Chapter 464 — Name-Registration

Suddenly Song Zhi's voice rang out in the room. "So it's plain Yuan Heng's bad temper doesn't come from me! I was an obedient child. Told to lie down, I didn't dare sit up; told to sit, I didn't dare lie down. And if I dared to cry aloud—one smack on the bottom."

"Yantang!" Dou Yan had not expected him to come at this hour, and her eyes lit up in spite of herself.

Song Yan had already come in, smiling, and made a respectful bow to Grandmother.

Seeing him approach, Grandmother was delighted as well. She quickly invited him to sit in the armchair beside the kang and had the maids bring tea and sweets, asking with concern, "Why have you come at this hour? Is there nothing to do at the yamen?"

Yuan Heng had begun to recognize faces by now, and since Song Yan held him for a while every day, he strained toward Song Yan from Dou Zhiwei's arms.

Song Dan reached out to take the child and settled into the armchair. "When I was a vice commissioner, there was still a chief commissioner above me. I had to weigh every move. Now that I am chief commissioner myself, with no one pressing down on my head, it is much easier to come and go."

Grandmother actually nodded in heartfelt agreement. "That is the way of it."

Yuan Heng fussed to go outside.

Song Yan was afraid the wind would catch the child, so he carried him into the main hall to look at the jade bonsai displayed on the curio shelves.

Grandmother then said to Dou Yan in a low, displeased voice, "Yantang has come, and you do not even climb down from the kang to greet him. Where is the sense in that? No flower stays fair a hundred days, and no person either. Who does not like to be valued? You and Yantang have long years ahead of you. Do not always presume on his patience and put on airs. Given time, even the most patient man will tire."

The words left Dou Yan thoroughly embarrassed.

Yet on closer thought, Grandmother's words were very true.

No wonder people often said, "An old one in the house is a treasure in the house."

Dou Yan took the lesson to heart and went into the main room to play with the child alongside Song Chuqi.

A trace of gladness indeed appeared in Song Yan's brow, and he said softly, "Do not worry. Yuan Heng is close to me and will not cry. Go keep the old lady company and talk with her. She is a stranger here in a strange place, with no intimate friend to confide in. Since you are here, give the old lady some diversion."

He never called Grandmother "Aunt Cui" but followed the younger generation in calling her "the old lady."

Warmth filled Dou Yan's heart. Thinking of Grandmother's words and wanting to make Song Yan happy, she lowered her voice as well. "But I want to be with you!"

Smiles immediately spilled from Song Yan's eyes beyond all checking.

His resolve only grew firmer, though his expression grew gentler. "Go keep the old lady company. I am not a child."

Dou Yan gave his hand a squeeze, then turned and went into the inner room.

By the time Dou Huaiying came hurrying over after leaving the yamen, the smile on Song Yan's face had not diminished in the least.

Dou Chiyou reflected on herself deeply.

She seemed to have gradually carried the way of husband and wife from her former life into the life between herself and Song Yan.

This was a great taboo!

She must change it from now on.

Meanwhile Song Sui, while dandling his son with his father-in-law, asked with a smile about the adoption. "Have invitations gone out to the relatives and friends at home?"

Dou Huaiying drew a jade pendant carved from Hetian jade from his sleeve and pressed it into Yuan Heng's hand. "It is a family matter, after all. We did not invite friends."

Song Yan hesitated, about to speak and then not.

He rarely showed such an expression, and Dou Huaiying's face turned serious. "Is something not quite proper?"

"No, no." Song Yan said with hesitation, "Since I returned from Willow Leaf Lane, I have had an idea..."

He looked as though he did not know whether he ought to say it.

Dou Huaiying laughed. "Stop trying to hedge with me! Say what you mean to say. You are half a son to me."

Caught out so ruthlessly, Song Yan gave a dry, sheepish laugh, but he had no choice and came straight to the point. "A principal wife and a second wife are not the same, after all. Has it never occurred to you to record the Twelfth Brother under my mother-in-law's name?"

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Sisters and brothers, here is today's bonus chapter.

o(∩_∩)o~

ps: Today's update will be around ten o'clock.

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