Chapter 260 — The Ninth Day

Dou Wenchang's wife, the Song family's First Madam, was twenty-five years older than Dou Yan and already past forty; the Sixth Madam, née Guo, and the Tenth Madam, née Cai, were in the prime of their bloom; but Han was in the very flower of her youth.

When Dou Yan entered the flower hall, Guo was seated with a smile in the grand armchair, keeping the First Madam and the already showing Han company in conversation, while Cai, attended by two maids, was admiring the calligraphy and paintings hung about the hall.

"The Fourth Young Madam has come," Guo said, rising at once to greet Dou Yan.

Hearing the stir, the First Madam and Han rose as well.

Dou Xu stepped forward to support Han. "You carry two lives now, do sit down, do sit down! Mind you do not disturb the child."

Cai, who had come over, laughed outright at this and teased Dou Yan: "The Young Madam has been married only a few days, and already she knows such talk as 'disturbing the child'!" There was a strong savor of mockery in it.

Unfortunately, the First Madam was intimate with Dou Chi and, moreover, prided herself on being the wife of the eldest grandson, so she merely smiled. Guo had never liked Cai's clamor and did not take her up. Han was sparing of speech by nature and somewhat upright in temper; the raillery in Cai's words did not sit well with her, and naturally she would not join in. For a moment the gathering fell rather cold — the first time such a thing had happened to Cai, who was famed for her readiness of tongue and was used to being praised. Her smile grew unavoidably awkward. But she had always been one to speak and act boldly, so she said at once with a laugh: "Seventh Uncle originally asked only Eldest Sister-in-law, Sixth Sister-in-law, and me to come and see you, but who would have thought Sixth Aunt would send Eleventh Sister-in-law along with us, saying she was uneasy and insisting she accompany us — as if Eldest Sister-in-law and I would gloss over things. No wonder everyone says the Young Madam is just like Sixth Aunt's own daughter; now I believe it." Thus she broke the awkwardness of the moment.

Dou Chiyou sighed inwardly.

That Cai could walk the Huai Tree Alley sideways — clearly it was not solely because she had borne two sons.

Dou Xin invited her several sisters-in-law from her maiden home to sit, exchanged some idle talk, kept them for the midday meal, then accompanied them about for a stroll, and by then it was the hour of you.

Cai was loud in praise: "No wonder everyone says the Young Madam married well. Setting all else aside, just think — no mother-in-law over her head. To have the running of the household in her own hands, that alone is the finest thing of all." Her envy was plain.

Dou Yan's face clouded at this, and she said: "As the saying goes, a household with an elder is a household with a treasure. Free and ungoverned as I am, with no one to manage me, still I must decide everything myself, and at times I cannot help but feel fearful and anxious. It is better, after all, to have an elder in the house."

The First Madam and Han nodded without cease.

Cai, however, was muttering to herself.

This was a flattery aimed squarely at the horse's leg... This Young Madam was truly hard to serve!

But at the thought that the Ying Duke of Dingguo's household was among the few noble houses of the present court, she had no choice but to press down her dissatisfaction and nod and murmur assent with a beaming smile.

Seeing the hour grow late, the First Madam smiled and took her leave of Dou Yan.

Dou Yan did not stand on ceremony and saw them to the hanging-flower gate.

She had just returned to her room, changed her clothes, and settled down when Song Yan came back.

Dou Yan could not help going out to meet him.

Song Yan happened to lift the curtain and enter.

Dou Xu said: "Must you go back to the palace?"

Song Yan started, then said hurriedly: "No need. I am on leave tomorrow, and the day after I enter the palace in the afternoon."

For some reason, Dou Yan felt her heart ease.

Seeing that Song Yan still wore the court robes he had worn the day he entered the palace, she ordered the maids to bring water to attend him in washing and changing, and said: "How are things in the palace? Shall I prepare a few changes of clothes for Chen He to carry, so you may change whenever you please?"

On the road back, Song Yan had been thinking all the while of what sort of scene it would be to see Dou Zhiwei again.

There were no other women in the household, and she knew no one in the capital — would she be very bored?

He had not been home, and he did not know whether his father had made things difficult for her.

Dou Yan, after all, bore the name of daughter-in-law; even if his father made things difficult for her, Yan Che and the others could hardly intervene.

Would she come to regret marrying him?

What he had never in ten thousand years expected was that, on returning home, he would be faced with a Dou Yan so calm, so at ease, so caught up in the trivial talk of household matters.

And yet this Dou Yan was precisely what set Song Yan's heart at rest.

"Things are quite fine in the palace. It was only that Her Majesty the Empress worried, and so she kept us all inside," he explained with a smile. "We are the Emperor's close attendants, and the palace has bathhouses set aside for us. Though I have no duty room of my own there, I do have a cabinet for my clothes and bedding, and there are servants who help air and sun them..."

Dou Yan nodded, took the court robes Song Yan had changed out of, and handed them to Suxin. She let the little maid attend him while he washed, and sat on the kang herself, turning over what he had just said.

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Song Yan is back... o(n_n)o~

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