Chapter 97 — Encounter

Dou Yan shook his head in private. "Who knows how many more messes I'll have to clean up for her yet!"

.

She helped Dou Yan change his clothes, then accompanied Dou Yan and Dou Ming to the Second Old Madam's quarters.

When the Second Old Madam saw Dou Ming, she merely said flatly, "So you've come."

Perhaps because she had been disciplined by the Second Old Madam as a child, Dou Ming behaved with perfect docility before her, addressing her respectfully as "Great-Aunt," inquiring whether the aching in her back had improved at all, and saying that this time she had brought a kind of plaster from the capital that was said to be especially effective for backaches—all of which, by dint of sheer persistence, coaxed a cold-faced Second Old Madam into beaming smiles.

Watching from the side, Dou Yan pursed her lips in secret.

Dou Ming was just as she had been in her last life: as long as it pleased her, she could make even cats and dogs adore her; but let her temper flare, and she would raise a fuss even against the King of Heaven himself.

The Second Old Madam took Dou Ming's hand and asked her what books she had been reading these past years, and how she had progressed in needlework and embroidery.

"I studied *The Admonitions for Women*, *Biographies of Exemplary Women*, and *The Classic of Filial Piety* with my eldest aunt," Dou Ming said, her smile sweet. "I haven't yet begun to learn needlework, but I love to play the pipa, so my eldest aunt hired a master to teach me. This time she came back to Zhending with me as well."

Clever of her not to mention her maternal grandmother.

Had she dared bring up Lady Wang, the Second Old Madam would likely have turned on the spot.

Come to think of it, after so many years as mistress of the Dou household and a leader of the Xuanming Sect, the Second Old Madam's jealousy had only grown; she could tolerate no voice but her own, and no person but herself.

Dou Yan was mulling this over when she heard the Second Old Madam address her: "Shouyuan, you have fine needlework. Now that Sister Ming has returned, you must give her proper guidance in needlework." She went on to praise the books as well chosen and to deliver a long discourse on the importance of womanly virtue. The gloom in Dou Ming's eyes deepened with every word, until at last a flicker of impatience crossed her face—and then Ji Yong arrived.

Seeing the Dou sisters, Ji Yong looked somewhat surprised.

Seeing Ji Yong, the Dou sisters looked somewhat surprised as well.

Only the Second Old Madam lit up with delight, beckoning to Ji Yong again and again. "At this hour, why aren't you resting in your room with Brother Hui and Brother Zhi? What brings you to my quarters? Come, come sit by my side." She not only picked up a round fan and fanned Ji Yong herself, but urged the maids to hurry and bring a bowl of iced mung bean soup—as warm as if her own grandson had come calling. Dou Ming could not help but stare, and only just restrained herself from asking who this was.

The fellow Ji Yong, as it turned out, was rather good at charming old ladies.

Upon his return from Mount Tai, he had brought the Second Old Madam a stone whose veins, at a glance, resembled an old man of longevity leading a sika deer. The Second Old Madam had been overjoyed, and had a stand made of red sandalwood on purpose, enshrining the stone in her own little Buddhist shrine.

Dou Yan glanced toward the little shrine, and the Second Old Madam was already pointing Dou Ming out. "Jianming, you haven't met Sister Ming yet, have you? This is the second daughter of our family's Seventh, who has been in the capital with him all this while. She only returned today." Then to Dou Ming: "This is the nephew of your Sixth Aunt's natal family. Just follow Shouyuan's example and call him Cousin Ji."

Ji Yong greeted Dou Ming with ease, refined and modest, like a graceful young gentleman.

Dou Ming curtsied in return, looking a little surprised.

Ji Yong had come to take his leave: "...My great-grandfather has an old friend in Baoding Prefecture, and this time I'm going out; my great-grandfather instructed me to pay him a visit."

The Second Old Madam said at once, "Why not wait a few days? These are the hottest days of the year." Her tone was full of concern.

"I plan to go to the capital with Brother Hui and Brother Zhi after the Mid-Autumn Festival," he said with a smile. "I haven't seen my uncle and father for several years, and it works out well that I can go with Brother Hui and Brother Zhi and pay a visit to my aunt's husband as well."

Dou Yan had heard from the Ji clan that six members of the Ji family currently held office. Besides Ji Yong's uncle, who served as vice minister in the Ministry of Works, and his father, who served as right administrator in the Office of Transmission, several of his cousins and uncles were posted to various provinces as prefects, judicial commissioners, or financial commissioners—all with promising futures. This ought to have been the Dou family's greatest support, but because the Ji and Dou families differed in their political views—and because Ji Yong's uncle harbored ambitions of being appointed chancellor—the two families had grown less close. Still, having in-laws of such comparable standing, each inevitably held the other in some esteem, and their private dealings were not affected.

"A visit to the capital would do you good," the Second Old Madam said cheerfully, and instructed her personal maids to fetch some pills—patchouli pills, ren dan, and the like—for Ji Yong. "The weather is too hot; take these along for the road."

Ji Yong thanked her profusely.

Still uneasy, the Second Old Madam took his hand and fussed over this and that for the longest time.

When it came time to leave, Dou Yan noticed Dou Ming quietly asking one of the Second Old Madam's maids, "Cousin Ji seems to be very much in Great-Aunt's favor?"

"Of course he is," the maid said, her face full of envy. "You may think Young Master Ji is young, miss, but he's the provincial graduate of highest rank in South Zhili! How could the Old Madam not favor him?"

Dou Yan saw Dou Ming's eyes flicker.

That was the look she always wore when she wanted something.

Given a second life, would Dou Ming's sights shift from Wang Nan to Ji Yong?

She had always believed that Dou Ming did not necessarily care much for Wang Nan; rather, Wang Nan was a young man of talent whom everyone praised, with a brilliant future ahead of him, and the one most valued by the Wang family—yet he had fallen for the noble-spirited Gao Mingzhu, and Dou Ming simply could not swallow the injustice.

Dou Yan still remembered the sight of Wang Nan in her last life, sprawled over Gao Mingzhu's coffin, weeping without a sound...

If Ji Yong's arrival had shifted Dou Ming's attention, that might not be a bad thing at all.

Compared with Wang Nan, Ji Yong had far more sense of his own mind.

Dou Yan was pondering this as she and Dou Ming parted at the second gate, one going to the east cross-courtyard, the other to the west. But no sooner had she stepped into the courtyard than she saw three or four matrons assigned to manage affairs in the west cross-courtyard gathered around Honggu, talking about something; seeing Dou Yan enter, the several of them exchanged glances and, as if by prior agreement, clustered around her.

"Fourth Miss, won't you let us manage affairs in the east cross-courtyard instead?"

"That's right, Fourth Miss. We'd all like to work in the east cross-courtyard—even if we're not managing anything, just keeping watch would do!"

Dou Yan asked them coldly, "Has the Fifth Miss pulled faces at you in front of others? Or punished you without distinguishing right from wrong?"

The managing matrons all lowered their heads.