Chapter 156 — Decision
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 1 of 4
Within a few days, the capital welcomed the first snow of winter.
Four hundred li away in Zhending, the wind was howling and the snow was falling thick and fast as well.
A few days earlier, the steward of the estate had come to deliver the goods for the New Year and presented two snow-otter pelts as tribute. They were a little too few for a waistcoat, and it would have been a shame to use them for trimming a skirt, so Dou Yan thought it over and decided to make a collar for her grandmother, and with the remainder a cloud-patterned autumn-yellow Zhaojun head wrap, just in time for the New Year.
The weather was cold and there was little to do, so Ganlu and the others sat with Dou Yan on the heated kang by the window of the inner room, doing needlework.
Suxin slipped quietly into the room.
"Miss," she said, winking at Dou Yan with a smile, "there's something off about the accounts sent over from the estate a few days ago."
At that, Ganlu and the others immediately withdrew.
Only then did Suxin draw a letter from her bosom: "Miss, Old Chen had someone bring this back."
Dou Yan took the letter with some nervousness.
Eight or nine days had passed, and still no word had come from the capital. She seemed at ease, but in truth her mind was on it constantly, and at night she often tossed and turned, unable to sleep.
She read the letter at a glance, and could not help letting out a long breath of relief.
Seeing this, Suxin, who had been watching her anxiously, let her own expression relax as well, and presently broke into a delighted smile: "Miss, Guard Duan and the others—are they all safe and sound?"
Dou Yan nodded and gestured for Suxin to light the ram's-horn palace lantern nearby. Burning the letter as she spoke, she said softly, "Young Master Mei's position is now secure. On the twenty-first he presided over Lady Jiang's memorial rites. Old Chen and Guard Duan will be back in a few days!"
Even someone as composed as Suxin could not help but rejoice at the news that Chen Yanzhou and the others would soon return: "That's good, that's good!"
Dou Yan could not help laughing at her delight, and said, "Go tell Lu Ming, so they don't worry."
Suxin went off in high spirits.
Dou Yan stared for a long while at the letter reduced to ashes.
Song Yan was indeed not the sort to tamely submit to ill treatment.
If his father meant to frame him, he would fight back just the same.
She had sent Duan Bing, Chen Lanxu, and the others racing through the night to rescue Song Yan. It had been a very risky decision.
But whenever she thought of what Song Yan had suffered in her previous life, she could not stand by and watch the tragedy repeat itself.
Still, why the Duke of Yingguo would want to frame his own eldest son was a question Dou Yan had found no answer to, in her past life or in this one.
In her previous life, the Jiang family had been exterminated root and branch; Lady Jiang had lain lingering on her sickbed and passed away not long after. Song Yan had just lost his uncle, and then his mother; beyond exhaustion of body and mind, he must have felt some resentment as well. He could not, and had neither the heart nor the strength to, pay attention to matters around him—which was what gave the Duke of Yingguo the chance to lay his plans at leisure, opening the curtain on the slander against Song Yan with an impeachment by the censors. In this life, though Jiang Meisun and the others had still been killed, Lady Mei and the other women and children had survived. To protect the Jiang clan, Song Yan had not sunk into despair over the deaths of Jiang Meisun and the rest, but instead thrown himself more actively into the capital's circle of nobles. He had even deliberately lost the autumn hunt's archery contest, to test the Emperor's intentions and re-establish his standing in the Emperor's eyes.