Chapter 262 — Entering the Palace

This refers to the small garden. The small garden of Yizhi Hall covered some five or six mu, encircled by covered walkways, shaded by green trees. In the middle were two connected lakes, one large and one small; the large one like a bright full moon, the small one like a crescent. In the large lake stood an octagonal glazed pavilion, and beside the small lake a waterside pavilion, flanked on either side by two camphor trees thick enough to be encircled by both arms. It was a scene straight out of a Jiangnan garden, thoroughly elegant and secluded.

Dou Yan pursed her lips and smiled, asking Song Yan, "Where would be best to put up a flower shed?"

Since this was the heir's residence, the layout tended toward the severe and lacked a measure of grace, unlike the garden behind the main house of the Duke of Ying's estate with its small Buddhist shrine—that was the Duchess of Ying's residence, and it had not only a greenhouse but also rockeries built of Taihu stone, a nine-turn bridge of white marble, and a stage built right against the lake, every detail exquisite.

Song Yan pointed to a bed of peonies beside the waterside pavilion. "How about there?"

Dou Yan looked carefully. Only there could a shed be built without ruining the view before them. This was certainly not something he had thought up on the spot; he must have come to look long ago and made up his mind.

When a man of cold and solitary pride shows thoughtfulness and tenderness, it moves one all the more.

"Better not touch that bed of peonies," said Dou Zhiwei, a note of delight creeping into her voice before she knew it. "Come next spring, I'll interplant some tree peonies and camellias among them, and then we'll have flowers blooming all four seasons without fail. It would be a shame to build a shed there."

Song Yan said, vexed, "Then where should it go?"

Only now did he feel that Yizhi Hall was a little small.

Dou Xin said, "Isn't there a little back room behind the kitchen? I was thinking we might as well turn that back room into the flower shed. If we grow water radishes and little cucumbers, we can send them straight to the kitchen and save ourselves the trip all the way out here to pick them." She was joking.

Song Sui thought it over seriously, then laughed. "That's a good idea. Then that's what we'll do!" He called out loudly for Chen He and told him to buy stone and find craftsmen, and to ask around where seedlings of water radish and little cucumber might be sold, adding, "A little more expensive is no matter, so long as we can catch this season's planting."

To Chen He, this was simply making work where there was none.

Water radishes at five hundred coppers a basket, little cucumbers at a hundred and fifty a basket—whenever they wanted some, they had only to send word and the melon growers over at Fengtai would deliver them. Why go to the trouble of building a shed and hunting up seeds? And who knew whether anything would even grow... They would probably have to bring in a few maidservants just to tend the shed...

But he still answered "Yes, sir" respectfully and withdrew.

Song Ji consulted with Dou Yan. "What do you say we buy a house at Shichahai too? You could go and stay there every few days or so." That way they could set up a larger flower shed over there.

"We'll talk about it later," Dou Yan said in a low voice. "I've only just married in. If we start buying property outside, people will certainly gossip. And I have another thought. Your mother has only the two of you, you and Tian'en, in her bloodline. By rights we ought to be very close. These past days your father has been leaving early and returning late, never at home, and yet Tian'en dares not come pay me a visit—he only dares send me things in private. Clearly your father keeps him under very strict control, and having been doted on and raised by your mother and you, he cannot bear hardship. Given time, I fear his nature will only grow more timid and shrinking. I think that before I am formally granted my title, the best course is to hold still and let things change around us—to manage nothing and meddle in nothing. Once I am formally enfeoffed as 'Madam,' I will try to ask your father to give the running of the household back to me. First, so that I may properly attend to Tian'en's daily needs; second, so that through the small details I may learn what your father is doing. What he has done—leave these two matters to me. That will free your energies to keep watch on the great affairs of court. The Emperor's illness is a matter that can shake the very foundations of the state!"

Dou Yan truly was different from other women.

Song Yan nodded, his gaze holding undisguised admiration as he looked at her, which made Dou Yan rather uncomfortable—thankfully, Chen He came running up, panting.

"Young Master, Eunuch Wang—Wang Ge—has come," he said, wiping the sweat from his brow. "He says he comes by the Emperor's command, and that you are to bring your lady tomorrow morning to pay your respects to the Empress Dowager Yi and the Empress Yi."

So she was being summoned to have an audience with the Empress Dowager Yi and the Empress Yi!

In her last life, she had been a marchioness for more than ten years and had never known such an honor.

Dou Chi let out an "Ah."

Song Yan, however, frowned. "Why would they suddenly summon us into the palace?"

"I don't know," Chen He said in a low voice. "He says that the moment you left the palace, the Emperor began asking after you. When he learned you had returned home, the Emperor said nothing, and then the Empress Yi spoke up, saying that you had been worried about the Emperor all along—that you entered the palace three days after your wedding and did not leave until you knew the Emperor was safe and sound." Here he stole a glance at Dou Chu and lowered his voice even further. "The Empress Yi also said that you had simply left your bride at home like that, and that when you got back, no one knew whether your bride would shut you out at the door. Hearing this, the Emperor sent Eunuch Wang to deliver the message."

It should not be anything bad.

Dou Yan breathed a sigh of relief.

Song Yan asked, "Am I to receive the decree alone, or is my wife to come receive it with me?"

Although Dou Yan had not been formally enfeoffed as Madam, Song Yan had submitted the petition for her title a few days earlier, and following custom, the household addressed Dou Yan as "Madam."

"It's an oral decree," Chen He said. "Eunuch Wang has come to present his card."

Song Yan turned and nodded to Dou Yan. "I'll be back in a moment!"

"Let's go together," Dou Fan said with a smile. "After all, he is an inner eunuch from the palace; I ought at least to go and pay my respects. And in future I'll surely be going in and out of the inner palace—to know one more person is to make one more good connection."

Wang Ge, Eunuch Wang—Wang Yuan's adopted son. In her last life, after the Prince of Liao ascended the throne, he became the Grand Steward of Qianqing Palace. Though he could not match the power and standing of the eunuch who held the vermilion brush, he was nonetheless one of the Prince of Liao's trusted intimates. And he was notorious for his petty mind and his readiness to repay the smallest grudge.

Official families mostly looked down on eunuchs, thinking them incomplete in body and fond of meddling in state affairs, never reflecting that to the Emperor and Empress living within the forbidden palace, these eunuchs, who clung to them like vines, were closer to them than any Grand Secretary of the Grand Secretariat.

Song Yan thought Dou Yan's words very reasonable, and went with her to the main hall of Yizhi Hall.

Wang Ge was twenty-five or twenty-six, of neat appearance, with a pair of very lively eyes—one look and you knew he was a clever, quick-witted man.