Perhaps she was dreaming, or maybe she wasn't, she couldn't tell. Everything felt too vivid for a dream; or maybe it was an illusion.
She was inside 'Wei Zhiruo's' courtyard, that small and quaint, unkempt place. There was no one there, not even a single maid and 'she' or the original owner, was lurking in the corridors, moving backwards and forwards as if nervously waiting for someone. Whatever might have been the reason for that, she saw 'herself' or the shadow bearing unremarkable likeness to her current face, stop suddenly as if she heard something. It was the sound of footsteps approaching. Then as if she was panicking with shame and embarrassment at such a show of eagerness, blushing like a wistful rose, the child hid herself behind a pillar, not knowing how else she was to keep herself from being ashamed in front of the visitor!
Two little girls, wearing beautiful shades of pink and yellow, appeared; they were furiously arguing about something. The shadow didn't see this, or anything else, as the child was now blushingly clenching her fist, sitting curled up as if the world won't notice her if she kept her head buried in the sands!
"—You shouldn't! Mother will know this and then everyone will find out, sister Yuyu! Grandmother is already very angry with you since this morning, and you really did wrong when you refuted her that way. Did you see our mother's livid face there? She is going to punish you hard. I just don't understand, what does it matter to us if grandmother is sending away little ninth or not? What if what we guessed is wrong, and this is just because little ninth is really too sick?"
"You too, Muying? She is just a child! If I don't tell her now, she will be thrown into a carriage and sent away the day after tomorrow, ignorant of everything! I am going to warn her. If she knows any better, she will go to father, talk to him, plead with him! Only father can stop this outrage —!"
"Sister Yuyu! This is not something we should get into, please!" Muying was crying softly as if she was afraid. "I don't want anything bad to happen to little ninth, but I also don't want to see you suffer! Don't you understand?! The adults have already chosen to send away little sister Zhiruo to avoid inauspiciousness, anything we do is meaningless and it is not like she is going far away! Qianshui is just a half months' worth of journey by the fastest horse from Jinghai, the stewards will provide her with greatest assistance, several maids will be sent in the entourage to take good care of her and…she will come back when she recovers…"
Muying's increasingly feeble voice did nothing to hide her own distrust of what she said.
"Do you even believe what you're saying, Muying?" The tone slightly shifted, as if the speaker had finally conceded to her sister's love and was going to reason with her. "Don't talk, let me finish. I know you are in a hurry to see her gone, Muying, but do you know what you're wishing for? Do you think we'll get rid of our awkward position, here in this mansion, once she is sent away? Or do you blame me for including Zhiruo when we play? I know you don't like it, don't lie. But do you understand, if it wasn't for her, or her being the legitimate daughter of this noble Wei mansion, in schools, in banquets, and even in our friend circle, we won't be ever included anywhere at all! We get invitations because of her, because everyone knows the concubine sisters of the youngest daughter of Wei's keeps close ties with the 'blue-eyed monster'! When they fetch her for their amusement, they need us there to be her guardian, someone to reign in the tiger who jumps! Refute this and tell me, what will happen to us if she is sent away. You can't imagine, Muying, not at all! We will lose everything we have."
As if shocked by these sudden utterances, Muying kept staring hard with big eyes showing all her surprise.
"Sister you —! You don't…you don't like her?" It was said in a broken whisper of incredulity.
Wei Yuyu turned away from Muying, her face not showing the eager innocence a child has, but naive cunning. Since she was still a blooming child turning into an adult, her connivance was laced with discomfort of being seen through, so she said in a hushed voice, "What do you mean? Zhiruo needs me and we need her. Where is the need for liking or disliking each other; we each get what we want and it is you…I am telling you! You better behave from now on, don't always pull that dark face in front of little ninth!"
The steps didn't stop after that, they quickly rushed to get into the chamber calling out loudly, "Little ninth, where are you? Muying and I are here, come quickly! We brought you gifts!"
But Wei Zhiruo watched a tear-stricken child refusing to stand up. The child kept hiding out of sight, shivering, till the two girls, having lost their patience waiting for her, made their way out, once again arguing heatedly.
