Chapter 51 — Rules (Pink Vote 210 Bonus Update)

Wang Shuying was still turning over in her mind how best to put the question when the Second Dowager, beaming, beckoned to Dou Yan. "Come, come to your grandaunt!"

.

Mrs. Ji gave Dou Yan a gentle nudge.

Dou Chi was moved.

Mrs. Ji had no choice but to say to the Second Dowager with a smile, "This child—I can't think who she takes after. When it comes to buying things, she has to have a say in this and that, but when it comes to giving, she turns all shy."

"That's good, that's good! That's honest." The Second Dowager took no offense. Turning, she fished a paper box stamped with a bright red design of five bats before the gate out from under the kang table and handed it to Dou Yan. "These are bone-in abalone snails your Fifth Uncle had sent back from the capital. Take them and eat."

Wang Shuying was astonished.

Bone-in abalone snails were a famous Jiangnan delicacy, said to be made from kumiss: jade liquor and pearl jelly, snow-rich and frost-smooth, with not the slightest rankness of milk—hailed as the finest flavor in the world.

In the capital she had heard the children of great houses boast of them, but she had never seen them, much less tasted them.

Mrs. Ji was rather surprised too.

Bone-in abalone snails were complicated to make, and few in Jiangnan even knew how. Perhaps because rarity lends value, the Dowager was exceedingly fond of them, and Dou Bingheng, whenever he had the chance, would procure some for her. This New Year he had brought back only two boxes, and now, unexpectedly, the Dowager had bestowed one on Dou Yan.

She hurriedly said to Dou Xin, "Shouyuan, these are what your Fifth Uncle sent to honor your grandaunt—there were only two boxes in all. Shouldn't you thank your grandaunt at once?"

Dou Yan was taken aback.

She had tasted bone-in abalone snails in her former life, at a family feast in the house of Marquis Wang Yu of Yan'an. Even now she remembered how Lady Wang's offhand mention of them, with its faint undertone of pride, had been mocked in private by Wei Yanzhen.

Had she not gone with her Sixth Aunt to fetch something from the Ji family shop, seen the whole street busy with New Year purchases, and thought she ought to buy something for her Sixth Uncle's household too—while fearing that making distinctions might stir up needless trouble, and so settling on a gift for everyone alike—she would not have come home with a whole heap of trinkets.

What she had given the Second Dowager was the small cloisonné box with the passionflower pattern that she now held in her hand.

She had never expected the Second Dowager to reward her with a box of bone-in abalone snails.

She did not like the Second Dowager, but that was no reason to twist her kindness into something else.

Dou Xin stepped forward to thank the Second Dowager, smiling as she took the box.

The Second Dowager nodded with a smile.

Just then a little maid came in to announce, "Second Dowager, Second Young Madam Xiu has brought the young master and young lady of the Wu family to pay their respects. Ming and Yi have come along as well."

"Quick, show them in," the Second Dowager said, one word tumbling after another.

The Wu family was from Xinle, the Dou from Zhending; both served at court, and the two men could well be called fellow townsmen. But Wu Songnian was a rather proud, aloof man, and one served in the Hanlin Academy while the other was in the Ministry of Personnel; though connected by marriage, the two households were not close. Later, when Dou Bingheng fell on hard times, Wu Songnian instead took to inviting him home for a drink, and only then did the two grow nearer. For this reason the Second Dowager set particular store by Wu Songnian's two children—which was why Wu Shan and Wu Ya so often came to call.

In her former life, Dou Yan had known Wu Shan's name only by hearsay.

He excelled at painting and calligraphy, and was a kindred spirit of Dou Huaide. After Dou Huaide ran off with the Ji family's cousin, it was Wu Shan who accompanied him shuttling between the Ji and Dou households, one playing the villain and the other the peacemaker, until he had not only persuaded both families to recognize the match but turned a scandal into a passing tale of romance.

Dou Yan remembered this vividly.

She had always held that anyone who could turn black into white was no simple person.

So when the Wu brother and sister came in, escorted by a crowd of children, she looked the only boy, Wu Shan, up and down twice.

Wu Shan sensed someone watching him and turned his head.

Dou Yan smiled at him politely.

Wu Shan smiled back. Like any well-bred seven-year-old boy, his smile was clean and sincere.

Dou Chi sighed inwardly.

In another ten years, who could say what these children would become?

Dou Ming, already three, saw her mother the moment she came through the door—standing to one side, head lowered.

Startled and delighted, she struggled down from her wet nurse's arms, crying "Mama!" at the top of her voice, and ran to fling her arms around Wang Shuying.

Wang Shuying's expression shifted slightly. "What did I tell you?" she whispered urgently.

Dou Ming stuck out her tongue and called out, with a show of childish charm, "Concubine-Mother."

The Second Dowager, Mrs. Ji, and Second Young Madam Xiu were all women who had been through much; at a word they understood that Wang Shuying had taught Dou Ming to call her "Concubine-Mother" before others, while behind their backs she let the child call her "Mama." Their brows knit at once.

In former days the Second Dowager would have begun scolding on the spot. As it was, Dou Duo was still furious that Dou Bingheng had forced him to divide half the property to Dou Yan, and there were matters in which the East Residence could ill afford to interfere; but that did not mean she would tolerate such a thing happening under her very nose.

"Ming," the Second Dowager called sternly, "what has Nurse Liu taught you?"

Dou Ming hastily let go of her mother and ran to the Second Dowager, respectfully curtseying to her and to Mrs. Ji.

The Second Dowager gave a "Hm," and said to Wang Shuying, "Hasn't Ming become much better behaved?"

There was a good deal to be read in those words.

Wang Shuying's heart lurched. She knew her daughter's address had just gone wrong—but before the Second Dowager, even a proper granddaughter-in-law had no voice; how much less a concubine of uncertain status?

Not daring to say more, she hastened to smile respectfully. "That Ming should learn her manners before you, Madam—that is her good fortune!"

"It's best that you can see it that way." The Second Dowager was happy to accept Wang Shuying's flattery without demur. "Ming will stay by my side!"

Wang Shuying was taken aback.

The Second Dowager had already turned to Dou Ming. "And your sister too!" She did not look at Wang Shuying again.

It was not that Dou Ming deliberately failed to pay her respects to Dou Yan. She had lived at Wang Shuying's side all her life, and apart from Wang Shuying there had been no one to govern her; only here, with the Second Dowager, had she begun learning to pay respects to her elders. But she was still young and could not tell rank from lowliness. She had got only as far as the rule that one bows to those older and merely calls the younger ones sister or brother.

Meekly she called Dou Yan "sister," and paid her respects as she did the Second Dowager.

Dou Yan returned the courtesy, then told Tuo Niang to serve the bone-in abalone the Second Dowager had just rewarded her with on a crystal dish. "...I did not know Brother Wu and his sister would come. I will borrow flowers to offer to the Buddha: let us all taste Grand-Aunt's good things together."

Her words brought spring into the whole room. The maids scurried for dishes or fetched chopsticks. In an instant the atmosphere was merry.