The first thing one sees is chaos.
The Liu mansion once dignified, once immaculate is now wrapped in noise like a living thing in pain. Servants hurry through corridors with lowered heads, whispers clinging to their sleeves.
Lanterns sway though there is no wind, their light trembling against carved pillars and painted walls. Somewhere, a door slams. Somewhere else, hurried footsteps stop short, afraid to go closer.
Rumors spread faster than smoke.
"They say Madam Liu is already half dead…"
"Her breath is shallow she's only waiting for the hour."
"What a pity… such beauty, such virtue… reduced to this."
Madam Liu.
Once, her name had been spoken with admiration across the nation. She had been known as a lady of gentle manners and quiet grace, her beauty not loud but enduring, the kind that stayed in one's memory long after she passed by. Scholars praised her virtue; noblewomen envied her composure.
Then the son of the Grand Secretary saw her.
It was said that he fell in love at first sight. Flowers were sent, gifts piled high, promises whispered sweetly enough to deceive even the cautious. The marriage was celebrated as a blessing from heaven.
But heaven had turned its face away.
From the moment she entered the Liu household, Madam Liu's life became a slow, silent descent into hell. Her husband took concubines as easily as one changes robes. Children were born one after another none of them hers. Not because fate denied her, but because her husband never once touched her.
She was not a wife.
She was a trophy.
Inside the mansion, past the noise, past the rumors, into a dimly lit room heavy with the smell of medicine. Curtains are drawn tight, blocking out the day as if even sunlight has no right to witness her suffering.
On the bed lies Madam Liu.
Her face is pale too pale her lips drained of all color. The woman who once carried herself like a blooming magnolia now looks like a petal pressed flat between pages, fragile and fading.
Beside her bed, her maid Su kneels.
The Su's shoulders shake violently as she cries, fingers clenched into the blanket as though holding on to it might keep death away.
"Madam… Madam…" she sobs, her voice breaking. "You shouldn't have been so gentle. You should have fought. If only if only you hadn't married that monster… If only you had done something, anything "
Her words dissolve into weeping.
For a long moment, there is no response. Only the faint sound of Madam Liu's breathing, thin and uneven, like a candle struggling against the dark.
Then, slowly, Madam Liu stirs.
Her eyelids flutter open with effort. Her lips part cracked, bloodless and when she speaks, her voice is barely more than a breath.
"Don't… cry…"
Su gasps and leans closer, tears dripping onto the quilt.
"Madam, please don't speak please "
Madam Liu's eyes soften as she looks at her, as though memorizing her face.
"Su'er, when I am gone," she whispers, "you must live well. Live freely. Find happiness… don't let this place bury you like it did me."
Su shakes her head violently. "I don't want happiness if you're not here!"
A faint, sad smile touches Madam Liu's lips so brief it almost isn't there.
Regret floods her chest, heavy and suffocating.
She regrets everything.
She remembers the day she married the son of the Grand Secretary the silk-red veil, the applause, the false warmth of congratulatory smiles. She had believed then, truly believed, that peace could be built with patience. That a wife's devotion could soften any heart.
How foolish she had been.
That man never looked at her as a person. He paraded her beauty before others, then turned away to embrace anyone else. He humiliated her openly, slept with concubines under the same roof, let servants gossip, let children born of other women call her "Mother" without respect.
Sometimes, when his temper flared, he beat her.
And her in-laws those who should have protected her only watched. Cold eyes. Silent judgment. No hands reached out. No voices spoke for her.
She endured it all.
Day after day. Year after year.
Until her body gave up what her spirit had long lost.
Her vision blurs now. The room fades at the edges. Her maid's crying sounds distant, as if coming from another world.
Madam Liu closes her eyes.
A single tear escapes, sliding down the corner of her eye and disappearing into the pillow.
If… she thinks, her thoughts drifting like smoke, if I were given another life…
Her heart tightens.
I would not be gentle.
I would not endure.
I would not forgive.
I would take revenge on every single one who betrayed me.
Her breathing slows.
The room falls quiet.
Silence...........!