Chapter 345 — With Child (A Bonus Chapter in Thanks)

"Mother, how can this be your fault?" She comforted her mother, her voice utterly calm. "Dou Ming has her own wet nurse attending her night and day. Could she not know herself whether she is with child? She knew perfectly well you were setting rules for her, yet she let not a word slip. What do you suppose she was scheming? And do not forget—she dared to steal even her own sister's marriage. What would she not dare? You must not soften now, of all times. As you said yourself, this is Peijin's first child with her, and she could steel her heart to gamble the child away just to spite you. A viper's heart is no worse than that!"

Tian-shi nodded again and again.

Put that way, it was not her fault at all—Dou Ming had hidden it on purpose and shifted the blame onto her, making her out to be a cruel mother-in-law.

"I shall go to the Dou family and demand an accounting," said Tian-shi. She reasoned that Dou Ming, cunning as she was, had surely long since planned how to weep before the Dou elders and make them take her part; by then the Wei family would be on the back foot. Better to strike first. "A fine daughter they raised—disobedient to her mother-in-law and destroying our family's offspring! If the Dou family does not give us satisfaction, I will not let the matter rest!"

Perhaps if she made enough of a fuss, the Dou family, for the sake of their name, would have no choice but to compensate the Wei family.

Wei Wan thought of that chest of silver notes from Dou Yan, and her blood ran hot. She took her mother's arm. "Mother, I will go with you!"

Tian-shi gave a grunt of assent, her heart greatly eased. Reflecting that there was no one at the Yunqi Temple alley house to manage the household, and that the most prominent branch of the Dou family was the fifth, she resolved to go to the Huai Shu alley to demand satisfaction.

Wei Wan had hit upon the same thought as her mother.

Mother and daughter, paying no heed that the matron had not yet returned with the medicine, ordered the servants to harness the carriage, and set off for Huai Shu alley.

The New Year was near, and as the wife of a Grand Secretary's household, the Fifth Madam of the Dou family had a great many social obligations. Since the winter solstice she had been run off her feet.

When she heard that the wife of the heir of the Jing Zhen Guo estate had come with her mother, the Dowager of the Jining Marquis household, she was much astonished.

The two families were joined by marriage, to be sure, but Dou Ming was, after all, a step removed from the Huai Shu alley household. By rights, if the Dowager of the Jining Marquis household wished to call, she ought first to have sent a card. Such an abrupt visit could only mean something grave.

She instructed her personal mama to conduct Tian-shi and Wei Wan to the small reception hall and serve tea, while she changed her clothes and, bringing along the glib Cai-shi, went to receive the Wei mother and daughter.

But scarcely had she stepped into the hall, before she could so much as exchange pleasantries with Tian-shi, than Tian-shi seized her hand and burst into tears. "Fifth Madam, by rights I ought to be at the Longhua Temple alley house. But there is no one in the inner quarters at Yunqi Temple alley fit to manage the household, and that Wang-shi is not of proper origin—even if I spoke with her, I doubt I could make myself understood. Your family's girl has a fearful temper; as her mother-in-law I can no longer control her. Among the ladies of the Dou family in the capital, you alone are a sensible one, so I must beg you to speak to the master on our behalf and have him take Ming back! Our Wei house is a small temple—too small to enshrine such a deity!"

The Fifth Madam's mouth could have held a whole egg.

How many months had it been since Dou Ming married?

And had not Wei Fan himself chosen this match? How was it that suddenly the Dou family was to take their daughter back?

Even an upright official finds it hard to judge family quarrels.

The Fifth Madam felt a dull throbbing at her temples.

She asked, with the utmost care, how it had all come about.

Wei Wan, of course, laid it on with a trowel. "My mother had such difficulty bearing children that she treats her daughters-in-law like her own daughters. Setting rules aside, even the morning and evening greetings were only required when the weather was fine—she would let her come and pay her respects then. But she grows more outrageous by the day. Not content with bickering with my brother over trifles from time to time, she has grown ever more disrespectful to Mother, and the household affairs are all in confusion, without order or method. Mother could bear it no longer and summoned her to be reprimanded, whereupon she relied on the richness of her dowry and talked back to Mother. Mother, in her anger, made her stand facing the wall to reflect on her faults—and who would have thought she would say not a word, stand for the time it takes half an incense stick to burn, and then collapse on the floor. Mother at once sent for a physician to feel her pulse, and only then discovered she was with child... Madam, her own wet nurse came with her to our house. How could such a great matter as a pregnancy be kept from us, until it came to a miscarriage? Tell me, would you dare keep such a daughter-in-law?" Then she muttered, "No wonder they say the child takes after the mother. What sort of mother, what sort of daughter. This marriage is better unmade!"

What sort of person was the Fifth Madam? Even a quarrel between husband and wife would have her aiming for the tenderest spot, let alone a quarrel between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. She did not believe for a moment that Tian-shi treated Dou Ming as well as Wei Wan claimed. But that Dou Ming had conceived a child of the Wei family and lost it—that was a fact...

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Brothers and sisters, first a thank-you update—the regular update is postponed until about ten tonight.

o(∩_∩)o~

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