Chapter 142 — Aftermath
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 4 of 4
The Second Old Madam then said, "Still, Suxin is of low station and only a young girl besides; it would not be proper to send her to speak with the Wangs. I think it best that I write a letter to your Fifth Uncle, and have Matron Liu accompany Suxin to the capital to see your Fifth Aunt. Let this matter be handed to your Fifth Aunt to handle. After all, you are the elder sister, and still unwed—do not drag yourself into it."
Dou Yan had been waiting for exactly these words.
The greatest virtue of the Second Old Madam was her skill at sizing up the situation.
In the beginning, to leave a good impression on Zeng Yifen for her son's sake, she had stood off against her own younger brother-in-law for a day and a night, throwing her weight behind installing Wang Shuying as the legitimate wife; later, when Wang Xingyi might contend with her son for a seat on the Grand Secretariat, she could likewise belittle Wang Shuying without a moment's hesitation. Now that Fifth Uncle had entered the Grand Secretariat and Wang Xingyi had been shifted from Governor of Shaanxi to Governor of Yunnan, the time had come for her to settle scores for all the "humiliation borne in silence" she had once endured before the Wangs. With the Wang household's servants committing such a blunder, if she did not seize the chance to trample Wang-Xu shi so far down she could never lift her head again, then she would not be that Second Old Madam of the Dou clan!
Just as she had never forgotten Old Woman Wu—the moment Dou Bingheng entered the Grand Secretariat, she told everyone she met that the sole reason Wu Shan had managed to place first in the county examination was that Tutor Du of the Dou clan school had given him private tutoring, and that the reason Tutor Du had given Wu Shan private tutoring was that, back when Dou Bingheng had fallen on hard times, Wu Songnian had once stood him a meal of wine.
Dou Bingheng became a man who repaid a drop of kindness with a gushing spring. And the Wu family, who had drifted ever further from the Dou clan the moment the son placed first in the examination, became a pack of ingrates.
Yet Old Woman Wu could neither defend herself nor, as she once had, lead her son and daughter over to the Dou house for frequent visits.
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Sisters, brothers, here is the belated update for March 28.
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