Chapter 102 — Spring Couplets
Purple Streets of Chang'an Page 2 of 3
Even if no one could write them, it was hardly her place to step forward.
But at the thought of those two stalks of ginseng, Dou Yan decided she had best make the trip.
Just as she was about to leave, Gao Xing came to report: "Young Master He departs for Anyang tomorrow."
Dou Yan asked him, "How much silver did the East Branch send as a farewell gift?"
"Five hundred taels."
"So much!" Dou Yan was quite surprised. In Dou Juan's ledgers, the largest farewell gift ever recorded had been no more than three hundred taels. In her days as a marchioness it had been even less, two hundred taels.
It seemed the Dou family was sparing no effort to curry favor with the He family!
She instructed Gao Xing: "Then match the East Branch and send five hundred taels as well."
Delighted, Gao Xing had the silver carried along as he followed Dou Yan to the East Branch.
He went to the guest quarters to deliver the farewell gift to He Yu, while Dou Yan went to see Madam Ji.
He Yu was reading in the inner room when he heard the man sent by Dou Huaiying's household to present the farewell gift addressing the steward beside him with "the Fourth Young Lady says" this and "the Fourth Young Lady says" that. He was quietly taken aback and could not resist stepping out of the inner room to ask the visitor, "Is it the Fourth Young Lady who manages the household affairs in your household?"
"But of course!" Gao Xing had always taken pride in Dou Yan. He said respectfully, "The Seventh Master and Seventh Mistress are in the capital, and every matter at home is decided by our Fourth Young Lady. Our Fourth Young Lady is most capable! From the food and clothing of everyone in the household to the family businesses and the social obligations of each branch, what could get by without our Fourth Young Lady? And on top of all that, she studies and writes with her tutor. Why, just now, the Ji family's young master could not finish all his spring couplets and went out of his way to invite our Fourth Young Lady to help." He concluded with a sigh, "Otherwise, why would our Seventh Master have sent the Fifth Young Lady back to be disciplined by our Fourth Young Lady?"
He Yu was stunned. "What is this about writing spring couplets?" There was an urgency in his tone that he himself did not notice.
Gao Xing hastily explained the Dou family tradition, stressing it again and again: "...no distinction of age. Any Dou clansman with good handwriting may help write them."
He Yu said "Oh," had his personal page reward Gao Xing with two top-grade red envelopes, and then returned to the inner room, where he sat dazed for a long while. Only then did he instruct his page: "Fetch me a change of clothes. I ought to go and take my leave of Young Master Ji as well."
The page answered respectfully at once and dressed He Yu in a crimson silk straight robe. He pinned up his hair with a gold hairpin and hung a scent pouch, a girdle purse, and other such things at He Yu's waist.
He Yu suddenly thought of Ji Yong.
That fellow was sure to be in a plain cloth robe again.
He instructed the page: "No gold hairpin. Use that bronze one."
The page hurriedly re-pinned his hair. He Yu nodded in satisfaction and then set off for the courtyard where Ji Yong was lodging.
Ji Yong was not at home.
His attendant told He Yu: "Our young master is with the married aunt."
He Yu laughed at himself.
How had he ever gotten the notion that Dou Yan was here with Ji Yong?
He went on to Madam Ji's quarters.
The moment he entered, he saw Ji Yong complaining to Dou Yan: "...Who came up with this ridiculous rule? The Ji family has stood for a hundred years and never had any such custom! Does writing spring couplets really keep peace with the neighbors? I say a few coppers handed out at the New Year would leave them far more grateful..."
Handing out coppers. That was what merchant families did, for goodness' sake!
Dou Yan said crossly, "Every family has its own rules. Has anyone in our family ever spoken ill of your Ji family?"
Ji Yong said nothing.
Dou Yan, still not mollified, looked at him with feigned puzzlement: "Are you really a child of the Ji family? Could you have been swapped at birth?"
Ji Yong was so provoked he stamped his feet: "Help if you want to help, leave if you don't! You are a girl—why must you talk so much?"
He meant she was stirring up gossip, did he not?
That was one of the seven grounds for divorcing a wife.
Dou Yan was certainly not about to let him get the better of her. "Have you been showing off again in front of our Dou family? Otherwise, why would everyone coincidentally have something to do? Our Dou family has sent out this many spring couplets to the neighbors every year, and I have never heard of anyone failing to finish them. Clearly, no matter how clever or capable a person is, he must not provoke the resentment of the crowd..."
"Dou Yan!" Ji Yong ground his teeth and thrust a brush at her. "Are you going to write or not?"
"Not writing!" Dou Yan tossed the brush down on the desk with dispatch.
Footsteps approached from afar.
Both turned at once toward the sound, and there they saw not only He Yu, every inch the rich young gentleman, smiling and nodding to them, but also Song Yan hurrying over.
"Fourth Young Lady," he said, wiping the sweat from his brow, a little timidly, "I am helping the Provincial Graduate Ji write spring couplets—is that appropriate?"
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Sisters, brothers, I was truly so exhausted yesterday that my brain felt like paste, so I had to get up early this morning and race to finish the chapter.
ps: Regarding the sister who left a comment saying that when reading on a phone, major revisions to a chapter do not show up as a notification—that was my oversight. If I revise a chapter again in the future, I will certainly note it in a subsequent chapter. I beg everyone's pardon for the inconvenience!
o(n_n)o~