Chapter 5 — I Refuse to Be a Concubine

My sister suddenly approached me, holding a dragonfly hairpin. "A wedding gift for you, little sister," she whispered, her hands trembling as she pinned it into my hair. I watched her right hand shake, clutching a handkerchief tightly inside her sleeve. Suddenly, she lunged forward, pressing the cloth firmly over my nose and mouth. I played my part perfectly, instantly going limp and feigning a loss of consciousness. With practiced efficiency, my sister swapped our places, not forgetting to drape the heavy red bridal veil over my head. She offered a faint, fleeting smile. "Tue Tue," she murmured, "you shall be the Heir’s consort, and I shall be the Princess of Tuc."

With the switch complete, she stood up and pushed open the chamber doors. Our older brother was already waiting in the shadows. "Escort the eldest young lady and the second young lady to the bridal palanquins," he commanded. Two maidservants gripped my arms to support my supposed unconscious form. A martial maidservant sent by Xie Chenliu, wanting to be absolutely certain, moved to lift my veil to verify my identity, but our brother blocked her path with a stern, authoritative voice. "Do you truly believe our house of Thoi would engage in the deception of swapping brides?"

We moved out of the estate gates. As the maidservant reached out to assist my sister into her palanquin, Xie Chenliu, who sat atop his horse, suddenly commanded, "Wait." I shoved the maidservants aside and threw back the veil.

"Sister, brother, you have deceived me once again," I said, my voice steady. "I wonder, whose brilliant idea was it to swap brides and defy the imperial decree? Was it you, sister? Was it Co Dien Ngoc? Or perhaps our dear brother?"

Co Dien Ngoc’s face turned deathly pale. He dismounted his horse in a rush, reaching out to grab my hand, but I shifted my weight, slipping away from his touch. "If I told you that I truly wished to take you as my primary wife," he stammered, "would you not want that, too?"

"I would not," I replied, my tone cold and final. I tossed the white jade pendant back into his arms. "Return this to its original owner."

My sister collapsed onto the ground in terror, her veil hiding the expression on her face. Our brother stood before her, arms spread wide in a protective posture, facing Xie Chenliu. "The plan was mine alone," he declared. "Thu has no knowledge of any of this."

They had all conspired in the bride-swapping, yet our brother sought to shield her by taking the full blame upon himself. He pleaded with me, "Thu is frail; she cannot withstand the punishment. The young heir is your husband; he must be spared as well, or how will you ever stand firm in the Marquis’s household? I am the sole mastermind; let the consequences fall only on me."

Xie Chenliu went to the palace to report the truth to the Emperor, and I begged him to show mercy. A thin, relentless drizzle fell from the horizon. I waited outside the palace gates for Xie Chenliu. My brother emerged first, walking with a pronounced limp—clearly, he had endured the rod. When he saw me, he started to speak, but I simply shoved an umbrella into his hand. "Brother," I said softly, "the bond between us is severed. From this day forward, your affairs no longer concern me."

His face drained of color, but I paid him no further mind, lifting my skirts and running toward Xie Chenliu as he stepped out into the light.

Thirteen

After the wedding, Xie Chenliu and I lived in perfect harmony. He treated me with immense kindness, and the old wounds I had suffered in the Thoi household began to heal. My sister, however, lived a life of misery in the Marquis’s estate. Co Dien Ngoc complained that she could not bear him a child, and he brought concubine after concubine into his home. One day, inside a quiet room at a tea house, she pushed open the door and sat beside me.

"You must be very pleased with yourself, aren't you?" she sneered. "Every woman Co Dien Ngoc brings home carries a fragment of your likeness."

I took a slow sip of tea. "I only find it revolting." Such hypocrisy—who was he trying to impress? He had been the one so obsessed with marrying her, yet once he possessed her, he failed to cherish her. Such base character. That I had ever loved him was a testament to my own blindness; I had not seen him for what he truly was. My sister glared at me with pure venom. "My life is a wreck," she spat.

"That is a life you stole for yourself," I replied.

"But whenever I steal something, you always manage to acquire something better, whether it be a trinket or a man. When we were young, mother always favored you. An adopted daughter could never truly match a daughter of the blood."

At the mention of our mother, I finally raised my eyes. "She never treated us differently."

My sister scoffed. "When I was five or six, mother took us to the south to visit our grandparents. We were intercepted by bandits, men with blades and murderous eyes. The first person mother shielded was you. I was left with only our brother."

I remembered that day with painful clarity. Though mother had stood in front of me, she had hurled herself toward my sister the moment she saw a bandit swinging a blade her way. In the ensuing struggle, her arm was gashed, leaving an ugly, permanent scar. She remembered only the beginning, not the outcome. I had no desire to argue and moved to leave, but my sister pressed a hand firmly onto my shoulder, forcing me back into my seat. She poured tea into two cups and set one in front of me.

"Do not be in such a hurry; I have more to say."

I stepped on the hem of her skirt. While she bent down to adjust it, I quickly swapped the two cups. She picked up her tea and walked to the window, leaning against the wall. She took a dainty sip, and I followed suit. A cruel, twisted smile curled her lips. "Tue Tue, I truly loathe you. Love is a finite thing, and your very birth meant that a portion of the love meant for me was stolen away. When you fell into the water at age six, it was no accident—I pushed you. If only you had died then, how much better things would be."