Chapter 359 — Her Family
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 2 of 4
"I've been at home these days, resting to protect the pregnancy," Dou Yan said. "No one tells me much about outside matters, so I don't know whether it's true or not."
This Eleventh Madam Feng was rather displeased. She felt Dou Yan's words were too high-minded and proper, as though she did not count her as one of the family.
So she turned to the Lu family's Second Young Madam beside her and began gossiping about the imperial house: "...Princess Yuanfu is already married. I wonder which families Princess Jingyi and Princess Jingtai will marry into? Princess Jingyi, at least, was raised by the Empress's circle, but Princess Jingtai is merely the daughter of Consort Shu, who never bore a prince. Where does she get the nerve to pick and choose and refuse to marry?"
The Lu family's Second Young Madam laughed. "The Emperor's daughters needn't worry about finding husbands. How would I know?"
Dou Yan knew.
Though this Consort Shu had borne no prince, one could not withstand her talent for playing every side and charming everyone.
That character "Shu"—it had been the title of the former Empress Wan. Not only was it bestowed upon her, but after the Prince of Liao ascended the throne, she was the only consort who lived with Empress Wan in the Palace of Compassionate Tranquility.
She sat there smiling, listening to the chatter in the room, while her mind was fixed on Dou Ming's affair.
By rights, when Dou Ming miscarried, no matter how poor their relations, someone should have told her. Yet neither the Xiangshan Temple Lane household nor the Huai Shu Lane household had sent her a word. Could what Eleventh Madam Feng said be true? Because she was with child, everyone had feared the news would upset her, and so had kept it from her?
Back home, she asked Song Yan.
Song Yan had clearly known all along.
He said, "Both the Sixth Madam and your aunt told me not to tell you, and the Jining Marquis household said nothing when the New Year gifts were sent, so I kept it from you too."
In truth, he also did not wish Dou Yan to pay too much attention to the affairs of the Jining Marquis household.
Dou Yan asked him, "So it's true, then—that Dou Ming miscarried because her mother-in-law was setting rules for her?"
Song Yan nodded. "That's what the Sixth Madam and your aunt both said."
Dou Yan sighed with emotion.
In her past life, when she married into the Wei family, her first child had also miscarried.
But that miscarriage had been her own fault.
When you came down to it, Madam Tian was a woman with no opinions of her own and no head on her shoulders. For Madam Tian to torment Dou Ming in such a fashion, there could be no one behind it but Wei Wan.
In Dou Yan's eyes, Madam Tian was easy enough to get along with: so long as you humored her a little and lowered your posture, she would fuss over you and ache for you, treating you as someone in need of her protection. In her past life, she had found a way to win Madam Tian's approval, and then through Madam Tian she had gotten a grip on Wei Wan.
It had been less than half a year since Dou Ming married into the family, and she had already set herself against her mother-in-law and her sister-in-law. There were doubtless plenty of "good" days still ahead of her.
Was this the "benefit" she had schemed so hard to obtain by marrying into that house?
Dou Yan smiled sardonically.
Since neither her Sixth Aunt nor her aunt-in-law wished her to fret over Dou Ming's affairs, she pretended ignorance as well. The next day she changed into a sapphire-blue zhuanghua jacket woven with the Ten Kinds of Brocade, a sapphire-blue plain-faced horse-face skirt embroidered with rose-red lotus patterns, and a set of kingfisher-feather filigree head ornaments, then returned to her natal home glittering with pearls and jewels, with Song Yan at her side.