Chapter 44: Seeking Death
Now Phoenix Ripple Courtyard was truly in chaos.
The maids and accompanying servants were hastily packing things, wishing they could move the entire courtyard away.
Pear Moon, fearing things might get lost, ignored the injury on her hand and carried the salted duck jar into the room.
No one was managing the small kitchen, and no one had arranged dinner either, as everyone assumed Shen Shi wouldn’t be able to eat.
For a married woman to be sent back to her maiden home—what a humiliation it was.
Mama Hu and the other accompanying servants also hung their heads, staring at each other wide-eyed.
They were well aware of the Shen family’s methods for disciplining servants; returning would certainly not end well for them.
Now the world in Phoenix Ripple Courtyard had turned upside down, and those from Ningguo Mansion finally lifted their heads in pride.
Even the coarse maids and old women could swagger as they walked.
Pear Moon also felt happy, but being steady by nature, she wasn’t too wild about it.
If Shen Shi were truly divorced, the house-born maids would likely be reassigned to other courtyards.
After all, working in any courtyard would be better than staying here and starving.
She placed a small pot on the charcoal stove, reheated the lamb-fat meat pies sent by the Qin family, and shared them with Huan Huan and Autumn Abundance.
Both of their buttocks were swollen, so they lay on the kang to eat, cursing Shen Shi between bites for deserving her fate.
The lamb-fat meat pies were originally crispy and fragrant, but after reheating, the meat juices soaked through the dough, making them soft, tender, and even more delicious.
The three of them devoured a large packet of meat pies, their mouths greasy, leaving not a single crumb behind.
As they happily ate their meat pies, the main courtyard was shrouded in gloom.
Zhi Qing helped Shen Shi back to the Warm Pavilion, unsure how to console her.
She only cried out, “Why didn’t you listen to my advice?” before sitting on the floor, covering her face and weeping.
The other maids looked awkward, leaning here and there, no longer attending to their duties.
It was already dark, yet no one lit the lamps. In the courtyard, Granny He was still cursing.
The old woman had her cane kicked in half and was still tied up with ropes.
She had been throwing her weight around these past days, making many enemies, so no one came to untie her.
Only Zhi Lan and Xiang Cao couldn’t bear to watch and ran over to help her up.
Aside from Shen Shi, Zhi Lan was the most disheartened today.
She had finally worked her way up to becoming a chamber maid, but before she could even get close to the Young Master, her mistress was divorced.
Ningguo Mansion had no reason to divorce the lady but keep her accompanying chamber maid.
Her status had been ruined by Shen Shi’s actions, and she was seething with hatred.
She still wanted to enter the Main Chamber to ask Shen Shi if she could stay and not leave, but Zhi Qing blocked the doorway.
“You wretched, jinxing creature, how dare you come in? Get out!”
Zhi Qing was annoyed at the sight of her and spoke harshly.
Zhi Lan, who prided herself on being a chamber maid and thought herself above the others, tried to push her way in, raising her head and shouting:
“The young lady is still young and hasn’t even lost her maidenhood. Why stay in the Ning family as a living widow? When we return to our maiden home, the master is a first-rank official, and the madam has many connections. They can find the young lady a handsome, scholarly husband. Don’t let this distress ruin your health!”
How considerate she thought she was!
Little did she know her words were like a death sentence. Shen Shi immediately burst into tears.
The Shen family was a scholarly household; there were no divorced women in the clan, and no remarried women in the family.
Shen Shi couldn’t simply remarry someone else like a divorced woman from a humble family.
Zhi Lan craned her neck, about to shout more nonsense, but Zhi Qing could no longer hold back and slapped her across the face.
“Get out!”
“You little whore, who do you think you are, daring to hit me?”
Struck, Zhi Lan grabbed Zhi Qing’s hair and dragged her to the ground, tearing at her clothes and hair in a chaotic scuffle.
“Get out! All of you, get out! I’ll sell every one of you off! No one will have it easy!”
Shen Shi’s hoarse, desperate shout finally stopped them.
Zhi Qing buried her head and wept bitterly in grievance.
Angelica Orchid picked up the hairpin from the floor, spat fiercely, and stormed out of the room onto the corridor, continuing her tirade.
“If you don’t have the diamond, don’t take on the porcelain work—why put on airs as if you’re from a scholarly family, acting like a noble young lady? You show off your pride and act aloof in front of your husband and mother-in-law, only to end up killing us servants! Since ancient times, a capable man doesn’t rely on family inheritance, and a virtuous woman doesn’t depend on her dowry clothes—who can predict what will come from a woman’s apron strings? Putting on a show of not consummating the marriage with your husband, yet monopolizing him and forbidding his chamber maids from serving—what kind of heart do you have? Bringing your family’s tormenting ways to your in-laws’ home, without even considering if you have the fate for it!”
