Chapter 13 — The Quarrel
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 1 of 4
The moment Third Aunt left, Mother glared at Father, her gaze as cold as a blade. Father glared right back without the slightest flinch, as savage as a cornered beast.
The air in the room turned sharp and explosive in an instant.
Dou Yan's small figure shrank into the bed curtain, listening to her parents tear into each other.
"Zhao Guqiu, what exactly do you want? Am I not humiliated enough for you?"
"What do I want? I'd like to ask you the same—what do you want? Taking the daughter of a disgraced official as a concubine! Where did all your reading of the sages go? Do you mean to destroy the Dou family's century of clean reputation and the toil of generations in one stroke? You may not mind the shame, but I still have a face to keep!"
Father was red with fury. "We grew up together—don't you know what kind of man I am? And at a time like this, instead of helping me, you drag me back and invite Second Aunt over to laugh at me! What kind of wife are you? If my name is ruined, do you think you'll come off any better? Have you forgotten—husband and wife are one flesh! And you call yourself a virtuous wife! A good thing your mother passed early—if she could see you now, who knows how heartbroken she'd be."
"Dou Huaiying, scold me if you must, but why drag my mother into it?" Mother was weeping with rage. "So you remember we grew up together—then do you also remember how my mother treated you? Do you remember what you told me before we married? You have no shame! If you think I'll cover for you, you can forget it!"
Father wilted like a vegetable hit by frost, a flicker of discomfort crossing his face. "I... I didn't mean to bring up your mother. Must you be so unforgiving once you have the upper hand? I'm only like this because you drove me to it." Then, recalling old grievances, he grew angry again. "Bao Shan only dragged me off for a cup of flower wine, and you glare at him like a tiger. When he comes to our house, you don't even offer him a decent cup of tea, and I'm left to be sneered at by all my schoolmates..." The more he spoke, the angrier he became. "You only know how to blame me—why don't you think about yourself? If your temper were a little gentler, would I have needed to go consult Third Brother?"
Mother trembled with rage, wiping at her tears in a fluster. "You do wrong, and you still dare blame me! What good is that Feng Baoshan? Apart from whoring, gambling, and drinking, what can he do? At the year-end examination, if the education commissioner hadn't shown Uncle some face, he'd have been stripped of his degree long ago. And you're the only one who runs around with him day and night—you're no better than he is!"
Father was choked speechless, and only after a long while did he mutter, "Well... well, you still shouldn't carry on like this!"
"What would you have me do?" Mother demanded shrilly. "Throw open the gates and welcome Wang Shuying in? I may have that magnanimity—does she have the fortune to deserve it?" She gave a cold laugh. "Dou Huaiying, let me say this here and now: any woman in the world you wish to take, take her—but if Wang Shuying wants through that door, it will be over my dead body!"
"You... I..." Father pointed at her, his arm shaking, and for a long time could not finish a single sentence.
Mother smiled scornfully and drew herself up straighter.
So husbands and wives could quarrel like this!
This was her father, who always put on such a sanctimonious air?
How like a child he was!
Dou Yan stared, dumbfounded.
She had never once quarreled with Wei Fan.
At first she had not dared; later she had disdained to.