Chapter 260 — The Ninth Day
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 1 of 4
Dou Yan instructed Suxin, "If Mr. Tao returns..."
When ordinary people meet with such a thing, they react in one of two ways. One is to rise in fury and fight to the death, so long as the shame is washed away; the other is to tremble with fear and from then on take the long way round, like a blind man eating tangyuan, knowing well enough in his heart and letting that be that.
She had to judge which choice Tao Jun would make.
Suxin smiled and answered, "Yes."
A little maid came in and announced, "Madam, the First, Sixth, and Eleventh Sister-in-Law have come to see you."
Only then did Dou Yan remember that today was the ninth day since her marriage. By custom, on this day her natal family would bring food to visit her, as a token of their concern.
"Ask them to sit in the flower hall," Dou Yan told the little maid, and while Ganlu attended her in changing into clothes fit for receiving guests, she asked Suxin, "Still no word from the heir?"
Song Yan had entered the palace on the afternoon of the twenty-seventh of the eighth month, having agreed to serve two nights' watch and then return; yet to this day he had still not come out.
Dou Yan had been terribly worried at the time.
In marrying her, Song Yan had, after all, slapped the imperial family in the face. Though he had cleverly shifted the fault onto Song Cen's head, who could guarantee the Emperor would not visit his wrath upon them?
She at once ordered Wuyi to go and find out what he could.
Wuyi returned and reported, "The palace gates are closely guarded within and without. I saw Baoliu, the page who always attends the Heir of the Earl of Guang'en, also inquiring after news of the Earl's heir, but he was stopped at the gate. Even when Baoliu invoked the title of Deputy Commander of the Imperial Guard it did him no good; he had no choice but to ask to see the Commander, Lord Shao Wenji. The soldier on duty gave a cold laugh at that, said they were of the Divine Pivot Camp, and asked Baoliu whether he would like to be taken to see their own Commander, Lord Wang. Baoliu went red in the face with anger, but had to withdraw in embarrassment. Seeing all this, I feared it would shame the heir's name to step forward and ask, so I slipped round by a side alley and got ahead of Baoliu, pretending to run into him by chance. Only thus did I learn that ever since the heir entered the palace, not only the men of the Imperial Guard but even those of the Standard-Bearer Guard have not been rotated out on duty; all of them are stationed inside the palace."
Dou Yan breathed a sigh of relief and asked Wuyi, "Does the heir often encounter such things?"
Wuyi scratched his head. "I was only transferred to serve at the heir's side three years ago. I don't know how it was before, but since I have been with him, this is already the second time."
Hearing this, Dou Yan's heart clenched again.
Twice in three years — which meant this was not a usual state of affairs.
She asked Wuyi, "When was the last time?"
Wuyi said, "Just before the heir's marriage." He recalled, "That is, in the middle of the eighth month, after the Emperor returned from the summer palace."
Dou Yan realized at once.
The Emperor might be ill!
In her last life, far removed from the center of power, she had heard the news of the Emperor's illness all at once. The Prince of Liao, in his extreme filial piety, begged to return to the capital to attend upon the sickbed, and Liang Jifen rejected the petition. The Crown Prince pleaded on his behalf, and only then was the Prince of Liao permitted to return. Then came the palace coup... They were all struck dumb, scarcely daring to breathe. The whole of Fugui Ward shut its doors to visitors; scarce a soul was seen, and it was like an empty city with no one in it.