The early summer cicadas' chirping, sticky as insoluble maltose, rasped their raspy voices beneath the mottled green-tiled eaves of the Li Mansion. The sun scorched the stone lions at the gate, but it couldn't dispel the air of decadence that permeated the air. Ever since rumors of Li Xiu's "homosexuality" spread like a plague through the capital, this mansion, once maintaining its respectability through a thin layer of face, had long since become a den of rats. Matchmaker Wang, who had beamed at the door three days ago, bearing dragon and phoenix cakes, this morning took a detour three blocks away, her embroidered shoes threatening to kick up stones on the road, fearing they would touch the door lintel. In the main room, Li's mother, Wang, clutched a crumpled engagement letter, her knuckles rubbing deep indentations on the carved armrests of the armchair. The indigo brocade handkerchief was tangled, its threads nearly unraveling, revealing the frayed warp and weft beneath.

"Bang!" The carved wooden door was violently kicked open, its rotten hinges creaking harshly. The hem of Li Xiu's gray cloth cloak was still stained with half a rotten cabbage leaf, and the dark green mold stain, like an ugly birthmark, stuck firmly to the faded brocade. He limped along the blue brick floor, leaving two black marks. Strands of hay were caught in his messy hair, and there was a bruise under his left eye, but his eye sockets were red as if he had just fished out of a pool of blood. "Mother! It's that little bitch Shen Weiwan again! She must have bribed every blind storyteller in town!"

Wang suddenly stood up and slammed the crumpled engagement letter across Li Xiu's face. The edge of the inferior rice paper scraped across his cheekbone, leaving a red mark. "Kill? What are you going to kill me with?" Her shrill voice shook the spiderwebs on the beams, dust falling off. Her fat body trembled with anger, and the jade belt buckle around her waist creaked from being tightened. "Are you going to prance around in front of the general's mansion with your lame leg that was broken by your lover? Huh? Look at what people are singing on the streets now - 'Li Quezi, the man with the broken sleeves, hiding in the brothel on West Street, his lover broke his leg fighting for his love, and he cheated on his beautiful wife in the general's mansion'!" She became more and more excited as she spoke, her saliva splashing on Li Xiu's forehead. "Your father handed in his resignation yesterday, and his fifth-rank official hat fell to the ground with a clang. Even his old colleagues in the Hanlin Academy are avoiding him!"

Li Xiu staggered under Geng Tie's blow, his back slamming against the peeling plaster wall. He then leaped up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on: "She's the one who spread the rumors! I'm not gay!"

"No?" Wang picked up the gilded feather duster on the table and lashed him with it. The sandalwood handle hit Li Xiu's shoulder blade with a dull "crackling" sound, and the peacock feathers on the duster fell off and stuck to his messy hair: "Did that gilded postcard from the 'Mianhualou' on West Street fall from the sky? Did the embroidered handkerchief on your sleeve slip into it on its own? Huh?" She hit him harder and harder, her voice changing with anger. "Now look what's happening! The Wang family tore up the engagement letter and smashed the betrothal gift box. When the Zhang family sent someone to deliver the divorce letter, they refused to even enter the house. Even Old Wang, the tofu seller at the street corner, pointed at our ancestral grave and cursed us as 'a traitor who will have no descendants!'"

The feathers from the feather duster clung to Li Xiu's shoulders, but he stood as straight as a wooden stake, allowing his mother to whip him. The setting sun shone through the dilapidated window lattice, casting a dark wave of resentment in his eyes: "It was Shen Ruorou who seduced me first! She stuffed snacks into my study every day and said Shen Weiwan was a fool and that marrying her would give me the key to the general's mansion's treasury! And that old hag, Liu, promised me 30% of the family fortune after I succeeded!"

"Still mentioning Chen Ruorou?" Wang was so angry that her throat made a hoarse sound, as if an invisible hand was pinching her neck, and the powder on her face fell off. "The second young lady has to wear a three-layered veil when she goes out now. The other day, when she went to Xiangguo Temple to burn incense, the old nun in the Sutra Repository pointed at her spine and called her a 'homosexual lover'. She fainted on the spot! Liu sent someone to say that she wanted to cut ties with our family and even returned the tonics she sent unopened!"

Before she finished speaking, a servant suddenly cried out from outside the door: "Madam! The old lady has fainted!"

Wang's feather duster clattered to the ground, her heart gripping like an icicle as she stumbled out of the room. Beneath the pomegranate tree next to the toilet, Li Xiu's grandmother lay slumped against the mossy stone railing, foam hanging from the corners of her mouth, her eyes rolled back. She had just helped her maid to the toilet, and over the low wall, she heard the urchins at the alley singing the jingle "Lover Breaks the Leg." She had come back breathless. The servant beside her trembled like a leaf in the autumn wind, his teeth chattering. "When the old lady heard the word 'Duanxiu,' she just collapsed..."

"You bastard! Go get Doctor Liu!" Wang rushed to Li's mother's side, her nails digging into the old woman's sallow philtrum. The cuff of her lotus-embroidered sleeve rubbed against the moss on the stone railing, leaving a dark green stain. Li Xiu followed behind, his arrogance instantly extinguished as he saw his grandmother's trouser legs drooping as she fainted. His limp leg gave way, and he knelt on the ground, his lips trembling, unable to speak. Only turbid tears streamed down his cheeks, washing away the dusty dirt.

Meanwhile, in the Qinghui Courtyard of the General's Mansion, Chen Weiwan was stabbing a chilled watermelon with a silver fork. Red juice dripped down the edge of the white jade plate, leaving dark, wet stains on the tablecloth. Chuntao squatted under the grape trellis, her shoulders shaking with laughter, the pomegranate blossoms in her hair nearly falling off. "Miss, you didn't see it! Li's mother woke up, grabbed a broom, and chased Li Xiu, beating him and cursing, 'You gay son, you're killing me!' The broom bristles flew all over the yard, and only the servants intervened to prevent his legs from being broken!"

"Fainted in the toilet from crying?" Chen Weiwan chuckled, watermelon juice splashing on her moon-white skirt, but she didn't care. She wiped it casually with a handkerchief, her fingertips tracing the cool lines of the jade paperweight. "This Li's mother is quite a character. She plays the 'broken sleeve' drama better than any other troupe." She put down her silver fork and looked at the sunlight filtering through the grape leaves. Her eyes suddenly turned as cold as ice. "That mad dog Li Xiu can't take care of himself now, so it's time for that old hag Liu to take care of him."

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!