Chapter 160 — The Gift
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 2 of 4
In the quiet of the night, this room—usually rather cold and cheerless—was suddenly filled with a warm, homely glow.
Dou Yan closed her eyes, the corners of her mouth lifted, and soon sank into deep sleep. The next morning it was only Suxin's shaking that roused her.
She sat up with a start.
Her aunt's voice reached her ear, calm with a trace of amusement: "No hurry, no hurry! There's time. I told you to sleep a while longer, but Suxin says you asked her to wake you at the sixth hour. I could hardly stand in her way."
"Is it only the sixth hour?" Dou Yan breathed in relief, and only then noticed that Zhao Zhangru was still sleeping like a piglet—she had not been roused by all the commotion.
"It is already three quarters past the sixth hour," Suxin put in hurriedly. "In half an hour more, Lady Dowager and the others will be here."
Dou Yan did a quick reckoning. There was still time enough, and she relaxed all the more.
She let the matron they had hired dress her, while her aunt went to rouse Zhao Zhangru.
Zhao Zhangru squawked aloud. Slipping on her shoes, she found she had no socks; once the socks were on, her handkerchief was nowhere to be found. In a fluster she cried, "Shouyuan, lend me a handkerchief!" which set the maids in the room covering their mouths and laughing.
Her aunt, half amused and half vexed, scolded her: "Look at you—two years older than Shouyuan and not a tenth as steady. How am I ever to feel easy about marrying you off?"
Zhao Zhangru went crimson.
Dou Yan caught a hint of something more in the words. When her aunt had stepped out, she asked her third cousin softly, "Am I to have another wedding feast to drink to?"
Zhao Zhangru gave her a little shove and murmured, abashed, "Father wants to keep me at home..."
Memories of her former life gradually clarified in Dou Zhiwei's mind.
Her uncle had never taken a concubine; he had only ever had three daughters. The eldest and the second had both married into scholarly families in the places where he had held office, and the eldest cousin's husband had even passed the metropolitan examination. The third cousin had taken a husband into the family. Yet apart from the eldest, she had never met the other two, let alone grown close to them. Whom the third cousin had actually married, she did not know.
She looked at Zhao Zhangru, lips puckered, and smiled. "What? Do you not wish to stay at home?"
"What use is what I wish?" Zhao Zhangru grumbled. "I can't leave Father and Mother with no one to lean on in their old age."
What man of spirit and ambition would willingly marry into his wife's family?
Dou Yan could understand Zhao Zhangru's feelings, but as her cousin said, they could hardly leave her uncle and aunt with no one to lean on in their old age.
For a moment the mood turned somewhat glum.
Zhao Zhangru hurried to smile. "Never mind, let's not talk about me. Today is your day."
Yet nothing ill had ever been heard of her uncle's household, so they must be getting on well enough... And there was time yet to come—Zhao Zhangru was not even betrothed.
Dou Xin took Zhao Zhangru by the arm and led her to the hall.
Before long, the women of the East Household and the wives who had come to witness the ceremony had all assembled.
The Second Madam had dressed with great formality in the ceremonial robes of a third-rank lady, had lightly dusted her face with powder, and wore a set of emerald ornaments; she looked exceptionally vigorous.
The moment she entered, she took the aunt's hand and said with a smile, "Today I shall perform the hairpin ceremony for Shouyuan. Your daughter shall hold the tray for Dou Yan, and Miss Ji shall serve as the presiding assistant." Then, before the aunt could decline, she went on, "This matter is settled by my authority. None of you need say a word. You have traveled a thousand li to celebrate Shouyuan's coming of age—Shouyuan will remember this kindness, and so shall I."
Nothing in this world is fixed.