Chapter 437 — Dowry
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 3 of 4
Song Cen flew into a towering rage, veins standing out on his forehead. "Is this marrying off a daughter? This is selling one! How did I come to have such a cheap piece of goods?" Then he summoned Song Han and said, "From now on keep your wife in hand. Once she has married in, do not let her go out lightly on any pretext. I will not spend my days entertaining the muck of the Miao family."
Song Han was ashamed through and through, his face burning red.
Song Cen said to Third Madam Song, "Tian'en's marriage cannot outstrip Song Yan's. Song Yan is, after all, the Heir of the Duke of Ying's house." He brooded a long while, then said, "But neither will I do Tian'en a wrong. Following the precedent of Song Yan's wedding, we shall set the betrothal gift at twenty thousand taels."
So he had agreed after all!
Third Madam Song secretly gave thanks that she had not held her ground, and breathed again.
Song Han knelt before Song Cen, choked with gratitude. "Thank you, Father! I shall obey you in all things hereafter and keep my wife well in hand. She shall not bring shame upon the Duke of Ying's house."
Only then did Song Cen feel somewhat better.
He gave a grunt of assent, nodded, and took up his tea.
* * * * *
Dou Yan merely smiled a little at the news.
Since Song Yan had said that once the Miao girl married in he would have Song Han set up his own household, then set up his own household Song Han would. She and the Miao girl would not be eating from the same pot; what sort of woman she was, and what the Miaos were plotting, had little to do with her. These days she worried only over Yuanheng. He was barely six weeks old, and already, when he opened his eyes, he would not lie abed—nothing would do but that someone hold him upright with a hand beneath his head.
Dou Huaiying and Song Ke never stopped praising Yuanheng for his cleverness; Dou Yan, for her part, thought it a sign of mischief in the making.
In the twinkling of an eye the month had turned to its latter half, and the Song and Miao families fixed the day of Song Han's wedding for the second of the ninth month, the bridal chamber to be made ready in the Green Bamboo Lodge beside Osmanthus Court.
That was well enough.
Apart from going to pay their respects to Song Cen, the two sisters-in-law would scarcely have had a chance even to meet. That spared them a great deal of trouble besides.
Dou Yan decided to return to the mansion.
Song Sui said, "The family is having the walls whitewashed for Song Han's rooms. Mind the fumes, they are not good for the child. It will be time enough if you go back a few days before the wedding."
Since childhood he had envied the bustle of the Jiang household. Yunqi Temple Lane might not be as merry as the Zhenguo mansion, yet Dou Huaiying's earnest care made a person feel warm at heart. He liked such an atmosphere and wished to stay a few days longer.
Dou Yan burst out laughing, having some inkling of what was in his mind, and of course did not insist. She fell in with Song Sui's arrangement.
Once Song Yan had gone to the yamen, she asked Ganlu, "Still no word from Aunt Cui?"
She had been afraid her grandmother would worry. She had written only that she was with child, saying nothing of how many months along she was; and not until the child was safely and soundly born did she send Chen Lanxu to carry the good news to her grandmother, promising that once the child had turned two and grown sturdy, she would bring him to visit the old lady.
Her grandmother was overjoyed, and besides sending back a longevity lock by Chen Lanxu, she sent quantities of children's clothes, shoes and socks. From the creases in those garments it was plain that the old lady had prepared them long beforehand.
Being in confinement, she could not ply a needle, so she had the sewing room make several autumn garments for her grandmother and gave them to Chen Lanxu to carry back to Zhending.