Chapter 1: Good News

In the land of fish and rice, Huzhou, there lay a small city under its jurisdiction. The marketplace was prosperous and orderly, and the streets were clean and unobstructed. By the late hour of the Shen period, the midday drowsiness had passed, and people had regained their spirits, enthusiastically immersing themselves in business. Pedestrians came and went on the streets, some strolling and others working, each busy with their own affairs; it was lively without being noisy. Though the sun blazed fiercely, bursts of cool breeze brushed against the face, bringing a sense of refreshment. If one smelled closely, one could taste a hint of fresh straw in the wind. This was because the breeze blew from outside the city along the rivers, and the waterways outside the city crisscrossed in all directions, with rice paddies lining both banks. It was midsummer, and the rice stalks were filled with pulp, halfway between green and ripe; naturally, the wind blowing from there carried a pleasant fragrance.

A small carriage drove from outside the city into the town, moving nimbly through streets and alleys. It paused briefly in front of an embroidery shop on West Street and a bookstore on East Street. An elderly woman, looking like a domestic servant in her fifties, stepped down from the carriage. She entered the embroidery shop and the bookstore, and after finishing her business, she returned to the carriage. The carriage did not stop again until it reached the gates of a medium-sized, wealthy residence in the north of the city.

The driver set down the stepping stool and called out, "We're home! Miss, please step down!"

The servant woman climbed out first and lifted the carriage curtain. Standing to the side, she watched with a smile as two beautiful young girls in their teens followed her out, reminding them

"Careful, Miss, don't step on your skirts!"

Xia Yiqing walked in front. She had a well-proportioned figure that was slightly plump, skin as lustrous as jade, and delicate, beautiful features. She wore a summer shirt made of lake-blue silk; though the fabric was ordinary, it excelled in its novel cut and exquisite hand-stitching. Fine and elegant floral and leaf patterns were embroidered on the collar, cuffs, and hem, and much care had clearly been taken in the washing and pressing. The well-fitting clothes accentuated the graceful posture of a girl in her prime, making her look elegant, dignified, and pleasing to the eye, though one might overlook the cheapness of the material.

Walking behind her was her younger sister, Xia Leqing. Her attire was similar to her sister's, and she was also a beauty with peach-blossom cheeks, a jade-like nose, and bright eyes like water. Both sisters were quite tall, though the younger sister was slightly more slender, yet she did not appear weak at all. With a twist of her supple waist, she turned back to drag a large bundle out of the carriage. Just as she was about to carry it out, she suddenly paused, frowned, and pushed the large bundle back into the carriage, instead pulling out a fine bamboo basket covered in blue cloth and hanging it from her arm.

The items in that large bundle were the jobs they had just picked up from the embroidery shop and the bookstore. If they carried them through the main gate in plain sight, they would inevitably be subject to the gossip of the Xia family. If Old Madam Xia were to discover their true circumstances, it would be even worse! Therefore, the large bundle could not enter through the main gate; it had to be left on the carriage to be taken into the servants' courtyard by Uncle Liu, the driver, to be measured and accounted for at night.

The bamboo basket contained offerings brought back from the temple. Three months ago, their father, who served as a seventh-rank county magistrate in a neighboring county, had returned home on business. On a whim, he had visited their mother, Pang Ruxue, in the South Courtyard and stayed for one night; as it turned out, their mother was pregnant! Today, their grandmother had rarely shown mercy, allowing the sisters to go to the temple on their mother's behalf to pray to the Goddess of Childbirth. The head priest had given them some offerings, saying that if a pregnant woman ate them, mother and child would be safe!

Xia Yiqing and the servant on the carriage watched Xia Leqing's movements and couldn't help but exchange a smile. Leqing had been clever since childhood, though she was impatient and impulsive. She had just turned twelve this April, and she had finally shown some progress, becoming more composed.

Xia Yiqing was three months shy of fifteen and was approaching her coming-of-age ceremony, but her actual age... well, one should say her soul's age was twenty-eight!

She had arrived in this dynasty when her original self was nine years old. It was still the land of Huaxia, and the setting looked very much like the Northern Song Dynasty, but the Emperor did not bear the surname Zhao, and the capital was in Chang'an—a very strange era. She had been confused for a while, unable to figure out where the history she had studied failed to align. In the end, she could only accept reality. Regardless, being able to live again was always a good thing; she could not squander this opportunity and had to live this life properly!

