In the year of Yin Su’s tenth spring, several women in the household gave birth, including her Mother and the Wife of the Great Lord. The birthing hut was busy. 

With so much activity, Yin Su was given additional duties to ensure the household would continue to function smoothly while the new mothers recuperated the traditional thirty days with their newborns. Many times women would return to their household job sooner than expected, without their babies. Yin Su assumed the babies had died. It was not unusual for babies to die before their naming day, one hundred days after the birth. It was the way of the gods. She was glad to have the women back to ease her load of work, but the loss of babies felt so sad. 

When the time came for the Great Lord’s Wife to give birth, the birthing hut was given a more meticulous cleaning in preparation. One schooled in medicine was called upon to examine the Great Lord’s Wife for any possible problems. None were found, and the birth proceeded normally with other highborn ladies in attendance. Servants gathered around to act as midwives and perform whatever task might be required.

The Great Lord’s Wife gave birth to a female and stayed in the birthing hut for three days before presenting her husband with the news. She then retired to her private apartment with great fanfare, declaring to everyone in the household that she did not have time for a female child. But everyone noticed that she held the child tenderly, and her servants whispered to anyone who would listen, that she fussed over the child and bought her expensive wraps. A wet nurse was recruited from women in the house who had lost their own child. 

One week later, the birthing hut was again occupied, this time by Yin Su’s Mother. Yin Su was allowed to be present as labor progressed and watched as one attendant grabbed her Mother around the waist, and titled her back causing her Mother’s child to slip easily from her womb and into the hands of a waiting midwife. The newborn was a healthy female. 

Yin Su could not hide her excitement. She wanted to hold the small babe and comfort it. But the women attending her mother pushed her out of the birthing hut and told her she could do that in three days. Right now it was time for her mother and the babe to be together. 

Yin Su spent the next three days in a whirlwind of activity. With her mother out of the kitchen, more duties fell to her. She knew best how her mother prepared dishes the Great Lord liked. 

She lay awake at night imagining games she would play with her new sister. Lessons with the Lord’s sons went on without her. She longed to tell Elder Brother that she would now be an Elder Sister and would tend to her Younger Sister as he tended to Younger Brother. 

On the third day, she hurried through her morning kitchen duties, boiling water and preparing tea to warm the bellies of the Great Lord and his Wife. She made an extra portion to take to her Mother in the birthing hut. 

As she approached the hut, something seemed amiss. It appeared cold with inactivity. She entered and found her mother lying on the sleeping mat, the front of her clothing wet. 

“Mother, what has happened?” Yin Su embraced her.

“Oh, Yin Su, I am sorry.”

Yin Su looked around. “Where is the babe?”

“The babe is gone.”

“Gone? Gone where?”

“Yin Su, it is for the best. Our Great Lord has made his decision.”

“But the babe was healthy and strong.”

“The babe was female.”

“What?”

“Yin Su, do you really not understand? What do you think happens when women give birth but do not return with a babe?”

“Sometimes babes die. But yours was healthy and took to your breast. Surely, she did not die.”

“Men desire sons.”

“But…”

“Observe, Yin Su. You must learn the ways of men. Only then can you learn to live without regret.” 

Yin Su cried for the next several days.

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