Xie shi asked cautiously, “Laoye, are you dissatisfied with qieshen’s arrangements? May I ask what laoye has in mind?”
Gu daren narrowed his eyes slightly. “If you truly cared about the children’s marriages, how could Zhen yatou’s dowry still not be prepared?
“Your so-called fairness to all the children is nothing but empty words to deceive me. In your heart, you’ve always made distinctions.
“Yue’er and Shan’er are your own flesh and blood, so of course you made plans for them early. But the others are not born to you, so you find them an eyesore, and naturally refuse to bother preparing dowries for them.”
Xie shi was stunned for a moment, then cried out, “Qieshen has been wronged! Laoye’s words cut straight into qieshen’s heart ah. Qieshen has followed you for so many years, bearing you sons and daughters. Even if I have no great merits, I have worked hard. Yet now, in my old age, laoye pierces my heart with such accusations. What meaning is left in living? Qieshen might as well die!”
“Enough! Always the same old tricks. If you’re not sick of it, I am.”
Tears welled in Xie shi’s eyes, but Gu daren’s rebuke froze them in place, leaving them trembling at the corners.
She looked at him in disbelief and asked, aggrieved, “What is it about qieshen that so displeases laoye? Tell me, and qieshen will change! Since entering the courtyard, you’ve picked faults with qieshen, nose and eyes, inside and out. Could it be that now qieshen has grown old and lost my looks, laoye has begun to despise me?”
“Don’t spout nonsense and stir up trouble,” Gu daren snapped, frowning.
“Qieshen is not making trouble. Qieshen only wishes to hear one honest word. Is it truly because qieshen is old that whatever qieshen does is deemed wrong?”
She stared at him, unblinking, refusing to back down without an answer.
Gu daren frowned deeper, an unexplainable aversion welling up in his heart. Was it truly because Xie shi had grown old that he now found her distasteful?
He shook his head slightly. Impossible. He wasn’t such a shallow man, was he?
Yes, he was.
Gu daren’s voice turned harsh.
“Since entering the capital, benguan has walked on thin ice every day, leaving early and returning late. I hardly meddle in household affairs, entrusting them all to you.
“Because benguan trusted you, believed you would manage the fu well and ease benguan’s burdens. And what have you done? Setting aside the disgraceful business with san yatou’s marriage, which benguan doesn’t even wish to mention–
“Look at Zhen yatou. She’s nearly of age, practically becoming a spinster, and you haven’t even started preparing her dowry. Is this how a proper mistress of the house conducts herself?
“Benguan fights battles outside, and must still handle the fu within. Do you mean to work me to death? If you cannot manage this fu, then someone capable will take over.”
His stern words struck Xie shi’s heart like heavy blows.
Unable to endure, she burst into sobs. “Qieshen is wronged!”
“Rubbish! What injustice? Zhen yatou’s dowry is still unprepared, is that not your responsibility?”
Tears spilled from Xie shi’s eyes.
Once, when she was young, such a sight would have been touching, evoking pity.
But now, with her beauty faded, her weeping stirred no ripple in Gu daren’s heart.
Instead, he only frowned with disgust. A woman of her age, forever crying, what a disgrace.
Indeed, once you begin to despise someone, their smile is wrong, their tears are wrong, their words are wrong, their silence is wrong, even their very breathing feels wrong.
When men turn ruthless, they are always more decisive, more heartless, more merciless than women.
“Since returning to the capital, qieshen has a clear conscience. Qieshen never dared trouble laoye with trivial household matters. Why must laoye fault me?”
Gu daren sneered coldly. “Are you saying that if you err, benguan cannot point it out?”
Xie shi lowered her head, giving a bitter laugh. “Laoye finds endless excuses to criticise qieshen. I refuse to accept it.”
Gu daren thundered, “You dare defy me? Who gave you such courage?”
