On the morning of the twelfth day, Consort Wei could no longer ignore the nearly empty rice jar. She stood abruptly.
"Stay here," she ordered.
Lin Yue rose. "Mother—"
"Stay," her mother said harshly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~♡
Consort Wei walked the long path back to the main residence alone, her skirts brushing the polished stone.
When she reached Lady Han's home, she found the legal wife seated with cool composure beneath embroidered cranes and bamboo tapestries. Lady Han blew softly on her tea, eyes fixed on Consort Wei, who dropped to her knees.
"My lady," Consort Wei began.
Lady Han let out a loud sigh and rolled her eyes.
"The rations aren't enough. The child is weak," Consort Wei said desperately.
Lady Han did not offer her tea.
"The household faces many expenses," she said, voice bored.
"We ask only for rice," Consort Wei said, "a small allowance until—"
"Until what? Ha! Lord Shen has no interest in that cursed girl." Lady Han laughed, shaking her handkerchief at Consort Wei.
Consort Wei's hands tightened, nails biting into her palms.
"She is six," Lady Han said, leaning back, studying her carefully. "Yes, and already a problem."
Consort Wei blinked. "My lady?"
Lady Han's gaze sharpened. "Have you not noticed how visitors look at her?"
Consort Wei hesitated. "She does nothing improper."
"That is precisely the issue," Lady Han said smoothly. She looked down at her freshly dyed nails. "My daughters have yet to find suitable houses to match with. Proposals depend on reputation. Beauty within the household must be… properly arranged."
Consort Wei stared blankly.
Lady Han's voice lowered, cold and deliberate. "Lin Yue's face invites comparison. Comparison invites gossip. Gossip ruins alliances."
"You would starve a child over gossip?" Consort Wei whispered, voice cracking.
Lady Han smiled faintly and opened a fan embroidered with butterflies and flowers. The silk snapped open with a soft whisper.
"I would protect my children," she said, leaning forward slightly. "There are remedies for unwanted stars."
Behind the fan, her lips curved almost lazily.
Of course there were remedies.
In households like this, problems rarely lasted long when someone had the will to remove them. A concubine's daughter was a small thing to erase—barely a ripple in the waters of the Shen family.
If Consort Wei had any sense at all, she would understand that.
Consort Wei's breath caught in her throat.
"You suggest—"
"I suggest," Lady Han interrupted gently, "that accidents happen. Illness visits the weak. A girl may be sent away quietly."
Her voice was calm, almost bored, as if she were discussing the weather rather than the fate of a child.
Behind her fan, Lady Han studied Consort Wei's pale face with quiet satisfaction. Let the woman struggle with it. Fear and desperation would do the rest.
Consort Wei recoiled as if struck.
"You are monstrous."
"And you," Lady Han replied calmly, "are foolish."
She waved her fan lazily through the air.
"If your daughter truly is unlucky, perhaps Heaven will solve the matter for you."
Consort Wei's hands began to shake.
Her mind spun wildly.
Her daughter.
Her little Yue'er.
A memory flashed through her mind—the tiny baby wrapped in blankets, her small fingers curling weakly around Consort Wei's own.
The midwife whispering that the birth had nearly killed her.
The servants murmuring afterward.
An ill omen.
Her chest tightened painfully.
If Lin Yue truly was cursed…
If Heaven truly meant to destroy her…
Would it not be kinder to end the suffering now?
The thought made her stomach twist violently.
No.
No, she could not—
Yet another voice whispered cruelly in the back of her mind.
If Lin Yue remained, the Shen household would never accept them again. Lord Shen had already turned his back on them. The servants avoided them. The courtyard they lived in was growing colder, lonelier.
If the girl disappeared…
Perhaps the household would forgive her.
Perhaps her husband would look at her again.
Perhaps she could survive.
"No!" Consort Wei's voice cracked suddenly, the word bursting from her before the thought could finish forming.
Lady Han's eyes hardened slightly.
"Then solve it yourself," she said, throwing her fan down impatiently.
The silk fan struck the table with a sharp slap.
Inside, irritation flickered through her thoughts.
Weak woman. Even now she hesitates.
But that was fine.
Desperation had a way of pushing people to ugly decisions eventually.
Lady Han had seen it many times.
The words hung in the air, deliberate and cold.
"Remove the problem," she finished softly.
Her gaze drifted toward the courtyard where Lin Yue had been taken earlier.
A quiet, watchful child with inconvenient imperial favor.
"Yes," Lady Han thought calmly.
Better to erase that problem before it grew into something dangerous.
"And your fortune may yet improve."
Across from her, Consort Wei felt her knees tremble.
Her mind churned with horror.
Kill her child?
Her hands pressed against her chest as if trying to hold her heart together.
But beneath the terror, beneath the revulsion—
A single, poisonous doubt had already taken root.
And she hated herself for even thinking it.