Chapter 5 — Homecoming

Just as she was thinking this, Aunt Ding stepped forward with a smile and pinched Dou Zhiwei's little hand, saying to her mother, "What is wrong with Shouyuan today? She looks listless, and she will not even greet anyone..."

Her mother shot Aunt Ding a look and whispered, "I will tell you in a moment."

Aunt Ding understood, and with a smile she took Dou Yan in her arms and accompanied her mother into her grandfather's study.

Dou Yan's mind was in a turmoil.

Her grandfather, past forty, still had no heir, and so her grandmother, the principal wife, had arranged for him to take two concubines. One was Aunt Ding; the other was her grandmother, Madam Cui. Aunt Ding, like the principal wife, had borne no children, and her grandmother had given birth only to her father. Their branch of the family was hardly thriving. Later, when her stepmother entered the household and gave birth to her younger brother Dou Xiao, her grandmother was credited with continuing the line, and the Dou family began to address her as Madam Cui. Her father still called her "Yiniang," but the grandchildren called her "Grandmother," while Aunt Ding remained Aunt Ding to everyone.

After the principal wife passed away, her grandfather decided not to take another wife. Aunt Ding took charge of the household provisions; when her mother entered the family, the duty passed to her, and Aunt Ding attended only to her grandfather's own quarters. In his later years, it was always Aunt Ding who kept him company. Her grandmother, meanwhile, lived on a farmstead more than fifty li from Zhending County, returning only for a few days each year at the Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn, and New Year.

A vague unease stirred in Dou Yan's heart, as though something had happened and she alone had been kept in the dark.

Without betraying a thing, she observed the people and affairs around her.

At supper, Dou Yan noticed that the dishes were of blue-and-white porcelain in the "Spring in the Jade Hall" pattern, a complete set of bowls, plates, cups, and spoons.

While her grandfather questioned her father, Dou Yan was set down on the heated kang in the study to play.

She saw, on her grandfather's desk, the pair of rosewood paperweights carved with the motif of a horse arriving at success.

After a moment's thought, Dou Yan rose on tiptoe and counted the glass beads on the tassel of the Longquan sword hanging on the wall.

She had seen all these things before.

At the time, they had been her grandfather's cherished possessions, and they had been placed in his coffin as burial goods.

She still remembered: of the "Spring in the Jade Hall" blue-and-white dinner service, only four bowls, two plates, one cup, and five spoons remained; of the rosewood paperweights, only one was left; and the tassel of the Longquan sword bore five glass beads.

It was as though time had flowed backward, erasing the years that had left their mark on those objects.

Then she heard her grandfather speaking again: "...This passage comes from the Analects, in the chapter on Gongye Chang. You broke open the theme with 'The great officer's heart was generous and impartial, and he was loyal in his counsels,' and then carried it forward with 'Now, being generous, he regarded gain and loss as equal; being impartial, he leveled self and other; and Ziwu deemed him loyal — as for benevolence, I do not know.' Excellent. It is clear you have grasped the essence of the 'transformation' method..."

Dou Yan's hands and feet turned cold.

She knew how to read, but she had never studied the Four Books and Five Classics. How could she have imagined such words out of thin air?

"Mother, Mother!" Terrified beyond measure, Dou Yan cried out for her mother, tears streaming down her face beyond all control.

Her grandfather, who had been speaking with her father in high spirits, darkened.

Her mother came running in from the hall in a fluster: "Father-in-law, I will take Shouyuan somewhere else to play right away."

Her face full of apology, she carried Dou Yan out of the study.

Aunt Ding came forward to meet them.

Her mother had taken supper at the same table as her grandfather and father. Because the wet nurse had not come along today, Aunt Ding had first fed Dou Yan; by the time Dou Yan had eaten her fill, the others at the table had dispersed, leaving only scraps and leftovers, and it was on these that her mother had just been making a hasty meal.

"What is the matter?" She felt Dou Zhiwei's forehead. "She is usually so good. Could she have run into something unclean?"

Dou Yan clung desperately to her mother's neck, feeling the warmth in the hollow of her mother's throat, as though only this could prove that the people she had met were not a gathering of ghosts.

"You don't think...?" Mother shuddered and said hesitantly. "Could it be the work of whoever put Shouyuan up to this?"

"It's nothing," Ding Yinai said with perfect confidence. "Even if someone did tamper with her, we needn't fear. We are a family that does good; the Great Immortal will keep us safe and sound. In a little while I will write out two talismans before the Great Immortal on Shouyuan's behalf. You pass them over her body a couple of times, then burn them, and Shouyuan will be fine."

Mother nodded again and again, grinding her teeth. "If I find out who wished us ill, I'll flay the skin off her!"

"Thank goodness she blurted it out in your presence. Had she said it before the Seventh Master, that would have been trouble indeed," Ding Yinai said with a sigh. A young servant came running in and announced, "Old Master, Seventh Master, Seventh Madam, Ding Yinai — the Third Master from the East Mansion has come over."

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A new year, a new beginning — wishing everyone a happy New Year and all things as you desire!

PS: By this chapter the story has been fully sorted out; readers may now follow along with ease.

O(∩_∩)O~

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