She possessed the memories of her original self: during the height of summer, a nine-year-old girl, feeling indignant on behalf of her sickly mother, led her six-year-old sister to argue with their grandmother, Xia Jinshi. A dispute ensued, and though the girl was physically frail, she was sharp-tongued and argued so forcefully that she left Xia Jinshi speechless. In a fit of rage, Xia Jinshi grabbed bamboo strips and began to beat her. The girl was thinly dressed and had to protect her sister; red welts were struck across her head, face, and body. The two sisters wailed and stumbled back to the South Courtyard under the scorching sun. When their mother, Pang Ruxue, saw them, the three of them broke into a fit of weeping. In the afternoon, the girl began to run a high fever, and by nightfall, she was delirious. Pang Ruxue, dragging her sickly body, led her youngest daughter to kneel and beg Xia Jinshi for help. Xia Jinshi only gave them a few heat-clearing pills, unwilling to spend money on doctors or medicine. In the middle of the night, the girl died. By a stroke of fate, her soul traveled through and took the girl's place, becoming Xia Yiqing.

After waking up that time, Xia Yiqing had motivated herself: she must eat more, and she must teach her sister to eat more too. Once they grew strong and gained more strength, even if they couldn't beat the old witch Xia Jinshi, they would at least be able to outrun her. She would never let her be caught again, only to be slapped or whipped with bamboo strips—it was too much of a loss!

Because she knew exactly how the nine-year-old girl had died, Xia Yiqing had harbored no goodwill toward Xia Jinshi for five years. Whenever she had the chance, she used her words to provoke the old woman into a rage. But it was frustrating; good people die young while bad people live for a thousand years. Five years had passed, and Xia Jinshi showed no signs of aging; instead, she seemed to grow more energetic with age. It was truly infuriating!

In the Xia household, even though Xia Yiqing and her sister worked hard to be self-reliant and were always on guard, the lives of the three women in the South Courtyard were still far from satisfactory. If the sisters had been as weak and submissive as Pang Ruxue, they would likely have been abused to death by Xia Jinshi long ago.

Pang Ruxue was submissive, filial, and virtuous; her temperament was so gentle and soft that Xia Yiqing was left speechless. It was impossible to rely on such a mother to protect her daughters. If her daughters did not fight for her interests, she would rather swallow her grievances and suffer rather than disobey her mother-in-law. She was a typical lady of a great household, strictly educated from childhood to uphold the Three Obediences and Four Virtues. Before the age of nine, Xia Yiqing and her sister had been personally taught etiquette, morality, speech, and mannerisms by the sickly Pang Ruxue. Beyond that, they learned a bit of everything—zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting. After the age of nine, Xia Yiqing changed; she instilled much of her own thinking into her sister. The two sisters lived in the same room and were inseparable every day; one could imagine how deeply Leqing was influenced by Yiqing.

The servant woman stepped down from the carriage, took the basket from Xia Leqing's hands, and said, "Give this to me. The young ladies are grown now. The second young lady should learn from the eldest. Being out and about is not like being at home; your movements and conduct should be dignified, elegant, and refined... These things have been taught to you by the Mistress. You can no longer be as casual as when you were small. Our Master is an official; you are the daughters of an official!"

Xia Leqing let out a "tsk" of disdain. "Don't lecture me, Mama Liu. What 'daughters of an official'? Who has ever seen an official's daughter wearing coarse cloth and eating mixed-grain rice? We've done all the heavy work ourselves since we were little, only to be beaten and scolded. In my eyes, in this Xia family, my sister and I are just concubine-born daughters..."

Mama Liu listened to Xia Leqing's words with a heavy heart. When she heard that last sentence, her expression changed, and she moved to stop her, but she only breathed a sigh of relief when she heard the eldest daughter, Xia Yiqing, speak.

The eldest daughter's voice was still soft and pleasant, but it carried a hint of severity: "Has your sister forgotten again? How did I teach you? Think before you act, and use your brain when you speak! You know very well that concubine-born daughters are born of concubines; they must always stand ten paces behind the legitimate daughters, and among sisters in the family, they are always of lower status! In the future, concubine-born daughters will be picked apart in marriage, making it hard to marry legitimate sons, and the children they bear will be looked down upon because of their mother's status! Do you think our mother is a concubine? Would you want to be a concubine-born daughter?"

"No! I don't! I misspoke, Sister, please forgive me!"

Xia Leqing waved her hands repeatedly, saying vexatiously, "Our mother is clearly Father's original wife. But why? Auntie Huang can stay by Father's side year after year, and the children she bears, Ai Zhi and Xi Zhi, are also daughters, yet Father only wants to take them and their mother, doting on them every single day, even giving them different names than ours... In this whole world, only their mother and daughters have such good lives. The concubines and concubine-born daughters are more favored and enjoy more respect and blessings than the legal wife and legitimate daughters! Mother, you, and I are not even as good as the maidservants in Grandmother's courtyard! I just won't accept it!"

