Chapter 358 — Spring Festival
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 1 of 4
Song Yan's words left Kuang Zhuoran and the others dumbfounded.
"Young Lord," Kuang Zhuoran stammered, "are you saying my father was taken in?"
Dou Huaide and Dou Yan were thinking the same thing. They fixed their burning gazes on Song Yan, waiting to hear what he would say.
Their whole attitude of straining to listen made Song Yan laugh.
"That's not what I mean," he said. "I only think their aim is plainly to take over the Kuang family's holdings. And from what I know of those eunuchs, they usually have no patience for running an enterprise like that. You should look into whose protégé or whose fellow disciple this new magistrate, Jiang Jie, is. Only a connection of that kind could get him a hearing with the eunuchs. Rather than go begging Fan Shichou, you would do better to dig up what lies behind Jiang Jie. With the Dou family's connections among the literati, you stand a much better chance of turning danger into safety."
Kuang Zhuoran and the others brightened at these words. Kuang Zhuoran even bowed to Dou Huaide. "Twelfth Uncle, Boyan will soon sit for the spring examination. I'm afraid we must trouble you to make a few inquiries about this matter."
Though this was his first meeting with Song Yan, he was filled with admiration for the keenness Song Yan had shown. But the gulf between them in station and in acquaintance was far too wide, and he truly could not bring himself to ask.
Since they could find no one, Dou Yan's first thought had been Dou Huaide. And Dou Huaide, knowing nothing of the matter, had begun helping them search without a word of objection simply because Dou Yan had asked. This showed not only that Dou Yan and Dou Huaide were close, but that Dou Huaide was a man worth entrusting with a task. So Kuang Zhuoran had no choice but to turn to Dou Huaide.
And when Song Yan and Dou Yan saw that Kuang Zhuoran, with his own family still trapped in dire straits, could still think of Dou Yan, they could not help but regard him a little more highly. Song Yan even said to Dou Huaide and Dou Yan, "I think the two of you should stay out of this. Leave it to me." Then he added, "Kuang Zhuoran, whatever business you have, come straight to me."
Kuang Zhuoran was overjoyed. He thanked Song Yan, then thanked Dou Huaide and Dou Yan.
With Song Yan taking a hand, things would surely go far better than their own flailing about like headless flies.
Dou Yan was glad to let Song Yan step in. He thanked Song Yan cheerfully and took his leave in good spirits.
Kuang Zhuoran went back to the inn with him, but Dou Huaide stayed behind.
Though the Kuang family affair had dragged in a grand eunuch like Wang Yuan, which set his appetite for gossip burning like a roaring fire,
he muttered to Song Yan, "I hear the Embroidered Uniform Guard hasn't broken for the holiday yet. You can't possibly see to everything yourself. How about I run some errands for you?"
Song Yan knew that his father-in-law meant to adopt Dou Huaide into the Western Dou branch. Though the matter had come to nothing, his father-in-law to this day refused to take a concubine. He was set on divorcing Lady Wang, and though the Wang family had taken her back, whenever his father-in-law went to their door in all solemnity to discuss it, the Wangs would look this way and that and never give a straight answer. The affair would likely drag on for years yet. His father-in-law was already past forty; in a few more years, even if he wished to add to his line, it would be a strain.
By closeness and by kinship, Dou Huaide was the obvious choice—and besides, Dou Yan had been raised at Lady Ji's knee. He was glad to keep Dou Huaide near. "If it won't delay your studies, then run some errands for me."