Chapter 522 — Princess

Dou Yan pressed her lips together and smiled. "Bringing up Gu Yu's affairs left too plain a trace. And if you had not brought it up, then once things went smoothly on the Crown Prince's side and he began to set the bureaucracy in order, Gu Yu would have been caught up in it. So I had no choice but to take the risk and try."

Song Yan laughed heartily. "We truly are of one mind, you and I—your thoughts run right alongside mine. But the Crown Prince is in high spirits just now and will not think of this for a while. Give it time, though, and he is bound to find it strange. Wuyi cannot stay in the household any longer."

He called Wuyi in. "Would you rather go to the guard post or to the yamen?"

The guard post meant entering the military register; his sons and grandsons after him would all be soldier-households. The yamen meant nothing more than serving as a constable—hereditary too, but his son would have to have the knack for it to take over his post.

Neither prospect struck him as good.

He could not keep his head down any longer and looked up at Dou Yan.

Dou Yan gave him an encouraging nod and teased with a smile, "Once you pass this village, there is no such shop again. Make up your mind quickly."

Only then did Wuyi settle his heart and say, "I want to go into business with Zhao Liangbi!"

Song Yan and Dou Yan were both rather taken aback. Still, Dou Zhiwei had holdings aplenty, and if the man was willing to follow Zhao Liangbi, staying on as a manager somewhere would not be bad. In ten years or so, the Crown Prince would hardly recognize him.

"Fine!" Song Dan said. "Then go find Zhao Liangbi!"

Delighted, Wuyi kowtowed to Song Yan and withdrew.

Dou Xin said, "Since you mean to put on the appearance of setting your household in order, ought you not also comb through the Yingzhen ducal household's people?"

Song Yan could not help laughing aloud again. "So that was your aim all along?"

Dou Yan only smiled and said nothing.

Song Cen's wounds had long since healed, but he could no longer speak, and he had lost his post as the seals-holding commander of the Five Army Command. For this he had taken to his bed and stayed there. Xuanying had sent Lü Zheng and his wife to see to his daily needs. Lü Zheng was all right; he had served Song Cen since childhood and was unswervingly loyal, tending him with great care. Lü Zheng's wife, however, harbored a grudge over Song Cen's abandoning Lü Zheng without a thought, and kept muttering in her husband's ear until Lü Zheng beat her, after which she dared not bring it up again. But she laid the blame at Song Cen's door all the same, and in washing his clothes and preparing his meals she could not help but be a little careless. Lü Zheng was a man, and with Song Cen's inexplicable fits of temper to contend with on one side and the crumbling morale of the dispersed household of the Osmanthus Court on the other, how could he spare attention for such things? Even when he chanced to notice and spoke of it, his wife would admit her fault in all sincerity and smooth the matter over—and afterward go on doing exactly as she pleased. The servants below saw and copied her. And since Song Cen could not speak, and felt that Lü Zheng ought to see at a glance when he was unwell, he vented his temper on Lü Zheng. To placate Song Cen, Lü Zheng spent ever more time and energy on him, and had still less to spare for the trivia of daily life, so the servants below grew ever more neglectful of Song Cen... The Osmanthus Court was a shambles, steeped in resentment every day, a place no one wished to set foot in.

Song Yan gave the matter to Yan Che to handle.

Within a few days, the Yingzhen ducal household had sold off and driven out a good many people.

When the Crown Prince heard of it, he said to the Crown Princess, "It seems the Yingzhen ducal household will have to be run by Song Yantang after all!"

Song Cen's folly was, within a certain circle, quite famous.

"It should have been so long ago," said the Crown Princess. "If not for Song Yantang's unswerving loyalty, the palace coup would have been a nasty business."

Both husband and wife still remembered that at the time Dou Yan and his mother had been held captive by the Prince of Liao's men.

The Crown Prince nodded. "Send them gifts every few days. The Yingzhen ducal household and the palace have always been close, after all."

"I understand," the Crown Princess said with a smile, and sent a basket of the peaches presented by the Changxing Marquisate a few days before to the Yingzhen ducal household.

"Peaches at this time of year?" Dou Yan was astonished, and of course had to send some to the Dou family and to Jiang Yan.

When the Marquis of Changxing heard of it, his face fell.

He had long since had word of the Crown Prince's visit to Song.

Was he now unable to best even Song Yan, after failing to best the old Duke of Ying?

He invited Cui Yijun to tea.

Cui Yijun declined with a smile and polite words. "This servant may not leave the palace without an edict. I thank the Marquis of Changxing for his kind intent."

He had no wish to be dragged into such affairs.

After all, Song Yan and Wang Yuan were old friends.

If the Marquis wished to move against Song Yan, he might strain every sinew and still not get his way; but if Song Yan wished to move against him, he need only say a word to Wang Yuan.

That old dog Wang Yuan was likely watching like a tiger for a chance to catch him out!

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My schedule will not permit it—only one update today!

※rs