Chapter 249 — Awkward
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 1 of 4
After the midday meal, the kin-claiming ceremony came to an end.
Song Yan personally escorted Dou Jichang and the others to the main gate.
The Song family's assorted relatives and connections, meanwhile, moved into the garden of the eastern side court.
Song De, the Grand Princess, and Old Madam Lu, accompanied by Lu Chen's wife and Lu Shi's wife, played leaf cards in the warm chamber beside the reception hall; while Feng Lu-shi, mother of the third Madam Zhang, led Lu Han's wife, Lu Qin's wife, the womenfolk of the Song family, and the ladies of the Yunyang Earl Gu household in a game of madiao in the reception hall itself. As for Lu Chen, Lu Shi, and the rest, Song Cen and Song Yan kept them company in the garden listening to the opera. Gu Yu dragged Wang Yu, Feng Shao, and several others off to the mountain lodge to gamble.
Dou Yan followed behind the eldest Madam Lu, waiting upon the Duke of Ninghuai and Old Madam Lu, while the young Madam Wang sat at the Grand Princess's side drinking tea. Dou Yan casually remarked how many hands had been played, and Old Madam Lu could not help laughing. "I'd never have guessed—Yantang's wife is quite the hand at cards?"
The Lu family's first and second madams watched her with smiling faces, their expressions kindly.
Dou Xin said, "I have many uncles and cousins on my mother's side, and when we gather we often play leaf cards. Over time one picks up a thing or two."
Old Madam Lu nodded and smilingly asked after Dou Yan's life in her maiden home.
If anyone among the relatives present today was most concerned for Song Yan, it was surely the Lu family.
Dou Yan held nothing back, selecting a few amusing tales of her time in Zhending to tell the two old ladies, and for a while the warm chamber rang with laughter and merry chatter, lively beyond measure.
Feng Lu-shi laughed. "I'd never have guessed Yantang's new bride had such a glib tongue. She's scarcely through the door and already she has my mother and the Grand Princess smiling so wide their mouths won't close. I daresay from now on Yantang's wife will be just like Sister Jiang—always able to win my mother's and the Princess's favor..." As she spoke, she shot a glance at Lu Han's wife, the second Madam Lu, and Lu Qin's wife, the third Madam Lu.
The "Sister Jiang" she meant was Jiang Huisun, Song Yan's mother.
The two women smiled and said nothing.
Hearing this, the first Madam Song and the third Madam Song exchanged a look, and on the same pretext—that they needed to use the privy—slipped away together behind the Taihu rockery beside the reception hall to talk.
"You were the one who went to check the yuan-tie this morning," the third Madam Song said shrewdly. "How did the two of them fare?"
This ought to have been the mother-in-law's task, but Dou Yan had no mother-in-law, and Song Cen could hardly inquire into such matters himself, so he had asked the first Madam Song to examine the yuan-tie on his behalf.
"The two of them shared a bed last night." There was a faint note of dejection in the first Madam Song's voice. "I questioned the little maids of Yizhi Hall, and they all say Yantang spent the night in the bridal chamber." At this she seemed to recall something. "And you—of all people to choose, you had to send Jin'er to test them! If Yantang takes suspicion, and turns his anger on Jin'er, what then? I really think you'd better find a chance to explain yourself to that Dou woman!"
"Don't I know it?" The third Madam Song was full of grievance at this. "But the Third Master insisted I send Jin'er to try them, and said, if not a maid, then who would dare? If it backfires, it will be a fine mess. And now look—Yantang has his eye on Jin'er... If anything happens to Jin'er, I swear I'll have it out with the Third Master!"