Jin Niang returned from outside and couldn't help but congratulate Qin Shuang'er when she saw her: "I think your good fortune is near."
Qin Shuang'er was threading a needle by the light and scoffed at Jin Niang's words: "You’re always the one to make strange remarks. What good fortune could I possibly have?"
"How could there not be? Miao Xiaoniang is with child. Now that she’s pregnant, won’t all those patchwork quilts fall to you? Isn’t that good fortune? Sister Shan even mentioned how generous Miao Xiaoniang is." Jin Niang giggled.
The others in the room chimed in: "Just the other day, we heard the Second Madam was expecting, and now Miao Xiaoniang is too?"
Jin Niang finished distributing the fruits she had brought and stepped into the inner chamber, changing her shoes as she spoke: "All I care about is whether our workload will increase. The rest doesn’t matter."
With that, she sat at the table, grinding ink to sketch a triple-layered hibiscus pattern. Back in the girls' school, their painting instructor had excelled in the "boneless" style, but Jin Niang couldn’t afford to travel for inspiration, so most of her drawings were copied from classroom examples. She mixed pink, white, and dark green pigments before outlining the finished piece.
As she worked, a maid from Second Miss Zhou summoned Fang Qiaolian, claiming a white silk skirt had gone missing and needed remaking.
During the Lantern Festival, the young ladies favored white attire, which shimmered with an ethereal beauty under the moonlight.
Jin Niang hadn’t expected even the young misses’ clothes to disappear.
When she voiced this, the others laughed. Jiang Shanjie quipped: "It’s always the insiders who steal, yet they blame us outsiders. We don’t even know the hidden nooks—how could we possibly steal?"
Most in the Zhou Family were decent, but some longtime servants, despite their own incompetence, would shift blame onto hired help, insisting their generations of loyalty to the Zhous made theft impossible.
Jin Niang shook her head and focused on finishing the pattern. By lunchtime, Si'er brought in a meal box and announced: "Sister Jin Niang, Madam Chen says Fourth Miss Zhou needs two pairs of bow shoes. You’re to go after eating."
Bow shoes were for bound feet. Fourth Miss Zhou had reportedly fallen ill at the mere mention of foot-binding, but at eight years old, her family insisted it was now or never. Since the procedure late last year, she had scarcely left her bed. Jin Niang pitied her, while Qin Shuang'er watched with envy—a reaction that unsettled Jin Niang.
After the meal, she headed to Fourth Miss Zhou’s quarters, adjacent to Third Miss’s. Though their layouts and servant counts matched, Third Miss already carried herself as a young lady, while Fourth Miss, barely a year or two younger, still wore childish braids and seemed like a little girl.
"This humble servant Jin Niang from the sewing room greets Fourth Miss Zhou. By Madam Chen’s order, I’ve come to make shoes for you."
Fourth Miss Zhou tilted her head, studying her before smiling. "So you’re Jin Niang from the sewing room—Wei Jin Niang?"
"Yes, this servant is." Jin Niang was puzzled. She didn’t consider herself notable, yet Fourth Miss seemed surprised.
Unbeknownst to her, Zhou Susu—Fourth Miss—hadn’t expected to meet a character from the novel. In her past life, during college, she’d gained fame critiquing a web drama, monetizing her videos before graduation. Later, seeking fresh material, she’d stumbled upon a much-hyped harem intrigue novel, The Survival Guide for a Second Wife, slated for adaptation. Just as she’d prepared scathing commentary, she’d transmigrated into its pages.
The novel’s protagonist, Second Madam Wu, navigated a household with a deceased "white moonlight" first wife and a cunning concubine, ultimately winning hearts through calculated grace. Zhou Susu had despised the hypocritical lead, preferring the ruthless "black lotus" antagonist—coincidentally, the role she now inhabited as the villainess’s daughter.
Jin Niang, a minor figure in the book, had caught readers’ attention as Wei Xiaoniang—the secret second wife of the proud heir, Zhou Cunzhi. Despite his formidable main wife, Jin Niang allegedly manipulated their discord, emerging as a fiercer version of Dream of the Red Chamber’s ill-fated Second Sister.
More controversially, when Zhou Cunzhi fell from grace, his wife dismissed the concubines. Jin Niang, then in her mid-thirties, had promptly remarried a young official, becoming his cherished formal wife—a twist readers deemed unrealistic for an "aging flower."
Now, observing Jin Niang, Zhou Susu marveled at her youthful presence in the Zhou household. The book had barely sketched her backstory, but clearly, her ties ran deep.
Yet Zhou Cunzhi, described as dashing and refined with a taste for delicate beauties, seemed an unlikely match for the plump, peach-cheeked seamstress.
Still, Zhou Susu’s immediate concern wasn’t Jin Niang but her own mother, Miao Xiaoniang.
Glancing at her bound feet, she despaired. She’d hoped to emulate Song Dynasty poetesses like Li Qingzhao, but between stifling hierarchies and her mother’s stealthy foot-binding, even basic agency was impossible.
Contrary to dramatic fictions, the Zhou sisters rarely clashed openly. Their father scarcely visited the inner quarters except to sleep or occasionally review their calligraphy—a doting patriarch by era standards. Most days, the girls stayed sequestered, embroidering or writing, with little interaction unless summoned.
Elders dictated all; speaking out of turn invited accusations of filial impiety, with matrons enforcing rigid etiquette.
...
Jin Niang found Fourth Miss Zhou’s gaze unnerving. As she cut shoe patterns, the scrutiny prickled like needles—until Lv Ying arrived, announcing Second Madam’s visit and summoning the young ladies. Relieved, Jin Niang withdrew.
