Chapter 358 — Spring Festival

Song Yan's words left Kuang Zhuoran and the others dumbfounded.

"Young Lord," Kuang Zhuoran stammered, "are you saying my father was taken in?"

Dou Huaide and Dou Yan were thinking the same thing. They fixed their burning gazes on Song Yan, waiting to hear what he would say.

Their whole attitude of straining to listen made Song Yan laugh.

"That's not what I mean," he said. "I only think their aim is plainly to take over the Kuang family's holdings. And from what I know of those eunuchs, they usually have no patience for running an enterprise like that. You should look into whose protégé or whose fellow disciple this new magistrate, Jiang Jie, is. Only a connection of that kind could get him a hearing with the eunuchs. Rather than go begging Fan Shichou, you would do better to dig up what lies behind Jiang Jie. With the Dou family's connections among the literati, you stand a much better chance of turning danger into safety."

Kuang Zhuoran and the others brightened at these words. Kuang Zhuoran even bowed to Dou Huaide. "Twelfth Uncle, Boyan will soon sit for the spring examination. I'm afraid we must trouble you to make a few inquiries about this matter."

Though this was his first meeting with Song Yan, he was filled with admiration for the keenness Song Yan had shown. But the gulf between them in station and in acquaintance was far too wide, and he truly could not bring himself to ask.

Since they could find no one, Dou Yan's first thought had been Dou Huaide. And Dou Huaide, knowing nothing of the matter, had begun helping them search without a word of objection simply because Dou Yan had asked. This showed not only that Dou Yan and Dou Huaide were close, but that Dou Huaide was a man worth entrusting with a task. So Kuang Zhuoran had no choice but to turn to Dou Huaide.

And when Song Yan and Dou Yan saw that Kuang Zhuoran, with his own family still trapped in dire straits, could still think of Dou Yan, they could not help but regard him a little more highly. Song Yan even said to Dou Huaide and Dou Yan, "I think the two of you should stay out of this. Leave it to me." Then he added, "Kuang Zhuoran, whatever business you have, come straight to me."

Kuang Zhuoran was overjoyed. He thanked Song Yan, then thanked Dou Huaide and Dou Yan.

With Song Yan taking a hand, things would surely go far better than their own flailing about like headless flies.

Dou Yan was glad to let Song Yan step in. He thanked Song Yan cheerfully and took his leave in good spirits.

Kuang Zhuoran went back to the inn with him, but Dou Huaide stayed behind.

Though the Kuang family affair had dragged in a grand eunuch like Wang Yuan, which set his appetite for gossip burning like a roaring fire,

he muttered to Song Yan, "I hear the Embroidered Uniform Guard hasn't broken for the holiday yet. You can't possibly see to everything yourself. How about I run some errands for you?"

Song Yan knew that his father-in-law meant to adopt Dou Huaide into the Western Dou branch. Though the matter had come to nothing, his father-in-law to this day refused to take a concubine. He was set on divorcing Lady Wang, and though the Wang family had taken her back, whenever his father-in-law went to their door in all solemnity to discuss it, the Wangs would look this way and that and never give a straight answer. The affair would likely drag on for years yet. His father-in-law was already past forty; in a few more years, even if he wished to add to his line, it would be a strain.

By closeness and by kinship, Dou Huaide was the obvious choice—and besides, Dou Yan had been raised at Lady Ji's knee. He was glad to keep Dou Huaide near. "If it won't delay your studies, then run some errands for me."

These days Song Yan had all sorts of petty rogues and odd characters under his command. What need was there for Dou Huaide to lift a finger? But since Dou Huaide was curious, he would leave a few small matters for him to handle—just to take Dou Huaide along for the fun of it.

Dou Huaide was delighted and said quickly, "School's been out for ages. It doesn't start again until after the Lantern Festival. It won't delay my studies, not at all."

"Good, then!" Song Yan laughed and arranged to meet him at the palace gate tomorrow at the hour of Chen.

Dou Huaide left in high spirits.

Dou Yan asked Song Yan, "Do you really think someone is using Fan Shichou's name as a banner to wave?"

"I don't know yet," Song Yan said, very calmly and rationally. "We can't be sure until we've looked into it."

Dou Yan pursed her lips.

Song Yan gave Dou Zhiwei's cheek a tweak, then went off to the privy.

Dou Yan's thoughts turned from Wang Ge to Wang Yuan.

If Wang Yuan had not taken part in the palace coup in her previous life, she would not believe it for anything.

But on what grounds had Wang Yuan been so sure the Prince of Liao would succeed?

And when had he thrown in his lot with the Prince of Liao?

What terms had the Prince of Liao used to win Wang Yuan over?

Dou Yan thought of the things Gu Yu had filched from the Prince of Liao's storehouses, and of Zhang Zhiqi of the Risheng Silver House...

Treason took money.

And a great deal of it.

Before it succeeded, it was like a bottomless pit.

No amount of silver could fill it.

And the Kuang family's thirty thousand taels of income each year—from a trade already established, one that yielded profit without loss—was exactly what the Prince of Liao needed.

Dou Yan had long wanted to warn Song Yan of the Prince of Liao's ambitions, but the right moment had never come.

She had a vague feeling that if this affair really did involve Wang Yuan, it might prove an opportunity for both her and Song Yan.

While keeping a close watch on developments in the Kuang household, Dou Yan began arranging the New Year affairs of the Yingzhen Ducal Estate.

There was the sacrificial rite on New Year's Eve; the New Year's dinner in the palace; the great court audience on the first day; visits to relatives on the second and third; family banquets on the fourth and fifth; and spring banquets from the sixth through the Lantern Festival. From the guest lists to the vessels for serving tea, everything had to change with the occasion. The Spring Festival at a house like the Yingzhen Ducal Estate, which had both to take part in the imperial celebrations and to entertain its fellow nobles and colleagues, was a time of endless business—no less busy than a whole prefecture's New Year, and far beyond anything ordinary officials' households could compare with.

Fortunately, Dou Yan knew it all by heart, and not one of the tasks could stump her.

The stewardesses had first seen Dou Zhiwei's methods, and then Dou Yan's skill at managing the household, and each was now on her guard, not daring to look down on them. Dou Yan also let it be known that she had no intention of making sweeping changes: whoever was fit for the post would stay, and whoever was not, no matter whose person she was, would go all the same. None of the stewardesses wanted to be the chicken slaughtered to frighten the monkeys, so they threw themselves into the work to keep their posts. For a time, Dou Zhiwei's word carried more weight than an imperial edict. In no more than two days, she had everything arranged properly.

Dou Yan brought out silver from her own purse: ten taels for each stewardess who had served well, and two taels for each who had made no mistakes.

For a time, the whole of the Yingzhen Ducal Estate praised Dou Yan like a Bodhisattva.

Song Cen felt as if he had been slapped across the face.

The reason he had handed over the authority to run the household of the Ying Zhenguo estate to Dou Yan so readily was, beyond being forced by circumstance, chiefly that he wanted to watch Dou Yan—who had never managed a ducal household in her life—flounder about, spending her strength for nothing.

But to his surprise, he had only helped Dou Yan succeed.