Chapter 360 — The Ruckus

In the imperial examinations, whether an essay won the chief examiner's favor depended chiefly on whether it was well written—and if one wished to write well...

Dou Heng stared at the dragon-and-phoenix ink sticks in the rosewood box, so furious his beard and eyes fairly bristled. "A fine one you are, Wan Yuan! Such excellent ink, and you hide it away—are you afraid I'll come asking for a piece?"

After all, he had two sons about to sit the examinations.

Dou Huaiying chuckled. "It simply never crossed my mind. When the time comes, I'll find a way to get you a few good sticks."

Dou Heng's expression softened a little.

Dou Huaide spoke to Song Yan in a low voice. "How stands that matter, in the end?"

"It being the New Year, I haven't run into Wang Ge," Song Yan said. "Once the Lantern Festival is past, I'll go into the palace to find him. The seals are shut for the holidays anyway—whatever Fan Shichou might want to do, he can't do it now."

Dou Huaide nodded.

Dou Heng barked across at them. "A grown man ought to have nothing he cannot say aloud! Whispering in each other's ears like that—what sort of scholars are you supposed to be?"

Dou Huaide was the youngest son, lively by nature, and had never feared Dou Heng. Emboldened by the fact that they were guests in the Yunqi Temple Alley house, where Dou Huaiying indulged the children in everything, he answered glibly, "I want to go stroll the Beichan Temple Alley with our fourth brother-in-law—could I say that out loud, too?"

"Not a gate on that mouth of yours!" Dou Heng's eyes went round as bronze bells. "Do you want to be confined to the house?"

Dou Huaiying and Song Yan both burst out laughing.

Yet Dou Huaide's foolery had, after all, lightened the mood of the study.

When men sat together, they spoke either of women or of court affairs.

With two of the younger generation present, women were naturally out of the question—so court affairs it had to be.

Song Yan's heart stirred. He asked first about Dai Jian: "...I hear he came from humble origins, and so sets uncommon store by silver and gold. Is there any truth to that?"

A son-in-law who was no scholar would naturally know little of such circles. It was rare for him to show curiosity. And with nothing better to do while sitting idle, it might serve as a word of warning to the young ones.

Dou Huaiying, of course, told all he knew and left nothing unsaid. "Who says Dai Jian sets store by silver and gold? The one who truly prizes wealth is Chancellor Yao, who comes of an old great house. He is a master of reckonings and served six years as Minister of Revenue—even the Emperor has quietly borrowed silver from the Ministry. They say that in his household, even the maid who sweeps the floor can do sums, and every household expense is entered in the ledger. If some later age should compile a treatise on food and commodities, I say there'd be no need to hunt up any sources—just take Chancellor Yao's account books, and you'd know the price of everything in our day!"

As he spoke, ...

Afraid they might misunderstand, Dou Heng cut in hastily. "Don't listen to his nonsense. Chancellor Yao spends where spending is due—what he saves is all the treasury's silver. To relatives, friends, colleagues, and old acquaintances he has given a great deal of relief; he is a generous man. The bookkeeping is merely his habit. As for origins—Chancellor Dai's family had at least a few good mu of farmland, more than enough to see him through his studies and into office. It is Elder Liang who had the harder road. His father died early, and his widowed mother took in washing to scrape together the few coppers for his tuition. So though he was born clever, his progress through the examinations was never smooth—fitful and broken, and he was nearly thirty before he passed the provincial round. After that came several years as a pure and honored Hanlin scholar, and only with great difficulty did he enter the Grand Secretariat. First he was held down by Zeng Yifen, then by Ye Shipei—a puppet, silent and voiceless. And now that he holds power, the debts of past favor must be repaid, kin and friends must be provided for, and roads must be paved for sons and grandsons a hundred years hence. He has no choice but to set store by gold and silver."

There were many scholars like Liang Jifen.

Dou Heng sighed as he spoke, rather moved.

Dou Huaiying, however, did not agree. "His love of gold and silver is only human nature. What I cannot abide is the way he wants the silver and yet puts on an air of lofty purity. Every time he sees Chancellor Yao, he looks as though Yao owed him several hundred taels. He even looks at those newly risen scholars of comfortable family and decides they must have bought their way in with silver, or ridden on their ancestors' shade—that scarce any of them have true learning. That is going too far."

This, plainly, even Dou Heng could not deny.

He fell silent.

Song Sui shook his head inwardly.

The conversation had wandered so far it had nearly lost its way altogether.

"It seems the grand secretaries are only ordinary men after all," he said with a smile, steering the talk back on course. "Among the several grand secretaries, Chancellor Mu's family is reckoned rather well-off, is it not?"

"Indeed!" Dou Heng nodded. "Not only Chancellor Mu—Chancellor He as well—both come of great and renowned houses. Dai Jian is a step below, but he is hardly short of silver either..."

Dou Huaiying broke in. "Which is why, whenever the grand secretaries gather, our Chief Secretary Liang feels himself in torment!"

Dou Huaide snorted with laughter, and earned himself another scolding from Dou Heng.

Song Sui turned it over in his mind.

Seen thus, neither Dai Jian nor Mu Chuan could possibly have quarreled with the Kuang family over money.

He rubbed his chin.

The affair was growing more tangled—and more interesting.

Whose hand was it, then, pulling the strings from behind?

※※※※※

Wei Fan did not appear at Yunqi Temple Alley until the noon meal.

Dou Ming was still in her month of confinement, ritually unclean, and could not go visiting from house to house. Wei Fan, on the pretext that Dou Ming needed looking after, drank a cup of tea in the hall and then left.

Dou Huaiying was cold to Wei Fan as well. He ordered Gaoxing to see the guest out, and went back to his study.

Thinking on the vexations of the Wei family, Dou Heng's face too turned sour, and the mood of the study sank with it.

Then Dou Huaide began clamoring that he was hungry. "Seventh Uncle, when are we eating? I had only half a bowl of congee this morning." And the mood was buoyed up again.

Dou Huaiying laughed in spite of himself and told the serving women to lay the meal.

Halfway through the meal, Dou Bochang and Dou Jichang of the Huai Tree Alley house arrived with their wives and children.

Dou Huaiying was plainly overjoyed. "What brings you here?"

Dou Bochang and Dou Jichang's parents-in-law were both in the capital.

Dou Bochang said with a smile, "We went to pay our New Year's respects to our parents-in-law yesterday. But we thought of our fourth brother-in-law and fourth sister—this being their first New Year visit to the bride's family—so we came over to join the fun, and to spare our fourth brother-in-law the trouble of finding no fourth player for a game of ma diao."

Dou Huaiying grinned so wide that his teeth showed and his eyes all but vanished, and hurriedly ordered the maids to lay out a fresh banquet.

But Dou Bochang and Dou Jichang said they had already eaten their midday meal at home: "...Had we known, we should have come to Seventh Uncle's house to mooch a meal."

Yet how could Dou Huaiying let them sit idly by? There was no small amount of polite back-and-forth before a fresh table of wine and dishes was set out.

And the inner quarters, with the laughter and clamor of several children, took on an added measure of the festive bustle peculiar to the New Year season.