Chapter 86 — The Country Estate

Chen Yanzhou fixed Dou Chu with a long, searching look.

Even now, he still could not see clearly what sort of person the young woman before him truly was.

Call her uncomprehending, and yet she could do things most ordinary men would never manage, such as giving Fan Wenshu a share of the profits and hiring him as tutor; call her comprehending, and yet she cared nothing at all for her father's promotion or the family's honor, these things that might raise her own standing.

Dou Yan turned to questioning Chen Yanzhou on his studies: "I read in a book the other day: 'The way of the sage lies in discarding wisdom and discarding cunning. If wisdom and cunning are not discarded, it is hard to make constancy.' Is not the sage called a sage precisely because he possesses more wisdom and cunning than ordinary men? So why does it say instead, 'If wisdom and cunning are not discarded, it is hard to make constancy'?"

She studied the lute, chess, calligraphy, and painting under Song Weimin, and the classics and histories under Chen Yanzhou.

Chen Yanzhou knew Dou Ci had no wish to speak further of her father, so he followed her lead readily and smiled: "The sage need only cultivate diligently what lies within his charge and await the mandate of Heaven. If he loses what is essential through cleverness and cunning, then it is hard to sustain the way of Heaven..." In fine detail he explained to Dou Yan what it meant to govern a state by law.

Dou Yan listened with her elbow propped, discussing it with him in high spirits: "This is rather interesting! It follows the same principle as managing the inner household—the estate has its established customs, and in all things one need only follow custom and no great error will arise. Yet there are always those who rely on a little cleverness and want to go their own way, breaking the rules, and the result is that superiors set the example and inferiors imitate it, until the whole atmosphere of the household is ruined."

Chen Yanzhou broke into a sweat at the brow. "How can that be the same principle as managing an inner household? This is the way of governing a state."

"Cultivate oneself, regulate the family, govern the state, bring peace to the realm," Dou Xin said. "If the family is not well managed, how can the state be governed? Clearly the principle runs through both."

Chen Yanzhou thought it over, and there was indeed some sense in it—though Dou Zhiwei's frame of reference was somewhat narrow, which had no small connection to her being a young lady of the inner chambers.

He could not help but smile. "If the young mistress were to apply this to running the household, it would serve excellently. Still, law and principle never lie outside human feeling. To insist on rules alone without understanding human feeling is not necessarily a good thing."

"So it still comes down to the person applying them," Dou Yan said, thinking of Ji Yong.

Or perhaps this was precisely the purpose behind the Ji family patriarch's sending Ji Yong out to travel!

The two talked more and more eagerly, until Sujuan came running in, flustered: "Young mistress, something terrible—Aunt Cui has fainted!"

Dou Yan's expression changed drastically, and she rose in a panic. "What happened?" she demanded sharply.

"Just now Liu Wan from the estate came rushing over, saying Aunt Cui was talking with Hong Gu when, without warning, her eyes closed and she collapsed." As Sujuan spoke, tears brimmed in her lashes. "Steward Gao was busy, so he sent him to bring word to the young mistress, saying she should hurry back."

How could this be?

Had not Ji Yong said that so long as she rested quietly, nothing would come of it?

Dou Yan was beside herself with worry. She ordered Sujuan to have the carriage hitched, and told Suxin to call Liu Wan in to speak: "Has Steward Gao sent for a physician? What does everyone say?"

Liu Wan was drenched in sweat and covered in dust; he wiped his face, leaving a black smudge: "When I set out, Tongling was already under Steward Gao's orders to fetch the physician, and Hong Gu had sent Qiukui to fetch the Sixth Madam."

Dou Yan's heart eased a little. She took hasty leave of Chen Yanzhou and, with her maids and guards, hurried home.

Bie Suxin's face was pale, yet she held Dou Zhiwei's hand and kept comforting her: "Good people have heaven's protection. Aunt Cui will be all right—she is so kind to everyone, the Bodhisattva will watch over her..."

Dou Yan had a knot in her heart; hearing these words, tears she could not hold back pattered down.

Suddenly the world spun and turned over before her eyes, and she was jolted about helplessly; yet beneath her there was always something like a cushion, so that she felt no pain—only a ringing in her ears.

From outside the carriage came the terrified voice of the lead guard of the Dou household: "Who are you? This is the carriage of the Dou clan of the North Tower! What do you mean by this? Take care lest the authorities hunt you down..."

Someone was pulling at Dou Yan: "Young mistress, young mistress, are you all right?"

Dou Yan's head was heavy and muddled, but she recognized that voice as Bie Sulan's, and understanding dawned in her heart like a clear mirror.

Their carriage had overturned. Someone meant them harm!

"It's the Dou clan carriage we're stopping," a man said darkly. "Hunted down by the authorities—that only matters if you live long enough to report it!"

Outside the carriage, the sounds of a fight broke out.

※

Sisters, brothers, I must go to Hangzhou for a seminar, from the twenty-seventh of February to the second of March, four days in all. The bonus chapters for pink votes will have to wait until I return, and the update schedule may be a little irregular. But rest assured, the bonus chapters I promised will certainly be delivered.

I leave the pink votes in your hands.

Having made the top three, one cannot help but want first place.

o(n_n)o~

※