Chapter 440 — He Hong

Miao Zhi was secretly startled at these words.

"Madam?"

"Which madam?"

From the tone, she was keeping a guest company.

Then it must be someone from the Yingzhen Ducal House.

Curse that Third Madam of the Song family!

Whose family's marriage ever went forward without haggling over the dowry and the betrothal gifts? Yet she had taken all of it to heart, as though the Miaos owed her something, and looked at Miao Zhi as though she were a thorn in her eye and a speck in her nose. Miao Zhi had sat here withering for the longest time, and the woman had not offered so much as a word of introduction.

Miao Zhi gave a cold laugh.

That eldest, third, and fourth branch of the Song family were nothing but collateral lines of the Yingzhen Ducal House. For now she would let the woman be; once she had planted her feet firmly, it would not be too late to settle accounts with her.

At this thought, she finally felt a little better.

Meanwhile, Dou Yan was seeing the Lu family's eldest madam and the Third Madam of the Jingzhen Ducal House out.

A mother has her brothers. Others might leave, but the Lu family's eldest madam, being of Song Cen's maternal kin, could not bring herself to go first. So while the bride entered the hall, she sat coldly sipping tea.

Dou Yan naturally had to keep her company.

The Third Madam Zhang had stayed only out of regard for Dou Zhiwei; as Dou Yan conversed with the Lu family's eldest madam in the hall, she too lingered by to add her share of pleasantries.

Jiang Yan, for her part, stuck to Dou Yan's side without a step's distance.

Seeing that her courtesy had been observed, the Lu family's eldest madam rose to take her leave.

Dou Yan and Jiang Yan escorted the two women to the hanging-flower gate.

When the guests at the bridal chamber saw people leaving, they too dispersed.

Dou Yan and Jiang Yan stood at the gate seeing the guests off.

The bridal chamber fell quiet.

Miao Zhi's temper broke at once.

"Ji Hong, I told you to tip the little maids—why do you not move?" Her face was frost, jarring with the warm festive red of the room. "Have you forgotten all propriety?"

Ji Hong's eyes reddened, and she said in a low voice, "The master gave me only a dozen or so red packets in all. I feared that when the Song family's young ladies and lords and the children of the in-laws came in to offer you tea—"

To give no tips to the maids might just pass. But if there were no red packets even for Song Han's brothers and sisters and the Song kinsfolk who came to offer congratulations, that would be a disgrace.

As it happened, the two brothers of the Song family's eldest branch were the elder uncles and must help entertain the guests in front; they could not come to tease the bride. Of the third and fourth branches, Song Jun and Song Yao were uncles as well, but the Third Madam, disliking the Miaos, had kept Song Jun from coming to the rear courtyard, while the Fourth Madam had no wish to show herself and followed decorously in the steps of the eldest and third madams, holding Song Yao's hand tightly. And Song Jin, long spoiled at home, had regarded the Yingzhen Ducal House as a road of dread ever since the lesson she had been taught there; she had cried and carried on, refusing to attend Song Han's wedding, so the Third Madam Song had been forced to say she was ill. The in-laws were sharper-eyed still; none wished to be drawn into the Song family's private affairs, and all who came to the wedding banquet were grown folk—not a single child among them. In the end, not one of the Song family's kinsfolk came to tease the bridal chamber.

Miao Zhi ground her silver teeth audibly and said, "He has pocketed sixteen thousand taels of the Song family's betrothal money, and yet he will not spend a few scraps of silver to save my face. Does he mean to drive me to my death?"

Miao Zhi's wet nurse, née Shi, was greatly alarmed and hastened to say, "My dear young lady, this is your day of great joy—you must not speak such despondent words!" And with that she bowed several times toward the west and muttered a few scriptures.

Miao Zhi swallowed her rage again and again, and so kept back even uglier words.

She asked Ji Hong, "That one just now in my room, in the silver-red sleeveless jacket—was that the Heir's wife, Madam Dou?"

Newly arrived as she was, anyone would first take the measure of her surroundings.

Miao Zhi could not stir, but Ji Hong had gone about beaming and calling "sister" and "auntie" to every maid and matron the Songs had assigned to the bridal chamber, curiously asking who was who, and had come to know a few faces.

"That was the Song family's eldest madam, née Tan," said Ji Hong, shaking her head. "The Heir's wife has been keeping the Lu family's eldest madam and the Third Madam of the Jingzhen Ducal House company over tea in the hall all along."

Before she married into the Song family, the Miaos had already made thorough inquiries into the Songs' kin; though she had not seen them, Miao Zhi had long since memorized the relationships, and knew at a word who was who.

She could not help starting. "The Heir's wife—she did not come into the bridal chamber?"

Ji Hong knew her young lady to be the most competitive of women; how could she say plainly that Dou Yan had not entered the bridal chamber?

She put it tactfully. "The bridal chamber was crowded. The Heir's wife stood at the door a while, then had to withdraw with the Lu family's eldest madam and the Third Madam of the Jingzhen Ducal House."

Miao Zhi had been worn out by the day and her spirits were flagging; she did not ponder Ji Hong's words carefully, but asked, "What does the Heir's wife look like? Does she seem easy to get along with?"

Ji Hong, remembering how Dou Zhiwei had struck her as a beauty, said in a low voice, "The Heir's wife is quite lovely—a noble bearing, unhurried in speech. Her temper should be good enough." Then she smiled. "In any case, the kin will be acknowledged first thing tomorrow morning; you will see for yourself, young lady, whether she is easy to get along with."

Miao Zhi nodded.

Song Han did not return to the room until the third watch had been struck.

Drunk as a lord, he was half carried into the bridal chamber by his personal servant Zeng Quan.

Miao Zhi quickly ordered someone to bring Song Han sobering soup.

But Song Han collapsed onto the marriage bed and fell fast asleep, snoring.

Song Yan returned to his rooms at about the same time as Song Han.

When he got back, Dou Yan was still propped against the great bolster, reading, waiting for him.

The moment she saw him return, Dou Yan set her book down at once. "How went the wedding feast in the outer courtyard?"

"Well enough." Song Yan could not be bothered to elaborate. "At least that business is behind us."

The little maid brought water in to attend Song Yan as he washed and changed, and Dou Yan fetched his clean clothes with her own hands. "I have prepared a gift of first meeting for the Miao woman modeled on the one Mother gave our eldest sister-in-law when she came into the house. Is there aught you would add or take away?"

Given the things Song Han had done, Dou Yan would not so much as grant him a glance. But the Miao woman was innocent in it; she did this wholly for Miao's sake.

Song Yan thought the arrangement a good one. "Once they have gone to her maiden home for the month-long visit, I shall ask the old maternal uncle of the Lu family to preside and have Song Han and his wife set up a separate household of their own." His tone was that of a man who wished Song Han would vanish on the spot.

Dou Yan could well understand his feelings. She stroked his hand gently and told him of Madam Hu's proposal of a match for Jiang Yan. "You see? She has only to appear at my side once, and already there are those who come to speak of marriage for Sister Yan. In a few days, when my health is better, I shall take her about here and there, and a good match will soon come her way."