Chapter 253 — Unwilling

Dou Ming did not notice the strangeness in Han-shi. Behind the screen, Dou Bingheng and the others were asking Song Yan questions.

"...At the time, Father wanted to invite Lord Yu to give me my first lessons, but who would have thought Lord Yu would refuse again and again, never agreeing," Song Dan said. "As it happened, that day at the Hanlin Academy he ran into the Emperor, and seeing Father in such a furious state, the Emperor asked a question or two. Father, still hot with anger, poured out a whole litany of complaints about Lord Yu. The Emperor laughed and laughed, saying Lord Yu was a 'stubborn mule,' and that rather than let him teach me into a little stubborn mule, he might as well choose a different master. Lord Zhongyi happened to be at the Emperor's side just then, and so the Emperor pointed to Lord Zhongyi to give me my first lessons. From then on I entered the palace every day at the hour of the tiger and left at the hour of the rooster, studying alongside the Crown Prince and the several princes. It was not until I was ten, when Lord Zhongyi retired on account of illness, that I could finally sleep a whole night through in peace."

His tone was light and quick, not a trace of discontent to be heard in it—rather, a certain nostalgia and regret, which set Dou Bingheng and the others nodding again and again, thinking that this was the proper attitude for the pursuit of learning.

"I was just saying, how did you come to be a disciple of Lord Zhongyi?" Dou Heng said with a laugh. "So that was it! That was your good fortune." Then he asked about the Crown Prince and the several princes. "...How is their scholarship?"

How could Song Yan presume to judge? He smiled and said, "A little better than mine."

Dou Heng would have asked more, but Dou Bingheng thought this no time to be discussing such a matter, and smilingly took up the thread, turning to Yu Li, who was by now a Grand Secretary of the Hanlin Academy. "...Your honored father had a good eye. Lord Yu's scholarship is first-rate, but his temper is first-rate stubborn as well. The Emperor has him presiding over the compilation of the *Great Instructions of Wenhua*—that, at least, puts the man to fit use."

And so the topic drifted once more to the Emperor's discernment of men, until Dou Heng even said, "Lord Yu is advanced in years and his energies are failing. I hear the Emperor means to replace him in overseeing the compilation of the *Great Instructions of Wenhua*. Given Lord Yu's temperament, he will be unhappy about it, but if the Emperor speaks, he will surely comply. I wonder who will take over the post of Grand Secretary of the Hanlin Academy?"

Dou Huaiying had evidently heard this too, and laughed. "In any case, with your qualifications and mine, that post of Grand Secretary of the Hanlin Academy could never fall to us!"

This was clearly the first Dou Bingheng had heard of such a rumor. He could not help knitting his brows. "From whom did you hear this?"

Dou Heng laughed. "The source can no longer be traced. It has spread through the whole Hanlin Academy."

Faced with two such careless, unguarded younger brothers, Dou Bingheng could not help but press a hand to his forehead.

If the Grand Secretary of the Hanlin Academy were to be chosen by seniority, then what of those old Hanlin scholars whose seniority ran deeper than the Grand Secretary's own?

But looking at Dou Wenchang and the others seated at the table nearby, listening with bright, eager eyes to their talk, Dou Bingheng checked himself and said no more.

Song Yan saw it and smiled slightly. "It is most likely because the last time the Emperor summoned Lord Yu, he learned that Lord Yu suffers from rheumatism, which has grown worse these past years, so that the little finger of his left hand can no longer be straightened. The Emperor, in his compassion for Lord Yu's advancing years, excused him from the grand court assemblies—and from that came the rumor." He spoke, then added teasingly, "To write a book and establish a doctrine is the honor of a scholar's whole life—all the more so a book for which the Emperor will write a preface and have printed! However upright and incorruptible Lord Yu may be, however little he clings to power, I fear he will not retire at such a moment as this. Father-in-law and Sixth Uncle need not hurry to prepare traveling gifts!"

Dou Huaiying laughed heartily. "Well reasoned!"

.

Dou Bingheng's eyes lit up, and he stroked his beard with a smile.

Wei Fan sat to one side, utterly unable to get a word in.

Dou Yan, her aunt by marriage, and Zhao Zhangru were likewise attentive to the goings-on beyond the screen.

At these words the aunt breathed a sigh of relief.

Zhao Zhangru, however, winked at Dou Yan and whispered to her, "This little son-in-law your uncle found for you is not bad at all!"

Dou Yan, for all that she had lived two lives, could not help flushing. She put a spring roll into Zhao Zhangru's bowl and scolded fondly, "It is all your favorites, and still it cannot stop your mouth!"

Zhao Zhangru giggled softly.

Dou Ming's face, by contrast, had gone livid.

After the midday meal, Dou Yan and Song Yan were to go to the Huai Tree Alley to kowtow to the Second Old Madam, who, being widowed, found it inconvenient to appear on such an occasion.

Fifth Madam would of course accompany them. Dou Huaiying reflected that the Second Old Madam had been the one most set on marrying Dou Yan into the Ji family; the old and the young alike being what they are, if the Second Old Madam were to give Song Yan a cold face, his presence there might smooth things over. Dou Heng, for his part, thought that since they had all taken leave from their duties for Dou Yan's three-day return visit, they might as well take this chance to go and see their mother. But that being so, the Ji family would have to go along as well to show their filial duty... Dou Bingheng simply proposed that they all go to the Huai Tree Alley for the evening meal: "It is seldom we are all together—let Mother be glad too!"

And so the whole party went in grand procession through the rain to the Huai Tree Alley.

The Second Old Madam had been in a fluster over the firmness Dou Huaiying had shown in the matter of Dou Yan's marriage, not certain whether Dou Yan would bring her husband to pay his respects. She was sitting at home waiting in great unease when she suddenly saw the great crowd arrive and was overjoyed beyond measure. Especially when she saw Song Yan, jewel-bright at Dou Yan's side, she could not restrain her amazement. She looked at Dou Yan, then at Song Yan, her expression dimming a little, and sighed a long sigh in her heart.

If she were Dou Huaiying, she too would have seized the chance when Song Ke let go, would she not?

Fifth Madam, fearing the Second Old Madam might say something to spoil the mood, hurried to help her up onto the large *kang* by the window, and instructed Matron Liu to bring the kneeling cushions. "The Fourth Son-in-law and Fourth Daughter are to kowtow to the Old Madam!"

Matron Liu had long since made ready. Before Fifth Madam's words had died away, she was already smiling and placing the cushions before the Second Old Madam.

Dou Yan and Song Yan kowtowed to the Second Old Madam.

The Second Old Madam gave them a pair of glass cups as a gift of first meeting.

Such glass cups seemed rare enough to outsiders, but to the Dou family, who were connected by marriage to the Ji family, they were merely somewhat valuable—yet in the eyes of those serving women accustomed to reading their masters' minds, the gift drew smiles exchanged between them.

Some days before, when the Fifth Son-in-law and Fifth Daughter had come to kowtow to the Second Old Madam, she had rewarded them with a banknote worth a hundred and forty taels. How could that compare in dignity with this pair of glass cups?