Chapter 70 — A Plea for Help

The bonds between people can be strange things at times.

Dou Yan considered herself a keen judge of the world, and cold toward others; Ji was cautious in speech and meticulous in action, and as an elder entrusted by Dou Huaiying with Dou Yan's care, she could hardly avoid setting a proper example before the girl. Though the two had always been on good terms, no one would have called them close. But ever since that pot of Eighteen Scholars camellia came into her keeping, Ji looked at Dou Yan with a little less of an elder's reserve and a little more of the easy familiarity of shared tastes.

After each lesson, she would always keep Dou Yan back for a few words: "Where did you get that Eighteen Scholars?"

"The last time Father had the eastern cross-courtyard repaired, he sent men to the south to buy flowers and trees. Someone came offering that Eighteen Scholars for a steep price. It looked genuine to me, so I bought it." In her former life, she had been surrounded by people who loved to admire and wear flowers, but none who loved to grow them. In this life, Dou Yan had finally met someone else with a passion for cultivating plants, and she delighted in talking of such things. "I also asked him to find me two Liujiao Dahong, one Chidan, one Fendan, and one camellia sasanqua." She added, "Does Sixth Aunt like cymbidium? I asked him to look for a few seedlings for me as well."

"You can grow cymbidium too?" Ji's almond eyes went wide. "How do you know how to grow cymbidium?"

Only then did Dou Yan realize she had let something slip, and she said hurriedly, "I don't grow orchids. But I once saw a treatise on orchids in Father's study and found it fascinating, so I thought I'd try raising a few cymbidium according to the methods in it, just to see if it could be done." Then she smiled prettily. "How can you know if you don't try? Who knows, I might even cultivate a Dou-family cymbidium!"

In her former life, she had loved cymbidium best—especially the plain-hearted variety—finding its blossoms dignified and graceful, elegant and pure, and content wherever it was planted, thriving in any soil. With a little care, it could even bloom two or three seasons a year.

Ji very much wanted to see that treatise, but the words reached her lips and she swallowed them again—orchids were precious, and in some families that had grown them for generations, the techniques of orchid cultivation were like a hereditary craft, passed down from father to son and never to daughters. Who knew how the Western Dou had come by this treatise? Better, surely, than to shamelessly pry into the Western Dou's orchid lore through a child who knew no better, to simply ask Dou Yan to give her a few plants.

"I'll be waiting for your Dou-family cymbidium," she said with a smile. "Only don't forget to send a few to your Sixth Aunt when the time comes."

Seeing that Ji had stopped pressing her about the orchids, Dou Yan breathed a sigh of relief and promised again and again, "I will. I will!"

Ji went with her to look at the two cymbidium still in bloom. "How have you kept them flowering all this time?"

Dou Yan dared not show off again, and said with a smile, "I only tried keeping them in the hothouse—I never expected them to bloom this long. I still don't know why they've lasted so, but I've assigned a capable maid to tend them daily and record every change, so I ought to find the reason."

Ji was full of admiration. "I knew you applied yourself to your studies, but I never imagined you'd put such effort into growing flowers as well."

"If it takes effort either way, why not do it as well as I can?" said Dou Yan.

Ji nodded again and again, her praise written plainly on her face.

A little maid came running in, all flustered: "Sixth Madam, Fourth Miss—Ninth Sister-in-law Huan has given birth!"

Dou Yan and Ji both lit up with delight, and asked the maid in one voice, "A girl or a boy? Is Ninth Sister-in-law Huan safe and sound?"

The maid said with a smile, "Ninth Sister-in-law Huan has borne a young master. Mother and child are both well."

The two of them pressed their palms together and murmured, "Amitabha."

When they had finished, it struck them both as funny, and they could not help smiling at each other.

Ji suggested that Dou Yan give a pot of cymbidium to Huang as a congratulatory gift. "He's the eldest grandson of the eldest branch—there will surely be a great many relatives and friends coming to offer congratulations. The Huang family of Huai'an may send someone as well. Orchids are much loved in the south."

Dou Yan was somewhat surprised.

Ji had always kept a low profile, yet these past days she had been quite unlike herself, pushing Dou Yan to the fore in everything.

It was not until that night, just before bed, when she heard Haitang muttering that "the Fourth Miss's winter clothes will likely all have to be remade," that she understood.

She herself had reached the age for marriage discussions.

In the end, she sent several bolts of brocade as her congratulatory gift.

Ji was exasperated at her for not striving, and privately reproached herself, feeling she had taught Dou Yan into being this way.

Old Nurse Wang laughed. "This is the Fourth Miss being neither elated by favor nor shaken by disgrace—you ought to be glad, Madam."

"Yes," Ji answered dejectedly. "But the more she is like this, the less I can bear to see her buried this way."

At the Dou mansion's flower banquet on the Double Ninth, she kept Dou Yan at her side the whole time, now and then having her pour tea for some venerable elder or hand someone a handkerchief.

Dou Yan knew perfectly well what Ji was up to, but being long accustomed to a stubborn, self-reliant nature, she simply could not bring herself to do anything that would ruin her own reputation. So she smilingly accepted the elders' praises of "steady and proper" and "bright and quick," and beside her, Yi and Shu seemed—one too flighty, the other too dull.

The Second Madam sat nearby, smiling but saying nothing.

Nurse Liu said quietly, "Shall I ask Sixth Madam to go and see whether the chrysanthemum mountain has been arranged properly? Sixth Madam is from the south—she must have seen far more of such things than we have."

The Second Madam was most displeased, but Ji was her daughter-in-law, and even to her closest old servant she would not let Ji lose face before Nurse Liu.

"That is Shouyuan's own ability," the Second Madam said, casting Nurse Liu a glance. "If fault is to be found, find it with those who failed to teach Yi and Shu properly."

Nurse Liu quickly bowed her head and murmured her assent.

The Second Madam took the arm of the Third Sister-in-law and went to the banquet hall where the guests were received.

Usually it was Sixth Aunt who supported the Second Madam.

Seeing the unruffled calm of Ji's face, Dou Yan sighed inwardly.

If she had not understood the Second Madam's intent before, today, having witnessed the smokeless, fireless clash between the Second Madam and Ji, she could guess a thing or two.

The Wang family could not interfere in her marriage; the Zhao family was a thousand li away and could hardly marry her off to the northwest. Her father was a man, after all, and her marriage would most likely require asking the Eastern Dou for help. And the Second Madam plainly did not want her to steal the limelight from Yi and Shu—plainly did not want her to marry out at all.

Thinking of the half of the Western Dou's property registered under her name, and having herself once been the wife of a clan head, she could well understand the Second Madam's calculations: rather than turning away the matchmakers who wore out the doorstep and offending people, better to quietly marry her to someone advantageous to the Dou family—or keep her in the Dou household, feeding and cosseting her, coaxing her into dividing the property under her name among the Dou sons and nephews.