down.
Daya, however, sobbed, “She jumped into the river to kill herself. She didn’t want us anymore. She looks down on Er’ya and me because we’re girls, she wants a son… Waaah…”
Far from being comforted, she cried even louder.
Just as Chen Lihong moved to soothe her again, a slightly cool hand reached out from behind and rested on hers.
Chen Liyun was awake. She had been stirred by the three children’s crying, her heart aching at the pitiful words Daya had spoken. Daughters or sons, it made no difference. As a mother, she loved them all as long as they were her own flesh and blood.
“Xiao Yun, you’re awake?!” Chen Lihong turned around, looking at her younger sister in pleasant surprise.
Chen Liyun stared back, completely stunned.
The woman before her had ear-length short hair, severely rough skin, and wore strange clothes that bared her arms. Yet her face was unmistakably the same as her own.