Chapter 388 — The Candidate

In the small tea room not far off, Cai shi was clutching at her mother, Madam Cai, and complaining without pause: "Mother, I only told it to you, and a fine job you made of it—spread it everywhere! If the Dou family gets wind of this, I shall be divorced or packed off to the family shrine. At your age, with all you have lived through, how could you land us in such a mess..."

Even as she spoke, there came a stir outside the wide-open tea room. Cai shi quickly ducked her head and, steeping the tea, feigned a casual chat with her mother: "Now that we have made our offerings to the Smallpox Goddess and my nephew is so much better, my sister-in-law ought to go up to the temple and fulfill the vow."

Seeing that it was only two little maids come for hot water, she breathed out in relief.

The tale of Dou Ming grew wilder and more groundless with every retelling; it had long since ceased to be ordinary gossip of the inner chambers. Yet these days Dou Yan was sitting the examination, and the whole household was on edge—her mother-in-law had even ordered her and Guo shi to make Dou Yan two new suits of clothes fit for the occasion, and to prepare his examination basket, screens, and blinds. She had no leisure at all to go home and speak of the matter to her mother. Today she had finally seen her, and her mother had done nothing but circle among the ladies who came to offer congratulations, giving her no opening; she had barely managed to draw her mother aside into the tea room, and before two words were out she was snapping and scolding.

Cai shi laughed a sheepish laugh. When the two little maids had gone out, she listened to the sounds about her—no one—and only then lowered her voice in embarrassment: "I told no one but your aunt. Who would have thought your aunt would go and tell her little sister-in-law..."

Her aunt's sister-in-law had married into the Jing household of the Duke Defender of the State, and was the closest of friends with that household's Second Madam, Shi shi.

Cai shi's eyes went wide. "Do you not know that the three daughters-in-law of the Jing house each keep their own camp and fight their own duels, until they would gladly see one another dead? And you dared speak of this to my aunt! How are we to mend it now?"

It had climbed already into the realm of what the men discussed—what could she possibly do?

Leap up and declare that she was the one who had said it?

Even if she wished to own her fault, once the reckoning came to rest on her shoulders, the master of their house would likely be taken to task as well...

Madam Cai, run to ground by her daughter, had no way out, and so put on a hard face: "Then do as you see fit. The Dou family knows, in any case. I shall just have to part with this old face of mine."

Indeed! Once the Dou family knew, there was no need to say that her mother would lose face—she herself, a daughter-in-law of the house, would fare no better. And besides, this was no longer a thing the Dou family could steer. Better to stand idly by and watch the sport than be drowned in spittle.

She had invented nothing, after all.

Dou Ming truly was a bastard born of adultery.

The Wang family truly had used its power to bully and hound Zhao shi to her death.

At that thought she was instantly at ease in her conscience, and her tone turned soft and yielding: "I meant nothing else by it. I only want you to be more careful in future whenever the Dou family's affairs come up. Do not make a fool of yourself the way this business has, giving outsiders a show at the Dou family's expense. And do not brood over it—you are the mother-in-law of the Dou family's Tenth Master; when the Dou family loses face, you lose face with them..."

Seeing her daughter soften, Madam Cai at once straightened her back.

"Enough, enough!" She cut her daughter off with some impatience. "Do I need you to teach me such things? Just serve your mother-in-law well and look after my precious grandchildren, and spare me the sermon. If anyone overhears, it will only make trouble." That said, she rose and made for the door of the tea room. "The ladies of Grand Secretary Yao and Grand Secretary Dai have arrived, and I must go say a few words. Steep the tea and come along quickly." Then she muttered under her breath, "Such a fine chance—do not let it go to waste."

Cai shi rolled her eyes and followed her out of the tea room, carrying a tray painted with great crimson crabapple blooms.

Dou Yan, meanwhile, was shown into the study. Dou Huaiying asked what he meant to do: "...If you ask me, Fifth Brother's house is all very well, but three families live there after all, and it is not so roomy as mine, which is likewise close to Sixth Brother's—so my place would be best. Yet what Yantang says has sense in it too. You have only just come to the capital, and you will have friends to make; living under the same roof as uncles like us would be awkward for you, and your fellow candidates would find it hard to call on you. Better to take a small house of your own. As it happens, Yantang keeps a little place in Yuqiao Alley—the Zhao family held their wedding there, as you know—one street away from the Hanlin Academy. Lodge there for the present, and when you find something better, we can discuss it again."

Dou Yan was delighted.

These last few years he had wandered far and wide, and had friends of every stripe, high and low, some of whom his elders would scarcely think worth a glance. To live on his own would be best of all. But while parents live, a son does not go far. Most of his elders kept residences in the capital; for him to lodge in borrowed rooms outside would surely never be allowed, whether by his Fifth Granduncle or his Sixth. The notion had only flickered through his mind. Now that Dou Huaiying had raised it, he hesitated: "Only, my Fifth and Sixth Granduncles..."

Dou Huaiying said, "Leave the talking to me. You need only set your mind on passing for the Hanlin bachelor's list."

Dou Yan had always been fond of this Seventh Granduncle, so cordial and easy with others. At those words he thanked him with a beaming smile, and asked after Song Yan: "Why is Fourth Uncle-in-law nowhere to be seen? If I am to lodge in his house, I ought at least to thank him to his face."

Dou Huaiying's brows drew slightly together: "His friends have dragged him off for a word." Then, with displeasure, "I cannot think what is the matter with these people—they come uninvited, and then one of them must needs hustle him aside for a private talk. What can there be to say that cannot be said at home, that it must be said here, at such an hour? A perfectly good banquet, turned into something that is neither one thing nor another."

"Perhaps he has some favor to ask of Fourth Uncle-in-law," Dou Yan said. "It cannot well be raised at the yamen, and the threshold of the Jing Duke's house is too high to step over, so he seized upon this chance."

Since Dou Yan, the guest of honor, did not mind, what had Dou Huaiying to be sour about?

Chatting and laughing, the two made their way into the study, where the Hanlin academicians sat thronging.

The man who had drawn Song Yan aside was Hao Dayong.

He spoke in a portentous, mysterious manner: "...The Marquis of Jining is fine in every respect save that his ear is too soft; his good intentions time and again come to bad ends. Take only the other day: a fellow by the name of Wang, who claims kinship with the Jing Duke's household, wished to open a silk shop on East Street, and fell to quarreling with a broker over the commission. What business was that of our Five Wards Command? Yet somehow or other the fellow talked the Marquis round, and the Marquis went over with men of the Eastern Ward Command, and frightened the broker into fleeing for his life.

"If you ask me—if he is a kinsman of the Jing house, why does the Jing house not step forward? Why must the Marquis of Jining?