Chapter 143 — Pointing the Finger (Bonus Chapter — Begging for Pink Tickets)
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 1 of 4
Over the next few days,
one physician after another came and went, and prescription followed prescription, yet Dou Ming remained in the same dull, vacant state, speaking to no one and answering no one.
Granny Zhou was frantic with weeping. "What is to become of her? What is to become of her!"
Dou Yan had no good remedy either.
A letter arrived from Duan Bing, who had already reached the capital: Wang Tan had never damaged Wang Nan's letter of recommendation at all. Yu Er truly had committed an offense—he had lost silver gambling and urged Shang'er to steal Wang Tan's antique brush-washer and sell it. When the Wang household discovered this, they drove both him and Shang'er out of the mansion.
The trail had gone cold again.
Dou Yan let out a long sigh.
The Second Madam, the Third Madam, and several of the cousins' wives and nieces-in-law who were at home all came to inquire after the sick.
The affair of Dou Ming's abduction had done too much damage to the Dou family's reputation. The Second Old Madam, the Second Madam, and Dou Yan and the others had long since settled on one account: no matter who asked, they said only that Dou Ming had made a fuss about going to the capital to find her mother, that Dou Chi had consented, that she had sulked at Dou Yan over it, and that in the middle of the night she had hidden in the garden to frighten Dou Yan—and who would have thought she would end up frightening herself instead?
In her present condition, anyone who saw her would feel obliged to offer advice—recommending some famous physician, or some Daoist master. Yet whether the women of the Eastern Dou household believed the Second Old Madam's story and thought the whole thing too trivial to warrant attention, or whether they saw clearly and feigned ignorance, every one of them merely urged Dou Ming to rest and recuperate, and not a single one offered her any counsel. Their evasive manner made it seem they had come only out of courtesy to relatives, merely going through the motions. It was Dou Yan, instead, who was repeatedly drawn aside by one or another for intimate talk, called "silly child" or "silly girl," and told, "You cannot carry this burden. Go and speak to your father at once—the proper thing is to hand Ming back to her mother!"
Dou Yan had no choice but to explain over and over that Guard Duan had already escorted Granny Liu and Su Xin to the capital.
Her listeners breathed a sigh of relief and then all warned her repeatedly: "No matter what your father says this time, you must not take Ming into your keeping again. That child is far too much trouble."
Dou Chi nodded again and again, thanking each person who offered her advice.
She had barely managed to deal with the Eastern household's relatives when the Beginning of Winter arrived.
Dou Yan distributed the chrysanthemums and honeysuckle she had long since prepared among everyone in the household. They boiled the flowers for baths and washed away scabies.
The whole mansion was steeped in the fragrance of chrysanthemums and honeysuckle.
Granny Zhou had bathed Dou Ming early that morning too, and seeing how fine the weather was, and thinking that Dou Ming had been cooped up indoors all these days, she reported to Dou Yan. Then, with the wife of Fang Sheng, newly assigned to care for Dou Ming, and several maids great and small carrying cushions, tea, snacks, and brocade stools, she helped Dou Ming out to the rear garden.
As they walked, she kept telling Dou Ming, "This is witch hazel, this is southern magnolia, this is a pomegranate tree… The southern magnolia blooms in spring, and the pomegranate doesn't bloom until summer, and after the blossoms come the pomegranates…" Chattering on and on, she treated Dou Ming like a child who understood nothing. And Dou Ming? She was wooden, as if none of it had anything to do with her.