Chapter 215 — Within Earshot
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 1 of 4
The Shunfu Prefectural School Lane beside the Ying Estate of the Duke Who Guards the Realm took its name from the prefectural school of Shunfu, which stood there. For that reason, Jianzi Alley was packed shoulder to shoulder with stalls and shopfronts selling every sort of snack. Among them was a wonton shop called Mao's, where the wontons were made with wrappers thin as paper and fillings generous, served with tiny fish and shrimp in a broth of remarkable savor. Now and then he would go to Mao's for a bowl and a few words with the shopkeeper, a fellow native of Jiangnan, and at once his homesickness would scatter like mist, and his heart would feel considerably lighter.
By the time he came out of the Osmanthus Fragrance Courtyard, the lamps were already being lit.
Tao Jun hesitated a moment, then went to Mao's Wonton Shop.
Business there was as brisk as ever; not a seat was empty.
Beneath the dim yellow lamplight, the clamor of voices and the thick swirl of steam blurred every face into indistinction.
Yet the owner of Mao's spotted Tao Jun at a glance.
Smiling, wiping his hands on his apron, he came over. "Master Tao, the usual? Shall I set up a table for you by the back door?"
Tao Jun smiled and thanked him.
The owner of Mao's went himself to arrange the table and brought a bowl of wontons to set before Tao Jun.
Tao Jun took a sip of the broth.
From the neighboring seat came the low murmur of two men talking.
"...Truly? But the Dou family are scholars. How could they ever agree to sisters swapping grooms?"
"Why would I lie to you? The Dou family's Fourth Miss and Fifth Miss are born of different mothers. Word is there was no time to prepare, so the Fifth Miss went to the altar with the Fourth Miss's dowry. Now the Fifth Miss has married into the Jining Marquisate in the Fourth Miss's place and become its lady, so naturally the Fourth Miss wants her dowry back. I was there helping carry it out myself. As if I wouldn't know!"
"I heard that when the Dou family marries off a daughter, the dowry comes to twenty thousand taels. Taking that back—surely the Jining Marquis has come out the loser?"
"Loser? What nonsense! Those twenty thousand taels came from the family's common purse. The Fourth Miss merely took back what her own mother had left her. All told, it can't have come to more than one or two thousand taels. And the Fifth Miss's maternal grandfather is Wang Yousheng, the Yunnan provincial governor—you know, the one who wins every battle wherever he marches. Now that the Fourth Miss has reclaimed what her mother left her, the Fifth Miss's mother and the Wang family will surely give her a great heap of silver as a bridal gift. When you reckon it up, the Jining Marquisate has come out ahead!"
At this, Tao Jun could not keep from turning to look.
The speakers were two men in coarse cloth and short jackets, broad-shouldered and dark-skinned. One had an honest face, the other a shrewd one, but both had hands thick with calluses, dirt lodged in the seams of their nails—plainly men who made their living by hard labor.
He could not help cupping his hands to them and calling them "worthy brothers." "What you speak of," he said, "is that the Dou family of Northern Zhili? The household of His Excellency Dou Wenhua?"
Dou Bingheng had served as a Grand Secretary of the Wenhua Hall and for many years as a senior official in the Ministry of Personnel, and those who had benefited from his patronage were beyond counting. In the scholarly world, out of respect, men called him merely "Lord Dou of the Pavilion"...
Seeing Tao Jun dressed as a scholar, the two men knew they had met a man of letters and rose quickly to return his salute, murmuring "not at all, not at all." "It is indeed the household of Lord Dou, Minister of Justice and Grand Secretary of the Wenhua Hall," they said.