Chapter 363 — The Private Theatrical

Song Cen had already gone to bed; learning that Tao Jun had come, he got up again.

Tao Jun told Song Cen all that had passed.

Song Cen kicked over a footstool on the spot.

The footstool toppled, and his toes hurt abominably.

Clutching his toes, he shouted at Tao Jun, "Tomorrow I will throw that actor out of the house! He means to sing several more nights under our roof, does he? Not a chance!"

"On no account!" Tao Jun said urgently. "That actor goes from mansion to mansion, and above all he deals with the old madams and dowager ladies. Who can say he is not as loose-lipped as any woman? If we drive him off so abruptly, those old madams and dowagers will be sure to ask after him. And if Zeng Chusheng answers badly, if any rumor gets out, will the Yingzhenguo Mansion not become a laughingstock? The Guanglian Troupe claims to be the capital's finest company; it is the New Year season, so let him finish these few days and add to the festivity!"

Song Cen leapt up. "I can do nothing about that cursed pair, so am I to be powerless before an actor too? Tomorrow he goes, bag and baggage!"

Tao Jun knew he was in a rage and that no persuasion would serve; he could only withdraw in gloom.

Song Cen stormed and swore about the room for a long while, frightening the maids and serving boys on night watch into trembling half the night.

But Song Yan, gazing at Dou Yan whose hair was damp with sweat, was filled with an aching tenderness.

He took his own undergarment and wiped her face with it, asking anxiously, "Are you feeling unwell anywhere?"

Dou Yan felt as though she had run several streets; she was utterly spent, and yet filled with a strange, unaccountable ease.

"Where did you learn such tricks?" Her voice had gone hoarse from her earlier moans. "Confess."

Dou Yan gave Song Yan a sidelong glance, her eyes brimming with light, though her heart was far from pleased.

She knew she was the first woman Song Yan had ever had; what Song Yan liked, what Song Yan knew, of that she was certain. But what had just passed between them was not something Song Yan could have conjured out of thin air. She feared he had gone drinking in the flower houses, or galloping the rounds of the pleasure quarter; only in such places could anyone know how to lie with a woman with child.

After such a feast, Song Yan felt as though the clouds had parted to reveal the moon; his heart was brimming with joy, and he had no inkling of Dou Yan's faint displeasure.

He gathered Dou Yan into his arms, bit her ear, and asked, "Was it good?"

Dou Yan considered a moment, then answered honestly, in a low laugh, "Good," and put her arm about his waist.

Song Yan grew a little smug and whispered, "I asked the palace matrons... they said it could be done..."

Dou Yan was startled, then put to shame.

She ought to have had more faith in Song Yan.

But such an answer made her face burn like fire.

The matrons who knew of such matters were as a rule answerable to the Empress.

They would surely report it faithfully to the Empress.

The reunion dinner on New Year's Eve and the Lantern Festival of the fifteenth of the first month were both family feasts of the imperial house; not to mention the titled nobles, even the Empress's own kin could attend only by special decree. The Yingzhenguo Mansion, having the good fortune of an ancestor who had once served as the imperial house's adopted son, was counted among the imperial kin and must enter the palace for every festival; and so the Yingzhenguo Mansion fixed its own reunion dinner on the eve of the Little New Year.

At the thought of having to attend the inner court ladies at the moon-viewing and lantern-gazing of the Lantern Festival, Dou Yan wanted to pull a quilt over her head and sleep and never rise.

Yet Song Yan would not leave her in peace, and laughed: "If you go into the palace and meet the Empress, and she tells you to arrange a bedchamber maid for me, just say it is already arranged. I gave both the beauties the Earl of Jiading sent me to Gu Yu, so do not go giving me away!"

Dou Yan only wished a hole in the ground would open up and swallow her.

"Can you not restrain yourself?" She turned her back on him in a pet, sulking at Song Yan. "Now everyone is sure to know. How am I ever to face the Empress in the palace?"

"They will not!" Song Yan stroked her hand and shoulder lightly and laughed softly. "When the Empress summoned me, I told her straight: I love only you, and no one else... The Empress even charged me to treat you well, saying a woman with child is bound to have her tempers, and that I must give way to you..."

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Brothers and sisters who read this book, I post the text first and will fix the typos later.

o(∩_∩)o~

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