si-mexico Chapter 458 The Life of a Woman from the Chunyu Family
Chapter 458 The Life of a Woman from the Chunyu Family
The morning mist in Xianyang City had not yet dissipated when the vermilion gates of Chunyu Mansion were knocked on three times. Old Zhou, the gatekeeper, hunched his shoulders and lifted the brass ring. A cold wind, carrying a few remaining plum blossoms, rushed towards him. The carriages carrying students left ruts on the bluestone road, and the dust they raised was the signal that the Great Qin Medical College was opening today.
Inside the ancestral hall, the air was thick with the stench of sandalwood incense, making one feel dizzy. Chunyu Shu knelt on the cold floor tiles, looking up at the layers of memorial tablets on the offering table. At the bottom, a brand-new ebony memorial tablet stood out, inscribed with "The Tablet of Jing Shu, the Seventeenth Daughter of the Chunyu Clan"—that was her aunt who had hanged herself five years ago.
The chains rattled softly, and Mother slipped in carrying a food box. A white plum blossom, glistening with morning dew, adorned her temples; it was clear she had hastily picked it from the plum garden in the west corner. "A-Shu, don't blame your grandfather," Mother said, opening the food box. The sweet aroma of osmanthus yogurt mingled with a faint medicinal scent. "Back then, your aunt secretly pledged herself to someone, and when it was discovered..."
"So you're telling me my daughter has to stay inside the house forever?" Chunyu Shu asked, her voice full of grievance and resentment.
Her mother opened her mouth, but in the end, only a long sigh escaped her lips. Looking at the gray hairs peeking out from her mother's temples, Chunyu Shu's thoughts drifted back to the day the results were announced a few days earlier. The moment she heard her name, a wave of excitement and joy washed over her, but now, it all had vanished like a bubble.
Looking at Chunyu Shu, who was sobbing softly, her mother hugged her tightly, tears streaming down her face as well. After a long while, she slowly spoke, "Actually, I also wanted to study medicine back then."
Those few words exploded in Chunyu Shu's ears like a thunderclap. She suddenly raised her head and looked incredulously at her mother, who had always been the epitome of a matriarch—gentle, generous, well-educated, and polite to everyone, as if she had never had a temper.
So, her mother once had dreams too? A sudden pang of sorrow welled up in Chunyu Shu's heart. Yes, who hasn't been young? Who is born perfect? What had her own mother been through?
Chunyu Shu had many questions she wanted to ask, but when the words came to her lips, she didn't know where to begin.
The mother continued, "Your maternal grandmother got lost once. It was during the chaos of war. After she got lost, she was found by an old doctor. She lived with the old doctor for several years before she was finally found and brought home. Her family forbade her to see the old doctor again. Your maternal grandmother secretly ran away several times, but she was caught and brought back each time."
"Later, your maternal grandmother remarried, but she still loved medicine and would often secretly take out her old medical books to read. I saw her once, and your maternal grandmother was very happy to discover that I had a talent for medicine, so she secretly began to teach me. But not long after, your maternal grandfather found out. He was furious and burned all those medical books, and I was handed over to the old lady to be raised by her personally. From then on, I never practiced medicine again."
“Before I married your father, I wanted to go and see that old doctor for your maternal grandmother, but my family disagreed. I had to climb over the wall to go, but in the end, I was caught and brought back.” As she spoke, her mother unbuttoned her clothes, revealing the dark red brand below her collarbone with the words “Chunyu”. “That night I was brought back and your grandfather branded me with a hot iron. He told me to remember my place.”
Footsteps sounded outside the ancestral hall, and the mother hurriedly pulled her clothes up. The footsteps suddenly drew closer, and the sandalwood screen was abruptly flung open. The father appeared in the doorway, his gaze piercing as he looked at Chunyu Shu: "Still daydreaming? A woman should learn needlework and musical instruments. How could my Chunyu family's daughter be fit for those disemboweling professions at medical school?"
Chunyu Shu knelt on the ground, her fingertips digging deeply into her palms, and said stubbornly, "Father, the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic says, 'The best doctors treat illness before it manifests.' If I can study medicine, perhaps one day I can..."
"Shut up!" The father slammed the bamboo scroll in his sleeve onto the table with a "thud," startling the sparrows on the beams as the rolled-up silk scroll flew away. "Do you know that the Qin Women's Academy started yesterday? The daughter of Li Si and the young lady of the Xianyang magistrate's family both wore ruqun (traditional Chinese dresses) to enroll, but you alone want to sit in the same hall as men?"
Just then, hurried footsteps came from outside the embroidery room. Grandfather Chunyu Yue stepped in, his eyes fixed on his granddaughter's plain white undergarment, and said sternly, "Before your grandmother died, she was most worried about you. I treated you as the apple of my eye and taught you to read and write, not so that you would go out into the world!"
Looking at the stern faces of her grandfather and father, Chunyu Shu felt a surge of resentment and grievance welling up inside her like a burst dam. She remembered her aunt's desperate suicide, the shocking brand beneath her mother's collarbone, and her own years of hard study to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor. At that moment, she suddenly realized that she could no longer be bound by the shackles of feudal ethics like her mother and aunt.
“Grandfather, Father!” Chunyu Shu straightened her back, her gaze resolute. “Medicine knows no gender, and saving lives knows no social status. My aunt died because of love, and my mother was punished for being filial to her mother. Are the women of the Chunyu family destined to be sacrifices to the family’s moral code? I am not unaware of the difficulties women face in becoming doctors, but it is precisely because of these difficulties that someone must take this step!”
Chunyu Yue's bamboo stick drew a sharp arc in the air, the rough bamboo splinters scraping against the air with a piercing sound. Chunyu Shu stubbornly raised her head, her hair disheveled by the force of the bamboo stick being flung through the air, but she still stared intently into her grandfather's bloodshot eyes: "Kill me if you want, but if I don't die, I will definitely go to the Great Qin Medical College to study medicine!"
The bamboo whip, whipped with a powerful gust of wind, lashed down, tearing at the plain white dress. Chunyu Shu jerked her back stiffly. A searing pain exploded from her shoulder blades; she bit her lower lip, tasting the blood, letting the second and third streaks meander down her back. As the fourth whistling sound drew near, a warm body suddenly slammed into her arms—her mother's pale face pressed against her ear, the last petals of white plum blossoms falling softly onto her shoulder.
"Mother! Get out of my way!" Chunyu Shu trembled with anxiety, but she couldn't budge the rock-solid embrace. Her mother's thin back trembled violently under the blows of the bamboo sticks, and the "Chunyu" brand on her collarbone was faintly visible in her sweat-soaked clothes. It was an old wound left by the branding iron twenty years ago, now burning under the skin along with the new marks.
Chunyu Yue's bamboo stick hung in mid-air, his knuckles turning bluish-white from excessive force. He gazed at his granddaughter's stubborn eyes, and for a fleeting moment, he saw the exact same unwavering look in her eyes five years ago, the same resolute determination to marry a poor young man—the same unyielding spirit. Sunlight streamed through the window into the ancestral hall, casting halos of light on Aunt Jing Shu's memorial tablet. The white figure that had hung on the plum tree five years ago gradually merged with the mother and daughter embracing before him.