A Willing Mistake, My Lady – Chapter 39
by Little PandaSecretly Crossing at Chencang
The Shen Family
In Xuande Year 15 of the Great Qian Dynasty, the current emperor, Zhao Hongxuan, was the second emperor since the founding of the nation. His Father Emperor, Emperor Jingren, had spent half his life waging war and was already covered in injuries and illnesses when he took the throne. Fortunately, the Crown Prince was promising, possessing both the noble air of a ruler of the world and the courage to fearlessly face foreign enemies. This was exactly the spirit a second-generation emperor should have.
Emperor Jingren, together with the founding Great General Shen Chengyi, had conquered the prosperous realm of the Great Qian Dynasty. When the dust settled, both were nearly fifty. After enjoying the glory of high positions for over a decade, they both stepped back from active duty, handing the empire over to the younger generation.
It is said that when the birds are gone the good bow is hidden, when the cunning hare is dead the running dog is boiled1, but Emperor Jingren and Great General Shen Chengyi broke this curse. After the two elders shed their responsibilities, their friendship did not diminish. They could still frequently chat and drink tea together. Of course, this was entirely thanks to having worthy successors.
The old emperor’s good treatment of his capable generals, proving he was not an ungrateful man, became a beautiful tale of a wise ruler and loyal ministers praised by the commoners.
By Xuande Year 15, the Shen family was already a military lineage that had produced famous generals for three generations. His son, Shen Yao, took up the Old General’s mantle early on. Before the age of thirty, he traveled to the distant borders to guard the nation’s gates. This watch lasted nearly twenty years, keeping him separated from his wife and leaving him no time to discipline his children.
This resulted in his daughter having a difficult time with marriage, suffering consecutive broken engagements, while his son spent all day idling and ignoring honest work. However, this did not hinder the Shen family from holding extremely high prestige and the hearts of the people.
This adoration reached its peak a year after the Shen family’s Little Young Master joined the army.
This matter was quite dramatic to speak of. General Shen had guarded the borders alone for twenty years. A grown man always needed an attentive woman to take care of his daily life to be comfortable, let alone someone in the position of a General.
Somehow, later on, there came to be a concubine, who gave birth to a boy about the same age as the Little Young Master. That child was spoiled by his mother. Though raised at the border, he was very delicate and arrogant. For a time, everyone lamented that the Shen family was likely destined to decline, unable to tell which of the two sons was worse at the time.
Ever since the legitimate son went to the border, the bastard son had been secretly tripping up the Little Young Master. The two went back and forth, making a foul mess of the military camp. The General wished he could just shut his eyes to it all for some peace.
Until that bastard son privately provoked the enemy camp and was captured alive. The old general had no choice but to deploy troops to save him, and subsequently was also detained by the enemy. This was simply a monumental joke. The highest commander of the army was captured alive and even injured; this was practically trampling the Great Qian Dynasty’s face under the soles of their shoes.
At this time, everyone’s gaze gathered on the Little Young Master. While they waited for the ignorant, incompetent noble young master to make a total fool of himself, the sixteen-year-old legitimate young master spent a night strategizing, led eight thousand men, and easily breached the enemy camp. He rescued his father and brother completely, catching the enemy off guard and turning their joy to nothing. Because they had underestimated the enemy, their intestines turned green with regret2.
As for the younger brother whose disaster had implicated their father, it was said he was hung upside down inside the city gates by him for three days before being let down. By the time he was dragged back, several bites of flesh had been pecked from his thighs by eagles. His concubine mother cried and cursed in front of the Little General’s door for several days. In the end, the old general sent both the older and younger ones back to the General’s Manor in the capital together.
And to reclaim the face of the Great Qian and the Shen family, the Little Young Master seemed to undergo a bloodline awakening, winning consecutive major victories. Dispatches of victory, big and small, were sent into the capital one by one. The city’s commoners grew lively again, saying that a tiger father begets no dog son—how could the Shen family possibly have any good-for-nothings3? Wasn’t this Little General the new hope of the Great Qian Dynasty?
The commoners were full of curiosity and love for the Little General, who was colored with legend. Just when the prospects were bright, the old general was recalled to the capital by the emperor on the grounds of recuperating from his injuries.
