Chapter 345 — With Child (A Bonus Chapter in Thanks)
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 1 of 4
Looking at the grease spots on her clothes, Tian-shi became ever more convinced that her daughter had been right.
This daughter-in-law had been spoiled beyond all recognition—she could not even hold a spoon steady for long. She would have to learn proper manners, or else, once Tian-shi was gone, the household would surely fall into chaos!
Tian-shi ate her midday meal without betraying a hint of her thoughts.
Dou Ming breathed a sigh of relief, rubbed her aching back, and, as was her custom, bent her knees to make her curtsy and withdraw—but Tian-shi held her back: "From today on, set the household affairs aside for now. You will first learn proper conduct from me." Then she instructed her personal attendant, "Have the madam stand with her back against the wall for the time it takes two sticks of incense to burn, and then you may teach her how to perform the blessing salute." That said, she took up a Buddhist sutra, spread it on the kang table, and began to recite it silently, without so much as a glance at the utterly astonished Dou Ming.
Tian-shi's personal attendant came to Dou Ming with a face that smiled while her eyes did not: "Madam, please come with me!"
Dou Ming was not a person who could endure much. Her meekness of late had come only from a guilty conscience; but now, seeing Tian-shi press her advantage and even demand that she start over from standing and walking, she saw it plainly for what it was—deliberate humiliation. And then she thought of her own generous dowry, of how she had never once lived at the Wei family's expense for food or clothing, and by what right did the Wei family trample on her? Moreover, Wei Fan had colluded with his mother and sister, plainly knowing his mother was tormenting her, yet he still shut himself up in the small study. She had brought food to him several times, and he had closed the door in her face and let her be mocked by the serving women. This was more than flesh and blood could bear! The fury dammed up in her chest; her face flushed crimson, and she said to Tian-shi in a harsh voice, "Mother-in-law, if there is something that displeases you, just say it to my face. Why point at the mulberry and curse the locust, and stoop to such petty tricks that make a laughingstock of you?"
"You!" Tian-shi went white with anger, and only after a long while did she calm herself and say coolly, "No wonder your mother could force the principal wife to her death and still be raised to the position of wife. Truly, dragons beget dragons, phoenixes beget phoenixes, and the sons of rats know how to dig burrows—your tongue is sharp beyond the ordinary."
Now it was Dou Ming's turn to go white.
Her head rang with a buzzing sound, and it was a long time before she came back to herself. Then, fierce in words but faint at heart, she said, "Since I have entered the Wei family's gate, I am a daughter-in-law of the Wei family. For you to speak so is to slap my face—no, it is to slap the Marquis's face, to slap the Wei family's face."
Tian-shi was not one for quarreling. She held her tongue a long while before saying, "Since you know you are a daughter-in-law of the Wei family, you ought to keep the Wei family's rules. If you think standing with your back against the wall is a slap to your face, then by all means do not be a daughter-in-law of our Wei family—go back to your maiden home!"
Then I won't be one!
The words reached her lips, but Dou Ming did not dare speak them.
In the past, she had been sure she could hold Wei Fan in the palm of her hand; but now, with the wall fallen and all pushing against it, it was quite possible that the Wei family's very design was to send her back to her maiden home.
Dou Ming was so furious she could taste blood. Yet she had no choice but to swallow her anger.
She went obediently with Tian-shi's personal attendant to the resting room.
In less than the time it took half a stick of incense to burn, her legs were trembling.