Chapter 243 — The Bride Sets Out

Her aunt and Ji Shi nervously urged Dou Yan: "Sit up straight now!"

Another little maid ran in with word: "The Fourth Young Master's marriage matron has arrived."

Madam Zhao hurried out to greet her. After a few smiling pleasantries with the Lu family's eldest madam, she went into the inner chamber, exchanged a few polite words with the aunt and the others, and then she and Madam Lu helped Dou Yan out to the flower hall.

The Song family's escort and the Dou family's attendants, each with their own drums and pipes, crowded inside and outside the flower hall, which was soon a hubbub of noise and clamor.

Dou Chu's eyes found Song Yan at once, dressed in a robe of auspicious scarlet.

That vivid, dazzling color set off his fair face, flawless as the first snow. It seemed to have seeped into his eyes as well, making his pupils bright as the blazing sun.

Dou Chu was stunned.

This Song Yan she knew, and yet did not know.

Familiar was his usual restrained smile; unfamiliar was the brilliance of his bearing.

Like a crane standing among chickens, he made everyone around him seem colorless by comparison!

When had Song Yan... become so handsome?

Dou Yan was still pondering this when Madam Zhao's low voice came from beside her: "Time to take leave of your parents!"

She quickly gathered her thoughts and respectfully knocked her head three times before her father, who had washed and dressed anew and now looked neat and proper, his expression gentle.

Dou Huaiying gazed at his daughter, his face a tangle of feeling. Somewhat against propriety, he helped Dou Yan up with his own hands, and had just murmured, "In your new home, compliance shall be your rule," when his voice suddenly caught; he could not go on, and a glimmer of tears began to shine at the corners of his eyes, his reluctance plain for all to see.

No one had expected it.

When a daughter married out, it was usually the mother who could not bear to let go. A scene like Dou Huaiying's, they had never witnessed.

For a moment the flower hall fell silent.

Dou Zhiwei's tears would not be held back; they fell pattering.

She thought of her mother's death. She thought of how, when she was small, her father had doted on her with a fond smile when he caught her filching his treasures; she thought of how early his hair had turned white...

"Papa!" She knelt before her father and wept without a sound.

"Get up, get up!" Dou Huaiying clumsily dabbed at the tears on his daughter's face. "Today is your happy day—don't cry your makeup into a mess... The Yingzhen Duke's estate is so close to here; you can come home for every festival and holiday..."

But she would no longer be the daughter of the Dou family!

The good and the bad, the things she had once possessed and lost in this life—she had thought she would cast them behind her without a moment's hesitation, and yet now they had all become memories carved into her heart.

"Papa!" Dou Yan sobbed, unable to form words.

Zhao Zhangru and Madam Guo, both easily moved, began to weep softly along with her.

Song Yan watched the scene before him in great astonishment, though a flicker of envy passed through his eyes.

The ceremony had turned into a parting of life and death, steeped in grief.

Madam Lu and Madam Zhao, who had been intent on not delaying the auspicious hour, were the first to recover. Madam Zhao hurriedly pulled out a handkerchief to wipe Dou Yan's tears, while Madam Lu promptly produced the bridal veil and said with a smile, "The bride must board the sedan! The bride must board the sedan!"

Everyone came back to their senses.

Ji Shi called out to Dou Huaide: "Hurry and carry your Fourth Sister out to the sedan!"

Madam Lu quickly draped the veil over Dou Zhiwei's head and guided Dou Yan onto Dou Huaide's back.

Amid the crackle and pop of firecrackers bursting one after another, Dou Yan climbed into the bridal sedan.

From first to last, Dou Ming never appeared.

From first to last, Dou Yan never noticed Wei Fan standing far off beneath the eaves of the flower hall's veranda.

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Sisters, brothers, I've spent the whole three days of the Dragon Boat Festival rushing about for the house renovation. Luckily the three days of bonus chapters went out on schedule, but by today I'm truly worn out—posting a rough draft first, I'll proofread it later.

ps: Thank you all for the corrections. Only now did I realize I'd gotten the relationship between Song Cen and Lu Zhan wrong. It's been fixed.

o(n_n)o~

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