Chapter 142 — Aftermath

Since the physician was past fifty and had visited the Dou household since his youth, Dou Yan did not withdraw. After he had taken Dou Ming's pulse, Dou Yan invited him to sit in the flower hall, questioned him closely about the illness, handed the prescription to Gan Lu to fetch the medicine, and personally saw him out to the second gate. Afterward she went to her grandmother's, but dared not tell her that Dou Ming had been abducted; she said only that Dou Ming had been clamoring to go to the capital, and that the servants of Qixia Court had actually helped her secretly hire carriages and horses outside—had Granny Zhou not told her, Dou Ming would likely have slipped back to the capital. That was why the servants of Qixia Court had to be dealt with.

Because Dou Ming rather looked down on her grandmother, she ordinarily came only every few days to pay her respects and show her face, less diligently than she went to the Second Dowager. Moreover, since Dou Yan had specifically asked that it be concealed, her grandmother knew nothing of what had happened the night before. She only sighed over Dou Huaiying's misdeeds: "...A perfectly good child, and he raised her into this." Then she instructed Dou Yan, "You are her elder sister. Whatever her faults, you must teach her kindly, and not let her run wild."

Her grandmother, worldly and clear-sighted, had long since seen that Dou Yan had always kept Dou Ming at a respectful distance. Though she thought this unfortunate, Dou Yan had grown up at her knee and had been close to her since childhood. Without quite realizing it, she was somewhat partial to Dou Yan, and about certain matters she simply played deaf and dumb, pretending not to know.

Dou Yan understood this well, and with a rather perfunctory smile she murmured her assent—not that she did not wish to take charge, but Dou Ming's parents were both living, and it was not hers to discipline her. This time, however, she was resolved to send Dou Ming back to the capital. Perhaps, if Dou Ming's wish was granted, she would be more docile.

After leaving Grandmother's room, she set about putting the household of Qixia Court in order.

West Dou was summoning physicians and selling off servants left and right. East Dou soon caught wind that something was amiss.

The Second Old Madam summoned Dou Yan for a talk.

Face flushed crimson, Dou Yan told the Second Old Madam everything about Dou Ming, adding, "...I simply could not bring myself to say such things aloud, nor did I know how to tell you. I could only put it off a day at a time."

The Second Old Madam was so furious she nearly stopped breathing altogether; the Second Madam and Matron Liu pinched her philtrum for the longest time before she came back around.

"Wretched girl, wretched girl!" the Second Old Madam cursed. "I knew it—there is not a single good one among the Wangs!" Then she asked Dou Yan, "Have you gotten to the bottom of why that Yu Er wanted to abduct Dou Ming?"

She no longer called her Ming'er.

Dou Yan told the Second Old Madam all that had been uncovered, and also mentioned his own plan to have Suxin pay a call on the Wang family.

The Second Old Madam nodded again and again, patting Dou Zhiwei's hand. "Good child, you have truly been put through the wringer! When all is said and done, it is all your father's doing..."

A son does not speak of his father's faults.

The Second Madam hastily cleared her throat a few times from the side.

The Second Old Madam, too, realized she had misspoken, and quickly changed the subject, comforting Dou Yan at some length and asking whether there was anything troubling him; if any difficulty arose, he was simply to come to her.

Having obtained this imperial sword of authority, Dou Yan naturally thanked her profusely.

The Second Old Madam then said, "Still, Suxin is of low station and only a young girl besides; it would not be proper to send her to speak with the Wangs. I think it best that I write a letter to your Fifth Uncle, and have Matron Liu accompany Suxin to the capital to see your Fifth Aunt. Let this matter be handed to your Fifth Aunt to handle. After all, you are the elder sister, and still unwed—do not drag yourself into it."

Dou Yan had been waiting for exactly these words.

The greatest virtue of the Second Old Madam was her skill at sizing up the situation.

In the beginning, to leave a good impression on Zeng Yifen for her son's sake, she had stood off against her own younger brother-in-law for a day and a night, throwing her weight behind installing Wang Shuying as the legitimate wife; later, when Wang Xingyi might contend with her son for a seat on the Grand Secretariat, she could likewise belittle Wang Shuying without a moment's hesitation. Now that Fifth Uncle had entered the Grand Secretariat and Wang Xingyi had been shifted from Governor of Shaanxi to Governor of Yunnan, the time had come for her to settle scores for all the "humiliation borne in silence" she had once endured before the Wangs. With the Wang household's servants committing such a blunder, if she did not seize the chance to trample Wang-Xu shi so far down she could never lift her head again, then she would not be that Second Old Madam of the Dou clan!

Just as she had never forgotten Old Woman Wu—the moment Dou Bingheng entered the Grand Secretariat, she told everyone she met that the sole reason Wu Shan had managed to place first in the county examination was that Tutor Du of the Dou clan school had given him private tutoring, and that the reason Tutor Du had given Wu Shan private tutoring was that, back when Dou Bingheng had fallen on hard times, Wu Songnian had once stood him a meal of wine.

Dou Bingheng became a man who repaid a drop of kindness with a gushing spring. And the Wu family, who had drifted ever further from the Dou clan the moment the son placed first in the examination, became a pack of ingrates.

Yet Old Woman Wu could neither defend herself nor, as she once had, lead her son and daughter over to the Dou house for frequent visits.

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Sisters, brothers, here is the belated update for March 28.

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