Chapter 44 — The Quick Blade
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 1 of 4
When something touches a person's own interests, word of it sprouts wings and flies everywhere; there is no stopping it.
In a single night, everyone in the Dou household, high and low, had heard the news.
Some cursed Wang Shuying behind her back as a root of disaster; some blamed Zhao Si for letting her imagination run wild; some were calculating what they might gain or lose; and some, never happier than at a spectacle, waited to see the joke unfold. But whatever their feelings, not one of them was willing to be the first to speak. In an instant, the East Dou, so lively before, fell silent. Apart from a few coarse maids and old serving women moving about the courtyard, not a soul could be found anywhere in the various apartments.
Dou Yan was rather gleeful about it. Ji shi, however, took her to the West Residence.
"Your grandfather is ill," Ji shi told her as she changed her clothes. "We are going to see him."
In front of the Zhao family he had put on the air of a man who, now that the Wang family held such power and office and insisted Wang Shuying be made legitimate, had no choice in the matter; and in front of the Wang family he had worn the look of a man who, though dissatisfied with Wang Shuying, would, matters having come to this, still find some way to see her made legitimate for the sake of both families' faces. He had hoped to please both sides and be all things to all men; now he found himself pulled both ways and stuck fast, unable to advance or retreat.
He must have been taken ill by the worry of it.
She turned this over in her mind as she followed Ji shi into the Crane Longevity Hall.
Dou Duo lay in bed wearing a blue net cap, his face very poor, with Aunt Ding attending him at his side.
Hearing that Dou Yan had come to see him, he did not so much as lift an eyelid.
Aunt Ding looked awkward.
Ji shi poured a cup of tea and signaled to Dou Yan to hand it to her grandfather.
Dou Duo gave a vague grunt and turned away.
Dou Yan held the teacup and blinked, turning her head to look at Ji shi.
Ji shi's brows knit almost imperceptibly. She stepped forward, gathered Dou Zhiwei by the shoulders, and said with a smile, "Your grandfather is ill and in poor spirits. Just set the tea on the small table."
Dou Yan listened and set the teacup down with great care.
Dou Duo still paid her no heed.
Then Ji shi said with a smile to Aunt Ding, "Since UncleThird has rested, we will not disturb him; we shall go back and visit again tomorrow." She nodded politely to Aunt Ding and led Dou Zhiwei by the hand out the door.
On the road, Dou Ming caught a glimpse of Pang shi's figure flitting past among the flowering trees.
She pretended not to have seen and climbed into the carriage.
Pang shi hurried all the way back to the Qixia Court.
Wang Shuying was dreadfully thin and looked listless as she sewed autumn clothes for Dou Ming.
Her brother had come and gone, and had said things she had never once imagined.
The reason she could still live safely in the Qixia Court to this day was, plainly put, simply that her father had been restored to office. It was because her natal family had power.
If her father were to be dragged into her troubles… Wang Shuying hardly dared to go on thinking.
But if she took Dou Ming and went back to the Wang family just like that, how was she to live the rest of her days?
At the very thought of the gentle and considerate Dou Huaiying, Wang Shuying's heart twisted as though with a knife, and she could only pray that this situation might be dragged out one day at a time… if only she could wait until Dou Huaiying returned.
Seeing Pang shi come in, she forced a smile at her. "Second Sister-in-law, you came in such a hurry—is something the matter?"
Pang shi poured herself a cup of tea, drained it in one gulp, and only then sat down beside her and said in a low voice, "I just saw Dou Yan!"
Wang Shuying could not help crying "Ah!" and sat up straight.