“I will not take a concubine. Either I marry Zhao Yufang as my wife, or I marry no one. Father can decide for himself.”
Shen Chu said this with complete indifference, then walked straight out of the study.
Changning Hou was so furious he smashed a teacup. “Insolent wretch!”
At lunchtime, Concubine Qiao came to Shen Chu’s courtyard.
Shen Chu gave her a sidelong glance. “If you’re here to persuade me to take a concubine, you’d best keep your mouth shut.”
Concubine Qiao set a scallion-oil chicken on the table, smiling as she tore off a drumstick and handed it to her, then leaned in close and whispered:
“I’d have to be crazy to persuade you to take a concubine. What would be the point?”
“You don’t even have that thing. Marrying a wife and taking concubines would be like a starving dog burrowing into an outhouse—digging your own grave.”
The drumstick in Shen Chu’s hand suddenly lost its appeal. “Could we use a different metaphor?”
Concubine Qiao grinned. “The words are crude, but the logic holds.”
“You don’t need to worry about this anymore. I already told the Marquis that I had a master at Jingguosi do a divination for you. The master said that before you turn twenty, you must not lose your virginity, or you’ll suffer a disaster of blood. So you can’t marry before twenty—no concubines either.”
Shen Chu gave Concubine Qiao a thumbs-up.
The excuse was perfect—it could help her fend off every marriage proposal.
“When it doesn’t involve Father, your brain actually works, Concubine.”
Concubine Qiao rolled her eyes at her. “What are you saying? The Marquis is my whole life. When my life is at stake, who needs a brain?”
Shen Chu was so choked she couldn’t take another bite of the drumstick.
She wiped her hands and asked Concubine Qiao, “How did Father take you as his concubine back then?”
Concubine Qiao recalled the past, her smile blooming like spring flowers.
“Your maternal grandparents died suddenly of illness. I was an only child, and the Qiao clan, like a pack of hungry wolves, forced me to hand over the family business. That was when the Marquis appeared. He descended from the heavens like a god, shielding me behind him and driving off the Qiao clan. He was so handsome, so perfect, so chivalrous—it made my heart surrender. I was a merchant’s daughter, and he was a lofty marquis. Our stations were worlds apart, yet he always treated me with courtesy, gentle and considerate. It was love at first sight, devotion at second. When feelings run deep, everything falls into place naturally, and so we came together.”
Shen Chu raised an eyebrow. “Falls into place—and you ended up a concubine? Did he use any tricks on you?”
She had always been curious about this.
The Qiao family was wealthy merchants. By rights, there must have been plenty of suitors. With such an enormous dowry, Concubine Qiao could have found anyone—why become a concubine to Changning Hou?
Concubine Qiao was shocked. “Chu, what are you saying? The Marquis is an honorable man—how could he scheme against me? Everything between us was of my own free will. The Marquis truly cherishes and loves me. He said I’m the only one he’ll ever love in this lifetime.”
She leaned close to Shen Chu’s ear and whispered, “What he has with the Madam is just for show. You didn’t know, did you? He hasn’t touched her in years.”
“How would you know whether he’s touched her or not?”
“I trust the Marquis. He wouldn’t lie to me.”
Shen Chu felt weary. “So because you trust him and love him, you’re willing to use your dowry to support this whole household?”
Concubine Qiao rested her chin in her hands and sighed. “The Marquis has actually had a hard life. Your grandfather was a failure, and when the marquisate was handed over to him, all he got was an empty shell.”
“Poor man, struggling all alone to support the marquis household, living such a hard, exhausting life. Chu, if I don’t help him, who else can?”
“His Lordship may have no money, but he has a heart that loves me.”
Perhaps recalling how she first met Changning Hou, Concubine Qiao’s eyes turned very tender.
“His Lordship never said he was spending the Qiao family’s money. He said a scholar shouldn’t keep talking about money—it’s unbearably vulgar. It was I who felt sorry for him—so well-versed in the classics, so full of ambition, yet with nowhere to display his talents. So I took the initiative to provide money to help him maneuver, and that’s how His Lordship obtained the post at Bingbu Wuxuan Si. ‘Priceless treasures are easy to find, but a devoted man is rare.’ As long as His Lordship is true to me, I don’t care about money or such external things.”
