A Willing Mistake, My Lady – Chapter 34
by Little PandaTerror on New Year’s Eve
Her Sleeping Beauty
Inside a vacant storehouse lit by two candles, plates of pastries, fruits, candied preserves, and copper coins were set out as offerings. Two large red silk flowers were tied around the room. Smack in the center sat an excellent coffin painted pitch-black. Madam Hua and an old female servant crouched on the floor, holding a paper-crafted bridal palanquin1 and a luxurious miniature paper mansion, muttering words under their breath.
Meanwhile, the Daoist waved his peach wood sword, swinging it through the air as if drawing ghost talismans. On New Year’s Eve, every household lit lamps and burned oil to keep vigil, playing cards through the night. Occasional bursts of firecrackers popped in the distance. The commotion in this remote courtyard wouldn’t attract anyone’s attention. What’s more, two servant girls were stationed outside the door to keep watch. Judging by the time, they could likely finish this bride-swapping ritual before Master Hua returned from the ancestral shrine with his son-in-law.
Shen Hetang and Master Hua, along with the young master of the Hua family, were currently at the ancestral shrine. They offered high bowls filled with fish, meat, and various delicacies, setting out plates of walnut crisps, hibiscus cakes, and fruit buns. Master Hua was suddenly struck by a surge of inspiration and began recounting the past glory of his ancestors to the two juniors. Thinking of how he had climbed to his current position—though not as illustrious as his forebears—he felt he had enough face to meet the ancestors, putting on an air of self-intoxication.
Shen Hetang wasn’t listening to her father-in-law’s history of rising to fortune at all. She felt a profound panic in her heart, a stifling sensation that made it hard to breathe. After enduring it for another short moment, the oppressive feeling didn’t alleviate in the slightest. She stood up abruptly and offered Master Hua an apologetic bow. “Your Excellency, this son-in-law feels a bit unwell and will take my leave first.”
Seeing that his complexion did indeed look unwell, Lord Hua decided they had progressed far enough anyway. He brought the two of them out of the ancestral shrine.
It wasn’t yet midnight, but it was late enough to retire for the night. Young Master Hua clamored for his mother. Finding no one in the main hall, he threw a temper tantrum. Meanwhile, Shen Hetang grew increasingly anxious upon failing to see Jiang Chenyu. Where could she have gone at this hour? She didn’t trust the Hua family’s servant girls and nannies. After returning to the guest room and finding it empty, she sprinted out, searching room by room.
A servant girl reported to Master Hua that Madam Hua had gone to the kitchen to prepare dumplings for the Hour of the Rat. But when the young master went to look, he still couldn’t find his mother, and his tantrum only worsened. Seeing this, Master Hua had no choice but to join the search.
After searching around and realizing they truly had no idea where the pair had gone, he put on a stern face and ordered the retainers to join the hunt. At this very moment, Madam Hua had already calculated that her husband would be returning soon. But this ritual was at its critical juncture; no one was going to stop her from saving her daughter.
As Shen Hetang neared this small courtyard, she noticed human silhouettes cast by candlelight, twisting and contorting back and forth. In the dead of night, it looked indescribably eerie.
She charged straight over, only to be blocked by the servant girls at the door. “What is the young master doing? You cannot go in.”
Shen Hetang glared at the servant girl with icy severity. The little maid was terrified but continued to stand in front of the door, blocking her path. Shen Hetang had no patience to entangle with a maid. She grabbed the girl by the arm, tossed her aside, kicked open the door, and strode in.
At this moment, the ritual inside the room was drawing to a close. Only the final step remained: igniting the paper drifting in the air and burning it alongside the talismans on the coffin to achieve full success.
Shen Hetang stared at the crazed Madam Hua and the shifty-eyed Daoist who had turned the small room into a smoky mess, chanting incomprehensible incantations at a black coffin. Seeing someone burst in, their eyes darted in panic, and the ritual was momentarily halted.
“What are you looking at him for? Hurry up and finish your work!” Madam Hua barked, adopting a desperate stance. She was determined to see the ritual through.
Seeing this scene, Shen Hetang’s slightly arched brows knitted tightly together. She stepped forward in two quick strides, raised a hand, and seized the Daoist by the throat. “Where did you hide her?” she demanded fiercely.
