My elder half-sister was the mistress of a military household, cool and unassuming as a chrysanthemum. She brought back a woman from beyond the frontier and wanted to take her as a co-wife, but my sister neither argued nor objected. To defend her, I uncovered the woman's sordid past and went to great lengths to find proof that she had colluded with the enemy and betrayed our country. The woman from beyond the frontier killed herself out of fear of punishment, yet my sister blamed me for being hard-hearted and merciless, then prayed and abstained from meat for a month on her behalf.
When one of her concubines provoked her, my sister put on a show of magnanimity. Even when someone poisoned her, she never complained. I ate the poisoned pastries to protect her, and died. The concubine was sentenced to death. Feeling guilty, she promised my sister that they would be together for the rest of their lives, just the two of them, to make up for the pain of losing her younger sister. My sister remained cool and unassuming as a chrysanthemum. She didn't shed a single tear at my funeral.
“Ah Wu was impatient for success and cruel. She brought this on herself with all that jealousy. She got what she deserved.”
My heart turned completely cold. For her, I had been willing to become a blade, my hands drenched in blood, only to meet a miserable end. She was cool and unassuming as a chrysanthemum, did nothing at all, and still came out the winner.
After I died, I returned to the day we came home. The woman from beyond the frontier appeared before my sister once again.
