Chapter 230 — Telling Her
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 1 of 4
At the main gate, Chen Yanzhou and Sulan ran into Dou Huaiying, who had just returned from outside.
He looked at Chen Yanzhou, who was holding the account books, with considerable surprise, and could not help raising his head to glance at the sky.
In the azure sky hung a crescent moon, sparsely dotted about with a few stars.
Chen Yanzhou hastily explained, "The young lady suddenly gave orders that I was to sort out all the accounts for the past six months. I have been busy at it until just now, and have only come to report back to her..."
Dou Huaiying nodded, patted Chen Yanzhou on the shoulder, and praised him somewhat thickly: "Very good! Very good! Serve the Fourth Young Lady well, and I won't treat you badly!" He looked thoroughly satisfied.
Sulan muttered under her breath.
At whose house had the Seventh Master been drinking this time? He came back spouting drunken nonsense. If they had waited for the Seventh Master to show up and praise them, they would have long since been left to drink the north wind.
Chen Yanzhou thanked him respectfully, and together with Gaosheng, who had come out to meet them, he helped Dou Huaiying back to his room. Only then did he follow Sulan to the flower hall.
Dou Yan had already received word, and was waiting for Chen Yanzhou in the flower hall, fully dressed.
Sulan served tea and refreshments, then quietly withdrew and kept watch outside the door.
Chen Yanzhou cupped his hands in apology and said, "I have always felt too ashamed to face my old friends from home. When I did occasionally correspond with friends from the past, it was only because they had requests of me. Now that I am in my eighties, I have come to conduct myself with a little more clarity than before. These past two days I went to call on some old friends, and I have made the Fourth Young Lady worry."
Dou Yan was not the sort to demand that her subordinates report every last thing to her. She smiled and asked him about his visits to his friends, and then the two of them turned to the matter at hand.
"There was a purpose in my going to see my old friends this time," Chen Yanzhou said after a moment's thought. "The Ying Duke's household is a place of shifting winds and treacherous currents—surely the young lady can see that. In the past, these things had little to do with us. Even if changes came, the young lady's life was not at stake. But now it is different. The young lady is betrothed to the heir, and we will be settling in the capital. Some things must be prepared for in advance. We must make our plans early; we cannot rely entirely on the heir." He thought of how close Dou Yan and Song Yan were, and of how Song Yan meant what he said and acted with ruthless decisiveness, and he worried that Dou Chi might not judge Song Yan fairly. He paused, then explained, "We all know the heir's character and nature. But there are some things that even the heir may be powerless to do anything about, and then we would be at a disadvantage. So what I mean is this: on the one hand, we must cultivate some friends—the officials who have dealings with Cui Min, for instance, and my old acquaintances from the past. If anything changes in the Ying Duke's household, we will have a fallback, a card to play. Even if we cannot help the heir, we can at least preserve the young lady's life. We must not let her be caught up in it!"
Dou Yan was utterly astonished.
.
"So then—you are in favor of my marrying into that family?" she asked Chen Yanzhou.