“It has nothing to do with me! Let go! Madam, save me!” The Daoist, wretched from being choked, still refused to confess.
“Aiya, Young Master, release him first. We are just borrowing her for a moment; we’ll return her to you shortly. She won’t be harmed.” Seeing success within reach, Madam Hua desperately didn’t want to fall short at the final hurdle.
Hearing her say this, Shen Hetang was instantly certain that they had hidden Jiang Chenyu. Her five fingers tightened with crushing force. “I’ll give you one last chance. Speak. Where is she?”
By now, the Daoist’s face had turned beet-red from her grip. His eyes rolled back, unable to squeeze out a single word. Seeing this display, Madam Hua and the little servant girl didn’t dare step forward, standing frozen in place.
Realizing he couldn’t hold out any longer, the Daoist tremblingly pointed a finger toward the pitch-black coffin.
Following the direction of his finger, Shen Hetang’s heart skipped a beat. A chilling sensation washed over her entire body. She threw the Daoist to the ground and rushed to the coffin, finding the lid unsealed. Just as she was about to forcefully shove it open, Madam Hua rushed up and blocked the other side, pleading bitterly, “Young Master, just lend the Eldest Daughter to us! Only then can we save her younger sister’s life! She’ll be perfectly fine, I beg of you!”
Shen Hetang’s sharp phoenix eyes leveled a gaze at her so cold it seemed laced with shards of ice. She shoved the coffin lid off with immense force. The heavy wood crashed into Madam Hua on the opposite side, knocking her down. Exactly at that moment, Master Hua arrived with his son. Walking into the room, he saw two servant girls cowering in a heap, the Daoist sprawled on the floor, and his wife pinned beneath a coffin lid—her hairpins fallen, her hair a disheveled mess. And from within the coffin, his son-in-law was lifting out his eldest daughter.
Lord Hua was utterly dumbfounded for a moment. But taking in the room full of talismans and ash, he immediately knew his wife was behind this fine piece of work.
Looking at Jiang Chenyu lying quietly inside the coffin, Shen Hetang’s breath hitched in terror. Fine beads of sweat broke out across her smooth forehead, and half her scalp went numb. She hurriedly pressed her fingers beneath Jiang Chenyu’s nose. Only after feeling the warmth of her breath did Shen Hetang regain the strength to lift her out of the coffin.
The Daoist tried to slip away in the chaos. He had barely scrambled to his feet and hunched away for two steps when Master Hua ordered the retainers to tie him up.
“What fine deed have you done this time?” Master Hua demanded, his expression ugly as he looked at his unconscious eldest daughter.
“Master, I didn’t do anything! I merely gave her some soothing tea. She will wake up soon. I told you, I was only borrowing her for a ritual. She’s obviously the eldest daughter of the Hua family! Why should my daughter bear her disasters? Isn’t it only right that she puts in some effort?” Madam Hua had lived a smooth, entitled life for decades, always holding herself high above others. She didn’t feel she was in the wrong at all.
“What nonsense are you spewing?! I told you long ago to stop blindly trusting these wandering charlatans! And look at you now—you’ve only grown worse!” Master Hua’s head throbbed with anger at his obstinate wife.
“What? Now that you have your eldest daughter, you don’t care about our Jinxiu anymore? If she hadn’t rejected the Hua family surname, why would that demonic curse have found my daughter? Hmph! So what if I borrowed her for a ritual to block a disaster for her sister? As the older sister, shouldn’t she help her sibling?” Madam Hua argued stubbornly, her neck stiff with defiance.
Shen Hetang’s pitch-black eyes were bottomless and dark, radiating a chilling, murderous intent that landed squarely on Madam Hua, sending a shiver down her spine and making her shudder.
Just then, Jiang Chenyu twitched her fingers in her arms. Her long eyelashes fluttered as she slowly opened her eyes. Shen Hetang withdrew her deadly glare from Madam Hua and carefully examined the still-groggy Jiang Chenyu.
Slap. A resounding slap echoed through the room. Madam Hua stared at Master Hua in disbelief.
