Chapter 270 — A Feast

The world loves to fawn on the high and trample the low. She had merely become the heir's wife of the Yingzhenguo estate, and before she had done anything at all to Dou Ming, there were already those who, to curry favor with her, would help her strike at Dou Ming.

If Dou Ming had known that marrying into the Jining Marquis's estate would come to this, would she have regretted it?

The thought flashed past, and she smiled and called to Madam Xiao, who had been nervously trailing behind her all this while, "Do sit for a while! It's still more than half an hour till the midday meal."

A flicker of gratitude passed through Madam Xiao's eyes.

She knew not a single person here, and not one of the games they played was anything she knew how to play.

She too had married from the countryside into a great house of the capital. Yet the heir's wife of the Ying Duke's estate carried herself with perfect ease, gracious and proper in all things.

At that thought, the look she turned on Dou Zhiwei deepened into profound admiration.

At this moment, Dou You was lying face down upon the bed, sobbing softly.

Wei Fan, dressed in the marquis's python robe and plainly got up to go out, paced the floor before the bed in a fret, his brows knitted tight. "Don't be like this! Can't we talk it over sensibly? What is it you want? Crying like this will only make a spectacle of us!"

"Or is it you who want to make a spectacle of me?" Dou Ming lifted her head, her face bathed in tears as she looked at Wei Fan, pitiful and lovely as a rose battered by rain. "Today is the day I go back to my maiden home to stay the month. And Dou Fan must choose this very day to feast his guests at home. Very well, that I can bear. But after you received the invitation, you actually discussed it with me, saying you would first go to the Ying Duke's estate to offer Dou Yan congratulations, and then escort me back to my maiden home... Is there such a thing anywhere in the world? Which is more important, Dou Yan or I? And do not forget, I am the wife you married with a proper matchmaker!"

Wei Fan looked awkward and argued, "I meant nothing by it. I only thought... In the past, Song Yantang treated me well, and later we did wrong your elder sister. Yet she was magnanimous and did not hold it against us. Today is their happy day. If we go offer congratulations and show our support, it can be taken as an accounting for what happened before..."

Before he could finish, Dou Ming's face had flushed with anger. "What do you mean, 'did wrong to Dou Zhiwei'? One was willing to strike, the other willing to take the blow. You had better be clear about that! If you want to go, go by yourself. What right have you to use me to save face for Dou Yan?" As she spoke, she began to weep again. "I was the one who married first, yet she was the one who was first granted the title 'Madam.' I said nothing at all, and still you complain that I am not magnanimous, that I have no conscience... When I go back to my maiden home, heaven knows how people will laugh at me. Instead of comforting me, you pick at my faults. What meaning is left in this life? What hope have I to look forward to?"

Wei Fan lowered his head and sank despondently into the grand master's chair beside him.

Dou Ming wept for a long while, yet neither did Wei Fan come to soothe her, nor did she hear a sound from him. Unease stirred in her heart. She stealthily raised her head to steal a look, and only then discovered that Wei Fan was sitting there with his head drooping, stewing in silent anger.

She could not help calling out timidly, "Marquis."

Wei Fan lifted his eyes to her for a glance, then turned his head away and ignored her.

She was just wondering whether she ought to swallow her pride, go over, and coax him with a few soft words, when a little maid came in and announced, "The eldest young madam has arrived!"

Dou Ming's expression changed. "What has she come for?" Her voice already betrayed a faint note of distaste.

Hearing that his elder sister had come, Wei Fan was delighted at heart, feeling that at last he might be delivered from Dou Ming's nagging. He paid no heed to Dou Ming's mood at all, but rose hurriedly and asked the little maid, "Where is the eldest young madam now?"

The little maid said, "She has gone to the old madam's quarters."

Wei Fan headed straight for his mother's courtyard.

For Dou Ming, following him was awkward, and not following him was worse.

She stamped her foot in vexation and, gritting her teeth, made her way to Lady Tian's courtyard.

Wei Wan, however, looked at Wei Fan in surprise. "Why are you still at home? Weren't you going to escort Dou Ming back to her maiden home?"

Wei Fan's face reddened, and he mumbled, "We had just finished getting ready when we heard that you had come, so we came first to pay our respects to you."

To come first to pay respects, yet only one of them had come—that was a tale no one would swallow.

Wei Wan shot her younger brother a cold glance. "Have you two been quarreling again?"

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To the sisters and brothers who read this book: first, the update for July 3rd. Today's chapter is just about to be written; my energy is running low, so it may come slowly and I cannot say for certain when. For these two days I will make sure there is an update, and Chongchong will catch the typos when there is time. Please bear with it for now, everyone!

o(n_n)o~

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