The sharp chirping of early summer cicadas, like knives, scraped against the carved window lattices of the west wing of the General's Mansion, piercing Shen Ruorou's eardrums. She stared intently at her reflection in the dressing mirror—her eyes swollen and red like overripe peaches, her dark blue brows stained by tears into two twisted black lines. Her fine pink silk dress was stained with dried tea, and the hem still bore the cracks from the broken porcelain she had dropped that morning. The edge of the diamond-shaped mirror on the table was covered in tiny, spiderweb-like cracks, the third one a result of her striking it with her silver comb. The face reflected in the mirror now looked like a trapped animal caught in a spiderweb.
"Miss, you have been crying for three hours. If you cry any more, your eyes will go blind..." The personal maid Lu'e held the ice handkerchief that was seeping with coolness. Her fingertips twisted wrinkles on the corner of the handkerchief embroidered with lotus, and her voice trembled like fallen leaves in the autumn wind.
Chen Ruorou suddenly raised her hand, and the ice handkerchief "slapped" on the blue brick floor, and the water stains that seeped out quickly spread out: "It would be better if I were blind!" She grabbed the box of preserved fruits inlaid with mother-of-pearl and smashed it hard against the nanmu carved door. Dried black plums mixed with broken porcelain pieces rolled all over the floor. "So that I can avoid seeing this face that is scolded by the whole capital as 'seductive homosexual'!" Her sharp voice hit the beam, startling the swallows on the beam so that they fluttered and flew up.
The door creaked open, and Liu's portly figure lodged in the doorframe. Her red-gold, jade-studded hairpin gleamed glaringly from her hair. She stared at the mess on the floor, her jade armor whitening from pinching against her sleeves. "You idiot! How dare you act so unruly in this house?" Her eyes swept over the shattered porcelain, her cheeks trembling with anger. "I just came back from the Li residence. Mother Li sent someone to bring you a message. She said if you agree to marry, she'll give you the ancestral mutton-fat jade bracelet as a betrothal gift!"
"Marry?" Shen Ruorou suddenly screamed like a broken gong, snatched up the rouge box from the dressing table, and threw it. Her fingertips, stained red by the rouge, turned white from the force. Liu hurriedly dodged to the side, and the rouge box hit the door panel, splattering the cinnabar powder on the carvings like a streak of congealed blood. "Mother, you've been blinded by lard!" She fell to the ground in the mess, the pearl tassel on her bun half loose. "Li Xiu is a homosexual! The servants in the West Street teahouse are saying that he stayed overnight at the inn with the commander of the guards! Do I marry him to be scolded and criticized for the rest of my life?"
Liu's skirt swept half of the dressing table, the mother-of-pearl jewelry box fell to the ground, and the jade headpiece rolled far away: "Bullshit! That's a rumor that Shen Weiwan bought with money!" She rushed in front of Shen Ruorou, poking her daughter's forehead with her fat fingers, and the gold ring hurt Shen Ruorou. "Do you think there is any young man who dares to marry you now? The whole city knows that you and Li Xiu were cuddling in the garden. Only that cripple is now on the same rope with you!"
"I won't marry!" Shen Ruorou suddenly grabbed a handful of broken mirror shards and slashed them across her wrist. The sharp lens flashed a cold light in the twilight. Liu was so frightened that she rushed over and grabbed her wrist, her nails digging into her daughter's flesh, and blood instantly seeped out: "My little ancestor! If you die, I will not live either!" She held Shen Ruorou's hand tightly, her fat face flushed red. "Do you think that little bitch Shen Weiwan will let us go? Only by tying ourselves up with Li Xiu can we join forces to take revenge!"
"Revenge?" Shen Ruorou laughed so hard that her whole body trembled. Her hair was disheveled like weeds. Tears mixed with powder flowed into the corners of her mouth. "Li Xiu's father has resigned and returned home! Yesterday, when I went to Xiangguo Temple, even the little monk sweeping the floor pointed at me and laughed at me, saying 'a lover with a broken sleeve'!" She suddenly grabbed Liu's arm, digging her nails deep into the fat. "It's all your fault! If you hadn't coveted the general's estate and insisted that I snatch Shen Weiwan's hand in marriage, how could I have ended up like this!"
"Pa—" The crisp sound of slapping echoed throughout the room. Liu shook her aching palm, the red gold necklace on her chest dazzling. "Rebellious girl! You dare to blame me? If you hadn't insisted on snatching that marriage, would you have gotten involved with that unlucky Li Xiu?"
Shen Ruorou clutched her burning cheeks, her eyes suddenly blazing with resentment. She stared at her own disheveled appearance in the mirror, then suddenly grabbed the golden hairpin from the dressing table and pressed it fiercely against her throat. "I'll die in front of you today! You'll have to starve with that homosexual Li Xiu!" The sharp tip of the hairpin pierced her skin, oozing tiny drops of blood.
"Don't!" Liu was so frightened that her face turned pale. She knelt on the ground and hugged her daughter's legs. The pearl flowers on her bun fell on Shen Ruorou's skirt. "Okay, okay! If you don't want to marry, then don't marry! Isn't it okay if mother won't force you?"
Just then, Lu'e stumbled in, her skirt stained with grass debris: "Madam! Miss! There's a new joke outside... outside!"
Liu shouted angrily: "What kind of dirty talk are you talking about?"
Lu'e shivered and twisted the corner of her clothes, her voice as soft as a mosquito's: "The children are singing... 'Second Miss Chen, how pitiful! She's having fun in the brothels, but no one wants her to marry. She's crying to the heavens in the general's mansion.'"
"Ah!" Shen Ruorou roared like a trapped animal, shoving Liu away. Like a madman, she grabbed everything on the dressing table and threw it out the window. Powder boxes, combs, jade headpieces, and bronze mirror fragments rained down, hitting the pomegranate tree in the courtyard and startling the sparrows. A piece of broken mirror ripped through the window paper and landed on the forehead of the little maid who was cleaning in the corridor, oozing blood.
Meanwhile, in the Qinghui Courtyard of the General's Mansion, Chen Weiwan was picking lychees, tribute fruit from Lingnan, with a silver skewer. The translucent flesh shimmered in a white jade dish. Chuntao squatted under the grape trellis, her shoulders shaking with laughter. "Miss, you didn't see it! The Second Miss smashed the dressing table! Madam Liu knelt on the ground and kowtowed, her forehead bleeding!"
Shen Weiwan spat the litchi seeds into the agate dish, a cold smile on her lips: "Oh? She finally knows how to be afraid?" Her fingertips slid across the edge of the cold jade dish, leaving a wet mark.
"That's right!" Chuntao counted on her fingers. "Now the whole capital knows that the second young lady is having an affair with a homosexual. The Minister of Personnel's family burned the engagement letter this morning! And the son of Censor Zhang's family, I heard he said in public at a poetry gathering yesterday, 'I'd rather marry a beggar girl than a homosexual lover!'"
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