Chapter 515 — Striking Off the Register

Dou Yan said, "What did the Duke want with you?"

"He has decided to open the ancestral hall first thing tomorrow morning," Song Yan said, his voice thick with exhaustion. "To expel Song Han from the Duke of Ying's household."

Seeing this, Chen Yanzhou shot Dou Yan a look and quietly withdrew.

Dou Yan gently encircled his waist and let out a long sigh.

Song Yan said desolately, "He wants my death, and he has shown Song Han no mercy either. Mother—he does not even keep her in his thoughts. I truly wish I could dig open his heart and see whether it is red or black."

This too was the fury of his previous life, was it not?

Dou Yan pressed her face against his back and said softly, "I only know that Song Yantang is the person in this world who has treated me best."

Song Yan gave a faint smile and turned to gather Dou Yan into his arms.

Maids and young servants were lighting the lanterns beneath the eaves with soft laughter, and there was the thud-thud of Yuan Heng's running footsteps along the covered corridor, the anxious calls of his wet nurse, and the murmured questions of a kitchen woman asking Ruo Tong and the others whether they wanted a night snack—all woven together, a little clamorous, yet brimming with life, filling Song Yan's heart to the brim in an instant.

Smiling, he released Dou Yan and, taking her hand, said, "Come, let us go watch the servants light the lamps."

Once the lamps were lit, all was bright, and his heart warmed along with it.

Dou Yan smiled faintly and followed Song Yan out of the hall.

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That very evening, Song Ke sent men to fetch Miao Zhi from the country estate, and also brought over Uncle Miao, Miao Zhi's father, and Miao Anping.

"Song Han is unfilial, and Father has already made this known to the Emperor and means to expel him from the family," he said, meeting the Miao family in the small study. "But the Miao woman is without fault. My intention is first to have the Miao woman and Song Han divorce, and then for the Song family to open the ancestral hall."

The Miao family looked utterly astonished, then exchanged glances among themselves.

After a good while, Uncle Miao cleared his throat and said, "Then what of our Sixth Aunt's daily expenses hereafter?"

But Miao Anping shuddered.

He was no saint in his daily conduct, but neither was he greatly wicked. Nor did he keep company with men who snuffed out lives at will. When he had been savagely beaten, he had not understood at the time, but afterward he had pieced together enough clues to finally grasp the vast gulf between the Miao family and the Song family—these people killed when they chose to kill, and afterward nothing came of it. If he so much as struck a decent man, he would at once be denounced at the yamen, forced into a lawsuit, fined, with no room for leniency whatsoever.

"Uncle," he said hastily, "what sort of talk is this? The Second Lord is to be expelled from the family, and the Heir Apparent took the trouble beforehand to summon us here to discuss Sixth Aunt's divorce—how could the Heir Apparent fail to consider Sixth Aunt's future livelihood? We need only do as the Heir Apparent says, and there will be no mistake."

Miao Zhi's father shot his son a furious glare.

He had been stunned by the talk of divorce, but once he collected himself, he was already scheming how to squeeze a little silver out of the Song family. Once his daughter had severed all ties with the Song family, there would be no more profits to be had from them!

Miao Anping, unwilling to let his father ruin his prospects, glared back just as fiercely and said, "Heir Apparent, we shall follow your every word. My uncle and my father are both advanced in years, and they grieve that Sixth Aunt will have nothing to rely on hereafter, so their words are bound to be unpleasant to the ear. I beg the Heir Apparent not to take them to heart."

A beating had made him much wiser.

Song Yan thought to himself, and simply ignored Uncle Miao and Miao Zhi's father, addressing Miao Anping instead: "All the property under Song Han's name shall go to the Miao woman. Hereafter, when sons marry and daughters wed, neither party shall have any claim on the other. What say you?"

The Miao family had assumed the Song family would at most hand over a hundred or a thousand taels of silver to be rid of the Miao woman, so at these words they were overjoyed and hastily agreed.

Song Yan settled the several of them in lodgings on Sitiao Alley and then went to Dou Yan.

Dou Yan said to Qixia, "The Duke insists on opening the ancestral hall, so I have had to bring you here. It is well that there are no outsiders present, so you need not be afraid."

Qixia's face was wet with tears, but she dared not cry aloud.

She knelt and kowtowed to Dou Yan, and no matter how Miao Zhi tried to pull her up, she would not rise: "Madam, thank you for letting me bear witness. I have dreamed of seeing the Second Lord's face when he learns that all his followers and kin have turned against him."

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Brothers and sisters, here is today's update.

These days have been full of trivial matters; once things quiet down, I will go back and fix the typos all at once.

ps: I never manage to gauge the word count accurately. The New Year is almost here, and I am still writing...~~~~(》_《)~~~~...but I dare not rush the ending in a dry, perfunctory way either.

※rs