Chapter 56 — The Dragon Boat Festival

She had no sooner stepped through the gate of the main court than a great burst of laughter erupted from the west wing.

Dou Chi smiled.

Since Wu Ya had come, how could Wu Shan be far behind?

Just as in her past life, Wu Shan and Dou Huaide, being of the same age, had taken to each other at once; each time he came he lodged with Dou Huaide, and so he was on excellent terms with Dou Yong and Dou Yan as well.

They must be in there boasting to one another!

She was about to enter her room when the door of the opposite wing suddenly opened and Wu Shan came out with Dou Huaide and the others.

"Fourth Sister!" he called in greeting, his ears faintly red.

Dou Yan nodded to him politely. "Cousin Wu Four has come."

She addressed Wu Shan as the Dou Huaide brothers did, and exchanged greetings with Dou Yong and the rest.

Then Wu Shan asked her, "We are going out to buy a congratulatory gift for Uncle Six. Shall we bring you anything?"

He used the form of address by which the Dou family's younger generation called Dou Heng.

"Thank you," Dou Xin said. "I have already prepared Uncle Six's gift."

It was a piece of Qingtian stone she had long ago wheedled out of Father.

Carved upon its face was a monkey riding a horse, a pun on 'sealing the marquis at once'—just the thing for Uncle Six to have carved into a seal for his leisure.

Wu Shan smiled. "My sister has come too. She is talking with my elder cousin. Have you seen her?"

Was that not a pointless question?

If she had been with the Second Cousin-in-law as well, would the Second Cousin-in-law ever have let her go?

Dou Yan answered with a smile all the same. "Qiqi has come too, but I have not run into her yet."

Wu Shan went on, "Twelve says your family is engaging a troupe to sing at the Dragon Boat Festival. Is it true?"

Dou Huaide was twelfth among the brothers, and everyone liked to call him Twelve.

Dou Xin said, "Since Brother Twelve says so, it must be true."

Wu Shan said, "What a pity that I will have returned to Xindong by then."

"There will always be a chance to see it."

"Who knows when that will be?" Wu Shan said wistfully. "I hear they have engaged Zhou Qingfen to sing this time..."

His words were like a lotus root—cut clean through, yet he could always join them up again into that clinging, thread-connected state.

Dou Yan waited with patience for him to finish his sentence, then smiled at him apologetically. "Cousin Wu Four must have business to attend to! I am just on my way to the Old Madam's."

Wu Shan's face flushed crimson at once, and he stumbled over his words. "Fourth Sister had best go back inside, then. We are leaving as well."

Dou Yan went in.

Behind her came Dou Yong's puzzled voice: "Why is it that whenever you meet Fourth Sister, you always have so much to say?"

Wu Shan cried, "Was it not you who said I talk too little?"

"I said that whenever you meet Yi and the others, you always hem and haw..."

"I am their elder. I must keep some semblance of an elder's dignity, surely?"

"Very well, this time we will let you play the elder to the hilt," said Dou Yan. "This time, whatever we buy, you pay for it..."

"You are extorting me..." Wu Shan laughed, his voice fading into the distance.

Dou Xin shook her head, finding it all most amusing.

When the day of the Dragon Boat Festival arrived, the Second Dowager had indeed engaged Zhou Qingfen to perform grand opera.

The stage was set up before the ancestral hall by the Dou family's North Tower, and villagers from ten li around came with their families to hear the singing.

Dou Yan accompanied the Sixth Aunt in keeping the Second Dowager company over tea in the side room beside the ancestral hall.

Wang Shuying came in to pay her respects to the Second Dowager. Then she beckoned to Dou Yan. "Shouyuan, did you enjoy the chrysanthemum cakes I had Qiongfen send over last time? They were a gift from the palace to my father. Sister Ming had a whole box delivered back especially, saying she wanted her elder sister to have a taste."

"So they came from the palace. No wonder they looked nothing like what you find in the markets." Dou Yan smiled faintly. "I gave them to the Dowager as a token of respect." As she spoke, she glanced toward the Dowager.

Beaming, the Dowager took Dou Zhiwei's hand. "Our Shouyuan is always the thoughtful one."

Wang Shuying's face went red, then green, then red again.

In recent years Dou Yan had left Wang Shuying to the Second Dowager to deal with, and could not be bothered to squabble with her.

A little maid came rushing in, flustered and stammering. "Dowager, Madam—it's terrible, the Old Master, His Lordship, he's taken a bad turn..."

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Dear sisters, I haven't been able to get online these past two days, so I wrote this and posted it in a hurry. There are rather a lot of typos, and I'm still correcting them. I do beg your pardon for the inconvenience in reading... Today is the first day of the New Year, and I wish you all a happy time!

※RQ