Chapter 211 — Beating the Grass
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 4 of 4
"My father is sure to hear of it," Song Yan said, his words heavy with suggestion. "The Fourth Young Lady is the eldest legitimate daughter, and lost her mother in childhood. Her only maternal uncle, though a metropolitan graduate of the highest honors, has served all his years in the northwest. My father married the daughter of Wang Yousheng, the Yunnan provincial governor; and she herself was raised in Zhending by a grandmother who was a concubine. And though she has an uncle who is a Grand Secretary of the court, the kinship is nearly beyond the five degrees of mourning, and on top of that the brides were swapped... My father will surely be very interested—especially now that word has it Consort Ning is about to choose a consort for Princess Jingfu."
"Just so!" Yan Che could not help clapping his hands. "All we need do is find a way to learn what the Dou family intends for the Fourth Young Lady!"
At this, Song Yan could only be grateful for the eavesdropping he had done by chance that day.
"Whatever Dou Yuanji intends for the Fourth Young Lady—marrying her out or taking a husband into the house—with the gentle temper of the Seventh Master of the Dou family, so long as my father speaks earnestly, the Seventh Master will surely not refuse." He spoke slowly, and thinking of his father's words and deeds before his mother's death, a faint sorrow rose in his heart again.
※※※※※
At that moment Wei Fan sat woodenly on the warm brick platform by the window of the reception room, and what rang in his ears was now the wailing of the Dou family's nurses and maids, now his sister's shrill scolding, now his eldest cousin's indignant reproaches.
How had it come to this?
He had merely heard that his sister had fallen into a quarrel with Dou Juan, and had wanted to think carefully about what should be done; he had drunk a cup of tea in his study, and then Dou Ming had hanged herself.
Thank heaven Dou Juan's nurse had sensed something amiss and pushed the door open...
Wei Fan felt his head would split with pain.
※
Sisters, brothers, here is the belated update for the nineteenth of May!
O(∩_∩)O~
※RS