Chapter 89 Smashed Beads: A Caged Pet

Chapter 89 Smashing Pearls: A Caged Pet

Xian Qiu did not know about Tian Qin being hit with a ruler.

The informants she sent, Qingfeng and Mingyue, only saw that the lord had left court early and headed straight to Tian Qin's painting garden. Soon after, Tian Qin also returned, and the room was shuttered, with dim lamplight flickering warmly, faintly revealing the intimate silhouettes of one kneeling and one sitting, along with Tian Qin's coquettish cries of "Brother-in-law, don't..."—a winding, melodious sound that echoed among the secluded bamboo and bright moon, melting everyone's hearts.

Xian Qiu ordered Qingfeng and Mingyue to "shut up," unable to bear such filth. She clutched her aching heart, wheezing harshly, her face ashen, flickering with traces of sorrow.

Xie Tanwei's character was like jade—pure and aloof, never stained by dust—yet he had been so bewitched by Tian Qin.

"What else?"

Aside from bedroom stuff.

Qingfeng and Mingyue exchanged glances and said hesitantly, "Also, Miss Tian throws money around like it's nothing."

The Xie family was wealthy and noble. For Qingfeng and Mingyue to say that, her waste was ridiculous.

No matter how precious the item—even the South Sea pearls that once adorned the former empress's crown—if Miss Tian asked for it, the lord would get them for her. Miss Tian did not treasure them; she would casually crush them with a satisfying crunch, laughing playfully and asking, "Does it sound good?" And the lord would say, "It sounds good."

It was as if, as long as Tian Qin willingly stayed in the Xie residence and never mentioned leaving, the lord would pluck the moon right out of the sky for her.

Miss Tian repeatedly put on airs in front of them, saying to the lord, "If Brother-in-law can't stand me anymore, go ahead and kick me out." At such times, the lord would pinch her uncolored lips, pale as a lamb's, and say, "Dream on. Want a spanking?"

Then they would jest and tussle, their clothes half-shed, the room filled with scenes too hot to look at. Miss Tian's lofty, affected tone seemed to imply that she held the upper hand, that it was the lord who persistently begged her to stay.

Worse still, Miss Tian loved to yell—wild and shameless, utterly lacking in propriety. During their acts, she would call out "Brother-in-law" one after another, the sound echoing so that even the maids sweeping and cleaning could hear, like she was purposely shaming someone.

The servants, seeing which way the wind blew and noting Tian Qin's favor, flattered and fawned over her, piling on sycophantic praise. Some even addressed her as "little mistress," and the lord himself called her "Tian'er" over and over.

"Shut up! Shut up!"

Xian Qiu ordered again.

Her fingers shook uncontrollably, and she looked like fire was about to burst from every pore, raging violently within her, causing her ears to roar and suddenly go deaf.

"Madam!"

There was much more, too unspeakable to bear. Qingfeng and Mingyue dared not continue.

Xian Qiu clutched her ears in pain, struggling to control the venomous fire within. She tried to take deep breaths, but for a long time, her ears remained as if stuffed with cotton, only letting in the faintest pinprick of sound, agonizing to the extreme.

"Get a doctor, quick!"

The ever-dignified and graceful mistress panicked at the fear of losing her hearing, losing her composure for the first time. She shouted with all her might, but she could not hear herself, only feeling her mouth moving.

...

Tian Qin sat idly on a rattan chair at the entrance of the painting garden, watching the falling leaves. Autumn was approaching; the butterflies' wings were turning yellow day by day, withered flowers hung from the branches, the clouds were spent, and the deep, clear lake carried a hint of chill.

The Autumn Osmanthus Residence was again hastily summoning physicians, calling in three or four one after another, and many precious medicinal herbs from the estate were consumed.

Wan Cui said with glee, "The mistress vomited blood a few days ago, and yesterday she went deaf. The imperial physicians have seen her several times and still can't cure her."

She paused, covering her mouth with a sarcastic smirk. "And she still wants to conceive a child? Looking like this..."

