“I…I don’t know,” she said.
“I think it is a brilliant idea,” he said. “And because she is your mother-in-law, she will trust you.”
Lady Li sighed and slowly agreed.
4
Lady Li tried to relax as two of her servants carried her in her sedan chair to her mother-in-law’s house. Tension clawed at her shoulders and neck. She should have waited until the next day to call on her mother-in-law, but she was afraid someone else would tell her about Suyi’s death first. The old woman had been ill as long as Lady Li had known her, and she was concerned that this blow would be the one to do her in. Lady Li thought about how shamefully she had reacted to the news of Suyi’s death in front of the inspector. How would her mother-in-law react to the pain? She had no one left, no husband, no daughter, no son. Her household was small, only a servant, a cook, and a maid. How lonely she must be. Lady Li knew she should call on her more often, but she always seemed so tired. She worried about wearing her out, or used her exhaustion as an excuse not to call on her.
It was not very far to Lady Li’s mother-in-law’s house, only down a winding lane, but it would have been inappropriate for Lady Li to walk. A lady should never be seen in public. The sedan chair stopped just outside the gate of her mother-in-law’s house, and she heard Eunuch Bai knock loudly. After several long moments, and several more loud knocks, the gate finally opened. She listened to Eunuch Bai banter with the servant for a moment before explaining why they were there. As expected, her mother-in-law’s servant did not want to disturb her so late in the day, but, as rehearsed, Eunuch Bai insisted, explaining that if it had not been so urgent, they would not have come. Eunuch Bai then opened the flap to Lady Li’s sedan chair and quickly ushered her inside the compound.
The home was quiet and felt dark. Even though the home was large enough for a family of many wives and children, none dwelled here. Most of the rooms went unused, so the doors were shut and candles and lanterns went unlit. Lady Li was led to the kitchen where she could sit by the fire and enjoy some tea with the old cook while the maid went to prepare her mother-in-law for her visit.
“It is so late in the day to be here, Lady Li,” the old cook said as she poured the tea.
“I hope Popo will not be too angry with me,” she replied, popo being the familiar term for mother-in-law.
The old woman swatted away the suggestion. “She doesn’t have the energy to get angry,” she said as she started chopping some green vegetables.
“Is her health worse than usual?” Lady Li asked as she slurped the hot tea to cool it as she drank.
“She doesn’t push herself so much, so I don’t know. She doesn’t try to get out of bed or tend to her flowers anymore. But she’s not dying, she’s just weak. I don’t know how to help her.”
“What do the doctors say?” she asked.
“What do they know?” the cook asked. “They say her water qi is out of balance, so they try to fix it. Drink less water, drink more water, drink hot water, no spicy food, this is what they say, all different.”
“What do you think?” Lady Li asked.
The cook stopped chopping and paused for a minute to think. “I think that when her baby was born, something else came out of her, leaving her weak. She was not like this before the baby.”
“Do you mean Suyi?” Lady Li asked.
“Yes,” the cook said, picking up her knife again. “But also with the little lord, your husband. That was the start.”
Lady Li thought about this. There had been a large age gap between her husband and her sister-in-law, almost twenty years. If the birth of her son had weakened Popo to the point that she nearly died, it would explain why she would be reluctant to have another child.
“Did Lord Yun have any other wives or concubines?” Lady Li asked.
The old cook only shook her head.
“Why?” Lady Li asked. “He was wealthy and only had one son with his wife. If she couldn’t have more children, why not get another woman?”
“Why do you ask all this?” the old cook asked. “Why are you here? I haven’t seen you here for months and then you come, late in the day, asking all these questions. What are you up to?”
“Nothing,” Lady Li said, returning to her teacup and smarting from the chastisement. She would have to be more discreet with her mother-in-law.
The old cook dumped the vegetables into a wok of oil, heated over a flame. The vegetables sizzled and released their fragrance. “Looking back does no good,” she said.
