Surviving in the General's Mansion - Chapter 41

At the Farewell Pavilion, ten li (about three miles) outside the capital, the prisoners sentenced to exile sat beneath a pall of misery.

In ordinary times, the farthest most of them ever walked was from their homes to the shops, or out into the countryside for a spring excursion.

The Northern Frontier lay more than five thousand li (over fifteen hundred miles) from the capital. None of this group of elderly people, women, and children knew whether they could survive the journey.

Among the exiles, the women of the Zhao Mansion’s legitimate branch watched other prisoners receive food and drink from their families and relatives, their eyes red with envy.

There was no mystery as to why. By blood, their branch was the closest to Zhao Fan, so naturally they were also the ones who received the coldest shoulders and the most contemptuous looks.

Their relatives and friends were eager to draw a clear line between themselves and the Zhao family. At a time like this, hardly anyone dared come see them off.

The moment they had stepped out of the prison, the wife of the former Vice Minister of Revenue had nearly rushed forward and strangled Madam Zhao to death.

The escorting soldiers had lashed her more than a dozen times, drawing blood, before she finally let go.

Zhao Miaoling struggled to support her mother. Madam Zhao’s hair was disheveled, and her eyes stared blankly ahead.

She, too, had wanted to throw caution to the wind, seize Minister Zhao by the collar, and demand an answer. They had been living such a fine life—why had he insisted on withholding the Zhenbei Army’s provisions?

Why had he dragged their entire family into this life of wandering and hardship?

But now, no matter how much regret and hatred filled her heart, she had nowhere to vent it.

Her husband was gone. Her son was gone too.

Zhao Fan’s mother, the Zhao matriarch, had heard that her son would be beheaded and failed to catch her next breath. She had died on the spot.

Her maternal family had avoided appearing for fear of implication. They had merely sent a servant with a banknote worth a hundred taels of silver.

That thin slip of paper left Madam Zhao wanting to cry, yet unable to shed a tear.

She was a convicted criminal about to be exiled. Where could she possibly go to buy anything?

Why had she not died instead? They might as well have beheaded her too!

Beside her, Zhao Miaoling wept silently.

Once praised as one of the capital’s talented young ladies, she had now been trampled into the dirt.

The whole group sat huddled together, looking around in confusion with nothing they could do.

The atmosphere was stifling and hopeless.

Just as everyone sat there in despair, they saw a carriage hurtling toward them from the distance, swaying wildly from side to side.

It charged to within a few dozen paces of them and nearly failed to stop. Someone hauled desperately on the reins, dragging the horse to a halt.

“Whoa!”

Two young women sat in the driver’s seat. One had an injured arm suspended in a sling, while the other had a scrape on her chin. The second one was the person who had just shouted.

The young woman with the sling turned to her with a solemn expression.

“I should drive on the way back. I can still manage with one hand.”

The moment she finished speaking, several people practically tumbled out of the carriage.

Little Baldie was among them too, his smooth head gleaming in the sunlight.

Once they were down, some bent over dry-heaving while others struggled to catch their breath.

Even the oppressive atmosphere around the exiles lifted considerably.

They had set out early that morning. Something was going on at the General’s Mansion today, so no coachman had been available and they had been forced to drive themselves.

Neither Zhao Siyan nor Zhao Die had dared try. That left Qiulin and a bright-eyed, curious Xia Heng to step forward and give it a go…

“Die’er? Siyan?”

A sallow-faced woman in the crowd spotted the two women getting down from the carriage at once.

As if she had sensed the gaze upon her, Zhao Die raised her head from where she was braced against the carriage, retching. She swept her eyes across the crowd.

Their gazes met. Both women’s eyes reddened almost instantly.

“Mother!”

Zhao Die cried out despite herself.

Zhao Siyan followed her gaze and found their mother in the crowd.

She did not even have time to speak. She rushed into the carriage, grabbed a heap of things, and ran toward Lady Li.

Zhao Die recovered and hurried after her.

“Mother!”

“Mother!”

Lady Li clutched both her daughters’ hands. From the moment the Zhao Mansion had been seized, she had not shed a single tear.

She knew that man’s retribution had finally come.

