Liang Zuo returns from the battlefield crippled, unable to stand on his own two legs.
And so, on the first and fifteenth of every month, the arrival of the woman he loves becomes the only comfort in his days of recuperation.
The woman always comes before nightfall. He can’t make out her face, but they talk, embrace, kiss, and comfort each other physically.
Under her care, feeling soon returns to Liang Zuo’s legs. Then an accident causes them to cross the line for good.
Afterward, Liang Zuo holds the woman, drenched from head to toe, and says he wants to marry her.
At the time, he doesn’t understand why her back stiffens in an instant. After all, he is of noble status, while her husband is merely an utterly inconsequential servant in the residence. Arranging for them to divorce would be no trouble at all.
Until Liang Zuo realizes he has guessed the woman’s identity wrong.
Her husband isn’t some servant. He’s Liang Shao, Liang Zuo’s younger brother and the second young master of the marquis’s household.
He has slept with his younger brother’s wife.
*
Liang Shao has grown up surrounded by wealth and has never been interested in anything, including the dull wife his elders foisted on him.
Looking for some amusement, Liang Shao persuades his wife to hide her identity and “look after” his poor older brother for six months.
As he expected, although his wife is upset, she ultimately refuses to say no.
After all, she loves him so much that she’d do anything for him, doesn’t she?
Just as he predicted, everything goes smoothly. His brother doesn’t recognize the woman in his arms and simply thinks she’s a servant’s wife.
He kisses her as if she were a bodhisattva.
At first, hearing the sounds from the other side of the wall excites Liang Shao. But as time passes and he watches his wife grow more and more wanton in his brother’s arms, he starts to feel uneasy.
He can’t quite say what’s bothering him.
He thinks he might be starting to regret this.
At last, the six months are up, and his wife returns to his side.
Seeing that she still loves him as much as before, Liang Shao is reassured.
They have a child, and when his older brother happens to run into his wife, they exchange no more than a few pleasantries. The two have no further involvement with each other.
The secret, shameless affair in the night seems never to have happened.
Until, at the child’s one-month celebration, Liang Shao searches everywhere for his wife. When she returns, it is two incense sticks later.
She puts food in his bowl and calls him “dear” in her usual gentle voice.
She is standing so close that when she lowers her head, Liang Shao happens to glimpse a faint kiss mark at her neck.
Liang Shao looks up, his eyes settling on his older brother’s empty seat in the distance. His fist slowly tightens.
Only then does he realize that his wife may never have stopped meeting his brother in secret.
If so, whose child is the one in his arms?
*The heroine was never entered into the Liang family genealogy, and her marriage to the younger brother is not legally valid, so there is no ethical issue. 2026/10/8.
(I couldn’t make the previous plot idea work, so I changed it to this. Sorry, everyone. Follow or unfollow as you like.)
Theme: Live each day well and keep striving.
