Chapter 336 — The Warning

Chen Jia walked out of the Ying Zhenguo household and could not help glancing back at its side gate.

Two gatekeepers were watching him and murmuring to each other.

His face darkened at once.

Hu Zi, who had been waiting outside, came running up and asked anxiously, "Elder Brother, did it work?"

"We will talk when we are back," Chen Jia said with a sullen expression, and quickly left the lane of the Ying Zhenguo household.

Did it work?

More likely he had outsmarted himself this time.

The New Year was approaching, yet the Emperor had suddenly decided to spend some days at the Western Garden, and each of the imperial guards had been ordered to accompany him with one of their battalions. The heir of the Guang'en Count had fought for that opportunity—but that did not mean that a few days at the Western Garden with the Emperor would somehow brainwash the sovereign into loathing the heir of the Duke of Yingguo and withdrawing his favor forever. The heir of the Duke of Yingguo had likely long since made up his mind. His warning would be like the antics of a clown, not merely too petty for the stage, but certain to make him look like a man scrambling after quick gains—and to ruin the good impression he had already made on the heir of the Duke of Yingguo and his wife.

Yet he had no choice but to take this path.

For so many days now, he had truly been unable to think of anything that the wife of the heir of the Ying Zhenguo household might need. He could not simply stand by and watch a connection he had worked so hard to build wither away, could he?

So he had been left with no choice but to make an issue of the heir of the Duke of Yingguo's safety.

And the heir's wife had indeed received him at once...

He clenched his fist without meaning to.

If only he had thought it through more carefully.

He had been too reckless this time.

Thinking of Dou Yan's face, calm as still water, Chen Jia was filled with deep regret.

Dou Yan left the small flower hall, but instead of returning straight to the inner chamber, she turned a corner and climbed the Taihu-rock grotto not far behind it.

She sat in the pavilion atop the rock and gazed out at the Osmanthus Court.

The Osmanthus Court had terraces and waterside pavilions, and trees growing thick upon one another; as the maids walked along the winding covered corridors, one could glimpse only the hems of their red or green skirts through the gaps in the foliage. It had all the secluded depth of a courtyard folded within courtyards, deep beyond fathoming.

Dou Yan gave a cold smile.

She leaned close to Suxin's ear and gave her instructions.

Suxin was aghast. "Is that—is that all right?"

"If he plays the first move, he had better not blame me for making the fifteenth," Dou Yan said, her eyes icy. "You know as well as I do what he did to the heir."

Suxin answered respectfully and helped Dou Yan down from the rockery.

Back in the inner chamber, Dou Yan's brows and eyes carried a smile, and her manner was gentle.

Zhao Zhangru asked, "What did that man surnamed Chen want with you?"

The aunt—who had been unpicking an old garment with Ganlu—also set down her work and looked at Dou Yan.

Dou Yan smiled bitterly to herself and said, "A friend of Lord Chen's holds a post in the Five Wards Commandery. He wanted to meet with the heir, and so he came to me with the request."

Zhao Zhangru said scornfully, "So he was asking the heir for a promotion, to get rich!"

The aunt, however, said to Dou Yan in a warm voice, "Affairs of officialdom are a tangled business! Sometimes a man comes to you with a request; refuse him and you make an enemy, agree and you drag yourself into the mire. And sometimes a man is plainly your foe, yet at the critical moment he will stand at your side and see you through the hardship. I can see that the heir is a most steady man, and that he holds you in great respect. You should not meddle in such matters—let the heir have the final word in all things, for the rest of your life."

Dou Yan nodded again and again.

The aunt had always considered Dou Yan a clever and dutiful child, and said no more. She had Ganlu gather up the several old garments she had unpicked and said, "Later I will take these back to my room to cut out the pieces."

Ganlu asked in surprise, "Does the aunt have no scissors? Let me fetch you a pair right away."

"No, no!" The aunt stopped her with a smile. "These days it is best not to bring out knives or scissors in front of Shouyuan."

Ganlu pursed her lips and smiled.

Zhao Zhangru said, "There is such a rule? How is it I have never heard of it?"

The aunt reflected that Dou Yan was three years younger than her own daughter, yet had to fend for herself in everything, while her daughter had been born into comfort and never knew it, was lazy and unwilling to learn anything, and whenever trouble came could only raise a fuss without putting her mind to work. Some displeasure rose in her heart, and she snapped, "What do you know of anything but eating?"

Seeing her mother fly into a temper again, Zhao Zhangru hurried to hide behind Dou Zhiwei and protested in a small voice, "But eating is a skill too—Father said so!"

Dou Yan could not help laughing.

Behind the curtain a little maid announced in a high voice, "The heir has returned!"

The aunt shot Zhao Zhangru a fierce glare, then put on a smile and rose to her feet.

Because they were kin by marriage, Song Yan came in and paid his respects to the aunt, then withdrew, and only after the evening meal, when the aunt and Zhao Zhangru had returned to the guest rooms, did he come back to the inner chamber.

Dou Qu asked him, "Where did you take your evening meal? What did you eat? Did you eat well? What did you do all alone in the outer court? Were you very bored?"

As the words left her mouth, her heart caught.

Ever since she had married Song Yan, he had stayed by her side whenever he came home from the office; this was the first time he had merely greeted her and gone off to the outer court.

After she married Song Yan, he had stayed by her side whenever he returned from his duties; this was the first time that he had merely greeted her and gone off to the outer courtyard.

In great households, is it not always so—the women keep to the inner courtyards, the men to the outer, and only at night, when a man wishes to rest in the principal chamber, do husband and wife set eyes on each other?

In the old days, when Wei Fan had no official duties, he still had to spend every day paying calls on one person or another, and had no time to stay home; Song Ke was only an assistant commissioner of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and moreover garrisoned the North City garrison office, so the people he knew were beyond counting—and yet he spent every day at her side...

Dou Chi took Song Zhi's arm and said, "My aunt and cousin will be staying with us a while longer. If you get bored, just invite your friends over to amuse yourself at home, or go out and socialize with them. Don't sit alone in the outer courtyard, all by yourself, with no one even to talk to."

Song Sui laughed. "Why does that sound to me like you're tired of having me at home?"

"Who's tired of having you at home?" Dou Xin said, her voice especially soft. "Aren't I just afraid you'll be bored all alone?"

Hearing this, Song Yan felt his heart surge with emotion.

He said gently, "There's no fun in going out to socialize either—it's either drinking with singsong girls or listening to ballads, all noisy and clamorous. I'd rather stay at home!"

Dou Yan thought of the unfamiliar powder-and-perfume scent that occasionally clung to Wei Fan...

It seemed men's social engagements were much the same everywhere.

If such a scent should cling to Song Yan as well...

The thought was no more than a flash, yet her heart churned as if in a storm, and she could not help but bend over the washbasin and retch.