Chapter 197 — Schemes

Dou Ming leapt to her feet. "Have you lost your mind?" Her eyes were wide, her face a mask of disbelief as she stared at Wang Shuying.

Wang Shuying gave a cold laugh. "Do I look like I've lost my mind?" And then she told her how she had borrowed Dou Ming's name to invite Wei Fan to the house. "If you weren't so sure he'd come running whenever you called, would you have dared arrange to meet him at Puji Temple?"

Dou Ming shrieked, "What kind of mother are you? Can't you stand to see me happy? You'd actually egg me on to do such a thing?!" Then she remembered how Ji Yong had threatened her, and how she dared not breathe a word of it to anyone, and she was seized all at once by fear and grievance, her voice rising shriller still. "You don't know anything! You don't know anything! All day long you do nothing but watch your own feet as you walk, and you never once care about my affairs..."

Her daughter's words cut Wang Shuying to the quick, and her tears came flooding out. "How am I a woman who does nothing but watch her own feet? If not for you, would I have swallowed my pride and stayed in the Dou household? If not for you, would I have gone to sound out the Marquis of Jining? If not for you, would I be standing here now, accused by you? All these years you've blamed me for not being the kind of mother who could bring you honor, but have you ever thought—without me, could you have stood firm in the Dou household? Without me, could you be the legitimate daughter of Dou Juan? And what is so wrong with my wanting you to marry the Marquis of Jining?

"Marriage is meant to join two families in harmony. Your sister is weeping and wailing that she won't have him—are we not allowed to pick up what she discards?

"You blame me for speaking harshly—then go find someone who speaks gently!

"Your eldest aunt's words are gentle enough, but do you know what match the Gao family has proposed for you? That man lost his father at the age of two. His widowed mother, relying on her own brothers, scraped to raise him. Now he's nothing but a provincial graduate—he still has to pass the metropolitan exam, still has to wait for appointment, still has to curry favor with superiors and grease the palms of subordinates. Are you prepared to pour your entire dowry down that hole? If it were only to support that widowed mother, I'd have nothing to say. But don't forget—he has an uncle too, and that whole family is watching and waiting for this nephew to rise, so they can be repaid for the kindness of raising him!

"Your grandmother's words are gentle enough, but she wants to marry you to Tan-ge. With your dowry, so long as Tan-ge doesn't take the silver to gamble at dice, you and Tan-ge could spend your whole lives eating and drinking without a care, watching Nan-ge's moods.

"Your second aunt's words are gentle enough too, but every time she sees me she asks: 'Ming-jie's sister has come into half the Western Dou fortune, and you have no son at your knee. Rather than leave it to a concubine's son or an adopted heir, why not leave it to Ming-jie? I hear Shouyuan's name brings in fifty thousand taels a year. When Ming-jie marries, the bridegroom's family will naturally have to prepare a dowry of a hundred thousand taels for her.' That is her way of telling me that if your dowry comes to less than a hundred thousand taels, she will not consent to the match..."

"You—stop! Stop it!" Dou Ming flung herself face-down on the bed and wept aloud. "Stop it!"

Looking at her daughter, heartbroken beyond comfort, Wang Shuying felt a pang of regret that she had spoken too harshly.

She could not help going over and sitting down on the edge of the bed. Gently she stroked her daughter's silken black hair, and said in a low voice, "Ming-jie, I am your mother. If I don't wish you well, whom should I wish well? If he had not the slightest feeling for you, I would never have entertained this notion. You must believe me—my whole life long, I misjudged your father. It was I... I set too much store by him. Before I had even acted, my heart was already biased, and so naturally I fell a step short. But this time, I will not misjudge. I have my own way to see you married safely and in style, to become the mistress of the Marquis of Jining's household!"

"No, I don't want it!" Dou Ming raised her head, her face streaked with tears. "I don't want what my sister has cast aside..."

"Silly child, what sort of person is your sister? If she had cast the Marquis of Jining aside, she'd have settled his hash long ago—would she need all this roundabout scheming? That Pang Kunbai still needs someone to support him when he walks, even today!" Wang Shuying gazed at Dou Ming with a mixture of pity and affection. "But look at the present—she has swallowed even your secret meeting with the Marquis of Jining at Puji Temple without a word. You can see how much she values him."

Dou Ming was struck dumb.

She remembered how, some days past, the servants had buzzed with the story of Wei Fan spending the night at a house of ill repute... and how the Wei family had in fact set their sights on the youngest legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Yan'an... And her sister had swallowed even that...

The dawning comprehension on her daughter's face put Wang Shuying's heart at ease. Softening her voice, she said tenderly, "I am your own mother—would I do you harm? Didn't you want to marry into a good family? The Dowager of Jining is gentle and kind; the Marquis of Jining is handsome and upright; his only sister is married to the heir of the Jingzhenguo Estate. Marry him, and you will be the Marchioness of Jining—wherever you go, you'll hold your head high. Isn't that exactly what you wanted? What more could you ask for?"

Dou Ming seemed to hear again the shrieking of Miss Lang the Eighth, long buried deep in her heart: "You're nothing but the child of a concubine, and you dare pass yourself off as the eldest young lady here—shameless!"

As though bewitched, she asked Wang Shuying, "What are you going to do?"

* * *

Yes.

What was she going to do?

Wang Shuying had pounded her chest with confidence before her daughter, but once she stepped out of Dou Ming's inner chamber, she felt somewhat at a loss.

A substitute bride—easy to speak of, yet beset with difficulties in the doing.

To begin with, there was no saying whether Dou Huaiying would agree, and it would be no easy matter to keep it from Dou Yan besides. And then there were the Zhao aunt who would surely come to watch the ceremony when Dou Yan left the house, the Fifth and Sixth Madams who would come to help, Mrs. Cai who had been invited to serve as the "woman of full blessings," and all the in-laws come to drink the wedding wine... Never mind that she had now been stripped of her authority to manage the household; even if she were the proper Seventh Madam of the Dou family, it would still be no easy task.

At the thought, her head began to split with pain.

First of all, she had to remain in the Yunqi Temple Lane house.

Hadn't her father entrusted the Gao family to find a match for Ming-jie? As the girl's mother, she must naturally have a look at the man.

Where his daughter was concerned, Dou Huaiying was always easy to persuade.

She would use that as her excuse.

On the wedding day, the bride must take leave of her parents. She could plead that any further delay would mean missing the auspicious hour, and have Dou Ming hurry through a kowtow to Dou Huaiying and be gone. Before so many guests, even if Dou Huaiying discovered the trick, taken unawares—and with flesh and blood on both sides of the scales—he would never dare make a scene on such an occasion.

Then there was Dou Yan.

With a substitute bride, the only chance lay after the bride's toilette was complete, at the moment the bridal sedan arrived.

At that time, besides the Fifth Madam, the Sixth Madam, and the Zhao aunt, there would be the woman of full blessings and the maidservants in the bridal chamber.