Surviving in the General's Mansion - Chapter 36

Chapter 36: Who Could They Count On?

Zhao Die felt her mind go off with a thunderous boom.

If it were her, of course she would never forgive him!

Zhao Die collapsed to the floor in despair.

She had never thought about any of this before. Of course, she had not truly been crying out injustice for her father from the bottom of her heart, either.

She knew her father might not have been wronged at all.

A man who did not even care about his own daughters…

That was simply the kind of person he was, down to his bones.

She only did not know what would happen to her and her sister without their father. What would happen to her mother?

From childhood to now, whenever their legitimate mother saw them, she only taught them to think of their father, to consider the brothers of the household.

Only when the men of the family prospered could they bask in reflected glory.

The men were the sky over the Zhao Mansion!

Now that sky was about to collapse. What would happen to drifting duckweed like them, with no roots at all?

“Minister Zhao needs to take responsibility for what he has done. All things have cause and effect. You believe in Buddhism, so I trust you can understand that.

“What the general wants to settle are those matters. He will not specifically target the women of the Zhao Mansion.

“I asked Deputy General Zhang and Uncle Zhao. Most likely, the women should be spared the death penalty.”

At that, Zhao Die and Zhao Siyan both raised their heads.

“What you said… is it true?”

Zhao Siyan wiped her tears and asked through choked sobs.

“Mm. Deputy General Zhang said that based on past cases, women are generally not wiped out to the last. But while they may escape death, they won’t escape punishment.

“The unmarried ones will be sent to the Jiaofang Bureau, while the married ones will be sentenced to exile.

“The two of you have already had your household registrations placed in the general’s hands, so you should be able to avoid this disaster.”

Seeing their reactions, Xia Heng added more fuel to the fire.

“If I were you, I would hurry up and get my own body well first. During this time, I would think about what I could help with.

“If the relatives I cared about were exiled, or sent to the Jiaofang Bureau, then what could I do to make things a little easier for them?

“They say that at the Farewell Pavilion outside the Imperial City, people can bring things to prisoners being sent into exile, as long as the prisoners are able to carry them.

“Should you prepare food for the road into exile? Shoes? Winter is almost here, so what about clothes?

“If someone is sent to the Jiaofang Bureau, then shouldn’t you see if there are people you can pay off, so they suffer a little less?”

Xia Heng walked to the door.

“I may not have thought of everything. I suggest that once you’ve considered it properly, you make a list, then do each thing on that list one by one.

“But the premise for all of this is that you have to be alive.

“Only if you can stand on your own will you have the energy to help others.

“Think it over carefully.”

With that, Xia Heng pulled Qiulin out of the room and thoughtfully shut the door behind them.

Qiulin looked thoughtfully toward the courtyard gate. Xia Heng, however, did not notice anything at all. She had left the room with great flair, but after closing the door, she still pressed her ear to it and listened for quite a while.

Only after confirming that there was no sound from inside the room aside from sobbing did the two of them go to the small kitchen together to help decoct the medicine.

“Didn’t you tell me this morning to keep an eye on them? Is it all right to leave the two of them alone in the room now? Nothing will happen, will it?”

As Qiulin fed twigs into the little stove with her right hand, she asked Xia Heng.

“Oh, at this point, and with so many things for them to do, they probably won’t try to die anymore, right?

“Sigh. But if someone really can’t get past it… even ten people watching them wouldn’t help… Let’s leave it like this. We’ve done our best!”

Qiulin thought to herself, This woman talks in one polished string after another, and makes it sound like she’s so broad-minded. Yet just now she was eavesdropping at their door, and now she’s brewing medicine for them… Even a duck’s bill isn’t as stubborn as your mouth.

In all the years I’ve been alive, when have I ever brewed medicine before?

In the end, she still did not tell Xia Heng that someone had been eavesdropping outside the door just now. Even if she said it, what could Xia Heng do? In any case, the person had not done anything bad.

=========

“Sister.”

Zhao Siyan gently took Zhao Die’s hand.

Zhao Die looked at her younger sister and gave her a bitter smile.

