Return to the Nest - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

So white.

That was my first impression of Madam Marquis Meng’en-I didn’t quite dare to call her Mother.

From her ears hung two round, lustrous white pearls without a single blemish.

Uncle Lin the Third made his living diving for pearls. Even with luck, finding a matched pair like these would take two or three years.

She was as pale as the pearls, almost bloodless. It was absurd to think that someone like her could be my mother.

On the journey here, the old maids had taught me the official language and how to perform proper greetings.

Yet now I stood frozen, and Madam Hou just stared at me blankly. After a long moment, she said, “Child, come here. Let me have a good look at you.”

The moment she touched my hand, her tears fell. Years of fishing at sea had left the skin on my hands perpetually cracked and rough. Normally I didn’t notice, but placed next to hers, they looked somewhat frightening.

Madam Hou pulled me into her arms, then dashed a cup to the floor. “You’re all a bunch of dead men! Accompanying the young miss back, such a long journey, and you didn’t know to take proper care of her!”

The unfamiliar fragrance from her body overwhelmed me, and my whole body stiffened. A pretty green plaque on her chest knocked against my nose, and with a sudden heat behind my eyes, I started to cry.

The maid beside her advised, “Madam, don’t get too upset. You still have the Young Heir in your womb.”

Madam Hou paused, then slowly pushed me away. She wiped my tears with a handkerchief, her hand trembling again as it touched the corner of my eye. She said,

“Back then, the Lord Marquis gave you a name, Duanyi. But through a twist of fate, that name now belongs to your sister. I’ve chosen a new one for you, Duanshi-Duan as in dignity, shi as in knowledge. What do you think?”

Sister? Madam Hou’s voice was very gentle. But I still had to say, “Madam, I have a name.”

Her expression froze for an instant. “Those things from the past are no good. We won’t speak of them again. You have a new name and a new identity. From now on, you are the Second Miss of our Meng’en Marquis Estate.”

She said this with a hint of authority. I didn’t know how to answer; everyone fell silent. A girl seated below spoke up at that moment: “Sister is just not used to it yet.”

Madam Hou seemed to relax, saying, “I was too hasty. Duanshi-”

I tried to catch up with this new title. Madam Hou beckoned the girl over. “Meet your sister.”

She was a beautiful turtledove. The idle gossip Yun Bian shared had actually stuck in my mind. Her prominent brow ridge was very like my father’s. And then her other features-the blurry-faced woman in my memory suddenly took shape. That lingering warmth, almost like something I’d imagined, surged up like the tide, flooding my eyes and turning into tears.

“Duanshi, what’s the matter?”

Seeing me stunned, Madam Hou took my hand again. “A family like ours would never send a girl who’s been raised here back. Besides, your foster parents’ side… truly suffered.”

I said, “They’re both gone. You didn’t know? Otherwise, how could I have agreed to come?”

Chen Duanyi’s body quivered slightly. Madam Hou paused, then said, “Then it’s even more the will of Heaven. From now on, as sisters, Duanyi is the Eldest Miss and you are the Second Miss. You’ll be like blood sisters, depending on each other. Isn’t that also good?”

The official dialect was so soft that even if a knife were hidden in it, you wouldn’t detect it right away. I felt as if I’d been hit on the head and suddenly woke from a dream:

“Heaven’s will?

“How nice. So that’s how it is. According to you, my ma and pa gave birth to one daughter for you, and raised another. Yet you say their death is Heaven’s will?”

Madam Hou’s face turned pale. She seemed to want to argue, but refused to open her mouth, eventually pressing her lips tightly together. Everyone in the room froze, as if her expression had turned them all to ice.

I looked at Chen Duanyi again. She was born too delicate, her frame a size smaller than mine, really hard to call my sister.

Madam Hou also looked at her, as if waiting for her to say something to defuse the situation, just like before. Chen Duanyi didn’t stay silent for long: “Little sister speaks right. This child owes her upbringing to foster parents. Unworthily residing in the marquis estate is already a breach of propriety. If I further blindly obey and forget the nurturing kindness of my birth parents, I would be unfilial.”

Oh no, what is she saying? How come I don’t understand a word? But Madam Hou already had one hand clutching her chest, the other trembling as she pointed at her, saying, “Fine! You’re very fine!”

That finger then wavered toward me, and when it settled on me, it seemed even angrier: “What fortune I have, to have two such daughters!”

I still didn’t understand what was happening. But I understood very quickly what came after-on my first day back at the marquis estate, I was gloriously punished together with the Eldest Miss, made to kneel in the ancestral hall.