Chapter 65 — Consequences (Bonus Update for 420 Pink Votes)
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 1 of 4
After the business with Pang Jixiu, Father's attention shifted at once to the inner household. Unfortunately, with Dou Yan holding the fort and Wang Shuying managing affairs, he asked around and around but could find nothing that allowed him to stick his hand in. Frustrated, he threw all his energy into renovating the east courtyard. The construction that should have been finished in early summer dragged on into midsummer, and it had the effect of drawing Dou Yan to the western residence at every opportunity, where he would squat in the shade with Father discussing what colored paintings to put on the beams and what stone carvings to set before the gate, each time talking with such fervor that they were utterly delighted with themselves.
Wang Shuying could not help muttering, "Father says there are still vacancies in the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Justice in the capital—he has already written to friends serving in both. Time waits for no one. Should you not send Father word?"
Dou Huaiying dismissed this. Sipping iced mung bean soup and studying the blueprints, he said absently, "Whether it is the Ministry of Works or the Ministry of Justice, it all has to go through the Ministry of Personnel. Leave this matter alone—I have my own ideas."
To rely on one's father-in-law is, in others' eyes, to live off a wife's family; to rely on an elder cousin—that is only proper.
Wang Shuying did not dare press further. Even Dou Yan assumed Father had long since settled the matter with Fifth Uncle and paid it no mind; instead he listened with great enthusiasm as Father and Dou Yan discussed how to borrow scenery and how to pile up rockeries, altogether looking as though they meant to build the east courtyard into a Jiangnan garden.
Gao Sheng came to Dou Yan: "In just five months, sixty thousand taels of silver have already been spent."
Dou Yan asked him, "Has the household been left strapped because of it?"
"Not to that extent." Gao Sheng lowered his voice. "But it is being spent far too fast. Last year's entire profits are gone."
"Come tell me again when he has spent through the Western Dou family's savings," Dou Yan said calmly. "You have to let him have something to keep him busy, do you not?"
Gao Sheng gave a bitter smile.
Dou Yan looked at Dou Yan in the courtyard, arm slung over Father's shoulder, and suddenly her eyes stung.
Mother had been gone nine years now, and Father had lived those nine years alone.
A father's fault lies in failing to teach a son; a mother's fault lies in failing to teach a daughter. If there had been a son, would Father have conducted himself more steadily?
The thought flashed by, and Dou Xiao's listless look surfaced in her mind. A wave of distaste washed over her, and she decided to leave the matter alone after all.
But who would have thought that at the end of the sixth month, Fifth Uncle would send a letter asking why Father had not gone to the capital to await a post, adding that since Grandfather had passed, Father ought to take up the family's banner. In this world there are many who add flowers to brocade and few who send charcoal in snow; the Dou clan ought all the more to hold tightly together, and Father should not abandon the hardship of ten years' study. Then, in veiled terms, he inquired about Father's heirs, saying that if Wang Shuying were barren, he could ask Fifth Aunt to keep an eye out and take a concubine of clean background for Father, so that when a son entered officialdom in the future, Father could retire to the countryside in peace and play the old patriarch.
Father broke into a cold sweat. That very night he wrote back to Fifth Uncle, saying the matter of taking a concubine need not trouble him, and said not a word about awaiting a post.
Only then did Dou Ci realize that Father's refusal to go to the capital to await a post was entirely his own idea.