Xie shi lifted her head, meeting his gaze directly. “Qieshen has grown old and lost her looks, and laoye despises qieshen for it. Why not just say so plainly? If you said it outright, qieshen would admit it. But instead, laoye accuses me of neglecting household affairs, suggesting qieshen is unworthy as mistress of the house. That, qieshen will not accept.”
Her heart wounded, she no longer cared to abase herself. She relied on her two sons and two daughters, and the fact she had seen the old madam to her end, convinced Gu daren would not dare discard her. Thus, her voice brimmed with defiance.
Bang!
Gu daren slapped the table. “Outrageous! You dare question me?”
Xie shi straightened her back. “If laoye speaks wrongly, why should qieshen not question it?”
Gu daren was so enraged that he laughed. “Zhen yatou’s dowry is still unprepared, and yet you still think you are in the right?”
Xie shi answered calmly, “It is true qieshen erred in not preparing her dowry earlier. But qieshen has already offered a solution. Why is laoye still unsatisfied? Unless laoye has some better plan? I, for one, was unaware our fu still had unused new-style furniture.”
“Whether the fu has new furniture or not is irrelevant. What matters is that as the stepmother, you slighted a shu-born daughter. That alone is wrong!”
“Where exactly has qieshen been wrong?”
Xie shi snapped, “Needlework, etiquette, managing accounts, literacy, which of these has Zhen yatou not learned? How then is that neglect? Compared with other families’ shu-born daughters, what she has received surpasses them tenfold. And yet laoye closes his eyes and accuses me of ill-treatment. This is nothing but ‘to condemn someone, any excuse will do!’”
Gu daren pointed at her, so angry that he could no longer form words.
Xie shi, however, grew more and more composed. “So it’s true, laoye has come to loathe qieshen. In the past, you always praised qieshen as a capable hand at running the fu. And now, because you dislike me, you find fault in everything I do, in every glance, every word.
“Is it really because Bai yiniang bore you a son that you no longer care for me and my children at all?”
Smack!
Gu daren raised his hand and struck Xie shi hard across the face.
Clutching her burning cheek, Xie shi stared at him in disbelief, her eyes wide.
Tears welled at the corners of her eyes, grievance, fury. “You actually hit me?”
The moment the blow landed, Gu daren felt a stab of regret.
But when he met the fire in Xie shi’s eyes, his guilt hardened into defiance. No, he had been right. She deserved it.
“You dare look at me like that?!” he barked. “I hit you because you needed to be hit.”
“Haha… hahahaha…”
Xie shi suddenly threw back her head and laughed wildly. “Well struck, laoye. At last, you’ve woken qieshen up.”
Crash!
She seized a teacup and smashed it onto the ground. Hot tea splashed up, staining Gu daren’s robes.
His face twisted in fury.
But Xie shi did not stop.
She hurled the teapot next, then snatched up the porcelain vases from the display shelf and shattered them one by one. She tore clothes apart with her own hands.
Her eyes blazed red as she glared at him, like a maddened lioness cornered and raging.
“Come, laoye! Strike me again. Better yet, kill me here and now. Kill me, and you’ll be free to wed a fresh young beauty.
“What am I, after all? Nothing but a concubine raised up, from a family of vulgar upstarts. And my children? What are they worth? Less than the bastards born of other concubines!
“At least those bastards earn a word of concern from you. And mine? What care have you ever given them?
“‘Di and shu, there is a difference’, aren’t those the words you’re so fond of saying? Gu Zhen is a shu-born daughter, should she ever hope to stand equal with a di child?
“If that’s the case, then why not set all the daughters by Gu Jiu’s dowry as the standard? Let every girl have forty thousand taels and exquisitely crafted furniture made to order, wouldn’t that be nice?”
She had gone mad. Completely unhinged.
All the bitterness she had swallowed for years, all the resentment toward Gu daren, poured out in a torrent.
Consequences, reputation, appearances, none of it mattered anymore.
She had endured enough of this suffocating life.
