We sustain a few more deaths, but we begin to have many successes, with family members and other residents returning to the main part of the compound. On the morning Ailan is to be released, I wrap her feet in clean bindings. Her soles are badly scarred but once she reaches adulthood they will not be seen by anyone except her and perhaps a servant. Her future husband will be able to hold her embroidered shoes in his hands and never know the ugliness that lies beneath the bindings.
I support Ailan as we walk together over the zigzag bridge and along the paths to the gate to the Courtyard of Whispering Willows. Yesterday I informed the guards that she would be going home. Throughout the invasion of the disease, I’ve stayed on my side of the gate to prevent infection from spreading into the household. This time I position myself in the threshold in the hope that I’ll find Yuelan and Chunlan waiting for their sister. They’ve come. My husband too. He looks well and strong in his black scholar’s robes. Poppy is nearby. She lifts up Lian so I can see him. Maoren tells me that he’s officially accepted the name I gave our son, for which I’m grateful, and I can see Lian’s grown a lot while I’ve been in here. I hope he’ll remember me once I can take him back in my arms.
“Only a few more days,” I say.
“I await your return to me with my full heart,” my husband responds.
The guards shut and bolt the gate, leaving me to wonder if Maoren knows about Snowpink and the death of their newborn son and what he might mean by “my full heart.”
I’m nearing the Hermitage when a high-pitched scream pierces the silence, echoing off the surrounding walls. I hurry to the terrace to find Miss Chen covering Manzi’s body with her own. She suffered when her daughter died, but this? Utter devastation… When I reach her, she looks up to the sky. I hear her whisper something to herself, words that barely reach my ears but immediately agitate my mind. “I always assured him our son would become master of the Garden of Fragrant Delights. Now Manzi never will.” She begins to weep as only a mother who has lost a son can. I know I should comfort her, but I am too distracted by what she has said. Her words have turned a key in my mind and opened a door.
Manzi never looked like Master Yang. If my unborn son died, Manzi would have eventually become the new master, according power to Manzi and his natal family. Spinster Aunt had something to tell me after Manzi’s birth but her death came before she could tell me… It has taken me many years to stitch these pieces together. Now I realize Manzi’s father could be only one person. And that person schemed and plotted from the day his son was born, which also means… Spinster Aunt’s death was not an accident.
The Washing Away of Wrongs
After the heavenly flowers disease disappears completely from the Garden of Fragrant Delights, the last survivors return to their families or, in the case of concubines and servants, to their masters, and I’m free to go back to my rooms. I’m determined to visit Meiling, since the suspicions that arose from Miss Chen’s utterance directly concern my friend and the herbs that were meant for me, but I need to get settled with my family before I do anything else. I also have much that I’m eager to discuss with my husband, but my first night home he doesn’t come to my bedchamber. A disappointment. I fall asleep feeling exhausted and dispirited. The next morning, when Poppy pours my tea, she brings the gossip that Master Yang is going to remove Miss Chen and her sole surviving child, Fifth Daughter, from the Garden of Fragrant Delights. I dress and then rush to find my husband. He’s in his library.
“Is it true your father is casting off his concubine and her daughter?” I ask. Perhaps this is not the correct approach as Maoren and I have not been alone together since I left for Beijing seven months ago. So much has happened, including the birth of our son, but I haven’t given my husband a chance to express his joy or thank me for doing what I could during the smallpox outbreak.
“Since when have the hens begun to crow?” he asks, squinting his disapproval.
I take a breath and remind myself that I’m a wife before anything else. “I’m sorry,” I say, bowing my head. “I spoke sharply.”
Maoren stands up and walks toward me. He reaches out and brushes a loose strand of hair from my cheek. “You look tired.”
“I’m tired to my marrow.” I raise my eyes to meet his. “Maoren, why is your father expelling Miss Chen?”
“She is no longer a beauty,” he states.
It’s true, but I can’t let this go. “Don’t let your father turn her out. She helped me during the sickness. She was courageous when—”
“The concubine has already been dismissed,” he says, swiveling away from me. “She will take her daughter with her—”
“Her only surviving child,” I emphasize. “And Fifth Daughter is your half sister.”
I can see him tasting this idea on his tongue and finding it bitter.
“Without a son and without her beauty, Miss Chen has no value to my father.”
“Fifth Daughter is only ten years old,” I press.
“There is nothing I can do. It is my father’s decision.”
I nod and leave Maoren to his books. I realize there’s little time. I go straight to the front gate, where I find Miss Chen and her daughter.
“I don’t know what’s to become of us,” the concubine whispers.
I have no words to reassure her. Few options exist for a woman like her. Watching her leave with only the clothes on her back, the scars on her face, and her child is sad beyond measure.
A few days later, my husband abruptly departs for Nanjing. Although he offered kind words when Ailan was released—I await your return to me with my full heart—he did not visit me before he left. I tell myself he must be happy about Lian, but is he upset that I didn’t receive more rewards from the palace or that I didn’t do enough to keep Snowpink and their son from dying? Maybe Maoren and I have simply spent too much time apart…
Life in the Garden of Fragrant Delights is different now as we all adjust to the changes resulting from the heavenly flowers disease. I sit for hours with mothers who lost children. No remedy exists to relieve their anguish, but I can cry with them. I visit former patients, making sure they’re eating well and providing formulas to rebuild their strength. And, of course, I cherish every moment I have with my daughters and son, who has reached three months.
Two weeks later, with my husband gone and feeling reconnected to my children, I decide it’s time to visit Meiling. I step over the main threshold of the compound and get into my palanquin. Eight weeks have passed since we arrived back in Wuxi, and I’m unsure of what I’ll discover when I reach her new home. Meiling and her mother received variolation, but I don’t know about her husband or his customers. I hope they haven’t been affected.
When I arrive, a servant opens the gate, and I enter a small courtyard that reminds me of the first house where I lived. Meiling appears in a doorway and calls to me, breathless and nervous. “Yunxian!”
We hold each other in a tight embrace. I don’t want to let go, and she doesn’t release me. “We’re all fine. I’m so glad you’re alive,” she murmurs. “I was terrified for you and your children. Tell me. Is Lian well?” All I can do is nod into her neck. She takes my shoulders and pushes me away to study my face. Wordlessly, she reads the grief that has etched my features. Staring back at her, I see not a woman who recently came close to death but my friend who is as beautiful as the day we first met.
She releases me and asks the polite questions. “Have you eaten? Would you like some tea?”
We sit together at a table by an open window overlooking the courtyard. The sounds of the city rise up around us, a reminder that life goes on. We exchange pleasantries. I compliment her on her pretty home. I gently inquire about her injuries, all of which she says have healed. After a proper amount of time has passed, I say, “I’m not here just to visit.” I tell her what Miss Chen said when her son died. I always assured him our son would become master of the Garden of Fragrant Delights. Now Manzi never will.
When Meiling stares at me blankly, I realize I’ve jumped too quickly into the subject. “Let me start over. We know Doctor Wong gave Poppy herbs intended to harm my baby, but we couldn’t figure out why.”
Meiling blinks a couple of times, still adjusting to the turn in the conversation. For a moment, I think that maybe she doesn’t want to revisit what happened.
“Yes, I remember,” she says at last, “but what does that have to do with what Miss Chen said about her son?”
I lean forward. “Who do you think she was talking about when she said, ‘I always assured him’?”