Chapter 105 — One Arrow

"Then let us act as the Fourth Miss says." The heaviness and worry with which Chen Yanzhou had come to Dou Yan were swept away; he said cheerfully, "I will make the arrangements at once."

Dou Yan saw Chen Yanzhou out through the second gate herself.

On the way back, Suxin kept stealing glances at Dou Yan.

Dou Yan was fond of Suxin's steadiness and care, and asked with a smile, "What is it?"

"Nothing," Suxin answered—yet she could not help adding, "Fourth Miss, will you regret this in days to come?"

"No," Dou Xin said. "I know what I want, so I will not regret it."

Suxin was somewhat reassured.

By the next day, everyone in both the Eastern and Western households knew that He Wendao's youngest son, He Yu, had set his heart on Dou Yan and, upon returning to the capital, had begged his father to propose to the Dou family. The Fifth Master of the Dou family had readily consented.

Aunt Cui was filled with regret. "Was it that handsome young man? Had I known, I should have had a look at him."

The Second Madam sent word to Dou Bingheng in the capital, and said with satisfaction to the Sixth Madam, "Now this is a match of equal standing! It is well we did not contract a marriage with the Wu family; otherwise we should be regretting it now with no time to mend matters."

The Sixth Madam smiled and said yes, though in her heart she did not quite agree with the Second Madam.

In private, she said to Old Woman Wang, "I do not ask that Shouyuan marry into great prominence. What matters is that the groom's household be small and uncomplicated, its reputation clean, and that they cherish Shouyuan with wholehearted devotion. Young Master He is far too childish—I am somewhat worried..."

Old Woman Wang said, "Then ought we not to give Seventh Master a word of warning?"

Ji Shi hesitated. "But what if I have misjudged Young Master He? Would that not delay Shouyuan's future? When you think about it, this match was the young man's own choosing..."

Every way she turned, she found difficulty. Left was hard, right was hard; swayed by hopes and fears, she did not sleep well for two nights together.

Dou Yan of course had no notion that Ji Shi was lying awake worrying on her behalf. She had already written a letter and had Chen Yanzhou deliver it to her father overnight, asking him to reclaim the betrothal token from the Wei family. She also wrote to her aunt in the distant northwest, telling her what had happened, so that her aunt would not remain ignorant of the true circumstances and be taken advantage of by others.

She remembered how, when her aunt first heard of the business between her and Wu Shan and learned that the match had been brokered by Sixth Aunt, she had been overjoyed—dropping her uncle and her cousins on the spot, packing her bags, and preparing to come straight to the capital to look Wu Shan over. But before she could even set out, the affair between Dou Yan and Wu Shan had fallen through. Her aunt had grieved over it for a long while, writing letter after letter to Grandmother and Sixth Aunt; at New Year she had even sent someone specially to pay her respects to Sixth Aunt—first to thank her for the trouble she had taken over the marriage, and second to beg her to keep watching for a good match on Dou Yan's behalf.

Every one of these little kindnesses she kept hidden in her heart; she could only wait for a chance to repay them.

Ji Yong came to call on her.

Dou Yan was somewhat surprised, but on closer thought it was only reasonable.

She received Ji Yong in the flower hall.

Ji Yong said not a word. As though seeing Dou Yan for the first time, he looked her up and down from head to toe.

Dou Yan was long accustomed to his fits of temper. She sat there composedly and let him look, going about her business as she pleased. When he had finished, she even asked him, "Are you done looking?"

Ji Yong answered her with great seriousness, "Done looking." Then, frowning, he asked her, "Why did you call me 'improper'?"

She had not expected that one remark to rankle with him so, that more than half a year later he would still want a clear answer.

So Dou Yan answered him with equal seriousness: "I think a person may be unconventional, may go his own way—that is the elegance of a true scholar. But if by doing so he disturbs others and makes them uncomfortable, then he is nothing but a tiresome fool!"

"You are cursing me!" Ji Yong's face at once turned so dark it might rain at any moment.

"Are you that sort of person?" Dou Yan asked him.

Veins stood out on his forehead. In a voice cold and grim, he threw the question back at her: "Am I that sort of person?"

Dou Yan had said it only to make him uncomfortable, and so she answered in all sincerity: "You are good in every way, only sometimes you are too overbearing. Take that time with the spring couplets—Qiguang had his heart set on the examinations and office, and he truly wished the Emperor a reign of ten thousand years and an age of prosperity unending. Yet you saw fit to mock him. He had done nothing to stand in your way—why must you press him so relentlessly?"

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o(n_n)o~

The two of them have started quarreling again...

ps: Tonight's update will be a little later, but I will try to be as quick as I can... after writing two chapters in a row I have to rest a bit, otherwise my brain seems to run short—dizzy and muddle-headed...

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