Du Heng retired at the age of fifty-six. The emperor, grateful that he had devoted most of his life to the court, granted him the honor of retiring as Grand Secretary.
In fact, the emperor had long intended to promote Du Heng to Grand Secretary. Every time it was brought up, however, the assembled officials opposed it, always using the fact that Du Heng was not a palace graduate but had entered officialdom merely as a provincial graduate as their reason. In the end, it never came to pass.
Du Heng himself did not think much of it. His ambitions were not so great that he had to have that position.
As the saying went, the higher the official position, the greater the responsibility. He was already very satisfied to have entered the Grand Secretariat. He had never fought over the position of chief among all the officials.
This time, when he retired, the emperor still fulfilled his original intention. Thus, no one had much reason to oppose it.
Although Du Heng had never served as Grand Secretary for even a single day, receiving such an honorable retirement was already an incomparably glorious thing. It was quite good enough.
At the beginning of the year, snow fell in the capital, and the weather was bitterly cold. The accumulated snow took several days to melt.
By the time Du Heng’s retirement procedures were completed, it was already March.
Spring brought warmth back. The capital’s streets were crowded with people, and the sounds of bustle and clamor never ceased throughout the day. The earliest peach and plum trees had already begun shedding blossoms.
The season was beautiful, and Du Heng did not want to waste such fine retirement days behind the city walls. Taking advantage of spring, he and Qin Xiaoman packed some simple luggage, and the old couple traveled lightly.
They neither behaved like ordinary old people who spent their days doting on grandchildren, nor lingered over the capital’s wealth and prosperity.
After retiring, they did not stay even for a moment. Amid the spring scenery of March, they leisurely drove their carriage, admiring the sights of spring, and truly set off to return to their hometown.
Leaving the capital, they passed through Tianyuan Prefecture, then through Yanfu County and Luoqun County under the prefecture, then into Jintuan Prefecture, through Qiuyang County, and finally into Luoxia.
By now, the official roads everywhere were unobstructed and the roads smooth. According to a normal travel schedule, reaching Luoxia County in a little over half a month would have been more than enough.
However, the old couple were in high spirits. They traveled slowly and were unwilling to tire themselves in the slightest.
Today they would pass farmland and watch the spring sowing. Tomorrow they would encounter a peach grove, enter it to admire the blossoms and taste wine. The day after that, they would come across golden fields of rapeseed stretching across the wilderness, with children flying kites…
When they reached a prefecture or county, they would eat everything from local mountain delicacies to seafood. 虞兮正理。
A journey that should have taken a little over half a month dragged on for a full two months, and by then they could finally see the boundaries of Jintuan Prefecture.
The rice blossoms in the paddies were in full bloom. The dark-green carp raised in the rice fields fed on rice flowers that fell into the water, growing plump and pleasing to the eye, their flesh tender with the fresh sweetness of rice blossoms.
The prefectural city was holding a Rice Blossom Fish Festival. Du Heng and Qin Xiaoman became greatly interested, going together to catch fish and cook them. They played happily for another two days before finally agreeing to set out again.
Along the way, they watched the plants grow from tiny buds into flourishing spring blossoms, and the spring-sown fields turn from freshly planted seeds into stretches of vibrant green.
At last, the old couple arrived within the boundaries of Luoxia County.
For the first half of their lives, it seemed they had always been hurrying—hurrying for spring sowing and autumn harvest, hurrying to take up appointments, hurrying to handle government affairs. There had never been a moment or matter that did not urge them onward.
For the first time, they did not need to care about when they would arrive or follow the seasons’ schedule. To live so freely just once was not to have wasted all the struggles of the first half of their lives.
“Whose letter is it again?”
The carriage stopped at the relay station. Qin Xiaoman lifted the curtain and saw Du Heng slowly walking back while holding an envelope. He could not help asking.
Du Heng climbed into the carriage and handed him the envelope.
“Who else could it be? Other than your beloved son, there isn’t anyone else. He’s been urging and asking questions the whole way. He was afraid he’d get scolded if he asked himself too much, so he actually got the several little ones at home to write letters too, saying that Grandfather and Little Grandfather should hurry back to their hometown and send them local specialties in the capital. As if those brats haven’t eaten or played with everything good and fun there is in the capital! It’s obvious Chengyi and Dan Ce taught them!”
