Chapter 182 — The Inquiry

Dou Yan forced herself to keep her faintly knitted brows from drawing tightly together, but her expression gradually grew grave. "Is this true?"

Song Yan nodded earnestly. "It happened just three days ago. Ji Jianming did not deny it."

No wonder she had not known.

At that time, Chen Yanzhou had already set out for Zhending.

So this really was Ji Yong's Xuanqing Sect at work!

Dou Yan smiled bitterly and said to Song Yan with sincerity, "Thank you for coming to tell me."

Song Yan had reached Zhending in three days, and had come in person to tell her. Clearly he, too, had recognized the gravity of the matter.

Now this was just wonderful.

With him meddling like this, even if Wei Wan could not see his purpose for the moment, Zhang Yuanming—great wisdom masked as folly—would more than likely guess a thing or two.

Her wanting to break off the engagement and the Wei family wanting to break it off were, after all, two different matters—the former meant she was dissatisfied with Wei Fan, the latter meant Wei Fan was dissatisfied with her.

Once Wei Wan knew, he would surely feel deeply humiliated. And she could forget any hope of breaking off the engagement without drawing attention.

This Ji Yong—truly... more hindrance than help! His capacity for destruction was nothing short of extraordinary... This matter, it seemed, would have to be considered most carefully and at length.

Dou Chiyou gave a soft sigh.

And Song Yan, watching her go from initial shock to bitterness, helplessness, and worry, let out a breath as if a great weight had lifted from his shoulders.

Dou Yan truly had not known.

She was still as open-hearted and magnanimous, as sincere and fine, as she had been in his memory.

Song Yan could not help saying, "Thank you." And then, "I am sorry."

He wanted to thank Dou Yan for not disappointing him after all the gloom and darkness he had passed through; and he wanted to apologize to her for his earlier doubts and suspicions of Dou Zhiwei.

Dou Yan was astonished.

Song Yan only smiled and said nothing of it, and instead asked her, "Do you know why Ji Yong would treat the Marquis of Jining this way?"

"Cousin Ji has a flighty temperament," Dou Yan had no choice but to answer vaguely. "Perhaps he simply cannot stand the sight of the Marquis of Jining?"

Something stirred in Song Yan's heart at her words.

As he saw it, Ji Yong's character was less flighty than arrogant.

And Ji Yong was close to Dou Zhiwei; he could not possibly be scheming to make Dou Yan and Wei Fan break off their engagement merely because he could not stand the sight of Wei Fan.

Unless there was something else behind it.

With Dou Zhiwei's intelligence and discernment, to say such a thing was plainly to be hiding something.

He could not help asking, "Do you want to break off your engagement with the Marquis of Jining?"

Dou Yan was badly startled.

Was she really so obvious?

Ji Yong knew. And now Song Yan knew as well.

She could not help looking toward Song Yan.

Beneath the lush camphor tree, Song Yan, clad in a moon-white robe of fine cotton Daoist cut, lowered his eyelids, and there was in him a forbearance that defied explanation.

Dou Yan felt a headache coming on.

Ji Yong alone had nearly ruined Wei Fan's reputation. Add a Song Yan to the mix, and Wei Fan would be devoured whole, not even the bones left behind.

She shook her head again and again. "No need, no need." She was terrified that Song Yan might get dragged into it as well.

Song Yan gave a faint "oh" and lifted his eyelids. He was once more the noble, aloof heir of the Duke of Ying's household.

Dou Chiyou pressed his lips together and smiled. "You look worn out from the road. It must have been a hard journey. It's getting late—let Chen He fix you something to eat. After you've washed up, have a good sleep. The weather's been fairly cool these past two days." His tone was very gentle.

Song Yan suddenly did not want to leave.

He thought for a moment, then said, "At the start of next year my mourning period will be over. Mr. Yan has suggested that I either marry the legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Yan'an, or take as my wife the Princess Yijing, the daughter of Empress Wan..."

Dou Yan's heart ached.

If Madam Jiang were still alive, or if Madam Mei were still here, would he have had to speak to her of such things?

She began to think carefully about Song Yan's marriage, though she was rather surprised that Wang Qingyuan was also among the candidates for his wife. "Miss Wang of the Marquis of Yan'an's household is outstanding in appearance and upright in character, and she has a brother like Wang Yu. If the Madam were still here, it would of course be an excellent match. But her temperament is gentle and yielding. If your father's future second wife comes from a prominent family and is shrewd and capable, and you have no capable arm to support you in household affairs, you will find things very difficult." Dou Yan said gravely, "A princess is very good. No matter whom your father takes as his second wife, she could never outrank a princess, and it would make your position as heir more secure, so that you inherit the title smoothly in the future. But Princess Jingyi is not so good—she is too close to the Emperor, and the Crown Prince was born to no consort, so it would be easy to get entangled in the affairs of the imperial family. It would be best to find a princess born to a consort of relatively high rank who is also adept at navigating people. If I remember rightly, Princess Fuyuan, born to Consort Chen, and Princess Jingtai, born to Consort Shu, are both of an age with you, and both are gentle and gracious. You might discuss it with Mr. Yan and choose one of those two princesses."

Since in this life Song Yan had kept his position as heir and had not been driven from the family, she did not want him mixed up in the struggle between the Crown Prince and the Prince of Liao.

After all, whoever inherited the throne would treat the Ying Zhenguo Estate with courtesy. The merit of following a dragon may be fine, but the Ying Zhenguo Estate did not necessarily need it.

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Sisters, brothers, yesterday's update.

I feel very guilty saying this, but during the holiday there were so many relatives coming and going that I truly could not settle down to write. I had no choice but to start writing in the middle of the night after the relatives had gone, and it took me a long time to get into the flow. I apologize to everyone for the inconvenience this has caused your reading!

ps: Thank you all for the pink votes—I've finally won a championship, o(n_n)o~. Thank you again, everyone. I will keep writing seriously and work hard to update more, but the roof at home is leaking, and I've asked a repairman to come fix it tomorrow, so I can't guarantee the update time... I'm sneaking off with a pot lid over my head to escape...

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