Chapter 392 Female Beauty

Dou Zhao settled Song Shize in Chen Qushui's courtyard and said to him, "If anyone asks, just say you are Mr. Chen's friend and are here to visit him."

Song Shize hesitated and asked, "What if someone recognizes me?"

"That doesn't matter." Dou Zhao said with a smile, "You are an old man in the mansion, and you have been the head tavern of the Duke of Ying's mansion. You have traveled a lot and have a lot of experience. You just need to deal with the other party's intentions. I believe that with the ability of tavern keeper Song, he should be able to handle it."

Song Shize couldn't help but mutter in his heart.

It turns out that I rushed to the Duke of England's mansion in such a hurry that I could serve as bait!

But now that things have come to this, he has made the choice between the Duke of England and the Crown Prince, and he can no longer be indecisive. Now he has no choice but to follow Yi Zhitang wholeheartedly. If this can help to resolve the Crown Prince's knot in his heart, he will accept it even if he has to be a bait.

Having made up his mind, Song Shize no longer felt resentful.

He bowed respectfully to Dou Zhao and retreated with Chen Qushui.

Dou Zhao immediately went out to find Song Mo.

The Jinwu Guard's office was located in the Five Armies Commandery, but there was a duty room in the inner palace. Song Mo was on duty today and was sitting in the duty room. She was waiting in a small teahouse next to the Five Armies Commandery.

Perhaps because it was surrounded by the six government offices, this small teahouse had a small frontage, but the entrance was winding and secluded, with a different world. If Liao Bifeng hadn't followed them, they would never have been able to find such a place.

After urging the tea doctor in the teahouse to serve tea and snacks to Dou Zhao, Liao Bifeng led Wuyi and a few others to retreat to the corridor outside.

Dou Zhao sat in the quiet private room and only then did he realize that he had come here in a rather rash manner.

Before Song Mo and Song Yichun fell out, Song Mo had never doubted his father, so naturally his understanding of Song Yichun was only superficial; but after the father and son became antagonistic, Song Mo did a lot to dig into Song Yichun's background, and Song Yichun also did a lot to investigate Song Mo. If Song Yichun had done something else after that graceful woman, it would be impossible that there would be no traces left. This shows that Song Yichun really did as Song Shize said and never committed the same mistake again.

This happened more than ten years ago, and it happened before Song Mo was born. Why am I holding on to it so anxiously?

Dou Zhao burst out laughing.

But she couldn't deny that she was very curious about what kind of woman that graceful girl was, who could have seduced Song Yichun into doing such an immoral thing.

She asked Ruozhu to give her another cup of tea.

Song Mo hurried over.

"What happened?" Song Shize quietly entered the palace. He knew that Dou Zhao had come so suddenly that he was very worried. He didn't even care that he was on duty with Dong Qi. He asked Dong Qi to help keep an eye on things and hurried out of the palace. "If there is anything, just send someone to bring a letter to me. Why did you come here by yourself? You are in this state now, you can't stand the bumps of the car."

Dou Zhao smiled and touched his belly, saying, "Don't worry, I came here by sedan chair." Seeing the thin sweat on his forehead, he knew he was in a hurry, so he asked Ruotong to fetch some water for Song Mo to wash up, and turned around and said, "I met with Song Shize, and he talked about some old stories. I was very moved after listening to them, so I came to find you."

She sat next to Song Mo and told him the entire conversation between her and Song Shize.

Song Mo's eyes widened. After Dou Zhao finished speaking, he said after a while: "Are you telling the truth?" He looked a little dazed.

No one would feel good if they heard that their father had done such a thing.

Dou Zhao sighed softly and nodded: "It's been so many years since the incident happened, and the young lady has passed away. It has nothing to do with us. But I think that my mother-in-law must have been in a complicated mood when such a thing happened when she was pregnant with you. So I still want to tell you, at least to let you know the difficulties my mother-in-law once went through..."

Perhaps in her subconscious, the weaker Song Mo's feelings for Song Yichun are, the safer Song Mo will be when father and son clash in the future, so she chose to tell him all this?

Song Mo was indeed a little depressed after hearing this, and said, "So, father has eliminated all the people that grandfather left for me?"

He skipped the matter of the concubine and talked about the stewards.

"Hmm!" Just let the message pass. To say more would be like rubbing salt into Song Mo's wound. Dou Zhao said, "From what Song Shize said, it was because of this that no one informed you when the Duke wanted to harm you."

Song Mo was silent for a while, then said, "I will get to the bottom of this matter." He regained his usual calmness and composure.

Dou Zhao felt relieved and distressed at the same time. He changed the subject and said with a smile, "Who opened this teahouse? What a clever idea. Not only did they decorate the whole store into small courtyards, but they also provide not only tea and snacks, but also food and wine. It's rare for me to come out, so why don't we have dinner here today?"

When she entered the room, she saw a wooden plaque with the names of the dishes hanging on the screen wall, and realized that this teahouse also served wine and food.

Song Mo occasionally used this place to entertain friends and talk with his subordinates. He knew that the tea in this teahouse was okay, but he could not praise the food. However, seeing that Dou Zhao was in high spirits, he took the opportunity to ask Liao Bifeng to get the menu from the Tea Doctor and ordered a few of the better dishes here.

While waiting for the food to be served, Dou Zhao told Song Mo about the time when she and Dou Qijun went to Fayuan Temple in Zhending to eat vegetarian food.

Song Mo listened with great interest.

