Chapter 212 — Admission

Meanwhile, in Dou Ming's inner chamber, Ma Jun's wife was drenched in sweat.

Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined that Dou Ming would try to hang herself.

If anything happened to the Fifth Miss while she was in her care, how could she ever answer to the Second Madam or the Fifth Madam?

Looking at Dou Ming, who had regained consciousness but whose gaze was vacant and stupefied, as though she had lost her soul, Ma Jun's wife could not help but feel afraid. Her face pale, she urgently shouted at the flock of panic-stricken maids around her, "What are you all standing there like fools for? Why hasn't anyone gone to see what's keeping the doctor? If anything happens to the young lady, none of you will live either!"

One maid gave a hasty "oh" and rushed out of the inner chamber.

Suddenly Dou Ming blinked, and a faint glimmer gradually returned to her eyes.

Ma Jun's wife was both startled and delighted. She bent forward and called out "Fifth Miss," her voice already thick with tears.

Dou Ming sat up.

Ma Jun's wife hurried to fetch a large bolster and placed it behind Dou Ming's back with her own hands.

But Dou Ming flung off the covers, slipped on her shoes, and made to get out of bed.

"My good young lady," Ma Jun's wife said softly, a note of pleading in her voice, "your body is still weak. If there is anything you need, just tell me. Why must you do everything yourself..."

But Dou Ming pushed her aside without a word, and in her slippers she staggered unsteadily toward the door.

"Fifth Miss, Fifth Miss..." Ma Jun's wife followed anxiously behind her, wanting to urge her back to bed to rest, yet seeing that look on her face that said "no one is going to stop me." Then she heard the quarreling from outside, and thought of the hint the Fifth Madam had given her before they set out. She checked her step and let Dou Ming lift the curtain and go out.

Dou Ming looked at Dou Wenchang, whose eyes held grief and indignation, and faltered for a moment. But out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of Ji Yong sitting leisurely in a corner, drinking tea, and she ground her teeth in hatred.

What was he doing here?

The sort who loves to watch a show and doesn't care how high the stage is built!

One day she would make him pay.

She turned toward Wei Wan, who was still chattering on, and shouted, "Enough!"

Only then did everyone realize that at some point Dou Ming had come out of the inner chamber, and now she leaned frail and weak against the door panel, tears in her eyes.

As though cut off by a knife, the noise inside and outside the room ceased at once. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

"Stop quarreling!" Dou Ming panted softly, so fragile she looked as though a breath of wind would blow her over, tears streaming down. "Stop quarreling. Last night the Marquis drank too much, and I only looked after him all night. Nothing happened! I took my sister's place at the wedding — whatever comes of it, I will bear it myself!" As she spoke, her gaze fell on Dou Wenchang. "Eldest Cousin, it was wrong of me to bring shame on the Dou family and on you. Don't quarrel with the Wei family on my account. Kill me or flay me — let the Wei family deal with me as they please!" Then she looked toward Wei Fan, her almond eyes like ice a century old, piercing and cold to the bone.

Wei Fan froze.

Wei Fan's eyes went even wider. He shot to his feet with a thud.

"A debt incurred by one is paid by one!" Dou Ming sneered, a trace of contempt at the corner of her mouth. "What do you want? Just say it. There's no need to humiliate the Dou family here!"

Zhang Yuanming, who had guessed that Dou Ming's failed suicide might make Dou Juan's attitude turn extremely harsh, and had therefore decided to let his wife wrangle foolishly with the Dou family for a while before hashing things out with them — hoping to salvage a little of their lost ground — had kept silent and watched from the sidelines all this time. Seeing this, he could not help but give a soft "oh?" His gaze toward Dou Ming grew somewhat more serious, and even Ji Yong straightened up a little as he listened.

Wei Fan, however, was so furious he wanted to stamp his feet.

Your Dou family pulls off this business of swapping one sister for another, and now you claim to be in the right?

And you tell me to deal with it as I please?

You think I don't dare do anything to you?

Wei Fan pointed rudely at Dou Ming and began to curse: "Who do you think you are? 'A debt incurred by one is paid by one.' Are you capable of paying it? What gives you the right? Don't think I don't know — your mother was nothing but a concubine elevated to wife. If your maternal grandfather hadn't come into power, you wouldn't even have the right to set foot in our Jining Marquisate, let alone marry into the Wei family! And you tell me to deal with you as I please? If you really want to die, then die when no one else is around! Making a scene now — don't take me for a fool..."

Dou Ming said not a word, and threw herself headlong at the pillar beside her.

The sound of "boom, boom, boom" was like a drumbeat, pounding at people's hearts.

"Fifth Miss!" Before anyone could react, Wei Fan had already dashed forward and caught Dou Ming around the waist. "Don't do this!" he cried loudly. "I believe you! I believe you!" As he spoke, his eyes grew wet, and he looked on the verge of tears.

Wei Wan was stunned, then flew into a rage and cursed, "You idiot! This is a woman's little trick! You — let go of her this instant! Set your mind at ease, she won't die. She can't die. She's still waiting to become the lady of the Jining Marquisate! Look across all of the capital — who else at such a young age has become a marchioness? She's crowing with pride inside..."

And even if that were so, what of it?

Wei Fan thought of the first time he had spoken with Dou Ming, when she had told him with a warm smile, "My mother was a concubine raised to wife, and my sister and I don't get along," her tone seeming so casual yet her eyes unable to hide their sorrow; he thought of how she had tilted her head and said with a laugh, "You'd better work hard and curry favor with my father, or you'll never marry my sister," her manner so cheerful yet something like melancholy hidden between her brows; he thought of how, after being snubbed by his father-in-law and slinking out of the study, Dou Ming had peeked out from behind the lush flowering trees with a sly, cunning smile... And he thought of how she had stepped forward and loudly told everyone that there was nothing between them, with such resolute determination; and of her grief and indignation when she said that the substitution had been her idea. All of it made his heart feel as though a piece had been gouged out of it, and the pain was unbearable.

"Sister!" he shouted, cutting Wei Wan off. "However bad she may be, she has not lied!" He thought of when he was small, looking at the brightly lit mansion of the neighboring Changxing Marquisate, and of how his sister had bought him a great armful of candied hawthorns, held him — a boy who knew nothing of the world — and pointed at the Changxing Marquisate, saying, "One day I'll marry a great and illustrious husband, with a courtyard bigger than theirs and more lanterns than theirs, so that everyone in the capital will look at you and flatter you, and never again will anyone slight us." His voice grew even louder, and he stood even straighter. "What's wrong with her wanting to marry into the Jining Marquisate? People climb toward higher places, water flows toward lower ones. Since we have already bowed to heaven and earth, since we have already shared the wedding chamber, then we are husband and wife. You — stop cursing her..." He looked for all the world as though he meant to acknowledge this marriage. Yet under Wei Wan's blazing glare, he slowly betrayed a hint of fear, and his voice dropped.