The Spoiled Daughter

Morning light streamed through the lattice window. Fuzhi stood before the couch with her head bowed:

"Miss, the eldest miss fainted last night after kneeling for an hour. I did not dare make the decision myself, so I could only send her back to her courtyard first. By the time I returned, you and Young Master Zhigui had already retired, so I did not dare disturb you."

Qiao Shuyi held her teacup and gave a contemptuous laugh.

"Heh, so she's learned to use these little tricks."

She lowered her eyes and took a sip of tea, her tone so mild that no pleasure or anger could be discerned:

"But... Fuzhi, I told you to watch her kneel for two hours as punishment, and two hours it was to be. So what if she fainted? Couldn't you wake her with a splash of water? Couldn't you wake her with a needle?"

She raised her eyes and looked at Fuzhi:

"By sending her back to her courtyard, weren't you telling everyone in the household that all they have to do is play tricks and pretend to faint to break my rules?"

Fuzhi's face went deathly pale. She dropped to her knees with a thud and knocked her forehead against the floor, again and again:

"Forgive me, miss! Forgive me! I was wrong, I didn't think it through. Please have mercy, miss!"

She kowtowed over and over, her voice trembling, but she did not dare stop.

Qiao Shuyi simply sat upright, leisurely sipping her tea.

Just then, footsteps sounded outside the curtain. Qingyan lifted it and hurried in to report:

"Miss, the madam is here."

Qiao Shuyi gently set down her teacup, smoothed her skirts and stood.

As she passed Fuzhi, the hem of her skirt brushed the trembling figure prostrate on the floor.

"Fuzhi," she said unhurriedly from above her, "since you spared my elder sister that hour of kneeling, you can kneel in her place for that hour."

Fuzhi stiffened, then bobbed her head in a flurry of kowtows:

"Thank you for your leniency, miss! Thank you for your kindness, miss!"

The main hall.

Liu Jinyu sat upright in the seat of honor, her expression slightly grave.

She held a cup of tea but did not drink, merely letting the steam rise in wisps and veil half her face.

When Qiao Shuyi entered the hall, she saw her mother sitting like that.

Without breaking stride, she walked straight over and called softly:

"Mother, what brings you here?"

"I heard you punished Shuqin last night?"

Qiao Shuyi sat down beside her and gave a casual "Mm."

"Why?"

"She was coveting my man."

At those words, Liu Jinyu set her teacup down on the table with a bang. Tea splashed out, soaking a corner of the tabletop.

"Did you really snatch a man and bring him into the manor?"

Qiao Shuyi tilted her head at her and smiled openly:

"Of course. Why wouldn't it be true?"

Liu Jinyu nearly lost her breath. She pressed a hand to her chest and sighed repeatedly:

"Oh, heavens-it's all my fault, all my fault for spoiling you rotten since you were little!"

She reached out and tapped her daughter on the forehead:

"Shushu, when have your father and I ever objected to you finding a man to marry into the family? As long as he came from a respectable family, I could accept him. But you-how could you just snatch a man off the street and bring him home? Do you know his family's circumstances? Do you know whether he has a wife or concubines? Do you know whether his background is clean?"

Qiao Shuyi let her tap away without dodging, listening to her scolding with a smile.

Only when she had finished did Qiao Shuyi speak, taking her time:

"Mother, of course I looked into him. He's just a commoner whose family has fallen on hard times. He has neither wife nor concubines."

She had not lied about that.

She had taken a fancy to that face after catching a fleeting glimpse of him on the street that day.

Later, she had sent people to inquire into his background-

Of course, it was the false background Zongzheng Heng had established in Jinzhou. However much they looked, he was no more than an impoverished scholar, alone in the world, with both parents dead and no wife.

He was respectable and so handsome besides. Wouldn't it have been a shameful waste of heaven's gifts not to snatch him home?

"You know what your daughter is like. The men you and Father found for me before were all so sanctimonious, and their looks really didn't please my eye. I had no choice but to find one myself."

