Chapter 72 — Stepping In

"Bie Gangyi once served as an instructor in the capital, and after his wife died..." Zhao Liangbi said tactfully. "He is from Zhending Prefecture. The house he lives in and the fields he owns are all ancestral property."

A rabbit does not eat the grass by its own burrow. However domineering a man may be abroad, once he returns to his own hometown he will conduct himself honestly and by the rules; for if he loses his footing there, he is nothing but duckweed adrift.

There was no way Bie Gangyi would ever do a thing to tear down his own walls.

Perhaps Bie Gangyi's affairs had stirred something in Zhao Liangbi too, for he sighed and said, "When you come down to it, the Bie sisters are pitiable creatures as well. Their mother died of illness when they were tiny, and Bie Gangyi is a rough man who feared his daughters would be wronged, so he would not take another wife. The two sisters had no one to look after them—stitching and patching, scrubbing pots and washing pans, all learned by themselves from the neighbors. And when they grew a little older, they had to look after Bie Gangyi in turn. Otherwise, how would the elder Bie girl ever have caught Shan Jie's eye?"

Dou Yan resolved to step into the matter.

She nodded without a word and took up her teacup.

Zhao Liangbi, who ought to have withdrawn, lingered where he stood, his face full of hesitation.

Dou Yan raised an eyebrow.

After a long pause Zhao Liangbi stammered, "There is one more thing I have learned... After Bie Gangyi's trouble, he especially enjoined that it be kept from the elder Bie girl. But a few days ago she found out anyway. She cut off a lock of her hair and laid it before her mother's spirit tablet, and was set on going to be Shan Jie's concubine. It was Old Chen next door who saw something was wrong and forcibly kept her back... Fourth Miss, you..." He looked at Dou Yan imploringly, plainly hoping she would help.

Dou Yan was astonished.

She had not expected both Bie sisters to be girls with minds of their own when trouble came.

"Do not fret," she said. "I will report to Grandmother, and then go see Third Uncle."

Seeing that Dou Yan meant to go to Dou Zhen that very night, Zhao Liangbi was surprised and deeply grateful. "It is getting late," he said. "I have to return to the East Estate in any case—let me escort you there."

Zhao Liangbi, fourteen years old, was still serving in the East Dou accounting office. Only at sixteen would he have a chance to be sent out as a second steward.

If he did not learn the outcome, he would likely not sleep a wink tonight.

Dou Xin agreed and went to report to Grandmother.

Grandmother, on hearing the matter, loathed Shan Jie with all her heart and urged her again and again, "Go, go quickly!" Then she added, "To save a life is to build a seven-story pagoda. If your Third Uncle will not stand surety for Bie Gangyi, tell me. I still have some acquaintance with the Lang family; I will ask them to come forward and stand surety for him."

Dou Yan felt all the more assured. She answered "Yes" again and again and went off to the East Dou compound.

Dou Zhen had already gone to bed. Hearing that Dou Yan sought an audience, he was greatly startled, threw on his clothes, thrust his feet into his shoes, and came running out. "What has happened? What has happened?" he asked anxiously—which in turn flustered Dou Chu, who secretly regretted coming so late and disturbing Third Uncle's rest.

She told Third Uncle how Bie Sulan had stopped her carriage on the road, and then asked, "Has the Shan family sent anyone to make inquiries? Or let slip any word?"

"None of that." Now that Dou Zhen understood Dou Zhiwei's errand, he let out a long breath. "It is only that Shan Jie is narrow-minded and hot-tempered, reckless in all he does. Better to have one thing less than one thing more."

"That was my own first thought," Dou Xin said. "But since the plea has been brought before me, and it is a good deed that would save a life, it hardly seems right to stand by and watch. Since the Shan family has sent no one and let slip no word, Third Uncle might as well come forward and stand surety for the Bie family. Even if the Shans ask questions afterward, we can slip clear of it."

"But the whole of Zhending Prefecture knows Bie Gangyi was thrown into prison for offending Shan Jie," Dou Zhen said, none too willing to take the lead. "A little inquiry would tell us as much. To disavow it afterward would be no better than covering one's ears while stealing a bell. The rift between us and the Shans would be hard to avoid."

"If that is so, then the Dou family has all the more reason to come forward," Dou Xin said. "Otherwise, those who pick bones from eggs will say either that the Dou family is afraid of the Shans, and that we dare not step forward even when the Shans do such foul things; or that the Dou family is in league with the Shans, jackals together, and neither is any good. The fine name our family has built over generations would be ruined just like that."

Dou Zhen considered the problem gravely.

Dou Yan felt a stir of emotion.

A family's reputation—what a heavy burden it was. And yet at times it became an umbrella, sheltering those who took refuge beneath it from wind and rain.

Dou Zhen decided to consult the Second Dowager before making any decision.

"I hear Bie Gangyi is badly hurt and has not many days left," Dou Yan said. "We must not have it that we stand surety and he dies on us, and we have offended Shan Jie for nothing."

Dou Zhen saw the sense in this and could not sit still a moment longer. He changed his clothes and went with Dou Yan to the Second Dowager's quarters.

The Second Dowager's brows knit tight. She asked Dou Zhen, "What sort of man is this Shan Jie?"

Dou Zhen repeated once more that he was hot-tempered and reckless.

The Second Dowager's brows knit even tighter.

Dou Fan understood what the Second Dowager was thinking.

The Second Dowager feared that the Shan family might have an outstanding younger generation who would one day lay this grudge at the Dou family's door; and to offend such people for the sake of a Bie Gangyi who was no kin to them at all would hardly be worth the cost.

She smiled and said, "I hear this Shan Jie is an only son, a good-for-nothing who lives off the prestige his father once enjoyed."

At that the Second Dowager said, "Shouyuan's words have sense. If we keep silent like this, those who do not know will think we are in collusion with the Shan family."

Which was to say, she agreed to stand surety for the Bie family.

Dou Qu rose and made a curtsy to the Second Dowager. "Thank you, Dowager, for your kindness!"

The Second Dowager said with a chuckle, "Our Shouyuan's name for honesty and generosity will only spread the wider for this!"

"That too is thanks to the Dowager's blessing." After Dou Yan had exchanged a few pleasantries with her, Dou Zhen rose. "Then I will send men first thing tomorrow morning to stand surety for the Bie family?"

The Second Dowager nodded, and only then did Dou Yan and Dou Zhen take their leave of her room.

Dou Yan smiled and nodded to Zhao Liangbi, who had been waiting at the door all this while.

Zhao Liangbi's mouth split at once into a grin from ear to ear.

Grandmother was waiting for Dou Yan as well, and asked anxiously how it had gone.

Dou Yan recounted the whole affair, and only then did Grandmother set her mind at ease.

At first light the next day, the steward Dou Zhen had appointed set out for Zhending Zhou, and by that same afternoon, Bie Gangyi was released.

Bie Sulan hurried over that very night to give thanks: "...Both my father and my sister ought to have come, but Father is badly hurt, and my sister has to look after him. So they sent me ahead. In a few days, when Father's injuries are a little better, we will come and kowtow to you in gratitude."