Chapter 27 — The Unexpected

"Absurd!" Grandfather flew into a rage. "How old are you, and still you understand nothing! You are the only son of this house—instead of thinking how to spread the Dou branches and leaves as quick as may be, you would learn from those philandering wastrels and keep a widow's mourning for your wife... Do you even know what duty is? What responsibility is?" Grandfather's beard quivered with fury. "There is no discussing this matter! I will have your Third Sister-in-law and the Zhu family fix the date as soon as may be—all you need do is wait to be married!"

Dou Yan, eavesdropping through the crack of the door, nearly toppled over.

In May of next year, Wang Xingyi would be restored to office.

The Wang family would have to hold up their heads in officialdom hereafter; they would never let their daughter become a concubine.

If her father took a second wife before May of next year, the Wangs would either keep Dou Ming in the Dou household and send Wang Shuying back to her natal home for good; or send Wang Shuying three feet of white silk and force her to hang herself; or pack Wang Shuying off to a nunnery, to end her days before cold green lamps and ancient Buddhas.

But if her father did not take a second wife before May of next year...

In her previous life, Wang Xingyi had always felt he owed his wife and children a great deal. After he rose to wealth and honor he kept to his old wife alone, never touching the delights of women, and he cherished his sons and daughters with all his heart, doing all he could to grant their every wish. Wang Shuying especially—not only had her betrothed broken off the engagement, but she had gone out into the world to help keep the family afloat, delaying her own marriage—was doted on by him beyond even his own grandsons, Dou Ming and Dou Xiao.

If she guessed rightly, Wang Xingyi would surely find some way to make the Dou family elevate Wang Shuying to wife.

And then would not Wang Shuying become her stepmother again!

No, no!

This must not be allowed to happen!

Her father had to take a second wife before May of next year.

Let Wang Shuying be sent packing!

Her father's attitude, however, was utterly firm: "Father, if you are not afraid of tearing all face with the Zhu family, then go ahead and fix the date with them. In any case, I will not appear in the wedding hall that day, and when Miss Zhu is married in, I will pay her no heed."

"You would turn rebel!" Grandfather's face went purple with rage. With a crash he smashed the teacup in his hand to the floor. "Go ahead and not appear—and see whether the Zhu girl can enter this house!"

"Father!" Her father suddenly dropped to his knees before Grandfather, his voice choked. "From now on I will obey you in everything—only grant me this one thing! I know I am the only son of this house, that you were past forty when you got me, that you only long to dandle your grandchildren and see the family estate pass to an heir. Let me be willful this one last time! From this day forth I swear I will keep to the straight path, study hard, win a degree, bring glory to the Dou name, and beget heirs. Father, grant me this one thing!"

Her father knocked his head on the floor before Grandfather—thump, thump, thump.

The sound was like a blow struck on Dou Zhiwei's heart, stopping her breath for a moment, leaving her weak and aching.

Why now?

He would not keep mourning for her mother sooner, nor later, but must choose the very time when Wang Xingyi was about to be restored to office!

In your last life, did you not rush to marry Wang Shuying before my mother's hundred days of mourning were even out? Why play the good man in this one?

If you knew it would come to this, why do it in the first place!

Now that she had arranged everything, her father had to jump up and spoil it all!

What was this supposed to mean?

Dou Yan was frantic with anger.

Grandfather's voice came to her ear, a little hesitant: "You have mourned her a full year already... one might well call that the utmost of benevolence and duty..."

"Father, Father," her father said, knocking his head still harder, his voice louder still, "I beg this one thing of you, only this one thing!"

Dou Duo looked at his son's forehead, black and blue, and heaved a long sigh: "If you must keep the mourning, then keep it! But you must pass next year's provincial examination for me..."

"Thank you, Father, thank you, Father!" Her father's face was all joy and surprise.

Dou Yan's face felt ice-cold; she touched it, and her hand came away wet.

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Within a few days, the Zhu family sent word to Third Aunt: their Fifth Miss thought her father a man of deep feeling and true honor, and was willing to wait three years for him.

Grandfather was overjoyed. He personally chose several bundles of fine jade-white paper, two Duan inkstones, and a box of Huzhou brushes from the storehouse and sent the steward to deliver them to the Zhu family's degree-holder, praising Third Aunt for her keen judgment of character.

Third Aunt smiled with pursed lips and asked her father, "Are these birth characters a match, or are they not?"

Her father said nothing, but the tautness of his expression eased.

Third Aunt took the betrothal card bearing her father's birth characters and went to the Zhu household.

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O(∩_∩)O~

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