Chapter 180 — Slander

Fan-shi returned the courtesy with reserve, greeting Wei Wan with warmth that did not lapse into familiarity, and introduced those about her: "This is the lady of Lord Liang, the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet; this is the wife of Lord Lin, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel; this is the wife of Lord Wang, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice..."

Grand Secretary of the Cabinet?

Then this was Liang Jifang's wife!

To think that even Lady Liang would give Fan-shi such face and greet her so cordially.

Wei Wan could not help but sigh inwardly: a woman like Fan-shi moved among the wives of the great and the powerful. This was how true great houses conducted themselves!

If only Dou Yan were Dou Bingheng's daughter.

Smiling, she exchanged a few words with those ladies, then, just as she and Wang Shuying had planned, gradually turned her talk to Madam Wang Xu: "What brings you to Puji Temple today? A few days ago I called at your honored daughter's house and was told you were somewhat unwell. Are you better now? Where does it trouble you? Shall I recommend an imperial physician?"

"I thank you for your concern, my dear," said Madam Wang Xu modestly. "It is only that I am old, and the weather has turned hot—a few old complaints, not worth mentioning." Then she sighed. "To tell you the truth, I came to Puji Temple this time not only to hear the Dharma, but to ask the abbess to consecrate an old object of mine."

At this, everyone listened with some curiosity.

Madam Wang Xu glanced at her daughter, whose expression had grown a little uneasy, and said in a low voice, "Yingxue is no longer young, and yet she has only one daughter to her name. Some days ago I took her father's calling card and asked a Daoist master of Mount Longhu to cast a horoscope for her. The master said it was because someone in the household has a horoscope that clashes with hers, and that all would be well once that person was married off. He even wrote out a secret prescription for Yingxue. But still I could not set my mind at ease, and I wished to ask the abbess of Puji Temple to bestow her blessing upon Yingxue as well, so that we may be all the more certain."

At this, Dou Fifth Madam Fan-shi's expression shifted ever so slightly.

The only young lady in the Dou household about to be married was Dou Yan.

What did this Wang mother and daughter mean by it?

Alarmed, she at once smiled at Madam Wang Xu and said, "You so rarely leave your house, and now you have come upon the Dharma assembly at Puji Temple—if you could prevail upon the abbess to perform the consecration, nothing could be more auspicious. While the abbess is resting, why not let me accompany you to ask her?" As she spoke, she shot Wang Shuying a glance with a cold gleam in her eye, a plain warning, and rose to help Madam Wang Xu toward the abbess.

But Madam Wang Xu waved her off, declining Fan-shi's kindness: "I have already arranged it with the abbess."

Hearing this, the ladies around them pressed Madam Wang Xu with questions about secret remedies for bearing sons, leaving Fan-shi forgotten to one side.

Fan-shi was so frantic that fire seemed to leap in her heart.

Wang Shuying, as though she had never seen Fan-shi's warning, flushed and called out "Mother," then turned to Lady Lin and the others with an apologetic smile. "My mother is only doing what she can, like treating a dead horse as though it were alive. At my age, what talk is there of bearing sons! If I can see my eldest daughter married off safe and sound, and find a good son-in-law for my second, I shall be content." Whereupon she gave her mother a reproachful little push and said in a low voice, "Please, won't you leave this matter alone?"

Madam Wang Xu's face fell at once, and she said with displeasure, "Are you saying the Daoist master of Mount Longhu spoke without reason? Before she was two, she brought about the death of her own mother; then her grandfather passed away. No sooner was her betrothal settled than her father-in-law died of a sudden illness. It is only because you and your husband live far off in the capital that your lives were spared..."

A woman seated beside Madam Wang Xu, who had kept silent all this while, now gave a startled "Oh!" and said, "Could this be the Fourth Miss of your household? If I remember rightly, your Fourth Miss lost her mother to illness at two, and her grandfather passed when she was nine." With that she looked toward Wei Wan. "And was it not the lady's own younger brother who was betrothed to the Fourth Miss?"

Fan-shi nearly swooned.

Looking closely, she recognized the woman as the wife of Zheng An, a bureau director in the Military Appointments Bureau of the Ministry of War, long on friendly terms with the Wang family—and she understood at once that Madam Zheng had been enlisted by the Wangs to play her part in concert with Wang Shuying.

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I have been so busy lately that I come online only to post updates. Today I saw that the pink votes had soared, and I grinned foolishly to myself for the longest time.

To all my readers, thank you!

o(n_n)o~

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