Chapter 384 — Losing Heart
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 1 of 4
What kind of talk was this?
Madam Fifth was astonished to hear it, and then Wei Fan said, with a note of satisfaction in his voice: "Naturally! How could our Wei family covet a daughter-in-law's dowry? It is simply that we dislike your relying on the richness of your dowry to ignore all advice, running back to your natal home at every opportunity, on any pretext at all. If you would stop seeing Madam Seventh and devote yourself wholeheartedly to being a daughter-in-law of the Wei family, why would we ever need to entrust your dowry to that Dou fellow to manage?" He went on, "You have been in our house for nearly half a year now. Ask yourself honestly: when you first came to us, how did my mother treat you? And how does she treat you now? My mother is gentle by nature, the kindest and most loving of women. Why does she seem suddenly to have become another person? Why do you never think about the reason for it, and only ever accuse my mother of being in the wrong? And look at yourself — what sort of person have you become? Where is even a trace of the girl I first knew?"
Dou Ming was silent.
Watching her, Madam Fifth could not help growing anxious.
This Dou Ming — how could she be so foolish?
What married couple did not begin steeped in sweetness and gradually develop cracks, until at last they could not bear the sight of each other?
In the end, it was always these seemingly trivial frictions, accumulating day by day, that brought it about.
Yet she had believed Wei Fan's words, thinking that so long as she indulged him, their relationship would remain as good as it had been when they were first married.
But the human heart is a valley that is never filled.
Today he coaxes you to disown your own mother for the sake of marital harmony; tomorrow he can coax you to take a concubine for him for the sake of a reputation for virtue; the day after, he can coax you to sell off your dowry for the sake of the family's prosperity...
This was what a mother ought to warn her daughter of when the girl was about to marry.
But seeing Dou Ming as she was, Wang Shuying had said nothing at all.
Wang Shuying could not accomplish anything and could only spoil everything!
Not one word that should have been said had she said. Every word that should not have been said, she had let fall without omission, and stubbornly instigated Dou Ming into this state — a girl who had stolen her own elder sister's betrothed and could still walk the streets with her head held high.
Shameless!
Madam Fifth cursed Wang Shuying roundly in her heart.
But in front of the whole Wei family, she could not lay out the gravity of the matter for Dou Ming to hear; she could only wait and speak to her afterward.
Madam Fifth's tone at once grew somewhat anxious: "Ming, child, your health is poor — mind you don't grow dizzy from standing so long. Quick, let Granny Zhou help you over to rest a while. Your aunt and I are here; there is no need for you to trouble yourself!"
Dou Ming shook her head slightly.
To marry Wei Fan, she had not only offended her father and Dou Yan, but had made herself despised by the people of both the Dou and Wang families.
In the Dou family and the Wang family alike, there was long since no place left for her to stand.
If she left the Wei family and went back to the Dou or the Wang, would she not give those people cause to laugh their teeth out?
In truth, from the day she had taken Dou Yan's place and married Wei Tinghou, she had had no road left behind her.
She could only live well; she could not afford to fall.
The Wei family had become her only harbor, and how could she tear herself openly from them? And when that happened, where else could she go?