Chapter 412 — Wei He

"Not until nearly dawn." When Song Yan retired, those on duty did not dare to. Ruotong's eyes could barely stay open as she said this.

Dou Yan picked up the round fan and gently waved it a couple of times.

During breakfast, Wuyi came in and reported: "The heir left word that Li Liang is to be sent to the estate in Tianjin Garrison tomorrow."

After Song Shize threw in his lot with Song Yan, he recommended several old servants who had once attended the old Duke of Zhenguo and who, after Lady Jiang took charge of the household, had gone with their sons to live out their retirement on the estate; most of these were in Tianjin Garrison. Sending Li Liang there would be very safe.

Dou Yan nodded and said: "When will the people Song Shize recommended arrive?"

Those who had once served the old Duke of Zhenguo were all advanced in years and no longer suited to serve at Yizhi Hall. But they had seen the world in their day, and among their sons and grandsons were quite a few outstanding ones. Song Yan had decided to select a few of them for his own use.

Wuyi smiled and said: "They should arrive within a day or two. Would you like to have a look, madam, and pick a few who suit your eye?"

She ought not to meddle in such matters.

Lady Jiang had overreached herself in the first place. It was this that had made the Song family's hereditary servants uneasy, and that was how the heir of the Duke of Zhenguo's household had come to be isolated.

Once she gave birth to her child, she would naturally be integrated into the Song family.

Dou Yan thought the vegetable buns made in the kitchen that morning were quite good, and instructed Wuyi: "Send some to Miss Yan." Then she took a sip of the white congee, boiled soft and glutinous.

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If the morning at Yizhi Hall of the Duke of Zhenguo's estate in the capital was a fine thing, then far away in the He residence in Linqing, it was all chickens flying and dogs leaping — a scene of utter chaos.

When He Qingyuan returned home, the beauty was nowhere to be found.

Naturally, a young servant told him what had happened.

He was struck dumb, and hurried off to the inn.

The trader had known at a glance that Jiang Yan was a girl from a good family, and when Chen Jia told him she had been abducted, he had no reason to doubt it. The thought that trafficking in a person of good family was punishable by three hundred li of exile threw him into a cold sweat; he wanted only to rid himself of this hot potato as quickly as possible — why would he leave any trace of his whereabouts?

He Qingyuan could discover nothing, and had no choice but to go home and coax the tigress.

He poured out a whole basketful of fine words and spent the entire day treading on eggshells, yet the tigress stubbornly refused to say to whom she had sold the girl.

He Qingyuan's brows bristled and his eyes glared; his face changed at once.

Mrs. He's family had five brothers, one of them still serving as a county sheriff, so what did she have to fear from He Qingyuan?

The two began with a quarrel, and then it came to blows — grabbing hair and clawing faces.

The maids and serving women of the household all scattered and fled.

How could the young Mrs. He stand by and watch her mother-in-law, who was on her side, come to harm? She clamored for He Hao to go and break up the fight.

He Hao was merely angry that his father had taken his beauty for himself, and had thought that once his mother dragged his father home, the beauty would be his again. When he heard that his mother had sold her, he was filled with regret, and he strained his ears with all his heart, hoping to catch some clue of what had really happened — how would he dare go and intervene?

The young Mrs. He was so furious her chest ached; she hastily sent someone to carry word to Mrs. He's family.

Wasn't it just keeping a woman on the outside?

Which of his several brothers-in-law didn't have a few sweethearts of their own? Why was it not allowed in his case?

He Qingyuan was in no mind to swallow such handling. He rolled up his sleeves and set to arguing with the men of Madam He's family.

He Hao took the measure of the scene. If even his father came off the loser, then should he ever find that beauty, he would be left with nothing to do but look at her from afar. He hastily sent his personal servant to fetch Wei Quan and have him come lend a hand.

Two days of keeping company with the singsong girl, and Wei Quan was already regretting it.

He had taken a wife for the sake of hot soup and hot water waiting for him when he came home; but a girl raised in the pleasure quarter since childhood — what did she know of keeping a household? He began to wonder whether he might get his wife back, and so grew somewhat cool toward the singsong girl.

At the news that trouble had come to the He family, he shoved his feet into his slippers and ran out the door.

Waiting on men was the one trade the girl had been trained in; how could she fail to see what was in Wei Quan's mind?

But if she let Wei Quan slip through her fingers, she would be hard put ever to find another man of such good family. She was already spending every trick she had to hold on to him; and when she saw him running off to the He house, how could she let him go alone? She hurried after him to the He family's gate as well.