Never Merely a Stand-In - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Then one day, a crowd of sword-bearing guards poured into the house.

And I understood.

Oh, crumbs.

My father-in-law was a colossal embezzler. He had been skimming for half his life and had piled up mountains of gold and silver.

The most ironic part was this: he lined his pockets to bursting, while my husband’s elder brother was an official with nothing but clean hands.

He ate and lived no better than the common folk, and when the floods came he jumped into the breach himself to plug the gap and nearly got swept away.

It made no difference. He was his father’s son, he had lived off his father’s fortune, and there was no tearing him free of it.

Everyone in the household, from top to bottom, was lined up and marched off to prison.

The cells were cold and damp. I gripped Jiang Yunsheng’s hand and comforted him with a show of calm. “Don’t be afraid. I know people on the inside.”

For once he didn’t smile. He only drew a crumpled piece of paper from his robes.

Written in haste.

It was a writ of separation.

“Xiangrong, it’s come to this, so don’t talk about knowing people. My father’s case is too big. Take the writ and go.”

My husband’s elder brother wrote one for my sister-in-law too.

Her family came and took her back.

My own family acted as though they had no such daughter, and cut themselves loose from me early.

I refused to go. I held Jiang Yunsheng and told him I would think of something.

In truth I had no idea.

But I still sent word to Rong Xiuyuan through an intermediary.

The one who answered was a female official from the Crown Princess’s household, her tone cool and distant. “His Highness says the two of you are long since even. There is no need to come again.”

I had only myself to blame for believing in him, for thinking that because he was Crown Prince he could do anything—forgetting that above the Crown Prince there was still his father.

The case was far too big. The silver my father-in-law had stolen could have filled the national treasury, and if the Crown Prince dared reach in to pull a man out, the Emperor would be the first to make his life miserable.

Even true father and son must keep their accounts clear, let alone a father and son of the imperial house, with the dragon throne and the knife’s edge between them.

I sat down heavily beside Jiang Yunsheng and said, my voice hoarse, “The man behind me is dead. Gone.”

He didn’t press me further. He only passed me the half of a steamed bun he had been saving, and reached over to tuck the loose hair at my temples behind my ear.

His eyes were brimming, but his mouth forced itself into a curve of a smile.

“Xiangrong, this business could easily end with our heads coming off. I said I’d buy you that jade bracelet from Linglong Pavilion as a New Year’s gift. I can’t do it now. All I have left is half a bun. Don’t turn your nose up at it.”

I leaned on his shoulder and gnawed at that half bun, bite by bite.

My tears fell into it, salt and bitter.

But I smiled and said, “This is the best thing I’ve ever eaten.”

If I could go down to the Yellow Springs with him, perhaps in the next life we could be reborn together.

Brother and sister in the next life, or husband and wife—it made no difference. So long as we were still together, this life would not have been wasted.

Then a sudden pain at the back of my neck, a blackness before my eyes, and I knew nothing more.

When I woke, I was lying on the heated brick bed of a farmhouse, covered with a clean quilt.

The old woman brought me a bowl of hot soup and said someone had carried me there and told her to look after me well.

Only then did it come to me: when Jiang Yunsheng pushed the writ of separation into my hands, he had also hidden a hundred taels in silver notes in the sole of my shoe.

And he had bribed the jailers and had me carried out under cover of night.

I asked the old woman how many days had passed.

She said three.

I hurried back to the city, and from a distance I was just in time to see my father-in-law dragged to the execution ground.

The blade came down. His head rolled into the dust.

The rest had long since been on the road to exile.

I covered my face with my sleeve, and only after the crowd had scattered did I secretly gather up my father-in-law’s body and lay it in a coffin.

I didn’t dare show my face. If anyone recognized me as the kin of a convicted official, they would beat me to death on the spot.