“You dare hit me?! Hua Rong, I’ll fight you!” The spoiled and pampered madam was entirely stunned by the strike. Unable to accept it, she lunged at him, claws bared, abandoning all pretense of being a lady from a noble house.
“Where are the nannies? Hurry up and take Madam away! Stop making a fool of yourself here!” He had already invited a famous doctor to see their daughter, though the man wouldn’t arrive until after the new year. He never imagined his wife would deviate from cultivation2 to such an insane degree.
“Lord Hua, I expect you to give Chenyu an explanation for this matter,” Shen Hetang said firmly to Hua Rong.
“Rest assured, worthy son-in-law. This was my negligence. I will certainly give her a proper accounting,” Hua Rong promised with difficulty.
“What accounting?! I didn’t cause her to lose an arm or a leg. What explanation is needed?”
“Shut your mouth,” Hua Rong rebuked his unrepentant wife angrily.
Shen Hetang let out a scoff of disdain. Carrying Jiang Chenyu in her arms, she walked over to the Daoist Master, raised the tip of her boot, and pressed it against his throat. “She had better be fine,” she enunciated, word by word. “Otherwise, I will skin you alive.”
Taking another blow to his neck, the Daoist hurriedly clasped his hands together in a salute, begging for mercy. “It really was just soothing tea! Once she wakes up, she will be perfectly fine! Spare my life, Young Master!”
Shen Hetang ignored him. She turned and walked out of the room. By now, Jiang Chenyu was fully awake but lacked strength. She looped her arms around Shen Hetang’s neck and pressed her face close. “I’m fine,” she murmured softly.
“Mm. We’ll find a doctor to check on you. If you’re truly fine, we’ll head back. I never want to come to this wretched place again.”
“Hehe. Alright.” Seeing him gritting his teeth in anger, Jiang Chenyu offered a weak yet radiant smile, blooming like a night-blooming cereus in the dark.
The next day, the two finally understood the ins and outs of the situation. As it turned out, Miss Hua had been sickly and delirious for days. Seeing Madam Hua riddled with anxiety, the Cousin-Aunt introduced a wandering Daoist, claiming he was exceptionally well-versed in matters of ghosts and gods, and that if he were invited, the young lady would surely recover without medicine.
This led to the scheme of finding a substitute for Hua Jinxiu. Fortunately, what they had given Jiang Chenyu to drink the day prior was indeed just a heavy dose of soothing tea. Because it didn’t fall into the category of poison, the silver ring she wore hadn’t changed color, causing Jiang Chenyu to drop her guard.
Just as Lord Hua was about to hand the charlatan over to the yamen for legal prosecution, the Cousin-Aunt jumped out, fighting tooth and nail to prevent him from being sent to the authorities for punishment.
Good heavens! The charlatan turned out to be the Cousin-Aunt’s lover. He had recently lost a massive sum of silver gambling. She had tried asking Madam Hua to borrow money at the time but was brushed off with a measly ten taels. Driven into a corner with no other options, the pair set their sights on her own niece. They had begged the creditors for a month’s grace period, then secretly fed the niece soul-parting powder, leaving the little girl constantly dizzy and delirious.
Not only could they scam three thousand taels of silver, but she could also vent her frustrations. Her cousin had been monopolized by Madam Hua for years, to the point where he couldn’t even take in a concubine. Otherwise, given Old Madam Hua’s favor toward her, she could have easily been taken into her cousin’s bedchamber. It was simply intolerable bullying! She had long despised Madam Hua. The woman herself hadn’t married into the Hua Manor with a completely clean reputation, yet she hoarded her cousin all to herself like a true jealous woman!
As for the daughter of the ex-wife getting dragged in, that was purely an accident. However, her paramour really did know a bit about fortune-telling; since he arranged the ritual that way, there must have been some truth to it. It wasn’t entirely a scam.
Discovering that it was this venomous woman with a snake and scorpion heart who had swindled her for silver and harmed her daughter, Madam Hua grabbed a broom and beat the Cousin-Aunt viciously. Still unsatisfied, she ordered the servants to drag the two of them down and heavily beat them with fifty boards.
Master Hua’s stance was simple: as long as they were left with one breath, it was fine. These two had nearly ruined both of his daughters. Truly, snakes and rats in one hole.