Dou Zhao thought of Wu Shan.

I haven't heard from him for a long time. I don't know how he is doing now?

But this thought flashed through her mind, and she was quickly attracted by Song Mo's rare hearty smile, and forgot about Wu Shan.

※※※※※

Wu Shan stood in front of the pomegranate tree, staring at the graceful and dignified man smiling gently as he helped the familiar figure into the carriage, and was stunned for a long while.

Dou Qijun shook his head gently.

Wu Shan came back to his senses.

He smiled awkwardly at Dou Zhengchang and Dou Dechang and said, "Let's go in quickly! Otherwise we'll run into some acquaintances and have to spend a lot of time greeting them again."

When Wu Shan heard that Dou Qijun had passed the imperial examination, he specially invited Dou Qijun to dinner. After choosing and selecting, he unexpectedly chose the same teahouse as Dou Zhao and met someone he thought he would never see again in this life.

The uncle and nephew of the Dou family did not expect Dou Zhao to appear here.

Everyone smiled at each other and let the matter go.

Dou Dechang brought up Wu Shan's marriage: "You and your cousin have been engaged for three years. When will you invite us to the wedding?"

Wu Shan blushed and said, "It's scheduled for September this year."

"That's great." Dou Zhengchang said, "Then we'll go to your house to have a wedding banquet together!"

Wu Shan smiled and said "OK".

He was not serious about his studies in the past few years and failed the provincial examination last year. This time he studied hard and listened to his mother and married his cousin. His mother should no longer object to his association with the Dou family, right?

He smiled and invited the uncle and nephew of the Dou family into the private room. For some reason, his heart was filled with inexplicable sadness.

Dou Zhao, on the other hand, couldn't sleep after returning to Yizhi Hall. She went to talk to Ruozhu and said, "Can you find out why the maids in the Xixiang Courtyard are fighting so fiercely with each other?"

In the past, she thought it was just out of jealousy and felt uncomfortable, and didn't want to listen. But now, she really wants to know the reason.

If Zhu Gongsheng answered "yes", Dou Zhao would then rest assured.

Two days later, Ruozhu called her back.

"Madam, I heard that the Duke is soft-hearted. He will praise whoever serves him well, but within two days, he will punish those who serve him for the smallest matter." Her expression seemed a little strange. "In order to stand out in front of the Duke, the maids in the Fragrant Courtyard tried every means to please the Duke, making false accusations and slandering others, and they did everything they could. But the Duke only listened to good words and not bad words. Bad words, over time, you step on me, I stab you, the maids in the Fragrant Courtyard have become like enemies. It is said that Bai Zhi stepped on Chuan Er to get the position, but she didn't expect Chuan Er to be transferred to the Second Master's Courtyard. As a result, Chuan Er set a trap for Bai Zhi before leaving. Bai Zhi was almost trapped by the Duke and taken to the farm. Bai Zhi was not convinced and wanted to teach Chuan Er a lesson..."

Dou Zhao was moved when he heard this and said, "Bai Zhi and Chuan Er are both close servants of the Duke. Have they ever been kept in the Duke's room?"

Ruozhu's face flushed red, and she whispered, "No! Everyone in the Osmanthus Courtyard knows that the Duke never touches maids. Baizhi and Chuan'er are at most pretty and sweet-mouthed, and are favored by the Duke. But as for taking in a concubine, after Madam Jiang passed away, he only took in a maid named Du Ruo." She lowered her voice and said, "From Luoyan's tone, the maid named Du Ruo seems to be a bit unusual. Apart from serving the Duke, she usually doesn't go anywhere. She stays in the room alone doing needlework, and does it all day without raising her head. She never goes to the Duke to join in the fun, and doesn't take the maids' cold words to heart..."

Dou Zhao asked someone to take a letter to Du Wei to check Du Ruo's background.

It turned out that Du Ruo was demoted to slavery after he committed a crime against an official.

She also asked Du Wei to check Song Yichun's former concubines.

They were either daughters of honest families who entered the mansion as slaves, or their fathers or brothers were respectable stewards in the mansion...none of them were of humble origins, and he was very kind to these maids. Not only was he gentle and considerate to them when they were in the mansion, but when he sent them out, he gave them large dowries and let them leave without any resentment.

Really interesting!

Dou Zhao held the teacup, looked out the window at the lush green vines, and took a sip.

According to Song Shize, Tiao Niang's surname was Li, and her ancestors had produced a Hanlin scholar. Although her father's generation was impoverished, the family still had an income of three hundred taels of silver a year, which not only supported her brother's education, but also saved enough for her dowry.

It seems that Song Yichun attaches great importance to a person's background. He is not the kind of person who gets carried away by beauty. He still has basic requirements for the women who serve him.

This has both advantages and disadvantages.

The advantage is that these women are usually better educated, but the disadvantage is that such women are more likely to become concubines.

But for all these years, Song Yichun has not had a concubine.

Did he think that these girls were not worthy of being his concubines? Or did Mrs. Jiang disagree?

Dou Zhao thought about it and went straight to ask Song Mo.

"What are you thinking about?" Song Mo was a bit busy these days and didn't pay attention to Dou Zhao. He didn't know what she had been doing these days. He pinched Dou Zhao's nose with a smile and said, "After my mother gave birth to Tian'en, she was in poor health and had suggested that my father take a concubine. My father picked and chose. Either he was not satisfied with the woman's background, or the woman didn't want to be a concubine, so the matter was delayed."