Chapter 329 — By Coincidence

Yet a smile rippled in the depths of Song Yan's eyes. He kissed her lightly on the cheek and murmured, "Very well, I won't go. I'll stay home with you."

In two lifetimes she had never once wheedled like that.

She felt heat rising from every inch of her body, and she badly wanted to tell him it was not that she wanted him kept at home with her, but that she did not want him growing too close to Empress Wan and the Prince of Liao. How the Prince of Liao had manipulated Song Chu in the previous life—not for a single moment had she forgotten it. But the words were on the tip of her tongue; some vague instinct told her that saying so would ruin the mood entirely, and she swallowed them back down.

Song Yan saw that even her ears had gone red. He reflected that for all Dou Yan's forthrightness she was a woman after all, and that if he answered amiss and provoked her, she would thereafter conduct herself toward him with perfect solemnity in everything, and wedded life would lose no small measure of its delight. So he dared not tease her, pretended not to have noticed, and called loudly for the maids to lay out the midday meal.

Dou Chi breathed a sigh of relief.

The maids carried in the kang table.

Ganlu came bursting in all flustered, and had just cried "Madam"—when she looked up and saw Song Yan. In a flurry she dropped a curtsy to him, addressing him as "Heir Apparent."

Dou Qu asked, "What has happened?"

Ganlu said urgently, "Sister Suxin was on her way to the estate at Daxing when she was set upon halfway there. Thank goodness Guardsman Zhou and the others were with her, and then they ran into Lord Chen of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and so disaster was averted..."

Before she had finished speaking, Song Yan and Dou Yan had both changed countenance.

Suxin had ridden in Song Chu's carriage. She had been escorted by Dou Zhiwei's men.

Song Chu's face darkened at once. "Where is Suxin?"

"She is directing the old women to carry the injured Ruodan and Ruozhu to the rear rooms."

Ruodan and Ruozhu were two second-rank maids in Dou Yan's household. Suxin judged them both steady in their conduct, and had kept them close these past days, instructing them carefully. This trip to the Daxing estate had also been meant to broaden the two girls' horizons.

Dou Yan and Song Yan, grave of face, went to the rear rooms where the maids rested.

Of Ruodan and Ruozhu, one had a gash on her head and the other a broken left arm; both were already bandaged and lay pale in their separate beds, traces of lingering shock still on their faces.

Seeing Dou Yan come in, the two made haste to struggle up.

"Lie still, both of you," Dou Yan ordered, then asked Suxin, whose expression was heavy, "What exactly happened?"

A keen light flickered in Suxin's eyes. She said in a low voice, "I don't know myself how it came about. We passed out of the city gate without trouble, and were still some fifty li short of the estate when the horse suddenly shied and the carriage overturned by the roadside. Guardsman Zhou and the others hurried forward to look, and all at once a pack of masked men in black came crashing out of the woods and fell upon us with drawn blades.

"The men were skilled and struck hard, and we were caught unawares. Guardsman Zhou, Guardsman Huang, and the rest were all wounded.

"We were gradually losing ground. It happened that Lord Chen Jia of the Embroidered Uniform Guard's Zhenfu Bureau was passing by and came to our rescue; he even captured two of the villains. I dared not go on, so I begged Lord Chen to escort us back to the residence. Lord Chen is a warm-hearted man—not only did he see us all the way in, but once inside the city he sent for a physician to dress the wounds of Guardsman Zhou and the others."

As she spoke, Suxin cast Dou Yan a look of complicated feeling.

Years of cultivated understanding let Dou Yan grasp Suxin's meaning at once.

There was something beneath the surface of this affair.

Chen Jia's appearance had been far too coincidental.

Dou Chi betrayed nothing in his expression. He comforted Ruodan and Ruozhu a while, then left the rear rooms.

Suxin followed him out.

Dou Yan shot a glance at Song Yan, who was waiting outside.

The three of them went together to the study.

※

Supplement to the August 25 update.

ps: Zhizhi, flailing through the chaos, failed to update on time and can only run for cover with a pot lid on her head...

※