Chapter 411 — Making Rounds

After all, in years past the Jin Gui and Yin Gui families had merely given ten taels of silver to a former fellow disciple, and were left with their home broken and their wives and children scattered; now that Wei Quan and He Qingyuan had colluded with bandits, what good could come of it?

Old Madam Lu and Princess Ninghuai then had Jiang Yan summoned, slipped two ornaments from their persons as gifts of first meeting, and questioned her closely.

Jiang Yan answered without a single slip, yet could not hide the constraint in her manner.

Old Madam Lu and Princess Ninghuai shook their heads with some regret, thinking that so pretty a girl, raised from childhood with the Li family in the streets and alleys, was timid and shrinking, and could not after all shake off a small-house air.

Dou Yan knew that if time allowed, it would be best to keep Jiang Yan at home a while longer before bringing her out; but she would give birth in a few days, and by the time she was free to take Jiang Yan about in public, too long would have passed—she feared it would be rumored that Jiang Yan had been sent by the Jiang family to serve Song Yan, and that would ruin the girl's name.

She kept heartening Jiang Yan, and took her back to the Dou house for a visit.

Song Yan was distressed beyond measure and would not let her go out again: "I have ways enough to deal with Father. You cannot go running about heedless of yourself."

If anything were to happen to Dou Yan, he felt that all he was doing now would be meaningless.

Dou Yan said, "The midwife herself tells me to walk about more. I have nothing to do just now, so it is as well to take Sister Yan out for some air."

Song Yan's expression did not improve.

Dou Yan had no choice but to say, "If I feel unwell, I will stay home at once."

Only then did Song Yan's face relax a little.

Jiang Yan breathed a sigh of relief as well.

She knew that Dou Yan and Song Yan meant well by her. But she truly disliked such social calls, especially with everyone's eyes fixed on her as though they would see straight through her; she feared those people would learn that she had been impure with another man besides her husband, and felt as though she had taken after her foster mother Li Yaoniang—imagining that no one knew of her little scandals, when in truth there was not a soul in the whole neighborhood who did not point and whisper at her, and she herself had thereby drawn no small censure...

To have found shelter in the Ying Estate of the Duke of Zhenguo, and moreover to be lodged in the quiet Bishui Pavilion with no worry for food or clothing — each day she need only do a little needlework to pass the time, and she thought this very good.

Word soon spread through the capital that Song Yan had a cousin lodging at the Ying Estate, and that Dou Yan, taking pity on the young widow so lately bereaved, was already casting about to find her a good match.

Inevitably there were those who, for the sake of the Ying Estate's standing, began to set their sights on Jiang Yan.

Jiang Yan went white as snow with fright and begged Dou Yan: "I do not wish to marry again — send me to a nunnery, I beg you!" And then she reflected that she ought long ago to have been a dead woman, yet several times she had sought death and failed, and instead her courage had only grown smaller; and having come under the protection of Song Yan and Dou Zhiwei, she dared to die even less. She could not help weeping softly.

Dou Yan knew she had been wounded and could not recover so quickly, and hastened to soothe her: "This is only to keep people from gossiping about you — it is not that you are to be married off at once."

Perhaps it was from the day she first knew Dou Yan that Dou Yan had seemed so composed and so thoughtful in all things; Jiang Yan trusted her utterly. She wiped her tears, abashed, and said: "Then may I stay at home and do needlework from now on? Sister-in-law is to have a little nephew, and I should like to do my part for him too — only I beg sister-in-law not to disdain me for a person born without good fortune."

"That your brother found you at all proves you are a person of good fortune!" Dou Yan could well understand Jiang Yan's unease — it was like her own former life, when in the lanes by Yunqi Temple she could never find her own place, and was ever at a loss. So she not only comforted her gently but assigned her a great pile of embroidery to do.

Jiang Yan grew calmer instead. Each day she and Yinghong, the senior maid newly assigned to attend her, did their needlework in high spirits, and her whole manner became much more lively. On the sixth day of the sixth month, seeing Dou Yan directing the household maids and serving women in airing the books, she was filled with envy and said: "So sister-in-law can read as well."

Dou Yan was taken aback, then laughed: "Can you not read?"

Jiang Yan flushed and said: "When I was small I studied the Three Character Classic with my uncle for a few days. He said such things were of no use to a girl. Later my uncle was busy with his own studies and I never learned any more, and by now I have forgotten almost all of it."

Dou Yan thought a moment, then said with a smile: "Then would you like to learn? If you would, I shall speak to your brother and have him engage an old Hanlin scholar to come and teach you to read and write."

Jiang Yan's eyes lit up. "Could that be done?"

"Why could it not?" said Dou Yan. "You are not sitting for the top examination — only learning a few characters to understand right principle. What matter whether early or late?" Then she added: "But before your brother, you must not call Li Liang 'uncle' any more. He hates the Li family to death for spiriting you away and then not treating you well."

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Brothers and sisters, here is today's second update.

Still begging for pink votes o(n_n)o~