Then everything got swallowed in darkness.
Wei Zhiruo felt she was either going to wake up soon or fall back into the folds of sleep. But the wakefulness didn't come, neither did the sleep. This time, the dream changed in a more contorted way, making her lose all shreds of consciousness. She struggled hard, but her limbs were limp and strengthless, her neck wouldn't follow her wishes and even her brain felt too befuddled to think about anything! So, the scene's changed, people changed and she too felt like she was changing, living inside the dream itself!
It was a morning, almost eventless. You ask how she knew? Oh—she was watching the wind play with Ginkgo's golden leaves outside the window.
She had just woken up, and was still lying cozily in her bed. After she had coughed a lot, finally someone appeared in her vision— an expressionless maid. Her hands were dark and bony, there were knuckles sticking out like her skin was just a leather covering her skeleton. She was pathologically thin, too thin to be a healthy human. However, her hands were quite sturdy and powerful.
Wei Zhiruo was cared for by that maid. Tongue was rolling in her parched mouth while swelling achingly; even saliva didn't form, yet—the maid didn't notice her coughs or the rolling eyes; she just kept rubbing her skin till it was red, then pulled her out of the cold bathwater, and started quickly putting clothes on her. Like a puppet on strings the maid dealt with Wei Zhiruo like she too was a senseless doll, giving her cold water to drink, cold dress to wear and a bowl of cold watery porridge served for breakfast and then she was set aside. It wasn't the first time for her, being treated like a doll with no thoughts of her own, so Wei Zhiruo hardly struggled. She had too much experience knowing anything she said now would hardly go into the maid's ears.
At six o'clock, another maid came and changed duties. She was familiar with this one at least. Xiaotao was her name.
"Ninth miss, I hope the night was spent well."
She had a naturally sweet voice, and when she spoke, she aroused a deep willingness to listen to her. "Was I away for too long? I see that you're already prepared for the rest of the day. Good! It's getting colder, and I thought I should start putting thick cloaks out for you, like the one you wore last winter. Some blankets needed airing too, and there were also those things needing preparation for our journey to Qianshui. I was busy doing all that yesterday, so I apologize for not coming here earlier. Jing'er took good care of you, I hope?"
Wei Zhiruo heard herself humming in acquiescence.
Xiaotao however kept stealing glances at her face, as if she was looking for that slight expression of shock at being told about the news of her going away from Jinghai. There was none.
Wei Zhiruo, who was facing the mirror, with her side eyes saw the maid carefully take out and open a silver box next. She took out a delicate looking little porcelain jar, and took out some grease on a bamboo applier. It was a thick, slightly transparent white paste of some kind which the maid didn't touch with her bare hands. Wei Zhiruo suddenly recalled a memory of the maid telling her how expensive it was and how she didn't want anything to go to waste by using her hands to rub it.
"This is to make you all white like your eldest sister, miss! You're so pale and yellow, we need to keep applying this to get you that pearl-like complexion, alright?"
When the bamboo slip touched her face slathering that white thing all over, in that moment, Wei Zhiruo smelled a cloyingly sweet scent which tingled her survival instincts. Her mind screamed that thing was poisonous as hell, but her hands couldn't move when she wanted to push it away!
Wei Zhiruo, flabbergasted and appalled, looked into the mirror. A very pale face stared back at her. Flesh was sticking on to bones, supporting two haunting blue eyes looking too engorged for that small socket like two bulging sapphire orbs fitted tightly, spilling out from their holes. In that lavishly forged and exquisitely decorated round bronze mirror, with copper details of leaves and flowers and vines motifs swirling around, framing its edges—in there, in that mirror —she saw a ghost. A lavishly dressed ghost. Unexpectedly, she still looked eighty percent like her previous self, the Amaranthus who wasn't a human. A similarity was immediately evoked in the signs of horror of hunger, sickness and... of rot. She was rotting from her entrails, she thought.
Xiaotao was kneeling beside her, combing her long thick hair that fell on the ground.
