Chapter 346 — Good News
Purple Streets of Chang'an Page 1 of 2
"Even if Miss Dou Juan was at fault..."
Fifth Madam shot a glance at Cai-shi.
Cai-shi took the hint and said with a cold laugh, "What a strange thing for the eldest young madam of the Jining Marquis household to say! Even a tiger does not eat its own cubs. Our Fifth Young Madam knew perfectly well she was with child, and yet the child was lost just like that! And that was her eldest son! The Wei family's eldest grandson! Even if she gave no thought to carrying on your family's line, she would surely have thought of her own health! You are a woman yourself — don't you know that a miscarriage is as perilous as a birth, and that one careless moment can cost a woman her life? Our Fifth Young Madam has been married barely four or five months. How could she have thrown her life away? I fear it is not that our Fifth Young Madam was foolish and failed to keep the Wei heir, but that your household's rules are too harsh — that in tormenting a daughter-in-law, you would even do without a grandson!"
Truly, the very thing one fears most is the thing that comes.
Tian-shi's face went ashen; she did not know what to say.
But Wei Wan arched her brows and glared at Cai-shi. "Accusations require proof. Don't let your tongue run wild and clap every chamber pot you can find onto other people's heads. My brother is a man in his twenties; fellows his age have sons running all over the courtyard by now. My mother and my brother have been praying to the stars and the moon for this house to be blessed with a child. Dou Ming is not some bastard kept out of sight — why on earth would my mother and my brother not want it?"
Cai-shi seized on her words and cried out, "I have heard people who could not speak properly, but never anyone who speaks as badly as you! What bastard kept out of sight? Do not forget that this match was one your family chose to accept. Our Fifth Young Madam did not marry into a house where the mother-in-law was dead and no elder stood above her — how could her mother-in-law not know whether she was with child? And now that the child is gone, you reckon it must be our young madam's fault. Why not say instead that her mother-in-law never treated her as a human being, and never even noticed that a newly wed bride had conceived? I tell you, there is no such principle under heaven! If you do not make this matter clear today, I will go with you to the Shuntian Prefecture. And if the Shuntian Prefecture cannot settle it, we will go to the Court of Judicial Review. I refuse to believe there is nowhere under heaven where a wrong can be redressed!"
In one breath she had cursed Tian-shi and all her house.
Never in her life had Tian-shi suffered such humiliation. Her face burned crimson, and she wished she might find a crack in the floor and crawl into it.
Fifth Madam acted as though she had heard nothing; she took up her teacup and unhurriedly sipped.
Wei Wan was not the sort to swallow a loss.
If they went to the Shuntian Prefecture and the whole affair was dragged into the open, no one's face would be left intact.
She simply did not believe the Dou family could afford such shame.
"Very well, let us go to the Shuntian Prefecture and lay it all out." Certain that the Dou family was merely bluffing, she spoke with arrogant bluster. "We shall ask the prefect to judge between us. It was agreed that your Fourth Young Madam would be the bride, and yet on the very day, at the bridal chair, she became the Fifth Young Madam. They even swapped the dowry that was written out plainly in the marriage contract..." And if by this means they could recover the dowry that ought to have come to the Wei family, so much the better. At the very worst, even if they could not get it back, she would make that little slut Dou Ming know just how much she weighed, so that she would behave herself honestly in the Wei household hereafter.
Cai-shi gave a snort of laughter. "If you mean to come begging at our door, say so plainly. There is no need to play the whore and set up a chastity arch besides. Bringing up our young madam's dowry! What of our young madam's dowry? Look over all the capital — how many households could match it? It is your Wei family's betrothal gifts we might speak of. A set of pure gold head ornaments, melted down from old gold handed down from goodness knows which generation, and you could not bear to refine out the dross — black as a kettle bottom, and you had the nerve to bring it out, thinking we would not notice. That so-called West Lake Longjing was nothing but twigs. Never mind giving it to relatives and friends — our Dou family could not bring ourselves to tip a serving woman with it. We had to prepare other tea to send round to every aunt and uncle. And those wedding cakes, thin as griddlecakes — I am grown to this age and it was the first time I ever saw the like... Our Dou family said not a word, and here you are grumbling. You want to go to the Shuntian Prefecture? By all means. I will have the servants harness the carriage this instant and go with you. Our Dou family may not have much, but jinshi of the two lists we have in abundance. It happens that His Excellency Huang, the prefect of Shuntian, is himself a jinshi of the two lists and is connected to our house by ties of kinship. Taking our grievance to him would be no disgrace." And with that she called out loudly for the carriage to be harnessed, in a manner that made it plain she meant to have it out with Wei Wan in earnest.
At once Wei Wan felt a stir of panic.
Especially when she thought that Dou Bingheng was a Grand Secretary of the present court, and that the three masters of the Dou family in the capital were all jinshi of the two lists.
Sweat broke out on her forehead.
No one knows a daughter so well as her mother.
One look and Tian-shi knew that her daughter's fierceness was all on the surface. In her alarm she turned her head toward Fifth Madam, but saw Fifth Madam with lowered eyes, blowing at the floating leaves in her teacup. Quick as a flash, Tian-shi cried, "Stop quarreling, the two of you!" and then, with a shrill "Aiyo!", clutched at her breast and toppled backward.
"Mother! Mother!" Wei Wan, shaking like chaff in a sieve, held Tian-shi up and cried, "Why are you standing there? Go and fetch a doctor!"
Only then did Fifth Madam exchange a look with Cai-shi, order a maid to fetch a doctor, and say, cool and distant, "It is the depth of winter, and this one brazier is all the warmth there is in the room — bitter cold. Had we not better move her into the warm chamber next door and let her lie down there?"
Wei Wan nodded helplessly.
Fifth Madam called for servants to carry Tian-shi into the warm chamber next door.
A little maid came in beaming. "Fifth Madam, word has come from the Yunqi Temple alley — they say the Fourth Young Madam has been diagnosed with a pregnancy."
"Aiyo, now that is good news!" Fifth Madam could not help smiling broadly. "Who brought the word? Send her in at once."
She would still have to ask the woman carefully just how it had all come about.
The little maid went off in high delight.
Wei Wan's face was as black as could be.
Fifth Madam, as though she had noticed nothing, said with a smile, "Do not fret, in-law young madam; the doctor will be here shortly. I have some business to see to in front — I shall be back in a moment." Then she instructed Cai-shi, "Keep the in-law madam well tended here." And without waiting for Wei Wan to make any reply, she went straight out of the warm chamber.
Cai-shi's eyes shifted as she listened.
The Wei family had just lost a grandson, and now the Dou family had a pregnancy — one loss, one gain. The Wei family could not fail to brood on it.
She instructed her own old nurse: "I cannot leave here now. Go and listen to what the people from the Yunqi Temple alley have to say." Then, when the nurse came back to report, the Wei mother and daughter would be sure to hear it — the better to sicken the pair of them.