Chapter 462 — The Country Estate

Dou Huaiying felt a headache coming on.

One look at his father-in-law's face told Song Yan everything he needed to know, so he smiled and said, "How about I go with you?"

Dou Huaiying could not have asked for more.

When Dou Heng learned of it, he summoned Song Yan over and said, "You needn't pay the Wang family any mind. Just say what needs to be said. If they start quibbling, come straight back and tell me. We elders will not sit by and do nothing." He looked for all the world like a man afraid Song Yan would come off the worse.

Song Yan felt a quiet warmth in his heart and offered a suggestion: "When the time comes, why not have Twelfth Brother go with us? It would be a good chance for him to pay his respects to the Seventh Madam as well, so that we needn't trouble her on the actual day."

He was worried the Wang family would use the pretext of having the adopted heir pay his respects to Wang Shuying and send her back to Hening Temple Alley.

Dou Heng understood at once.

He too had no wish to see such an adoptive mother set over his own son's head.

Dou Heng looked at Song Yan with a measure of approval and said, "Then let Zhi go with you!"

Song Yan assented, and the next day went with Dou Huaiying and Dou Huaide to Willow Leaf Alley.

Wang Zhibing had already guessed why Dou Huaiying had come, and received the three of them courteously into the main hall.

But when Dou Huaiying stated his business, Wang Zhibing's face turned somewhat green.

The reason he had held his tongue all this time was that he had resolved to send Wang Shuying back while the Dou household was busy with the adoption, and he had not wished to alert the Dou family to his intentions by beating the grass and startling the snake. He had never expected his calculations to come to nothing.

His heart was bitter beyond measure, yet he could not help saying, "An adoption is such a grave matter—how could it be done without Yingxue? There's no need to rush it. You've come such a long way; stay and enjoy a proper banquet. By this afternoon, I'll have Yingxue go back with you."

Song Yan meant to open with a few tactful words, but Dou Huaiying's tone was stiff and cold. "I brought Zhi here to give the Wang family face," he said. "So the Wang family does not prize it. I have overstepped myself!" With that he called Song Yan and Dou Huaide to their feet and made to leave. "Since she has no time, there's no need to wait till afternoon. We'll be going now."

Even in the years he had followed his father into exile, Wang Zhibing had never suffered such humiliation.

His face swelled purple with rage, but he remembered his mother's instructions and was forced to grit his teeth and press Dou Huaiying to stay.

Song Yan was pulling Dou Huaiying along at a brisk pace when Wang Zhibao appeared from somewhere, seized Wang Zhibing by the arm, and said with a black look, "Brother, you can't keep indulging our sister like this. Father has done everything for her sake, and are we still to be mocked by our colleagues? Have we not done enough for her? Even if she returns to the Dou family, will the Dou kinsmen treat her like a human being? Do you know that Tan'er's marriage has fallen through again because of her?"

Wang Zhibing was silent. Through his mind flashed his wife's troubled face, and his sister-in-law standing with arms akimbo on the steps, cursing toward the courtyard where their sister lived, each time her son's marriage prospects had come to nothing. He heaved a long sigh.

Only then did the heart Wang Zhibing had been holding in suspense settle back into place. He put an arm around his brother's shoulder and said, "We can't afford to offend any more people on her account. Nan'er and Tan'er still have to make their way in the world! Let's go see our brother-in-law off. They gave us face; we should return the courtesy."

At this Wang Zhibing could not help laughing. "You've grown much steadier now!"

In the past, whenever Wang Shuying's affairs had spoiled Wang Tan's marriage prospects, Pang Yulou would raise a ruckus at home, and Wang Zhibao would seize the chance to pour out his grievances before Wang Xu-shi, turning the house upside down. This time, what he said had some sense to it.

Wang Zhibing gave a dry laugh. These were all things his wife had told him to say, and he found himself trusting her more and more.

After seeing Dou Huaiying and the others off, he went to Wang Xu-shi's room.

"Mother!" As always, his eyes, nose, and mouth screwed up together the moment he opened his mouth. "You must make up your mind for us in this matter! Tan'er's marriage has fallen through again. Nan'er has made his own way, but Tan'er is counting on his wife's family to give him a hand. Fingers and the back of the hand are both flesh—do take pity on Tan'er! Other men his age have children running about the floor by now, and he is still on his own. How are we, his parents, supposed to eat or sleep?"

Wang Zhibao longed to say, "You cannot ruin my son for the sake of your own daughter," but at the thought of Pang Yulou's warning, he swallowed the words.

Wang Xu-shi only shook her head.

She was old. Gao-shi was kindhearted; Pang-shi was cunning. Yingxue would have to rely on her eldest son to get by in the future.

"What do you want?" she had no choice but to ask her second son.

Wang Zhibao's eyes flickered. "I—I want to move out and live on my own!"

Though she had long expected it, Wang Xu-shi still felt a stab of pain in her heart.

She closed her eyes, and only after a long while opened them again. "I'll write a letter to your father."

Wang Zhibao was wild with joy, and could not keep a trace of it from showing at the corners of his brows and eyes.

He answered "Yes," and left the main house with something like impatience.

From the rear quarters, however, came Pang Yulou's cursing: "...you shameless thing, for the sake of a man you'd sooner ruin your own brothers and nephews, and in the end you were tossed aside by that man like a worn-out shoe. If I were you, I'd have cut my own throat long ago! Your man came just now with the adopted heir, do you know what he said? He came specially to send word that you're not to go making a fuss at the Dou household during the adoption—for fear that once you're back, you'll ruin the heir's marriage prospects again!"

The Wang family's house was not large. What with Wang Nan being married and Wang Tan grown, when Wang Shuying returned to her maiden home, thinking she would soon be going back to the Dou household, she moved into her mother's rear quarters. After that there were no "spare" rooms left to settle her in, and so she had made her home there.

Over the past two years Pang Yulou's tongue had grown more and more vicious, until she carried on like a fishwife cursing in the street. The maids up and down the Wang household had also come to look down on Wang Shuying.

And Wang Shuying, whose own daughter—the child she had carried ten months and borne in agony—now despised her, had grown ever more short-tempered. How could she endure such provocation from Pang Yulou? She flung open the door and cursed back: "And what are you? Nothing but a thing your father pawned off on our Wang family when we were in trouble! You show no respect to your elders and no discipline to your young—it's only because our Wang family is kindhearted that we haven't divorced you..."

Hearing this from inside her room, Wang Xu-shi could not catch her breath, and fainted dead away.

The main house was thrown into instant chaos.

Afraid his old wife would upset the business of the family division, Wang Zhibao paid his mother no mind. He hurried to the rear courtyard, drew the cursing Pang Yulou aside from the covered walkway, and whispered, "What are you doing? Mother has already agreed to let us move out—what are you still making a fuss about? Do you want the maids and serving women to laugh at us?"

I just can't stand the way Wang Shuying looks down her nose at everyone.