“Mr. Murong is moving out of the Yue residence?” Gu Mang was startled. “Then where will he go all by himself?”
“I don’t know.”
Yue Chenqing lowered his head, absently rubbing the protective sachet against evil spirits in his hands. He looked deeply dejected, with a hint of resignation in his expression.
This was something that had never happened to Yue Chenqing before. He had pursued Murong Chuyi for so many years. He had experienced disappointment, sadness, and unwillingness to give up, but he had never been as exhausted as he was now.
Perhaps a person’s heart was ultimately made of flesh. When one’s enthusiasm received no response for long enough, eventually there would come a day when it cooled and was completely spent.
What was more, Jiang Yexue was also an elder to him, and a Grandmaster of Artifact Refinement just like Murong Chuyi. Yet Jiang Yexue treated him with a completely different kind of tolerance than Murong Chuyi did. With the contrast between them laid bare, it was difficult not to waver.
“Fourth Uncle said before that the blood flowing through our veins isn’t the same, and that he’s never really regarded us as family. The only reason he stayed in Chonghua all this time was to repay my mother’s kindness for adopting him.
“Now he probably thinks I’ve already reached adulthood, and that he’s finished repaying that debt, so… so he wants to leave.”
Yue Chenqing’s fingers wound around the knot of the cord again and again.
“…I don’t know where he’s going, either. Maybe he wants to travel the world and search for his real family. Or maybe he’s simply tired of us and wants to move somewhere far away from us. I don’t know how to persuade him. Besides, when it comes to me, he… he never listens to anything I say…”
Mo Xi and Gu Mang exchanged a glance, neither saying a word.
There was really nothing they could say. What could they say?
Yue Chenqing wasn’t their family, and neither was Murong Chuyi. When it came to another family’s affairs, outsiders were always in an awkward position to say too much.
Just as the atmosphere was becoming awkward, they suddenly heard the delicate clatter of beads behind them.
The first to react was Xiaolan’er. The little girl happily and obediently hurried over, calling out repeatedly,
“Teacher! Teacher!”
Everyone in the courtyard turned around together and saw Jiang Yexue emerge from the inner hall in a wooden wheelchair.
He was wearing blue-green robes today, his ink-black hair secured with a green-jade hair clasp and falling over his shoulders. He smiled and gently stroked Xiaolan’er’s hair.
“I’ll push your wheelchair for you, Teacher,” Xiaolan’er said happily.
“All right.”
The little girl slung her centipede-shaped paper kite over her back, went around behind Jiang Yexue, and pushed him into the courtyard.
Jiang Yexue looked up, his features soft and smiling.
“I was inside preparing some protective sachets and didn’t hear the commotion. Forgive my neglect. Brother Mo, Brother Gu, may you both have a peaceful Duanyang Festival.”
With everyone gathered, the small courtyard paved with bluestone suddenly became lively.
There were no servants in Jiang Yexue’s household. Washing the reed leaves, mixing the glutinous rice—everything had to be done by themselves.
But perhaps it was precisely because of that that it felt so much like ordinary human life at its best, with the years passing peacefully.
Yue Chenqing and Xiaolan’er were young, and both were lively by nature. The older and younger one ran back and forth around the courtyard, now adding firewood to the open-air stove, now carrying large buckets of well water over to soak the zongzi leaves.
Gu Mang sat on a small stool with his sleeves rolled up, stirring the glutinous rice. Watching the two of them running around with such enthusiasm, he shook his head.
“At this rate, they might use up all the water stored in the cistern before noon.”
“That’s exactly what we’re supposed to do,” Jiang Yexue said with a smile. “During Duanyang, we collect ‘noon water.’ The yang energy is strongest at noon, and according to legend, water collected and stored at that time can ward off evil and dispel miasma. Didn’t you used to believe in this sort of thing the most?”
Gu Mang thought to himself, Oh, right. I forgot.
But then he glanced at Mo Xi, who was washing zongzi leaves beside the stone platform in the distance, and secretly felt relieved that Jiang Yexue had reminded him.
Later, he could tell Mo Xi about it and make Mo Xi think that he still remembered even these tiny details, easing his worries a little.
Thinking this, Gu Mang turned and changed the subject.
“You told Yue Chenqing and the others everything about me?”
“Not exactly,” Jiang Yexue said. “I only told him that there are certain secrets surrounding you that aren’t convenient to reveal to outsiders. But I know you’re not some irredeemably evil person. If he trusts me, then I hope he’ll trust you too.
“Chenqing is very clever. There are many things we don’t need to spell out for him.”
Gu Mang didn’t know what to say. In the end, he lowered his eyes.
“…Thank you.”