"Mother, I've never lacked money or power, not since I was little. When it comes to finding a man-of course I should find one I like."

For a moment, Liu Jinyu did not know whether to laugh or cry.

They really had spoiled this child rotten.

But so what if they had?

Her daughter should naturally have whatever she wanted.

"Yes, you like him. You like him, so you locked him in the woodshed, made him kneel and had him dragged off to the water dungeon?"

"Mother, he was the one who wouldn't behave."

"But you were the one who snatched him straight into the manor. Did he ever agree to it?"

"Mother-"

Qiao Shuyi drew out the word and shook her sleeve coquettishly, blinking her almond-shaped eyes, all innocence:

"Before, whenever there was something I liked or wanted, didn't you and Father always bring it to me yourselves? Now that I'm grown up, I can find ways to get the things I like myself. Shouldn't you be happy for me?"

Liu Jinyu was left speechless.

What the child said... didn't seem wrong?

Yet on closer thought, everything about it was wrong.

She sighed and rubbed her temples:

"That temper of yours... I truly don't know what to do with you."

Qiao Shuyi leaned over, linked arms with her and rested her head on her shoulder, saying softly:

"Mother, don't worry. I know what I can and can't do. But here in Jinzhou, with you and Father here, what can't I do?"

Liu Jinyu looked at her daughter's utterly self-assured face and found herself unable to come up with a rebuttal.

Indeed, here in Jinzhou, with her and Qiao Nanyu present, their daughter really could have whatever she wanted and do as she pleased.

But what about outside Jinzhou?

She fell silent for a moment, then spoke more seriously:

"That's true. As long as you know where to draw the line. But... once you leave Jinzhou, you absolutely mustn't do anything like this."

She paused and lowered her voice:

"The new emperor has just ascended the throne, and the court is in need of people. Outside Jinzhou, who knows whom you might encounter? If you accidentally offend one of the newly powerful people the emperor has promoted, I'm afraid even your father might not be able to protect you."

Qiao Shuyi's eyelashes trembled slightly.

"Did Father... tell you all this?"

Liu Jinyu nodded:

"Mm. Your father asked me to tell you to rein yourself in."

Qiao Shuyi lowered her eyes, concealing the flash of coldness in them.

Qiao Nanyu wanted her to rein herself in?

Heh.

He was hardly concerned for his daughter. He was plainly afraid that if she drew too much attention, she would attract the emperor's spies and ruin his grand plan to train troops in secret.

He thought the new emperor was still the same new emperor, but he did not know that this "new emperor" was in his daughter's courtyard at this very moment, waiting to get something on him.

Qiao Shuyi leaned against her mother's shoulder, still wearing the same sweet, innocent expression, while a thousand thoughts raced through her mind.

If Qiao Nanyu truly cared for her as his daughter, even if he had only a shred of sincerity, she would have been willing to give him a few pointers, urge him to stop, or at least think of a way for him to slip away like a cicada shedding its shell and save the lives of the whole family, young and old.

Unfortunately.

Qiao Nanyu had only ever used her and her mother, without a shred of genuine affection.

In that case, what did the Qiao Family's destruction have to do with her?

Qiao Nanyu's rebellion was a nail hammered into a board.

Even without her, even if Zongzheng Heng did not find evidence through her, the emperor's hidden guards would discover traces of it sooner or later.

It was only a matter of time.

What she had to worry about now was not the Qiao Family.

It was her mother.

Liu Jinyu had no guile; the only man in her eyes and heart was Qiao Nanyu.

She loved him with all her heart and believed he loved her just as much.

If one day the entire Qiao Family were executed for rebellion-

Her foolish mother would probably follow him in death for love.

Qiao Shuyi rested against her mother's shoulder and gently nuzzled her, as she had when acting spoiled as a child.

But her eyes were clear.

She had to think of a way.

A way to make Mother see Qiao Nanyu's true face.

And let Mother leave this upheaval alive.

But... for the moment, she could not think of a way to accomplish both.