Chapter 183 — Bound for the Capital

Dou held heaven in gratitude more than once for sending her back to the days before her mother's death, for letting her see her mother's face—rather than back to the days after she had married Wei Fan. Had it been the latter, she feared she would now be racking her brains for some way to divorce him.

She persuaded Chen Yanzhou. "You see—with a move like that, did not Wei Wan come leaping out? Hong Gu can be used only once. If we are to break the engagement with the Wei family smoothly, I fear we must begin from within the inner quarters. For you to go alone would be most inconvenient."

Chen Yanzhou fell silent.

He thought Dou Zhiwei's words very reasonable. And then he thought that, at the worst, there was still Song Yan—and he nodded.

If matters truly came to that pass, then he could only wrong Wei Fan.

Dou Yan went to take her leave of her grandmother. "My sixth aunt bade Old Chen bring me word that I must on no account fail to go to the capital. She says the eldest grand-aunt of the Jining Marquis's household—the one who married into the Jingzhen State Duke's house as the wife of the heir—has spoken of me more than once to my fifth aunt, asking why I am still in Zhending. My sixth aunt's meaning is that I should go to the capital early."

This had been her grandmother's wish all along, and she readily gave her consent.

Dou Yan wrote a letter to her sixth aunt, saying that her grandmother was urging her to go to the capital.

Her sixth aunt, understanding the drift at once, wrote back asking on what day she would set out.

Taking this letter, Dou Yan went to see the Second Dowager.

After all, the Second Dowager and Dou Yan had lived together more than ten years; to say there was no feeling at all between them would be too absolute—it was only that feeling sometimes could not prevail over reason. With no calculation of gain and loss left between them, the feeling turned warm and tender.

"Why is it that no woman likes to see her own daughter married far away?" She took Dou Zhiwei's hand and said with feeling to the Second Madam, who sat beside her, "With Shouyuan gone off like this, I fear I shall never see her again in this life."

The Second Madam hastened to comfort the Second Dowager. "In a couple of years Shouyuan will surely bring her husband to celebrate your birthday. Is that not so?"

Dou Yan heard, and something stirred in her heart.

If Song Yan could see the flaw, sooner or later others would see it too. Now that their former scheme had failed, they could only change tack and find another way out—and if the waters were muddied, the chances would surely be greater than they were now...

She too urged the Second Dowager. "Why not come with me to the capital? I have heard it said that in Emperor Renzong's day, the Empress Dowager once issued an edict summoning the mother of Liang Qing, the Grand Secretary of the Grand Secretariat, to come to the capital and be received in audience. That Liang Qing was a man of Nanchang Prefecture, a thousand li and more from the capital—Zhending is only four or five days' journey away. Why not come with me to see my fifth uncle? It has been some years since you last saw him, has it not? And now that my fifth uncle is a Grand Secretary, his official duties keep him so busy that he can hardly get away..."

The Second Dowager's heart was moved by this.

"Exactly, exactly!" the Second Madam chimed in eagerly from the side. "And you will be able to watch Shouyuan get married with your own eyes."

The Second Old Madam could not help nodding.

Dou Xu said with a smile, "Then it is settled. I will go write letters to the Sixth Aunt and to Father."

Sailing a boat or riding a horse carries a three-in-ten chance of danger, and some people go their whole lives without ever leaving their gates. For the aged Second Old Madam to journey to the capital was no small matter.

When the three Dou brothers in the capital received word, they discussed it among themselves and decided that Dou Yan should accompany the Second Old Madam and stay in Dou Bingheng's residence; the Sixth Madam would for the time being also move to live in the Huashu Alley house, while the household affairs over in Mao'er Alley would be managed by the Han woman, who had entered the family not long ago.

Dou Heng nodded again and again and personally escorted Ji to Huashu Alley.

The Fifth Madam had never, since marrying into the family, properly lived under the same roof as the Second Old Madam, and her heart was all atremble; Ji's arrival delighted her beyond measure. She poured out a great basketful of polite words, cleared out the principal rooms, and, taking Ji by the hand, went all through the courtyard, arranging the rooms, deciding the menus, assigning the serving maids, stewards' wives, and old women, and sending word to Zhending to ask for the list of those who would make the journey. She spun about like a top. Her two daughters-in-law, the Guo and the Cai, helped at her side as well, and the Han woman came by from time to time to look in on things, so that within a few days everything was arranged properly.

On the fourth day of the eighth month of the Gengshen year, Dou Yan returned with the Second Old Madam to the capital, from which she had in truth been absent fourteen years, though in the eyes of others she had never been there at all.

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Sisters, my apologies—by the time I finished writing it was already three or four in the morning, and I was so sleepy I could barely keep my eyes open, muddle-headed as could be, and I forgot to hit publish. This morning a friend texted me asking why I hadn't posted... ⊙﹏⊙b sweat...

I still owe everyone the chapter for the first of the month, and later I have to go talk with the neighbor downstairs about compensation for the water leak, so I can't guarantee the timing—please bear with me these next couple of days.

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