Chapter 204 — Light and Quick
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 1 of 4
Song Yan walked slowly out of the hall.
A night breeze blew up, and the lanterns pasted with great red double-happiness characters before the corridor swayed with it; their light was hazy, falling on the ground strewn with red scraps of firecracker paper, and there was a kind of lonely stillness about it, as though the music had ended and the guests had all gone home.
He instructed Chen He: "Go and see where the people who came with the Fourth Miss have been settled. Bring me her personal maid."
Chen He answered and went off.
Beside the Taihu rocks in the corner of the wall grew several clumps of hostas; their pure white blossoms seemed especially crystalline and translucent in the moonlight.
Song Yan looked at it and felt restless, and could not keep from pacing back and forth before the corridor.
Chen He came back with a slender maid.
Song Yan did not recognize her face.
Chen He, well trained, reported in a low voice that Song Yan could hear but others would find somewhat muddled: "Young Lord, the people who came with the Fourth Miss are all resting in the side rooms behind the main house. The Fourth Miss's senior maids, Suxin and Sujuan, were kept back at the Huai Shu Alley, saying they were needed to help settle matters there, and will come along when the Fourth Miss returns home on the third day; Ganlu was summoned for questioning by Lady Yan'an, the lady of complete blessings invited by the Jining Marquis's household; and Sulan ran off to watch the excitement. I waited a long while and neither Ganlu nor Sulan came, so I brought over one of the Fourth Miss's dowry maids called Wenxiang..."
Song Yan knew the two sisters Suxin and Sulan.
The reason he had suffered such a great loss at the country estate was precisely that he had not reckoned on both sisters being skilled in martial arts, and quite skilled at that. In the few subsequent meetings with Dou Yan, Dou Yan had been accompanied by either Suxin or Sulan.
Hearing that Sulan had run off to watch the excitement, his gaze could not help but darken.
Did Sulan not know the bride had been changed? Or had she been detained on some pretext?
The maid Chen He had brought, however, was trembling with fear, not daring to raise her head.
She had just come out to ask the Jining Marquis's household for tea and water when this servant-looking fellow had seized her by force; her wrist still ached faintly.
Thinking of the high wind and dark night, the lonely quiet, all sorts of dreadful notions came crowding into her head.
Before Song Yan could speak, she had already dropped to her knees before him with a thud, kowtowing and sobbing: "Spare me, young master. Spare me, I know nothing. I am only a second-class maid of the Dou household; after the Fourth Miss came to the capital, the Fifth Madam assigned me to serve her, and ordinarily I only attend to the Fourth Miss's tea and water... I know nothing at all..."
Song Yan glanced at Chen He.
Chen He flushed crimson with embarrassment and said, "I will call the leading wife over..."
He truly did not know what Song Yan wanted to ask, and had thought any dowry maid would do; he had even specially picked one who looked clever. Who would have known he had misread the intent.
"No need." Song Yan paid no attention to the maid kowtowing and begging for mercy, and strode toward the ceremonial gate, saying lightly as he went, "Since this matter involves Huai Shu Alley, there is no more need to question anyone. Pass on my words: have Xia Lian take Zhu Yicheng and several others and hurry at once to Huai Shu Alley, to act on my orders."
Chen He answered "Yes," but his heart gave a jolt.