Chapter 25 — Instigation
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 2 of 4
By the time the cicadas were shrilling everywhere, word came from the capital: her uncle Zhao Si had obtained the post of county magistrate of Ganquan County in Yan'an Prefecture.
In her previous life, her uncle had risen to prefect of Qingyang Prefecture, a rank of the fourth grade.
In this life, her uncle had again sought a post in the northwest.
Dou Yan was glad for her uncle, yet at the same time felt a faint, inexplicable sense of loss.
Grandfather's verdict on her uncle was: "Who would have thought he had such tricks in him? Ganquan is a poor, barren county, but he goes there as its chief magistrate. He may not have been chosen as a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy, but his starting point is still very high."
Third Uncle was even more uneasy. "That is just what Yuanji says."
Yuanji was Dou Zhiwei's fifth uncle, Dou Bingheng, and it was he who had sent this news back from the capital.
As the saying went—look to three generations for a family's character, four for its fare, five for its letters—the brilliance of several generations of the Dou family's painstaking efforts was concentrated entirely in Dou Bingheng.
He entered school at thirteen, passed the provincial examination at sixteen, and became a metropolitan graduate at twenty-two. He served as a bachelor in the Ministry of Personnel, observing government affairs, and afterward began his career as a supervising secretary there. By the time Dou Yan fell ill, he had already risen to Grand Secretary of the Wuying Hall and Minister of Personnel.
He was the first man of the Dou family to enter the Grand Secretariat and be appointed grand secretary.
And because he, along with Wang Xingyi—Grand Secretary of the Dongge Hall and Minister of Rites—and Chen Rongjun—Grand Secretary of the Wenyuan Hall and Minister of Justice—were all natives of the Northern Metropolitan Region, the three were jokingly called "the Northern Half."
Grandfather smiled faintly, a trace of arrogance in the smile. "No metropolitan graduate, no Hanlin; no Hanlin, no Grand Secretariat. Yuanji shares your own mother and father—what have you to be afraid of?"
Third Uncle wiped the sweat from his brow and said with a bitter smile, "It's just that I've read so little myself—I can't help feeling a bit small before a metropolitan graduate."
Grandfather laughed heartily.
Dou Yan, meanwhile, told Tuoniang to take stock of everything in her own room.
By the look of things, her aunt would soon be coming to fetch her.
From her experience in the previous life, the matter would be exposed very quickly, and there would surely be a great deal of trouble when it was. Better to prepare against a rainy day.
Father teased her: "Shouyuan, at such a tender age, already knows how to hide things away."
Dou Yan seized the chance to hug the jade brush-washer on Father's desk to her chest. "This is mine too."
After all, when the new stepmother came through the door, all these household goods would be re-registered and catalogued so as to be distinguished from Mother's dowry. Better to tuck away the things she liked now—to confuse the record and make them her own.
Father laughed helplessly and pointed to two jade vessels on his curio cabinet. "Do you like these?"
"I do!" Dou Xin nodded vigorously.
Her father waved a grand hand. "Then I'll have those carted over to your place and hidden away for you too!"
Dou Xin's eyes curved into little crescent moons. She pointed at the brocade box on her father's desk. "I want that red stone too!"
Inside lay two pieces of the finest chicken-blood stone, brilliant in color, their veins naturally forming the shapes of mountains and misty peaks. Dou Yan treasured them, thinking that one day he would find a master carver to cut him a seal.