Chapter 344 — The Rules

If Dou Ming had married Wei Fan merely because Wang Shuying said a word and because Wei Fan was Dou Zhiwei's betrothed, then she was rushing to wed him. Dou Ming knew perfectly well that it would not do, yet she went along with it all the same. First, she had been drawn to Wei Fan's handsome, elegant looks, to the way he had always been gentle and courteous to her and returned her affection in kind; and only second had she valued his high birth and uncomplicated household, reckoning that once married she could shut the door and live her own quiet life. And Wei Fan had indeed been just as she expected: even knowing that she had married in her sister's place, he had accepted the match. After the wedding the two of them had quarreled now and then, but every squabble had blown over quickly enough. Never before had he looked at her with such cold eyes, as though she were a stranger.

Panic seized Dou Ming. Forget face—before the whole courtyard of maids and serving women, she chased after him.

"My Lord Marquis!" She caught at Wei Fan's sleeve.

Wei Fan did not so much as glance at her. He flung off her hand and strode out.

Dou Ming stood frozen.

As a child she had first been raised by the Second Old Madam, then by her maternal grandmother, Madame Wang Xu; after that she had lived several years in Zhending, and upon returning to the capital she had spent several more years with her mother. She could not claim much, but reading faces was pure instinct to her—it was only that her temperament had been formed in such a way that bowing her head did not come easily.

Wei Fan's behavior made her feel, by instinct, that she was in danger.

She followed him.

Wei Fan ignored her and went straight into the small study, slamming the door shut in her face with a "bang" that nearly caught the tip of Dou Ming's nose.

Dou Ming stood stunned for a long moment, then said softly, "My Lord Marquis, what on earth has happened? Even if it is my fault, you must tell me, so that I can mend my ways. If you say nothing at all, how am I to know where I went wrong?"

Inside the room, Wei Fan sat blankly behind the desk.

He thought of the first time he had seen Dou Ming, of her radiant smile.

At the time he had thought: this girl is all innocence and artlessness, brighter even than the spring sunshine.

The Dou family tilled and studied, generation after generation of officials. They were one of the few great houses in Beizhili, and a daughter of that house ought to have stayed behind the inner gates and never stepped outside them—just as with Dou Yan: he and she were properly betrothed, and yet he had only glimpsed her once or twice.

Had he already fallen into Dou Ming's snare, even then?

Wei Fan's heart twisted with pain.

He thought of the day Dou Yan had summoned him to the alley by Yunqi Temple, saying she believed there was nothing between him and Dou Ming… Dou Zhiwei's eyes had been clear as spring water… and in the end he had failed her…

Wei Fan covered his face and felt his fingers grow wet.

Over there, Wei Wan saw her younger brother walk out just like that and hastily sent her personal nurse after him. Learning that Dou Ming was speaking soft words and knocking at Wei Fan's door, she gave a cold laugh; but with a thousand affairs at home awaiting her decisions, she could not linger long at her maiden home, so she left her trusted nurse Jin to wait on Madame Tian, and said to her: "No one wants a thing like this to happen. Even if you wish to hold rites for that Zhao woman, the New Year is nearly upon us, and for the moment no virtuous monk of high standing can be found. I think it best to wait until the Lantern Festival is past, and then I will slowly find you a better temple. For the next few days, set your mind to recovering your health. At the New Year I mean to bring your grandsons and granddaughters to beg red envelopes from you!"

Only then did Madame Tian settle quietly back into bed, though her heart still dwelled on the departed Zhao Guqiu: "She was several years younger than I. Back then, at the wedding feasts of relatives and friends, she always liked to press close to me. If I wore a new trinket, she would ask where I had bought it. If I made a new handkerchief, she would ask where I had got the new pattern…"

Wei Wan shot a look at Nurse Jin, signaling that she must keep a close watch on Madame Tian and let nothing happen to her, and only then did she return to the Jingzhen Duke's mansion, her heart full of cares.

When she was busy she naturally had no time to think of it, but once evening came and she was at leisure, a pang rose unbidden in her heart.

Three hundred thousand taels of silver!

Even converted into silver drafts, it would pile up into a small mountain—to say nothing of the fields and woodlands, the shops and houses.

Two lifetimes of the Wei family could not eat through it all!

She tossed and turned like a pancake on a griddle, unable to sleep.

Zhang Yuanming, kept awake by the commotion, sat up and leaned against the headboard, his face worn with fatigue. "Has Mother been giving you grief again?"

Before her husband, Wei Wan never minced words about her maiden family's affairs.

After a moment's thought she sat up too, leaning shoulder to shoulder against the headboard, and told Zhang Yuanming everything about Dou Ming.

Zhang Yuanming laughed. "What's done is done. There's no use in dwelling on it. Fortunately the Dou girl's dowry is no small thing either—don't be too stubborn about it."

"How can you say that!" Wei Wan was displeased. "If Dou Yan had married into the Wei family, would that money not have become the Wei family's?"

As she spoke, she suddenly recalled that time Wang Shuying had come to her proposing they join forces to wreck the match between Dou Yan and the Wei family.

Could it be that even then Wang Shuying had been scheming to make the Dou and Wei families break off the betrothal?

Wei Wan gritted her teeth with hatred.

Their Wei family had been ruined by Wang Shuying and her daughter Dou Ming.

And Wang Shuying and Dou Ming thought they could just let it go at that? Not a chance!

She said to Zhang Yuanming, "Go and make some inquiries for me—just how much silver did the Dou family add to Dou Yan's dowry?"

"What do you want to know that for?" Knowing it had nothing to do with his own mother, Zhang Yuanming could not be bothered with the matter. He yawned and burrowed under the covers. "The Dou family used to handle the Ministry of Works' contracts. In the capital alone, every branch of the family has its own residence. Old Man Dou was clean as a whistle—they say he never took a penny of salary. Even a quarter of the Dou estate must be more than three hundred thousand taels…"

He mumbled on and fell asleep.

Wei Wan felt as though she were being roasted over a fire. Only when the sky began to pale did she drift into a fitful sleep. After she had dealt with the trifling affairs of the Jingzhen Duke's mansion, she hurried off again to the Jining Marquis's residence.

Madame Tian was gloomily sipping her congee. Seeing her daughter come in, she asked whether she had eaten breakfast.

"I ate long ago." Not seeing Dou Ming as she entered, Wei Wan could not help saying, "Where is Dou Ming? Why is she not waiting on you at breakfast?"

Madame Tian said listlessly, "I am not some cruel mother-in-law. What rules would I set?"