Chapter 257 — Inquiries

Dou Yan felt she had done something foolish and was thoroughly dispirited.

But Tao Jun was even more dispirited than she.

He had left the capital on the twenty-fifth day of the eighth month, riding fast, and reached Zhending in only four days.

Once inside the city, he put up at a teahouse and began asking about the Zhending Dou family: "...none other than the native place of Grand Secretary Dou Yuanji of the Wenhua Hall, Minister of Justice in the present court!"

The teahouse waiter glanced at Tao Jun, dressed as he was in the garb of a scholar, and, while deftly brewing his tea, said with a smile, "The old gentleman isn't a local, is he? Who in Zhending Prefecture doesn't know the Dou clan of the North Tower? Our teahouse owner's wife is the daughter of one of the Dou family's stewards, and my own forebears once sold cotton to the Dou household. You've certainly come to the right man!"

Only then did Tao Jun truly feel how deep and wide the Dou family's roots ran in Zhending.

He smiled and said, "I am from Jiangnan, and have kept a school in the capital for many years. Now that I am old, I have given up my school and returned to my native parts. Some days ago I saw the Dou mansion marrying off a daughter—ten li of red dowry, grander than the families of our Jiangnan when they marry off a daughter—and so I thought I would ask about it."

The waiter laughed at this and said, "You mean the Dou family's Fourth Miss, surely? The Fourth Miss was betrothed from childhood to the Marquis of Jining in the capital, only the old Marquis died, and the Fourth Miss kept mourning for three years. Last year the Grand Madam herself escorted her to the capital to be married. By my reckoning, the Dou Fourth Miss ought to be married by now."

So the tale of the Dou sisters' exchanged marriages had not yet reached Zhending—or perhaps the Dou clan had long since heard of it, but could not think how to answer their neighbors and kin, and so kept silent.

Tao Jun was just about to ask about Dou Zhiwei when he heard someone beside him say, "A pity the Second Grand Madam isn't at home. Otherwise, when the Dou Fourth Miss was married out, the capital would surely have sent word of the happy news, and the Dou family would have set out running banquets, built a stage for opera, handed out red packets far and wide—and we could have gone along for the excitement!"

There had come with Tao Jun a single attendant—a trusted man, who of course knew why Tao Jun had come. Tao Jun, hard put to hide his astonishment, thought for a moment and said with a smile, "The Dou family must be truly wealthy. No wonder they could make such a grand show—there was even a carrying-pole load of silver drafts among the dowry."

His words were like water dropped into hot oil, and the room crackled and spat.

"A load of silver drafts? Why would they include a load of silver drafts in a dowry?" someone asked in wonder. "Old gentleman, what is this all about?"

Everyone in the teahouse, locals and travelers alike, turned to look at Tao Jun.

So Tao Jun told the whole tale of the dowry.

Some were envious, some sighed, and some said sourly, "The Dou family has silver to spare—what's a load of silver drafts to them? In years gone by, when Lord Yaocheng of the Dou family entertained at home the Transport Commissioner of the Salt Bureau, who was passing through Zhending on his way to take up his post at Huai'an, he not only brought an opera troupe down from the capital to perform, but lit more than a thousand glazed lotus lamps in the water pavilion. Mirrored against the stars in the sky, you could scarcely tell whether you stood on earth or in heaven. That was a truly grand show..."

Someone scoffed and said, "And what year and month was that? If you want real excitement, I say the Fourth Miss's coming-of-age ceremony two years ago was the real excitement! Not only did the Dou womenfolk come home from far off in the capital, and Madam Zhao, who is far away in the northwest with her husband's posting—even affinal kin like the Ji family of Yixing in Jiangnan, and the wives of local gentry like His Honor Lu, and even the managers of the Dou family's various shops, the heads of their various estates, and all the neighbors—everyone came to congratulate the Dou Fourth Miss on her coming of age. All of Zhili was stirred. That's not a thing money can accomplish!"

This set everyone talking at once, and not one voice was raised in rebuttal.

Tao Jun drew a sharp breath and said, "Why did they all come back to celebrate the Dou Fourth Miss's coming of age?"

A busybody answered loudly and with a laugh: "The Dou womenfolk came home from the capital, of course, because the Dou Seventh Master is an official in the capital, and the Dou Fourth Miss keeps house for her father at home, serving the Seventh Master's birth mother, Concubine Cui. The Dou elders wished to comfort the Fourth Miss! And His Honor Zhao has only this one niece, and loves her like the pearl in his palm. Though the Zhao family went with His Honor Zhao to the northwest, Madam Zhao comes back every few years to see the Dou Fourth Miss, fearing that with no mother of her own the girl might be slighted. For the Fourth Miss's coming of age, she was bound to return. As for wives of officials like Madam Lu, seeing how greatly the Second Grand Madam valued the Dou Fourth Miss, they came to add flowers to the brocade. And as for the shop managers and estate heads—the Dou Fourth Miss not only manages the household accounts of the West Dou, but, with the Third Master of the Dou family to assist her, oversees the clan's affairs. At her coming-of-age, would they dare not come?"

Hardly had he finished when the man who had scoffed earlier spoke up loudly: "That's a rather one-sided way to put it. Who in Zhending Prefecture does not know the Dou Fourth Miss for a person of pure goodness? A few years ago, in that lawsuit against the Bie family's martial school on East Lane Street—if they hadn't met the Dou Fourth Miss, could Master Bie have cleared his name? To this day the Bie sisters enjoy the Dou Fourth Miss's protection! And that year of the great rains in Zhending, if the Dou Fourth Miss hadn't remitted the rents of several Dou estates, who knows how many families would have had nothing to eat and been forced to sell their sons and daughters. How can you say those managers and estate heads came crowding to congratulate the Dou Fourth Miss on her coming of age just to curry favor with her?"

His words won the immediate agreement of most of the teahouse, who buzzed with reproach at the loud-voiced man.

The man looked embarrassed and lowered his head to his tea.

At this scene, a rumbling like thunder filled Tao Jun's head, and a great stone seemed to press upon his heart, growing heavier and heavier, until he could no longer keep a courteous smile on his face.

Was this the Dou Fourth Miss he knew—raised in the countryside from childhood, dull, stubborn, disliked by all, with no one to rely on?

Were they speaking of the same person?

Tao Jun could not help saying, "Was it not said that the Dou Fourth Miss was disliked by her stepmother, and so was left in Zhending to be raised by the Seventh Master's birth mother, who was herself a concubine? How is it now 'keeping house for her father'?"