Chapter 13 — The Quarrel

The moment Third Aunt left, Mother glared at Father, her gaze as cold as a blade. Father glared right back without the slightest flinch, as savage as a cornered beast.

The air in the room turned sharp and explosive in an instant.

Dou Yan's small figure shrank into the bed curtain, listening to her parents tear into each other.

"Zhao Guqiu, what exactly do you want? Am I not humiliated enough for you?"

"What do I want? I'd like to ask you the same—what do you want? Taking the daughter of a disgraced official as a concubine! Where did all your reading of the sages go? Do you mean to destroy the Dou family's century of clean reputation and the toil of generations in one stroke? You may not mind the shame, but I still have a face to keep!"

Father was red with fury. "We grew up together—don't you know what kind of man I am? And at a time like this, instead of helping me, you drag me back and invite Second Aunt over to laugh at me! What kind of wife are you? If my name is ruined, do you think you'll come off any better? Have you forgotten—husband and wife are one flesh! And you call yourself a virtuous wife! A good thing your mother passed early—if she could see you now, who knows how heartbroken she'd be."

"Dou Huaiying, scold me if you must, but why drag my mother into it?" Mother was weeping with rage. "So you remember we grew up together—then do you also remember how my mother treated you? Do you remember what you told me before we married? You have no shame! If you think I'll cover for you, you can forget it!"

Father wilted like a vegetable hit by frost, a flicker of discomfort crossing his face. "I... I didn't mean to bring up your mother. Must you be so unforgiving once you have the upper hand? I'm only like this because you drove me to it." Then, recalling old grievances, he grew angry again. "Bao Shan only dragged me off for a cup of flower wine, and you glare at him like a tiger. When he comes to our house, you don't even offer him a decent cup of tea, and I'm left to be sneered at by all my schoolmates..." The more he spoke, the angrier he became. "You only know how to blame me—why don't you think about yourself? If your temper were a little gentler, would I have needed to go consult Third Brother?"

Mother trembled with rage, wiping at her tears in a fluster. "You do wrong, and you still dare blame me! What good is that Feng Baoshan? Apart from whoring, gambling, and drinking, what can he do? At the year-end examination, if the education commissioner hadn't shown Uncle some face, he'd have been stripped of his degree long ago. And you're the only one who runs around with him day and night—you're no better than he is!"

Father was choked speechless, and only after a long while did he mutter, "Well... well, you still shouldn't carry on like this!"

"What would you have me do?" Mother demanded shrilly. "Throw open the gates and welcome Wang Shuying in? I may have that magnanimity—does she have the fortune to deserve it?" She gave a cold laugh. "Dou Huaiying, let me say this here and now: any woman in the world you wish to take, take her—but if Wang Shuying wants through that door, it will be over my dead body!"

"You... I..." Father pointed at her, his arm shaking, and for a long time could not finish a single sentence.

Mother smiled scornfully and drew herself up straighter.

So husbands and wives could quarrel like this!

This was her father, who always put on such a sanctimonious air?

How like a child he was!

Dou Yan stared, dumbfounded.

She had never once quarreled with Wei Fan.

At first she had not dared; later she had disdained to.

Father lowered his head and said softly, "Guqiu, let's not quarrel anymore, all right?" His voice was sorrowful. "This whole business is my fault, and Yingxue has been dragged down by me too. Otherwise, why would a decent girl from a respectable family have to suffer such humiliation? Besides, Yingxue and I have already agreed—she'll go live at the country estate from now on." He lifted his head, a trace of hope in his eyes. "We'll be as we were before, all right? From now on I'll listen to you in everything, and I'll never go out with Bao Shan again..."

Good!

Dou Yan nearly could not keep herself from leaping out from behind the bed curtain to answer for her mother.

In a quarrel between husband and wife, what could better show a wife's place in her husband's heart than the husband being the first to bow his head?

Since Wang Shuying was with child, and given Father's character, he must be dead set on taking her in. Better to seize the moment and give him a way down from the scaffold—not only would it show her own generosity and virtue before the Dou elders, but it would also win Father's heart, and in future disputes between them she could use this to hold him to account.

One arrow, three hawks!

And a broken mirror made whole again, seams and all, was still a mirror in the eyes of the world.

Wang Shuying need only look at it once, and her heart would twist like a knife.

Then have Wang Shuying sign a deed of sale and banish her to the country estate.

Whether Father spoke from the heart now or not, a promise he made himself—surely he could not go back on it?

So long as Father did not change his word, Wang Shuying would have to languish on that estate. And everyone would see exactly what Wang Shuying amounted to in the Dou household!

And even if Father wanted to renege, there was no fear of that.

Then she would take Wang Shuying visiting from house to house.

You, Wang Shuying—aren't you the descendant of a famous scholar? To degrade yourself so, to be another man's concubine—we shall see what face the Wang family has left to show the world!

Could anything be more satisfying than that?

Even if Wang Shuying one day talked Father round, Mother held her deed of sale, the order of wife and concubine stood fixed, and with an elder like Dou Juan to back her—could the woman still overturn the heavens?

Dou Yan nearly laughed aloud.

But at her ear rose Mother's shrill cry: "Yingxue! Yingxue! How tenderly you say it! Since you two have settled everything behind my back, why come to me at all? 'A decent girl from a respectable family'—Dou Huaiying, you have the gall to say such a thing! Would a decent girl from a respectable family come knocking on a man's door to offer herself as a concubine? Would she shamelessly seduce another woman's husband? If she's a decent girl from a respectable family, then I suppose there's no one left in this world who isn't filthy and impure! She feels humiliated, does she? Then let her find some place that doesn't humiliate her..."

Listening, Dou Yan was so frantic she wished for three heads and six arms so she could cover her mother's mouth.

A quarrel, like a speech, must have a point!

What use was there in going round and round over all this?

The thing to do was to nail down Father's promise, and quickly.

But before she could act, Father had already roared in a towering rage, "What more do you want from me? This won't do, that won't do! You think you can do anything because you have the elders at your back? Don't imagine I don't dare touch you! It's only out of respect for the bond we've shared since childhood..."

"If you still respected the bond we've shared since childhood, you would never have done such a filthy thing!" Mother was not to be cowed, her face full of contempt. "Yes, I have the elders of my family at my back—what are you going to do about it? If you have the ability, then go around me and bring Wang Shuying through that door!"

"You—you..." Father, stung into a fury, bellowed, "I—I... I'll divorce you!"

Mother froze.

"What did you say?" Her face went white in an instant. "You want to divorce me!" Mother could not believe her ears as she stared at Father. "For the sake of Wang Shuying, you would actually divorce me..."