Chapter 189 — Taking Action
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 1 of 4
Ji Yong sprang up from the bed and called out loudly for Zishang. "I am going to Cat Alley to visit my aunt."
Zishang's mouth, open wide in the middle of a yawn, could not close for a long moment. He glanced out the window. "Young Master, there is a curfew in the capital. Should we not wait until daybreak?"
Only then did Ji Yong realize he had spoken out of turn. He gave a cold snort and said with a stiff face, covering his slip: "Of course I know it is the middle of the night. I meant that I will go to Cat Alley tomorrow morning to visit my aunt."
But tomorrow morning you have to go to the office!
Zishang did not dare say this aloud. He grumbled to himself, could not get back to sleep, and waited with great difficulty for dawn. He attended Ji Yong to the Hanlin Academy, and just as he was about to find somewhere to doze off, Ji Yong strode out. "We are going to Cat Alley."
Zishang opened his mouth, but in the end said nothing. When Ji Yong got into the carriage, he leaped up onto the shaft and told the driver to go to Cat Alley.
The Sixth Madam had just seen Dou Heng out. Seeing Ji Yong arrive so early, she hurried to ask him: "What has happened?"
"Nothing." Ji Yong said. "I was thinking that tomorrow I must go to my examiner's, and I need a copy of *Xuan Yuan's Agricultural Matters* by Shen Xi of the previous dynasty, but I cannot find it anywhere. I recall I seem to have seen a copy here at my uncle's. Aunt, help me look for it."
Ji-shi at once summoned the brothers Dou Yong and Dou Huaide to help search for the book.
The three of them rummaged about for a long while, but there was no sign of the book.
Ji Yong muttered: "Could it have been at Uncle Seven's house that I saw it?"
"That is possible." Dou Yong was in charge of checking the catalogue, while Dou Huaide did the searching. Dou Yong, exhausted, collapsed onto a meditation chair. "Fourth Sister loves reading that sort of book. When Uncle Seven found one at a secondhand book stall, he would always buy it and send it to Zhending. It is just that I do not know whether the book you mean is now in Zhending or at the Yunqi Temple Alley house."
Dou Yong quickly added: "Let me go with you!"
Ever since the matter of Ji Lingze, Ji Yong had looked down on his maternal family, the Han, and so treated his cousin Han-shi with coldness as well. Dou Yong did not want Han-shi to be embarrassed, and seized the chance to smooth things over with Ji Yong.
Ji Yong acted as though he did not remember the matter at all, and dragged Dou Yong off to Crane Cry Temple Alley.
Dou Huaiying was not at home; Wang Shuying was said to be unwell and had gone to stay for a while at the Dou family's country estate in Wanping.
Gao Sheng came out to receive Ji Yong and Dou Yong.
"It is nothing much, just a book I came to find." Dou Yong was rather polite to this chief steward at Dou Huaiying's side.
Gao Sheng respectfully led Dou Yong and Ji Yong to the wing room where Dou Huaiying kept his books, and assigned two sharp young servants to attend them.
Ji Yong rummaged through the books at random for a while, then said: "I am going outside for some air." He seemed restless and impatient.
Dou Yong gave a sound of assent and went on searching, head bowed.
Ji Yong, meanwhile, drew a servant aside and asked him clearly where Dou Ming's quarters were. Then he barged straight in without ceremony.
Dou Ming was tuning the strings of her pipa. Seeing Ji Yong, she jumped up in fright. "You—how did you get in here?" As she spoke she had already retreated five or six steps and pressed herself against the latticed window behind her, calling out loudly for someone to come.
Ji Yong gave a derisive snort, his face full of mockery. "I had forgotten. The moment you see a man and a woman together, you assume they are carrying on an affair." As he spoke he looked Dou Ming up and down. "What? When it comes to your own turn, it is not the same thing?"