Chapter 156 — Decision

Now, the future abbot of Puji Temple was still a guest-prefect monk, yet already knew to curry favor with the servants of a relative of the Dou cabinet minister. And if Ji Yong was indeed the future Yuantong of the Great Longshan Huguo Temple... he was presently lodged in the Hesheng Hall of the Dou household, preparing for next spring's imperial examination...

Are those fated to meet, then, often already intertwined before anyone is aware of it?

The more Dou Yan thought about it, the more she was convinced that Ji Yong was almost certainly that Master Yuantong.

But what on earth had Ji Yong been up to these past few days?

Ever since the day he had flung his sleeves and stormed off, she had paid him no heed, and he had not shown himself before her again.

Dou Yan was hesitating over whether to go and see Ji Yong when Ganlu's voice suddenly came from outside: "Young Master Ji..." The words had scarcely left her lips when they turned to alarm. "What are you doing..."

The warm door curtain swayed. Ji Yong strode in with the greatest of ease.

He wore only a blue brocade robe, snowflakes still resting on his head and shoulders. Had his expression not been so unusually grave, she would surely have frowned and given him a thorough scolding.

"My lady!" Ganlu, close on Ji Yong's heels, looked at Dou Yan with an aggrieved air.

Dou Yan made a gesture for her to go and serve tea, then indifferently gestured toward the armchair beside her. "Cousin Ji, please sit!"

Ji Yong seemed not to notice in the least that there was anything amiss about himself. He nodded, but did not sit. Instead he stood there ramrod straight and said coolly, "I have made up my mind. Tomorrow I set out for the capital. I will rent a house near the Shuntian Prefectural School, shut my door, and study, and sit the spring examinations next year."

He had come on so aggressively that Dou Yan had never imagined he was here to tell her he had accepted her advice. She could not help but be stunned for a moment before she collected herself.

"That is very good!" she said, her expression unchanged. "Let me be the first to congratulate Cousin Ji on getting exactly what he wishes for, and on having his name proclaimed in the golden hall!" In her heart, though, she very much wanted to laugh.

This Ji Yong. Even when admitting a fault, he had to adopt a tone as though he were stooping to patronize her.

Seeing this, Ji Yong nodded with great satisfaction.

Dou Yan turned her face away and gave a soft cough, and only then managed to suppress the smile that had nearly reached her lips.

Ganlu came running in.

"My lady, my lady, Old Chen is back!"

"Ah!" Joy leapt to Dou Yan's brows. She hurriedly said to Ji Yong, "Sit for a while," and went out to meet them.

Through the wind and snow along the winding covered corridor, Chen Yanzhou and the others, clad in blue, drew nearer step by step.

A glint of moisture flickered at the corner of Dou Chiyou's eyes.

"My lady!" The party came to a halt beneath the side corridor, and Chen Yanzhou, stirred with emotion, gazed at Dou Yan and bowed deeply to her.

"Old Chen," Dou Yan said, a smile at the corners of her mouth, "you are finally back!" Then she carefully looked Duan Bing and Chen Lanxu up and down as they stood behind Chen Yanzhou and bowed to her. Seeing the two of them glowing with health, she nodded, her face wreathed in smiles. "It is good that you are safe!" Then she called to them, "Everyone, come inside and let us talk!"

The joy of reunion left every face wreathed in smiles.

The group was just about to usher Dou Yan inside when the warm curtain was lifted and Ji Yong stepped out.

Old Chen and the others were somewhat surprised.

Ji Yong, however, narrowed his eyes slightly, and his gaze fell upon Chen Yanzhou sharp as a blade.

"Old Chen?" He raised an eyebrow. "I hear you went to the capital to visit a friend. I wonder where in the immortal realms this esteemed friend of yours resides? And why, having gone to the capital, you did not call upon Seventh Master Dou? Truly a dragon whose head we see but whose tail we never glimpse!" There was a note of mockery in his tone.

Chen Yanzhou did not know that Ji Yong had been looking into him.

Had it been before, he would certainly have taken some offense. But after all that had happened at the Yingzhenguo Estate, he suddenly felt that compared with what Song had endured, these were trifles hardly worth mentioning.

"My friend lives in Daxing," he said with a calm smile. "Out of habit I called it the capital. I fear I have misled Young Master Ji. As for Seventh Master, I did call upon him too; it is only that I did not happen to encounter Young Master Ji." Concise and to the point, not a single word more.

Ji Yong grew all the more suspicious of Chen Yanzhou, but looking at Dou Yan's excited expression, he swallowed the words that had risen to his lips.

"Then I shall take my leave first!"

He swung his sleeves and went out of the main hall of the Western Dou.

From outside came Zishang's breathless voice: "Young master, young master, won't you at least throw on a cloak?"

Dou Chiyou smiled, and went inside with Old Chen and the others.

After Ganlu and the others had served tea, they quietly withdrew.

Old Chen began to recount what had befallen him in the capital these past days.

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Sisters, brothers, I still owe you one chapter of updates, and I have been keeping this matter in mind all along. It is only that these past few days have been too busy and I have had no time to make it up. I will do my best to think of something these next couple of days, and see whether I can ask for leave or the like...

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