Qin Xiaoman stopped halfway through opening the envelope.
As they had traveled from the capital, every time they passed a checkpoint or entered a city, they would receive two letters. They had originally planned to return lightly and simply, but the children had gotten the local officials to deliver letters to the two of them, causing officials all along the route to know that the old couple were retiring and returning home.
“How come I never realized those two children could be so talkative? Their father is already in his fifties. The world is peaceful now—could he really get lost? One letter after another. Even when Dan Ce left home to study at Changliu Academy, the family never wrote him so many nagging letters.”
Seeing Xiaoman complain, Du Heng could not help laughing.
“Perhaps their father is already an old man but still has far too much of a playful streak. He takes one or two months to get home on the road, so naturally the children aren’t reassured.”
The two muttered about the two children and all sorts of things in the carriage. Before they knew it, the carriage had traveled a long distance.
Qin Xiaoman looked at the familiar county road from his memories. His mood was good, so he stopped scolding the children.
He stuck his head out and looked at the scenery outside.
“We’re almost at Luoxia County.”
Du Heng also leaned forward.
Countless memories came rushing over them. The two of them had traveled along so many official roads, winding through their memories until they finally arrived before the tall city tower.
“Luoxia County Magistrate Wu Sheng, together with the county officials and local gentry, respectfully welcomes Lord Du and his husband back to their hometown!”
As soon as they reached the county government office, a loud shout rang out. Immediately afterward, a large crowd knelt before the carriage, unanimously welcoming them.
Although they had informed their hometown and relatives long ago that they would be returning, and the county magistrate would inevitably have received the news, they had not expected him to bring the county officials and gentry to welcome them.
Perhaps when the couple had passed through the checkpoint and received Dan Ce’s letter, someone there had immediately ridden ahead to the city to deliver the news to the county magistrate.
“What is Magistrate Wu doing? I have already retired. Returning home in retirement makes me nothing more than an ordinary commoner. How could I trouble you all to come to the city gate and give such a grand welcome?”
Du Heng hurriedly got down from the carriage and helped Wu Sheng up.
“Everyone, get up quickly. There is no need for such ceremony!”
The county magistrate leading them was only in his thirties. His skin was somewhat dark, but he looked very approachable.
When the magistrate saw Du Heng, he was extremely respectful.
“Although Your Excellency has already retired with honor, the merits you performed for the people of the world while serving the court are an example to all officials. I have always encouraged myself by taking Your Excellency as my example. To have the fortune of seeing Your Excellency today, this humble official is already overjoyed.”
Du Heng said, “It is kind of you to have such sentiments. Everyone, get up quickly!”
Wu Sheng supported Du Heng.
“I shall clear the way for Your Excellency. Please get into the carriage.”
Du Heng hurriedly stopped him.
“There’s no need. My husband and I haven’t returned to the county in many years. Our legs have been sitting numb in the carriage anyway. It is better to walk around and take a look.”
“Whatever Your Excellency wishes. The weather is excellent today, and the streets are dry and comfortable. It is most suitable for walking.”
A large group happily returned into the city.
Such a vast procession naturally caught the attention of the townspeople. The common people did not know what was happening, but seeing such a spectacle, they could tell that some person more important than the county magistrate had come to the county. They simply did not know whether it was an inspection or something else.
Among the onlookers, someone suddenly said:
“Lord Du is back!”
“Who is Lord Du?”
“You young people don’t even know Lord Du?”
“Lord Du is the Grand Secretary of the current dynasty. Now he has retired with the honor of a chief minister and returned to his hometown. Back then, Lord Du was from Tianwan Village in our county. He studied hard and entered officialdom, rising from a seventh-rank county magistrate all the way into the Grand Secretariat. He is an important figure our Luoxia County is proud of!”
The streets were filled with commotion. The common people all stood on tiptoe, wanting to catch a glimpse of Lord Du, who had retired with such honor.
