Fortunately, her father, Sixth Aunt, and mother’s sister had been very protective and hadn’t told her about Dou Ming’s situation. Otherwise, hearing about Dou Ming and Wei Tingyu attacking each other like fighting dogs would have surely made her lose her appetite.
Dou Zhao decided to comfort her father later.
However, Madam Cai said, “Fourth Miss, I heard from my mother-in-law that she plans to invite Wei Tingzhen over to talk on the fifth day of the New Year. Would you like to listen in? You could also give the Wei family a good scolding. It would show that you, as an elder sister, are protecting your younger sister.”
Everyone in the Dou family knew that Dou Ming and Dou Zhao’s relationship wasn’t good. Dou Zhao had said she didn’t plan to interact with Dou Ming but would maintain surface-level politeness for the sake of being Dou family daughters. But Madam Cai, coming from a scholarly background, felt Dou Zhao’s words were just a facade of magnanimity due to her status. She thought everyone would want to take advantage of such an opportunity, so she suggested Dou Zhao use this chance, while Dou Ming was struggling to keep her dowry, to appear benevolent by defending Dou Ming. This would give Dou Zhao the moral high ground, and even if Dou Ming resented her, she’d have to endure it.
Dou Zhao understood this perfectly well.
But she had no desire to be involved with Dou Ming at all.
She wouldn’t kick Dou Ming when she was down, nor would she suppress or harm her when she was doing well. Dou Zhao had her own good life to live and saw no need to worry or exert herself for Dou Ming’s sake.
“With Fifth Aunt and Sixth Aunt at home, how could it be my place, as a married daughter, to intervene?” Dou Zhao rejected Madam Cai’s suggestion. “If others saw, they might think our Dou family has no one left!”
The flattery had backfired.
Madam Cai felt a bit embarrassed.
Dou Zhao couldn’t be bothered with her and sat by the kang to listen to Sixth Aunt and her mother’s sister talk: “…At that time, there will be lantern markets on East Street, West Street, and at Changan Gate. It’s very lively. When I was young, I came to the capital once with my father, and what left the deepest impression was the capital’s lantern market. I still reminisce about it. Aunt, why don’t you take Zhangru to see it then? Such a grand spectacle isn’t common.”
They were discussing the Lantern Festival markets.
Zhao Zhangru looked at her mother with wide eyes, full of anticipation.
Her aunt smiled with a hint of regret, “There will be many people that day. It’s not convenient for me, a woman, to take her, a young lady, out. If only her father were here…”
Dou Zhao quickly said, “Aunt, leave this to me—Yizhitang has many guards!”
Her aunt hesitated but succumbed to Zhao Zhangru’s eager gaze, smiling, “Alright then! We’ll trouble the young lord then.”
“It’s no trouble at all,” Dou Zhao smiled, deciding to do a favor. “Who else wants to go? We can all go together.”
“I want to go!” Madam Cai, knowing her mother-in-law hoped they would get closer to Dou Zhao, immediately smiled and said, “I’ll go with your tenth brother and bring Ren’er and Fu’er along.”
Hearing their mother mention their names, the two little ones perked up their ears. Learning they could see lanterns on the Lantern Festival, they immediately cheered.
Dou Pingyuan wasn’t happy. She hugged her mother’s leg and called out softly to Madam Guo, “Mother, I want to go too, I want to go too!”
Madam Guo hesitated, tears glistening in her eyes as she looked at her daughter.
Just before the New Year, Dou Bochang’s concubine, Miss Bai, had given birth to his eldest son, Dou Yun.
Dou Pingyuan’s voice grew softer.
Dou Zhao sympathized with Madam Guo but was also angry at her lack of fight.
What was wrong with having a daughter? Didn’t daughters also carry Dou’s family blood? Were daughters necessarily less filial or sensible than sons?
Dou Zhao stroked Dou Pingyuan’s head and said to Madam Guo, “Tenth Sister-in-law, bring Pingyuan along too! I’ll assign more guards and experienced maids. They’ll take good care of Pingyuan.”
“Please, please!” Seeing her fourth aunt speaking for her, Dou Pingyuan became even more coquettish.
Madam Guo, in her difficult situation, was even more reluctant to disappoint her daughter.
She gave Dou Zhao a grateful look and smiled at Dou Pingyuan, “Then you must listen to the maids and not run around…”
“I’ll be good, I’ll be good!” Dou Pingyuan nodded her little head like a pecking chicken, making Dou Zhao’s heart ache to see.
On the way home, she leaned on Song Mo’s shoulder and asked, “If I keep having daughters, will you be good to them?”
Song Mo sensitively asked, “Did something happen? Did your sister-in-law look at some flowers or trees and say you’ll have daughters? Our family lineage is thin, even if they’re daughters, they’ll still be precious. Don’t overthink it.” He hugged Dou Zhao and continued, “Moreover, they’re our daughters, carrying both my blood and yours. They’ll surely be the smartest and most beautiful, incomparable to others! With many daughters, we can choose sons-in-law, bringing other families’ good sons into our family. They’ll bring us wine and tea during festivals. Those who have sons will envy us to death!”
Dou Zhao burst out laughing, “Stop trying to cheer me up!”
“I think so,” Song Mo smiled. “Imagine a house full of girls, it would be like looking at flowers every day, so pleasing to the eye. But a house full of boys, think about it, each one standing there all big and burly, what’s the point of that?”
Dou Zhao thought about it and realized he had a point. If they had several daughters and dressed them up nicely, wouldn’t it indeed be like looking at flowers?