When the Little General heard news of the old general again, it was shockingly the news that his father had blocked an assassin for the emperor at the hunting grounds, and had sustained severe injuries. At that time, he was in a life-and-death struggle with the enemy. Due to problems with the rear’s provisions and a spy leaking their movements, this battle was fought with extreme difficulty. After killing a thousand enemies and losing eight hundred of his own, he won a narrow victory. Fortuitously, the enemy forces were also unable to strike back in the short term. Hearing that the old general was at death’s door, he hurried back to the capital.
He barely made it to see the old general for the last time. Who knew that before his father’s first seven days4 of mourning had even passed, he would be impeached by others for ineffective troop deployment? The emperor, remembering the old general’s merits, wanted to smooth things over, but who knew that group of people would relentlessly bite and refuse to let go.
The Little General hadn’t even figured out the cause of his father’s death on this side, nor managed to catch who the spy was on that side, before he inexplicably disappeared. He left behind only an Eldest Miss—who had just finished handling their father’s funeral affairs and had now lost her ‘younger brother’—to clean up the mess.
“That’s all I know. As for who betrayed you in the military camp, and who in the imperial court is targeting the Shen family, I am investigating those matters too, but none of it is as important as you still being alive.” Shen Yunshu gave a rough overview of their current situation. She was also endlessly worried about Shen Hetang’s amnesia.
Shen Hetang listened carefully, feeling it was unexpected yet reasonable. She found the things Shen Yunshu spoke of familiar, yet felt they were strange because she lacked the memories.
“Divine Doctor Yan Qingli of Qingyun Mountain has some friendship with me. Come back with me first. I will invite them to examine you. Even if it doesn’t cure you immediately, it will certainly yield twice the result with half the effort.” Shen Yunshu felt her sister had become a bit foolish and needed to be brought back quickly to have her brain treated.
“I temporarily cannot leave here,” Shen Hetang said with a guilty conscience, lowering her eyes.
“Why?” Shen Yunshu asked, puzzled.
“I haven’t recovered my memories yet. If I go back, the enemy will be in the dark while I’m in the open—a ready-made target. Furthermore, I lost my memories here. Staying here is beneficial for recovering them,” she replied, touching her cuff.
“I haven’t even asked where you are these days.”
“I am currently working as a bailiff at the Qingyuan County yamen. It will be very easy for you to find me.”
“A bailiff?” Shen Yunshu’s indifferent eyebrows and eyes grew animated, looking utterly incredulous. However, she quickly figured that since Shen Hetang had lost her memory, just being able to feed herself was good enough. She couldn’t demand too much.
“Do you live at the yamen?”
“Um… no…!”
“Then where do you live? Is it safe?”
“I… I…”
“Why are you hemming and hawing?”
“I was picked up by someone and married.”
“What? Has your body’s secret been exposed?” Shen Yunshu was shocked. Her eyes, usually as indifferent as mist, now looked solemnly at her sister as if hiding sharp arrows. She likely had a mind to shoot that man full of holes.
“Not yet…” Right, what she meant was “not yet.”
“What’s the situation?”
“That person was lacking a husband, so…!”
“So it’s a girl? So you took a wife?” Shen Yunshu felt this was alright, but also felt something was off.
“Say, why did I have to wear men’s clothes?” She changed the subject, asking the question she wanted to ask the most.
“Sigh, about this matter…” Shen Yunshu slightly furrowed her brows. Just as she was about to speak, she heard a familiar voice outside looking for her.
“It’s not suitable to stay long today. I will come find you another day. Do you need me to leave two guards for you?”
“No need to leave them. Thank you, jiejie.” Although she had no impression of her, she could feel the care.
“You have never called me jiejie. It seems you truly remember nothing.” Shen Yunshu still wanted to take her away, but the capital was indeed not yet peaceful. Leaving her here was somewhat safer.
“Jiejie? Madam? Are you inside?” That attention-grabbing voice outside rang out again.
“I’ll go first. Let’s keep in touch.”
“Alright.”
Outside the door was a woman in green. Shen Yunshu blocked her line of sight, preventing her from looking inside, and pulled her away. They were followed by four guards, showing the extent to which this concubine was favored.
As night fell, the officials arranged rooms for both ladies at the inn, but simply didn’t arrange a room for Heir Wei. They even considerately thought: couldn’t he just go to whichever room he pleased!
