Chapter 264 — Sudden
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 4 of 4
Dou Yan stepped forward, bent her knee in salute, and echoed, "Aunt Lan."
Aunt Lan nodded with a smile, sizing Dou Yan up from head to toe. Her gaze was gentle, her manner toward Dou Yan quite friendly, and she turned and led them into the side hall.
Within the side hall were only the Empress Dowager and the Empress.
The Empress Dowager sat on a luohan bed in a plain lilac brocade jacket, her black hair neatly coiled into a bun, wearing only a single emerald ring the size of a pigeon's egg on her hand. She looked no more than a woman just past forty, though in truth she had celebrated her sixtieth birthday five years before.
The Empress sat below the Empress Dowager, her skin fair and fine, her face long and elegant, her eyes bright and piercing, exceedingly luminous. Though fine lines had already gathered at the corners of her eyes, they did not make her seem worn; rather, they lent her an air of great warmth and amiability.
Dou Yan had seen both of these women more than once in her previous life, yet the impressions they had left on her then were utterly at odds with what she felt now.
The Empress Dowager had been amiable then, the Empress solemn and dignified.
The Empress Dowager especially: the last time Dou Yan had seen her, the Emperor had already passed away, and the Prince of Liao had named the Empress Dowager Grand Empress Dowager. She and the other titled ladies had been summoned to court to offer congratulations. The Empress Dowager was withered and gaunt, like a crone of eighty, and propped up by attendants, she had fainted before the investiture ceremony could be completed. Within two days she was dead of illness.
She still remembered that skull-like, rigid face.
Dou Yan lowered her head and, together with Song Yan, performed the full kowtow to the two ladies.
Then she heard the Empress say to the Empress Dowager in a gentle voice, "Though she was raised in the countryside, her manners are quite proper. One can see she is a clever, quick-witted child."
Dou Yan recalled how this Empress, after being elevated to Empress Dowager, had dared to have the Prince of Liao's favored consort beaten to death with rods, and how the Prince of Liao, by then Emperor, had not dared so much as to breathe a word of protest. The thought made her somewhat nervous.
She kept her eyes lowered, standing respectfully to one side with hands at her sides, and heard the Empress Dowager say with a touch of displeasure, "The Dou clan of the Northern Tower is a house that has passed down letters and rites for generations. A girl raised by them will hardly be found wanting."
Dou Yan heard the Empress hurry to answer with a smile, "Yes," her voice sounding especially meek.
This Empress was not the Empress she had known in her former life.
The Empress Dowager beckoned to Dou Yan. "Come here, let me have a closer look at you."
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Brothers and sisters, I have made a great blunder.
There was a YY voice interview, and the microphone at home was faulty, so I went out specially to buy one, then used scheduled posting, but clicked the wrong time. My deepest apologies~~~~(_
ps: The second update is here, please vote for me with pink tickets!
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