On the day my father returned triumphant from the frontier, he brought home the woman he had kept there.

He said that since she had endured seventeen hard years by his side at the border, he wanted to grant her the status of an equal wife.

Mother nodded calmly. Over the years, she had taken the initiative to arrange concubines for Father, seeing to everything with perfect propriety. She had always been virtuous and magnanimous.

My father thought Mother’s feelings for him remained as deep as ever.

But when my mother heard that, she laughed.

“Love? Affection? Everything I did was only to secure my position as the mistress of this household.”

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