Chapter 443 — Double Ninth

Jiang Yan prayed, "May the Bodhisattva bless us with clear weather that day!"

Dou Xin reached out and stroked her head.

The next two days were fine, and when the Double Ninth arrived, the sky was washed clean of cloud, high and crisp.

Dou Yan first sent Yuanheng and his wet nurse to the Crane Cry Temple Alley, then met Jiang Ling at the gate of Yunqi Temple, and together they set off for the Fragrant Hills.

Ji Hong, sitting in the second carriage, lifted the curtain a crack and peered out. Seeing that Dou Yan's carriage, the first in line, was at least two zhang ahead, with the guards either clearing the way in front or bringing up the rear, and only four guards riding alongside, chiefly to protect Dou Zhiwei's carriage, she let out a breath and lowered the curtain. Indignantly she said, "The Madam dotes on that cousin so. Letting the cousin ride in her carriage, I've nothing to say about that. But that Mistress Wu is nothing but the wife of a petty subprefect, and the Madam raises her so high as to let her share a carriage too... Madam, you are the true and proper daughter-in-law of the Ying Zhenguo Estate. Isn't the Madam slapping your face?"

"What do you know?" Miao Zhi scolded Ji Hong. "When the Dou woman entered the family, Old Uncle Lu and Princess Ninghuai and the rest all came. When it came to my turn, every one of them was old and infirm. My family is not high in station, and I have no dowry as rich as the Dou woman's, but mine was a marriage bestowed by imperial grace. Once I entered the Song house, I was a Song daughter-in-law. To slight me is to slight the Songs. Don't you find it strange?"

Ji Hong flushed. "Perhaps... perhaps the Lus are all fair-weather friends? Seeing that the Second Master can't inherit the Ying Zhenguo Estate, they did this?"

Miao Zhi waved a hand and mused, "There must be something behind it that we don't know... The maids and old women about the Second Master can tell us nothing, so we must find our own way!"

Get closer to Dou Yan—perhaps then she could learn something.

Miao Zhi said to Ji Hong, "I'm going to sleep a while. Wake me when we're near the Fragrant Hills."

Ji Hong answered with a shamefaced "Mm."

But Miao Zhi felt as though something were lodged in her chest, and she could scarcely breathe.

Her monthly courses had come, and the wet nurse had tentatively asked Song Han whether he wanted a bedchamber maid arranged for him—and he had actually chosen Ji Hong...

She had only just married into the family.

Even if he had taken a fancy to Ji Hong, could he not have waited two months!

Song Yan was a noble heir, and the Dou woman had even borne him a child, yet there was not a single concubine or bedchamber maid in his rooms.

Born of the same mother—how could the two brothers be so different?

Miao Zhi closed her eyes in dejection.

Jiang Ling, in the carriage ahead, was somewhat troubled. "Are we really going to take Miao with us to the hills just like this?"

"With so many people at the Fragrant Hills, what's wrong with that!" Dou Xin said. "We can't condemn Miao too just because we dislike Song Han, can we?"

"You may say so, but what woman does not side with her husband and her elder brother-in-law and sister-in-law?" Jiang Ling said. "Mingche says everyone will surely fall out in the end, and for now we pretend to know nothing and make do with her—I always feel uneasy about it."

Dou Xin said, "This is just the chance to let her hear a few rumors and gossip. No doubt she'll keep her distance from me after this."

"That would be best." Jiang Ling thought Dou Zhiwei's arrangement could not be better. Then, greatly distressed, she brought up the rumors about Song Yan and Jiang Baisun. "Cousin-in-law, what do you think I should do?"

Dou Xin said, "You are a daughter of the Jiang family, but more than that, you are a daughter-in-law of the Wu family. If there is a conflict with the Wus, you should side with the Wus first. If it has nothing to do with the Wus, you should choose the Jiangs first. Everyone else is an outsider. I think our elder aunt will lay down a proper course."

"Everyone else is an outsider!" Jiang Ling murmured, repeating Dou Zhiwei's words, and for the first time a look of admiration came into her eyes as she gazed at Dou Zhiwei.

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Sisters and brothers, here is today's update.

Tomorrow's bonus chapter will again be posted around five in the afternoon, so there will be a bit more time to spare.

o(n_n)o~

ps: Wishing everyone a happy weekend.

Begging for pink tickets...