Chapter 51 — Rules (Pink Vote 210 Bonus Update)
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 1 of 4
Wang Shuying was still turning over in her mind how best to put the question when the Second Dowager, beaming, beckoned to Dou Yan. "Come, come to your grandaunt!"
.
Mrs. Ji gave Dou Yan a gentle nudge.
Dou Chi was moved.
Mrs. Ji had no choice but to say to the Second Dowager with a smile, "This child—I can't think who she takes after. When it comes to buying things, she has to have a say in this and that, but when it comes to giving, she turns all shy."
"That's good, that's good! That's honest." The Second Dowager took no offense. Turning, she fished a paper box stamped with a bright red design of five bats before the gate out from under the kang table and handed it to Dou Yan. "These are bone-in abalone snails your Fifth Uncle had sent back from the capital. Take them and eat."
Wang Shuying was astonished.
Bone-in abalone snails were a famous Jiangnan delicacy, said to be made from kumiss: jade liquor and pearl jelly, snow-rich and frost-smooth, with not the slightest rankness of milk—hailed as the finest flavor in the world.
In the capital she had heard the children of great houses boast of them, but she had never seen them, much less tasted them.
Mrs. Ji was rather surprised too.
Bone-in abalone snails were complicated to make, and few in Jiangnan even knew how. Perhaps because rarity lends value, the Dowager was exceedingly fond of them, and Dou Bingheng, whenever he had the chance, would procure some for her. This New Year he had brought back only two boxes, and now, unexpectedly, the Dowager had bestowed one on Dou Yan.
She hurriedly said to Dou Xin, "Shouyuan, these are what your Fifth Uncle sent to honor your grandaunt—there were only two boxes in all. Shouldn't you thank your grandaunt at once?"
Dou Yan was taken aback.
She had tasted bone-in abalone snails in her former life, at a family feast in the house of Marquis Wang Yu of Yan'an. Even now she remembered how Lady Wang's offhand mention of them, with its faint undertone of pride, had been mocked in private by Wei Yanzhen.
Had she not gone with her Sixth Aunt to fetch something from the Ji family shop, seen the whole street busy with New Year purchases, and thought she ought to buy something for her Sixth Uncle's household too—while fearing that making distinctions might stir up needless trouble, and so settling on a gift for everyone alike—she would not have come home with a whole heap of trinkets.
What she had given the Second Dowager was the small cloisonné box with the passionflower pattern that she now held in her hand.
She had never expected the Second Dowager to reward her with a box of bone-in abalone snails.
She did not like the Second Dowager, but that was no reason to twist her kindness into something else.
Dou Xin stepped forward to thank the Second Dowager, smiling as she took the box.
The Second Dowager nodded with a smile.
Just then a little maid came in to announce, "Second Dowager, Second Young Madam Xiu has brought the young master and young lady of the Wu family to pay their respects. Ming and Yi have come along as well."
"Quick, show them in," the Second Dowager said, one word tumbling after another.
The Wu family was from Xinle, the Dou from Zhending; both served at court, and the two men could well be called fellow townsmen. But Wu Songnian was a rather proud, aloof man, and one served in the Hanlin Academy while the other was in the Ministry of Personnel; though connected by marriage, the two households were not close. Later, when Dou Bingheng fell on hard times, Wu Songnian instead took to inviting him home for a drink, and only then did the two grow nearer. For this reason the Second Dowager set particular store by Wu Songnian's two children—which was why Wu Shan and Wu Ya so often came to call.
In her former life, Dou Yan had known Wu Shan's name only by hearsay.