Chapter 63 — The Storm (Bonus Update for 390 Pink Votes)

Afterward, however, she made a point of asking about Shujie's monthly allowance, and learned that it wasn't that Shujie lacked silver—it was that the moment the allowance was in her hands, she'd reward this person and that, leaving herself with nothing. When she saw something nice she couldn't afford, she'd simply take from Dou Zhiwei. Dou Yan told her how to manage her maids, how to save silver, and how to increase income and cut expenses. She even took her to the country estate and showed her how to manage it. Shujie later became quite skilled at managing money. But that is a story for another time.

The Third Cousin's wife went to the Matriarch's quarters.

She meant to clear her daughter's name.

She recounted the whole affair from beginning to end, then said with a sigh, "...It was Dou Ming who stirred up all this trouble, yet Shouyuan didn't breathe a single word of reproach against her—she took every fault onto her own shoulders. She is her aunt's own daughter after all, carrying the blood of the Zhao clan of Anxiang."

The Second Madam said not a word. Only after the Third Sister-in-law had gone did she spit out a curse: "She has only herself to blame."

By the time Wu Shan learned of the matter, the Lantern Festival had already passed.

He tossed and turned in his bed like a pancake for several nights, until at last he could bear it no longer. He dragged Dou Huaide along: "Come with me to the West Mansion to borrow a book from Uncle Seven?"

Dou Huaide was still rather naive, though in the end he fell in love with antiques and spent every day running off to curio shops with Dou Yan.

"What book? Don't we have it at home?"

Wu Shan fobbed him off: "A book on the collection of bronzes and stone inscriptions. I can't recall the title, and I couldn't find it at your house, so I thought I'd go look at Uncle Seven's."

Dou Huaide perked up at once: "Let's get Boyan and all go together."

Dou Yan had come of age this year. His Fifth Uncle had bestowed upon him the courtesy name "Boyan."

Wu Shan was secretly delighted, and the three of them set off for the West Mansion.

Dou Huaiying was directing men in repairing the eastern side courtyard. Hearing that Wu Shan had come to borrow a book, he washed his hands and face, changed his clothes, and received Wu Shan, Dou Huaide, and Dou Yan in the study.

"What have you been reading these days, Boyan?"

Dou Yan had failed the provincial examination last year.

"I am rereading the Annotated Four Books." When it came to serious matters, he was still quite respectful before Dou Huaiying.

Dou Huaiying nodded and said, "Don't fix your gaze only on the Annotated Four Books. You should read the Spring and Autumn Annals and the Records of the Grand Historian more as well."

Dou Yan smiled. "That's just what Uncle Five said too. He even asked whether I'd like to go and have a look at the Imperial Academy."

"Oh?" Dou Huaiying smiled. "And what did you say?"

"I've heard the capital is full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers. I'd like to go and see it for myself."

The two fell to talking of the examination path, and Dou Huaide listened with relish, while Wu Shan's eyes darted about this way and that—yet he did not catch so much as a glimpse of a single maidservant. At long last Dou Huaiying finished his questioning and released them to the study, but Dou Huaide and Dou Yan then pestered him again, asking just what book it was. He had no choice but to ramble here and there helping them search, and after nearly half an hour he still could not shake the two of them. Wu Shan was gradually growing restless and agitated.

Suddenly a clear voice came from outside the study—Dou Yan's: "Didn't they say Father had gone back to the study? Where has he run off to now?"

In an instant Wu Shan felt every part of him relax. Heedless of Dou Huaide and Dou Yan being right there beside him, he hurried out.

"Fourth Sister!" He gazed fixedly at Dou Yan. "What brings you here?"

"Why, it's Brother Wu the Fourth," Dou Yan said. Facing a boy about the same age as her son, and one from a family as close as their own, she found it hard to be always strict about the proper distance between the sexes. She smiled. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to borrow a book," Wu Shan said, lifting the volume in his hand. He wanted to put his words more tactfully, but such chances to speak were fleeting and he had to seize the moment. "I didn't know you liked revolving lanterns, or I'd have brought one for you."

Dou Yan was surprised, and she saw that Wu Shan's eyes were dark pitch-black, yet filled with utter earnestness.

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Sisters and brothers, the household was in complete chaos yesterday and I dashed off the chapter in a hurry—the result was very rough indeed. When I got up this morning I simply could not read it any further, so I revised Chapter Sixty-Two and fixed a few small errors. Please start reading from Chapter Sixty-Two.

o(n_n)o~

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