Chapter 187 — Again (Requesting Pink Tickets)

Ji Yong felt that Dou Yan was utterly infuriating.

How had she turned into this?

She had actually taken a fancy to a man like Wei Wan!

Was she still the same Dou Yan who had dared to defy him?

Disappointed and dejected, Ji Yong returned to Yuqiao Alley.

In his study, Old Master Ji, who had been inscribing a poem on his own painting, suddenly set down his brush and looked up to ask Ji Fu, the attendant who had served him for decades, "Has Jianming come back yet?"

Ji Fu, whose temples were already streaked with silver, was rather surprised. He smiled and said, "I will go and see at once!"

Old Master Ji gave a grunt of assent, finished the last line, examined it carefully for a moment, and wore a satisfied smile.

Ji Fu came back and said with a smile, "Young Master Jianming has indeed returned. Only, I do not know what has happened—he is in a fine fury, will not answer anyone who speaks to him, and has shut himself in his room to sulk!"

"Oh!" Old Master Ji raised his grizzled brows and smiled. "It seems the young Miss Dou is a girl of firm opinions, and was not taken in by him."

"The Dou family is, after all, a household of scholars. Miss Dou the Fourth received her family's teaching from childhood; she ought to have at least this much discernment." Smiling, Ji Fu added a few drops of clear water to the inkstone before Old Master Ji, which was nearly dry, and, rolling up his sleeve, began to grind ink for him. "Otherwise, why would you, sir, have agreed back then to a match with the Dou family?"

Old Master Ji shook his head. "Do you still not know? People who cannot be led by the nose by Jianming are very few. This young Miss Dou is no simple creature!"

Ji Fu smiled. "No matter how uncommon she is, can she compare with Young Master Jianming, whom you yourself instructed?"

At this Old Master Ji was slightly taken aback, then burst into loud laughter, pointing at Ji Fu. "You have been flattering me for decades now—you ought to take a rest from it now and then!"

Ji Fu said with a smile, "Look at what you say, sir—I never flatter anyone! It is only that you refuse to believe it, and there is nothing I can do about that."

His expression was so earnest that Old Master Ji burst out laughing once more.

Then Ji Fu said with a smile, "You have not praised anyone in years. Shall we have the Young Madam invite the Dou family's Grand Matriarch over for a simple meal? Now that the Grand Matriarch has come to the capital, propriety dictates that we should entertain her well."

"You are a scheming one." Old Master Ji picked up his brush and dipped it in the inkstone. "A card must certainly be sent to the Grand Matriarch, but as for which members of the Dou family come, that is none of our concern."

Ji Fu answered with a smile of assent.

Meanwhile, in the Yizhi Hall, Song Yan, hearing that Ji Yong had stormed out of the Locust Tree Alley in a rage, could not help knitting his brows.

Dou Yan and Ji Yong had fallen out the moment they met; it seemed almost certainly to be over the business at the South Chan Temple Alley.

He instructed Du Wei, "Go and find out what exactly happened."

After the midday meal, Du Wei came back to report: "It is said they quarreled over a young lady of the Ji family, one named Lingze, who was married into the Han family."

Song Yan was taken aback.

How had another Lady Han, née Ji, suddenly appeared?

Even as the thought flashed through his mind, he heard Du Wei continue: "...and at noon today, Miss Dou the Fourth went to a stationery shop below the Drum Tower."

Chen Yanzhou and Duan Bing and the others had no doubt followed her there.

As Song Yan pondered, Dou Yan had already settled herself in the back office of the stationery shop.

Duan Bing kept watch at the door of the office, while Chen Yanzhou spoke with Dou Yan about the matter of the Puji Temple: "...when Wei Wan received the news, he immediately changed his tune and hurried back to the Jingguo Duke's residence. And so the whole affair ended in a fizzle, quietly dropped."

"I had been wondering all along how Lady Qi could suddenly fly into a fit like a madwoman and turn on me for no reason at all. It turns out she had arranged it with Wei Wan beforehand—Wei Wan would help Dou Ming secure a good match, and she would help the Wei family find grounds to break off the engagement." Dou Yan gave a cold laugh. "So it was because of the trouble at the North Chan Temple that Wei Wan changed his mind at the last moment. He left Lady Qi to take a hard fall!"

Chen Yanzhou nodded, and said with regret, "If Editor Ji had not appeared on the scene, this engagement would likely have been broken long ago!"

Indeed!

Ji Yong always handled matters so bluntly. This, too, was a typical case of good intentions doing harm.

Dou Yan gave a bitter smile and recounted how she and Ji Yong had parted on bad terms. "I only hope he will not meddle in this affair again—otherwise he will make more trouble the more he helps."

Hearing the implication in her words, Chen Yanzhou could not help asking, "Does the young lady have some plan?"

Dou Yan nodded. "That wife of Secretary Zheng of the Military Appointments Bureau in the Ministry of War—was she not lifted and thrown to the ground by Lady Wang, née Xu? She must be deeply resentful. If we could start with her, and spread word of how Wei Wan 'enticed' Lady Qi into framing me..."

"A fine idea!" Before Dou Yan had even finished, Chen Yanzhou's eyes lit up. "In this way, no matter what the Grand Matriarch and the others think, the two families can never be joined in marriage. And since the blame is shifted onto Wei Wan, Lady Qi, to clear herself, will surely find a way to make that Lady Zheng cling to Wei Wan and never let go."

Dou Yan nodded with a smile. "Moreover, having suffered such a blow, I am henceforth utterly disheartened and will never marry again. By any measure of feeling or reason, the Dou elders cannot force me."

"Exactly, exactly!" Chen Yanzhou clapped his hands.

Dou Yan warned Chen Yanzhou: "So this time we must above all guard against Ji Yong and Song Yan—Ji Yong does only what he believes is right; Song Yan strikes with the force of thunderbolts. I only want the engagement broken. I do not want anyone to end up dead."

Chen Yanzhou heartily agreed with Dou Zhiwei's view. "Last time I was careless—seeing that everything had been arranged, I went back to Zhending. This time, with the young lady in command and me here in person, we will surely break off this engagement."

"Then I must trouble Old Chen to take great care."

Dou Yan gave a few more instructions, and seeing that it was growing late, returned to the Locust Tree Alley.

Dou Huaiying was waiting for her in the Locust Tree Alley.

He was still wearing his official robes, which showed that he had come directly after leaving his office.

Dou Yan personally poured Dou Huaiying a cup of tea.

Dou Huaiying fixed her eyes on her daughter, as though she meant to see her through and through and sear her image into her heart, and the intensity of that gaze made Dou Yan thoroughly ill at ease. She had no choice but to say, "Father, was there something you wanted to see me about?"

"Nothing in particular," Dou Huaiying said with a smile. "It is only that you and I have not had a proper word together these past days, so I came especially to look in on you." Then he asked, "I hear you went to the shop? How is business there? The Shuntian Prefectural School has been looking after your stationery shop all along, so it seems that Manager Fan does have some real ability after all."

Dou Chiyou secretly counted her blessings that every last one of the Dou family's enterprises was managed by her third uncle.

She steered the conversation elsewhere, bringing up the marriage between the Wei and Dou families: "...I think it has been far too unlucky. You would do better to engage a master to examine the matter properly, and in the end pick out a few auspicious days to choose from."