Chapter 370 — Wedding Wine

Everyone was delighted, her aunt most of all. Promises had been made before, but promises were only promises; now that the thing had settled into fact, she could begin making ready for the move to Huguang.

Dou Yan, who had an estate in Huguang and knew the region a little, advised her aunt: "Huguang has now replaced Zhejiang as the court's granary. And it is not like Zhejiang, where there are many mouths and little land. If you go, Aunt, you would do well to buy up more fields."

Her aunt nodded again and again, and asked her, "Would you not buy some property too?"

Dou Yan thought a moment, then smiled. "All right! Then I shall leave the business in your hands, Aunt."

She and her aunt were talking intimately in Yuqiao Alley, never guessing that her uncle had quietly gone to Yizhi Hall to call on Song Yan.

The two men shut themselves in the study and talked half the day; only then did Song Yan, grave of face, see her uncle, no less grave, out the door.

That evening, when Dou Yan came home, Song Yan told her of the visit, and asked her, perplexed, "Do you truly think there is something wrong with the Prince of Liao?"

Dou Yan said, "If you trust the Prince of Liao, then why send men to look into how much he has gifted to every official, great and small, in the capital over the years?"

Song Yan paced the room, somewhat irritable.

Dou Yan put her arms around him from behind and said, softly, "Let us not trouble ourselves with these things. So long as we do not covet the merit of setting a man on the throne, whoever becomes emperor will not dare to stint you. Why must you wear yourself out over it?"

Song Yan stroked the slender, delicate hands at his waist, heaved a long sigh, and promised her, "We will not touch this matter. We shall stand aside."

But in his heart he knew.

Sometimes the tree longs for stillness, and the wind will not stop.

The seat he occupied now was far too sensitive.

If only he could be posted somewhere else!

The thought flashed past, and suddenly he thought of Jiang Yi.

He had met Jiang Yi only a few times, but Jiang Yi had struck him as a young man of considerable insight and no little ambition. To enter the Divine Machine Camp had been his dream, even his pride, and he had never made any secret of his pride at getting in. How was it, then, that he seemed to have become another man, and now grumbled at the hardship of the Divine Machine Camp?

Song Yan decided to find an occasion to talk with Jiang Yi, but Zhao Zhangru's wedding was close at hand, and as Dou Zhiwei's husband he wished to leave a good impression on Zhao Si; whenever he was off duty he was at the Zhao house lending a hand, and for a time he could find no natural opening to raise the matter with Jiang Yi.

And Zhao Zhangru's preparations, thanks to the help of Sixth Madam, Mrs. Guo, Dou Yan and the rest, went off very smoothly.

Even so, a small mishap still befell her wedding.

Ma Youming had come to the Five Armies Chief Military Commission on business, and passing through Yuqiao Alley, learned that Song Yan's elder cousin was taking a husband into her house. Uninvited, he sent in a gift of twenty taels of silver and came to drink at the wedding feast.

For such a show of face, her aunt must needs entertain him handsomely.

She set a table for Ma Youming alone in the flower hall, and invited Song Yan, Dou Yong, Dou Huaide and others to keep him company.

Halfway through the drinking, Ji Yong arrived.

He was still in his court robes, and he bawled at Dou Huaide, "A matter this big, and you did not invite me? Had I not come home early today, I should never have known that Shouyuan's cousin was marrying!"

Dou Huaide could gladly have clapped a hand over Ji Yong's mouth.

Dou Yong, uneasy, shot a glance at Song Yan and began hauling Ji Yong toward the door.

Ji Yong frowned, and cast a scornful glance at Song Yan, who sat there unruffled, drinking his wine. "Do you think a thing that has happened can be treated as though it never did? And still you study the Way of Laozi and Zhuangzi! I see what you are: Confucians who can do nothing but muddle the classics."

Ma Youming was at a loss.

Shouyuan was plainly a woman's intimate name; but what had that to do with Song Yan and this Lord Ji?

Song Yan laughed coldly in his heart.

Dou Yan was his wife now. What had he to fear?

If Ji Yong thought to wreck the bond between him and Dou Zhiwei, he had not a hope of it.

A girl in a family is sought by a hundred suitors; Ji Yong had merely seen Dou Zhiwei's worth, as he himself had done. He was not the sort of petty, self-doubting man who, because his wife was too fine, would sour and resent her for stealing his thunder.

"Eleventh Brother-in-law," he said with a smile, inviting Ji Yong to the table, "all who come are guests. Since Lord Ji has given a gift of money, we can hardly treat him coldly, can we? I say, let him sit at our table. Lord Ma and I were about to play at finger-guessing, and the more the merrier."

A flicker of mockery crossed Ji Yong's lips.

You think that because I am a man of letters I cannot hold my liquor?

Finger-guessing?

Just watch me drink you under the table!

He flung off Dou Yong's hand and sat himself down across from Song Zhi, smiling faintly. "Finger-guessing? I know that game too!"

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Sisters, brothers — the second watch's chapter is here.

Two days left in September: I beg you for pink votes, and for first place on the pink-vote rankings!

o(n_n)o~