Debts of the Marriage Bed

Tuoba Hu Shen is a half-Han, half-Xianbei woman living on the grasslands, raised by her elder brother Tuoba Hu Lang after their mother, a captive from the Central Plains, died longing for home. Hu Lang is a favored warrior of the Northern Wei Khan, while Hu Shen occupies a precarious position, neither fully accepted by the grassland tribes nor able to return to her mother’s homeland. The story begins in winter, a time of scarcity and violence, when the Xianbei capture a group of Southern Liang soldiers, including the renowned general Xie Xixiao, the third son of the prestigious Xie family. Xie Xixiao is a man of immense pride and martial skill, captured after a brutal fight and subjected to severe torture, including iron chains driven through his shoulder blades, to break his will.

The Khan, advised by a treacherous defector named Yuan Shigong, devises a psychological strategy to turn the stubborn prisoners. The plan is to bestow women upon them, grant them titles, and have them sire children, thereby creating attachments that would make them loyal to the grassland ruler and despised by their own people in the Central Plains. Hu Shen is chosen as one of three women to be given to Xie Xixiao. Her brother urges her to succeed in this mission, promising that if she can win Xie Xixiao’s loyalty, they will eventually return to the Central Plains to live in comfort. Hu Shen, however, is conflicted. She feels no hatred for Xie Xixiao and is repulsed by the cruelty of the plan, yet she feels obligated to support her brother who has raised her.

When Hu Shen first approaches Xie Xixiao, she feeds him broth with a spoon, avoiding physical contact after a moment of accidental intimacy frightens her. She realizes that forcing herself on him through violence or deception will only deepen his hatred. The turning point comes when her brother gives her deer-blood wine, an aphrodisiac, and sends her to Xie Xixiao’s tent. Hu Shen initially attempts to drug him, but when the other two women, Naye and Guzi, arrive to claim him, she intervenes. She tricks them into fighting each other, then subdues them in a wrestling match, asserting her right to Xie Xixiao. That night, she does not use the wine but instead initiates intimacy herself, driven by a mix of duty, confusion, and a strange sense of connection. The act is painful and awkward for both, but it establishes a complex dynamic between them.

Xie Xixiao is humiliated and enraged, viewing Hu Shen as an agent of his tormentors. He falls ill with a fever, and Hu Shen cares for him, applying medicine and tending to his wounds. Their interactions are fraught with tension; he threatens her life, and she threatens to bring others to share him, creating a twisted bargaining chip. Eventually, Xie Xixiao agrees to a truce: if Hu Shen does not resist his advances for three days, she will take him to see his five remaining comrades. During this time, Hu Shen stays by his side, sewing hides and feeding him, while Xie Xixiao watches her with a mixture of loathing and curiosity. He observes that she is not cruel like the others and seems genuinely concerned for his well-being.

When Xie Xixiao sees his comrades, he is devastated by the torture they have endured, particularly the man whose eyes were gouged out. This reinforces his resolve to escape and return home, but it also deepens his bond with Hu Shen, as she witnesses his grief and does not mock it. The story introduces Yelu Jian, a burly Xianbei warrior who has long harassed Hu Shen and claims she belongs to him. When Yelu Jian confronts Hu Shen and Xie Xixiao, Xie Xixiao, despite his injuries, attacks him with the iron chain, protecting Hu Shen. This act of violence on her behalf marks a shift in their relationship, as Xie Xixiao begins to see Hu Shen not just as a captor but as a complex individual. The narrative sets the stage for a prolonged struggle between Xie Xixiao’s loyalty to his homeland and his growing, albeit reluctant, entanglement with Hu Shen and the grassland life she represents.