Chapter 31 — Eavesdropping

"Of course she must stay with the Dou family!" Wang Zhibing and Dou Duo said in unison.

"No, no!" Wang Shuying shook her head, her expression panicked. "She is still so small—I cannot leave her with the Dou family..."

But could she be taken back to the Wang family?

Even if the Wangs agreed, the Dous would never agree to it!

Wang Zhibing looked at his sister, who wore the air of a hen shielding her chick, and felt a headache coming on.

With such a thing having happened in their family, the neighbors had long been gossiping behind their backs. Now that Father had been restored to office, even more people knew of their family; by then it would not be merely tiny Nanwa Township—likely the whole of Zhending Prefecture would be pointing fingers at them from behind. Not only would Father lose face, but in the future the children would find it hard to hold their heads up in Nanwa. That was why, before coming, Father had agreed with him that they would quietly take his sister home, and once Father had settled in, the whole family would follow him to his post and never return to Nanwa again.

He had also been thinking that after a few years, when the storm had blown over, he would arrange a good match for his sister.

But what was the meaning of dragging this child along with them?

Would his sister still be able to marry in the future?

Even at the most generous, supposing the Dou family were willing to let his sister take the child, and Father agreed to raise her, how would they explain the child's origins when relatives and friends asked?

They had left Nanwa precisely to escape those rumors and whispers. If they claimed the child was his sister's, then his sister's past could no longer be concealed—would they not have moved for nothing?

To avoid all that, they could only say the child was his, or that she was the child of his younger brother, Wang Zhishao.

But the child had come at the wrong time.

To say she was his—he had not been home for years. To say she was his brother's—his brother's wife had just given birth to a plump baby boy, barely a month old... Could they say she was found?

These thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant, but after all, this was their own family matter, not something to be discussed in front of Dou Duo.

Wang Zhibing had no choice but to say to Wang Shuying in a low voice, "There are some things we should discuss at home."

Wang Shuying dared not go home with her brother.

In her situation, a wife sent back to her natal family was either consigned to a nunnery or married off to some distant place—she feared she would never have another chance to see her daughter.

Dou Yan still had her uncle and the stewardess her mother had left behind to look after her, but her own daughter was all alone with nothing. She could not entrust her daughter's future to that Fifth Miss of the Zhu family whom she had never met or dealt with.

And where was Dou Huaiying?

Wang Shuying looked all around.

Why was he not here?

He had always been soft-hearted; he would never stand by and watch mother and daughter be torn apart.

"No!" She took two steps back, putting some distance between herself and her brother, and a trace of wariness showed in her eyes as she looked at him. "Until Ming's future is settled, I will not go home with you, Brother!" With that, she shot a look at Qiongfang, who stood at the door of the hall, then turned tearfully to plead with Dou Duo: "Old Master, Ming has been frail since birth—she did not even have the strength to suckle. The doctors and the old nurses of many years all said she might not live long. It was I who, with every handful of filth and every drop of piss, raised her with such care to this age. How can I simply hand her over to someone else? I beg you, for Ming's sake, let me take her with me!"

"I was the one who named Ming!" Dou Duo said with a gentle smile. "Children are flesh cut from their mother's body. We all understand how you worry for Ming. But Ming is a child of the Dou family—surely she cannot follow you to the Wang family in such an unclear manner? You have only just arrived in our household; you know what our family is like. The moment you entered, we assigned you an experienced nurse, two maids, and several rough-serving women to wait on you in your rooms. And after you gave birth to Ming, besides Ming's wet nurse and the servants in Ming's rooms, we added two more maids for you... You need not worry. The Fifth Miss of the Zhu family was raised from childhood in the family's traditions—gentle in temperament, virtuous and sincere. She will care well for Ming..."

"However good others may be, how can they compare with her own mother?" Wang Shuying watched Qiongfang hurry out of Heshuo Hall, and felt somewhat reassured at heart, though her mouth never ceased pleading with Dou Duo. "I beg you, Old Master, to grant us mother and daughter this mercy!"

Dou Duo smiled and said, "Wanyuan was also raised in the presence of his legal mother—you need not worry about Ming!"

The two went back and forth, neither willing to yield.

Dou Yan soon got word of it.

She thought for a moment, then said to Tuo Niang, "Come, let us go see Father."

Dou Yan wanted to know what her father was thinking, what he planned to do about this matter.

Tuo Niang answered and set down her needlework, and the two went to Dou Huaiying's study.

Dou Huaiying was not in the study.

Dou Yan thought for a moment, then went to the flower hall behind the main hall.

Grandfather and Wang Zhibing were drinking tea in the flower hall; Father and Wang Shuying were talking beside the bamboo grove behind it.

Dou Yan gestured to Tuo Niang to halt, and relying on her small stature, slipped around the flower hall and hid behind the bamboo to eavesdrop.

"...Whatever you say, it is I who wronged you." Her father's voice carried a faint sorrow. "I am older than you, and a man who had already married. Even if you were drawn to me, I ought to have refused you firmly and righteously, rather than going along with it and doing you such shame, then afterward blaming Guqiu for not helping me cover it up, and even speaking harshly to Guqiu over this matter, stripping her of all dignity, until she hanged herself."

"No, no!" Wang Shuying said hurriedly. "How can this be blamed on the Seventh Master? It was Sister Guqiu—she was too harsh, with others and with herself..."

"I once thought so too." Her father smiled and cut Wang Shuying off. "But when I think of what Guqiu said to me before she died..." He paused slightly. "I feel that Guqiu was indeed right. It was my own mind that was foul; I did wrong, yet all I knew was to blame others, expecting them to clean up my mess..."

"Seventh Master!" Wang Shuying looked as though she could not bear to hear him blame himself. "Do not say such things. When you speak like this, my heart aches all the more..."

"Enough, enough, let us speak no more of it!" Her father smiled at her words and said, "Say what we will, Guqiu cannot come back." As he spoke, he drew from his sleeve a sapphire-blue pouch embroidered with magnolias. "Inside are bank notes worth three thousand taels. Take them and go home with your brother. If in the future there is anything you need my help with, send word to me, and whatever I can do, I will not refuse. I will care well for Ming; I will not favor Shouyuan over her or her over Shouyuan. Go home with peace of mind. Do not learn from those sour, bitter women and go off to cultivate in some temple. If you meet a good family, then marry. If one day you miss Ming, quietly send someone to tell me, and I will have Shouyuan take her to offer incense at the temple or to visit relatives at Fifth Brother's house, and you may look at her from afar—that will be enough to fulfill the bond between mother and daughter. And if, when Ming is grown, you still wish to acknowledge her, I will tell her of her origins..."