Chapter 47 — Calculations (Bonus update for 150 pink votes)

That night, Dou Yan, kept behind at the East Residence, lay in the green gauze cabinet in her Sixth Aunt's inner chamber and could not sleep at all.

Half the West Dou fortune—was it to be hers, just like that?

Again and again her mind conjured the sight of her father crumpling the document into a ball, that gentle face of his set with such resolve.

A quarter of the Dou family's estates—did her father know what he was doing?

Yu Daqing had managed only so much of her mother's dowry before her mother died, and already his thoughts had turned elsewhere. She was a child of five—who would tend these estates for her with unswerving loyalty, who could look upon bolts of silk and remain unmoved?

Should she make contact with the Cui family?

In her last life, she had been twelve.

In this one, she still understood nothing.

Dou Yan had been through too much; she no longer dared to test a person's character with money.

On the other side of the green gauze cabinet, Ji shi was awake as well.

She was thinking over the day's events.

She had half a mind to say a few intimate words to her husband, but when she turned her head she saw only his face, deep in slumber.

A thousand words dammed up in her heart.

Softly she rose and threw on a robe, first going to look in on the "sleeping" Dou Yan, then sitting alone on the broad kang by the window.

As things stood, Dou Yan was like an infant clutching a sack of gold ingots; the ingots might keep her fed and clothed, but she had no strength to hold on to them, and they would only stir the covetous to snatch them away.

For Dou Yan, the harm outweighed the good.

Ji shi thought of her tranquil face in sleep, her earnest expression when she wrote, the flicker of roguishness that occasionally crossed her eyes, and all at once her heart ached unbearably.

Such a fine child—was she to be ruined just like this?

She could not help glancing toward the quarters where her mother-in-law lived.

As for the Second Old Madam, who had seen off Dou Duo and his son, she was in her inner chamber murmuring in private with her second son, Dou Bingheng.

"If your Third Uncle refuses in the end to give Shouyuan half the West Dou fortune, were you really prepared to hand over the shares owed to the third and the sixth, along with your own, to Shouyuan?"

The serving women had been dismissed; only the Second Old Madam and Dou Bingheng remained in the room.

Dou Bingheng smiled and said nothing. With his own hands he steeped a cup of tea for his mother.

The Second Old Madam was both vexed and anxious. "You!" she scolded. "You are far too impetuous! Lucky for you Wanyuan stood up to him today—otherwise, how would you have salvaged this?"

"I did not expect it either." Dou Bingheng sat down facing his mother. "Wanyuan is much steadier than he used to be." He added, "The household affairs will need your careful attention. I leave for the capital first thing tomorrow."

"..." The Second Old Madam sighed. "After all the effort you have spent, I doubt Wang Xingyi will thank you for it. He may well decide that the whole affair came to such a pass because you did not do enough."

"Mother," Dou Bingheng said with a laugh, "do you really think Wang Yousheng and I could ever eat from the same bowl?"

The Second Old Madam was taken aback.

Dou Bingheng went on: "Our Dou family—by my generation, we are already the third, are we not?"

Since the Dou family first produced a scholar, Dou Bingheng was of the third generation.

The Second Old Madam nodded.

"But no matter how many provincial graduates and palace graduates our family turns out, so long as no one enters the Grand Secretariat and takes the post of chancellor, we remain nothing but an ordinary official household—without fame in the bureaucracy, without a voice at court," Dou Bingheng said, his face growing grave by degrees, his features sharpening as though carved with a knife. "And now I have such an opportunity, I see such a prospect—the chance that one day my portrait may hang in the ancestral hall of the Dou family's North Tower, my name written on the first page of the Dou genealogy. Tell me, could I give that up? Would I give it up?"

The Second Old Madam said firmly, "Of course you could not!"

"Wang Xingyi chose to serve as point man for his examination patron—for a full ten years he braved wind and dew in the northwest, while his wife and children sank into poverty," Dou Bingheng said, his eyes narrowing slightly, his keen bright gaze flashing like the edge of a blade. "Now, at long last, he has returned to office. Whatever grievances he has suffered, his patron will make them good. Tell me—will he be content to keep to things as they are, to make no move forward, and let all his suffering go for nothing?"

"No!" the Second Old Madam said, lost in thought.

"Since neither of us can afford to yield, why should I go out of my way to please him?" Dou Bingheng smiled. "And the present situation favors us even more—cultivate oneself, regulate the family, govern the state, bring peace to the realm. He cannot even keep his own household in order; he actually required our family to spend such effort cleaning up his mess. His patron will surely have to weigh him anew."

"Quite right!" The Second Old Madam's spirits lifted. "A man who cannot even manage his own household—how could anyone feel easy entrusting him with the great affairs of court? Paper cannot wrap up fire. Even if we keep silent, sooner or later word will reach the ears of your fellow graduates and colleagues. What official does not wish to rise a step higher? Even if Lord Zeng favors him highly, there will surely be those who resent it." She laughed as she spoke. "Seen this way, we ought to thank that Pang woman for kicking up such a fuss—otherwise things would never have come this far."

"Still, admitting a woman like that王氏 into the family is not quite proper," Dou Bingheng mused. "I fear the younger generation will follow her example and corrupt the Dou family's ways. I think you should keep a close watch on the West Residence—the Third Uncle's household has long been without anyone to manage the kitchen and the household, and there must be a great deal to be done. Shouyuan had best be raised in our residence, and if that daughter born to the Wang woman could be brought to live at your side as well, so much the better."

The Second Old Madam held Wang shi in contempt, and by extension disliked Dou Ming. "We have fallen out with your Third Uncle as it is," she said. "If it is only a matter of her upbringing, I say let it go."

"But she is still a daughter of the Dou family," Dou Bingheng said. "If she marries into another house and conducts herself poorly, it is our family that loses face."

The Second Old Madam nodded helplessly.

Dou Bingheng added another caution: "As for Shouyuan coming into half the West Residence's estates, please impress upon the household that no one is to gossip."

The Second Old Madam did not understand.

Dou Bingheng said meaningfully, "I fear someone may set their sights on Shouyuan."

The Second Old Madam understood.

How much silver was half the West Dou estate?

Marry a daughter-in-law like that, and a family's sons and grandsons for generations could live without ever lifting a finger—lie down and eat, sleep and drink, and never work a day.

"We must find Shouyuan someone close to our own family," the Second Old Madam mused.

"And if her heart leans toward the East Residence, so much the better." Seeing that his mother understood his meaning, Dou Bingheng's eyes brimmed with smiles. "Madam Zhao will be back in a day or two with Magistrate Zhao's letter of consent. Madam Zhao is young, after all. Whatever she needs, do lend her a hand, so that no fresh complication arises over the division of the property—since we have already agreed to the Zhao family's terms, why not do it handsomely?"

The Second Old Madam, however, was astonished that Dou Zhiwei's aunt had come so quickly.