My Fair Concubine by Jeannie Lin Read Free Book Online Page A

cheerfully. ‘I had the most wonderful revelation while paying my respects at the temple to the elder Lord Chang.’ She pulled out a bundle of cloth hidden in the billowing folds of her sleeve. ‘I was coming to see if Pearl wanted to come with me, but she’s away with her true love, so all the better.’
    Lady Min set the bundle down on the low table and straightened regally. She raised her hands to smooth out her hair. It occurred to Yan Ling that she should be studying and copying her movements, but Min flitted about like a dragonfly on gossamer wings, impossible to envision in stillness.
    The lady began to pull the pins from her hair and handed them over to Yan Ling one by one. ‘I don’t know why it took me so long to think of it, really. And then today in front of the temple altar, with all that smoky incense everywhere, it just came to me.’
    She shook her hair loose and Yan Ling couldn’t help but be a bit envious. The thick mane flowed down to her waist. Min reached down to unroll the cloth bundle, revealing a pair of scissors among other implements.
    ‘What is your name?’ the lady asked.
    ‘Yan Ling, my lady.’
    ‘Help me with this here, Yan Ling. I can’t see the back very well even in my mirror.’ The lady pressed the scissors into her hands and turned around, running her hands once more over her hair.
    The scissors lay like a leaden weight against her palm. Yan Ling was feeling a bit ambushed. ‘I’m afraid I don’t have much experience cutting hair. What if I ruin it?’
    ‘Oh, there’s nothing to worry about. It’s all coming off.’ Lady Min was uncustomarily excited about the prospect.
    Yan Ling swallowed. ‘All?’
    ‘Yes. We’ll use the scissors first and then the razor. I’m going to join the nuns at the Temple of the Peaceful Lotus.’
    The lady turned around, waiting expectantly. What else was she to do? Yan Ling raised the scissors and opened them around a lock of lustrous black hair. She closed her eyes and made the first snip. The blades sheared through the lock with a definitive snick.
    ‘I’ve been very lucky,’ Lady Min said. ‘The last few years have been happy here. The elder Lord Chang was a kind man. No matter what they say, he had a joyfulness about him. Always in good humour. I laughed every day, you should know.’
    ‘That’s good to hear.’ Yan Ling picked up another lock and cut it away, placing it beside the first one on top of the cloth. It seemed such a crime to sacrifice all that beautiful hair. ‘But I’m surprised. The younger Lord Chang is so serious all the time.’
    She could also say humourless, stiff, didn’t know his way around a proper smile.
    ‘He gets that from his mother,’ Min replied. ‘Lady Chang was also a good woman. I was her attendant, you know.’ Her tone became wistful. ‘She was practical and ran the household admirably.’
    ‘Lady Chang is gone as well then?’ More locks fell away. Yan Ling was getting bolder with the scissors as well as her questions.
    ‘Several years ago. Right before her son passed his military exams. I don’t think the elder Lord Chang ever forgot her. All the carousing, drinking, extravagance—’ she had to take a breath before continuing ‘—dice and women aside.’
    Yan Ling frowned at the description. ‘Wasn’t Lord Chang a government official?’
    ‘Lord Chang was a department head in the Ministry of Works. And well loved, too. Everywhere he went, men would call out his name, wanting to be the first to greet him. His death was such a shame.’ Lady Min’s voice grew distant. ‘He slipped coming home late one night along the canal. Hit his head and drowned, the city guards said. Poor man… Are you nearly finished? My head feels so much lighter.’
    It was one thing to die at a venerable old age, but to go so unexpectedly. Her heart went out to Fei Long and his family. ‘I think it’s done.’
    Only jagged tufts remained where there had been a beautiful head of hair only minutes