The only thing Su Yu was grateful for right now was that her grandmother had probably taken her medicine and was still asleep at this hour. Sure enough, when she quietly lifted the curtain and entered the inner room, she found the earlier commotion hadn’t awakened her grandmother.
Su Yu had already taken a physician to examine her grandmother. The doctor said it was a chronic cough from years of overwork. Now that her grandmother was getting on in years, a complete recovery was no longer possible. The illness could only be kept under control with medication. And that medication could not be skipped, not even for a single day.
Fortunately, her grandmother could still get out of bed and move about. Whenever Su Yu went to the county town to sell medicinal herbs and stayed away most of the day, she prepared meals and medicine in advance. When her grandmother woke up, she could take care of herself.
The herbal medicine suppressed the cough, but it also left one fatigued and drowsy.
Seeing that her grandmother was still asleep, Su Yu first washed up and changed out of her dirty clothes. Only then did she gently wake her.
By now, night had already fallen, and an oil lamp glowed inside the room. Su Yu deliberately loosened a few strands of hair so they fell across her face.
The marks on her face were partially hidden, and the sick woman in bed noticed nothing unusual.
“Yu-jie’er…” Having only just awakened, Madam Chen was still groggy. Her gaze drifted toward the darkness outside the window, and she spoke vaguely, “Why have you come back so late today?”
Su Yu smiled. “Not at all. I’ve been back for quite a while. Grandmother was sleeping so soundly that I didn’t want to wake you. The food has already been heated up, so I came to call you now.”
Helping her grandmother sit up, Su Yu brought over the meal and set it on the small table beside the couch. She first handed her a cup of warm water to soothe her throat.
“Did everything go well during your trip to town?”
“Everything was fine,” Su Yu replied without the slightest change in expression.
Her grandmother rarely went out these days. At most, when the weather was pleasant, she would sit in the courtyard and enjoy a little sunshine.
Grandmother had always been proud and reserved, rarely associating with the neighbors. As long as Su Yu said nothing, she would never hear what had happened today.
Tomorrow, if she got up early enough and entered the mountains before everyone else, she would surely find some valuable medicinal herbs. Then she would not have to worry about the cost of medicine.
“Grandmother, eat while it’s still hot. It won’t taste as good once it cools.”
Madam Chen nodded. She enjoyed a comfortable, pleasant supper. Afterward, Su Yu helped her walk a few laps around the room. After taking her nighttime medicine and washing up, she lay down again.
After tidying everything up, Su Yu returned to her own room. She sat quietly on the edge of the bed for a while. In the stillness of the night, the grievances she had managed to suppress suddenly surged up without warning.
Zhao Li’s attempt to force himself on her. The ox cart that had abandoned her and left first. Aunt Gou’s sharp, spiteful words. And Aunt Wu Xiu’s seemingly protective remarks that had, in truth, only spread the matter further.
Kicking off her shoes, Su Yu climbed onto the bed and buried her face in the bedding. Her shoulders trembled, but she made no sound. Only a large patch of the quilt became soaked with her tears. After an unknown length of time, she finally sat up, wiped her face with her sleeve, and rose to extinguish the oil lamp.
Su Yu could not open her eyes or move her body. A cold, slick sensation was slowly traveling upward from her ankle, inch by inch.
A snake.
Even in her dream, she recognized the feeling. It was exactly the same as that day in the mountains during the rainstorm. She could even feel the edges of its scales lightly scraping her waist as its body writhed forward.
Am I having another nightmare? Su Yu wondered drowsily. She struggled to open her eyes, but her eyelids felt as heavy as if a thousand pounds weighed them down. All she could do was let the cool, scaled body keep winding upward until it finally rested on her shoulder. She did not know whether she had made a sound. She only felt the snake tighten its coils, enclosing her completely.
Then something cool, damp, and soft touched her cheek. Again and again, it licked at her skin.
A sharp sting followed, and Su Yu shuddered. It was licking her wound. The sensation was so vivid that she could even feel the forked tips of its tongue gliding slowly across her skin, sending shivers through her body. Yet after only a few moments, the stinging pain from the wound gradually disappeared.
The moisture left by the snake’s tongue seeped beneath her skin with each lick, gradually clouding her thoughts and slowing her heartbeat.
It’s just a dream. It’ll be fine once I wake up. The thought drifted through Su Yu’s mind. Her fear faded, and she stopped resisting, letting herself sink into a deep sleep.
When Su Yu opened her eyes, the sky beyond the window was only beginning to lighten with the faint bluish-gray hue of dawn. She stared blankly at the bed canopy for a long time. Vaguely, she felt as though she had dreamed something the night before, yet no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t remember what.
Giving up, she got out of bed and washed up. But as she used the bronze mirror to conceal the wound on her face, she noticed something strange.
The scratch near her temple had still been red and swollen yesterday. Yet today, the wound had already closed and formed a thin scab. The skin beneath was no longer inflamed, as if the injury had been healing for several days. She lightly touched it with her fingertip. It no longer hurt.
Rolling up her sleeves, she examined the abrasions on her arms from sliding down the hillside. Those had improved considerably as well. The swelling had disappeared, leaving only faint marks behind.
