Chapter 187 — Again (Requesting Pink Tickets)
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 1 of 4
Ji Yong felt that Dou Yan was utterly infuriating.
How had she turned into this?
She had actually taken a fancy to a man like Wei Wan!
Was she still the same Dou Yan who had dared to defy him?
Disappointed and dejected, Ji Yong returned to Yuqiao Alley.
In his study, Old Master Ji, who had been inscribing a poem on his own painting, suddenly set down his brush and looked up to ask Ji Fu, the attendant who had served him for decades, "Has Jianming come back yet?"
Ji Fu, whose temples were already streaked with silver, was rather surprised. He smiled and said, "I will go and see at once!"
Old Master Ji gave a grunt of assent, finished the last line, examined it carefully for a moment, and wore a satisfied smile.
Ji Fu came back and said with a smile, "Young Master Jianming has indeed returned. Only, I do not know what has happened—he is in a fine fury, will not answer anyone who speaks to him, and has shut himself in his room to sulk!"
"Oh!" Old Master Ji raised his grizzled brows and smiled. "It seems the young Miss Dou is a girl of firm opinions, and was not taken in by him."
"The Dou family is, after all, a household of scholars. Miss Dou the Fourth received her family's teaching from childhood; she ought to have at least this much discernment." Smiling, Ji Fu added a few drops of clear water to the inkstone before Old Master Ji, which was nearly dry, and, rolling up his sleeve, began to grind ink for him. "Otherwise, why would you, sir, have agreed back then to a match with the Dou family?"
Old Master Ji shook his head. "Do you still not know? People who cannot be led by the nose by Jianming are very few. This young Miss Dou is no simple creature!"
Ji Fu smiled. "No matter how uncommon she is, can she compare with Young Master Jianming, whom you yourself instructed?"
At this Old Master Ji was slightly taken aback, then burst into loud laughter, pointing at Ji Fu. "You have been flattering me for decades now—you ought to take a rest from it now and then!"
Ji Fu said with a smile, "Look at what you say, sir—I never flatter anyone! It is only that you refuse to believe it, and there is nothing I can do about that."
His expression was so earnest that Old Master Ji burst out laughing once more.
Then Ji Fu said with a smile, "You have not praised anyone in years. Shall we have the Young Madam invite the Dou family's Grand Matriarch over for a simple meal? Now that the Grand Matriarch has come to the capital, propriety dictates that we should entertain her well."
"You are a scheming one." Old Master Ji picked up his brush and dipped it in the inkstone. "A card must certainly be sent to the Grand Matriarch, but as for which members of the Dou family come, that is none of our concern."
Ji Fu answered with a smile of assent.
Meanwhile, in the Yizhi Hall, Song Yan, hearing that Ji Yong had stormed out of the Locust Tree Alley in a rage, could not help knitting his brows.
Dou Yan and Ji Yong had fallen out the moment they met; it seemed almost certainly to be over the business at the South Chan Temple Alley.
He instructed Du Wei, "Go and find out what exactly happened."
After the midday meal, Du Wei came back to report: "It is said they quarreled over a young lady of the Ji family, one named Lingze, who was married into the Han family."
Song Yan was taken aback.
How had another Lady Han, née Ji, suddenly appeared?
Even as the thought flashed through his mind, he heard Du Wei continue: "...and at noon today, Miss Dou the Fourth went to a stationery shop below the Drum Tower."
Chen Yanzhou and Duan Bing and the others had no doubt followed her there.
As Song Yan pondered, Dou Yan had already settled herself in the back office of the stationery shop.