She said briskly, "Ninth miss, you must stay in your room today, alright? Please don't go outside on your own! It won't be good if the Second Mistress finds out about it. It is the eldest master's crowning ceremony and many families from around the county have come to pay a visit. Everyone's been quite busy, do you understand? It is crowded and you usually don't like these kinds of occasions, do you? You're such a quiet child! Be obedient, miss, our second mistress, your mother said she will ask you out when it's time for dinner. Then you can gift the young master with those embroidered kerchiefs you have been working on for so long! I must say, how happy he would be to receive those! It's your Eldest brother's most important moment in life. You wouldn't want to ruin it, right?"
With an indescribable emotion flickering in her eyes, the maid almost looked like she was worried about the pitiful Wei Zhiruo. Schadenfreude laced words came out like well-intentioned worries, but when the face got reflected in the copper surface, it couldn't hide showing a clear mockery.
A memory told her she was this Wei family's ninth daughter, the youngest in the generation, ranked sixth amongst daughters, and ninth amongst all the children of Gentleman Wei Houyu. Amongst the three children of Lady Jiang, the first wife of this gentleman Wei, she was the most ill-fated one. The day she was born, Lady Jiang died in childbirth. On the day she was ready to celebrate the hundredth day celebration for a newborn, her maternal grandmother died. And on her one-year-old birthday, her maternal grandfather, her sole relative from her maternal side, Lord Boyi died as well. A harbinger of deaths, thus she solidified her 'Lonely-star' reputation.
"So, when others call you to come, you must refuse them okay, miss?" Xiaotao was still talking to her.
"Will others be there? My sister…?" A hesitant voice echoed in a bafflingly reluctant manner, as if worried of saying anything. Wei Zhiruo had never heard such a tone of voice before.
"Eldest miss, you said? Yes of course she has to go. No other way about it. Three weeks ago, the royal edict came — all of us were so afraid, you mightn't have an idea how much, miss! Aunt Jiang was so close to fainting that for a long time she refused to get back to the kitchen at her post, but everyone said she was pretending for the most part. Never mind her, but we had no inkling of what was to come, and everyone just thought about what kind of trouble Master Wei had put us into this time again! Fortunately, it was good news. It was an edict of engagement, miss! Your eldest sister, Miss Ziya, is going to marry a prince! She has been promised to the second prince of our Dajin, and their coming marriage is going to be held this December! Although the prince is so far away in the capital, his highness met the eldest miss when she was there, visiting relatives. It is said, he was instantly smitten, then wooed her for almost a whole year before Miss Ziya agreed! This engagement edict was given upon the request of Empress Dowager herself. Such an honor has been earned by the eldest miss for the family, how could she not be present there on such an occasion?!!"
"Oh well…then, will sister Muying and sister Yuyu be there too? Will you go?"
"Oh, they...I don't know. Second mistress has asked me to be in charge of the kitchen this time. I might not come back tonight as I'll oversee some maids there. Will it be okay with you?"
"No. You can do as she wishes. Second mother's wishes are definitely important."
Something had soured the atmosphere. The excitement was short lived and no further conversation followed. Neither reply was sought.
Xiatao didn't raise her head, just continued twisting her long hair, twice her body size into an unfamiliar coiffure. Then she started adorning it with a few stringed strands of jeweled ruby pieces casted within a thin chain of silver. In the end its tassels dangled down her earlobes touching her small narrow neck giving a slightly colder touch. The maid's hands had deftly stuck a few carved jewel pieces over Wei Zhiruo's forehead, covering the round red mole between the center of her eyebrows.
Wei Zhiruo immediately noticed how these accessories didn't go well with her appearance —she was ill, coughing intermittently, her fever hadn't gone down, yet, instead of keeping everything light and comfortable, she was dressed to look conservatively good — if there was any fault it was her own for having such bad complexion, and such bony face. What would anyone else think after seeing her —that she was very gaudy and particular about her appearance? Or that this child is too shallow? Was this makeup done precisely to make her into a clown?