“What is there for you to thank me for?” Jiang Yexue sighed. “Actually, I owe you an apology too. I didn’t always insist on believing in you before. The fact that you don’t blame me is already something I’m deeply grateful for.”
His gaze drifted toward the courtyard, as though passing through layers upon layers of time and seeing the extraordinarily simple wedding that had once taken place there many years ago.
There had been one newlywed couple and only a handful of guests. Everyone else had avoided them as though they were something to be shunned.
But Gu Mang had been so determined to make his position known to the entire world that he had played Phoenix Seeks Its Mate on the suona, winking and smiling at Jiang Yexue as colorful paper fluttered throughout the courtyard.
“When everyone else was ostracizing me, you never abandoned me. Yet I failed to continue trusting you. I was the one who wronged you.”
Gu Mang felt embarrassed hearing him say that. He scratched the back of his head.
“Oh, come on. We’re brothers. What’s there to owe each other?”
Once again, he hurriedly changed the subject. His blue eyes swept around the courtyard before landing on Xiaolan’er.
“Oh, right. What happened with Lan’er? Why is she staying at your house?”
Jiang Yexue sighed.
“You know her condition. Lan’er’s spiritual core is extraordinarily powerful, practically on par with Lord Xihe’s. But her constitution is too frail to bear such an overwhelming innate gift. Instead, that talent has manifested as her manic heart disorder.
“Normally she’s obedient and gentle, but whenever her symptoms flare up, she becomes completely indifferent even to those closest to her, and extremely violent…”
“She’s had another episode?”
“Yes. She had another episode at the academy not long ago.”
Jiang Yexue looked toward the little girl bustling about in the distance.
“Although the academy elders stopped her in time, she still injured several children. One of them was even Junshang’s grandnephew.”
“…”
“They originally intended to expel her from the academy and destroy her spiritual core. I couldn’t bear to see that happen, so I vouched for her, took her as my disciple, and brought her here.
“I’m not a physician specializing in cultivation, but I’ve studied it to some extent. I know that her condition is most easily aggravated by stimulation, and the worst thing for her is when other people provoke her with their words.”
Jiang Yexue sighed.
“The academy is mostly filled with children who haven’t experienced much of the world. Influenced by some of their elders, they keep calling her a monster. Staying there won’t do her any good.”
Gu Mang nodded.
“That’s true. Children are the most likely to simply repeat whatever they hear from others.”
“So I persuaded Changfeng Jun to let his daughter stay at my residence. First, I can teach her and guide her cultivation. Second, I can gradually help her ease the overly aggressive energy of her spiritual core. And third…”
Jiang Yexue paused.
“My home is quiet enough that hardly anyone comes by. At least here, no one will bully her. That’s good for her condition too.”
Gu Mang smiled.
“Everything you’ve said makes sense. You’ve listed one, two, and three. Do you have a fourth reason?”
Jiang Yexue curled his fingers and lightly tapped his forehead as he thought. After a moment, he smiled.
“Fourth, she’s very obedient. She always volunteers to push me in and out, so it’s basically like I got myself half a little wheelchair.”
The two of them looked at each other and smiled.
Suddenly, Mo Xi turned around from beside the water basin.
“The reed leaves are all washed. Should I bring them over?”
“Then I’ll trouble you, Brother Mo.”
Making zongzi was complicated work. Here in the Chonghua capital, the most popular variety was pillow-shaped zongzi. The leaves could be bamboo leaves, wild rice leaves, or reed leaves, while the fillings could be sweet or savory, depending on one’s preference.
Jiang Yexue was meticulous and remembered everyone’s tastes. Early that morning, he had gone to the market and bought the freshest ingredients. By now, all the vegetables and meat had been washed, chopped, and sorted into small clay jars, while the glutinous rice had already been prepared.
Yue Chenqing rubbed his hands together excitedly.
“Let’s start! I’m making meat zongzi!”
Xiaolan’er came over carrying a little stool, her voice soft but cheerful.
“Th-then I’ll make the sweet ones.”
Yue Chenqing teased her.
“Aren’t you going to the stove and make the fire?”
Lan’er answered quietly but firmly,
“No. Making the fire isn’t fun. Making zongzi is more fun…”
Jiang Yexue watched them bustling about and smiled, resting his cheek against one hand from his wheelchair.
After a while, he suddenly realized something.
“Oh?”
Gu Mang turned around.
“What is it?”
“I forgot the nine-colored threads. We’ll need them to tie the zongzi later.”
“Your legs aren’t convenient. Where did you put them? I’ll get them for you.”
Jiang Yexue smiled apologetically.
“Then I’ll trouble you, Brother Gu. The threads are in the cabinet in the small sitting room, the second compartment from the left.”
