Chapter 143 — Pointing the Finger (Bonus Chapter — Begging for Pink Tickets)
Purple Streets of Chang'an Page 2 of 2
Dou Yan and Dou Yan could not help bursting into laughter.
The three of them entered the waterside pavilion together.
Granny Zhou and the others hurried forward to bow.
Dou Yan asked them, "How is the Fifth Miss today?"
"Not bad," Granny Zhou said discreetly. "This morning she ate half a steamed bun and a small bowl of rice porridge. At noon she had a few slices of spring bamboo shoot, a few meatballs, and a small half-bowl of noodles."
Dou Yan nodded.
Dou Yan smiled and greeted Dou Ming. "Fifth Aunt. Do you still recognize me?"
Dou Ming sat woodenly on the beauty seat beside the waterside pavilion, staring blankly out the window, though what she was looking at, no one could say.
Dou Yan said softly, "She pays little attention to people now."
Dou Yan nodded in understanding.
Ji Yong, however, spoke with a venomous tongue. "I think she's doing quite well! She eats, she drinks, she makes no fuss—she's easier on the eyes than before."
"Master Ji!" Granny Zhou forced down her anger and said in a low voice, "I beg you to show some mercy with your words."
Ji Yong sneered. "Am I wrong? For someone who doesn't know her place, to sit safe and sound at home without stirring up trouble is her good fortune. There's always a bigger fish, always a higher sky—not everything can be settled just by the Dou and Wang families stepping forward!"
Dou Yan and Dou Yan were silent.
But Granny Zhou's eyes reddened, and she said hoarsely, "Even so, Master Ji, you shouldn't speak of our Fifth Miss like that! She is barely..."
"The child is father to the man." Ji Yong cut her off without ceremony. "What sort of person she is, don't you know? That she has come to this—can you really wash your hands of it? Don't blame others the moment trouble comes; consider yourself..."
"Cousin Ji!" Dou Chi shouted at him in displeasure.
"Forget it!" Ji Yong waved his hand, looking as though he could not be bothered to argue with Granny Zhou. "There's no point saying these things to you—you wouldn't understand. I can't be troubled with you!"
Granny Zhou's face flushed crimson with shame.
Suddenly Dou Ming clutched her ears and let out a scream—at some point she had turned her face toward them.
Dou Ming, Dou Yan, Granny Zhou, and Fang Sheng's wife rushed over and asked anxiously, "What is it? What's wrong?" Granny Zhou gathered Dou Ming into her arms and choked out, "Ming, Ming, what has come over you?"
Dou Ming, who had been dull-eyed ever since Duan Bing brought her back, suddenly pointed at Ji Yong and shrieked, "It was him, it was him who did this to me! He was the one who set Yu Er on me..."
Everyone's face was filled with shock—except Dou Yan and Dou Yan: the former lowered her eyes, the latter's face was stern.
"Fifth Aunt. You cannot say such things carelessly!" he said with a dark face. "You say Master Ji harmed you—what evidence do you have?"
"I know it, I know it!" Dou Ming wailed shrilly. "Yu Er said it: when immortals fight, the little ghosts suffer... I have offended only him—only he would harm me..."
Dou Yan heard this utterly senseless talk, ignored Dou Ming's cries outright, and turned to Ji Yong with an apologetic face to make amends. "Fifth Aunt may have been frightened into a muddle. I beg Master Ji to be forgiving!"
Ji Yong cast Dou Ming a glance full of mockery and strode away.
Dou Yan hastily said to Dou Yan, "Master Ji is proud by nature. I will explain this matter to him properly—you need not trouble yourself," and set off at a run to catch up.
"It was him! It was him!" Dou Ming screamed at Ji Yong's retreating back, her eyes nearly splitting with fury, and she clawed and kicked at Granny Zhou, trying to break free and chase after him. "I will bring him down with me!"
"Fifth Miss, Fifth Miss!" Granny Zhou was frantic, sweat streaming down her face, and Fang Sheng's wife came forward to help.
Dou Fan walked over to the waterside pavilion and stood before the beauty seat, gazing into the distance.
Ji Yong and Dou Yan, talking as they went, vanished into the winding path.
That evening, she went to find Ji Yong. "If Duan Bing had not caught up with Dou Ming in time, what would have happened?"
Ji Yong smiled. "Just a lesson, that's all. In truth, you need not have concerned yourself with her at all."
He gave her no clear answer as to what arrangements he had made.
The night wind blew past, carrying a piercing chill.
Dou Chi drew her cloak tighter about her.
Ji Yong said, "Hey, you're not truly angry, are you? If you must blame someone, blame her for having such bad luck as to run into me. Though—if she hadn't run into me, it would have been your bad luck instead..."
"I know," Dou Yan said in a low voice. "A lantern falling from midair could well have burned half your face, and you would never have had the chance to enter officialdom again; a horse that had eaten croton beans might suddenly go weak in the legs, and you could have fallen from its back and been left paralyzed... And that time in the garden, had she succeeded, we might all have been ruined." Here she lifted her head and looked steadily into Ji Yong's eyes. "So I am not reproaching you. But I hope that in what you do, you will leave others a thread of life."
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To my fellow readers, brothers and sisters—forgive me. I was very tired at noon and meant to take a nap, but I overslept... I only started writing after making the child a meal.
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ps: You may as well read the update tomorrow!
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