Now she would scream, shout, rage, until the whole world heard her voice.
Gu daren’s jaw clenched tight, his teeth grinding. “Fine. Very fine. You’re in the right now, are you? You dare smash things before me?”
Xie shi let out a mocking laugh.
“Mark my words,” Gu daren snapped. “You’ll reap what you sow.”
With that, he flung his sleeve and stormed out.
Outside the Furong Yuan, Hu yiniang had been listening from afar, hearing the fierce quarrel. She dared not enter.
But when she saw Gu daren stride out, she hesitated, then stepped forward.
“Laoye–”
Gu daren shot her a black look. “What is it?”
“Biqie… about Zhen yatou’s…”
Hu yiniang instantly regretted her timing. Of all moments, she had chosen the worst. Just look at the fire still burning on his face, this was no time to talk.
Gu daren’s expression hardened. “You mean to bring up her dowry?”
Hu yiniang nodded quickly.
Gu daren’s voice carried authority enough to crush. “This matter is benguan’s to decide. You may leave.”
Without sparing her another glance, he strode off.
Inside Furong Yuan, Xie shi sat slumped in a chair, drained like a punctured bellows. Her face was blank, her body slack.
The room was in ruins, shattered porcelain and splintered wood scattered everywhere, not a clear space to step.
Chun He entered cautiously with a young maid, both trembling. She ordered the girl to begin cleaning the wreckage, then approached her mistress.
“Taitai, please calm yourself.”
Xie shi gave a bitter smile. “Am I finished now?”
“No, of course not. Quarrels between husband and wife are common. This time it was only fiercer than usual.”
Xie shi shook her head slowly. “His heart, I can never win it back. Ha…”
Her chest seethed with fury, sorrow, disbelief.
Old, fading, no longer beautiful, Gu daren had cast her aside without a moment’s hesitation.
She was the proper wife of the fu, the official mistress of the Gu family. Yet he denied her even the barest shred of dignity.
In his heart, had she never been more than a concubine raised up? A woman he could trample at will?
Intolerable.
If it had been Su shi in her place, Xie shi was certain, Gu daren would never have shouted at her in such a way. Even displeased, he would have spoken with courtesy, leaving her a way to save face.
Xie shi laughed again, but her eyes glittered with scorn.
“Once a concubine, forever a concubine. Tell me, has laoye ever truly seen me as the mistress of this house?”
“Taitai, you mustn’t think so. You are, of course, the mistress,” Chun He replied.
Xie shi shook her head. “No. In his heart, I am still that lowly concubine from years ago. That is why he dares to treat me with such contempt.”
“Please, taitai, take heart. Things can yet be mended. I’ll send for liu shaoye at once.”
“Don’t go.”
Xie shi did not want her precious son to see her disgraceful side.
But she never stopped to consider – there were no real secrets in the Gu fu.
The quarrel between Gu daren and Xie shi had grown wings, spreading quickly throughout the residence, even reaching the ears of the hou fu next door.
Wei lao furen remarked: “A married couple together for so many years, what can’t be discussed properly? Instead, they bicker and make a scene, letting the juniors laugh at them.”
Wei shi, who was well-informed, said: “I heard the quarrel began because of Zhen yatou’s dowry. The Xu family hopes for a wedding in the seventh month, since Xu sanlang must leave after the new year for a northern posting. He’ll be gone for at least two or three years.
“If they marry sooner, the young couple will have more time to get to know each other. And if she conceives before he leaves, all the better.
“But because Xie dimei did not prepare any dowry in advance for Zhen yatou, and the time is so short, the couple quarrelled until it became a real fight.”
Wei lao furen frowned. “Xie shi is foolish. Even if Zhen yatou is a shu-born daughter, she should not be neglected like this. Have the two of them come to an agreement on the dowry?”
Wei shi shook her head. “No, they only quarrelled, and nothing was resolved.”