Old Madam Hua wanted to plead for leniency, but she sensibly kept her mouth shut. Then, recalling how her prepared coffin had been desecrated by them, her fury flared again, and thankfully, she washed her hands of the ones who deserved a thousand cuts. After dealing with the outsiders, Master Hua decided to teach Madam Hua a lesson—lest she try to burn him alive one day—and grounded her, forbidding her from stepping a foot outside her room for a month.
The severity of this punishment—neither too light nor too harsh—was considered a way to placate everyone’s emotions. A perfectly good New Year’s Eve had been turned into a smoky, chaotic mess. No one was in the mood to celebrate the old madam’s sixtieth birthday anymore.
Ultimately, Hua Rong felt guilty toward his daughter. On the second day of the lunar year, as Shen Hetang and Jiang Chenyu were preparing to leave, he specifically sought Jiang Chenyu out for a talk. Shen Hetang did not participate in the father-daughter conversation.
“Here is a hot spring estate, along with forty thousand taels in silver notes from Huitong Bank. Take them.” Beneath Hua Rong’s calm and serious exterior was a trace of cautiousness.
“Lord Hua, is this your way of compensating me for what Madam Hua did?” Jiang Chenyu looked at her father, who was no longer a young man, her heart a tangle of mixed emotions.
“No. I will discipline her for her wrongdoings in the future. This is my dowry for you. It is double what your mother left behind. The extra portion is from me, your father.” He pushed the items closer to her.
Jiang Chenyu looked down at the exquisite mahogany box on the table. Inside rested a land deed and a thick stack of large-denomination silver notes. Her eyes stung, her heart ached, and a twisting sense of awkwardness gnawed at her.
“Are you trying to use silver to ease your guilt?” Jiang Chenyu looked at Hua Rong earnestly.
“I merely want you to live a better life from now on. My son-in-law looks like a promising young man. In the future, if there’s an opportunity to use some wealth to find connections for him, his prospects certainly won’t be bad,” Hua Rong advised carefully.
Jiang Chenyu wanted to snap, Do you think everyone is like you? But she held back. She was about to leave the Hua Manor; there was no point in making the atmosphere awkward.
“I didn’t know your mother passed away so early.” Speaking of this, he genuinely felt he owed his daughter a massive debt.
Jiang Chenyu had no desire to discuss this topic. She said bluntly, “I accept the items, and I forgive you. Take care of yourself in the future!”
“…Alright…!”
With that, Jiang Chenyu stood up, walked out of the Hua Manor courtyard, and boarded the carriage heading home.
Hua Rong stood in the room, watching his daughter’s retreating back, unsure when they would ever meet again.
On the journey back, wrapped in the tiger skin cloak, she lay resting her head on Shen Hetang’s lap, humming a tune in good spirits as she toyed with the jade pendant at Shen Hetang’s waist.
Leaving the Hua Manor made her feel immensely relieved. She was never naturally abrasive to begin with; her tense demeanor at the Hua Manor was simply because she refused to be put at a disadvantage. It was better to be home. Gold and silver nests are not as good as one’s own grass nest3. Wait, no, her home was a gold and silver nest too.
The carriage was stocked with the food Old Madam Hua had sent over during her fit of mental imbalance. The three of them drove the carriage at a leisurely, unhurried pace, and the road home didn’t feel quite so freezing anymore.
After the new year, Jiang Chenyu received another verbal message. But this time, it truly was good news.
The deep-sea trading ships were returning. The message came from a boatman who had traveled back ahead of schedule. Claiming to be on good terms with Jiang Ning, he had specifically gone to Old Jiang’s shop to deliver the news that the large ships would arrive home in two months. Old Jiang was so thrilled that he wanted to go wait at the seaport in advance.
Footnotes
- Paper replicas of mansions, palanquins, and money are traditionally burned in Chinese funerary and ghost marriage rituals to send goods to the deceased in the afterlife.
- A martial arts / cultivation term (zǒuhuǒ rùmó) used metaphorically by Hua Rong to describe Madam Hua's crazy obsession with the ritual.
- A traditional folk saying meaning that no matter how luxurious another place may be, one's own humble home is more comfortable.
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