Chapter 313 — In Person

There was another figure, too—one that, once Song Zhi's carriage had vanished, turned and made its way to an inconspicuous little alley in the south of the city.

"Brother Chen!" The figure knocked at the door. "It's me—Huzi!"

The door creaked open, revealing Chen Jia's plain, ordinary face and the sharpness of his gaze.

"Get in, quick!" Unhurriedly he drew the man into the courtyard, though his words came taut with tension. "Did anyone notice you?"

"No one!" Huzi said in a low voice. "I followed from a good distance—they couldn't have spotted me."

Chen Jia grunted an acknowledgment. He and Huzi went inside.

After downing two full bowls of water in one go, Huzi reported to Chen Jia where Song Zhi had been these past days.

Chen Jia's eyes showed his puzzlement. "So it really was the madam who went with the heir to the country estate that day?"

Huzi nodded vigorously. "And these past few days the heir seems to have been running about on the madam's account. He called up more than twenty guards, then suddenly left them all kicking their heels in the courtyard and escorted the madam back to her natal home. The people he's been dealing with are all from the madam's family."

That makes it a hard nut to crack!

Chen Jia paced about the room.

He prided himself that if he could just bend his back a little, he could make a bosom friend of anyone, monk or Daoist alike—but this matter of women and children...

So Huzi spoke up. "Sir, why not take a second wife? If you did, at least you could strike up some sort of kin tie with one of the respectable wives about the madam—and wouldn't that give you an opening?"

Now that was a good idea.

Chen Jia's eyes lit up. An idea had taken shape, and he instructed Huzi: "All I've heard is that the madam is the fourth young lady of the Dou family of the North Tower. The daughter of Wang Yousheng, the Yunnan provincial governor, is the madam's stepmother, and this Lady Wang is with the seventh master of the Dou family in the capital. But the fourth young lady stayed on in Zhending all along, and when it came time for her to marry, her half sister pulled that switch on her. You go to Zhending and make a thorough inquiry into the madam's background—which of the household has a voice that counts with her? What foods does she favor, what clothes and ornaments? What are her likings... Find out as much as you can."

Huzi answered "Yes, sir" with a grin, supped at Chen Jia's, and left the capital that very night.

Dou Yan waited at home for Song Yan. It was not until lamp-lighting time that Song Yan returned.

She hurried out to meet him and asked, a little anxiously, "What did the Song family say?"

"They surely can't turn themselves around all at once," said Song Yan. "By tomorrow, I expect someone will have come round." Then he added, "And if they don't come round, I say we find some other way for your cousin, don't you think?"

Dou Yan did not follow.

Song Yan kept her guessing. "You'll know tomorrow!" Then he told her, "Have the kitchen fix me something to eat—just the sort of thing I had at noon in the Yunqi Temple alley will do to line my stomach."

Dou Yan was startled. "How is it you still haven't had your evening meal?"

"After I came out from Mr. Song's," said Song Yan, "I went into the palace. Bringing over that many men—I may have used the Five Wards Armed Forces Command as my excuse, but the excuse had to be dressed up properly. So I went to see the Emperor and put the roster of those few men before His Majesty for him to look over, so that later no one can pour poison in the Emperor's ear about me."

Showing them to the Emperor...

Dou Yan's eyes went wide. "And what did the Emperor say?"

Song Yan smiled at her. "As it happens, the Emperor and I were of the same mind—we both settled on those three."

Dou Chi could not help laughing.

Song Yan sighed with feeling. "If only my aunt had none of those prejudices about family standing! When a scholar's family takes a live-in son-in-law, the change of surname inevitably invites the charge of forgetting one's ancestors; even if he could sit the spring examination, no one would be willing to take him as a protégé. But it is different with the noble houses—they advance by hereditary privilege to begin with, so they care nothing for such things; on the contrary, the wife's family line can carry on..."

Otherwise, he would never have gone looking for a husband for Zhao Zhangru among the personal guard.

Dou Yan took his arm and teased, "My thanks for your hard work, heir!"

"Good that you know it!" Song Yan said outright. "I'm worn out today!"

Suxin and the other maids who had come out with Dou Yan to meet him all lowered their heads and smiled.

After the evening meal, they washed and changed, and the two lay in bed whispering.

"What made you think of testing Song Qianli on the examination essays?"

"I botched it the first time—I couldn't very well botch it a second, could I?" said Song Yan. "Isn't my aunt looking for a young man from a scholarly family? What if she quizzes him on his learning the moment they meet?"

Dou Yan pursed her lips and smiled. "The examinations test poetry and prose too—why didn't you go on and test him on poetry as well?"

Seeing her smile so sweetly, Song Yan could not help pinching her nose. "I'd have liked to—but looking at that dull, wooden look of his, how could any poem he wrote compare with the romance and allure of one I'd write for my wife?"

Dou Yan began to tease and spar with him.

"Romance and allure, is it?" She nibbled at his ear. "Compose one and let me hear it!"

Song Yan truly loved this side of Dou Yan.

He turned and pinned her beneath him, murmuring suggestively at her ear, "You really want me to?"

"I really do!" Dou Yan eyed him sidelong.

Song Yan gave a soft laugh and murmured, "The lush branches are quick to scatter and fall"...Her garments slipped away...his hand made sport in the hidden valley..."tender buds confer, opening little by little"...

Dou Yan's face was like the glow of dawn...

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Sisters, here is today's update.

o(n_n)o~

ps: I'll only be able to catch the bugs tomorrow... Please, I beg you for pink votes!