When she learned that all of them had been sentenced to exile, she had thought only this:

At least her daughters had been sent away. It was only a pity that she would probably never see her two precious girls again.

“Why did you come? Hurry back! You belong to the General’s Mansion now!”

Seeing her daughters filled Lady Li with both comfort and fear.

Of all people, the General’s Mansion ought to hate the Zhao Mansion most. How could these two foolish girls have run out to bring her things?

Who knew whether they would even be allowed back after this?

At the thought, she hurriedly pushed them away, shoving even their bundles back at them.

“Mother, don’t worry! The general knows!”

Zhao Die caught her mother’s hands before she could push them away.

“That’s right, Mother. The general let us come,” Zhao Siyan said through uncontrollable sobs.

Even as she cried, she urged her mother to take off her shoes and put on the thousand-layer-soled cloth shoes they had prepared.

The women of wealthy households generally wore embroidered shoes with extremely thin soles at home.

For the sake of elegance, such shoes were made small and delicate.

When walking in them, one could feel every pebble on the ground that was even slightly larger than the rest, while the sides pinched the feet.

Going into exile in shoes like those would be little different from torture.

Only after hearing that did Lady Li stop trying to drive them away.

She sat down at her daughters’ urging and changed her shoes. They were exiled prisoners now—who still cared about propriety?

“Truly? The General of the Northern Pacification allowed you to come see me?”

“Mother, the general only wanted justice for the Zhenbei Army. He won’t make things difficult for the women of the Zhao Mansion.”

“Good, good. The general is a righteous man.”

Lady Li did not care what the clansmen behind her thought.

In her eyes, this was righteousness!

Zhao Siyan stuffed the bundle in her hands into Lady Li’s arms.

“Mother, this is the luggage we prepared for you. Everything in it will be useful on the road.

“This is a waterskin. We already filled it. We added a little sugar and salt like Xia Heng told us to, so it might taste strange, but Xia Heng said you’ll dehydrate easily while walking, especially on the first day. Drinking this will replenish your… what was it called?”

Zhao Siyan could not remember and looked at Zhao Die.

“Energy!”

Zhao Die answered as she briskly sorted the other bundles.

“Mother, listen to Siyan first. I’m going to give these to the others.”

“Right, energy! We also packed flint and a tinder tube. Once the tinder tube is used up, use the flint…”

Madam Zhao watched Lady Li with envy.

It was not as though she had never regretted her choice. If only she had sent her own daughter to the General’s Mansion back then. Even becoming a concubine would have been better than following them into exile now.

But no amount of gold could buy foresight.

How laughable. Of their entire legitimate branch, the only daughters who had come to see them off were the concubine-born girls.

While Madam Zhao was still lamenting this, she saw Zhao Die approaching with several large bundles.

She hurriedly tried to stand. Years of habit compelled her to maintain her dignity before the sisters even under circumstances like these.

To her surprise, Zhao Die strode over, pushed her firmly back into place, and crouched down in front of her.

“Madam, sit and rest while you can. The road ahead will be hard. Later, you won’t be able to rest even if you want to.”

Both Madam Zhao and Zhao Miaoling stared at her in confusion.

Was this not the girl who never dared raise her head in front of them?

She used to call Madam Zhao “Mother.” Now she called her “Madam”? Since when had Zhao Die become so bold?

Before they could recover, two bundles landed in front of them.

“Please don’t take offense, Madam. We had little time, and my sister and I have shallow pockets. This is all we could manage. The bundles contain waterskins, naan, shoes, cotton-padded coats, and some medicine.”

Zhao Die glanced at Zhao Miaoling, leaned closer, and lowered her voice.

“There are also several new menstrual cloths.”

Zhao Miaoling blushed and nodded. This was wonderful. Her lower abdomen had begun aching over the last two days, and if nothing unexpected happened, her monthly period would arrive tomorrow or the day after.

She had been worrying about what to do. This help had come exactly when she needed it most.

“Madam, you and Younger Sister should change your shoes first. You won’t be able to walk in embroidered shoes.”

Madam Zhao changed into the new pair, her expression complicated.

They fit perfectly. Even her daughter’s pair fit exactly right…

When she remembered how she had tormented the sisters and their mother over the years, her heart became even more conflicted.