Wei lao furen quietly rebuked, “Utterly absurd!”
In the Gu fu, Gu Zhen lay across her bed, weeping bitterly.
Hu yiniang’s heart ached for her.
“Because of my dowry, Father and taitai quarrelled. I fear no one will prepare my dowry now. The wedding is in the seventh month, what am I to do? Am I to go empty-handed into the Xu family?”
Hu yiniang patted her back. “Don’t cry yet. Things haven’t reached that point.”
“But taitai and Father have turned against each other. She certainly won’t bother with my dowry, and Father is occupied daily with government affairs. Who will care for me? Just because I was shu-born, am I destined to be ignored? Wuu…”
Hu yiniang frowned. “Don’t talk nonsense. Laoye won’t abandon you. He already said he has his own plans for your dowry.”
“I don’t believe it, I don’t believe it!” Gu Zhen sobbed, sinking into despair, feeling life had lost all meaning.
Gu daren returned angrily to his study in the outer courtyard. Thinking of all Xie shi’s misdeeds, he found himself growing more and more repulsed by her.
All the more since the Xie family was his sworn enemy.
Indeed, every person of the Xie family seemed to have a black heart.
The steward, Gu Quan, tried several times to speak but held back.
Gu daren barked, “Out with it!”
Gu Quan ventured, “Reporting to laoye, your quarrel with taitai has already spread through the entire fu.”
“Who spread it? Insolence!”
Gu Quan remained silent. How could such things be concealed?
When the two of them quarrelled, people were constantly passing the gate of Furong Yuan. Folks even went out of their way just to pass by and eavesdrop.
Even if you stopped one person, you couldn’t stop ten.
Before the quarrel was even finished, word had spread.
Gu daren was furious, but he still had some reason left.
Now he regretted it; he should never have argued with Xie shi.
There were no secrets in the fu. Had he known how shameful it would be, he would have endured.
But at that time, truly, he could not endure.
What sort of mistress of the fu was Xie shi? She was nothing but a madwoman. An ugly madwoman at that.
Gu daren held in his anger, but he had to vent.
The steward reminded him again: “Laoye, da guniang’s dowry is still unresolved. What should be done?”
Gu daren almost said “forget it,” but swallowed the words back.
Seeing his silence, Gu Quan asked: “Shall we ask taitai to prepare the dowry for da guniang?”
Gu daren gave a cold snort. “No need. I’ll hand the matter to you.”
Gu Quan cried bitterly: “Laoye, I cannot manage it! I am already overwhelmed preparing er guniang’s dowry. There are countless matters I cannot make sense of, and I’m troubled enough. If I must add da guniang’s dowry, I’ll manage nothing at all, and be of no help to you.”
Gu *daren slammed the table. “If you can’t even prepare a dowry, what use are you?”
Gu Quan felt aggrieved.
Dowries were not so simple; they required attention to detail in every aspect.
Just preparing er guniang’s dowry, he felt he had lost three years of his life from worry.
He came up with an idea. “Laoye, everyone says er guniang is exceptionally capable, a fine hand at managing household affairs, and especially skilled at keeping accounts. Why not let er guniang take charge of da gunaing’s dowry? So long as enough silver is given, I believe she can handle everything flawlessly.”
Gu daren frowned at first. “How can a mere young girl arrange a dowry?”
“Laoye, think carefully. Er guniang is set to marry into the wang fu as the eldest young madam. This is a chance to gain experience. Once she enters the wang fu, she’ll need to manage the household with composure. Better she practice now.”
Gu daren thought of how the wang fu’s Gongzi Yi’s wedding was set for the seventh month, several months earlier than Gongzi Zhao’s wedding with Gu Jiu.
Indeed, Gu Jiu needed the practice. Otherwise, once she entered the wang fu, she might find herself helpless and unable to make decisions.
Gu daren nodded secretly. “Go summon er guniang.”
“At once, laoye.”
Leave a Reply