Chapter 115 — Things Past (Bonus Update for 1110 Pink Votes)

The Yingzhenguo Estate stood in a lane off Jiaozhong Ward in the north of the city, occupying the whole of that lane. For more than a hundred years the Yingguo Estate had kept its gates open there, its favor and glory never fading, so the old residents of the capital called the place Yingguo Gong Lane, and few even remembered its original name, First Lane. After Song Yan murdered his father and his brother, people in the nearby Second Lane and Scissors Lane were said to hear wailing in the dead of night, and those with any means at all moved away one after another. Here was a spot close to the very heart of the capital, and yet it gradually fell into desolation and became a haunt of the lowest sorts—and even so, no one dared creep into the empty Yingzhenguo Estate. All they could do was watch helplessly as the once-illustrious mansion declined and crumbled day by day.

Dou Yan counted herself as one who could not afford to cross such a man.

"Ask nothing. Just do as I tell you," she instructed Suxin over and over.

Suxin assented gravely and went out to tell Duan Bing. When she came back her face showed hesitation, and she said in a low voice, "Fourth Miss, Elder Chen seems not to have slept all night either. When I went out just now, his personal servant asked me whether you were awake yet—said Elder Chen had already sent him to look in on you several times."

Dou Yan was rather surprised.

Could Elder Chen have seen something too?

Elder Chen was close-lipped about his past, but from their dealings over the past two years, and from hearing him discourse so knowingly on the figures of the court, she knew he was no simple man.

Dou Qu said, "Invite Elder Chen to the hall and serve him tea."

Suxin answered and went.

Ganlu came to help her wash and dress.

Sulan, handing her small things like a sweat towel or a pair of socks, talked to Dou Yan in a low voice all the while. "Fourth Miss, tell me, who is this young gentleman lodging with us? He's so handsome! I've never seen anyone so handsome. I wonder where his family is from? And where he's off to on business..."

Dou Yan looked at Sulan's eyes brimming with yearning, choked back a laugh, and teased, "Then I'll give you to him as a maidservant!"

"No, no." Sulan jumped at once and grumbled in displeasure, "Miss is teasing me again. I only think he's handsome, so handsome you can't look away—but that's no reason to go and be his maidservant! I don't even know who he is, or whether he's a good man or a bad one..."

Dou Yan found it most amusing.

Who knew how many fine ladies of the capital loved to gossip about Song Yan in private. Yet if anyone so much as mentioned him in public, they would all sit bolt upright, as though they had never heard the name. Sulan was franker and more open than any of them.

Ganlu scolded Sulan with a laugh, "So you know the miss is joking with you? Then what do you care where he's from, or where he's come from and where he's going?"

Sulan giggled, and to curry favor handed Ganlu a hairpin for her to pin into Dou Yan's hair.

Dou Yan smiled faintly.

Ever since the business with Pang Kunbai, the estrangement between Ganlu, Sujuan, and the Bie sisters had melted away at once; they now spoke and worked together as intimately as sisters, and the atmosphere in Dou Yan's rooms had grown warm and lively.

Elder Chen had heavy shadows of blue under his eyes, a grave expression, and a face that looked especially haggard; plainly he too had tossed and turned all night without rest.

He asked Dou Yan to dismiss the maidservants who served in the room.

"Fourth Miss, I fear we have run into trouble," Chen Yanzhou said in a heavy voice. "Those people's origins are no simple matter. I suspect that young gentleman is Song Yan, the heir of the Yingzhenguo Estate."

With one word he laid bare the secret, and Dou Yan was greatly startled. "How did you tell?" she asked, her voice tight.

Chen Yanzhou was silent for a while, then said in a low voice, "Thanks to your misplaced kindness, Miss, you have never asked me where I went during those years I was away from Zhending..." As he spoke a trace of bitter sorrow showed in his eyes. "In those years I was in Fuzhou, serving as a private secretary to Zhang Kai, the Grand Coordinator of Fujian." He guessed that Dou Yan might not know who Zhang Kai was, and, forcing down his shame, explained, "Thirteen years ago the Japanese pirates laid siege to Fuzhou. Lord Zhang abandoned the city and fled, and was taken alive by the Fujian Commander-in-Chief—Jiang Meisun, Duke of Dingguo—and beheaded by his sword. By regulation, private secretaries and retainers such as we were of Lord Zhang's household were to be put to death along with him, to make an example. But Duke Jiang said that with a great enemy before them, all must unite in good faith and turn as one against the foe; that so long as a man was not a principal offender, he should have the chance to redeem himself by his deeds. So he released us and required us, like the regular officials of the grand coordinator's yamen, to atone for our crimes by service."

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Readers all, the update will be a little late—come back and read it tomorrow morning.

o(n_n)o~

ps: Begging for pink votes...

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