It was naturally a great disrespect for a maid like Wan Cui to speak of the mistress in such a way, but Tian Qin did not stop her. After all, there were only the two of them.

In truth, Xian Qiu's descent into severe illness was the result of Tian Qin's relentless efforts these past days. By acting humble and cute, with her palms swollen from beatings, suppressing her pride and working hard to scheme with Xie Tanwei, she had won the outward glamour that made Xian Qiu miserable.

From the outside, it seemed that Xie Tanwei doted on her to the extreme.

On the ground, a group of ants gathered to build a nest, dense and disgusting to behold. Tian Qin casually tossed the South Sea pearl in her hand, the big pearl landing smack on the ant colony, startling the ants into scattering in all directions.

She snorted, amused, then removed a few more precious pearls from her bracelet and smashed them onto the Taihu stone, clink clink, cracking the precious pearls, rendering them worthless as pebbles.

"My lord."

The maid beside her, Wan Cui, suddenly curtsied respectfully.

Tian Qin followed the sound and saw Xie Tanwei in simple white robes, with an air of scholarly integrity, wearing the half-moon jade pendant she had given him at his waist.

She pursed her lips and remained seated on the rattan chair. "Brother-in-law."

Xie Tanwei glanced at the litter of broken pearls on the ground, seeming not to see them. He leaned down, planting his arms directly on the armrests of the rattan chair, trapping her. "I hear you want to move out?"

"Mm." Tian Qin's palm still felt a faint burning; the pain from the ruler's strike had not yet faded. Now, facing his cold, hard expression at close range, she felt deeply unsettled. "Brother-in-law, don't misunderstand. I just want to move to the Xie family's other house, so as not to stay under the same roof and cause Sister any annoyance."

She dared not make demands directly to Xie Tanwei. Yesterday, she had let slip some hints to Zhao Ning, and Zhao Ning, as expected, reported to Xie Tanwei.

After Tian Qin fell into the sea and suffered great shock, Xie Tanwei deliberately compensated her, granting almost everything she asked for. But on the matter of moving, he flat-out refused with no room for negotiation. "Too far. I can't trust you, little sister."

After her repeated suicide stunts, he had long erected a guard of extreme vigilance. That blunt statement of distrust summed up all her previous insubordination.

Tian Qin refused to admit defeat. She tried to breach his defenses, explaining, "Sister is ill, even deaf. When wife and concubine are at odds, the household is not at peace. If I stay in the residence, it will cause chaos, damaging Brother-in-law's reputation at court."

"Whether the household is at peace or not is all up to you, isn't it? When you want to stick to me, you drive the mistress to the brink of death; when you don't want to stick, you cause chaos by jumping into the sea, and I have to clean up the mess."

Xie Tanwei was clear-sighted and stern in his reprimands, cutting off her thoughts of moving out. He flicked her nose as a warning. "If you want harmony in the household, just keep the peace and quit causing trouble. Why move to the desolate other house?"

"Unless you're planning to do something else..."

By the end, his tone had turned icy.

Tian Qin shuddered. After so many years as husband and wife, he completely disregarded Xian Qiu's life and instead used it as a bargaining chip. If the price were right, he might even turn against her. What a cold, unfeeling, and ungracious man.

He lived with clear insight, yet often feigned ignorance, preferring to blend in and drift with the world. Though a Confucian scholar, he had little generosity and instead exuded an air of sly cunning.

Since he said so, she knew she could not move out.

Tian Qin sighed. This move was a bust.

No matter how much he indulged her, there was always an invisible line drawn.

She could have anything—money, fine clothes, status, even being above the mistress—but she could not step beyond the thick walls of this mansion. That was an iron law.

"I understand."

Xie Tanwei ruffled her hair, gentle and tolerant, as if they had reached a pleasant agreement in the autumn wind.

"Smashing pearls, fun? One pearl of yours is three years of food for a poor family."

He gave a smile like a spring mountain, took a South Sea pearl from her hand, and instead of smashing it on the Taihu stone, he tossed it farther, sent it sailing into the lake. "Splash"—a pleasant sound of water—and the fish scattered in a panic.

