Chapter 437 — Dowry
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 4 of 4
By her reckoning, Chen Lanxu should have returned by the middle of this month, yet there was still no sign of him, nor any letter sent over from her grandmother.
Ganlu smiled and sought to comfort her. "Or perhaps Aunt Cui has been making some of your favorite dishes again, and a thing or two has not yet come to the boil, so Guard Chen stayed on a few days longer at home. That may well be."
That was possible.
Dou Yan nodded.
In the first days of her marriage to Song Yan, she had written a letter of safe tidings and sent it to Aunt Cui by Chen Lanxu. Aunt Cui had pickled a great quantity of the vegetables she loved and given them to Chen Lanxu to bring back; and because the pickles had to wait for the jars to be sealed, Chen Lanxu lingered half a month longer in Zhending.
On second thought, Dou Yan set the matter aside.
Then word came from the Ying family's Zhenguo mansion.
It was said that when the Song family came to press the bride to her toilette, the inlaid lacquer bed the Miaos had promised at the sending of the betrothal gifts had been swapped for a canopy bed, the yellow rosewood furniture for pine, the sacrificial-red porcelain cups and dishes for blue-and-white... The Song servants who had come to carry the dowry fell into a furious quarrel with the Miao household, and the onlookers pressed in three deep on every side.
The Miao family were past all shame, like a dead dog that fears no scalding water: they would sooner go to law before the Emperor himself than spend one coin more upon the dowry.
Song Han, who had gone along with them, was mortified beyond bearing. He covered half his face with one hand, dragged Third Madam Song out of the house, and had the dowry carried back to the Ying family's Zhenguo mansion.