Chapter 358 — Spring Festival

Song Cen was furious and mortified. On the road to Baohe Hall for the New Year's Eve banquet he kept his face rigid as a board and did not so much as glance at Dou Yan and her husband out of the corner of his eye.

Song Yan pretended not to see, and Dou Ji certainly would not take it to heart.

It was like a defeated general with no strength left to resist—who would care whether he was pleased or angry!

In the main hall of Baohe Hall sat the civil and military ministers the Emperor held in highest regard, together with the imperial kin. In the rear hall, Empress Dowager Yi presided as the most honored, seated with Empress Yi and the assembled titled ladies, both those of the palace and those from without.

Dou Yan had no wish to entangle herself with the Empress Dowager, the Empress, or the Crown Princess. Dressed in full formal attire befitting her rank, she sat there obediently, now and then exchanging a few quiet words with the wife of the heir of the Marquis of Changxing and the Duchess of Xingguo, conducting herself properly, with nothing about her that stood out in the least.

But some things cannot be dodged simply because one wishes to.

A palace maid in the Crown Princess's service, acting on the Crown Princess's orders, brought Dou Yan a large backrest cushion and said in a low voice, "The Crown Princess says to put this behind you, so your back will not ache."

Dou Yan thanked her under her breath. But when she raised her head, she found she had become the focus of the whole hall.

She hurriedly lowered her head.

But Empress Dowager Yi pointed at her all the same and said, "Is this the daughter-in-law Heaven bestowed?"

Empress Yi smiled and said, "Your eyes are as sharp as ever, Your Highness—she is indeed the wife of the heir of Duke Ying's household, the elder Dou."

"And who is the younger Dou?" Empress Dowager Yi asked with interest.

"The wife of the Marquis of Jining," Empress Yi said with a smile. "She and the wife of Duke Ying's heir are half-sisters by the same father. The wife of Duke Ying's heir is the eldest daughter of Dou Wanyuan of the Hanlin Academy; the wife of the Marquis of Jining is the second daughter."

The Wei family was not yet qualified to attend a banquet such as this, so Dou Ming was not in the hall.

"Is there such a thing?" Empress Dowager Yi grew even more interested. "Who arranged the match for the elder Dou? And who arranged the match for the younger Dou?"

"The younger Dou was betrothed in childhood; the elder Dou was chosen by Duke Ying himself," Empress Yi said, glancing at Dou Yan with a smile.

Empress Dowager Yi looked Dou Yan over carefully for a few moments, then smiled and said, "This child is quite handsome. At the next grand court assembly, bring the younger Dou for me to have a look."

Empress Yi smiled and said, "Yes." Then she added, "There is one more thing you surely do not know, Your Holiness of the Xuanming Sect—the elder Dou is with child, and her time falls just before or after the Crown Princess's, only a few days apart."

"How wonderful!" At her age, Empress Dowager Yi loved nothing more than to see the family grow. She bestowed on Dou Yan a string of sandalwood prayer beads, a pair of peace buckles, several bolts of plain silk for making a child's clothes, and a length of bright red kesi silk woven with the Hundred Children at Play pattern, to be made into a child's swaddling quilt.

Dou Yan stepped forward to give thanks for the imperial favor.

Empress Dowager Yi smiled and waved her hand, motioning her to withdraw, then bent her head to discuss with Empress Yi which opera should be chosen. Meanwhile, the wife of the Marquis of Changxing—who a moment before had been concerned only with chatting and laughing with the Empress Dowager and the Empress, and had paid no heed to anyone else—grew markedly warmer toward Dou Yan; even the somewhat wooden Duchess of Xingguo looked at her two or three more times.

Dou Yan nodded kindly to the Duchess of Xingguo.

In her previous life, even if the Jining Marquis household had been revived in her hands, there was still a certain distance between it and noble houses like the Ying Zhenguo estate. She and the Duchess of Xingguo had never had any real friendship. Yet she knew that after the Ying Zhenguo household was stripped of its title, the Duke of Xingguo, by keeping his head down and enduring, had waited until the Changxing Marquis household fell, and had become the foremost of the capital's nobles.

Because of the Empress Dowager's gifts, after the grand court assembly on the first day of the New Year, Dou Yan first thanked Empress Yi, then went to Cining Palace to give thanks for the favor. By the time she left the inner palace, it was already past two in the afternoon.

Du Ming was waiting anxiously for Song Yan in the small study.

Seeing Dou Yan and Song Yan come in, he bowed respectfully and said, "My lord, madam, I have found out that Jiang Jie is in fact the nephew of the cousin of the wife of Old Grand Secretary Dai Jian, and a disciple of Mu Chuan—Vice Minister of Works and Grand Secretary of the Zhongji Hall, Old Grand Secretary Mu."

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Brothers and sisters, we have guests at home today, so this update is a little late—my apologies!