“Still not getting up? What are you planning to do today?”
Qin Xiaoman carried a stack of newly made summer clothes into the inner room. When he came back, he had not brought many things with him. For summer clothes, he had only brought one or two sets. One changed clothes frequently in summer, so two sets were simply not enough.
Originally, he had thought there should be some clothes here at the old residence. However, when he opened the wardrobe, he found that they were all somewhat too youthful. There was nothing wrong with them being old, but now that they were older, wearing the clothes from their youth was somewhat inappropriate.
Fortunately, there was quite a lot of fine silk at home. After taking measurements, they were quickly made.
Now that they had struggled for most of their lives, even if there were no fine silks at home, they could still freely go to the cloth shop, casually choose some fabric, and have several sets of clothes made, without being constrained by the price.
When Qin Xiaoman returned to the room, he discovered that Du Heng was still lying on the bed. Seeing that the man was awake but still refused to get up, he said, “The weather outside is so nice. Are you planning to lie in bed like this all day?”
“I am rarely lazy. Can’t you let me be like this?”
Du Heng looked at the person with his back slightly bent as he organized the clothes in front of the wardrobe, and the corners of his mouth curled upward.
“Who cares when you get up? They all say that people sleep less when they get old, but you’re doing the opposite.”
Just as Qin Xiaoman finished speaking, he suddenly discovered a set of blue-green clothes in one corner of the cabinet. The material was light and thin, and he hurriedly took them out.
“Look, what is this!”
Du Heng sat up and looked at the clothes he had brought over. “These are the academy robes from Bai Rong Academy.”
His fingertip slid over them. The clothes were not yet considered old.
Back when he was studying, the academy issued two sets of academy robes: one for autumn and winter, and one for summer and spring. If they felt that was not enough, they could pay extra to buy more.
At that time, after paying the tuition, their days were already tight. Where would they have so much silver to prepare many clothes? Thus, he had only paid extra for another summer set to change into.
He did not have many clothes, so Du Heng cherished them especially. Later, after passing the provincial examination, he did not continue studying at the academy, but he could not bear to throw away the academy robes and had kept them in the wardrobe all this time.
Looking at the light, thin blue-green clothes, Qin Xiaoman could not help recalling Du Heng’s youthful appearance from those days, when his robes fluttered in the wind.
Back then, wearing this academy robe, he had been so handsome and refined that people in the village would praise Qin Xiaoman every day for having such good fortune.
On a whim, he said, “Put it on. I haven’t seen you wear it in so long.”
Hearing Qin Xiaoman’s suggestion, Du Heng laughed. “At this age, why would I still wear it?”
Qin Xiaoman said, “You’re lying here with nothing to do anyway. What’s wrong with putting it on and letting me look at you again?”
“No.”
Du Heng lay back down on the bed, unwilling to change clothes and show himself off.
The more he resisted, the more enthusiastic Qin Xiaoman became. Seeing Du Heng lying there all soft and yielding, he directly pounced on him and reached out to pull off the white undergarment he was wearing.
“Don’t, don’t pull my undergarment!”
Du Heng laughed so hard as Qin Xiaoman tickled him, while at the same time clutching his own sash. “This academy robe is very sheer and light. I can’t go without anything underneath.”
………
The two of them tussled around on the bed for quite a while. In the end, Du Heng still sat properly dressed in a blue-green robe before the bronze mirror.
Qin Xiaoman tied Du Heng’s hair up at the crown of his head and gently inserted a white jade hairpin.
“All done!”
Qin Xiaoman looked with satisfaction at the person he had dressed up himself. One had to know that back then, he had never known how to do such delicate and trivial work as tying his husband’s hair and dressing him. It was something he had gradually learned and honed over all these years.
Du Heng stood up and lightly brushed his sleeves. Suddenly, he felt full of spirit. “Once I put on this academy robe, I really feel as though I’ve become ten years younger all at once.”
He turned around once in front of Qin Xiaoman. “Don’t I look almost the same as that scholar lad from before?”
“How about we go to Bai Rong Academy later? The other day, I heard Qin Xiaozhu’s eldest son say that my calligraphy is displayed in the academy, and that they even have some of the essays I wrote when I was studying there on display.”
Looking at Du Heng in the blue-green robes, Qin Xiaoman really felt that he had suddenly become much younger, as though that eye-catching scholar from back then had returned.
Actually, Du Heng did not look particularly old even now, and he was still quite handsome. It was just that he needed to have authority in court, so his clothes were always rather old-fashioned, constantly reminding people that he was already quite advanced in age.
But now, dressed up like a young man, he instead made Qin Xiaoman recall all those things from the past.
