Chapter 67 — Making Amends (Bonus Update for 450 Pink Votes)
Purple Streets of Chang'an Page 1 of 2
Grandmother smiled and prattled on about the new clothes our Shouyuan was to have.
Summer had passed, and Grandmother was still alive and well at her side.
Did that mean that if one tried hard enough, some things could be changed?
Dou Yan thought of going to the temple to burn incense.
Grandmother laughed. "Zhaojue Temple, then. The vegetarian dishes there are good."
All summer long Dou Yan had stayed home keeping her company and had not gone out at all. She assumed Dou Yan had been cooped up too long and wanted to go out and play.
Jingjue Temple was a nunnery; when Mother was alive, she had often gone there to worship.
Dou Yan naturally smiled and nodded in agreement.
She and Grandmother looked over the almanac together and picked a day, then sent word ahead to the abbot of Baoguang Temple; with her personal maids, serving women, and household guards in tow, she proceeded to Baoguang Temple in a great, bustling retinue.
Jingjue Temple was ringed by ancient cypresses that pierced the sky and hoary trees that encircled the grounds, its scenery clear and serene. In the main hall, the Pavilion of Buddhist Fragrance, was enshrined a thousand-armed, thousand-eyed Guanyin standing over a zhang tall, clad in gold leaf, and beneath the glow of the incense sticks it blazed resplendent, filling the whole hall with light.
Dou Yan and Grandmother bowed in earnest reverence and knocked their heads three times.
Once out of the main hall, the wind stirred through the grove, rustling with a cool freshness.
The abbot invited Dou Yan and Grandmother to sit in the incense room behind the hall, and after a spell of idle talk, a guest-receiving monk came to ask where the vegetarian feast should be laid out.
"Just set it here!" Grandmother had been taught from childhood to do things for herself, and so she most dreaded putting others to trouble.
The guest-receiving monk smiled, answered, and withdrew.
But then Haitang came in beaming. "Aunt Cui, Fourth Miss—the Eleventh Young Master Zheng, the Twelfth Young Master De, and the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Young Masters are here. And Fourth Young Master Wu, hearing that you were worshiping here, came specially to pay his respects."
"Coming early beats coming at the right time!" Grandmother chuckled at that and gladly invited them all to take the vegetarian meal together. "...It is only ourselves—if you do not mind, shall we take the noon meal together?"
Haitang smiled and went to pass on the word.
Dou Yong and the others came crowding in with merry grins to pay their respects to Grandmother. Greeting Dou Yan, they thanked Grandmother for the meal all in a hubbub, one voice cutting in before another finished, the side room as lively as a market fair.
Dou Ji asked Dou Yan, "How did you know we were at Jingjue Temple?"
This was a nunnery, after all.
Dou Yan laughed. "We went to Dafang Temple to watch the sunrise, and then we thought the vegetarian food at Jingjue Temple was good, so we meant to scrounge a meal here. Who knew you would be here too?"
Jingjue Temple was maintained by the Dou family, and though men and women were kept apart, any son of the Dou clan passing by would be given a vegetarian meal no matter what.
Dou Yan laughed heartily. "So you see, coming early beats coming at the right time."
Dou Qitai claimed the credit. "If I had not urged you all to come back early, how could we have run into Fourth Aunt?"
.
Wu Shan, however, had shed his usual chattiness before Dou Yan and retreated a step in silence, as though he meant to bury himself in the crowd.
Dou Yan was startled, and then a vague understanding rose in her heart.
Wu Shan was still of a boy's temper then, honest and wholly good; that day, caught off guard, he had blurted out Pang Jixiu's intentions without thinking, and it had after all worked to her disadvantage. Feeling he had done her wrong, he could not help but be ashamed when he saw her again, and somewhat afraid to face her.
Now that she understood what was in Wu Shan's heart, Dou Yan began to feel uneasy.
To speak honestly, this matter had nothing at all to do with Wu Shan. It was she who had wanted to drive Pang Jixiu away and at the same time make Wu Shan give up, and so had contrived this scheme to kill two birds with one stone...
She had not seen Wu Shan since, and did not know whether he was living well.
At the thought, Dou Chi found herself studying Wu Shan.
He wore a straight-collared robe of Hangzhou silk in a bamboo-leaf green, his black hair bound with a clasp of xiangfei bamboo. From the black cord girdle at his waist hung a jade pendant of pure, moist white. He had grown much taller than last year, and much thinner too; the face that had once been delicate had lost its childishness and gained the sharpness of youth. Like a sapling in early spring, he seemed to have spread his branches and grown up in the blink of an eye.
Dou Chi was filled with deep feeling.
And when Wu Shan saw Dou Zhiwei's gaze come to rest on him, he could not help being both startled and delighted.
Startled that with so many people standing before Dou Zhiwei, she could still notice him; delighted that after what he had done, Dou Yan was still willing to pay him any mind.
Perhaps the matter was not so grave as he had imagined...
Wu Shan pondered this and made to step forward and say a few words to Dou Yan, but before he could open his mouth, Dou Yan was already calling to him with a smile, "Fourth Brother Wu, so it turns out Eleventh Brother and the rest went to your house to sponge a meal!"
Dafang Temple was in Xinle County.
Wu Shan grew excited at once.
When the Third Grand-Uncle of the Dou family passed away, he had prayed for a safety charm at Dafang Temple and given it to Dou Yan.
"No, no," he said, somewhat incoherently. "I did not go to sponge a meal—rather it is I who stay at Sixth Aunt's house every day, and Sixth Aunt arranges my food and clothing just the same as for Eleventh Brother and Twelfth Brother..."
Dou Huaide laughed aloud at this and whispered in his ear, "So you do admit I am your Twelfth Brother!"
Wu Shan's face flushed bright red.
He was three months older than Dou Huaide.
Unless one went by Dou Yan's ranking, there was no way he could ever be made to call Dou Huaide "elder brother."
Dou Qitai had no idea what was going on. He leaned in and pressed eagerly, "Why is Fourth Uncle Wu blushing? What's the story behind this?"
Wu Shan did not fear others' mockery, but he did fear that if Dou Ming found out, she would think him frivolous and be disgusted with him.
Frantic, he stamped his feet and blurted out recklessly, "Dou Twelve, if you dare talk nonsense, don't blame me for being ungracious—I'll tell them about your business..."
"Hey, hey, hey!" Now it was Dou Huaide's turn to panic. "Petty men are always full of worry, the noble man is always open and at ease..."
"What does this have to do with noble men and petty men?" Dou Yong looked at his younger brother in bewilderment, puzzled. "What are you two hiding from us?"
"Nothing, nothing!" Wu Shan and Dou Huaide said in unison without prior agreement. "There's nothing hidden from you."
Dou Yong did not believe it.
Grandmother burst out laughing.
These children were like the early-morning sun just risen, brimming with vitality, and the sight of them made one feel refreshed in spirit.
Dou Huaide and Wu Shan only struck her as amusing.
"All right, all right," she said with a smile, instructing Hong Gu to set out the chopsticks. "It's getting late. If you don't sit down now, the vegetarian dishes will go cold."
Dou Huaide and Wu Shan sat side by side, staring wide-eyed at each other, which set everyone laughing again.
No talking while eating, no talking while in bed.
The children of the Dou and Wu families had been schooled in household rules from youth, and the midday meal ended amid nothing but the soft clink of porcelain.