But there were simply too many people. The main street was crowded with officials and gentry from the county. Those at the outermost edge could only be pushed and squeezed until they were covered in sweat.
Although they did not see him, the common people enthusiastically discussed stories from Du Heng’s life along the streets.
“What did you say? Lord Du brought his husband back home after retiring?”
“That’s right, old man!”
“That is Du Heng, Lord Du? His husband is called Qin Xiaoman?”
“Other than this Lord Du, how many such Lord Dus do you think our Luoxia County has?!”
The man’s temples were streaked with white. Because he had spent many years working with his face toward the earth and his back toward the sky when he was young, his back had now become somewhat hunched. His face, weathered by wind and sun, was dark and aged, and every word he spoke seemed to carry the wrinkles left behind by the passing years.
Zhao Qi’s ears were no longer very good. Sometimes even when the little grandson he held by the hand called him several times, he could not hear.
Today he had brought his grandson to the county to attend the market. After buying two pieces of crisp candy, he noticed that the county was unusually noisy.
Although his hearing was poor, he had lived in the county for decades. The moment he came out, he could tell that the county was much livelier than usual. The excited discussions of the crowd were like a pot of water boiling furiously, bubbling away in his unclear ears.
He could not understand what everyone was saying, but relying on his many years of life experience, seeing the officials in their official robes and the gentry and scholars dressed in fine embroidered clothing on the main street, he knew what was happening.
Whether officials were coming down for an inspection or there to investigate something, it had little to do with ordinary, law-abiding farmers like them.
Looking at the officials and gentry on the main street, Zhao Qi snorted.
“What are they acting so high and mighty for? Our Tianwan Village has produced a great official too. If he came back, he’d definitely…”
Before he could finish, the words “Lord Du” fell into his ears amid the noise.
Afraid he had heard incorrectly, Zhao Qi hurriedly grabbed the person beside him and asked in a thick, stumbling voice.
The broken pieces of conversation entered his ears, and his hand began to tremble with disbelief.
By the time he came to his senses, the welcoming procession had already gone a long way.
He hurriedly grabbed the child in his hand, pushed through the crowd, and ran after the procession.
Surrounded by officials, gentry, scholars, and others, he caught only a hurried glimpse, but he immediately confirmed that it really was that married couple!
Their appearances seemed not to have changed very much.
Aside from the decades of wind and frost that had settled into their temperaments, Du Heng’s face—the face that had once amazed all the women and young men in the village—was still radiant.
The years had washed away the youthful immaturity from his features and taken away his youth, but they had also left behind a calmness and bearing that young faces could never possess.
It was the same with Xiaoman.
The somewhat willful young man with his temper back then now still showed traces of his younger self in every movement, every frown and smile, but his eyes also held much more gentleness and determination forged by the years.
Back then, after Du Heng passed the provincial examination and established a household and property, the couple moved from the mud-and-tile house in Tianwan Village into a large residence in the county town.
That day, Qin Xiaoman and Du Heng had sat on a bullock cart and traveled along the village road. The villagers had wiped away tears and waved goodbye while he was hoeing weeds in the fields beneath the village road.
His heart had been heavy. He had mourned that from then on he would no longer be able to see Xiaoman, whom he had grown up with as a childhood sweetheart, in the village all the time. He had sighed over the twists and turns of the two men’s lives.
Who would have thought that farewell would become a separation of several decades?
Now, seeing that face again, Zhao Qi suddenly felt as though their previous farewell had only happened yesterday.
A rush of hot tears suddenly welled uncontrollably from his eyes. Zhao Qi did not even have time to wipe them away.
“Grandpa, why are you crying?”
Zhao Qi looked at the little child he was holding by the hand. The young, tender face was completely innocent.
With trembling hands, he gently patted his grandson’s cheek.
“I’m not crying, I’m not crying. It’s just that Grandpa’s eyes… it’s raining.”
He did not know whether it was because he was moved by the merciless passing of time, or because he was fortunate enough to see an old acquaintance once more in his lifetime.
So much so that a man who had endured decades of wind and frost still shed tears of old age streaming down his face.