Dongyu's room lay silent, a man and woman entangled in the dim light of dawn. Their breath mingled with stifled moans when a creaking doorframe split the hush. The startled couple sprang apart—this was no ordinary lover's quarrel but one involving Grandma Zhao's grandson Qingshan.

Grandma Zhao's voice sliced through the room: "Qianshan, dress at once and come to my chamber." Her bony fingers trembled as she reeled into her private quarters where the scent of burning sandalwood mingled with the sharp tang of betrayal.

The lacquered panels between her sitting room and sleeping chamber blurred like a painted scroll. Elder Lin's gruff inquiries dissolved into Grandma Zhao's dazed mind until she forced out, "Your grandson... he..." Her words choked on unspoken curses as visions of Qingshan and Dongyu's entwined forms replayed in her mind.

Elder Lin nearly spilled his tea when the truth settled over him. The boy who'd chased off bride Cao Yumei with such reckless abandon now lay tangled with another servant girl? "He'll not take a second wife," he growled, though memories of Qingshan's defiant streak made his hands curl into fists.

At Dongyu's boudoir, the lovers scrambled to fasten their robes as if buttoning up secrets. Qianshan entered Grandma Zhao's chamber only to find her seated like an executioner on a high stool. "You'd kill yourself for this?" she snarled when he said nothing. Elder Lin followed with a backhanded slap that echoed through the house.

"I've no need of your lectures," Qianshan muttered, his voice low as a coiled spring.

"Out! Never return!" Grandma Zhao's command rang out like temple bells marking a death knell.

At the threshold, Dongyu clutched her belly, tears carving paths down her cheeks. "Master Qianshan, what will they do to me?" she pleaded just before Grandma Zhao yanked her inside.

That night revealed tangled histories: Qingshan's infatuation with Dongyu began when he'd glimpsed her mixing mortar for his cousin Lin He's new house. A year of stolen glances and hesitant handholds hardened into something more during the family division, when Qianshan's household moved under Grandma Zhao's roof.

But Dongyu's ambitions ran deeper than simple infatuation. When she first arrived at Elder Lin's estate as a purchased servant, her eyes had lingered on the second son Erniu—husband to the wealthy bride who owned footmen and carved furniture. Now cornered in that dim chamber, she confessed her secret with trembling lips.

"Madam Zhao... I am with child," Dongyu whispered.

The admission sent Grandma Zhao's fan clattering to the floor. "Proof?" she demanded, though Elder Lin's voice cut through the storm: "If he denies it..." The weight of generations hung in the air as Dongyu pressed her hands to her womb.

"Only Master Qianshan," she wept, "I have kept my virtue since my husband passed."

For more novels, visit storyread.net.