Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

When Lily's first son turns five, Lily’s husband decides to hire a tutor for him. Lily is sad to see him go, especially since the upstairs chamber is very unpleasant. The Third Sister-in-law and Fourth-sister-in-law have married in recently, and both gave birth to girls and then two stillborn boys. Lily, pregnant again, is a source of jealousy and resentment for them, but Lily longs for a daughter to keep her company in the upstairs chamber.

For the Tasting Festival, Lily and Snow Flower (who's also pregnant) travel to Lily's natal home. Lily confides that she hopes they both have daughters that can then be laotong. Snow Flower resists this, reminding Lily that daughters are useless, but Lily insists. The following spring, they return to Puwei with daughters. When they compare the babies they don't match at all, but Lily and Snow Flower don't care. They mark the decision in their fan.

Two years later, Snow Flower tells Lily she's had a second son. Nobody can truly celebrate, however, as the Emperor passes away three days later and the country enters the period of mourning. Lily knows that this can jeopardize her family's prosperity, and she hears talk of rebels. Sure enough, Uncle Lu loses his position and returns to Tongkou. When Lily and her family greet him, he looks them over and then turns to Lily's first son, asking him to lead him home.

Over the next two years, Lily has another son and the rebellion begins to take its toll on the Lu household. Snow Flower's father-in-law dies, and Snow Flower's mother-in-law becomes more abusive. At Lily's natal home that year, Snow Flower tells her about the Taipings, but Lily doesn't understand. Lily asks her husband about it when she returns, and in response Lily’s husband threatens to not allow her to visit home again.

That year, a drought means that everyone in Tongkou goes hungry. Uncle Lu, who now tutors Lily's first son, puts more pressure on the boy, as he has the potential to pull them out of hard times with education. One night, Lily's husband tells her that he is going to travel to faraway Guilin to buy salt to sell. He will pass through dangerous Taiping territory, and Lily is afraid. He tells her he'll be gone for a year.

After her Lily’s husband leaves, Lily worries constantly. She starts to offer to fetch tea downstairs and takes the opportunity to listen in on Uncle Lu's lessons with her first son. She one day hears Uncle Lu warn of the dangerous rebels. Lily says that the terror came to them in other ways, though—but before the terror arrives, she learns that Snow Flower is again pregnant.

The heat comes early that year, and the men offer to take the children to the river. Typhoid strikes a tenant farmer first and then sweeps through the village. The women of the Lu family gather upstairs together until Third-Sister-in-law's son takes ill. Lily takes her children to her sleeping chamber and only leaves the room twice per day to empty the chamber pot, boil water, and make congee (a type of rice pudding). She can smell the dead through her one window and worries about Snow Flower's family and her husband.

One day, Lily finds Third Sister-in-law in the kitchen dressed in mourning—her entire nuclear family is dead. Lady Lu enters and spits on Third Sister-in-law, accuses her of destroying the Lus, and leaves the room. Lily makes Third-Sister-in-law a cup of tea, which she knows is wrong, and listens to her lament her fate. The next morning, Yonggang and the other servants return and Yonggang says that Third Sister-in-law killed herself.

By midday, Lady Lu has come down with fever. It's Lily's responsibility to care for her, but she worries for her children until Yonggang promises to watch them. Lily spends the next five days caring for Lady Lu until she dies, and then prepares her for burial. With her death, Lily becomes the head woman of the Lu house. She vows that there will be no more concubines in her home.

As the epidemic wanes, Lily learns that Mama and Baba have also died, as well as a number of her in-laws. The Lu family is lucky, however. Lily's husband returns with salt and the profits solve the family's financial problems. Lily's father-in-law dies when he is walking in the fields one day, which he does because he misses his wife. Lily and her husband mourn appropriately, and by the end of the mourning period, they are the new Master and Lady Lu.