Chapter 437 — Dowry

The Miao couple had long known their son to be a man of many schemes; at these words their eyes lit up at once, and they said together, "What have you got in mind?"

Miao Anping grinned slyly. "The Songs are simply bullying us for having no money, and that is why they dare not open their mouths about the betrothal money. But the betrothal money has always come before the betrothal gifts. We can trick the money into our hands first and talk afterward."

Father Miao grasped his son's meaning instantly.

He shook his head like a rattle drum. "That won't do. The marriage contract sets down plainly how much the betrothal money is and how much the dowry is, down to the last tael. When the time comes and we cannot produce it—" Here he broke off, clapped his palms together, and looked at his son with a gaze brimming with comfort and admiration. "Why did I never think of it? This is a marriage bestowed by imperial grace. Will the Song family dare call it off when the time comes?"

Mother Miao, however, was frightened half out of her wits. "We mustn't, we mustn't! If the Songs lodge a complaint with the Emperor, how could our family withstand it? If the two of you are clapped into prison, how am I to live?" And with that she covered her face and wept.

"On a day of great joy, what are you wailing for?" Father Miao scolded her impatiently, though her words had left a shade of worry at the bottom of his eyes.

Miao Anping rolled his eyes this way and that, and at once had an idea. "It is precisely that I fear they will not lodge an imperial complaint! For if they do—well, it is the Song family who care about face. They will hold up their own Heir as their example: they insisted our family produce a dowry of such size, and our family, reckoning this a marriage bestowed by the throne, a matchless honor, resolved to scrape the sum together despite our slender means. But when we had borrowed from every relative and friend, we simply could not raise the silver. Should the Songs be willing, our family is willing to write an IOU and make good on Ansu's dowry little by little in the years to come. Now tell me—if His Majesty heard such a speech as that, would he not bestow ten or twenty thousand taels upon our household?"

Father Miao nodded with delight. "Trust your head to find the way! We shall put it to your elder uncle just so. And once your sister has married in, with her arts, can she fail to wind your brother-in-law round her finger? Since the Duke of Ying has settled such a fortune on your brother-in-law, a few drops slipping through your sister's fingers will be enough to keep us chewing for years—perhaps enough to make up the silver we lack. A truly fine notion!"

Miao Anping smiled smugly.

Mother Miao, though, thought it all very improper, and quavered in a small voice, "But we never borrowed any silver for Ansu's marriage..."

Father Miao itched to kick this spoilsport of a woman out of the room. "Did we not borrow a great deal of silver from others in times past? When the time comes, we need only bring out those IOUs."

Mother Miao wanted very much to say that some of those IOUs were two or three years old and some were from these last few days—but two or three years ago this marriage had not even been dreamt of. How were they to bluff their way past that?

Yet seeing the sullen fury in her husband's face, the words rose to her lips and she swallowed them again.

Father Miao had plainly thought of this too, for he instructed his son, "Go now and exchange those IOUs. Say the interest is to be reckoned afresh, so that no flaw shows."

Miao Anping answered "Yes," and the two of them left the side chamber, one behind the other.

Mother Miao had no choice but to follow her husband and son out the door.

The Miao family's eldest married daughter, who sat among the women's seats beside Third Madam Song, received the news and was secretly puzzled.

Only last year her brother had come to her house to borrow fifty taels. How was it that now, when he came to marry off a daughter, he had money? Was he scheming to fleece her again?

At the thought her heart turned sour. But in Third Madam Song's presence she still forced out a smile. "This is, after all, a match bestowed by the throne. Dragged out too long, it may well look like neglect. As I see it, by Third Madam Song's own reckoning, one side for the groom and one for the bride—our Miao family will put up twenty thousand taels to marry off our daughter. As for the wedding date, when the feast breaks up, let us ask a few matchmakers to choose some auspicious days; then send them to His Grace the Duke to fix the one."

Setting the wedding date has always been the groom's family choosing the day and the bride's family fixing it. The Miaos had turned it entirely upside down—all to see the match settled the sooner, and the betrothal money from the Duke of Ying's household in hand the sooner.

Third Madam Song laughed in sheer fury.

If the Miaos put up twenty thousand taels as dowry, then the Songs would have to produce forty thousand taels as betrothal money. Reckoned so, the Miaos would clear twenty thousand taels on the bargain.

She could not resist a gibe. "When our Heir Apparent married, we prepared a betrothal gift of only twenty thousand taels. The Second Master is the younger brother—there is no sort of sense in his outdoing the elder who is Heir. Are you not afraid your young lady will no sooner marry in than she is at daggers drawn with the Heir's wife? In rank, the Heir's wife is the legitimate daughter of the Dou clan of Beilou; in wealth, the Heir's wife's dowry, together with those two chests of silver drafts, brought two hundred thousand taels into this house."

Had the Miao family's eldest daughter not had a nimble tongue, she would never have been chosen for the office of woman of full fortune.

Smiling faintly, she said, "How is it that Third Madam Song's words shift like the skies of June, changing at a breath with never a fixed mark? And yet you would keep all the reason on your side. How then would you have our family sit down with yours to discuss a marriage? Do not forget—your Second Master is not the Heir Apparent. If your Second Master were like the Heir, accomplished in letters and in arms, holding high office at a tender age, our family would sell fields and land, and like the Dou family would forgo the betrothal money and send our daughter out with a great heap of silver. But since your Second Master is not your Heir Apparent, then do not set our Sixth Young Lady beside your Heir's wife. The long and short of it is that we Miaos have decided to put up twenty thousand taels to marry off our daughter. As for what your family does—not to speak of you and me, who are but women of full fortune, why, even the child's own father and mother must consult the elders of the house. So, whether this comes to pass or not, I think you had best go home and report to His Grace the Duke before you declare your stance and beat the drum on it."

Third Madam Song trembled from head to foot with rage, and yet had not a word to answer.

His Grace the Duke had ever been a man who prized face. To exalt the imperial house, he might truly agree to the thing.

And if she set her heart on refusing, she might end up pleasing no one on either side!

She longed to slap herself twice across the face.

This was a matter even the Elder Madam Song had dodged—by what right did she thrust herself forward to bear the brunt?

Third Madam Song could only grind out a "Very well," and take her way home to the Duke of Ying's mansion.

Song Cen flew into a towering rage, veins standing out on his forehead. "Is this marrying off a daughter? This is selling one! How did I come to have such a cheap piece of goods?" Then he summoned Song Han and said, "From now on keep your wife in hand. Once she has married in, do not let her go out lightly on any pretext. I will not spend my days entertaining the muck of the Miao family."