The autumn sun in Bianjing slanted through the carved window lattice. I held a half-embroidered handkerchief and watched my mother, Wei Xiaoniang, leaning on the couch and drinking a bowl of freshly cooked bird's nest porridge. The soup was as milky white as fat, with a few golden osmanthus flowers floating on it. But when she lowered her head, I saw a few tea stains spreading in the dark lines at the bottom of her sleeves - those were the tea stains in the eldest lady's hand when Madam Zhou, who was next to her, deliberately knocked over the tea cup when she was delivering supplements yesterday afternoon.
"Girl, it's time for lunch." Luzhi called me softly, but his eyes fell on the mutton-fat jade bracelet on my mother's wrist. This bracelet was sent by Miss Lin the day before yesterday. It was said to be a gift for her pregnant sister, but the lotus pattern engraved on the inside of the bracelet was clearly a dowry gift for the eldest lady. I gently rubbed the corner of the handkerchief with my fingertips, and the embroidery needle poked a light red mark on my palm. It was much blunter than the people in this house.
The Sheng family's back house has never been a fuel-saving lamp. His father, Sheng Hong, is now on duty at the Hanlin Academy, and the family's inner palace is managed by the eldest wife, Wang. There is also Lin Xiaoniang, Mo Lan, who is good at pretending to be virtuous and is used to shedding tears in front of his father. After my mother became pregnant, the house suddenly became lively. Today the eldest lady sent supplements, and tomorrow Miss Lin sent people to send clothes. Even sister Rulan, who never walked around much, came twice, saying she wanted to see "how the begonias in my sister's house are blooming."