Fragrant Grass supported Granny He, and seeing her sister disheveled as she emerged from the Main Chamber, thought Shen Shi had beaten her.
Mother and daughter, unwilling to back down, hobbled up the corridor and also began shouting inside.
“Others’ servants follow their masters to earn silver and face; we follow our master only to earn beatings. You’re useless yourself—your husband looks down on you, your mother-in-law detests you—yet you take it out on us servants. Pah! Divorcing you is a blessing!”
“You married into this family and brought death upon your father-in-law, without ever considering that you’re a jinx, a calamity! If they don’t divorce you, I’m afraid you’ll bring ruin upon them, leaving them without descendants! Shameless creature—anyone else would have hanged themselves by now!”
Granny He and her two daughters, disregarding any master-servant bond, blocked the corridor with their insults.
Those inside the room and courtyard stood dumbfounded, listening—not one came out to intervene.
When Madam Ning was present earlier, Shen Shi could still hold on.
But she never expected that when the wall collapses, everyone pushes—even her own dowry maids would come to point and curse at her face.
Shen Shi choked with sobs, weeping as if her heart were bleeding.
Having vented her anger, Granny He supported her granddaughter and went to sit in the Small Tea Room.
After speaking her mind, Fragrant Grass worriedly asked, “Grandma, if we curse her like this, what if she complains?”
“What kind of household is our Shen family, to allow a married daughter to be sent back? She still thinks she can complain!”
Granny He’s waist and legs ached, her dark, wrinkled face piled like coarse bark.
“If she doesn’t die tonight, it will be our fault! Angelica Orchid, go to the Storehouse and find two bolts of narrow silk, toss them into her Warm Pavilion, so she won’t have trouble finding them at night. Fragrant Grass, brew plenty of clear tea. I’ll gather some old women and wait here to prepare for the aftermath.”
The old woman spoke calmly, frightening the sisters into trembling with fear, and they hurried off to their tasks.
Not long after, Mama Hu and others close to Granny He quietly gathered.
The matrons drank tea and began complaining among themselves.
“We finally landed in Ningguo Mansion, where we aren’t beaten or cursed daily, our food, clothing, and expenses are almost like the masters’, and we even receive monthly silver. Yet our young lady is so useless, provoking her husband’s and mother-in-law’s disdain, dragging us all down with her. It doesn’t matter if she’s divorced, but if we’re forced back to the Shen family, will we have to eat chaff and swallow vegetables?”
Among the noble households of the capital, the Shen family rose from farming and scholarship, having only been in the capital for one generation.
Though there were many servants in the Shen residence, their income was meager, and they treated their servants with extreme harshness.
Male and female servants in the Shen household received no monthly silver, and three meals a day were often lacking.
Chamber maids barely had enough to eat, while rough laborers often went hungry.
The matrons and maids all longed to leave, risking life and limb to follow Shen Shi when she married out.
Having enjoyed only three years of comfort, how could they be willing to return?
“The Shen family has no daughters who have been divorced! Though the Ningguo Mansion has wronged her, she is also shameless. If she truly returns to her parents’ home, who will stand up for her? She should hang herself with a rope, so that her parents and brothers can come to demand justice for her!”
“Exactly! Usually, she puts on the airs of a noble young lady, but at a critical moment, she becomes weak-willed and doesn’t even dare to die? Wouldn’t returning to her parents’ home also mean death? Rather than shaming her parents, brothers, and sisters-in-law, it would be better to hang herself in her husband’s home—that would at least show some fortitude!”
Fragrant Grass, tending to the tea stove, only then realized that everyone was hoping Shen Shi would take her own life.
If Shen Shi died tonight, everything could be settled.
Out of face, the Ningguo Mansion would have to bury her with the rites befitting the eldest daughter-in-law.
In that case, all of them, the Shen family’s accompanying servants, would not have to leave.
Thinking of the three taels of silver monthly allowance in the Ningguo Mansion, along with the many silk garments, Fragrant Grass no longer felt afraid.
Through the dim, dusky light, she gazed expectantly at the Main Chamber.
As the sky darkened and the moon rose high, a sudden, piercing cry came from the Main Chamber:
“Something terrible has happened! The young lady has hanged herself! Someone, come quickly!”