Chapter 333 — A Gift

He was lost in recollection, his expression vivid, his eyes bright. Some of his usual aloof dignity had fallen away, replaced by a boyish high spirits — like the lad from the house next door. Warm, earnest, real... and so very handsome.

Dou Yan pressed her lips together and smiled.

Song Yan, she suspected, would never in his life manage to be like a true boy next door!

She could not resist kissing Song Yan's cheek again.

He fell silent, watching her quietly, patiently waiting for her to speak.

"Nothing," Dou Yan said. "I was listening to you talk about the Jiang family!"

Song Yan smiled and went on: "My favorite thing was going with my fifth uncle to skate on Shichahai. But every time, Grandmother would fuss and insist I take along every one of my attendants. I knew why — she felt the Song family had only me and my brother left. She was afraid something would happen..."

Dou Yan gazed at Song Yan without blinking, a smile spilling across her face the whole while.

Skin against skin. He had reduced her to this helplessness.

Did that count, then, as another kind of losing oneself?

Song Yan suppressed the leap of joy in his heart and tried to make his tone sound utterly ordinary.

By comparison, he seemed to like it better when she was wholly absorbed, gazing at him with no thought for anything else.

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At first light the next day, Gu Yu came running over.

"Tianci, I'm off to Liaodong — have you anything you want me to carry to the Fifth Master?"

He wore a black fox-fur jacket and looked very pleased.

Song Yan handed Gu Yu several letters, then a large bundle: "The letters are for my fifth uncle. The bundle is food and some common plasters your sister-in-law prepared for you."

Hearing that Dou Yan had prepared something for him, Gu Yu gave an uncomfortable "Oh," and had an attendant take the bundle.

Song Yan could hardly let him go without a few parting words, and saw Gu Yu off in person.

Chen Yanzhou sought an audience with Dou Yan: "Old Master Tan heard that you had married, and specially sent the wife of the Tan juren to bring you congratulatory gifts..."

He asked whether she would receive the woman.

Quite apart from anything else, that child was still being raised in the Tan household. How could Dou Yan refuse to see her?

She went with Chen Yanzhou to the flower hall.

Madam Tan was about forty, fair-skinned and full-figured, with a round face like a full moon. She smiled before she spoke, and the sight of her put one immediately at ease.

"We are all neighbors from the same countryside, and Duan Bing has been in your care — you even sent birthday gifts when the Old Master celebrated his birthday. By rights, I should have come long ago to thank you in person," she said, smiling brightly at Dou Yan, warm and easy, "but the Seventh Master is in the capital, and we have never had much dealings with the Second Old Madam, so I could only keep my gratitude to myself. Now at last the Old Master heard that you had married into the capital and were a madam, and so he had us bring these congratulatory gifts. They are nothing fine, and late besides, but they are our heartfelt regards. I hope you will not disdain them." With that, she produced the gift list.

The Tan family had been able to live in seclusion all these years; they must have had some quality above the ordinary.

Dou Yan had no idea why the Tan family had suddenly come to call on her, but seeing that the gift list was only a thin sheet of paper, and that the Tan family was presenting the gifts as a return of courtesies, she thought it over and politely accepted the list.

Madam Tan then began telling her anecdotes of Zhending, and of all she had seen and heard along the way.

Dou Yan followed where Madam Tan's talk led, and the two laughed and chatted, the atmosphere harmonious.

After two cups of tea in this fashion, Madam Tan proposed going to visit Duan Bing's mother: "...Since I have come to the capital, I could hardly fail to pay my respects."

Dou Yan accompanied Madam Tan to the small courtyard where Duan Bing lived.

Duan's mother had difficulty moving about, so Duan Bing carried her out from the inner room on his back, and she received Dou Yan and Madam Tan in the main hall.

Madam Tan gave Duan's mother some medicinal herbs, said a few words about how Duan Bing was making something of himself and she should not worry but rest and recover, and then rose to take her leave.

It was as though she had come to the capital for no other purpose than to deliver Dou Yan's congratulatory gifts.

Dou Yan was somewhat surprised, but betrayed nothing as she saw Madam Tan out of Yizhi Hall.

On the way back she asked Chen Yanzhou: "Do you know why Madam Tan came?"

Chen Yanzhou shook his head, equally puzzled.

Dou Yan told Ganlu to bring the Tan family's gift list.

It was nothing but the usual screens, porcelain, and the like — refined, but not what one would call precious.

"It seems we shall have to meet troops with generals and floods with earth dikes!" Dou Yan said with a sigh.

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Sisters and brothers, here is the update for August 29!

o(n_n)o~

ps: It is the end of the month, so I beg for pink tickets...