Chapter 451 — Pitch Black

Jiang Yan meekly wiped her tears and drank.

Dou Yan sighed.

Jiang Yan had lived too long in the Li household; some of her habits could no longer be broken. To make her the wife of a clan heir was indeed asking too much of her.

She helped Jiang Yan smooth her somewhat disheveled hair.

Jiang Yan pleaded with Dou Yan. "Sister-in-law, would you pay those fifty-two taels to Master Chen for me? Deduct it from my monthly allowance in advance, if you must."

Dou Yan nodded, and thought of Chen Jia.

Was Chen Jia really short of a hundred taels? And in what frame of mind had he accepted those forty-eight taels from Jiang Yan?

Dou Yan's feelings turned somewhat delicate, and hard to put a name to.

She felt as though she had guessed something, and yet she could scarcely bring herself to believe her own conjecture.

Dou Yan at once sent someone to repay the silver.

Jiang Yan came out of Dou Yan's room, yet wept silently all the way back to Bishui Pavilion; and the moment she reached Bishui Pavilion she sent for Yinghong. "Go quickly to the Chen house and tell Tao Erniang that my sister-in-law already knows about the loan. Tell Master Chen to be careful."

More than that she dared not say, for fear word would spread and make Chen Jia's position even more difficult. She trusted that with his shrewdness he would surely read what lay beneath her words, devise a countermeasure, and make her brother and sister-in-law believe him.

Yinghong answered "Yes," yet did not dare take it upon herself to deliver the message.

She first went to report it to Dou Yan.

Dou Yan was going over the account books. Hearing her out, she said mildly, "I see." Then she added, "Since it is the young miss's order, do as she says."

Yinghong did not know what Dou Yan meant by that. Trembling, she assented and withdrew, then turned and went to Yuqiao Alley.

Dou Yan let out a long sigh.

She had raised Jiang Yan so high, and yet Jiang Yan could not even win over the maids around her.

If Jiang Yan married Chen Jia... with Chen Jia's shrewdness, surely no one would dare play tricks in front of Jiang Yan.

She put down the account books.

It was just as well to let Yinghong carry word to Chen Jia.

Whether this matter came to anything would depend on what choice Chen Jia made.

* * *

Chen Jia returned very late.

Even from a distance he could see someone waiting for him before his own gate.

At first Chen Jia took it for someone seeking a favor of him; only when he drew closer did he see that it was Tao Erniang.

He was rather surprised.

Tao Erniang managed the inner quarters, and there was no mistress in his household; what business could possibly bring her out to wait for him?

But before his sedan chair had even come to a stop, Tao Erniang hurried up to meet him.

"Master, Miss Yinghong from the household came by." Having said that much, Tao Erniang stopped short.

Chen Jia's heart gave a leap. He stepped down from the sedan and strode inside.

Tao Erniang trotted along behind him.

Chen Jia halted in the middle of the courtyard; the page Xiaohu kept watch at the Flower-Drooping Gate.

He saw that the courtyard was empty, and only then did he lower his voice and say, "Speak."

So Tao Erniang told Chen Jia what Jiang Yan had said.

Chen Jia understood her meaning at once.

He felt as though he had been struck by lightning, and for a long while his senses did not return to him.

Given Song Yantang's nature, and the way he doted on Jiang Yan, he would sooner kill the wrong man than let one slip.

How could his luck be so foul!

All this over a mere hundred taels of silver lent to Jiang Yan, and already he stood suspected of leading her astray... Plainly, a soft-hearted fool reaped nothing but trouble.

What was he to do now?

Explain himself to Song Yantang?

Would the man even listen?

A fellow like him probably counted for less in Song Yantang's eyes than a dog he kept.

And if he did not explain?

Then everything he had won through all his grinding toil would simply drain away like water!

Chen Jia gazed up at the night sky and felt that his life was like that sky, pitch black, without a single glimmer of light.

Yet for some inexplicable reason, Jiang Yan's eyes rose before his mind.

Black and lustrous, fixed steadily upon him, filled with nothing but trust.