Chapter 232 — A Visit
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 1 of 4
At first light the next morning, Gu Yu left the Yingzhengguo Estate and instructed the driver, "To the Longhua Temple alley!" Then he swung himself up into the carriage.
The driver dared not dawdle; they raced along at full speed, and in less than half an hour arrived at the mouth of the Heming Temple alley.
Gu Yu jumped down and saw a man selling douhua at the alley entrance; since it was still early, only two or three laborers sat at the stall.
He sent his attendants on ahead to the Heming Temple alley, found himself a reasonably clean stool, sat down, ordered a bowl of douhua, and ate it at a leisurely pace.
Before long the douhua stall grew lively.
Snatching a moment from his work, the stallkeeper called out to two women standing before the stall sipping their douhua: "Sister-in-law Liu, what's this—selling vegetables with Sister-in-law Wang today? Have you guests at home?"
"That's right!" laughed one of the women, dressed in a lilac-colored vest. "Our household is inviting the full-fortune women today—we've several banquets to prepare."
By custom, when a family took a daughter-in-law or married off a daughter, the full-fortune women and the hair-dressers who would assist were invited some days in advance to drink wine at the house, as a mark of respect.
Hands never still, the stallkeeper chatted on with a smile: "Your Fifth Miss's wedding was a grand affair indeed! I hear you had the wife of a Hanlin Academy scholar as the full-fortune woman—I wonder, for the Fourth Miss's wedding this time, which lady will do the honors?"
"Naturally another Hanlin wife," the woman smiled. "Only this time it's the wife of His Excellency Zhao—His Excellency Zhao and our master are of the same examination year."
"Rich folk are a breed apart," someone beside them chimed in. "Two daughters married off inside a month—must cost forty or fifty thousand taels at least, surely?"
The two women smiled and said nothing.
Someone egged them on: "Sister-in-law Liu, do tell us! I hear Old Master Dou is marrying off his daughter this time and donated a thousand taels of oil money to the Yunqi Temple—is that true?"
The woman laughed: "How would I know? I only serve in the kitchen. For such matters you'd have to ask our estate's steward."
Another person said, "How come we haven't seen your Steward Gao about these days?"
The woman replied, "Why, I greeted Steward Gao before I came out..."
Gu Yu tossed down a piece of broken silver, quietly left the douhua stall, and found the carriage waiting at the side gate of the Yunqi Temple alley. He went up and stripped the driver of his clothes: "Wear these for me a while." He paid no mind to the driver, who sat on the shaft in nothing but a thin inner garment, his face crimson with embarrassment. Gu Yu went straight to the Dou estate's back gate, and with the help of two bodyguards climbed over into Dou Juan's rear courtyard, and soon found the eastern wing where Dou Yan was resting.
Dou Yan had barely slept all night, and had only closed her eyes when the sky turned faintly light; now she was catching up on her sleep. Not only the wing, but the entire upper house—the maids and old women alike—walked on tiptoe, hardly daring to breathe.
Gu Yu drew out his pocket watch and glanced at it.
A quarter past the third hour of the si period.
Still not up at this hour. A lazy good-for-nothing if ever there was one!
Gu Yu gave a cold snort, tucked the watch back into his breast, and went on standing motionless behind the pomegranate tree back of the wing.
The sun rose higher; sounds began to stir within the eastern wing.
Suxin brought a bowl of bird's-nest porridge and attended Dou Yan as she ate, then smilingly helped her straighten her clothes: "Would you like to sleep a little longer? There's still more than an hour till the midday meal!"
Dou Yan sat on thorns, quite unable to sleep. She told Suxin, "Go and fetch Steward Gao. I have something to ask him."