Chapter 11 — The Stepmother

When her grandfather and grandmother had died one after the other, and her third uncle had sent her to the capital to be reunited with her father, she had stood by the window just so, measuring Dou Yan with a sharp gaze; on the night the Jining Marquis's household formally sent betrothal gifts to the Dou family, she had stood by the window just so, staring at her with a face like still water; after Dou Yan had let Wei Fan take the maidservant she had sent and then had Wei Fan give the girl away, when she came home at New Year to pay her respects, she had stood by the window just so, gripping her hands and watching her in silence; and when she had sought to win Zeng Yifen's granddaughter in marriage for her younger brother Dou Xiao and been refused, she had summoned Dou Yan home and stood by the window just so, her face hideous with rage...

Dou Yan stared fixedly at that figure.

From terrified apprehension to open laughter, she had walked barefoot through a purgatory.

Who had ever pitied her wounds and her cries?

Her mother's steps slowed.

The swirling snow rustled down like willow catkins.

The figure turned around.

A smooth, luminous forehead, a high, straight nose bridge, and clear, limpid eyes—she possessed a beauty as refined and graceful as mountains and rivers.

Mother sprang up as if a cat had been stepped on its tail. "How can it be you? Wang Shuying—how can it be you!"

She swayed on the verge of collapse, her arms around Dou Zhiwei going limp and sliding downward. Dou Yan caught hold of her mother's waist, and only thus did she keep from falling.

The First Aunt and the Third Aunt exchanged looks. The Third Aunt, quick-witted, gathered Dou Yan into her arms.

Wang Shuying walked out with composed and unhurried bearing.

Standing beneath the side corridor, she bent her knees in a curtsy to Mother and called softly, "Elder Sister."

"Our Zhao family has only one daughter. Since when did I acquire another sister, I wonder?" Mother gave a cold laugh. Though she strained to preserve her earlier calm and elegance, the discomposure between her brows was hard to conceal. "You must have mistaken me for someone else!"

Wang Shuying lowered her eyelids and knelt on the cold bluestone bricks of the corridor, her expression deferential and lowly, exactly the humble reverence she had always shown before the Dou elders. "Elder Sister, our two families lived side by side. I have no sisters, and you have only one elder brother; we grew up together like siblings, and no one knows my temper better than you. Though my family has fallen on hard times, I am not so shameless as that. The Gao family knew full well of our ruin, yet still married their daughter into it. Less than a month after my brother and sister-in-law wed, she herself proposed that my brother accompany Father into exile at Xining Guard. Now my nephew, young Nan, lies gravely ill, and even selling the four mu of good cropland we depend on for our livelihood would not raise the silver for a doctor. I had thought that so long as someone was willing, I would accept servitude or bondservice alike—never did I imagine the man I met would be my brother-in-law." As she spoke, she knocked her head three times heavily before Mother. "The great wrong is done; I have nothing to say in my defense. I can only beg the young master—if you, Elder Sister, will consent to my entering the household, I swear to forget all that came before and to serve you with all my heart. Elder Sister—" The light in her eyes flickered. "Blame only the cruelty of fate." She knocked her head once more. "Hereafter I will serve you faithfully!"

"Ha!" Mother gave a scoffing laugh and fixed Wang Shuying with a piercing stare, an eyebrow arched. "And if I do not consent?"

Wang Shuying was briefly taken aback, then smiled at herself in derision. "Then I beg you, Elder Sister, to bestow on me a white silk cord."

Mother said nothing. She pulled the scarlet sweat-kerchief from her waist and flung it to the ground, then asked with a smile, "Is it long enough?"

Wang Shuying looked at Mother with unwavering resolve, rose slowly to her feet, and walked up to her with a faint smile on her lips. Bending her knees, she picked up the red kerchief and said lightly, "Thank you, Elder Sister," then turned and walked toward the flower hall.

Snowflakes fell upon her raven-black hair and vanished in an instant.

This was the estate that had come to the First Aunt as part of her dowry; if a death occurred here, her reputation would be ruined beyond repair.

The First Aunt took fright and said hurriedly, "Seventh Sister-in-law, who is this woman? How do you come to know her?"

Mother stared at the flower hall, its doors slammed shut with a bang, and murmured in a trance, "She is Wang Yousheng's daughter. She lives at Nanwa... He and my father were fellow students, and our two families were often in each other's company... She is two years my junior... When I married, she gave me two handkerchiefs she had embroidered herself with twin lotus blossoms on a single stem... I never thought... never in my wildest dreams did I think... no wonder Wanyuan would not say who it was... They set a trap and duped me into it..."

The First Aunt and the Third Aunt were badly startled. "Wang Yousheng—is that the Wang Yixing who was exiled for offending Chen Dong?"

Mother nodded slightly, and two clear streams of tears rolled down her cheeks.

"How could Seventh Uncle be so foolish? Her father was a jinshi in the jichou year, of the same examination as your Fifth Uncle." The First Aunt paced in frantic circles. "No—I must go speak to my brother-in-law at once..." Then she ordered the Third Aunt, "Quick, you go stop Miss Wang. I will fetch help!"

Since taking a concubine in one's youth was no honorable affair, the First Aunt had long since dismissed the maids and serving women from within and around the flower hall.

The Third Aunt too realized the gravity of the situation.

The Dou family did not fear offending the powerful and noble, but they did fear the charge of driving to her death the daughter of a fallen fellow examinee.

She answered in a fluster, gathered her skirts, and ran toward the flower hall.

Mother stood quietly upon the bluestone bridge, letting the snowflakes drift down and settle upon her until she became a snowman.

Only little Dou Yan remained to keep her company.

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Today I am still in fifth place on the rankings!

O(∩_∩)O~

Thank you all for your support.

PS: Regarding the publication of "The Concubine's Daughter's Stratagem," I am inquiring with the relevant editor and will give everyone definite news tomorrow.

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