Chapter 159 — A Guest from Afar

Seeing Dou Yan sizing her up, Ji Lingze nodded and smiled at her with easy grace, and took the opportunity to study Dou Yan just as thoroughly in return.

She was tall, wearing a small jacket of dark green Hangzhou silk, neither new nor old, and a horse-face skirt hemmed in goose-yellow, embroidered with cloud-scroll patterns. She stood there with the poise of a pine, her eyes as bright and dazzling as cold stars, like a plum blossom blooming proudly in the frost rather than a soft peach or pear or apricot or plum.

It was rare for a girl to carry herself with such elegance.

Ji Lingze could not help praising her inwardly, and felt a twelvefold fondness for Dou Yan.

She bent her knees in return and said with a smile, "An uninvited guest—forgive the intrusion, forgive the intrusion!"

What kind of courage did it take for a woman to cast aside reputation and even her life and run away with a man a year younger than herself?

Though she knew Dou Huaide had halted at the Hanlin Academy for her sake and had never regretted it in the least, and though she knew that after Ji Lingze married Dou Huaide the couple had been loving and happy, yet when she made that decision she surely could not have seen the road ahead.

Dou Chu was deeply curious about that twelfth sister-in-law from her former life, whom she had met only a few times and never had the chance to know well.

Little had she expected that in this life she would come to know her at her own coming-of-age ceremony.

She warmly welcomed her sixth aunt and Ji Lingze in to see Grandmother.

Grandmother held Ji Lingze's hand and praised her without cease: "This girl—how lovely she has grown!" Then she asked how old she was, how many siblings she had at home, and what she did for amusement in her spare time...

Ji shi, meanwhile, said quietly to Dou Yan, "You are of the older generation, and you have no sisters you are close to day to day. I brought Lingze along on purpose—what would you say to having her serve as the assistant at your coming-of-age ceremony?"

Her sixth aunt treated her truly as though she were her own daughter!

Dou Yan naturally agreed at once.

Ji Wan said, "Then I will tell her this evening."

"Thank you, Sixth Aunt," Dou Yan said in gratitude.

Ji shi patted her hand and said with feeling, "I have always worried about whether you were getting on well in Zhending, but now that we have met, I see I was fretting over nothing. Sometimes a girl should not be too proud and unyielding—she ought to soften when the time calls for it." There was one thing she did not say aloud.

She had parents, kin, and relatives, yet she grew like a wild vegetable in a field, all on her own. It was painful to look at.

"Your sixth aunt has the right of it," Grandmother chimed in with a smile, having finished her talk with Ji Lingze at some point. "The Wei family came to bring you a coming-of-age gift, and a single 'thank you' was all you gave them before sending them off. How do you think the Marquis would feel if he heard of it? Usually you are so quick-witted—why do you turn muddle-headed at the crucial moment?"

Since she had already decided to make a clean break with the Wei family, better to let the ties between the two households cool sooner rather than later.

Dou Xin put Grandmother off perfunctorily: "I know, I know!"

Grandmother saw through it easily. She shook her head helplessly: "This child!"

Ji Lingze spoke up to soothe Grandmother: "She is young and thin-skinned. You need not demand perfection of her—give her a couple of years and she will be fine."

Grandmother praised Ji Lingze again and again for being sensible.

Ji Lingze listened with a bright smile, and the poised refinement of a well-bred young lady came over her in a rush.

Dou Chi said to himself,

When in her former life had Dou Huaide fallen in love with Ji Lingze?

Before they eloped, there had been no sign of it at all.

In this life, would they still come to love each other?

Dou Yan was somewhat distracted, and before she could stop herself she blurted, "Cousin Ji, why have my twelfth brother and the others not come back with you?" No sooner had she spoken than she realized her mistake, and she could not help studying the faces of her sixth aunt and Ji Lingze.

Neither showed the slightest change. Ji Lingze in particular smiled and said, "Your twelfth brother meant to come back, but then my uncle heard that Jianming had gone to the capital and rented a house near the Shuntian Prefectural School to study hard, so he took your eleventh brother and twelfth brother there as well, to have them study there too."

Dou Yan nodded hurriedly.

Ji Lingze smiled and said, "I heard from my aunt long ago that there is a conservatory here, and that not only do the camellias bloom beautifully, but there are rare varieties of cymbidium and peony as well. Might I go and have a look?"

Because the conservatory belonged to Dou Zhiwei, Grandmother loved nothing better than to hear it praised.

At these words the old lady's eyes crinkled shut with laughter: "It is only Shouyuan's little hobby—it hardly deserves such praise. If you would like to see it, have Shouyuan take you." And she called to Dou Yan, "Go and walk with Miss Ji. Whatever flowers she likes, have some sent over."

Grandmother was giving away flowers again.

She wished nothing more than for everyone who received one to sing her a few words of praise.

Dou Yan smiled with pursed lips and went with Ji Lingze to the conservatory.

Though spring had already begun, the weather was still cold, yet inside the conservatory all was lush and green, filled with verdant plants and trees; several early-blooming winter jasmine and peonies lent the place a vivid air of spring that lifted the spirits at a glance.

"Cousin Dou's flowers are indeed well grown," Ji Lingze said, stopping before a Chidan camellia that had just put out buds. "That Eighteen Scholars my aunt gave to the old gentleman must have been your handiwork, Cousin Dou?"

"I grow them for fun—I never thought they would actually survive," Dou Yan said modestly.

Ji Lingze laughed. "So it is true, then, that in this world there is always one thing to subdue another, like brine curdling tofu."

Dou Chu was taken aback, not understanding what she meant.

Ji Lingze had already turned to ask her about growing flowers: "...Your azalea is blooming beautifully, cousin. I have one at home too, but it grows all askew, and when I try to prune it the buds are easily damaged. Do you have some trick, cousin? Teach me, so I can show off before the elders at home!"

Dou Yan found her words so humorous that she forgot her earlier puzzlement—there was no use dwelling on it, after all. What she was meant to know, she would learn in time.

"There is no real trick to it," she said with a smile, walking with Ji Lingze over to the azaleas. "It is simply a matter of pruning every year in the fifth and sixth months, after the blooms have faded."

Ji Lingze nodded again and again.

As the two of them were talking, a little maid came running in, all excitement: "Fourth Miss, Fourth Miss, the Madam Aunt has arrived, and she has brought the Third Cousin with her!"

Dou Yan was startled to hear it, and said, scarcely able to believe it: "What did you say?"

The little maid rattled off brightly: "It is the Madam Aunt, all the way from the northwest, who has come back with the Third Cousin to attend your coming-of-age ceremony, Miss! She is sitting and talking with Aunt Cui even now!"

"Ah!" Dou Yan's heart pounded, and she was so delighted she quite forgot herself. She hurried two steps forward before remembering that she was still keeping Ji Lingze company, and spun hastily back around.

Fortunately Ji Lingze was a clever, considerate sort, and made haste to say: "Since honored guests have come from so far, we had best go and welcome them at once." Taking Dou Zhiwei by the arm instead, she walked her out.