“You’re trying to scare me now!” She smiled, pressing her lips together. “With my looks, there’s no way I could give birth to big, burly sons. If we did have big, burly sons, they must have taken after your Song family ancestors!”
“That’s impossible!” Song Mo said, “The Duke Ying’s mansion is famous for producing handsome men. When the founding emperor adopted our ancestor, it was because he was obedient and good-looking.”
“Really?” Dou Zhao laughed, turning his face towards her. “Let me see, where exactly are you handsome?”
Song Mo snorted disdainfully, putting on an air of noble aloofness.
Dou Zhao laughed heartily.
The couple returned to Yizhitang, joking and laughing all the way.
Only then did Dou Zhao remember about the Lantern Festival. She quickly spoke to Song Mo about it, and worried that Xia Lian and others might be busy then, she said, “It should be fine if I just have Duan Gongyi and Chen Xiaofeng accompany us.”
Song Mo thought for a moment and said, “Use Duan Gongyi and his team as guards. They’re more familiar with the Dou family and easier to work with. For the rest, leave it to Liao Bifeng. You don’t need to worry about it.” Then he asked curiously, “Aren’t you planning to go out for the Lantern Festival?”
Dou Zhao knew Song Mo had to be on duty at the palace that day. No matter how beautiful the capital’s lanterns were, it wouldn’t be fun to see them alone. She didn’t want to go out.
“In my condition, I’d better not squeeze in with them.”
Song Mo said nothing.
A few days later, Liao Bifeng came to see Dou Zhao and said, “I’ve reserved a private room on the second floor of Jude Inn. What does Madam think? Should we change to a different one?”
The private room on the second floor of Jude Inn had a view of East Street when the window was opened. One could enjoy the East Street lantern market without squeezing through the crowd on the street. To see the West Street lantern market, one would need to book a room at Wenxin Pavilion. As for Chang’an Street, because it faced Chengian Gate, there were no two-story buildings along the entire street to prevent people from peeking into the inner court. If one wanted to see the lanterns on Chang’an Street, they could only park their carriage near Yuhe Bridge and walk.
Having lived in the capital for over a decade in her previous life, Dou Zhao was very familiar with this. She didn’t wait for Liao Bifeng to finish explaining the differences between the locations before thanking him: “Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Liao! The private rooms on the second floor of Jude Inn are always in high demand during the Lantern Festival. It must have been quite difficult to secure one on such short notice.”
Liao Bifeng repeatedly said it was nothing, asked a few more questions about requirements, and then took his leave.
Dou Zhao sent someone to inform her aunt and the others about the arrangements for that day.
Knowing they could watch the lanterns from a private room, everyone looked forward to the Lantern Festival.
Madam Guo brought her daughter to pay New Year’s respect to Dou Zhao.
Dou Zhao was very surprised. She gave Dou Pingyuan some fruit to eat and had a maid take her to the back garden to see flowers. Only then did she sit down with Madam Guo on the kang.
Before she could speak, Madam Guo said, “Fourth Miss, don’t worry, nothing has happened at home. I just didn’t want to stay at home and came out for a walk. If I said I was going to someone else’s house, Mother would surely be unhappy, so I had to use your name as an excuse, saying you invited me to bring Pingyuan over for a visit.”
Dou Zhao understood Madam Guo’s feelings.
She was silent for a moment, then asked Madam Guo, “What are your plans?”
Madam Guo smiled bitterly, “What plans could I have? Just taking it one day at a time.”
Dou Zhao said, “You should think about Pingyuan! Girls usually learn from their mothers. No matter what, she is the Dou family’s legitimate young lady. With her grandfather being a Grand Secretary of the Cabinet, it would be easy for her to marry into any family as the main wife. But even so, she needs to be able to stand firm in her husband’s family. You might be able to live day by day like this, but Pingyuan can’t!”
Madam Guo pressed her lips together, suddenly covering her face and crying silently.
Dou Zhao got off the kang and said solemnly, “Sixth Sister-in-law, think carefully about what I’ve said. Isn’t this the truth?” With that, she left the inner room.
Ruo Zhu and the others immediately gathered around.
“It’s nothing!” Dou Zhao took a long breath and said, “Just listen for any movement outside. If Aunt has any requests, serve her well.” She then went to the back garden to look at flowers with Dou Pingyuan, eat snacks, bask in the sun, and have a thoroughly enjoyable time.
When Song Mo returned home, he saw her flushed face.
“You seem very happy today!” He embraced Dou Zhao and kissed her twice as usual, but was caught by Madam Guo, who had come out to greet Song Mo after hearing the commotion.
She let out an “Oh!” and retreated to the inner room.
Dou Zhao smiled gracefully.
Song Mo was even more thick-skinned than she had imagined. He calmly greeted Madam Guo, whose brows betrayed a hint of panic, as if she were the one who had been impolite.
Madam Guo could no longer stay and was prepared to leave with Dou Pingyuan.
Dou Pingyuan still remembered this fourth uncle who had been kind to her and cheerfully called out “Fourth Uncle” to Song Mo.
Song Mo was overjoyed. He praised Dou Pingyuan for being clever and well-behaved, held her while she ate two pieces of fruit, and rewarded her with a purse of gold beans before handing her back to her wet nurse.
Madam Guo looked thoughtful as she curtsied to Dou Zhao and Song Mo, then left for Locust Tree Lane with Dou Pingyuan.
Song Mo smiled, “Tomorrow I’ll have five consecutive days off. Leave the household matters to me.”
Tomorrow was the sixth day of the New Year.
The family banquets on the fourth and fifth days had concluded without incident, though in a somber atmosphere. Starting from the sixth day, Duke Ying’s mansion would begin hosting spring banquets.