Gu Mang got up and went inside.
Jiang Yexue’s room was simple and uncluttered, without many decorative objects. Gu Mang quickly found the bundle of nine-colored silk threads in the cabinet.
He picked them up and was about to leave when, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a memorial tablet placed before the shrine.
The tablet was lacquered black with white characters, carved from cypress wood. Only a few simple words were written upon it:
Memorial Tablet of Jiang Qin, née Mu, Deceased Wife
“…”
Gu Mang’s footsteps stopped involuntarily as he stared at the memorial tablet.
Qin Mujin had been Jiang Yexue’s wife.
Back then, when her family had fallen into disgrace and everyone else had avoided them like the plague, Jiang Yexue had still honored the marriage arrangement they had made.
After their marriage, they had treated each other with mutual respect and affection, living together in perfect harmony. They had been a well-matched couple.
Who could have known that Qin Mujin would unfortunately perish in a battle not long afterward?
At the time, they had only just married. Their love for each other had been at its deepest.
Because Gu Mang had not known her for very long, he did not have a particularly vivid impression of Madam Qin. What he remembered most clearly was the way she had looked as a bride at her wedding.
She had worn a brilliant red bridal gown that shone like crimson clouds. Her veil was thin and light, allowing the vague outline of her face to be seen through the red gauze.
Aside from that, he remembered that the bride could drink extraordinarily well.
She looked delicate and fragile, yet she had drunk every guest who challenged her to a drinking match under the table.
Gu Mang had been no exception.
After the wedding banquet ended that day, he had been slightly unsteady on his feet. Mo Xi had taken him home that evening.
But Mo Xi hadn’t let him return to his own quarters. Instead, he had dragged him straight back to his own home.
At that time, Mo Xi was still living in the old Mo family residence. His power-hungry uncle was still alive, and there were spies throughout the estate keeping watch on Mo Xi.
Yet Gu Mang didn’t know what had gotten into Mo Xi that day. He had suddenly become so impulsive.
With only a wall between them and countless ears and eyes nearby, he had insisted on pressing Gu Mang down onto the bed and tangling himself with him.
Gu Mang had genuinely drunk far too much. He kept covering his eyes with one arm, his entire body soft and overheated as though he had been soaked in sweet wine.
That only made Mo Xi lose even more control.
At one point, a servant knocked on the door and asked whether Young Master needed the night-reading lamps and candles replaced.
Mo Xi’s response had been to extinguish every candle in the room.
Then, in the darkness, he had become even more reckless, tormenting that senior disciple who didn’t dare make a single sound.
Later, Gu Mang had asked Mo Xi what on earth had gotten into him.
After a long silence, Mo Xi told him that he was simply jealous that Jiang Yexue had been able to marry the person he loved.
At the time, Gu Mang hadn’t had even a shred of strength left. Half amused and half exasperated, he had said,
“There are so many brides in the world. Are you going to sigh wistfully every time you see one?”
Mo Xi had gone silent.
After a while, he said that he also felt the bride’s eyes, seen through the red veil, looked a little like Gu Mang’s.
Gu Mang had nearly laughed himself to death at the absurd excuse Mo Xi had come up with to justify his beastly behavior.
“Her eyes look like mine? I think her nose looks like yours.”
“Not at all.”
“You say they don’t, so they don’t? I think they look quite alike. Her lips even look like Murong Lian’s.”
“They don’t look alike at all.”
“Her face is even shaped like Murong Chuyi’s.”
“…”
Mo Xi had stopped arguing after that, seemingly realizing that he probably shouldn’t continue bickering with the senior disciple he’d just bullied so thoroughly.
Though it was also possible that, because Gu Mang’s memories were fading, he simply couldn’t remember the rest of their conversation.
Gu Mang wondered what Mo Xi would feel if he saw this memorial tablet now.
Back then, they had both still been young. They had thought that being able to marry the person they loved was the greatest thing in the world, something worthy of envy.
Who could have known that the world also contained such sorrow as newlyweds being torn apart by death?
Perhaps people could never truly outplay fate.
Gu Mang sighed. Before Jiang Qin’s memorial tablet, he pressed his palms together and bowed.
After all, he and Jiang Yexue had once been brothers-in-arms. If Qin Mujin were still alive, he ought to call her Sister-in-Law.
After bowing, he looked at the memorial tablet several more times. He hesitated over whether he should tell Jiang Yexue and perhaps offer a stick of incense.
But then he suddenly felt that something was wrong.
He couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
When he’d first glanced at the memorial tablet, he had felt nothing at all. But the longer he looked at it, the more vaguely uncomfortable he became.
He had the distinct feeling that there was something extra about this memorial tablet.