The medicinal ointment Su Yansong had given her was unexpectedly effective. The thought of Su Yansong dampened her mood for a moment, but she quickly pushed him from her mind. After warming the medicine stove, she quietly slung her herb basket onto her back and slipped out of the house. Having set out so early, she was sure she could gather medicinal herbs before returning.
Wu Xiu did not particularly like visiting her mother-in-law’s home. To be fair, her mother-in-law had always treated her reasonably well. After she was widowed, she remarried into the Su family with the infant Yansong still wrapped in swaddling clothes, and her mother-in-law had never once spoken a word of disapproval. In the second year after the marriage, Su Erlang proposed establishing a separate household. Meanwhile, Su Dalang remained at the ancestral home.
It was only natural for the eldest son to stay with his parents and care for them, yet Wu Xiu had always felt somewhat uncomfortable about it. Su Erlang simply could not compare to Su Dalang.
Su Dalang was a scholar. He was gentle-tempered and spoke calmly and thoughtfully, much like Madam Chen. Su Erlang, on the other hand, had never cared for studying. He treated Wu Xiu well enough, but his rough, uncultured manner could not compare to his elder brother’s refinement. Every time she returned to the ancestral home, she would hear Su Dalang and Madam Chen discussing stories and allusions from books in the main hall, while Su Dalang’s wife poured tea nearby. They looked every bit the picture of an elegant family. Meanwhile, her own husband would squat on the doorstep, chatting idly with the neighbors, looking hopelessly boorish by comparison. Over time, she lost interest in visiting the old residence.
Then came the news of Su Dalang’s untimely death. Not long afterward, Madam Yu disappeared without a trace, leaving only Madam Chen and a baby girl at the ancestral home.
When Wu Xiu visited again, the literary discussions were gone. All she heard were an infant’s cries and her mother-in-law’s weary sighs. Strangely, she found herself feeling much more at ease. Later, when Su Erlang quarreled with his mother over selling the family house, Wu Xiu acted as peacemaker, carrying messages back and forth between mother and son. To outside observers, she seemed the very model of a sensible daughter-in-law. Many said that this remarried woman in the Su family was more dependable than Madam Chen’s own son.
But Wu Xiu knew the truth. She did not come merely to mediate. She came to prove she was now living a respectable life. And there was her son, Su Yansong. If he passed the provincial examination and became a juren, she would be the mother of a degree-holder and the magistrate’s in-law.
Thinking of this, Wu Xiu sighed once more. Why, of all people, did her foolish son have to remain so hopelessly attached to Su Yu?
Wu Xiu had barely slept all night. Because her son was utterly determined, acting as though he would abandon his studies if she refused to arrange the match, she had finally come to propose marriage in person. As usual, she pushed the door open and entered, set several dozen eggs on the main hall table, then lifted the curtain to the inner room.
“Mother, I’ve come to see you.”
Inside, Madam Chen reclined against the headboard, staring absently at the book in her hands.
Wu Xiu recognized the booklet immediately. It was Su Dalang’s handwritten journal. Nearly every time she visited, her mother-in-law was holding it.
“Second Daughter-in-law, you’ve come…” Madam Chen closed the journal and set it beside her pillow, covering her mouth as she coughed lightly. “Sit down.”
Wu Xiu sat on the edge of the bed and forced a smile. “Mother, your complexion looks much better than it did some time ago. I brought some eggs to help Yu’er build up her strength. After what happened to her yesterday, she must have been quite frightened.”
“By the way, is Yu’er here? There’s something I’d like to discuss with both of you.”
No sooner had she finished speaking than Madam Chen frowned. “What happened to Yu’er yesterday?”
“Oh? She didn’t tell you?” Wu Xiu feigned surprise, then hesitated, as though reluctant to continue. “Well, I suppose a young girl would be too embarrassed to speak of such things herself. But Mother, now that I know about it, I can’t keep it from you.”
“Yesterday, while Yu’er was in the county selling medicinal herbs, she was seen on the street entangled with Young Master Zhao from the Zhao family. They were even holding hands when they got into a carriage together.”
“And who knows what happened afterward inside that carriage? When she returned, her clothes were torn, and her hair was in complete disarray…”
“The whole village saw it. If I don’t take her in now, what will become of her in the future? Rather than let her suffer more gossip and slander, why don’t we settle the marriage between Yansong and her today?”
Madam Chen listened without moving, but the color gradually drained from her face. Her thin, withered hand tightened around the edge of the blanket. Suddenly, she doubled over and erupted into a violent coughing fit.
The sound was heart-wrenching. Sharp-eyed as she was, Wu Xiu clearly saw a dark red stain spreading across the handkerchief covering Madam Chen’s mouth.
“Mother? Mother!” Panic seized Wu Xiu. She reached out to support her, but Madam Chen shoved her away.
Madam Chen coughed so hard she could scarcely breathe. Her whole body trembled, and focus fled her clouded eyes. She seemed to want to say something, but the moment she opened her mouth, another fit of coughing overtook her. Then her body swayed, and she collapsed backward.
Wu Xiu hastily caught her, calling out over and over, “Mother! Mother!”
But the woman in her arms gave no response.