“I shall respect you, if you in turn show me proper regard. Henceforth, I ask that you act with dignity and do nothing that would bring shame upon either house.”
Gu Yanshan felt strangely unsettled. He despised the woman who had usurped the place that should have been his beloved’s. Yet now that Zhou Du had plainly declared she wanted nothing from him, he found himself strangely chafed.
“Why do you speak so coldly of our union?” Gu Yanshan demanded. “You are seventeen your reputation for virtue is known even to me. And yet you remained unwed all this time. You were simply holding yourself back for the highest bid, were you not? Hoping to marry above your station! Am I so beneath you? Is my birth, my rank, my character unworthy of you?”
Zhou Du could only marvel. She had never met a man quite so magnificently convinced of his own perfection.
“Sir,” she said calmly, “you have spent years campaigning. You must be well acquainted with city walls.”
Gu Yanshan blinked, puzzled by the sudden shift in topic but nodded.
“Then tell me,” Zhou Du continued, “of all the walls you have seen where stands the thickest?”
Gu Yanshan considered. “The walls of Xing City, I should say. They rise more than sixty‑two feet high and are fully twenty feet across at the base.”
Zhou Du smiled sweetly. “Is that all? It sounds quite modest. I doubt it could compare to the thickness of your skin.”
Truth be told, if she had wished, she could have entered the palace and become a consort of the Emperor himself. To be looked down upon by the Heir of Yong Ning absurd.
“Zhou Du!” Gu Yanshan sputtered. “You !” He realized he had been mocked. “Where is the woman who does not know her place? Never have I heard a wife speak so sharply!”
Zhou Du yawned and smoothed her covers. “Then you have met one now, have you not?”
“Hmph! I shall sleep in the study!”
He was true to his promise to Qingqing. He would not share this chamber not tonight, and never. If she had forced herself upon him, then let her be a wife in name only alone for all her days.
Zhou Du shook her head and picked up the ceremonial wedding rod from the table. “You did not hear a single word I said. Did you?”
A sudden, inexplicable chill ran down Gu Yanshan’s spine. He flinched. “What… what did you say?”
“Do nothing that would bring shame upon either house.” Zhou Du stepped closer. “It is your wedding night. A husband belongs in his bridal chamber. If word spreads that you fled to the study… I shall be the one who bears the shame.”
Before he could move, she swung the rod swift and sharp striking him squarely upon the back of his head.
“You !” Gu Yanshan’s eyes rolled up. He crumpled with a dull thud upon the daybed.
It was a trick Wen Zhao had taught her for self‑defense. She had never imagined using it upon her own husband.
Zhou Du stretched luxuriously. “What a great deal of trouble you are. It would have been simpler had you stayed asleep, would it not, my lord?”
Zhou Du slept soundly. When Lian Qing woke her, she rose refreshed.
“Go and rouse the Heir. We must pay our respects to the elders together. We cannot be late.”
She had not struck hard enough to do lasting harm he should have slept off the blow peacefully enough through the night.
“As you command, Madam.”
“Ugh…” Gu Yanshan woke throbbing not only his head, but the back of his skull, his neck, his back every joint ached.
He stared at the unfamiliar maid. “Who are you?”
“I am Lian Qing, Madam Heir’s personal maid,” she replied calmly.
Gu Yanshan frowned. “Lian Qing? Which Lian Qing?”
“The lotus blossom, and fresh green grass, my lord.”
Gu Yanshan scoffed. “That name offends my cousin, whom it resembles. I shall rename you.”
Lian Qing bowed respectfully, unmoved. “My name was bestowed by my mistress. If it is to be changed, it is for her to change it.”
At the mention of Zhou Du, Gu Yanshan’s eyes flashed with remembered outrage. “That woman! She dared strike her own husband! A wife must obey her husband as the head of the household! Where is her virtue? Where is her duty?”
Zhou Du, applying lip balm at her mirror, turned and smiled eyes gleaming with quiet amusement.
“Husband,” she said softly, “you quote the husband commands the wife yet do you forget the father commands the son? I acted on your father’s instruction. Lest you stir up trouble and cause him further grief and worry.”
Her smile was sweet but those phoenix eyes were sharp as daggers.
She lifted her chin as her maid fastened carved sandalwood earrings at her ears, and continued in a light, even tone:
“And besides what concern of mine is it, save for love of you? If you goad your father to strike you again… I shall not be there to shield you. He may strike as he pleases. And though your body bears the pain… it is my heart that breaks.”
Gu Yanshan flushed crimson, stung and silenced. “Sharp‑tongued! Deceitful words!”
Her heart breaks? he thought bitterly. If she cared for him in the slightest, she would never have struck him so coldly last night. She meant to shame him and leave him a widower in all but name!
He returned to his grievance. “I shall rename a servant if I wish. Must I ask your leave?”
Zhou Du arched an eyebrow and spoke with sudden, icy clarity.
“Gu Yanshan I dislike the tone in which you speak to me. I was wedded to you not sold to you. My servants bear the names I gave them. What right have you to dictate them?”
“I call you Husband only out of respect for the Emperor’s decree and to preserve the honor of both our families. Do not mistake courtesy for submission, I beg you.”
She had not crossed this threshold to be bullied.
Gu Yanshan stared, stunned. No woman no one had ever spoken to him with such unflinching directness.
His hands trembled with rage. “You… you strike your husband! You insult him to his face! Where is the upbringing of the House of Zhou? Where is this famed virtue and grace? Insolent, unheard‑of !”
Zhou Du gave a cold, sharp laugh. She lifted the fine blue porcelain teacup in her hand and dashed it to the floor. It shattered with a ringing, silvery crack that brought the room to instant stillness.
“I told you plainly last night,” she said, voice ringing clear. “This marriage was forced upon us both. We need only show one another courtesy and respect. You refuse me respect and yet expect me to bow and scrape and obey your every whim?”
“Gu Yanshan you may be the favored son of a great house, admired by all. But I, Zhou Du am no soft clay to be crushed beneath your heel. Think carefully before you speak. Foolish words amuse only fools.”
Gu Yanshan stood mute, rage broken by the shattering cup and by the undeniable truth of her words. He burned with impotent fury. Qingqing would never speak so, he told himself. Zhou Du was nothing but a shrew wild, cruel, and unruly.
Whether awed or chastened, Gu Yanshan said no more. He followed her quietly to the main hall to pay respects to his father.
“Greetings, Father. May your days be long and peaceful.”
“Good… very good.” Gu Wu beamed with pride at his new daughter‑in‑law.
Zhou Du offered tea and received, as expected, a thick red envelope of blessing.
Just as she rose, Gu Yanshan spoke up: “Since our mother is gone… you shall offer tea to my Aunt instead.”
Gu Yanshan’s own mother had died when he was eight. With his father constantly away at the frontier, the Song family had taken him in. His Aunt Song had cared for him as though he were her own son.
Standing beside Lady Song was a young woman delicate, wide‑eyed, looking at Gu Yanshan with eyes full of silent sorrow and longing.
Zhou Du guessed who she must be: Song Qingqing.
Before Zhou Du could speak, Gu Wu’s face turned black with rage. If they had not been in public, he would have beaten Gu Yanshan to the floor.
“Say that again!” Gu Wu roared.
The Song family were merchants commoners. Lady Song might be Gu Yanshan’s aunt by marriage, but she had been born a concubine’s daughter, and wed to a merchant. She was in no way worthy of receiving such honor from the Principal Wife of the House of Yong Ning.