“Siyan, from now on, we can never return to the Zhao Mansion again.”

“…Sister, do you want to go back?”

Zhao Die thought she had misheard.
“I don’t want to go back, Sister.”

“I can’t forget it. In that place, Mother and the two of us couldn’t even eat our fill.

Do you remember? One year, we sneaked into the First Madam’s kitchen and stole chicken from the swill bucket.

Back then, I truly thought it was the most delicious thing in the world. In the end, we even brought some back for Mother, but instead of eating it, she beat us.

Then she held us and cried for a very long time.”

Zhao Die remembered. That day had been the birthday banquet for Zhao Fan’s legitimate son. Father had invited many guests,

and the feast had been lavish. The guests had left behind quite a lot of food.

After the servants divided up what they could, the rest had been dumped into the swill bucket. She and her little sister had simply been too hungry…

Zhao Die looked again at the “steamed buns” on the table-the kind Xia Heng had said the Zhenbei Army had all eaten before.

“After that, Mother started planting vegetables in the courtyard. In winter, she grew tatsoi and radishes,

and in summer, yardlong beans, eggplants, and the like.

After that, aside from being a little tired, we sisters hardly went hungry again.”

“She’s right, Sister! This was Father’s fault to begin with! We can’t pretend something happened when it didn’t, or pretend nothing happened when it did.

The best thing he ever did for us was send us to the General’s Mansion of Northern Pacification as concubines.

Even though we were demoted from concubines to maidservants, these days at the General’s Mansion

have been the easiest and happiest days of my life!

I’ve never had to eat leftovers. No one tells me anymore that I can’t eat this or that,

that I have to keep my figure, that I have to maintain propriety!

Do you know, Sister? That day, when I was eating noodles in the public kitchen, I saw everyone else eating them with garlic, so I bit into a clove too!

It was really spicy, but I was happy the whole day!

No one comes over every day anymore to teach me how I should sit, how I should walk to catch a man’s eye!

If I failed, they would hit my palms with a ruler, whip my calves…”

“But… she is…”

Zhao Die’s lips trembled.

“But now Mother can’t count on him anymore!”

Zhao Die suddenly looked at her.

“Yes! She is our mother!! I won’t call her Auntie anymore. She is our mother!!!

I can do without Father! He deserves what he got!

But the Zhao Mansion is almost gone. Why shouldn’t I call her Mother!?”

“Sister! Right now, the only people Mother can count on are us! If Mother is exiled, we have to prepare food, water, clothes… and we can’t prepare anything too good, or other people will notice.

Sister, she was right. We have to stand on our own now!

Mother was tormented like that all alone in the inner residence, yet she still managed to raise the two of us!

Are the two of us really unable to support our mother? If everyone else in the household is exiled too, then all of them will be registered criminals. Who would be nobler than anyone else!?”

For a moment, Zhao Die could not even speak. It was as if she suddenly no longer recognized the person in front of her.

So this was what her little sister had been thinking all along?

All these years, she had always thought she was the one protecting her sister.

But looking at it now, had what she done truly been right?

…Still, Siyan was right.

They really had no more time to wallow in self-pity. There were many things waiting for them to do.

If Xia Heng was not wrong, then their mother would likely be among those exiled.

She had to prepare things that would be useful on the road to exile!

Before coming to the General’s Mansion, Zhao Fan had at last given her some money for emergencies. It was not much, only fifty taels,

but it was also the first time he had ever given the two sisters silver.

She had spent some of it earlier on Moon Unicorn Incense. Thinking about it now, her heart bled.

What use was that thing?

She had to carefully plan what to buy with the money that remained.

Zhao Siyan picked up the “flatbread” Xia Heng had just put back into the bowl.

Summoning her courage, she took a bite.

…She couldn’t bite through it. In the end, she had to gnaw at it with the tips of her teeth for ages before she managed to chip off a tiny piece.

Zhao Die also picked up a flatbread and, imitating Zhao Siyan, put it into her mouth to slowly grind at it.

…This really was far too awful!

The sisters chewed the flatbread, their gazes gradually growing firm.