Chapter 50 — Lending a Hand

"I am going to the East Residence," she reported her whereabouts to Dou Duo with deference, then smiled in an offhand tone: "The Second Dowager has taken Ming over, saying she is to keep Shouyuan company. Tell me, when would be a good time for us to bring Shouyuan and Ming back?"

The Second Dowager had spoken to Dou Duo about this beforehand, and Dou Duo knew well that the so-called "busyness" was an excuse; the Second Dowager looked down on the woman Wang and feared she would ruin the child with her teaching. As for himself, he had no wish to see either of the two girls—one had taken half his property, and the other was a bastard child; neither was any good! The sight of them put him out. And then he thought: if only the woman Wang had not kicked up such a fuss, had been properly brought in through the gate, and had borne him a grandson besides—with a maternal grandfather like Wang Xingyi, he could hold his head high wherever he went, and he would have been content. But Heaven would not grant a man's wishes... Even the sight of Wang Shuying vexed him, and he said in an unkind tone: "First see to your own affairs properly, and stop fretting over things that are no concern of yours. The house is in such a muddle—where do you propose to put two children?"

Wang Shuying had won no answer but a scolding, and felt deeply wronged; biting her lip, she went to the East Residence.

At noon the Third Madam kept her for the midday meal and asked her: "Is there anything you don't understand?"

She had meant to go to the Second Dowager's to see Dou Ming, but since the Third Madam kept her, how could she refuse? She stood to one side in the role of a junior serving the Third Madam at table, and when the Third Madam asked her, she smiled and said: "I see that the household's affairs all follow precedent; if one finds the accounts from former years and looks them over, I imagine one can accomplish twice the result with half the effort." Then she added modestly, "I don't know whether I've got it right; I hope the Third Madam will correct me."

"You are from an official family after all," the Third Madam said with a smile. "You understand at a glance and grasp a hint at a word. Not like me—I understood nothing at first, and after looking for ages I still couldn't remember it. It was only later, when the Third Master told me, that I found my way..." She was quite kind to her.

So Wang Shuying stayed and talked with the Third Madam, and in the afternoon went with her to the storerooms to take stock of the New Year provisions.

By the time they finished, it was already the hour of the Pig.

Her maid Qiongfang came to report: "The Second Dowager's rooms were locked at the hour of Xu."

Wang Shuying returned to the West Residence, weary, and the next day went with the Third Madam to several temples to pay the incense money for the coming year.

So it went for several days, busy with one thing today and another tomorrow, until she suddenly realized that she had not seen Dou Ming for seven or eight days, nor had anyone told her how Dou Ming was faring. She grew anxious, with a vague sense that the people of the East Residence had done this deliberately; abandoning the half-inventoried storeroom, she went to the Second Dowager's quarters.

The maids and serving women did not stop her, but welcomed her in with beaming smiles.

Both Mrs. Ji and Dou Yan were there.

Seeing her enter, Ji Wan nodded, while Dou Yan warmly called out to her as Aunt Wang.

Wang Shuying stepped forward and made her respects to the Second Dowager.

The Second Dowager, wearing a gray-squirrel fur cap of the rabbit-sleep style, reclined at an angle against the great bolster on the heated kang by the window, a cloisonne box with passionflower pattern in her hand, and asked with a smile, "What, has Number Three's household settled down for the night?"

Never mind that the Third Madam was at this moment frantic with business; even if she had been idle at home, Wang Shuying would not have dared say so in front of the Second Dowager.

"The Third Madam is so busy her feet don't touch the ground," she said hastily, as if to clear herself of any implication. "It is I who thought I had not seen Shouyuan and Ming for some days, and came over on purpose to look in on them."

Hearing this, the Second Dowager nodded in satisfaction and said, "The Wu family sent over their New Year gifts, and the Wu family's Fifth Young Master and Seventh Young Miss came as well. I had them take Ming over for a visit."

By the Wu family she meant the natal family of the Second Young Madam Yu.

At these words Wang Shuying felt somewhat reassured.

The Second Young Madam Yu was also of official stock; her grandfather had once served as a county magistrate, and her uncle Wu Songnian was now a compiler in the Hanlin Academy. The Wu family's Fifth Young Master and Seventh Young Miss were Wu Songnian's eldest son Wu Shan and eldest daughter Wu Ya.

But then a doubt rose in Wang Shuying's mind.

Wu Shan was seven this year and Wu Ya four, much the same age as Dou Zhiwei; so why had Ming been taken along but not Dou Fan?

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Sisters, today I am going to my mother-in-law's for the New Year, and there is no internet set up over there; the wireless card does not work very well, so revisions may be a little late. I beg your indulgence, everyone... hee hee...

※RQ