"You're actually quite smart to see things so clearly," Bai Suihe said. "A husband and wife can be the closest of companions or the most distant of strangers. If you don't want to end up like our father, you should refrain from taking concubines. Mother might seem indifferent about it now, but when you were all little, I often saw her hiding away, trembling as she wiped her tears."
"I know all that," Bai Jiannan replied. He wasn't blind; he had seen it too. It was only as they grew older that their mother finally seemed to let it go.
"Besides, that old man doesn't have much silver left anyway. To think that at his advanced age, he's racking his brain for ways to make money just to pamper his new favorite—I don't even know what he's after anymore.
"Let's not talk about him anymore. If he wants to cause a fuss right now, just let him. Once he's too old and tired to cause any more trouble, I'll step in and do my filial duty."
