Chapter 57 — Grandfather (Bonus Update for 300 Pink Votes)

Dou Yan kept to her usual daily routine and accompanied her father; at midday she still took a short nap, and at the hour of hai in the evening she retired to her room. At the hour of mao she came to help her father tend Grandfather; and while Grandfather lay unconscious and her father sat there staring blankly, she silently recited to herself the Analects she had lately been studying with her sixth aunt.

Dou Ming was only seven, after all. How could she sit still? After a short while in the room she began to twist and fidget.

Father, annoyed by her restlessness, told Wang Shuying to hand her over to the Second Dowager's care. Wang Shuying dared not, nor could she tell Father what the Second Dowager intended, so she had no choice but to keep Dou Ming at her side, managing the household accounts with one hand and looking after Dou Ming with the other. And Dou Ming had brought back from the capital many trinkets such as were not to be found in Zhending, and from time to time she would summon Sister Yi and Sister Shu over to play, so that Grandfather's side was somewhat neglected.

The Second Dowager, coming to inquire after the sick, saw this and proposed to Father: "Look here—ought we to bring Aunt Cui back to tend the sick? Say what you will, she is my brother-in-law's proper concubine, and your own birth mother."

Father was naturally willing.

Dou Fan was not.

By what right had Grandfather, while still hale and whole, cast Grandmother off to the country estate to fend for herself, and now that he lay ill and unable to stir, bring her back to wait upon him?

She broke in: "Better wait a few more days... it is Grandfather's own wish that Aunt Ding manage the affairs of his rooms... if things truly cannot be managed, then send for Aunt Cui—there is no harm in waiting till then."

To the Second Dowager these were trifles.

"Very well, then!" She nodded and turned to ask after Grandfather's illness.

Afterwards Father, full of doubt, asked Dou Yan: "Do you not wish to bring Aunt Cui back?"

He had thought Dou Yan the one in the household closest to his own mother. He had not expected that it would be Dou Yan who raised objection.

When Grandfather was at his last breath, even if the Dou kinsfolk did not agree, she would bring Grandmother back—but not at this hour!

Such were Dou Yan's thoughts; yet she said: "We must at least consult Aunt Ding. Why bring Aunt Cui here to swallow other people's spite?"

Father had no further word to say.

Dou Yan sent for Zhao Liangbi: "Has Cui Min come looking for you these days?"

Cui Min was fourteen now, and had passed the county examination. He was studying at the county school. He and Zhao Liangbi had been fast friends in a former life, and in this one their friendship was close as well. Because Grandmother would have nothing to do with the Dou family, the Cuis never had dealings with the Dou kinsfolk. The two of them were both in the county town, and Dou Yan guessed that Cui Min must surely come secretly to Zhao Liangbi—though she had never once caught him at it.

Zhao Liangbi leapt up like a cat with its fur standing on end: "You—how do you know?" His eyes were somewhat alarmed and uneasy.

This was precisely the effect Dou Yan wanted, and naturally she would not explain anything to him; instead she said gravely: "Bring Cui Min to see me at once."

She knew Cui Min to be a man of ability, ambition, and perseverance; the dearest wish of his life was to raise the Cui family to a new station, to make of it a house of letters and husbandry that would pass down poetry and rites through the generations.

This was the advantage of being reborn: it saved one all the trouble of observing a man's character and putting him to the test—whoever she wished to use, she simply raised up and used.

Zhao Liangbi went white with fright and fled like a streak of smoke.

That afternoon he led Cui Min in through the side gate of the Eastern Dou.

Dou Yan asked Cui Min: "Do you not wish to see Aunt Cui walk in through the main gate of the Dou house, openly and honorably?"

Cui Min's eyes lit up, though the look he bent on Dou Yan still held a shade of wariness.

Dou Yan instructed him: "These next days, go and stay at Aunt Cui's country estate; I will have Zhao Liangbi carry word to you. When I send for Aunt Cui, then you escort her here. But if there is no word from me, then no matter who comes to fetch Aunt Cui, you must hold her back for me. Can you do that?"

Cui Min scented a plot. He said hesitantly: "What—what is it you mean to do? Our Cui family has no wish to be used as another's spear!"

Dou Yan burned with indignation on Grandmother's behalf, and would not bear to see her summoned and dismissed at the Dou kinsfolk's pleasure.

"What have you to worry about?" she said scornfully, eyeing Cui Min. "Aunt Cui is my father's own mother—has she not the right to set foot through the Dou gate? And as for whether Aunt Cui, once here, will choose to stay in the Dou house or return to the estate—I think that even should the Second Dowager herself come forward, she could not stop her."

That look stung Cui Min, but still he pondered a long while, and slowly nodded.

※

Sisters, an extra chapter delivered... Today is the second day of the month, and customs differ from place to place—I wonder whether you are visiting your uncles' households or your parents-in-law's?

※RQ