Chapter 213 — The Startled Snake

"Yes!" Gu Yu laughed. "The Ying Town Defender's Estate is illustrious, and Princess Jingyi has reached marriageable age. My aunt never even considered it—I hear it was Consort Ning who petitioned the Emperor, and now my aunt is full of regret. But in the end, it's still uncertain whether Tianci will wed Princess Jingyi or Princess Jingfu. In any case, a princess it will be." He added teasingly, "Tianci is in a terrible stew now—my aunt is the most protective of her own, you see, and he's afraid he'll be matched with Princess Jingyi, so he's asked me to go into the palace and put in a word for him before my aunt. He's even promised to buy me a house by Shichahai once it's done..."

How could Wang Yu sit still any longer!

"In that case, I'll hurry and get the silver together for Yan Tang."

He gulped down a hurried meal with Gu Yu and rushed home, grabbing a young servant and demanding, "Where is the Marquis?"

The servant answered at once, "The Marquis is speaking with Master Tao of the Yingzhengguo Estate!"

At that, Wang Yu broke out in a sweat of panic and hurried to the study where the Marquis of Yan'an received guests. He called over the servant attending outside the study: "Go in and announce me at once. Tell him I have an urgent matter and beg him, no matter what, to come out and see me. I will wait for His Lordship in the small study at the back."

The servant answered and went off.

Wang Yu waited anxiously in the small study for his father.

Before long, the Marquis of Yan'an came in, his face wreathed in smiles.

"Dahai, what is so urgent?" he said with great satisfaction. "The Yingzhengguo Estate has come to our house with a marriage proposal again. They offered a betrothal gift of twenty thousand taels of silver, which shows how highly they regard your sister, or so I reckon. We cannot let your sister be looked down upon by the Song family either, so I plan to prepare a dowry of forty thousand taels for her. I was just about to find you to discuss the matter..."

"Father," Wang Yu interrupted anxiously, dismissing all the servants attending in the room and even instructing them to "serve the tea later," then lowered his voice and told the Marquis of Yan'an what he had just heard. "How did your talks with the Yingzhengguo Estate go? Have you agreed?"

"That cannot be!" The Marquis of Yan'an stared blankly, and only after a long while managed to say, "Song Yantang is the heir of the Yingzhengguo Estate. How could he possibly marry a princess? In earlier years it might have been possible, but in recent years, what family would want their son to marry a princess?"

"Do not forget, the father and son of the Song family are hardly on good terms!" Wang Yu reminded his father.

The Marquis of Yan'an saw the light all at once.

Wang Yu pressed him: "Have you given the Song family your word?"

The Marquis of Yan'an looked embarrassed.

Wang Yu thought for a moment, then said, "A few days ago, did not the family of Dai Tianyi, the Right Commander of the Five Armies Command, send a matchmaker to propose marriage to our little sister? When you return to the study, say that you did not know Mother had already accepted the Dai family's matchmaker, and let the matter drop. In a few days, when the imperial edict comes down, the Song family will naturally understand what happened. Meanwhile, before the edict arrives, we will settle the match with the Dai family. If any rumors spread afterward, we can still keep ourselves out of it."

Had the Duke of Yingguo not suddenly proposed marriage to the Wang family, the Wang and Dai families would long since have settled the match.

The Marquis of Yan'an nodded and went to the reception study.

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"You are saying that the Marquis of Yan'an had already agreed, but the moment the heir returned, the whole thing changed?" Song Cen stared wide-eyed at Tao Jun, his face full of disbelief.

"Yes!" Having failed to accomplish even such a simple task, Tao Jun felt rather ashamed, as though he had no face to meet the elders of his native place, and said in a low voice, "Guiyuan has sent men to find out what happened. Word should come back within a couple of days."

"Make it quick!" Song Cen's face was dark. "I fear this is not so simple as it seems!"

Tao Jun lowered his head and assented with a complicated heart.

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In the side chamber allotted to Song Yan at the summer palace, Gu Yu lay on the large kang by the window, munching an apple and surveying the furnishings of the room. Clicking his tongue in admiration, he said, "It looks like the Emperor really does intend to take you as his son-in-law. Look at this chamber of yours, facing south with a northern exposure, spacious and bright. I doubt even Yao Shizhong lives as well as you."

The Emperor was at the summer palace; the Grand Secretary Liang Jifang had been ordered to assist the Crown Prince in overseeing the realm, while Yao Shizhong, Minister of Revenue and Grand Secretary of the Jinshen Hall, accompanied the Emperor at the summer palace to handle state affairs.

Song Ji, seated at the writing desk practicing calligraphy, smiled.

His writing could not, of course, compare with that of the Grand Secretaries who had passed the highest examinations, yet it excelled in its open, upright layout and its vigorous, handsome momentum, and the Emperor liked it very much. These days he was often summoned to copy sutras or travel accounts, and in his spare time he practiced calligraphy in his room.

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Sisters, brothers, I beg for pink votes!

o(n_n)o~

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