Pomegranate Blossoms and a Fiery Steed

My parents spent twelve years guarding the northern frontier.

I spent those twelve years waiting in my maternal grandparents’ old house.

My only companion was an elderly, hard-of-hearing nurse. In her care, I grew up coarse and ill-mannered.

Lin Ruoheng, raised in Mother’s camp, learned to read and write, to play the qin and paint. Mother taught her everything herself.

She was the orphaned daughter of one of Father’s fallen comrades. She entered the general’s household at five and stayed for twelve years, looking more like its rightful daughter than I ever did.

In my previous life, I hated her.

So I used every means I could to marry the man she held dearest.

Later, Lin Ruoheng was implicated in her husband’s crimes and banished with him to distant Shu.

Pei Heng laid the blame at my feet.

He would not let me wear new clothes. He would not let me smile.

The road to Shu was hard, he said. Lin Ruoheng was suffering. What right did I have to enjoy myself?

In the third year of our marriage, I fell ill.

But when he heard that Lin Ruoheng was unwell, he left, taking every physician in the household with him.

He even ordered the servants not to summon an outside doctor to treat me.

Only when my fever grew so high that I could no longer swallow broth or water did he return. He sat beside my bed, his eyes red for the first time.

“Nianyue, hold on a little longer. When you’re well, we’ll go fly kites again. Like we used to…”

I could no longer remember what “used to” meant.

I did not hold on. At nineteen, I breathed my last.

When I opened my eyes again, the room smelled of tea.

Mother was holding a length of pomegranate-red fabric, choosing material for Lin Ruoheng’s new clothes. They were discussing what she should wear to meet the heir to the Marquis of Anyuan as a prospective bride.

I spoke before anyone else could.

“Pomegranate red suits Sister Ruoheng’s complexion best. If she walks into the marquis’s residence dressed all in red, she’ll outshine even a new bride. Everyone is sure to praise her.”