Chapter 390 — Old Matters

"I beg you, madam, to leave us men a way out." Song Shize knocked his head three times against the floor before Dou Yan, and spoke of the past no longer as a thing to be guarded. "When Lady Jiang managed the household, she liked to use the people of the Ding Estate. When the Duke of Zhenguo managed it, we were the thorns in his eye and the barb in his flesh. And now the Heir has gone the way of Lady Jiang; we are full of devotion and have nowhere to spend it. I beg you, madam, to take pity on our loyalty and bring our descendants back under the household to serve."

His reaction was what Dou Yan had expected.

If they had harbored no such hopes, why would they have left such obvious traces behind when she let it be known she meant to employ the old family servants of the Songs, traces plain enough for Chen Yanzhou to follow?

Still, some things had to be made clear first.

She smiled. "Steward Song is a man who understands. Then tell me, do you know why the Heir has gone the way of Lady Jiang?"

Song Shize hesitated a moment, then said in a low voice, "When the Heir and the Duke of Zhenguo fell out, we old ones who remained in the household stood by with our hands folded and watched the Heir suffer without lifting a finger to help. The Heir bears that anger in his heart, and will not use the likes of us again..." Then he jerked his head up and said loudly, "Madam, has the Heir ever noticed that Guard Hu of the guard office, Steward Li of the reception office, and Stewards Chen and Wang of the accounts had all vanished without a trace before Lady Jiang's funeral?"

Dou Yan was startled.

She truly had never noticed.

In those days her whole mind had been fixed on how to get Song Yan out of Song Cen's grasp and back into the Ying Estate openly and honorably. What leisure had she to notice the comings and goings of stewards in the Ying Estate? And in such circumstances, even had she wished to notice, she could not have spared the attention, still less the hands.

She said thoughtfully, "These men — were they left to Lady Jiang by the old Duke, or left to the Heir?"

At this Song Shize's awe of Dou Yan deepened.

Though the Heir's wife came of a family of officials, she knew the customs and ways of the noble houses intimately; and her marriage to the Heir had been decided on the spur of the moment. She had not been long in the Ying Estate, and only since the turn of the year had she taken charge of its household affairs. Yet she had put her finger on the crux with a single word. Here was no ordinary woman.

When he looked at Dou Yan again, his gaze had grown grave. "Those men were left to the Heir by the old Duke."

The answer struck Dou Yan like a blow.

The old Duke had been dead many years; Song Yan had been a babbling child then, and the household and its affairs had already passed into Lady Jiang's keeping. Yet the old Duke had deliberately left a few men to serve Song Yan. Clearly he had harbored reservations about Lady Jiang.

In a flash, a thought darted into Dou Yan's mind.

She could not help crying out, "Lady Jiang knew nothing of these men. They were given into the Duke of Zhenguo's hands on the old Duke's deathbed... was it so?"

Song Shize could no longer conceal his admiration for Dou Yan, and gazed at her deeply.

Dou Yan drew a sharp breath.

So that was why, when Song Yan fell into trouble, not a single soul in the Ying Estate had raised a hand to help him.

How hard it is to rear a servant woman of true loyalty. And Song Cen had disposed of Guard Hu, Steward Li, and the rest as casually as one picks cabbages and turnips.

The thought of it made her sick at heart with regret.

Was that why, in her former life, Song Yan had fled the capital alone and in such wretchedness?

How bitterly Song Cen must have hated Song Yan, to do such a thing.

Dou Yan's expression slowly turned stern. "What happened in those years, that the old Duke was forced to hand the Ying Estate over to Lady Jiang?"

Song Shize's face grew dark and unreadable. After a long while he glanced at Chen Yanzhou, signaling that the matter was grave and that he would ask Dou Yan to have Chen Yanzhou withdraw.

"Old Chen manages all my affairs," Dou Yan said coolly. "There is nothing he may not know. Speak your mind as you please."

Chen Yanzhou listened, inclined his body slightly, and bowed to Dou Yan in gratitude.

Song Shize was taken aback.

He had assumed Chen Yanzhou belonged to the Heir, Song Yan, and had merely been assigned to Dou Yan's service. He had never imagined the man was Dou Yan's own.

And then he thought of the skill and the methods Chen Yanzhou had shown along the road...

To have taken such a man into her service — what manner of woman was this Lady Dou?

His manner toward her now was not merely respectful but solemn.

Song Shize began to speak of old matters. "...After the Old Madam Lu miscarried her first child, she could not hold a pregnancy. By the time she conceived the Duke of Zhenguo she was close upon forty, and she lay abed a full seven months before she bore him, and even then it was a near thing. The old Duke and Old Madam Lu were overjoyed and treasured him above all things. When he came to the age of schooling, the Duke of Zhenguo proved a born scholar, and the old Duke's comfort knew no bounds. Perhaps for that very reason the Duke of Zhenguo grew somewhat lax in temper, and took little interest in the business of dealing with people.

"The heir of the Earl of Guang'en in those days — the present Earl of Guang'en — had grown up alongside the Duke of Zhenguo, and the two were the closest of friends.

"The Earl of Guang'en's house was not like the Ying Estate. Ever since Dong Lin, the consort of Princess Huaishu, was degraded to commoner, each generation of the Dong family had fought to the death over the title of heir, and the Earl of Guang'en's house had dwindled year by year.

"After the Duke of Dingguo was appointed commander-general of Fujian, the Earl of Guang'en conceived a notion: to join hands with the great families of Fujian in the sea trade. The Duke of Zhenguo had never taken interest in such matters, and when the Earl came to him, he wrote a letter to the Duke of Dingguo, asking him to look kindly on the Earl's affairs.

"The sea trade of the great Fujian families was, of course, known to all and spoken of by none. One more Earl of Guang'en made no difference; one less made none either. The Duke of Dingguo received the letter and said only that the Earl should mind his own steps and not stand where the wind blows hardest, and put him in an awkward position.

"For this the Earl of Guang'en even wrote a letter thanking the Duke of Zhenguo.

"But as the old saying goes, a man's heart is never satisfied; the snake would swallow the elephant.

"Two or three years later, someone denounced certain great families of Fujian for trading with the Japanese pirates and for sheltering those who came ashore.

"By then the Duke of Dingguo had risen to governor of Fujian, and was in the midst of reforming its administration. How could he suffer such a thing? Naturally he made it a case of the first importance and investigated it thoroughly.

"But investigate as he might, what he uncovered was the Earl of Guang'en.

"Remembering the Earl's friendship with the Duke of Zhenguo, the Duke of Dingguo was deeply uneasy. That very night he sent a trusted aide to wait upon the old Duke, and word with him: that he could hold the matter back a month at most; after that month, whatever the investigation turned up, he could only report it to the court and leave the judgment to the imperial will.

"The old Duke flew into a rage and went in person with his men to search the inner chamber of the Duke of Zhenguo's study. There he found not only the letters the Earl of Guang'en had written to the Duke of Zhenguo, but the great sum in silver notes the Earl had tucked inside them.

"The old Duke was so enraged that he slapped the Duke across the face on the spot.