Chapter 257 — Inquiries
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 2 of 4
Someone scoffed and said, "And what year and month was that? If you want real excitement, I say the Fourth Miss's coming-of-age ceremony two years ago was the real excitement! Not only did the Dou womenfolk come home from far off in the capital, and Madam Zhao, who is far away in the northwest with her husband's posting—even affinal kin like the Ji family of Yixing in Jiangnan, and the wives of local gentry like His Honor Lu, and even the managers of the Dou family's various shops, the heads of their various estates, and all the neighbors—everyone came to congratulate the Dou Fourth Miss on her coming of age. All of Zhili was stirred. That's not a thing money can accomplish!"
This set everyone talking at once, and not one voice was raised in rebuttal.
Tao Jun drew a sharp breath and said, "Why did they all come back to celebrate the Dou Fourth Miss's coming of age?"
A busybody answered loudly and with a laugh: "The Dou womenfolk came home from the capital, of course, because the Dou Seventh Master is an official in the capital, and the Dou Fourth Miss keeps house for her father at home, serving the Seventh Master's birth mother, Concubine Cui. The Dou elders wished to comfort the Fourth Miss! And His Honor Zhao has only this one niece, and loves her like the pearl in his palm. Though the Zhao family went with His Honor Zhao to the northwest, Madam Zhao comes back every few years to see the Dou Fourth Miss, fearing that with no mother of her own the girl might be slighted. For the Fourth Miss's coming of age, she was bound to return. As for wives of officials like Madam Lu, seeing how greatly the Second Grand Madam valued the Dou Fourth Miss, they came to add flowers to the brocade. And as for the shop managers and estate heads—the Dou Fourth Miss not only manages the household accounts of the West Dou, but, with the Third Master of the Dou family to assist her, oversees the clan's affairs. At her coming-of-age, would they dare not come?"
Hardly had he finished when the man who had scoffed earlier spoke up loudly: "That's a rather one-sided way to put it. Who in Zhending Prefecture does not know the Dou Fourth Miss for a person of pure goodness? A few years ago, in that lawsuit against the Bie family's martial school on East Lane Street—if they hadn't met the Dou Fourth Miss, could Master Bie have cleared his name? To this day the Bie sisters enjoy the Dou Fourth Miss's protection! And that year of the great rains in Zhending, if the Dou Fourth Miss hadn't remitted the rents of several Dou estates, who knows how many families would have had nothing to eat and been forced to sell their sons and daughters. How can you say those managers and estate heads came crowding to congratulate the Dou Fourth Miss on her coming of age just to curry favor with her?"
His words won the immediate agreement of most of the teahouse, who buzzed with reproach at the loud-voiced man.
The man looked embarrassed and lowered his head to his tea.
At this scene, a rumbling like thunder filled Tao Jun's head, and a great stone seemed to press upon his heart, growing heavier and heavier, until he could no longer keep a courteous smile on his face.
Was this the Dou Fourth Miss he knew—raised in the countryside from childhood, dull, stubborn, disliked by all, with no one to rely on?
Were they speaking of the same person?
Tao Jun could not help saying, "Was it not said that the Dou Fourth Miss was disliked by her stepmother, and so was left in Zhending to be raised by the Seventh Master's birth mother, who was herself a concubine? How is it now 'keeping house for her father'?"