Chapter 487 — An Outcry
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 2 of 4
Liu Zhang answered respectfully, "Besides two guards, two young servants. Two coachmen, the Second Madam, and the Second Madam's two maids and two attendant women. The two guards, the coachmen, and the attendant women are resting, as the rules require, in the warm chamber beside the sedan hall. The two young servants were stopped at the second gate. Only the two maids went with the Second Madam into the inner courtyard."
"The Second Madam came?" Dou Yan was somewhat surprised.
By rights, they had no mother-in-law. The woman ought to have come and paid her respects. Her absence before, when Dou Yan was not at home, was one thing—but now that she was back, Miao Zhi still had not shown herself... Had she gone home? Or did she not know Dou Yan had returned?
Liu Zhang explained in detail, "It seems neither the Second Master nor the Second Madam knew that the heir and you had gone to the lane behind the temple. When the Second Madam saw you were not at home, and that the Prince of Liao had brought no ladies, she prepared to leave. The Second Master thought her a nuisance, and handed her over to Du Ruo, the chambermaid of the Duke of Ying. The Second Madam went white with rage, but with the Duke present she dared not speak, and had no choice but to follow Du Ruo to the rear houses. She is still there even now, with Du Ruo keeping her company!"
To send a nameless, unranked chambermaid to attend upon the principal wife—such a slap in the face—that was exactly Song Han's way.
Dou Yan said, "Does the Second Madam not know I have returned to the mansion?"
Liu Zhang pondered, then said, "This servant does not know!"
Hardly had the words left his mouth when Chen Yanzhou walked in.
Dou Yan nodded to Chen Yanzhou, motioning him to a grand armchair at the side, and went on to Liu Zhang, "Go at once and see what the Second Madam is doing. Which two maids did she bring into the mansion to serve her? And what are those two maids and Du Ruo about?"
Liu Zhang answered "Yes," paid his respects to Chen Yanzhou, and ran out.
Dou Yan told Chen Yanzhou of her fears.
Chen Yanzhou laughed. "This is the Duke of Ying's own mansion! Lu Ming and his men are still watching from the shadows!"
Dou Yan agreed, saying, "Moreover, the heir is still in mourning for his mother! To win by surprise—the Prince of Liao cannot have come to the Duke of Ying's mansion merely for a cup of wine and a chat about old times with the heir. You must know that once such men fall out, it is a fight to the death."
Chen Yanzhou wanted to argue further, but then he thought of what had been discovered about Song Yan before—calling it bizarre would hardly be an exaggeration—and concluded that if yet another unexpected thing were to happen, it would not be so very astonishing after all.
Dou Yan said, "Let us first see what Liu Zhang has managed to find out."
Chen Yanzhou nodded.
The two of them fell to talking about Dou Huaide's provincial examination.
"You went to the alley behind the temple today—what did the Seventh Master have to say?" As a candidate who had failed the examination time and again, Chen Yanzhou was especially concerned with such matters.
"He said nothing at all." Dou Yan was likewise concerned, but because of the impressions carried over from his former life, he was not anxious. "I thought, the examination is already sat, and asking more about it would be pointless. I also feared that Twelfth Brother had not done well and would not wish to speak of it, so I did not ask."
Chen Yanzhou could not help but feel somewhat disappointed. "I hear the topic for this year's Northern Zhili provincial examination was 'Manifest the clear character; rest in the highest good,' and the topic for the Southern Zhili examination was 'The mean is the true way under heaven.' Both are worn-out topics; to shine on them is extraordinarily difficult. When the papers are published, I mean to read the top essays of both Zhili regions with great care."
Dou Yan chuckled.