Shen Chu gazed at her mother’s fair, pretty face and couldn’t help rubbing her fingers together.
A face that pretty—she must have traded her brain for it.
“Mother, haven’t you ever thought that supporting the family should be Father’s responsibility? Father using the money of a concubine—doesn’t that strike you as unmanly?”
Concubine Qiao disagreed. “Manliness isn’t shown in that. Besides, your father and I are one—what’s wrong with spending a little money on him?”
“Spending money on him, and on top of that helping him support his wife and children?”
“His Lordship says he gives all his love to me. The wife has kept an empty room all these years—consider the money a form of compensation.”
Shen Chu pinched the bridge of her nose. “On my way to the capital, the wife sent people to kill me several times, and this time she drugged me. Wake up, Mother. The problems between you two can’t be fixed with money. You’re only a concubine of the marquis household—you have no obligation to support this family. Mother, let’s take back the profits from the shops.”
Concubine Qiao hesitated. “If we take the shops back, His Lordship’s salary alone won’t support this whole household, and then His Lordship will have to suffer all the more. Besides, about the assassination attempt and the drugging—I already told His Lordship. He went and warned that old hag. Surely she’ll behave from now on.”
Shen Chu was speechless at her naivety.
“If I had died on the road to the capital, would His Lordship have killed the wife to avenge me? Or would he have offered just a light, careless warning?”
Concubine Qiao’s face changed slightly, and she spat twice in quick succession.
“What kind of unlucky talk is that? You’re back safe and sound by my side, aren’t you?”
Shen Chu’s eyes flickered, and she said nothing.
“My only regret all these years was not being able to raise you by my side, making you suffer. But now you’ve returned, and from now on I’ll make it up to you doubly.”
Concubine Qiao pulled two banknotes from her robes and pressed them into Shen Chu’s hands.
“You’re about to enter officialdom. Without money on you, you’d be laughed at when you go out. Take this money. From now on, I’ll give you a thousand taels of silver each month as spending money. Don’t even think about taking back the shops’ profits. Whenever you’re short of money, just tell me—Mother will provide.”
Concubine Qiao left.
Shen Chu sighed. The moment Changning Hou was involved, Concubine Qiao’s mind turned to mush.
It seemed that if she wanted to recover her mother’s dowry, she would have to find a way herself.
That afternoon, Changning Hou sent someone to inform Shen Chu that Old Madame had already agreed to let him take Zhao Yufang as a concubine. Tomorrow, two tables of wine would be laid out, and Zhao Yufang would be formally taken.
“His Lordship says it’s only the concubine-taking ceremony for now; the consummation will wait until the eldest young master turns twenty.”
Shen Chu sneered.
She was curious how Changning Hou had managed to persuade Old Madame Shen. Judging by the Old Madame’s attitude that morning, she had clearly been dead set on making her marry Zhao Yufang.
Why would she suddenly change her tune?
She sent Hong Xiu out to make inquiries.
Less than half an hour later, Hong Xiu returned and reported: “The Marquis has agreed to give the Old Madame’s natal family the hot spring estate in Qinghe, and he has also promised the Old Madame that Zhao Yufang will be taken as a noble concubine. That hot spring estate was bought by Concubine Qiao just two years ago as a gift to the Marquis.”
Shen Chu sneered. Passing off her concubine-mother’s property as his own largesse, and scheming away her life on top of it.
“Young Master, you’re not actually going to take Cousin Zhao as a concubine, are you?”
Hong Xiu’s face was full of worry. “You’re both women—how would you share a bed?”
Shen Chu rubbed her fingers together, let out a soft laugh, and picked up her brush to write a letter.
“Take this to the Marquis.”
Changning Hou was in the Old Madame’s courtyard, discussing taking Zhao Yufang as a concubine, when he received Shen Chu’s letter. He opened it, and at one glance flew into a towering rage.
“That wretched girl!”