Lady Li knew she was right, and the two sat in silence while they waited for Popo’s maid to return.
Finally, she came back and led Lady Li to Popo’s private sitting room, which was adjacent to her bedroom. Even though it was summer, there was a roaring fire in the middle of the room, and Popo sat near it wearing a padded chaogua over her chaopao. Lady Li was sweating as soon as she entered the room, but she did her best not to show her discomfort as she walked over and got down on her knees before her mother-in-law. “Thank you for seeing me, Popo,” she said.
Popo reached out and took her daughter-in-law’s hands. “It is nothing,” she said. “I have nothing else to fill my days. Might as well answer when you take the time to call.”
Lady Li stood and kissed her mother-in-law on the cheek before sitting down in a chair nearby, a small tea table between them.
“How are the children?” Popo asked as Lady Li poured tea.
“They are doing quite well,” she replied. “First Daughter loves reading, and her calligraphy is beautiful. If she had been a son instead of a worthless girl, she might have been a great scholar.”
“I told my husband not to ask your father for you. The women in your family were only good for giving girls.”
Lady Li thought about this for a moment and realized that she was right. Her mother and her grandmother had only birthed girls. The only boys in her family came from secondary wives or concubines. “I cannot deny that I was a disappointment for you,” she said. “If only I had given Lord Yun a son…” she wasn’t sure how to finish her sentence, but Popo waved her hand to stop her so she didn’t have to.
“What’s done is done,” Popo said. “You made him happy in other ways. Your daughters are good and you run your house well. If you had more time, maybe a son would have come. You were young and healthy.”
“You are too kind to me, Popo,” Lady Li said.
“Why are you here?” Popo finally asked her.
Lady Li took a steadying breath. “I need to talk to you about Suyi,” she said.
“That girl,” Popo groaned. “She never writes, she never comes to see me. What a daughter!”
“Life in the Forbidden City is not easy,” Lady Li said. “She must work from dawn until the empress falls asleep late at night.” Lady Li realized she was using the present tense and was doing a poor job of preparing Popo for what had happened.
“Filial piety is the most important quality in a child. The empress knows this,” Popo explained to Lady Li, as if she were still a child.
“Popo,” Lady Li said, reaching over and placing her warm hand on the old woman’s cool one. “I have to tell you something about Suyi.”
Popo looked at Lady Li with expectation in her eyes. Lady Li could see that she knew something was wrong. “Something happened to her…”
“What?” Popo asked.
“She…she’s dead,” Lady Li finally whispered.
Popo ripped her hand away as if Lady Li carried some vile disease. “What?” she finally asked. “How can you say such a thing?”
“I’m sorry, Popo,” Lady Li said, her eyes filling with tears again. “I’m sorry. I…I just found out.”
“Really? Is it true?” she asked.
“I believe it is so,” Lady Li replied. “A man came from the Forbidden City and told me.”
Popo lay her head back in the chair, closed her eyes, and put her hand over her heart. Lady Li nearly fell from her chair as she kneeled beside her mothe
r-in-law, gripping her other hand.
“Popo!” she said. “Please, Popo don’t leave me. I need you!”
“What?” Popo asked, opening her eyes. “What do you mean?”
“I…I was worried about your heart,” Lady Li replied.
Popo reached out and stroked Lady Li’s cheek. “I was made for grief,” she said. “Don’t worry about me.”
Lady Li wiped her tears away and sat back in the chair, but she didn’t let go of Popo’s hand. Lady Li was amazed at her mother-in-law’s strength. She may be physically weak, but her soul was strong as iron. And her words held truth. The life of a woman was nothing but grief. Chinese women grieved that they weren’t boys. Then they grieved when they were married and had to leave their families. They grieved if their husbands and mothers-in-law were cruel. They grieved when they gave birth to girls. They grieved when their daughters married and had to leave them. They grieved when their husbands died and they were left alone. The only happy part of a woman’s life was when she birthed a son. Not having a son was a grief that Popo and Lady Li now shared. But Popo had a son, and now he was dead. That was a grief Lady Li had been spared, but she still knew Popo’s pain.
