Moonlight Startles the Magpies - Chapter 2

By then I was past eighteen and still unmarried, a notorious old maid.

Just then, a scandal erupted in the capital.

The emperor’s own younger brother, Pei Dai, Prince Chun, had come to blows with someone over a young male courtesan.

From then on, the whole capital knew that Prince Chun preferred men.

The emperor doted on this younger brother of his. By rights, matchmakers should have worn through the prince’s threshold with marriage proposals.

Unfortunately, after this affair, none of the capital’s marriageable young ladies wanted to spend their lives caged up, widowed in all but name.

My father’s principal wife thought it over and discussed it with me.

“Prince Chun may have his faults, but his family is wealthy, and he’s anxious to marry. If you succeed his late wife as mistress of his household, you may never be of one heart with your husband, but you would have very little to worry about for the rest of your life.

“He married some years ago and has a son. All you need to do is get along with this stepson. As for what he does outside the house, turn a blind eye.

“Our family has little standing, and you were born to a concubine. Unless you become a concubine yourself, you may not find a better match.”

I lowered my eyes. “As you wish, Mother.”

So a date was set, and I was delivered to Prince Chun’s residence with drums and gongs.

To my surprise, Pei Dai put on very few airs and never treated me with disdain.

On our wedding night, he lifted my bridal veil. Weariness and discontent showed on his face, but his voice was reasonably gentle.

He said he had never wanted to remarry. But his household had no mistress, and the prince’s residence stood without one to preside over it.

The emperor had pressured him to remarry, promising not to interfere with his amusements afterward.

“Just look after Huaichuan, manage the household, and fulfill your duties as his father’s lawful wife. That’s all.”

Naturally, I agreed at once.

As Princess Consort Chun, I had no parents-in-law to wait on and not a single concubine beneath me.

Pei Dai spent his days wrapped in romance and melancholy.

When he wasn’t composing poetry or practicing calligraphy, he was courting someone beneath the flowers and moon.

Apart from our wedding night, we almost always slept in separate rooms.

The future promised to be leisurely. My only tasks were looking after the boy and the accounts.

Why ever would I object?

The day after the wedding, when Pei Huaichuan was dragged in to pay his respects, I nearly dropped my teacup.

Several older serving women and maids hauled him before me.

They bowed to me with fawning smiles while ruthlessly trying to force him to his knees.

Pei Huaichuan made no sound. He clenched his teeth and looked up at me, his eyes bloodshot, like an angry little bull calf.

I set my cup down hard on the table.

Xiaotao understood at once. She stepped forward, slapped the women, and helped Pei Huaichuan up.

An unfavored son and a mistress in the prime of her youth: I understood perfectly why the servants treated us differently.

But servants bullying their master was intolerable in any household.

I dealt with those servants on the spot and had them sold away.

Pei Dai was often absent, and Pei Huaichuan was young. It wasn’t hard to imagine how he had been mistreated.

Xiaotao brought some medicine and led me to his room.

My reasoning was simple.

An ox pulls a load, a horse carries a rider, and as mistress of this household, I had to manage it properly.

Besides, Pei Dai was getting old. The latter half of my life would depend on Pei Huaichuan.

But he shoved me out and threw all the medicine after me.

I stumbled, and Xiaotao caught me just in time.

“Our mistress came to see you out of kindness! How can you be so ungrateful?”

Bang.

He slammed the door from inside.

“I don’t want your false kindness!”

I rubbed my nose and left the things outside his door anyway.

The osmanthus trees in the prince’s garden were flowering. The annual hunt would soon begin.

Prince Chun was the emperor’s only full younger brother, so naturally he wouldn’t be left out.

Our luggage was packed a few days in advance, and the three of us traveled to the hunting grounds in three carriages.

Pei Dai’s carriage also held that young male courtesan who had never been publicly presented.

Most of the men in their prime joined the hunt. Bored in my tent, I took Xiaotao out for a walk.

Fences lined either side of the woodland, with endless mountains rising behind them.

Without realizing it, we wandered a little farther in.

The scenery was lovely, nothing like the views I had known within courtyard walls.

I was narrowing my eyes to look around when I spotted someone.

It looked like Pei Huaichuan.

I was about to call out when several figures closed in on him from all sides.

They wore servants’ clothes, with masks over their faces and knives in their hands.