Chapter 353 — Friends

Dou Huaide hurriedly gestured at Dou Yan to keep quiet, then said with a smile, "Whatever you do, don't tell Uncle Seven. Boyan slipped in quietly and is staying at the Yuanyen Temple; the people over on Huai Tree Lane still don't know a thing!"

Dou Yan was startled. "Has something happened? He's come to the capital, so why wouldn't he pay his respects to his elders? The New Year is nearly upon us—where is he staying? Who's looking after his food and lodging?"

Dou Huaide chuckled. "Boyan had originally planned to go back to Zhending for the New Year, but something came up with a friend of his who needed to come to the capital to settle matters, so he came along to keep him company. The two of them are staying together at the Gaosheng Inn in the Yuanyen Temple Lane."

Dou Yan sensed there was more to this than met the ear. She thought for a moment, then said, "Is his friend's business very troublesome? Boyan wants to help his friend but is afraid of putting Uncle Five in a difficult position, so he simply moved into the inn with his friend to wait and see which way the wind blows."

Dou Huaide sighed. "Why weren't you born a boy!"

"Are girls really so useless?" Dou Yan teased him. "In what way am I inferior to you?"

Dou Huaide just chuckled.

Dou Yan instructed Ganlu to fetch two ingots of snowflake silver and handed them to Dou Huaide. "Since he means to keep his identity hidden, I won't go visit him. If there's anything I can help with, have him send a servant boy straight to me."

Yuanyen Temple Lane lay to the west of the Shuntian Prefectural School, while the Yingzhen Ducal Manor stood to the east—barely two quarter-hours' walk apart.

Dou Huaide accepted without the slightest hesitation. "You're a great household," he said with a grin. "What falls through the cracks of your fingers is enough to keep us fed for quite a while. I'll accept it on Boyan's behalf."

Dou Yan could not help smiling, and teased him, "Shall I give you a little private spending money too?"

"No need for private money," Dou Huaide said, putting on a shameless look. "But could you spare me a couple of decent jade pendants? I want to give them as gifts at New Year."

And why not?

Dou Yan treated Dou Huaide as though he were her own brother.

She personally accompanied him to the storehouse to pick out jade pendants.

The two of them fell to talking about Dou Yan's friend.

"...His surname is Kuang. Given name Chao, courtesy name Zhuoran. His family deals in maritime trade and counts among the wealthiest in Panyu, Guangdong. The year Boyan went to Mount Zhongnan, he was bitten by a snake—luckily he ran into Kuang Zhuoran, who saved his life... This time Boyan went to Guangdong precisely to repay Kuang Zhuoran. Little did he expect that trouble would befall the Kuang family... They say that since September of this year, the Kuang family's cargoes have met with mishap after mishap. They've lost nearly two hundred thousand taels of silver and are on the verge of being bled dry—when a former business associate introduced them to a great merchant from the capital, who offered to buy out their shipping firm, but at half the market price.

"Naturally the Kuang family refused.

"And then one of their ships sank.

"They drew on the connections left by their forebears and finally managed to find out the truth: a certain powerful figure in the capital had taken a fancy to their shipping firm and meant to make it his own. Kuang Zhuoran is a scholar, and scholars can talk to scholars. So the Kuang family decided to send Kuang Zhuoran to the capital with several of their ablest stewards to negotiate, to see whether the powerful figure might be persuaded to take a share of the stock instead.

"Boyan reasoned that Kuang Zhuoran had once saved his life. So he decided to come along and have a look. If the matter had some connection to our family, he meant to beg Uncle Five to mediate and turn swords into plowshares. Kuang Zhuoran doesn't know Boyan's true identity, but he knows Boyan is steady and far-sighted, and he wanted Boyan along to help him think things through, so he brought Boyan with him to the capital.

"But the New Year is almost here, and the man has still not been found. Boyan couldn't very well go barging into Huai Tree Lane, so he has simply stayed on at the inn with Kuang Zhuoran."

"Just who is this powerful figure?" Dou Yan curled her lip in disdain. "What an ugly way to do business."

"Isn't it just." Dou Yan picked up a peach-blossom-frozen peony pendant and asked, "Does this look nice?"

Dou Yan's heart stirred at the sight, and she thought of Ji Lingze. Without betraying a thing, she said, "Of course it's nice! Just look at whose it is. But this sort of thing suits a young woman—who do you mean to give it to?"

"Oh," Dou Huaide said, a flicker of guilt showing through, which he hastened to cover. "I haven't decided yet." Then he quickly steered the conversation back to Kuang Zhuoran. "Still, I always feel the Kuang family is worrying overmuch. A household like theirs may count for something in Panyu, but why would a great man in the capital take notice? It may well be that someone around this powerful figure is borrowing the tiger's skin to make himself look bigger. The Kuang family has no one in the capital, and that is how they were frightened." As he spoke, he set the peach-blossom jade pendant aside and picked out a jade cicada, green as fresh-washed water, holding it up for Dou Yan to see. "What do you think of this one?"

"Not bad," Dou Yan said. "Thread it on a red cord in summer and hang it at your neck—it looks cool and lovely."

"I think so too." Dou Huaide tucked both pieces of jade into his sleeve.

Wretched boy—now that he has a sweetheart, he's forgotten his own mother!

Dou Yan cursed him silently, then picked out a jade pendant of the Laughing Buddha, a bamboo-joint pendant, a pomegranate-flower gold hairpin set with garnets, a Duan inkstone, and a box of weasel-hair brushes. "This Laughing Buddha pendant is for Aunt Six, the brushes are for Uncle Six, the inkstone is for Eleventh Brother, the gold hairpin for Eleventh Sister-in-law, and the bamboo-joint pendant for Seventh Weight. Give these to them when you get home."

Dou Huaide cried, "And what about mine?"

Dou Yan eyed his sleeve and put on a cold smile, half in jest.

Dou Huaide clutched his sleeve. "Fine, fine, I'll carry them over for you." And he slipped out of the storehouse like a wisp of smoke.

Dou Yan pressed her lips together and smiled, then told Ganlu, "Pack everything into the proper boxes."

Ganlu answered and went off, while Dou Yan made her way to the flower hall.

Dou Huaide said, "It's getting late. I'll go talk things over with Boyan and see what's best to be done."

Dou Yan saw him to the door and said in a low voice, "Come when the heir is not at home."

A look of dawning understanding came over Dou Huaide's face. "I understand," he whispered. "Song Yantang must not know about this."

"How can you be so dense?" Dou Yan complained. "If the heir were at home, how could his son stand idly by?"

Dou Huaide halted in his steps. Gazing at Dou Zhiwei, his eyes gradually turned grave. "Do you like Song Yantang very much?"

"What nonsense are you talking?" Dou Yan scolded, though her face inexplicably grew hot. "Just mind your own business and stop poking your nose into other people's."

Dou Huaide was taken aback, then looked astonished. He turned hesitant, and only after a long while ventured tentatively, "My business? What business of mine?"

Dou Yan privately regretted her slip of the tongue.

Some matters, after all, are better guided than dammed.

Given Dou Huaide's persistence in the first half of his life, laying everything out in the open would only make him more reckless, with no scruples left at all.

She was just about to smooth things over with a few placating words when Song Yan returned.