Chapter 65 — Consequences (Bonus Update for 420 Pink Votes)

After the business with Pang Jixiu, Father's attention shifted at once to the inner household. Unfortunately, with Dou Yan holding the fort and Wang Shuying managing affairs, he asked around and around but could find nothing that allowed him to stick his hand in. Frustrated, he threw all his energy into renovating the east courtyard. The construction that should have been finished in early summer dragged on into midsummer, and it had the effect of drawing Dou Yan to the western residence at every opportunity, where he would squat in the shade with Father discussing what colored paintings to put on the beams and what stone carvings to set before the gate, each time talking with such fervor that they were utterly delighted with themselves.

Wang Shuying could not help muttering, "Father says there are still vacancies in the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Justice in the capital—he has already written to friends serving in both. Time waits for no one. Should you not send Father word?"

Dou Huaiying dismissed this. Sipping iced mung bean soup and studying the blueprints, he said absently, "Whether it is the Ministry of Works or the Ministry of Justice, it all has to go through the Ministry of Personnel. Leave this matter alone—I have my own ideas."

To rely on one's father-in-law is, in others' eyes, to live off a wife's family; to rely on an elder cousin—that is only proper.

Wang Shuying did not dare press further. Even Dou Yan assumed Father had long since settled the matter with Fifth Uncle and paid it no mind; instead he listened with great enthusiasm as Father and Dou Yan discussed how to borrow scenery and how to pile up rockeries, altogether looking as though they meant to build the east courtyard into a Jiangnan garden.

Gao Sheng came to Dou Yan: "In just five months, sixty thousand taels of silver have already been spent."

Dou Yan asked him, "Has the household been left strapped because of it?"

"Not to that extent." Gao Sheng lowered his voice. "But it is being spent far too fast. Last year's entire profits are gone."

"Come tell me again when he has spent through the Western Dou family's savings," Dou Yan said calmly. "You have to let him have something to keep him busy, do you not?"

Gao Sheng gave a bitter smile.

Dou Yan looked at Dou Yan in the courtyard, arm slung over Father's shoulder, and suddenly her eyes stung.

Mother had been gone nine years now, and Father had lived those nine years alone.

A father's fault lies in failing to teach a son; a mother's fault lies in failing to teach a daughter. If there had been a son, would Father have conducted himself more steadily?

The thought flashed by, and Dou Xiao's listless look surfaced in her mind. A wave of distaste washed over her, and she decided to leave the matter alone after all.

But who would have thought that at the end of the sixth month, Fifth Uncle would send a letter asking why Father had not gone to the capital to await a post, adding that since Grandfather had passed, Father ought to take up the family's banner. In this world there are many who add flowers to brocade and few who send charcoal in snow; the Dou clan ought all the more to hold tightly together, and Father should not abandon the hardship of ten years' study. Then, in veiled terms, he inquired about Father's heirs, saying that if Wang Shuying were barren, he could ask Fifth Aunt to keep an eye out and take a concubine of clean background for Father, so that when a son entered officialdom in the future, Father could retire to the countryside in peace and play the old patriarch.

Father broke into a cold sweat. That very night he wrote back to Fifth Uncle, saying the matter of taking a concubine need not trouble him, and said not a word about awaiting a post.

Only then did Dou Ci realize that Father's refusal to go to the capital to await a post was entirely his own idea.

She deliberately cornered Father: "You could simply take them all to the capital with you. I would fetch Great-aunt Cui over and let the old lady enjoy a few days of comfort."

Father actually considered it seriously: "You have a point. Why not go to the capital together and leave everything at home to Great-aunt Cui to look after?"

To share one roof and drink from one well with Wang Shuying for three years was already Dou Zhiwei's limit. To let herself keep tangled up with Wang Shuying? Not a chance.

"If I go to the capital, the Pang family will probably find even more excuse to call at our house, will they not?"

Dou Huaiying was struck dumb.

Dou Yan seized the chance to raise the matter of the concubine: "...You ought to have someone by your side to see to your daily needs."

As a father, how could Dou Huaiying properly discuss such a matter with his daughter?

Red-faced, he scolded Dou Yan: "What nonsense are you talking? Who told you these things?"

"Did Fifth Uncle not write it in his letter?" Dou Yan said frankly and without embarrassment. "The Western Dou family cannot be without a son, can it?"

For Father to remain alone nine years for Mother's sake—whatever resentment Dou Yan still harbored had melted away.

Dou Huaiying said sheepishly, "You have seen for yourself—where would I find the time to keep an eye on the inner household every day? If I took another into the house, would that not be wronging her? Besides, even if a concubine bore a son, who would raise him? Look at Ming—look at what she has become!"

Dou Yan was silent.

At the end of the fourth month, when the Hanlin bachelor's training ended, Sixth Uncle Dou Heng was assigned to the Court of Receptions and became an intimate minister of the Son of Heaven. the Second Madam was overjoyed; at the Dragon Boat Festival she funded the county office's lantern market and invited everyone of any consequence in Zhending County to the house to hear opera. Dou Huaiying, as a Dou clansman and a metropolitan graduate, was naturally among them.

He brought the whole family to the Eastern Dou residence.

Somehow Dou Ming had gotten into a fight with the Lang family's Eighth Miss, who was only seven, and even tore a lock of hair from the girl's head. Afterward, no matter how Dou Huaiying questioned Dou Ming, her lips stayed pressed together like a tightly shut clam shell and she said not a word; the Lang family's Eighth Miss could only cry. Dou Huaiying had no recourse but to call at their door in person to apologize, and to this day had never gotten to the bottom of why Dou Ming had fought the Lang family's Eighth Miss.

Dou Fan felt Wang Shuying ought to know.

Not only Wang Shuying—most of the Eastern Dou womenfolk probably knew as well.

The Zhu family's Fifth Miss was in the end married to the Lang family's Fifteenth Lord.

Dou Ming and the Lang family's Eighth Miss had fallen to quarreling over some word, and the Eighth Miss had leapt up and cursed Dou Yan as "a concubine's brat"...

At this point Dou Huaiying could not help regretting it: "Had I known you were so sensible, I should have handed your sister to you to raise. But it is too late now—you are twelve this year, and in two or three years you will be married off..."

Dou Yan felt cold sweat break out all over her. Thinking that a household without a male child was inconvenient in the end, she smiled and said, "If you give me a little brother now, I will help you raise him. As for a sister—do not count on me."

Dou Huaiying gave a sheepish laugh.

Dou Yan came looking for Father.

Dou Yan said in surprise, "Eh, how is it that I do not see Eleventh Brother and Twelfth Brother?"

Dou Yan chuckled. "They are both preparing to sit the examinations next year. Right now every one of them is at home with his hair tied to the beam and his thigh prodded by an awl!"

Dou Yan giggled.

Dou Yan and Father went off to the east courtyard.