Wang Shi could scarcely keep her composure. She did not favor Tao Yiran, true—but the girl had already entered the Marquis’s gates. For the Countess of Changning to show no mercy at all was to slight the Marquis’s residence itself.
Seeing Wang Shi’s face darken, the Countess had no mind to smooth things over. “Madame Tang, I speak plainly. You may not like what you hear, but your eye for choosing a daughter-in-law is truly… lacking.”
Wang Shi, half-distracted yet stung to the quick, nearly snapped back. To come all this way only to lose both face and substance—was a Marchioness to be scolded to her face by a mere countess?
“Countess, what do you mean by this? My eldest daughter-in-law’s reputation in the capital is well known—accomplished, well-bred, demure of temper and pleasing of appearance. Yesterday’s affair was indeed improper on her part, but overall she has conducted herself decently.”
At that, the Countess arched a brow. “So Madame Tang truly knows nothing?”
Wang Shi’s brows drew together. “What do you imply, Countess? Pray speak plainly.”
Her heart grew less and less steady.
Catching that flicker of uncertainty, the Countess let a cold smile curl her lips. Perhaps Wang Shi truly was in the dark. If so, then she would do a kindness—arm Madame Tang with the truth and let her take Tao Yiran in hand. Having slapped her own daughter’s face before a crowd, Tao Yiran would not be allowed to walk away unscathed.
“That Tao girl has long basked in the capital’s limelight. People praise her learning and talent. Such a young lady should have had suitors from a hundred houses. Yet few came to ask for her hand. Did that never make you wonder, Madame Tang?”
Wang Shi hesitated. “Previously, Madame Tao claimed her daughter’s standards were high and she refused them all.”
The Countess laughed—at Wang Shi’s naiveté. “Your Tang family has flourished for, what, a little over a decade? It’s no wonder there are things you do not know.”
Wang Shi drew a slow breath, tamping down her temper. “I beg the Countess’s instruction.”
Only after a sip of tea did the Countess speak: “I say this because you seem muddled. The Tao family’s Old Madam is not Master Tao’s first wife. Years ago, when Master Tao was posted away from the capital, he took up with a woman—no, not even a proper concubine. The daughter of a courtesan, kept for the bed.”
Wang Shi gasped and clapped a hand over her mouth; the shock struck her hard. This, she truly had not known.
“Wasn’t it said the Old Madam’s family was a distinguished clan from another prefecture?”
The Countess’s face was all scorn. “Distinguished?”
“A harlot by trade who caught a rich merchant’s child, then was taken into his household as a concubine. Later that merchant, currying favor with Master Tao, sent the concubine’s daughter to warm his bed. She conceived.”
“At that time, Master Tao’s proper wife had been married for years without bearing child; worse, her health was failing, her oil nearly spent. The bed-warmer, well-schooled by her mother, had methods aplenty. Her status altered, and she bore a son—then rose to become the Tao family’s jishi—the successor mistress.”
The blow left Wang Shi’s head humming. “So the Tao family’s Old Madam is that bed-warmer—and the son she bore is today’s Master Tao?”
“Just so.”
The Countess cast Wang Shi a meaningful look. “A merchant’s baseborn daughter remade as a legitimate lady to marry into the Tao family—this, the Taos permitted, for the sake of incense and heirs. But such things are easier done than said; naturally the truth was whitewashed. Still, there are no walls without cracks. Many in the capital know the inside story. The Wei Yuan Marquis’s household, however, was not among them.”
As for Wang Shi’s own maiden family, long in decline—there was even less chance they would have heard.
Before Wang Shi could collect herself, the Countess continued, “There is yet another matter of which Madame Tang seems equally unaware.”
Wang Shi’s heart thudded. More? The Tao family has more?
The Countess, heedless of her turmoil, said flatly, “It’s said that concubine’s whelp grew up in the pleasure quarters and never knew her true sire. From childhood she learned the art of ensnaring men. Tell me—what kind of ‘lady’ could such a woman raise?”
“Once she rose to be an official’s wife, her filthy origins naturally had to be buried. To keep her daughter-in-law in hand, she forced her granddaughter to her side—to teach her personally.”
Those four words carried pointed weight. “Have you never noticed? No noble house of rank ever invites the Tao family’s Old Madam to their gatherings.”
“If not for Tao Changci’s modest usefulness—his official record has been passable these few years—even his wife would rarely see the inside of a grand household’s salon. One might say she entered the Tao mansion not knowing the truth—and perhaps regrets it bitterly now.”
The Countess’s derision was too raw to hide. She looked at Wang Shi almost as though at a farce. “In short: what Tao Yiran has learned is the courtesan’s repertoire. How many young ladies of noble birth would bleed themselves half to death to master the zither simply to preen and lure men?”
“And there is one more thing.” As if the knife had not gone deep enough, the Countess twisted it. “Tao Yiran once tried to entangle the Second Prince. The Second Princess rebuked her to her face. Quite a few households know of it.”
“Madame Tang really ought to circulate more.”
“In fact, you should feel fortunate just now.”
Having aired every shameful secret, the Countess felt a fierce satisfaction. Those who crossed her must be prepared to go through life unable to lift their heads.
Wang Shi sat wordless for a long time. Sweat dampened her back. Upon learning all this, her first feeling was not schadenfreude, but dread. She suddenly longed to knock her head before the Bodhisattva’s altar—never had she felt so grateful for her earlier scheming.
So that is why Tao Yiran never felt like the legitimate daughter of an official house: the feigned illness, the feigned frailty, the trembling willow in the wind, the tears and fainting at every turn. It was… her family training.
“Countess, are these things… truly so?”
“Shocking, indeed.”
The Countess did not answer directly. “True or false—you, of all people, should be able to tell.”
“With good upbringing, one only needs a few more looks to see it.”
The cudgel nearly knocked Wang Shi senseless. At the last, the Countess offered a morsel of comfort. “Your Second Young Madam may be the daughter of a salt merchant, but her bearing is measured and her manners innate. That is what the legitimate daughter of a great house should be.”
“Set the two side by side, and the difference is not small.”
Wang Shi let out a long, turbid breath and steadied her thoughts. She had no wish to sit another moment, for fear the Countess would reveal still more—more than she could bear.
The Tao family’s troubles no longer touched Tang Rong alone; they implicated the entire Marquis’s household. One branch withers, all suffer—that much she knew. She rose slowly. “Thank you for telling me.”
“I shall take my leave for today. Another time, I will invite the Countess to the opera.”
The Countess made no move to detain her. A faint curve touched her lips. “Madame Tang, safe travels.”
Only when the sunlight warmed her shoulders did Wang Shi feel somewhat recovered. The moment she climbed into the carriage, sweat beaded on her brow. The senior maid hastened to dab it away. “Please don’t fret, Madam. Our Second Young Madam is a good sort. There’s nothing to fear.”
But Wang Shi’s mind churned with the Countess’s words. In the capital, lineages run for generations—what family has no skeletons in the cupboard?
The Taos’ was… outrageous.
If Tang Gang learns of this, won’t he die of apoplexy on the spot?
Strangely, a sly thread of satisfaction curled in her chest.
“Let’s stop by my parents’ house. It’s been too long.”
At this moment, she had no desire to return to the Marquis’s residence. The coach turned toward the Wang household. Along the way, Wang Shi soothed her breath and began to plot what must come next.
This makes it all the more absurd Tang Rong was so entranced by Tao Yiran in the last life and spent all his time denigrating Xin An. He looked down on a merchant’s girl and raised up a courtesan’s girl!