Chapter 396 — The Li Family

Naturally Dou Yan had no inkling of all the little calculations turning in Dou Ming's head. Dou Ming's attitude was plain enough for anyone to read, and Dou Yan had no wish to press a warm face against a cold one and make herself miserable. And even had she known of those little calculations, she would not have much cared. She had a great many people to cultivate, and it was those people who would be the substance of her life hereafter.

By the time they came out of the palace it was past the hour of you, and the setting sun had lacquered the whole world in gold.

Song Yan rode in the sedan chair with Dou Yan, and the two of them talked and laughed all the way back to the residence.

Yan Che was waiting for Song Yan in the study.

Dou Yan and Song Yan were both a little surprised.

Yan Che smiled and said, "A letter has come from Eldest Aunt in Hao Zhou. She says the Twelfth Young Lady's wedding is fixed for the twenty-second of this month. Fourth Aunt will escort her to the capital together with the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Young Ladies, and she asks that you find a house from which the Twelfth Young Lady may be married." So saying, he handed the letter to Song Yan.

Dou Yan did not understand a word of it.

Song Yan did not open the letter at once, but explained to her: "Cousin Twelve is the eldest daughter of my third uncle. Before my eldest uncle's downfall she was betrothed to Wu Zijie, the eldest son of Wu Liang, vice commissioner of the Standard-Bearer Guard. After my eldest uncle's trouble the Jiang family was degraded and sent back to Hao Zhou, and for a time no one had the leisure to see to the cousins' marriages. Who would have thought that once Cousin Twelve's mourning was over, the Wu family sent men to discuss the match. This time they must be coming to marry her off."

Dou Yan could not help feeling a stir of respect for the Wu family. "Then you must give them a proper hand with this."

Fallen as the Jiang family was, they still had so powerful a connection as the Zhenguo Estate, and when the Twelfth Young Lady of the Jiang family went out to be married she could at least do so with dignity.

Yan Che smiled and said, "I fear madam must be disappointed. Eldest Aunt says the Wu family has been righteous, and they cannot be heartless in return; so when the Twelfth Young Lady marries, neither the Jiang nor the Wu will make any show of it. All she asks is that the Heir find them a quiet house, so as to avoid unnecessary trouble. Eldest Aunt also says she has sent a letter to the Duke of Zhenguo, mentioning only that Fourth Aunt is coming to the capital and that everything rests upon the Heir, so the Duke need not put himself out."

When Song Yan fell out with Song Cen, Lady Mei was still alive, and Song Yan kept it from Hao Zhou. After Lady Mei's death, though Song Yan said nothing to the people there, they came to hear of it, more or less. Thereafter, whatever the matter, they wrote to Song Yan first and only afterward sent word to Song Cen — coolly, but without breach of courtesy.

Song Yan said as well, "Best to follow Eldest Aunt's wishes and find a quiet house for Fourth Aunt and the cousins." He instructed Yan Che, "Leave this matter to Zi'ai Peak."

These days Yan Che had been busy for Song Yan over the affairs of the Imperial Medical Academy. He smiled, said yes, and withdrew.

Song Yan said, "Tomorrow call in the men from the silver shop."

As things stood with the Jiang family now, Wu Liang might not disdain them, but not every one of the Wu family need feel the same. Something plainly to be seen in a dowry was direct and clean, and in an emergency it could be turned into silver.

Dou Yan knew how Song Yan felt toward the Jiang family. Besides having four sets of pure gold head ornaments made at the silver shop for the Twelfth Young Lady of the Jiang family, he added a pair of jadeite bracelets, a pair of Hetian jade chatelaine pendants, a set of southern pearl ornaments, and twenty bolts of silk and satin in every colour.

Jin Gui and Yin Gui looked on, clicking their tongues.

Gan Lu thought their outlook small, and asked Dou Yan, "Shall I prepare some antiques and paintings, so that it does not look shabby?"

Dou Yan said, "Since the Jiang family has been renovating the old house in Hao Zhou year after year, there must still be good things kept there. Rather than antiques and paintings for the Twelfth Young Lady, better to prepare something in the modern style."

Gan Lu smiled, a little embarrassed.

Chen Jia requested an audience.

So soon he had news!

Dou Yan was delighted. She received Chen Jia in the small flower hall.

"However often the Li family moved," Chen Jia told her, going over it in detail, "they could not do without a native-place registration. I first went to the Shuntian Prefecture to look up the Li family's registration, and found it still lodged there; the taxes and the like are paid on their behalf by the old neighbours who bought their ancestral house, so the two families clearly keep in touch. By our Guard's habit, one would seize a man and put him to the question, and the Li family's whereabouts would soon come out. But since you only wished to know how the Li family fares now, that method would not do, so I set my own attendants to watch their house."

Dou Yan could not help smiling as she listened.

It seemed she had been right to put this matter in Chen Jia's hands.

An ordinary man might hit on the same idea and still have no way to search the Shuntian Prefecture records.

"Because Master Duan said before that Li Tiaoniang's brother, Li Liang, was a scholar, I went to the Shuntian Prefectural School to look up Li Liang's student record. He first entered the examinations in the year of Wushen, and sat four sessions in a row without ever passing the college examination; only five years ago did he give up the examinations altogether. The instructor there remembered him quite well, and when he learned I was a distant relative of Li Liang's, he called in a licentiate who had once sat the examinations alongside him." Chen Jia said, "By that licentiate's account, Li Liang is a gloomy, silent man who keeps to himself and is close with his money. He did not know much about Li Liang's circumstances, only that though Li Liang is a man of the capital, he does not live in the capital but somewhere near it, and where exactly, no one knows.

"So I went to the Shuntian Prefecture and looked up the Li family's fields and acreage from that year.

"The Li family's land lies in Langfang and is worked by an old family servant. Every year on the sixth of the twelfth month Li Liang comes to collect the rents and settle the accounts; at other times even the old servant cannot find him.

"Only the Li family has not fared well these last few years. Two hundred mu of good fields have dwindled away to a dozen or so, and Li Liang has not come for the rents these past two years."

Dou Yan's brows knitted slightly.

The Li family, it seemed, was hiding from something.

She recalled Duan Bing's words — that in the first year or two there were still people asking where the Li family had gone — and she wished all the more to know how they lived now.

"In other words, every thread has broken," Dou Yan mused. "All we can do is wait for Li Liang to show himself?"

At that Chen Jia laughed, and his plain features came alive at once, bright and glowing with spirit. "Just as you say, madam. I was uneasy too, thinking it all too passive, so I thought of a way." He glanced at Dou Yan rather cautiously and lowered his voice. "I had a man pass himself off as a steward of the Zhenguo Estate and go to the farm to ask after the Li family. The old servant was calm enough then, swearing he knew nothing of it. But three days after my man had gone, the men we had hidden near his house — three days and two nights without food or water — saw the old servant come out on a donkey.

"I put seven or eight relays of men on him.