Chapter 450 — A Hundred Days

The company filed into the flower hall, laughing and chatting, and took their seats according to rank and precedence.

Cold dishes and hot dishes came forth in an endless stream.

Taking the opportunity, Feng, the third lady of the Jingzhen Guo household, asked Dou Yan in a low voice, "Is the lady of Changxing Hou hoping to secure a bride from your household's young ladies for her own brother?"

Dou Yan's heart stirred, and she gave a slight nod.

Feng then warned her: "The lady of Changxing Hou's eldest brother is a shrewd and capable man, and his household is quite well off—but he is too capable for his own good. He wants to buy an official post now, and the Marquis finds him troublesome, so he has left him cooling his heels these past days. Most likely he has swallowed his frustration and is looking for another way out. Mind you do not throw good money after bad."

To say nothing of the fact that the lady of Changxing Hou's eldest brother was nearly twenty years older than Jiang Yan—on the strength of that one point alone, that the Marquis of Changxing would one day fall at Dou Yan's hands, Dou would never in any case agree to let Jiang Yan marry into that family.

She smiled and nodded at Feng to express her gratitude.

Feng said no more.

After the midday banquet, the company moved to the covered gallery to continue watching the opera.

Jiang Ling quietly made her way over and asked Dou Yan in a whisper, "Sister-in-law, is the lady of Changxing Hou trying to arrange a match for Sister Yan?"

Seeing how concerned she looked, Dou Yan teased her with a smile: "Why? Do you have a good candidate in mind?"

Jiang Ling gave a sheepish laugh and said nothing. Amid bursts of applause, she tiptoed back to her seat beside Jiang Yan and whispered to her, "A first marriage is decided by the father; a second, by oneself. Have you ever thought about what sort of man you would want to marry?"

Jiang Yan's face darkened, and it was a long moment before she answered, her voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz: "A woman like me—who has lost her virtue and her good name—who would want her? If they want to marry me, it is only to latch onto my brother's rising star. Have I not brought enough trouble on my brother and sister-in-law already? Would it not be better to stay quietly at home and cause them no trouble? Why must I marry at all!"

Had Jiang Ling not been concentrating with all her might, piecing the words together by guesswork, she likely would not have caught a single one of them over the high, ringing strains of the aria.

She asked Jiang Yan in a low voice, "If someone found you a man like Magistrate Chen, would you refuse him too?"

Jiang Yan was taken aback, then smiled in understanding. "You have seen how often I trouble Magistrate Chen, have you? Magistrate Chen is different. He has seen me at my very worst, and even at my lowest, it was no worse than that. I do not have to put on any act before him."

Jiang Ling nodded.

Jiang Yan wanted to explain a little more about the nature of her relationship with Chen Jia, but Jiang Ling's gaze had already turned back to the stage.

She caught Jiang Yan by the arm and said with a laugh, "Quick, look—next is 'The Encounter.'"

Jiang Yan had no choice but to swallow her words.

Yet at the thought of what Jiang Ling had said, she could not help a sudden flutter of panic, feeling that she must never meet Chen Jia again; for if her brother and sister-in-law thought the same way, Chen Jia would be ruined.

She had grown up in the streets and alleys since childhood, and she knew what a price a man without connections must pay to rise as Chen Jia had risen. She did not want to ruin Chen Jia's prospects on her own account.

Jiang Yan could not help but heave a melancholy sigh.

Meanwhile, when Dou Yan told Song Yan of the lady of Changxing Hou's proposal, Song Yan waved his hand again and again, saying "No," and that "the age gap is too great."

His reaction was just as Dou Zhiwei had expected.

She used it as an excuse to decline the lady of Changxing Hou's offer.

The lady of Changxing Hou was so vexed that her chest felt tight, and in private she said to the maids beside her, "Does she think that cousin of theirs is made of gold? A widow who has been remarried once already, and still she picks and chooses—she had better mind she is not left on the shelf!" She also felt that her brother had given her a fool's advice, and summoning him, she gave him a thorough scolding.

Her brother felt deeply aggrieved. "Elder Sister," he said, "you have spent too long inside the inner quarters and have lost touch with how things stand outside. This woman is the full sister of Song Yantang, and he is at the very height of his favor with the Emperor. Miss this chance and there will be no other. If you do not believe me, write to my brother-in-law and see what he says!"

The lady of Changxing Hou was half convinced and half doubtful, and wrote a letter to her husband.

The Marquis of Changxing wrote back and gave his wife a thorough dressing-down, saying that she had long hair but short wits, that she had let such a fine opportunity slip through her fingers, and that she should never have approached Lady Dou herself but should have asked the Dowager Consort Shi to make the proposal, and so on and so forth.

But all this comes later.

On the day after Yuan Heng's hundred-day celebration, Jiang Ling came, most unusually, to the Yingzhen Guo household of her own accord to pay a call on Dou Yan.