The two sat in silence for a moment before Popo spoke again. “What happened?” she asked.
“I’m not sure,” Lady Li replied. “They say that someone killed her.”
“What?” Popo asked, sitting up straight, her eyes opening wide. “Why would someone do that? She was a good girl, wasn’t she?”
“I believe she was,” Lady Li confirmed. “She was a bit loud and excitable, but she would never hurt anyone, and she knew the importance of being chaste. I don’t know why anyone would want to hurt her.”
“Well, do the investigators have any leads?” Popo asked.
“They are trying to find out what happened,” Lady Li said. “But…they need your help.”
“My help?” Popo asked, surprised. “What can I do?”
“They think that maybe someone outside the Forbidden City might have wanted to hurt her.”
“Oh, I can’t believe that,” Popo said. “She was just a girl on the outside of the walls. And I barely saw her. She lived with you. You are the one who would know.”
Lady Li nodded. “Yes, but maybe someone wasn’t after her specifically, but maybe they wanted to hurt the family.”
“What do you mean?” Popo asked.
Lady Li paused for a moment before proceeding. It was such a strange thing for her to ask, something that smacked of disrespect, yet she had to ask. She knew the inspector expected it of her. “Did your husband have any enemies?” Lady Li finally asked. “I was never told why or how he died. Maybe his death had something to do with it.”
Popo pulled away. “No, that can have nothing to do with it. It was so long ago.”
“Popo,” Lady Li said softly. “I know this is painful, but I have to ask. You must tell me. The empress herself wants to know what happened to Suyi. I have been ordered to ask you,” she hedged.
Popo sighed. “I thought the past was dead and would be buried with me.”
“If I don’t think what happened has any relation to Suyi’s death, then I won’t tell anyone.” Lady Li wasn’t sure if she could keep that promise, but Popo seemed to take her at her word.
“I was married for four years before I finally became with child,” she said. “So long, too long. But my husband couldn’t afford a second wife, not then. So we tried and tried. Finally, I got with child. But the birth…the birth was bad. I nearly died, and the baby was weak. We feared he would not live to be a man. My husband insisted that we keep trying, keep trying for a healthy son. So we did, but no more babies came. Thankfully the baby, your husband, did grow strong.
“After my husband grew in rank, we became rich, so he bought a concubine, and then another. Still, no baby came. He bought a third concubine. Still no baby. For years he tried. He became obsessed with finding a woman who could carry his seed. The other girls, they never had a bad birth or lost a baby. They never got with a baby. He believed that all the women were weak and worthless. He never considered that he was to blame. He eventually sold them all away.
“I had not taken him to my bed for many years. I never recovered from the birth of my son. But he was desperate for more children. He couldn’t bear the shame of having all these women but no children. He could hear the other men talk. Finally, I agreed to take him back to my bed. I was the only one who had given him a child, so maybe I could do it again.
“I did get with child again, and he was so happy. But when the baby was a girl, he was so angry. Then he was sad. He took a long scarf into his study and he never came out again.”
Lady Li sat there in shock. Of course, she knew having children, mostly sons, was important to every man, but she had never heard of a man being so desperate, so despondent, for more children that he would kill himself.
“Did…did Suyi ever know this?” Lady Li finally managed to ask.
“I never told her,” she said. “I never told a soul. Can you imagine the guilt she would feel if she ever knew her father killed himself because she wasn’t a boy?”
“It wasn’t her fault,” Lady Li said.
“Of course not,” Popo replied. “It was mine. I was the one who gave birth to her. I should have died after my son was born. Then maybe my husband would have learned to be happy with at least having him.”
“Popo, please, it’s no one’s fault,” Lady Li said. She could hardly comprehend what she was hearing.
