Chapter 1470: The Biggest Flaw

Based on Dou Shu's description, the Dou family didn't seem to have much money; otherwise they wouldn't be eyeing the original wife's dowry. Preparing only three thousand taels of dowry for a legitimate daughter's marriage truly doesn't befit a country squire. The birth mother had a dowry of twenty thousand taels, so the daughter should have had at least around ten thousand taels, if not equal.

Unless they had truly fallen on hard times, truly had no money.

But...

Judging from Dou Anzhi's study experience, he was clearly someone who wasn't short on money!

Why did he become poor after taking office?

Eunuch Wang Hai nodded, then shook his head. "By rights the Dou family should still have money. After all, their ancestors were once wealthy, and a spendthrift doesn't burn through it that fast. But the Dou family's current situation suggests they shouldn't have much money. No one knows where the money went."

High-end spending comes in only a few varieties: buying houses and land, jewelry and ornaments, daily extravagance, entertaining guests, a spendthrift, investment losses...

After investigation, none of these fit the Dou family!

The Dou family's daily expenses were normal, nothing you could call extravagant. They rarely entertained guests either—most of their relatives had nearly died off, and they didn't keep up frequent contact with old schoolmates. Their investments were all small-scale, small-time deals; no massive losses. They did buy some houses and land, but in limited amounts—not enough to bring about ruin.

Besides, land produces income. Under normal circumstances, there would be an annual return! Enough to cover a large portion of expenses.

So Wang Hai felt the Dou family shouldn't be as strapped for cash as they appear now; they ought to have money. Not necessarily rich, but at least not in a situation where a daughter's dowry is only three thousand taels—truly embarrassing!

Chen Chen Guanlou thought for a while, then turned back to the servant. "Have you looked into the whereabouts of that manservant?"

"We really did look into it! You asked for every detail, that everyone who appeared around him had to be investigated. I took your money, so I certainly had to do the job thoroughly! That's also why it's taken so long. We surmise the manservant disappeared on the road when Dou Anzhi returned to his hometown to observe mourning leave for his parent's death. Whether he died or ran off, we don't know.

Now, all the servants around Dou Anzhi were bought one after another after the manservant disappeared. Not a single one of the old servants from before the mourning leave could be found—we estimate they all died off.

But we retraced the route Dou Anzhi took back to his hometown, and hey, people really did remember the master and his man. After all, a master and servant who look like blood brothers is rare indeed. We also found the relay station's registry from over a dozen years ago, with lodging records and personnel counts.

When he first left the capital, Dou Anzhi had seven people with him. But by the time he left Princess Qingyang's jurisdiction, only five remained. Two people vanished—definitely within Princess Qingyang Prefecture's boundaries. My people are still combing the Princess Qingyang Prefecture area, hoping to find a lead and confirm the manservant's whereabouts."

"The remaining five people—none of them could be found either?"

Chen Chen Guanlou asked.

"Couldn't find them! No news at all. The only thing we can confirm is that these five people followed him back to the Dou family's ancestral home. They were still there until Dou Anzhi's wife passed away. After Dou Anzhi's wife died, the people disappeared. We asked the neighbors around the Dou family, and none of them could say clearly. Many of them didn't even remember Dou Anzhi having five servants."

Chen Chen Guanlou understood in his heart.

Every action carried the whiff of silencing witnesses by killing them—deeply guilty conscience!

"How did Dou Anzhi's wife die?"

"They say she died of illness. We asked the attending physician. Apparently it started as an ordinary cold; she took medicine but didn't improve, and instead grew more gravely ill. They said it was pent-up emotions, too much on her mind, bad for the body. Later she took to her bed and never got up—gone!"

"After all this investigation, have you reached a conclusion?" Chen Chen Guanlou wanted to know an outsider's judgment, to have a third-party perspective render a verdict on the matter for his reference.

Wang Hai thought for a moment. "Dou Anzhi is something of a contradiction. His life divides into two phases—before the mourning leave, and after. The difference between the two is quite large. Still, with so many people dying in his household in just a few years, a change in him is only normal."

Right—that's exactly it!

Too many people died, which neatly explains why the before and after don't match. Every change can be chalked up to the family's fortunes declining and too many relatives passing away. With an explanation like that, no one would feel comfortable continuing to suspect or press further!

Colleagues, old schoolmates, and fellow townsmen even had to avoid mentioning the past in front of him, lest it stir up painful memories.

So is the current Dou Anzhi actually the manservant impersonating him?

Chen Chen Guanlou judged there was a sixty percent chance it was an impersonation.

The remaining forty percent depends on Eunuch Wang Hai's ability to find the 'manservant's' or 'Dou Anzhi's' corpse in Princess Qingyang Prefecture! Once the body is exhumed, even if it's reduced to dry bones, an experienced coroner can still tell them apart.

For instance, the bones of someone who labored for years are certainly different from those of a young master from a wealthy family. Years of labor will leave marks on the bones.

Bones that grew up in comfort would look yet another way.

"Are the manservant and Dou Anzhi the same height?"

Eunuch Wang Hai, hearing this, looked completely baffled.

"Why do you ask that?"

"Just tell me—are they the same height, the same build?"

Eunuch Wang Hai tried to recall the investigation report, and for a moment actually couldn't remember—he hadn't paid attention to such trivial details.

"Forgot! Tomorrow I'll have the investigation report sent to you, you can look yourself. From the preliminary investigation, Dou Anzhi has no major issues. His embezzlement was within the rules. The only thing that draws attention is that his second marriage was to a young lady from a humble family, who reportedly used to be a maid! No concern for family standing at all—truly admirable!"

Eunuch Wang Hai clicked his tongue in admiration. His first wife was a lady from a great household, and at that time he was merely a xiucai. For his second marriage, he'd already passed the jinshi exam and was a court official—yet he married a woman from a humble family! Baffling!

To this day, no one can figure out what the Dou fellow was thinking.

Could it really be true love?

But his second wife really was a bit hard to show off—true to her humble origins, she was gossipy, stingy, mean, loved to take small advantages, cared desperately about face, and even when caught red-handed would die before admitting it!

In short, a complicated story.

It was just that her face and figure were passable.

But according to the Dou family branch relatives, compared to his first wife, the second wife fell short in every way—including looks and figure.

This was a classic case of growing tired of fine dining and craving something plain and coarse.

Can't understand what kind of taste that is!

Chen Chen Guanlou, however, laughed. All the contradictions before and after, all the suspicions, could be chalked up to the family's decline and the passing of relatives. Only the choice of a second wife was the biggest flaw.

Could this really be the choice of an arrogant scholar, a young master from a wealthy family, a successful man who'd passed the jinshi exam at a young age? Even if he wanted a taste of plain porridge and simple dishes, taking a concubine would have sufficed—why marry her as a wife?

Did he really not want to make it in officialdom anymore?

Did he not need wifely social networking anymore?

How could a wife from a humble family conduct wifely social networking in Jingcheng, where high officials are everywhere?