Chapter 408 — The Reason
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 1 of 4
Su Lan caught her meaning and went to the broker's the very next day.
Dou Yan then invited Jiang Ling, who had married into a family in the capital, to the manor, dismissed the maids and serving women, and spoke with her alone in a room for a long while. When Jiang Ling finally came out, her legs were trembling. She said to the wet nurse who had come with her as part of her dowry: "I want one of the First Young Master's guards to escort you back to Haozhou to deliver a letter to the First Madam. Remember this: as long as the letter lives, you live; if the letter is lost, you die."
The "First Young Master" she spoke of was her own husband, Wu Zijie.
That wet nurse had lived through the Jiang family's disaster, and so she was not alarmed. She reasoned that since the young mistress had said this only after coming out of Dou Yan's room, it must concern the safety of the Jiang family. She swore: "Rest assured, Young Madam. Even if I die, I will put that letter into the First Madam's hands."
Jiang Ling nodded and went back to write the letter, her mind wandering far from her task.
Seeing that matters were nearly ready, Dou Yan sat with Song Yan at home poring over the almanac, and told him how Jiang Yan had been asking Su Lan about the household, adding: "I want to send Song Shize over to wait on Sister Yan for a while. That way, if she asks about old matters in the household again, there will be someone to answer her."
Moreover, he was an old retainer of the Song family, and his loyalty was beyond question.
He could also prove that Dou Yan and Song Yan had not lied to her.
"Arrange it as you see fit," said Song Yan, who considered this a matter of the inner quarters and thought it only proper to defer to Dou Zhiwei.
As he spoke, he turned the almanac to the first day of the sixth month. "What do you think of this date?"
Not the best, but the soonest.
Dou Xin said: "Then let it be the first day of the sixth month."
They were still talking when Gu Yu came running over.
He grumbled: "What has Brother Tianci been so busy with these days? Why can I never find him?"
Gu Yu came looking for Song Yan who knew how many times a day, and always in a great hurry, yet whenever it came to actual business it was all trifles. Song Yan reasoned that if he truly had something urgent, he would come again, and so had never taken it seriously. Hearing him now, he could not help laughing: "I have been rather busy these past few days. If you have something to say, say it quickly. In a little while I still have to go with your sister-in-law to look at the Bishui Pavilion in the back."
The Bishui Pavilion stood two courtyards away from the main house of the Yizhi Hall, a little out of the way, but right beside it was the rear lake of the Ying Zhenguo Estate and a small hill piled from Taihu stones, and the scenery was second to none.
Gu Yu glanced at Dou Chu and said: "Is sister-in-law planning to move there for the summer?"