Chapter 78 — Business

The two walked along with their heads together, murmuring about something or other, both wearing rather dispirited looks.

Dou Yan went up and greeted them.

The two started violently, forced a smile, exchanged a few words with Dou Yan, and then hurried off to the school.

Dou Yan was thoroughly puzzled, but only puzzled for a moment—not so much that he chased after them to press the matter.

When he got home, he found his grandmother and Gan Lu and Su Juan all wiping their tears.

"Shouyuan, that Bie Gangyi has passed away," his grandmother said, her eyes red. "Those two young girls—what do they know of such things? You had better send someone over to help them."

Dou Yan felt heavy at heart. He sent word to Zhao Liangbi in Zhending, asking him to help the sisters Bie Suxin and Bie Sulan manage the funeral arrangements, and he invited Chen Sou to go with him to Zhending Prefecture the next day.

The Bie family martial school had already hung up its white mourning banners, and many people were coming and going: men of powerful build, slight old men, and a few street vendors who had just delivered their fish. All wore grave expressions; some brought the three sacrificial offerings, others merely a pair of elegiac couplets, and came to the mourning hall to burn incense for Bie Gangyi. One could see plainly that Bie Gangyi had been well liked.

The steward presented the offerings, and Dou Yan lit three sticks of incense. Bie Suxin, who was receiving the guests before the spirit tablet, accompanied Dou Yan to the main hall.

"Miss," she said, looking haggard as she poured Dou Yan a cup of hot tea, "it's so cold out—you could simply have sent someone. Why come in person?" Then she added, "Once my father's first seven days are past, my sister and I will enter the manor."

Once they entered the manor, they would have to keep the Dou household's rules—and with the New Year at hand, the two sisters could hardly go about in mourning dress, could they?

"Better wait until Master Bie's forty-nine days are over and spring has come, and then you two enter the manor," Dou Yan said. "There's no rush."

Bie Suxin thanked Dou Yan gratefully.

Outside, someone called out, "The feast is starting!"

Dou Chi looked over and saw that Zhao Liangbi and Chen Lanxu were busy helping the Bie family receive guests.

Dou Yan smiled faintly, did not stay for the meal, and returned to Zhending early.

The Second Madam was talking with Dou Zhen.

"The second manager is one of the Cui family," the Second Madam mused, "yet the main shop is in the capital... Can it be that she means to challenge the Wang family openly?" She frowned in perplexity. "But it was she herself who would not go to the capital in the first place... or perhaps she simply refuses to kowtow and claim kinship with the Wangs?"

Dou Zhen had thought the same. He asked his mother, "Then what do you say we should do now?"

"What is so hard about it?" the Second Madam said with a smile. "The silver is Shouyuan's. She wants to earn a bit more for the family—that is a good thing. We should help her!"

Because Wang Xingyi had failed to handle a family matter properly and had nearly been caught out, Zeng Yifen had given him the cold shoulder for several years. But Wang Xingyi's luck was extraordinarily good: he won victory after victory in Shaanxi, and even the Emperor, when the man's name came up, praised him as "not bad." There were only so many places at court—if men of Zeng Yifen's faction achieved such merit and you still did not promote them, you could at least not block others from doing so. When the good positions were all taken by others, that too would be a blow to Zeng Yifen.

Dou Zhen knew well the straits his younger brother was in.

He smiled and said, "Fan Wenshu came to see me. He has his eye on a shop front on Hanlin Lane, South Street, in the capital, and Shouyuan is thinking of buying it. It happens that we have a two-bay silk shop there; the space is a bit cramped and the business has been neither good nor bad. I think we may as well sell it to Shouyuan. It would suit them well for a brush-and-ink shop."

"You may decide it yourself," the Second Madam said with a smile, then changed the subject and asked about the New Year: "How are the preparations coming along?"

"All prepared," Dou Zhen said with a smile. "The estate did very well this year—four thousand catties more grain than in past years."

The Second Madam nodded, beaming, and a young maid came in to announce, "The Fourth Miss is here."

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At last, a normal update for everyone to read!

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