Observing Wife Under the Lamp - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I didn’t sleep for the rest of that night.

As soon as dawn broke, I prepared to return to my parents’ home.

I didn’t even bother to comb my hair, simply throwing on a cloak and heading for the door.

But when the courtyard gates opened, four older servant women were standing there in a neat row.

Each kept her head lowered, standing like four solid walls.

When I moved left, they blocked the left.

When I moved right, they blocked the right.

I was so angry I started to laugh.

I said, “What is this? Does the Zhou Family marry a Bride just to lock her up?”

The four women remained silent.

It was as if their ears were deaf.

It wasn’t until a slow, leisurely voice drifted from the main gallery, saying, “Let her make a scene.”

I looked up.

Lady Xu, the Matriarch of Zhou Family, was walking toward me from under the eaves.

She wore moon-white robes, with nothing but a simple, plain hairpin in her hair.

She didn’t look particularly old.

But one look at her and all you could remember was the coldness she exuded.

As she approached, she first studied my eyes.

It was as if she were trying to discern exactly how much I had seen last night.

I didn’t feel like beating around the bush either.

I asked her directly, “Who was that woman behind the bed curtains?”

Lady Xu didn’t answer.

She only said, “You looked back.”

I said, “Yes.”

She asked again, “You made a sound?”

I said, “I did.”

Upon hearing this, she gave a soft sigh.

It didn’t sound like regret.

It sounded like she found it troublesome.

She said, “Zhou Yan is still too soft-hearted.”

I said, “Stop putting on an act.”

“What exactly was that thing last night?”

“If you don’t explain it clearly, I’ll dash my brains out against the gates of the Zhou Family ancestral hall today.”

Lady Xu finally looked me in the eye.

Her gaze felt like it had been soaked in ice water.

She said, “Killing yourself won’t help.”

“Since you’ve entered this door, you won’t be leaving before the Seventh Day.”

My heart sank.

I asked, “Why the Seventh Day?”

She said indifferently, “Because you have to survive until the Seventh Day first.”

She turned to leave as soon as she finished.

I took a step forward to block her path.

I said, “And what happens after I survive the Seventh Day?”

Lady Xu stopped and turned her head to look at me.

Her voice was light and airy.

She said, “Then it depends on whether your fate is hard enough to endure it.”

This woman didn’t raise her voice.

Yet every word she spoke felt like a knife stabbing into one’s bones.

I wanted to press her further, but two of the servant women had already come forward to escort me back to my room.

Their movements weren’t heavy, but they left no room for negotiation.

I was sent back to my room, only to find that every mirror had been removed.

The bronze basin on the table was gone as well.

Even the slight sheen on the surface of the teapot that might catch a reflection was tightly covered with a cloth shroud.

The more I looked, the colder I felt.

If it were truly just a haunting by some malevolent spirit, why would the Zhou Family be so afraid of me looking in a mirror?

This meant they weren’t afraid of me seeing a ghost.

They were afraid of me seeing myself.

In the afternoon, I called Chunxi, the maid who had come with me from my parents’ home, to my side.

Chunxi was timid and prone to tears; seeing my pale complexion, her eyes reddened immediately.

I asked her, “Before I got married, did my mother tell you anything?”

She fell to her knees with a thud.

She said, “Young Mistress, the Old Madam forbade me from speaking.”

I let out a cold laugh.

I said, “If she truly didn’t want me to know, why did she cry like that before I left?”

“If you still consider me your mistress, speak clearly.”

Chunxi knelt on the floor, trembling.

It took a long time before she managed to squeeze out a sentence, “Young Mistress, the Zhou Family has had Young Mistresses die before.”

I asked, “How many?”

She held up four fingers, then pulled one back.

She said, “The rumors outside say three.”

“In truth, it’s four.”

My heart grew heavy.

I asked, “How did they die?”

Chunxi said, “The first one went mad.”

“She kept saying there was someone who looked exactly like her sitting behind the bed curtains.”

“The Zhou Family said she was possessed and locked her in the back courtyard.”

“Seven days later, she was gone.”

“The second one threw herself into a well.”

“The third one was by a lamp fire.”

“The fourth…” Chunxi’s voice suddenly dropped low.

She said, “The fourth one was just like you, Young Mistress. Her surname was also Shen, and her name was also Shen Jianyue.”

There was a roar in my head.

I said, “Say that again.”

Chunxi was so frightened that tears streamed down her face.

She said, “The fourth Young Mistress was named Shen Jianyue.”

I felt layers of cold sweat breaking out across my back.

My name was given to me by my mother.

She said the name meant ‘found under the moon’-that it was clean, bright, and easy to raise.

If a Shen Jianyue had already died in the Zhou Family twenty years ago, then who exactly was I?

I stared at Chunxi.

I said, “How much did my mother know about all this?”

Chunxi sobbed, “The Old Madam knew everything.”

“When the Zhou Family came to propose the marriage, she fell ill on the spot.”

“She was prepared to die rather than agree.”

“But the Zhou Family took your birth chart to be divined and said that if you didn’t marry in, you wouldn’t survive the month.”

“They also said that as long as you endured for seven days, the Shen Family’s Lamp Debt would be settled.”

“And they would never come for the Shen Family again.”

I wanted to laugh.

I also wanted to cry.

How could such nonsense exist in this world?

Yet, I didn’t dare claim it was entirely nonsense.

Because for the past year, I had been having too many strange dreams.

And because that woman last night resembled me far too much.