The Swallow Falls, the Crow Cries - Chapter 3

My husband had not set foot in the bridal chamber on our wedding night.

Yet when I served tea the next morning, I showed no resentment. All obedience and respect, I volunteered my services to the Old Madam.

“Your birthday is approaching, Mother. Please leave the preparations to me.”

She looked at me for a moment, a trace of approval rising between her brows.

“You have only just joined the family. There is no need to trouble yourself so. Still, since you are so dutiful, I shall let you.”

Using the purchases as an excuse to leave the residence, I rode out through the bustling main street. The carriage turned into Crowcall Lane.

All was quiet at midday. The singing girls slept.

I had the nursemaid hand over an ingot of silver.

The brothel attendant weighed it in his hand. An obsequious grin spread across his face, and he came stooping to the carriage window.

“Which girl would my lady care to see?”

Through the curtain, I named her coolly.

“Your present reigning courtesan.”

Li Qiyuan. Then Yanniang. Now Lutan.

The most celebrated flowers of Crowcall Lane withered, season after season.

It was nothing unusual for a wife to come to a pleasure house demanding an explanation.

But new brides from distinguished families usually cared too much about their dignity to make a scene.

Besides, Cui Yanru was the younger sister of Lutan’s longtime lover.

Naturally, Lutan had little reason to fear her.

When I entered, she lay half reclining on a couch, idly toying with an earring. She could not even be bothered to sit up.

“My lady, to what do I owe the honor of—”

Before she finished, I strode to the cabinet and flung it open.

Silks and satins, rouge and powder—I swept them all out without a glance. In moments, the floor was a wreck.

None of these were what I wanted.

Lutan sprang up in alarm, her pretty face paling as she seized my arm.

“What are you doing?”

I flung her back onto the couch, pried up the slightly loose board at the bottom of the cabinet, and dragged out a heavy chest.

The instant its lid opened, heaps of gold pins and jade earrings filled the room with light.

Among them lay a swallow-shaped hairpin.

On the day I was chosen as the reigning courtesan, I had taken down Qiyuan’s nameboard, kicked open the madam’s door and pressed the point of that pin to my own face.

“From now on, I’ll provide for her and her daughter.

“If anyone has a word to say against it, I’ll cut my face to pieces before I earn this house another half-coin!”

Qiyuan was getting older anyway. The madam clutched my hand and pleaded, “My precious girl, why do this to yourself? Anything you say!”

A swallow carries mud to build its nest, back and forth without rest.

Ten years of my blood and tears lay here.

Among all that gold and silver and jade, only one handkerchief looked out of place. It had been carefully wrapped around something.

I lifted a corner. For a long time, I said nothing as I looked at what lay inside.

“Lutan, you’ve gone this far for him.” I sighed softly. “Did you really fall in love, or did you think this would give you a hold over him?”

Propping herself against the couch, she sat up and stared at me in bewilderment.

“Why take your anger out on me, my lady? His lordship only asks me to play a few songs. Nothing improper has happened…”

She thought I meant Shao Huaiyong.

“What songs does he ask you to play?”

“The ones my poor sworn elder sister used to play when she was alive. He summons me every night because he cannot forget her! She and I grew up together in this house—”

I caught her by the hair and forced her against the dressing table.

She fought wildly. Ornaments and rouge pots clattered to the floor. Her face was pushed right up to the object peeping out of the silk handkerchief.

“You were born in the twelfth month of the twelfth year. That makes you two years older than me. Besides…”

I pulled harder. She cried out in pain, forced to tip back her head.

“When did I ever swear sisterhood with you?”

The fury on Lutan’s face froze, then drained away, inch by inch, leaving it blank.

She might have seen a ghost in broad daylight.

She stared at me, lips trembling without cease. At last tears seeped from the corners of her eyes. She sobbed, too terrified to speak.

I looked down at her and slowly smiled.

“You little bitch. Recognize me now?”