Chapter 343 — Suspicion

"Leave him be." Dou Ming was vexed by the business of Dou Yan's dowry, and took counsel with Granny Zhou: "Tell me, should I go back to the Willow Leaf Lane alley tomorrow? With Grandmother to shore me up, I needn't fear anyone's questions."

Granny Zhou said, "I'll send a card round to the Willow Leaf Lane alley first thing in the morning."

Dou Ming nodded.

Little did she know that this matter had stirred Madam Tian's suspicions.

Without betraying a thing, Madam Tian sent a trusted old nurse to Zhending. By the time the woman returned from Zhending, it was already the end of the eleventh month, and every household had begun laying in provisions for the New Year.

The nurse whispered a long report into Madam Tian's ear.

Madam Tian went white as a sheet. Clutching at her chest, she wailed, "What a calamity upon our house, to let a woman of such shameless conduct through our gates!" — and fainted dead away.

Wei Wan dropped the thousand and one affairs of the Jingzhen estate and hurried over. Madam Tian had just opened her eyes; Wei Fan and Dou Ming were keeping watch at her bedside.

Madam Tian glanced at Dou Ming, then turned her face away and said coldly, "Dou Ming, get out. I have words for these two, brother and sister."

Dou Ming was faintly offended. Seeing that Madam Tian's mind was made up, and that a crowd of serving maids and nurses stood in the room, she feared Madam Tian would say something contemptuous of her and strip her of all dignity. She curtsied and withdrew, taking the maids and nurses with her.

Madam Tian sat bolt upright with a jerk and seized Wei Wan's hand: "Do you know? That Madam Wang already had Dou Ming before she entered the Dou household! It was for that very reason that she was able to marry into the Dou family — and she drove Dou Zhiwei's birth mother, Madam Zhao, to her death! So before Madam Wang came through the door, Dou Ji had already set aside a share of the Western Dou estate. All the dowry everyone is now gossiping about is in fact the property the Dou family allotted to Dou Zhiwei back then."

Half the Western Dou estate!

In other words, the rumors outside were true — there were two or three hundred thousand taels of silver in dowry under Dou Yan's name.

Wei Wan's heart pounded.

She said in a low voice, "If Peijin had married Dou Yan back then, all that property under Dou Yan's name would have been the Wei family's!"

Madam Tian nodded distractedly, tears streaming down her face. "Poor Gu Qiu — she was like a sister to me, and yet I brought her enemy's daughter through my gates and raised her as my own. If Gu Qiu knows of it below the earth, she must hate me to the bone. I have lived my whole life clean and above reproach, treating others and myself with the openness of bright wind and clear moon. And now, in my old age, I am caught up in such a business — my honor in my twilight years is ruined!"

But Wei Wan felt her heart ache so badly it trembled.

She looked toward her brother.

And saw Wei Fan looking utterly dazed, as though his soul had left him.

Her brother too must be grieving over that silver that had slipped through their fingers.

It was all her own fault, for underestimating the Dou family. Had she investigated carefully, she might well have uncovered this matter and hurried the marriage through. By now Dou Yan would already be her sister-in-law...

But the thought flashed by, and Wei Wan had already excused herself.

That Madam Wang was a woman with a serpent's heart and a scorpion's sting; even so, she would surely have found a way to marry Dou Ming into the family. If fault there was, Madam Wang bore the greatest share of it. And there was Dou Ming too — if she had refused, who could have forced her into the bridal sedan?

Thinking thus, Wei Wan could not help but resent Dou Ming. She comforted her mother: "The Wangs are a proper official family — who would have thought they could raise children like that? If anyone is to blame, it is that shameless Madam Wang, who was so desperate to thrust her daughter into another man's house as a concubine."

"No!" Madam Tian, as though she had not heard a word Wei Wan said, threw back the covers and made to get out of bed. "I must engage a priest to perform several rites for Gu Qiu, and beg her forgiveness for my having been deceived..."

She had clean forgotten all her wavering over Dou Zhiwei's marriage.

"Don't do this." Wei Wan pressed her mother back down. "It's freezing cold out. Whatever needs doing, just tell us and we'll see to it." As she spoke she glanced at Wei Fan, and saw her brother standing there dumb and blank, as though bewitched.

She called out sharply, "Peijin!"

"Oh!" Wei Fan came to himself, yet stumbled out of Madam Tian's inner chamber, one step high and one step low.

Dou Ming, who had been waiting outside in an agony of impatience, came forward to meet him: "How is Mother?"

Wei Fan stopped in his tracks and gazed at Dou Ming, his eyes unable to take her in fast enough.

The face was the same face, the figure the same figure — so why did she no longer seem, at this moment, to hold any of the heart-stopping beauty she once had?

Did she truly love him for himself? Or was it because he had once been Dou Zhiwei's betrothed?

Wei Fan pushed Dou Ming aside and walked straight out.

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Brothers and sisters, I sent off the family's relatives last night and had meant to post an extra chapter, but halfway through I was so sleepy I no longer knew what I was writing. Only at noon today did I find time to continue, and now I am posting the extra chapter. The update that was due will be pushed back to around ten tonight. These past two days I have been trying to adjust, and hope to get back to a normal schedule soon.

Thank you all for your forbearance these past days!

o(∩_∩)o~

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