Chapter 10 — Mother

At Dou Zhiwei's words, Shuangzhi looked at her with a flicker of fear in her eyes.

Dou Yan paid it no mind.

So long as her mother and the elders harbored no suspicions, the servants could gossip all they liked—it was only gossip.

Dou Yan directed Tuoniang to carry her back to her room.

Affairs in the Western Dou household were simple enough. Though the tension at the Hall of Crane Longevity had left the maids on edge, it was still a far cry from outright panic.

When Shuangzhi spread the word that Tuoniang and Xiangcao were to be assigned to the Fourth Young Miss's quarters, everyone's attention quickly fastened on the two of them.

Some laughed and scolded, "That little minx Xiangcao—so she got her way after all. I wonder whose string she pulled?"

Most, however, came up to greet Tuoniang and introduce themselves—"I'm Yinxing," "I'm Dingxiang"—and someone asked, "Which quarters were you in before, sister? How is it you've been suddenly transferred to the Fourth Young Miss's rooms?"

Unaccustomed to such warmth, Tuoniang mumbled her answers.

When they learned she was a menial girl from the laundry, they exchanged glances, at something of a loss.

Seeing this, Tuoniang grew even more stiff and awkward.

"All right, all right," Shuangzhi said with a smile, coming to her rescue. "Whatever you have to say can wait. For now, let's get Tuoniang settled." She thought for a moment. "Sister Hanxiao and I have two spare beds in our room. We've no idea when the Seventh Madam and the others will be back today, and the Fourth Young Miss cannot be left unattended. I say we let Tuoniang sleep in our room for now, and wait for the Seventh Madam's instructions."

Tuoniang breathed a sigh of relief.

The others came to their senses as well, some volunteering to help Tuoniang collect her things, others offering to make up her bed.

But Tuoniang would not stir a step from Dou Yan's side. "Who will look after the young miss? I'd rather wait until Xiangcao gets here."

Dou Yan smiled faintly.

Tuoniang was stubborn as a mule.

When she had married into the Jining Marquis's household, her future had been uncertain, and she had not dared bring Tuoniang along. By the time she had found her footing there and thought to fetch her, Tuoniang had already fallen ill and died.

At the memory, her eyes reddened, and she gently took Tuoniang's hand.

Tuoniang looked at her gravely and said with solemn earnestness, "Rest easy, Fourth Young Miss. I will guard you and never leave your side for a moment." She spoke as though everyone else in the room were a villain, and the faces of all present darkened; they began to eye Tuoniang with some disfavor. But Tuoniang noticed nothing, only standing vigilant at her side, utterly unshaken.

Shuangzhi had no choice but to send a maid, rather sulkily, to carry word to the laundry and have Tuoniang's sleeping quarters cleared out.

Everyone went about their business, and no one tried to make conversation with Tuoniang again.

Dou Yan and Tuoniang were left in the inner room, staring at each other.

Before long, Xiangcao came running in: "Fourth Young Miss, the Seventh Madam and Granny Yu are back!"

She said nothing of her father.

Dou Yan's heart sank. "And my father?"

Xiangcao wiped the sweat from her brow. "The Seventh Master, the Old Master, the Third Master, and the Third Madam are still at the Hall of Crane Longevity."

Were they discussing the taking of a concubine? Or discussing how to make her mother give in?

Anxious, Dou Yan scrambled down from the kang with Tuoniang's help and bolted for the door.

Tuoniang and Xiangcao hurried close behind her.

Her mother came in with a dark face, supported by Granny Yu, her expression blank.

"Mother, Mother!" Dou Yan flung herself at her.

Her mother's face softened a little. She bent down, picked Dou Yan up, kissed her cheek, and then handed her to Hanxiao behind her. "Take the Fourth Young Miss and play cat's cradle with her."

Hanxiao hurriedly took Dou Yan, but Dou Yan clutched at her mother's hem and would not let go.

Her mother's impatience flared at once. "You child, why won't you listen? Mother has things to do—go play with Hanxiao." Then she caught sight of Tuoniang and Xiangcao, and pointed at the two of them. "Or go play with those two."

Dou Yan knew her mother had no patience to humor her now, and submitted to being held by Hanxiao. But once her mother and Granny Yu had gone into the inner room, she slipped down from Hanxiao's arms and ran after them.

The maid on watch did not dare stop her.

She went in without hindrance.

Her mother was slumped over the kang table, weeping: "...You saw it yourself. Before the woman has even set foot in the house, he shields her like that, afraid she might suffer the slightest grievance. What is there left for me to say? I'll just do as he wishes and let the woman in! I want to see what talents she has, what tricks she uses, that she has bewitched him into casting aside his parents, his wife and children, his reputation, his honor—all of it!"

Granny Yu's eyes flickered. She said in a low voice, "The Seventh Master taking a concubine—be it great or small, madam, perhaps we should send someone to inform the Young Master's household..."

"No!" Before Granny Yu could finish, her mother's head snapped up. "My brother is to go to the capital after the New Year for the spring examinations, and he is shut up studying even now. If he learns that barely three years into my marriage my husband means to take a concubine, with his temper he will never let the matter rest. I will not have my affairs delay my brother's prospects." She then warned Granny Yu again and again: "You served my mother. In any other matter, whatever you did behind my back, I would not hold it against you—I know you mean well by me. But this is no small thing. The Zhao family has gone forty years without producing a successful candidate. If any trouble arises on your account, you will have made me an ingrate and a sinner against the Zhao name for all time!"

Granny Yu nodded and turned away to wipe the tears from the corners of her eyes.

Was her uncle really so remarkable?

Dou Yan pursed her lips and silently addressed her mother: Go ahead and disturb him, then. He passed the examinations in the dingwei year. And no sooner had he won his degree than he secured a substantive post in the northwest, took his whole family with him to his jurisdiction, and never returned to Zhending again.

She had seen her uncle only once—on the day of her own wedding.

A mother's brother is still a brother. When the time came to take her leave of the family, she had knelt and knocked her head three times before her uncle, solemn and respectful, for her mother's sake.

Her uncle had seemed strangely agitated; the way he looked at her gave her the illusion that he was thinking, "Our girl has grown into a woman." She had been overjoyed at the time, reasoning that her uncle served as an official in the northwest, that the road was long and correspondence inconvenient, and that her stepmother had eyes only for the brothers of her own natal family. Her uncle was a scholar, proud and high-minded, surely unwilling to swallow such an insult—and that was why he would not cross the Dou family's threshold. That he had come all the way from his post to see her off this time showed that he still held his niece in his heart. She had even planned to seize the chance of this reunion to show him proper filial respect, to have him tell her about her mother in the old days.

Who would have guessed that the moment she stepped out the door, her uncle turned right around and went back to the northwest—and after that, never sent her so much as a word.

If her uncle had once been wary of her stepmother, what was there left for him to fear now that she had married into the Jining Marquisate?

Dou Yan could not for the life of her work it out.