Chapter 143 — Pointing the Finger (Bonus Chapter — Begging for Pink Tickets)
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 3 of 4
Dou Chi teased Ji Yong. "Cousin Ji, it seems you are a Confucian scholar too!"
Ji Yong pursed his lips. "Wine and meat pass through the gut; the Buddha stays in the heart."
Dou Yan and Dou Yan could not help bursting into laughter.
The three of them entered the waterside pavilion together.
Granny Zhou and the others hurried forward to bow.
Dou Yan asked them, "How is the Fifth Miss today?"
"Not bad," Granny Zhou said discreetly. "This morning she ate half a steamed bun and a small bowl of rice porridge. At noon she had a few slices of spring bamboo shoot, a few meatballs, and a small half-bowl of noodles."
Dou Yan nodded.
Dou Yan smiled and greeted Dou Ming. "Fifth Aunt. Do you still recognize me?"
Dou Ming sat woodenly on the beauty seat beside the waterside pavilion, staring blankly out the window, though what she was looking at, no one could say.
Dou Yan said softly, "She pays little attention to people now."
Dou Yan nodded in understanding.
Ji Yong, however, spoke with a venomous tongue. "I think she's doing quite well! She eats, she drinks, she makes no fuss—she's easier on the eyes than before."
"Master Ji!" Granny Zhou forced down her anger and said in a low voice, "I beg you to show some mercy with your words."
Ji Yong sneered. "Am I wrong? For someone who doesn't know her place, to sit safe and sound at home without stirring up trouble is her good fortune. There's always a bigger fish, always a higher sky—not everything can be settled just by the Dou and Wang families stepping forward!"
Dou Yan and Dou Yan were silent.
But Granny Zhou's eyes reddened, and she said hoarsely, "Even so, Master Ji, you shouldn't speak of our Fifth Miss like that! She is barely..."
"The child is father to the man." Ji Yong cut her off without ceremony. "What sort of person she is, don't you know? That she has come to this—can you really wash your hands of it? Don't blame others the moment trouble comes; consider yourself..."
"Cousin Ji!" Dou Chi shouted at him in displeasure.
"Forget it!" Ji Yong waved his hand, looking as though he could not be bothered to argue with Granny Zhou. "There's no point saying these things to you—you wouldn't understand. I can't be troubled with you!"
Granny Zhou's face flushed crimson with shame.
Suddenly Dou Ming clutched her ears and let out a scream—at some point she had turned her face toward them.
Dou Ming, Dou Yan, Granny Zhou, and Fang Sheng's wife rushed over and asked anxiously, "What is it? What's wrong?" Granny Zhou gathered Dou Ming into her arms and choked out, "Ming, Ming, what has come over you?"
Dou Ming, who had been dull-eyed ever since Duan Bing brought her back, suddenly pointed at Ji Yong and shrieked, "It was him, it was him who did this to me! He was the one who set Yu Er on me..."
Everyone's face was filled with shock—except Dou Yan and Dou Yan: the former lowered her eyes, the latter's face was stern.
"Fifth Aunt. You cannot say such things carelessly!" he said with a dark face. "You say Master Ji harmed you—what evidence do you have?"
"I know it, I know it!" Dou Ming wailed shrilly. "Yu Er said it: when immortals fight, the little ghosts suffer... I have offended only him—only he would harm me..."
Dou Yan heard this utterly senseless talk, ignored Dou Ming's cries outright, and turned to Ji Yong with an apologetic face to make amends. "Fifth Aunt may have been frightened into a muddle. I beg Master Ji to be forgiving!"
Ji Yong cast Dou Ming a glance full of mockery and strode away.
Dou Yan hastily said to Dou Yan, "Master Ji is proud by nature. I will explain this matter to him properly—you need not trouble yourself," and set off at a run to catch up.
"It was him! It was him!" Dou Ming screamed at Ji Yong's retreating back, her eyes nearly splitting with fury, and she clawed and kicked at Granny Zhou, trying to break free and chase after him. "I will bring him down with me!"