Soon a few of the long jewelry pieces formed a ruby flower after being affixed on her bun. Hairpins with two-pronged long needles were inserted to hold the bun in place tightly with the flower placed on top. All those pieces looked too huge to be worn on her body though. Maybe none of them was her own.
On the other hand, the silence stretched for so long that it wore away all traces of cordiality. With a slightly stiffened and annoyed smile on her lips and dulled light in her eyes, that maid quickly finished her work. "It's done! You look so good, miss! Now, you should stay in your room. And if anyone comes, just say you don't feel good enough to go out and meet others."
She slipped away quickly, still not forgetting to remind Wei Zhiruo one last time—
"Ninth miss! Remember, you promised to not go outside. Don't forget, alright? You cannot come out to the banquet tonight!"
Then a gray cloud covered everything, a burning sensation in her mind pulled her out of the dizziness and then she woke up.
***
Wei Zhiruo woke up feeling a bitter taste in her mouth.
It was cold outside. She was still curled up, sleeping inside the boat, so the moisture lingered in her nose, forcing her into shivers. Heavy eyelids seduced her to go back to sleep and keep dreaming, but the tiredness kept her awake. A weakness lingered in her limbs, and cold sweat kept streaming down her forehead. The moment she successfully focused her blind eyes onto the rising mist surrounding her, she heard a loud splashing noise.
"Plop!"
Something quite heavy fell into the waters. Wei Zhiruo tried to rouse her body like dragging it out of a coffin after it had mortifyingly stiffened in there, dead and decaying and refusing to follow her will, and when she successfully raised it halfway, she could only glimpse the direction where the ripples were forming. A few voices reached her ears, as if they were fighting between themselves, the sound of oars furiously parting waters echoed, and then using her spiritual senses she peered at a ghostly looking light coming from a distance. From the outlines she made it out to be two men, holding a dangling hand-held paper lamp making their way to the shore. The light was receding, but Wei Zhiruo still felt weary of them.
"Hurry up! Row faster. Master Shitou is waiting in the hall, nothing can go wrong with this plan today! He asked us to report back as soon as we can."
She heard a middle-aged man whispering loudly, a few grunts of assents followed.
"Are you sure she's tied, brother Tan?"
"Don't worry, I tied that knot myself. There's no way she's escaping from that!"
She shrunk herself further within the boat, almost trying to disappear from the sight. She laid still like that till the voices disappeared and the lights died down completely. Only then did she pick up the oars herself to row the boat towards where she saw the thing being dumped. If she guessed it right, this incident should be more than dumping a sack full of heavy bricks into the water, so dead in the night and in such a secluded area of the mansion.
'Maybe it is the dumping of the corpse instead.' If heard correctly, then a dead corpse of Miss Wei Ziya, the oldest sister of this body, would be drowning in that pond right now. A strange discomfort arose in her body as she thought of that. She didn't like the feeling of this person dying at all…
The distance was hardly far enough. She quickly reached that place and looked down with her spiritual senses. It really wasn't a sack tied at its mouth, just a girl whose waist was tied to a rope and a stone to keep her down and drowning. For several minutes Wei Zhiruo stood there like a statue wondering what she could do, looking at the unconscious person. Can she help? Of course, she could. Will someone track her down because of this? The chances were miniscule but not non-existent.
She thought for a second, then dived.
Cold water hit her nerves, for a moment she herself felt light headed. Then gritting her teeth, she kept moving downwards. Swimming swiftly she monitored the shore to spot any movement with her spiritual senses. When she reached Wei Ziya, she used both of her hands to untie the rope around the girl. The ropes were difficult to untie but it did get done eventually. Then she gripped the girl's hand and pulled her up!
She swam with all her might. The shore wasn't too far away, she just had to swim for a few more minutes. However, she felt the body stir; Wei Ziya's hands were trembling. The girl was struggling to wake up!
"...Mother?"
Wei Zhiruo looked down at the unconscious girl, then swam faster. She hastily dragged Wei Ziya as close to the shore as she could, then disappeared into the water.