Chapter 22 — The Uncle

Her aunt smiled and wiped her tears at once.

Then her uncle said, "I mean to go to the capital and make some connections, find a way to secure a substantive post. Then we'll take Shouyuan with us to my place of duty." Here his tone turned somewhat bitter. "But I've done the sums—even selling those few mu of ancestral land, I'm afraid it won't be enough… Could you," his voice gradually sank, and a look of shame and embarrassment came over his face; he dared not even glance at her aunt, "lend me your dowry…? The moment my affairs are in order, I'll repay it at once…"

"What are you saying!" her aunt scolded fondly. "What's mine is yours! When my parents gave me such a dowry, wasn't it so that we might live well? So long as we live well, the dowry has served its purpose—what shouldn't be spent on it? If you met with such a great matter and still wouldn't speak to me of it, only then would I feel you and I were not of one heart!"

Dou Yan began to cry.

"Shouyuan, Shouyuan, what's wrong?" Her aunt hurriedly gathered her into her arms. "What is it? What's the matter?"

Dou Yan clung to her aunt's shoulder and burst into loud, unrestrained sobs, as though to vent everything at once.

In her last life, after Mother died, her uncle had no strength to stand against the Dou family. He had swallowed his grief and gone to sit the metropolitan examination, then used her aunt's dowry to purchase a substantive post. He had meant to take her with him to his jurisdiction, but she had bitten her aunt in front of the Dou family and screamed that she would not go with her... Her uncle had already wronged her aunt for the sake of his own sister; if he secured the post and then failed to take it up, he would lose his office, and that would wrong her aunt even more deeply, after all she had sacrificed for him... And the Zhao family's properties had all been sold, so there was no staying anyway.

Who was it?

Who was it that put her up to biting her aunt?

She might have lost her mother, but her father and grandfather both still lived. Had she made a fierce show of refusing to go to her uncle's house, there would have been nothing her uncle could do.

And in such circumstances, her defiance would have been a hard slap across both her uncle's face and her aunt's!

Dou Yan straightened up and stopped crying. Her small, tear-streaked face was full of resolve.

She would find that person!

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Her uncle won the mutton-fat jade bracelet without any suspense. He handed it to her aunt to keep safe. "...I set out after the forty-ninth day of Guqiu's mourning. Put the household affairs in order. The moment word reaches me from there, find some excuse to invite Shouyuan to stay a few days at your home, then bring her with you to my post. When she comes of age, we will send her back to the Dou family to be married." He added, "Say nothing to your mother and brother for now. Go and see them before we leave, and once we are settled, we will write the old folks a letter of apology."

Her aunt did not hesitate for an instant. "I will start arranging the household affairs these next two days."

The maidservant keeping watch outside the door coughed heavily and announced in a loud voice, "The Third Master! The Sixth Master!"

Her aunt said in a low voice, "Go about your business. I will look after Shouyuan."

Her uncle gave a slight nod and lifted the curtain to step out.

Her aunt combed Dou Yan's hair and said with a smile, "Shouyuan, will you stay with your aunt from now on?"

Her expression was open, her tone tinged with a touch of gladness. It was plain that she bore her uncle's arrangements no grudge at all—in fact, she was pleased by them.

Her aunt was a very good woman!

Dou Yan's brows curved like crescents, and she smiled sweet as sugar.

Her aunt kissed her.

Zhao Zhangru came pattering in. "Shouyuan, Shouyuan, I found an anthill under the osmanthus tree at your house! Let's go watch the ants carry things!"

Zhao Biru came in with a measured step and held her little sister back. "Auntie is gone. Don't go running about. Shouyuan still has to go to the mourning hall and offer incense for Auntie."

Zhao Zhangru did not understand such things. She blinked her big eyes and asked her mother, "Where did Auntie go?"

Her aunt stroked her daughter's head and said with a touch of sorrow, "Auntie has gone to the South Sea."

"Oh!" Zhao Zhangru caught on. "So Auntie went to see the Bodhisattva."

Zhao Biru turned her face away.

Her aunt set Dou Yan down on the floor and gently instructed her, "Go play in the courtyard with your sisters for a while!"

"Hurry up, hurry up!" Zhao Zhangru took Dou Zhiwei by the hand and ran outside.

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I didn't manage my time well today and came back late. I am very sorry.

The relatives are all gathered at home, so I can only correct the typos tomorrow.

O(∩_∩)O~

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