Chapter 191 — A Lesson

The Dou Ming he had taken for shallow and ignorant, the Dou Ming he had thought would meekly submit at the first fright, had tripped him up at the crucial moment—and done it wholly in accordance with his own demands, so that he could find no fault with her at all.

Dou Yan ordered Suxin, "Let us go and see!"

Leaving Ji Yong alone in the flower hall.

In the early-spring afternoon, the sunlight spilling through the glass windows into the flower hall felt warm and gentle, yet the wind against the skin still carried a biting chill.

Ji Yong watched the dust swirling wildly in the air, and left the Dou house like a man bereft of his wits.

Within a few days he had the news: the Wei family had once again sent a matchmaker to the Dou house to discuss the wedding date.

Lying abed with no wish to rise, Ji Yong could not help but curse fiercely.

Old Master Ji came in beaming and said indulgently, "I hear you are unwell? You look to me in fine spirits. Who has upset our Jianming? Shall Great-Grandfather give him a beating for you?"—all in the tone of one coaxing a child.

Ji Yong found it exceedingly tiresome.

He glanced at his great-grandfather and said lazily, "Why are you not out enjoying yourself with my cousins today?"

The meaning was plain: go amuse yourself wherever it pleases you.

Old Master Ji chuckled and sat down beside Ji Yong. "I hear the Dou and Wei families have begun discussing the wedding date. It seems your scheme was of no use after all!"

Ji Yong was aghast; he sat bolt upright, eyes wide, and stared at Old Master Ji.

Old Master Ji's smile only broadened. "You meant to ruin the Marquis of Jining's reputation, so that the Dou family would be displeased with him and break off with the Wei family. Instead you dragged the heir of the Duke of Yingguo into it; the Marquis's name was not ruined, and you made an enemy of Song Yan. Then you incited Dou Ming to trick the Marquis into touring the Puji Temple with her—but before Dou Ming could even leave the house, the thing was exposed. Not only did the Dou family fail to break with the Wei family, they sat down together as though all past grievances were wiped clean and settled on a wedding date… Jianming, what do you propose to do now?" There was a teasing note in his voice, not a little gloating.

Ji Yong's face turned ashen at once.

Old Master Ji went on, "Jianming, I remember when you were small you draped yourself in a piece of cloth and leapt down from the eaves, saying you meant to learn to fly like a bird; later you burned down half the ancestral hall, saying you meant to concoct an elixir of immortality; and later still you said you would be a sycophantic minister, so that you might be made chancellor and enter the Grand Secretariat before thirty and give the Ji family an accounting. Absurd as they were, at least there was always a reason. But look at you now—the Fourth Young Lady of the Dou family has made herself perfectly clear: she wishes to marry into the Wei family. Yet you must break them apart. Tell me, what is it all for?"

As though a teacher had set him a question, Ji Yong instantly went on his guard.

"Since you know everything, Grandfather, then you tell me—does a man like Wei Fan deserve Fourth Sister? If Fourth Sister marries Wei Fan, is it not a fresh flower stuck in a dung heap? It is like fitting a wolf-hair brush to a blue-and-white porcelain shaft: fine to look at, but no good to use."

"And even if that were so, what of it?" The smile on Old Master Ji's face slowly faded; his eyes, usually bright with a curious gleam, took on a solemn cast and showed a keen edge. "I remember once I took you and Min and Ne to Mount Longhu to visit the Hierarch of the Tianyi Sect. On the road we saw a woman with a three- or four-year-old girl who had lost both legs, begging from us. Min and Ne were moved to pity and gave the woman their New Year's money. Only you turned and leapt up into the carriage, took the best seat, and said: 'There are beggars all under heaven—must I relieve them merely because she is a woman, merely because the girl with her has lost her legs? The world is full of clever wives paired with dull husbands—must I draw my sword for her merely because she is pitiable, merely because she is your cousin?'"

Beads of sweat the size of peas broke out on Ji Yong's forehead.

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Making up for the May 5 update.

o(n_n)o~

ps: Begging for pink votes…

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