That's the sound of money.

Every day, the fancy food she ate tasted like money.

The silk she wore was the color of money.

The comfort of a life free from daily labor is the warmth of money.

The slender, lily-white fingers are the shape of money.

"Do you know the risks of pearl diving? Fighting against giant fish and vicious dragons in the treacherous depths of the ocean, where some man-eating clams are larger than boulders—one wrong move and you could be crushed alive. Even if you survive the dive, you’ll be cut open alive to ensure no pearls are smuggled. Those lucky enough to escape death often have shortened lives, succumbing early to diving sickness, their lungs swelling until they die. Such precious pearls, and little sister destroys them so recklessly."

Tian Qin’s ears stung at his words.

"Then why didn’t you stop me, Brother-in-law?"

She sheepishly set down the pearl.

"Why would I stop you?" Xie Tanwei smiled with polished elegance, his tall frame like a crane, coldly appraising her. He placed two fingers on her smooth chin, his gaze filled with the scrutiny of a master examining a kept pet. "We are not poor, after all."

"Though the pearls are precious, you’re not the one diving for them."

Despicable. Tian Qin cursed inwardly.

He was a powerful minister dominating the court and the country, well-versed in the hardships of the common people, yet he stood by indifferently, taking pleasure in the suffering of all living beings. Calling him an inhuman monster would be an insult to monsters.

Rather than the plight of the people, Xie Tanwei seemed far more interested in her body. His passionate eyes sparkled with brilliance as he leaned in to kiss her. The tale of blood and tears behind the pearl harvest only served as seasoning for the kiss, carrying no profound reflection, merely meant to cloud her mind and trap her small boat and make it willingly stay in his harbor.

"Everyone has their own way of life—it’s determined by fate, isn’t it?"

Half-drunk, Tian Qin’s voice was morbidly coquettish, clinging to the last shreds of her sanity as she futilely resisted the overwhelming force of her descent.

Xie Tanwei’s expression was equally dazed. "Tian’er, it’s good that you think that way."

"Heaven didn't decree this. It is you, Brother-in-law, who turned into a thick wall and blocked the happiness of my two lifetimes."

She grew increasingly unhinged, her accusations laced with resentment.

It wasn’t a natural disaster—it was a man-made catastrophe.

"Perhaps what I’ve blocked are the storms, the suffering, and the endless struggles for survival outside?"

"I don’t believe that," she sobbed, her voice resolute. "I don’t."

Away from him meant away from pain. In this world, nothing was more painful than being with him.

Xie Tanwei smiled helplessly. She didn’t understand.

Perhaps she was still young, raised in a secluded mansion, never truly stepping into the world.

One day, she would realize that everything he gave her—the effortless luxury—was the best. There were always people in this world who never recognized their own good fortune.

He hoped he could be kind enough, grow tired of her slowly enough, to let this fragile little flower survive a while longer.

…

After that day, whenever Tian Qin carried out her revenge against Xian Qiu, she no longer recklessly squandered money or pearls.

It wasn’t that she pitied the pearl divers she had nothing to do with—she thought her own suffering was no less than theirs—but she simply felt that this life of begging for money would corrode her soul, make her struggle absurd, and blur the line between gain and loss, giving her the illusion that she had lost freedom and happiness but gained endless wealth.

If this continued, she would become a caged pet.

She still firmly believed that one day she would escape, so she deliberately trained her willpower, embroidery, cooking, literacy, physical fitness, and endurance, all so she could survive independently out there.

But no matter how low-key she tried to live, the gilding Xie Tanwei had applied to her was unmistakable. “Gilding” wasn’t real gold, but skin as smooth as boiled egg whites, bright, spirited eyes—the unmistakable mark of being pampered. Though she was neither wife nor concubine, everyone saw her as glamorous and radiant.

As a canary, she could attain most wishes beyond the reach of ordinary people—except for the wish to replace her brother-in-law.