Chapter 95 — Reneging (Bonus Chapter for 810 Pink Votes)

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Second Madam Yu was seeing her aunt-in-law off, and brought up the matter of Wu Shan and Dou Zhiwei's betrothal: "...Tell me, Aunt, how am I to explain this to the Old Madam?"

It was Matchmaker Wu who had first raised this match. Now that the Dou family had agreed, by all reason Matchmaker Wu ought to have settled the matter before leaving Zhending—even if no horoscope cards were exchanged, there should at least be a firm word given.

Matchmaker Wu said coolly, "At the time I was merely making inquiries. This business still requires my husband's consent."

Second Madam Yu was dumbfounded.

Matchmaker Wu lowered her eyelids as though evading something, and bent her head to sip her tea.

The Second Madam's face went purple with fury.

She might be a daughter of the Wu family, but she was above all a daughter-in-law of the Dou family.

It was this aunt of hers who had urged her with such earnest sincerity, and so she had gone before the Second Old Madam to ask for this favor. Now that her aunt had abruptly gone back on her word, how was she to hold her head up in the Dou household hereafter?

"Aunt, we are not strangers," the Second Madam said at last, forcing down her anger, her voice hoarse. "Whatever you have to say, say it to my face—I must give the Old Madam and my mother-in-law some account, at the very least. You may not know this yet, but Shouyuan's dowry is to be half the fortune of the Western Dou. Heaven knows how many families have their eyes on it! If the Wu and Dou families were not connected by marriage, and if my uncle and my fifth uncle were not such sworn friends, the Dou family might never have agreed to this match..."

Matchmaker Wu was taken aback.

Half the fortune of the Western Dou as dowry, under Dou Yan's name?

No wonder the girl was so overbearing—bold enough to beat Pang Kunbai half to death.

A girl like that—she must on no account be allowed into the house!

Otherwise, who could ever rein her in hereafter?

They might even find the Wu family branded as fortune-hunters coveting a daughter-in-law's dowry.

Fury rose in her at once, and she said with displeasure, "What sort of people your uncle and I are—do you not know? If the Fourth Miss Dou has such a dowry, why did you not tell me? Did you fear I would covet her fortune? It is just as well you have spoken of it today—if it came to the exchanging of betrothal gifts, could the Wu family afford a bride-price? This is no matchmaking on your part. You are shaming your own family! I will tell you plainly: this Fourth Miss of yours—merely because she was set upon by robbers, she beat a man half to death, and kin into the bargain. My son could never bear such a wife! I dread the day I offend her and she turns on me, her own mother-in-law!"

The Second Madam did not know the details, and was greatly astonished to hear this, but she still argued back: "How can you speak so, Aunt? When the Fourth Sister and the Twelfth Uncle were set upon by robbers, should they not have fought back? Ought they to have stretched out their necks and let themselves be cut down?"

Matchmaker Wu took her to be merely speaking up for her husband's family, and said with a cold sneer, "I never said she should not fight back. But there must be a limit! A girl, with victory already in her grasp, and still she would not relent..." She was yet speaking when the bamboo curtain clattered and Wu Shan burst in from outside, his face the color of gold leaf.

"Mother, the Fourth Sister is not that kind of person!" In but a few days he had grown hollow-eyed and withered as dry grass, all his former high spirits gone. "Beating Pang Kunbai was the idea of us boys. He is a vile, petty man—we simply could not rest easy until he was taught a lesson..."

"Are you not supposed to be studying in the study? What are you doing out here?" Matchmaker Wu fixed her son with a look more severe than ever before. "I am speaking with your cousin—is this a place for you to interrupt? From whom did you learn such manners? Not a shred of propriety! Get back to your room at once!" And she called out loudly for Matron Bi: "How do you attend the young master? How is he allowed to run about at will..."

The aunt was plainly cursing the mulberry tree while pointing at the locust.

The Second Madam's expression changed drastically.

Wu Shan, too, could not keep from crying out "Mother!" and said, "There is no need to blame Matron Bi—the fault is all mine. I am going back to my room to study." But no sooner had he spoken than he did not turn to go; he hesitated a moment, then suddenly dropped to his knees before his mother with a thud. "Mother," he pleaded, resolve written in every line of his brows and eyes, his voice full of grief, "please, please agree to my betrothal with the Fourth Sister. I beg of you..." And with that he began knocking his head on the ground before her, boom, boom, boom.

Both Matchmaker Wu and the Second Madam turned pale with shock. Matchmaker Wu cried out in a loud voice: "Wu Shan, what do you think you are doing?"

What was he doing?

He was simply refusing to give up!

Did the Fourth Sister not want the command of parents and the word of a matchmaker?

If the Dou family agreed to their betrothal, then even if that other family came to propose, he could still contend for her, could he not?

Wu Shan, his eyes swimming with tears, went on knocking his head against the floor, as though only thus could the ache in his heart be eased.

The Second Madam sighed softly and stepped forward to take Wu Shan by the arm. "Get up, quickly!"

But Wu Shan clutched at her sleeve as though it were a last straw: "Cousin, please, help me..."

Before his words died away, crack!—his mother dealt him a stinging slap across the face. "A grown man kneels only to Heaven, to Earth, to his sovereign and his parents, to his teachers! And you would kneel to your mother and your cousin for the sake of a woman—are you a man at all? Get up!" And she began pulling at Wu Shan haphazardly.

Wu Shan said not a word, his eyes fixed unblinkingly on the Second Madam.

The Second Madam could not bear to meet his gaze; she turned her face aside and said in a low voice, "It has come to this. Even if the Fourth Sister were to marry in, do you think it would be fitting?"

At these words Wu Shan's eyes went dim at once, and all the strength seemed drained from his body; he let himself be pulled up by his mother like a man in a daze.

The Second Madam had no wish to wade any deeper into these troubled waters, and rose to take her leave.

In less than half an hour, word of what had happened in the western guest rooms reached Lady Ji's ears.

She flew into a rage. "What does the Wu family take us for? Do they think the Dou family is a dish of greens to be served at their table, to do with as they please? I shall go to the Old Madam and get to the bottom of this."

The Second Old Madam was angry as well; she lay propped on the kang with her eyes closed, resting, while Matron Liu pounded her legs with a jade beauty's mallet.

"A melon forced off the vine is not sweet. It is just as well the match has fallen through," she said, consoling Lady Ji, though a cold light flashed in her eyes. "Just now she gave Ziyun's wife a thorough scolding. But what good does that do? Since Matchmaker Wu looks down on Shouyuan, Shouyuan would likely fare no better even if she married in. If you have a mind to it, keep an eye out hereafter and find her a match better than the Wu family."