Renascimento da Filha Legítima: Memórias do Quarto Interior

The cicadas droned feebly. Beneath the eaves of the main house, two maids in rose-red, collarless half-sleeves leaned idly—Peachblossom and Willowgreen, the personal attendants who had accompanied the lady of the Dantai household as part of her dowry.

Inside, Lady Ye, mistress of the Dantai household, was deep in hushed conversation with the Fifth Miss, Dantai Xuan. All others had been dismissed from the room.

With a heavy hand, Lady Ye slammed her teacup onto the table, glaring at Fifth Miss Dantai Xuan. “Look at the mess you’ve made! Your father will return from the yamen soon—how am I to explain this to him?”

Dantai Xuan gave a petulant huff, refusing to answer. Tears brimmed in her large eyes, and she pressed a pale yellow silk handkerchief around her almond-shaped eyes, sobbing, “Mother, is this how you speak to your own daughter for the sake of that wretched girl? Am I not your flesh and blood, or is Dantai Jing your daughter now?”

“Outrageous!” Lady Ye jabbed her painted red fingertip against Dantai Xuan’s forehead, leaving a crimson mark. “Calling her that again and again—what sort of language is that for a magistrate’s daughter? Have you learned nothing of decorum? Or have you let all your manners go to the dogs?”

“It’s not as though you haven’t said worse about her behind closed doors, Mother,” Dantai Xuan retorted. “Why is it only you may speak ill of her, but I must hold my tongue? If it weren’t for her cursed mother occupying the mistress’s seat for years, my sister and I wouldn’t have borne the shame of being called concubine’s