At 5:45 p.m., a gust of evening wind tore a gap in the bamboo screen of the Tinglan Courtyard. Jiang Rou stared at her pale, paper-white face in the mirror, then suddenly grabbed a gold-inlaid rouge box and hurled it at the bronze mirror. The coral-colored rouge splattered like blood, blooming into irregular red stains on the blue bricks, matching the shattered state of her heart. The reflection in the mirror overlapped with the words of her mother, Madame Li: "If a concubine’s daughter wants to rise, she must harbor ten times the schemes of a legitimate daughter." Yet, her ten schemes had now led to a total defeat.
"Biyue!" Her voice carried a bone-chilling coldness. "With Ren Yao and Liu Ruyan causing such a ruckus at the Su Estate that everyone knows, how can you be so useless that you couldn't dig up a single thing?"
Biyue trembled, her forehead knocking heavily against the blue bricks, the osmanthus flower in her hair falling to the ground. "This servant tried to scale the wall, but the Su Estate’s guards..."
Chapter 53