Chapter 296 — A Proposal
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 1 of 4
This was Dou Yan's first time attending a council in the study at Song Yan's side, and she had resolved to listen and say nothing. Song Yan had suddenly named her, though—and she was not a stubborn woman. Since circumstances had shifted, she would not hide her thoughts away; after a moment's reflection, she set them out plainly and without embarrassment.
"Whether Chen Jia is angling for a future or acting on someone's orders, the terms the heir has offered him are deeply tempting to him. That being so, why not hear him out before we decide? If what he says is true, then even if he was put up to it, we need not necessarily fall into the trap; and if what he says is pure fabrication, then even if he is angling for a future, we need not necessarily help him."
"The crux now is this: how do we judge whether his words are true or false?"
Song Yan, Yan Che, and the others nodded slightly.
Zi Aifeng could not help sighing inwardly.
No wonder the heir held his lady in such esteem. Beyond her quick wit, she was skilled at strategy.
A thought suddenly surfaced in his mind.
If one day some mishap befell the heir, then under the lady's leadership, men like them would not be like a great tree once felled, turned in an instant into fish flesh for others to carve.
In that moment, he felt for the first time a sense of belonging to Yizhi Hall.
And he was filled with hope for its future.
If the lady could bear a child soon, Yizhi Hall would have no internal troubles left, and men like them would have no more misgivings.
At that thought, he rose and, with great respect, symbolically topped up Dou Yan's already full cup with a little more water.
Zhu Yicheng, however, had none of Zi Aifeng's calculations. Hearing Dou Zhiwei's words, he was full of doubt and badly wanted to put a few questions to Dou Yan, but constrained by the difference in rank, he dared not speak, and a trace of anxiety showed on his brow.
Song Yan, thinking Zhu Yicheng had views of his own on the matter, smiled and said, "Guard Zhu, what do you make of this?"
Zhu Yicheng was not a man skilled in strategy. At past councils in the study he had only listened and never spoken. Now, seeing every eye turned on him, his face flushed a deep red, his lips worked soundlessly, and only after a long while did he say, "I think what Mr. Yan and Mr. Liao say makes sense, and what the lady says makes sense too. I only want to ask: if this Chen Jia was put up to it, and we go poking into the Duke's affairs, might the people behind him seize on something against us and lay a complaint before the Emperor? I keep feeling that a man who can plan ahead and leave himself a way out like that is no simple character—and he's a good fighter too, a match for any scholar in both letters and arms. With a man like that, best to be careful."
He thinks my proposal too risky, does he?
That was Dou Yan's reading.
In her former life, Song Yan had been moody and unpredictable, yet Chen Jia had become one of his trusted intimates—plainly no one to be taken lightly. But Song Yan's conduct now told her that Chen Jia's words and deeds had already roused his keenest interest; otherwise Song Yan could simply have sent a note to the Embroidered Uniform Guard, had them give him an accounting, and put Chen Jia to death—no need at all to summon Yan Che and the others to a council.
She had always held that damming is worse than diverting.
And the Duke of Dingguo's death was bound up not only with the Jiang family's wrongful case but with the demise of Lady Jiang as well. Song Cen and Song Zhi were at odds... The Prince of Liao had already begun to show his claws. If Song Yan could set the Yingzhenguo Manor's affairs in order before the Prince of Liao bared his fangs, then no one would ever again be able to make an issue of the deaths of Song Yan's kin. Given Song Zhi's cool reason, they could pass safely through the palace coup four years hence.