Xia Yiqing sighed softly. Seeing the driver, Uncle Liu, open the gates of the Xia residence, she pulled her sister along and whispered, "The sun is harsh, let's go inside first... Didn't I say? There are some things we must fight for ourselves, but if there are conditions we can rely on, we must grasp them and never let go! Mother is the legal wife, and we sisters are legitimate; that is a fact! What is so good about Ai Zhi and Xi Zhi's lives? No matter how much they are favored, they are still concubine-born daughters, always a step below us! They aren't worth getting angry with, and they certainly aren't worth envying!"

The sisters held hands and entered the gate, walking along the corridor toward the inner courtyard, discussing how hot the weather was and how they would pick some shepherd's purse under the trellis later to make a sour and spicy cold dish for dinner. Mama Liu followed behind with a smile, her gaze toward Xia Yiqing filled with both relief and affection. She was happy for the Mistress: the eldest daughter had grown into a beautiful and radiant girl, her grace and aura even better than those of the ladies from great households. More importantly, the eldest daughter was intelligent, quick-witted, talented, and courageous. The Mistress was gentle and timid, yet she had given birth to such a daughter who was even more capable than a son; it was truly a great blessing!

As the only servant by the Mistress's side, Mama Liu understood best the hardships of the three women in the South Courtyard. When the eldest daughter was two, the Mistress gave birth to the second daughter; because the physical toll was too great and she learned that the Master had taken a new wife, her illness never recovered from the shock and grief, and she remained bedridden. Mama Liu had to care for the Mistress, watch over the second daughter, and raise the eldest; those days were unimaginably difficult! To make matters worse, the Old Madam was snobbish, and the Second Madam, Lady Tong, who managed the household, made things difficult for them. The South Courtyard's provisions had always been skimmed; using the excuse of tight finances, the Master would delay the monthly allowance to the South Courtyard, only tossing them a few copper coins each month, along with some broken rice and corn that others used to feed chickens and ducks, to be used as extra porridge for the adults and children. As for the medicine for the Mistress, if the Old Madam was in a good mood, she might provide a couple of doses; if not, there was no money for the apothecary!

But the three women in the South Courtyard ultimately did not starve, and the Mistress's health gradually improved. The Old Madam and the others looked down on the South Courtyard as a poor, unlucky place and were too lazy to visit, but they did not know that the South Courtyard was actually a place of spiritual treasure! The eldest and second daughters grew up in the South Courtyard, eating and dressing poorly, yet they still grew up tall and beautiful, wise and capable. Especially the eldest daughter: at three, she could look after her sister; at five, she could tend the fire to cook porridge and medicine; at seven, she had learned needlework from her mother, as well as zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting. In her ninth year, she fell seriously ill after being beaten by the Old Madam. Seeing that she might not survive, the Mistress dragged her sickly body into the courtyard and knelt in the rain to make a vow: if her eldest daughter woke up, she would be willing to sacrifice ten years of her life! As it turned out, the eldest daughter truly woke up, and after her illness, she became even more clever and resourceful, becoming the pillar of the South Courtyard from then on. It was only then that life in the South Courtyard slowly gained some flavor, and they no longer had to wait every day for the charity of the Old Madam and the Second Madam!

Under the care of the two daughters, the Mistress's health recovered quickly. When the eldest daughter had the physician at the apothecary prepare nourishing pills, she insisted on using the finest ingredients, regardless of the cost. She nurtured the Mistress until her skin was plump and her complexion was rosy, looking less like a mother of two daughters and more like a sister to the two girls. The Old Madam disliked them, and every year when the Master returned home to visit ancestors, the concubine Huang followed him closely, and he would leave again in a day or two; thus, the original couple could not meet. The Mistress lived a secluded life, spending her days in the South Courtyard with her two daughters, doing needlework or helping the eldest daughter trace patterns for paintings, living a peaceful life.

Last time, when the Master went to the prefectural city on business and returned to visit the Old Madam, because Huang had not accompanied him, the Old Madam—having received many benefits from the Master—no longer restricted him. The Master went to the back courtyard to visit the Mistress, and seeing that her illness was completely cured, he was very happy and stayed in the South Courtyard that night. Unexpectedly, a month after the Master left, the Mistress experienced morning sickness. A physician was called to check her pulse, and it was confirmed to be a pregnancy!

The Mistress said that if the child in her womb were a boy, it would be the Master's blessing, because so far, the Master had no son.

But Mama Liu believed that if this pregnancy resulted in a boy, it would be a blessing brought to the Master and Mistress by the eldest daughter! Without the eldest daughter, there would certainly be no such son!