Chapter 227 — The Many

Wang Shuying had masterminded the swap of the Dou sisters' marriages, and no matter how much the Wang family doted on this daughter, they had no way to shield her now. So when the Dou family proposed that Wang Shuying accompany the Second Madam back to Zhending the following spring, the Wangs had no choice but to nod in assent. Wang Shuying was accordingly moved into the rear servants' quarters behind the main courtyard, where she was personally "attended" by Gao Sheng's wife; all outsiders were forbidden to come near, and the story given out was that Wang Shuying had fallen ill from overwork and needed rest and quiet. That she should go back to Zhending with the Second Madam to "recuperate" thus followed as a matter of course.

So when Dou Ming saw Wang Shuying leaning against the window lattice, staring blankly out the window, she did not rush forward to throw her arms around her and sob, nor did she vow to take up her mother's grievance and plead with the Dou elders. Her eyes merely grew a little moist, and she hesitated, words failing her.

Wang Shuying knew that her daughter had always looked down on her, believing that she had been stripped even of the authority to run the household, a failure through and through.

Yet she took no offense.

Her own daughter—what was there to hold against her?

She had done what she could do, and given her daughter what she could give.

Wang Shuying smiled faintly, invited Dou Ming to sit on the kang, and told a little maid to wash some fruit to serve her.

Dou Ming looked at the newly arrived autumn pears—so new to market that even the Jining Marquis Estate had bought only a few catties to let Lady Tian and her taste something fresh—and fell silent for a long while. At last she said in a low voice, "Elder Sister has been betrothed to the Yingguo Estate. Did you know?"

"I have heard." Wang Shuying peeled a pear for Dou Ming as she spoke, and gave a cold laugh. "Your father wishes the whole world to know that Dou Yan is to be married. Even if I wished not to know, I could not stop those serving women from chattering in my ear!" She went on, "The Yingguo Estate may be illustrious, but the Jining Marquis Estate is no poor relation. Live your own life well, and that is enough. This is all the help your mother can give you. The days ahead are yours to manage. When you have nothing to do, visit your grandmother's house more often—with your grandfather at your back, even your sister-in-law will not dare slight you. In your spare time, go and see your father—he has never stinted you in money matters. With him making up the shortfalls here and there, you can simply save up the income from your dowry. With those two things, the Wei family will not be able to touch a hair on your head. As for the Dou family, they have never treated you as a daughter of the house. Keep your dealings with them civil and courteous, and nothing more."

Dou Ming could not help frowning.

Her mother probably thought the Yingguo Estate and the Jining Marquis Estate were much the same, she reflected.

Even if there were differences between them, they were no more than the rank of the title and the size of the stipend.

She herself had thought so too, before she married into the Jining Marquis Estate. Only after marrying in did she discover that a marquis estate was not necessarily richer than an earl estate, and an earl estate not necessarily less powerful than a hereditary assistant commissioner of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Even now she had not sorted out these connections.

It was unlike the families of officials. There, rank was simply rank; a graduate of the same-list examination could never advance as smoothly as a two-list graduate, no matter how hard he strove. One glance at a man's degree, and you knew what future lay before him.

The affairs of the titled houses were a tangled mess!

"How can the Jining Marquis Estate be spoken of in the same breath as the Yingguo Estate?" Dou Chi said with delight. "Look at Elder Sister's betrothal gifts—a full twenty thousand taels of silver. Father says that where the man sends a load, the bride must send a matching one, so Elder Sister will have at least ten thousand taels for her trousseau chest…"

Wang Shuying was unimpressed. She gave a snort of laughter. "How much silver does your sister have? Do you not know? What difference would ten thousand taels more or less make to her? The Jining Marquis Estate once thought Dou Zhiwei's birth too low. If the Yingguo Estate is even more illustrious than the Jining Marquis Estate, then after you took her place and married into the Wei family, would the Yingguo Estate still have set its eyes on your sister—and fixed the wedding date so quickly? Does that not strike you as a little odd? I suspect the Yingguo Estate is gilded without and rotten within. For all we know, everything in the betrothal gifts was pieced together from odds and ends the Xuanming Sect left behind. All to swindle your father of his silver! You just wait and see—there will be plenty of time yet for Dou Yan to weep and your father to regret!"

Dou Ming thought of the rumors about Song Yan and fell silent.

Wang Shuying read her expression and knew she had guessed near enough to the mark. Her tone softened a little. "Do not think your mother is a fool. I know the Dou family is scheming against me—but have I not been scheming against the Dou family all along?"

Dou Ming was startled.

Wang Shuying handed her the peeled pear; Dou Ming took it numbly. She bent her head, picked out another pear, and went on peeling as she spoke. "From the moment I learned that your Fifth Uncle was contending with your grandfather for the post of Grand Secretary, I understood. To scheme against your grandfather, the Dou family would stoop to anything. When Lady Cai agreed to help, I guessed that your Fifth Aunt must already know. But what of it? Did I not still marry you off to the Jining Marquis Estate without a hitch? Can they divorce me, after all?

"Back to Zhending, then—back to Zhending. I have long since tired of the capital. Better to go back to a country estate in the villages than to play the wife of a Reader of the Hanlin Academy in name only—free and easy, with no one to restrain me. You and Dou Yan are both married out. Your father cannot simply stand by and watch the family line break off. No matter which concubine he takes, would she dare disown me as her principal wife? What have I to fear?"

Wang Shuying spoke in a tone of indifference, but the fierce resentment that leaked from between her brows and eyes betrayed what she truly felt.

Dou Ming's heart ached at the sight. She lowered her head and ate her pear numbly.

Seeing that her daughter was uninterested, Wang Shuying thought of how she would soon return to Zhending and would seldom see her married daughter again—each meeting now might be the last—so she broke off that line of talk and asked Dou Ming, "Does the Marquis treat you well?"

Dou Ming's face flushed slightly. She forced herself to look indifferent, nodded, and said simply, "He is tolerable."

Wang Shuying smiled knowingly, creases gathering at the corners of her eyes and brows; she looked worse in complexion than her own mother.

Dou Ming could not help turning her face away.

※※※※※

To become a famous minister, one must first have a name.

At the beginning of summer, on his uncle's recommendation, Ji Yong won the favor of Yu Li, the Scholar of the Hanlin Academy, and with Yu Li and several great Confucians of the Academy he was set to compile The Great Instructions of Wenhua, to be published with a preface by the Emperor himself.

The Hanlin Academy's offices were spacious enough, but the building was old, and the scholar trees before the hall spread their canopies so thickly that they shrouded the entire wing, leaving the whole of the Academy's quarters dim and gloomy the year round, steeped in a smell of damp—even in this season of crisp autumn air.