Chapter 96 — Return

Her sister's cold, indifferent gaze, her unhurried composure, and that absolute confidence that everything in the world lay within her grasp—all of it plunged Dou Ming in an instant back to her childhood. It made her not dare to act rashly, and yet it also bred in her a gnawing, devouring hatred.

"What right have you to order me about!" She could not help but clench her fists and shriek, her words reckless now. "She's nothing but a concubine! Don't imagine I'll go pay respects to a concubine!"

Dou Yan stood still. Lenghuang looked at her. Neither said a word.

A matron dressed as a nurse hurried forward and clapped a hand over Dou Ming's mouth. "Fourth Miss, you—you mustn't take offense. Fifth Miss is simply beside herself with anger. No, she's not angry at you, she's angry at the Master..." Fine beads of sweat stood out on her forehead.

Dou Yan recognized her.

In her former life, this was the stewardess Wang Xushi had found for Dou Ming after Dou Ming went to the capital. Her surname was Zhou, and she was distantly, circuitously related to the Xu family. She was utterly loyal to Dou Ming and managed the affairs of Dou Ming's household impeccably.

She had not expected to meet her again in this life.

She smiled, and said to Dou Ming, who was struggling in Nurse Zhou's arms, "Don't go seeking humiliation. This time, I'll only punish you with half an hour kneeling in the flower hall. If there's a next time, I'll have you kneel for two hours in the courtyard of the North Tower ancestral hall. If you don't believe me, try me."

Dou Ming glared at her.

Dou Yan instructed Nurse Zhou, "Let her go. This is not a prince's mansion—this is the Dou household. There are elders above and nieces below. If I don't discipline her, then with her clawing and snarling like this, she'll only ruin her own reputation and make herself shunned by everyone."

Nurse Zhou nodded again and again.

She heard her murmur a word of advice to Dou Ming—"A wise man doesn't fight when the odds are against him"—and slowly released her grip.

Dou Ming indeed fell silent.

Dou Yan went with her to their grandmother's quarters.

They were both her granddaughters, and Grandmother was delighted to see Dou Ming, clasping her hand and asking without pause whether she had eaten and slept well on the journey. She had Honggu bring out every delicacy in the house for Dou Ming to eat.

Dou Ming did not like the Dou family in the least, and thought even less of her grandmother's food, but seeing Dou Xin standing gracefully to one side with a look of veiled menace in her eyes, she forced herself to go through the motions of humoring Grandmother.

Grandmother observed this and sighed inwardly. After sending Dou Ming off to rest, she said to Dou Yan, "Your father has sent her back. Most likely he doesn't want Lady Wang to raise her crooked. In some matters, you, as her elder sister, must bear more of the burden." She counseled her further, "Sisters in this life need not be sisters in the next—this too is a bond between you."

Dou Yan very much wanted to say that she and Dou Ming had already been sisters for two lifetimes... but she did not wish to worry Grandmother, so she answered respectfully all the same.

Grandmother smiled and embraced Dou Yan. "I knew our Shouyuan was a generous, sensible, good child!"

"She thinks so too," Dou Yan said.

Otherwise, she would not have spoken so politely just now.

The thought flashed through her mind, and she laughed aloud, her mood suddenly lifting.

Back in her own rooms, Dou Yan summoned all the stewards, great and small, to the flower hall and redistributed the household staff.

The kitchen staff, the laundry, the stables, the sedan-chair bearers—even the old women who kept the night watch—all were divided into three. The eastern side court's people would serve Aunt Cui, the main court's would serve her, and the western side court's would serve Dou Ming. Those of the eastern and main courts would be under Gao Xing's charge, those of the western court under Nurse Zhou's—and the public expenditures were divided along the same lines.

Nurse Zhou was greatly astonished. She hesitated, beginning, "Fourth Miss—" only to have Dou Ming cut her off. "You're the one Grandmother gave me—what is there you're not equal to?" Then she turned to Dou Yan. "So you know what's what."

No one had ever dared speak to Dou Yan in such a manner.

Every serving woman in the room bowed her head, aghast, and for a moment the room was so still you could have heard a pin drop.

Dou Yan lifted her teacup and gently skimmed the leaves floating on the surface with the lid. The jade bangle on her wrist clinked softly, like a drumbeat falling upon the heart, and the air grew oppressive and heavy.

"Dou Ming, do your knees hurt?" Dou Yan asked softly. "Do you think you could kneel another half hour?"

A flicker of discomfiture crossed Dou Ming's face.

After they had paid their respects to Grandmother, Dou Yan had had her kneel in the flower hall as punishment. She had thought nothing of it, only to be dragged bodily into the hall by one of the maids at Dou Yan's side and made to kneel for half an hour—and her knees were still throbbing faintly even now.

"Dou Ming," Dou Yan said, "I treat you as a sister, and I have the household servants treat you as a young lady. But if you do not respect that respect, then I can treat you as a stranger, and the servants need not show you deference either."

Dou Ming glanced at Suxin standing behind Dou Yan, and fell silent as a cicada in winter.

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