“Anyway, you know how people talk. One of the servants found him. You know how they are. They never dared to speak of it in front of me, but I’m sure some people know. Your husband knew.”
“He never told me,” Lady Li said. She wondered if Popo’s churlish cook was the servant who found him.
“Well, hopefully Suyi never knew,” Popo said. “I told you it didn’t have anything to do with her getting killed.”
Lady Li nodded. “I think you are right. I’m sorry I made you tell me.”
“I hope you do find out who did it, though,” Popo said. “She was a good girl…my only one.”
Lady Li felt a wave of guilt herself. She had not been a good daughter-in-law. She had ignored Popo, left her to wallow in sadness and loneliness. She had been grateful that Popo was not controlling and cruel like other mothers-in-law, too grateful. She had repaid her good fortune with her own cruelty. When was the last time she had sent her daughters to visit their grandmother? Was she really only concerned that they would tire her out? Or was she simply failing in filial duty? Without Suyi, Lady Li was the only one left to take care of Popo, so she resolved to do so.
“Popo,” Lady Li said, “I want you to come live with me.”
“No,” Popo said quickly. “I’m fine right here.”
“No, you’re not,” Lady Li said. “You are alone, and sick. You need to be with family.”
“Family?” Popo asked. “I’m family now? Suddenly? After all this time? You worthless cow.”
“I know,” Lady Li said. “I have been a terrible daughter-in-law, and I would never ask your forgiveness. I only hope you let me spend the rest of my days repenting for my wicked actions toward you by bringing you into my home.”
Popo shook her head. “I like it here. My belongings are all here, and your kids are too noisy.”
“You can have the whole southeast wing to yourself. It’s warm and quiet there. I’ll make sure the girls learn to be quiet. But I think they would benefit from having their grandmother nearby.”
“I can’t leave the house,” she said. “Who will make sure it is taken care of? I can’t let it rot.”
Lady Li had asked Popo to live with them before, but only out of duty, not because she wanted the old woman nearby. Usually, young brides did live with their in-laws, but Popo was different. She was so sickly, she knew that she could not be the head of the household. She would only be a burden to Lady Li, a baby in an old woman’s body. In the past, Lady L
i would offer for Popo to live with them because she had to, and Popo would refuse because she wanted to. Now, the situation was reversed. Lady Li wanted Popo to live with her, but Popo was refusing because it was polite. Lady Li had to ask Popo three times before Popo could accept, even though it was what they both wanted.
“Popo,” Lady Li said, “I insist you come live with us.”
Popo nodded. Her old eyes welled with tears and she did not speak for fear they would pour forth.
Lady Li patted Popo’s hand and the left the room. She found Popo’s maid. “Begin packing her things. You will all come into my household tomorrow.” The maid nodded and went to see her lady for confirmation. Lady Li had no idea how her cook and Popo’s old cook would work things out in the kitchen, but that was a fight for another day.
As Lady Li climbed back into her sedan chair, she lamented over the fact that she had not learned anything that would help her find out who killed Suyi.
5
Inspector Gong had waited at Lady Li’s home for her to return. He was sitting by the koi pond when two dark-haired girls came running through followed by a young woman. The girls stopped suddenly when they saw him and the woman quickly fled from sight. She clearly was not dressed for a male visitor. Her long hair was flowing free and she only wore a simple robe. The girls, however, bravely approached the stranger.
“Who are you?” the oldest one asked.
“I am called Inspector Gong,” he said. “Who are you?”
“I am First Daughter,” she said proudly. “And this is Second Daughter,” she said motioning to the other girl who nervously chewed on the collar of her dress and stood slightly behind her sister.
“Nice to meet you both,” he said. It was a fairly common practice to give children “milk names” that didn’t hold much meaning. When they were older, children or their parents would usually decide on a name that better reflected the child’s personality or was auspicious in some way.
“Why are you here?” First Daughter asked.
The Qing Dynasty Mysteries - Books 1-3 Page 3