But at night, Heir Wei stood before the doors to the two rooms with nowhere to go. Afraid of becoming a laughingstock, he finally, tremblingly, knocked on Concubine Sheng’s door.
With a creak, a door opened—not the concubine’s door, but the Heir’s Wife’s. She looked coldly at the person standing in front of the concubine’s door. However, she was in a great mood today, so her expression was probably not too ugly.
“Madam hasn’t slept yet?” Heir Wei said fawningly.
“What, do you want to sleep together with me?” No joy or anger could be heard in the Heir’s Wife’s voice.
Saying such terrifying words in the middle of the night with such cold and glamorous eyes—he would be scared.
Before he could decline, the door on the other side also creaked open. His breathtakingly beautiful concubine simply cast a sidelong glance, observing the two of them from a short distance without saying a word.
“I’ll have them arrange another room. We are all tired today, let’s all get a good rest!” Heir Wei was embarrassed once again.
“There’s no need. You go stay in my room!” the Heir’s Wife said expressionlessly.
“Then where will you stay?”
“I’ll stay in this room.” The Heir’s Wife gestured with her chin toward the concubine’s room.
Concubine Sheng suddenly acted like a touched mimosa pudica5, lowering her eyes and brows, her face flushing peach-pink.
Heir Wei felt the Heir’s Wife must be guarding against him, afraid he would still come looking for the concubine in the middle of the night, which was why she prepared to watch her personally. He also understood that the Heir’s Wife came from a great noble family and viewed face as important. Preventing him from fooling around outside was only proper, even though he hadn’t planned on doing anything.
He watched as this delicate and beautiful concubine meekly followed the Heir’s Wife back into the room.
In the middle of the night, Heir Wei seemed to hear the concubine’s continuous whimpering and sobbing coming from next door. He figured that since the Heir’s Wife already disliked her to begin with, the concubine must not have served Madam well tonight, and was perhaps being disciplined with the household rules. When the principal wife punished a concubine, as long as it wasn’t too excessive, it was best for a man to open one eye and close the other6, to save the household from unrest.
In the past, his mother would also make concubines sleep on the small daybed in her room late at night, making it convenient for them to serve tea, pour water, or fetch the chamber pot in the middle of the night. When things didn’t go her way, she would also beat and scold them.
Although this Concubine Sheng relentlessly created trouble in heaven and earth all day long, in the days without Qingqing, he still relied on her to sustain his life. He would just keep her around for now!
His heart was entirely devoted to Qingqing. As for the orioles and swallows7 in the house, he just looked at them for the novelty. If it weren’t for the Heir’s Wife insisting on taking them in for him, he wouldn’t have cared either way. Everything in the household was managed by the Heir’s Wife, and he could give her the utmost respect.
“Wuwuwu… I won’t ever dare to do it again… Please, I beg you… jiejie!” The sound of begging from next door faintly drifted over again.
Hearing Concubine Sheng being taught such a miserable lesson, Heir Wei recalled the image of himself being disciplined by the Heir’s Wife with a disciplinary ruler when he was a child. That was truly a terror capable of dominating his entire life.
Thinking of the concubine’s delicate and weak appearance, he decided he should probably buy her some medicinal ointment tomorrow too. After all, who could escape Mr. Shen’s board?
He couldn’t even believe that this person could actually get married, and that the calamity had smashed right onto his own head. He still remembered the second day after his wedding: numerous fair-weather friends had come to watch the spectacle, and one had even bluntly said he just wanted to come over and see if he was dead yet. He had truly suffered a massive torment.
No matter how he looked at his family’s Mr. Shen, she had absolutely nothing to do with romance.
Footnotes
- A well-known historical idiom reflecting the tragic fate of loyal generals killed by suspicious emperors after the empire is secured.
- A common Chinese colloquialism (chángzi dōu huǐ qīng le, literally 'intestines turned green with regret') meaning to feel extreme, agonizing remorse.
- A strong derogatory term for someone perceived as useless, incompetent, or spineless.
- The first seven days after a person's death, a traditional mourning period.
- The mimosa pudica, commonly known as the 'sensitive plant' or 'shy plant', which folds its leaves inward when touched.
- A common colloquial phrase meaning to deliberately ignore or overlook something, especially minor transgressions.
- An idiom (yīngyīng yànyàn, literally 'orioles and swallows') metaphorically referring to a bevy of beautiful women or concubines.
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