A sweeper from the front yard?
Madame Tao suddenly understood everything. The housekeeper-matriarch at her side stepped forward to tip the lowly sweeper and had someone see him out. By then, Madame Tao had sunk into a chair, her face drained of all color.
Feigning illness—and being unmasked by her husband’s family before all. The Marquis’s household saw through it as clearly as a polished mirror; sending a mere sweeper to “share in the joy” was, in truth, their way of voicing displeasure.
The Tao family all looked at one another. Above all, the messenger’s status invited uneasy speculation.
Master Tao’s face darkened to iron. He cut off his children’s attempts to pry for details, ordered them not to let a word of this slip outside, and then took Madame Tao back to their room. Their departing backs were weighed down with gloom.
“What does the Marquis’s residence mean by this? To entrust such a matter to a sweeper—was that deliberate, or an oversight?”
Master Tao still failed to grasp the gravity of it. Madame Tao turned her head, gave him a frosty glance, and snorted. “Is that still unclear? They sent a sweeper on purpose—to remind us.”
Master Tao, muddle-headed, said, “They know Yi’er’s health is poor. Would they actually seek to hold her to account?”
Madame Tao drew a long breath. “Yi’er has been raised by mother-in-law since she was three. By twelve she often complained of dizziness and palpitations. How many physicians did we summon?”
By now she no longer cared to endure. “These spells of faintness and fluttered breath—coming on whenever they please—are the very image of her grandmother.”
Master Tao flared. “Watch your tongue.”
“If I hold my tongue, will that make this as though it never happened?”
Madame Tao lifted her gaze with a cold smile. “Think back. Was it not so that whenever you refused Mother’s demands, her ‘symptoms’ would appear?”
“As a daughter-in-law I ought not speak ill of my husband’s mother, but search your heart—can such petty tricks bear scrutiny? Have you never felt a twinge of shame walking the corridors of court?”
Master Tao’s brows knit; he said nothing. The more Madame Tao thought on it, the more her anger burned. “After Yi’er entered the Marquis’s household and that business occurred, she first claimed—out of thin skin—that she was unwell and would not pay her morning and evening respects, refusing even to step past her courtyard gate. Yet once a lie is told, it must be told without end. This same girl who is seized by shortness of breath at the slightest thing still fought to steal the spotlight at the Water and Blossoms Banquet. The Marquis’s residence is not the Tao household; they will not indulge her. Now the Imperial Physician has unmasked her before everyone.”
She shut her eyes and drew in another breath. “It seems I must go in person to the Marquis’s residence to set matters in order.”
Opening her eyes, she fixed Master Tao with a stare. “Yi’er’s talents are celebrated and her looks are striking, yet how many noble houses of true rank came to propose? As for Tao’er—gifted and handsome—every marriage discussion meets a wall. My lord, do you truly not know the reason?”
“Now my daughter-in-law is about to give birth. Whether the child is a son or a daughter, I want Mother nowhere near. How many more lives must she ruin before it is enough?”
These words struck Master Tao where it hurt most. He tried to speak, but it felt like a bone lodged in his throat. The pressure crushed his voice, and he could only sit in stony silence.
“So this is what they call killing without drawing blood, isn’t it?”
At Autumn Harvest Courtyard, Xin An clicked her tongue. To send a servant to pass along a message as a show of displeasure—she had never stooped to such a tactic herself. “It’s a slap in the Tao family’s face.”
Tang Mo had already steadied himself. Besides cursing his own blindness, what else could he do?
“Better to have been kept in the dark entirely. To be stripped bare like this—too cruel.”
This was a man’s true voice. He thought of his past life—how he knew nothing to the very end; aside from regret, he had little rancor. Tang Rong was different: made a monkey of for days on end, and then exposed.
So my joy really does rest upon his pain.
“Come on—let’s go out and enjoy ourselves. Today’s expenses are on me.”
Xin An tilted her head, perfectly solemn. “If I’m going out with you, I never planned to spend my own coin. Be ready—I intend to empty your purse to the last cash.”
Their eyes met; both burst into laughter. They stepped out together, light-hearted, to roam at will.
Back in the study, Tang Gang raged until his head spun, still scolding Tang Rong—calling him blind and accusing him of spinning all these schemes only to end in this. Tang Rong’s mind was in chaos; he failed to catch the barb’s deeper meaning. His silence only convinced Tang Gang all the more that the bride-swap had been his doing, fanning the Marquis’s fury yet higher.
Wang Shi, by contrast, was in excellent spirits. After lunch and a short rest, she went out—she had arranged to call on the Countess of Changning that afternoon.
The Count’s residence lay some distance from the Marquis’s. For all Wang Shi’s show of calm confidence, her heart was anxious. The Countess of Changning was no gentle soul; she doted on her youngest daughter above all. With the girl insulted yesterday, what could Wang Shi say today?
At first, she had wanted to bring Tao Yiran along, then feared that obstinate girl would faint dead away on their host’s floor—worse by far.
“Troublesome creature.”
Thank goodness she was not the wife of Wang Shi’s own flesh and blood.
As she had expected, the Count’s gate was easy enough to enter, but the Countess was hard to see. Wang Shi was made to cool her heels on a hard bench for the time it takes a stick of incense to burn. When her hostess finally appeared, her expression held little courtesy. “I have kept Madame Tang waiting.”
Wang Shi forced a smile. “I came early out of impatience.”
“Countess, I am here chiefly to apologize for my eldest daughter-in-law’s misconduct. I beg you, for the sake of her new marriage, do not hold it against her.”
“I also bring my apologies to Second Young Lady. I’ve brought some fashionable bolts of silk and a set of ornaments—if the Countess would kindly pass them along.”
One does not slap a smiling face; and Wang Shi’s offerings were far from perfunctory. By rights, the Countess should have been appeased. Yet she only cast those things a glance and asked why Tao Yiran had not come in person.
“Perhaps the Countess hasn’t heard—my eldest daughter-in-law’s health is poor. She fainted as soon as we returned yesterday. The sun on the road is too harsh; I feared she could not bear it and so had her rest at home.”
The Countess’s lips curved; mockery glinted in her eyes. “Fainted?”
“With a body so feeble, she still had strength to steal a man. Not afraid of dying in the marital bed? Truly it runs in the family.”
The Countess’s words were so ferocious that Wang Shi did not know how to answer.
Not that the Countess expected an answer. She snorted and went on coldly, “Madame Tang, I am not difficult, nor do I put on airs for the sake of it. By rights, your apology shows sufficient sincerity; I should smile and let the matter pass, so that our faces remain unruffled and we may meet pleasantly hereafter. However—”
Her tone cut sharp. “What happened at the Water and Blossoms Banquet yesterday was an insult too grave to my girl. We’ve not crossed paths often, but we have attended our share of the same gatherings. To take the stage at the Water and Blossoms Banquet with one’s zither—do you know what that signifies, Madame Tang?”
Wang Shi learned then how hard the Countess was to handle. She had thought the face of the Marquis’s residence would smooth the way. Who knew that smiles and gifts alike would be refused? She could only bow again and again, yet the Countess’s anger would not abate.
“My girl is fifteen this year—the very crux of arranging a match. Her prospects damaged—how can a few soft words from Madame Tang make that whole?”
“Girls of the Tao family are cheap by birth, shameless besides. Had she been overshadowed by someone else, I might have let it go. But to be sullied by her—how is my daughter to show her face in public again?”
The Countess flayed Tao Yiran without mercy, every syllable a knife. A faint dread stirred in Wang Shi’s heart. Could there be some hidden matter she did not yet know?