Chapter 204 — Light and Quick

Song Yan walked slowly out of the hall.

A night breeze blew up, and the lanterns pasted with great red double-happiness characters before the corridor swayed with it; their light was hazy, falling on the ground strewn with red scraps of firecracker paper, and there was a kind of lonely stillness about it, as though the music had ended and the guests had all gone home.

He instructed Chen He: "Go and see where the people who came with the Fourth Miss have been settled. Bring me her personal maid."

Chen He answered and went off.

Beside the Taihu rocks in the corner of the wall grew several clumps of hostas; their pure white blossoms seemed especially crystalline and translucent in the moonlight.

Song Yan looked at it and felt restless, and could not keep from pacing back and forth before the corridor.

Chen He came back with a slender maid.

Song Yan did not recognize her face.

Chen He, well trained, reported in a low voice that Song Yan could hear but others would find somewhat muddled: "Young Lord, the people who came with the Fourth Miss are all resting in the side rooms behind the main house. The Fourth Miss's senior maids, Suxin and Sujuan, were kept back at the Huai Shu Alley, saying they were needed to help settle matters there, and will come along when the Fourth Miss returns home on the third day; Ganlu was summoned for questioning by Lady Yan'an, the lady of complete blessings invited by the Jining Marquis's household; and Sulan ran off to watch the excitement. I waited a long while and neither Ganlu nor Sulan came, so I brought over one of the Fourth Miss's dowry maids called Wenxiang..."

Song Yan knew the two sisters Suxin and Sulan.

The reason he had suffered such a great loss at the country estate was precisely that he had not reckoned on both sisters being skilled in martial arts, and quite skilled at that. In the few subsequent meetings with Dou Yan, Dou Yan had been accompanied by either Suxin or Sulan.

Hearing that Sulan had run off to watch the excitement, his gaze could not help but darken.

Did Sulan not know the bride had been changed? Or had she been detained on some pretext?

The maid Chen He had brought, however, was trembling with fear, not daring to raise her head.

She had just come out to ask the Jining Marquis's household for tea and water when this servant-looking fellow had seized her by force; her wrist still ached faintly.

Thinking of the high wind and dark night, the lonely quiet, all sorts of dreadful notions came crowding into her head.

Before Song Yan could speak, she had already dropped to her knees before him with a thud, kowtowing and sobbing: "Spare me, young master. Spare me, I know nothing. I am only a second-class maid of the Dou household; after the Fourth Miss came to the capital, the Fifth Madam assigned me to serve her, and ordinarily I only attend to the Fourth Miss's tea and water... I know nothing at all..."

Song Yan glanced at Chen He.

Chen He flushed crimson with embarrassment and said, "I will call the leading wife over..."

He truly did not know what Song Yan wanted to ask, and had thought any dowry maid would do; he had even specially picked one who looked clever. Who would have known he had misread the intent.

"No need." Song Yan paid no attention to the maid kowtowing and begging for mercy, and strode toward the ceremonial gate, saying lightly as he went, "Since this matter involves Huai Shu Alley, there is no more need to question anyone. Pass on my words: have Xia Lian take Zhu Yicheng and several others and hurry at once to Huai Shu Alley, to act on my orders."

Chen He answered "Yes," but his heart gave a jolt.

Zhu Yicheng and the others were several top masters who had come from Fujian. They had once served under the Duke of Dingguo; that Zhu Yicheng had even, by the Duke's command, taken the Young Lord onto the battlefield, and was half a teacher to the Young Lord, as well as one of those most utterly loyal to him. From the Young Lord's tone, he meant to go to Huai Shu Alley himself.

Could something have happened to the Dou family's Fourth Miss?

Gazing at Song Yan's face, which, faintly tinged with a certain savagery, seemed somewhat piercingly cold, he forced down the urge to take one look at the wedding hall and hurried out of the Jining Marquis's household.

Song Yan let out a long breath and climbed into the carriage. He instructed the driver: "To Huai Shu Alley."

※※※※※

In the main room of the house in Yunqi Temple Alley, Dou Huaiying slowly opened his eyes.

"Shouyuan!" He called his daughter with difficulty. "I... I have wronged you!" A glimmer of tears stirred at the corners of his eyes at once.

"What are you saying?" Dou Xin said. "I never wanted to marry into the Wei family in the first place; it was you who insisted I must. Now Dou Ming and I have both gotten what we wished for, so how have you wronged me? Do not think too much; rest well. Dou Ming has Fifth Uncle to act for her there, and the Jining Marquis is a man of gentle temper; since Dou Ming has already bowed to Heaven and Earth with him, he will certainly not treat her ill. You need not worry."

Dou Huaiying did not believe a word of it.

In his impression, Dou Yan had always been generous and kind to others, and he thought Dou Xin was only comforting him.

He grieved all the more.

But what could be done?

The palm and the back of the hand were both flesh.

Could he take Dou Ming back and marry Dou Yan off in her place?

Then would Dou Ming still have any way to live?

But if he simply accepted things as they were, what was to become of the grievance Dou Yan had suffered?

Dou Huaiying did not dare look at Dou Chu any longer; he turned his head away, and the tears could not be held back any longer.

Dou Yan sighed to herself.

Her father disliked contending with others, always believing that if he yielded a little he could avoid conflict, never understanding that the more he did so, the more matters tangled like a skein of hemp; everyone felt wronged, resentment grew heavier, relations between them grew tenser, and in time it would all burst forth.

She trimmed the lamp wick, and the room grew brighter.

Dou Yan called in Gao Sheng, who had been waiting outside all along: "Keep my father company and talk with him a while!"

Her father and Wang Shuying treated each other with icy courtesy, and neither daughter was close to him either; the one most able to comfort him was perhaps Gao Sheng.

Gao Sheng answered respectfully.

Dou Yan stepped out of the inner chamber.

"Shouyuan!" The Fifth Madam came forward to meet her, her expression awkward.

Dou Yan gave her a light glance and said, "Fifth Aunt, if you have the leisure to stand watch here waiting for Father to wake, you would do better to think of a way to make the Wei family acknowledge this marriage. Of our two West Dou sisters, one had her match torn apart by you, and the other was married into the Wei household by your mistake. Both are now like fish frying in a pan. Surely you can save one of them?"

The Fifth Madam's face flushed scarlet. "This was your stepmother's idea in the first place..."

"To be capable of such a thing, you must have some measure of courage," Dou Yan cut her off with a cold laugh. "I respect you as a heroine who yields nothing to men. Do not make me think less of you."

That one sentence stopped the Fifth Madam where she stood, and sent Matron Liu retreating several steps in a row.

Dou Yan did not so much as glance at the womenfolk in the hall, but composed her features and left the main house.

The serving women posted outside all lowered their heads and opened a path for her.

Only when she had returned to the eastern wing where she lodged and heard Suxin shut the door with a sharp click did the corners of Dou Zhiwei's eyes and brows come alive again.

"Where is the Seventh Madam?" she asked Suxin, her expression one of ease.