He suddenly grabbed Du Heng by the sash, pulled him in front of himself, and smiled slyly. “Why go to the academy? Aren’t you the one who didn’t want to leave the house?”
“……”
Between husband and wife, doing such things was perfectly ordinary. It was just that at their age, it could easily make people feel that they were being shamelessly improper.
Qin Xiaoman scoffed. Flesh would grow old, but desire would not.
There were plenty of old men with young wives in the capital. There were even men of grandfatherly age who took concubines of an age young enough to be their grandchildren.
Could one say that those concubines were taken for other people to see? They were taken for that purpose, weren’t they? At their age, the two of them were evenly matched, completely legitimate, and there was nothing improper about it.
Du Heng laughed. “You always have some crooked logic, but you’re not wrong.”
He rested his hands beneath his head and gazed at the canopy of the bed. “Everything is good now. There is only one thing that leaves something to be desired.”
Qin Xiaoman tilted his head. “What?”
Du Heng coughed dryly. “It’s just that I can’t really do it anymore.”
Qin Xiaoman consoled him, “People will always grow old. Everyone has to reach this day.”
“………Besides, it’s not as though you were very strong before.”
“?”
Du Heng sat up. He looked at Qin Xiaoman with extreme seriousness. “I’ve discovered that you especially like to cross the river and tear down the bridge. You weren’t saying this just now!”
Seeing that the man was about to argue with him, Qin Xiaoman secretly laughed but did not answer. He picked up his clothes and put them on himself.
“Are you still going to the academy or not? If you’re not going, I’ll go find Xiaozhu.”
Du Heng tried to grab him. “You’re not allowed to leave! Come back and explain yourself!”
However, Qin Xiaoman ran quickly, disappearing in a flash.
This left Du Heng angry all by himself.
In the end, the two of them did not go to the academy, nor did they go looking for Qin Xiaozhu. Instead, they went to Tianwan Village.
After Du Heng entered officialdom and took up his post, he and Xiaoman had never sold off all their farmland and property in Tianwan Village.
The farmland and rice paddies were still there, and their private mountain was still there as well.
All these years, the land had been managed by people from their old home. Ever since Du Heng went to Qiuyang County to serve as magistrate, the days he had returned to Luoxia County could be counted on one hand, let alone returning to Tianwan Village.
Now that they had returned to the county, the two of them finally had the time to go back for a visit.
It was around June, and the rice in the fields had already formed ears of grain. The countryside was lush and verdant, and from a distance, it was clear that this year’s harvest would not be poor.
Du Heng took Qin Xiaoman along the village’s main road. The village, which had remained the same for ten years, had also undergone quite a few changes.
The village road that had once been terribly muddy whenever it rained now had a stone-paved path embedded along the side of the dirt road. Even on rainy days, it was easy to pass through.
They heard that Qin Wei had paid for the road to be paved.
The two walked forward along the stone path. Some of the familiar rice paddies from back then had become dry fields planted with corn, while some of the former dry fields had now been turned into ponds for raising fish.
Many of the crisscrossing little paths had already become overgrown and deserted, while some places that had once been deserted had been turned into fields.
The farmers were, as always, weeding and planting seasonal fruits and vegetables among the vegetable plots.
Du Heng looked at the people wearing straw hats and carrying hoes. At first glance, they all seemed very familiar, but when he got closer, he discovered that they were already young and unfamiliar faces.
The two of them looked at the working farmers, while the farmers also stopped their work to examine the two of them. Both sides tried to determine who the other people were.
But by now, the people working in the fields had already changed. How could they possibly recognize one another?
Seeing this scene, Du Heng naturally thought of the line: “Young I left home, old I return; my accent remains unchanged, but my temples have turned gray…”
They continued along the stone path. Along the way, they saw quite a few earthen graves that the two of them had never seen when they were farming in the village in the past. The grass on the mounds had already grown lush and thick.
No one knew how many years these graves had quietly gazed upon the people entering and leaving the village through wind and rain.
“I wonder whose graves these are.”
“In any case, they’re graves of people from our village. People from elsewhere wouldn’t casually bury graves in another person’s village.”
Qin Xiaoman glanced at the earthen graves. Though he was moved with emotion, there was more peace than sorrow in his expression.
When he was young, he had already experienced the separation from his closest family. At that time, he was still young and had not yet developed a mature understanding. In his heart, he was actually very unwilling to accept the result. Whenever it was time to pay respects to his relatives during festivals, he was always unwilling to burn incense for his father, because seeing the grave made his sorrow especially unbearable.
The people in the village secretly said that he was unfilial. Qin Xiong would drag him along to offer incense to his father. Yet every time he saw Qin Xiaoman return after going, and then remain silent for several days, he understood what was in his heart. After that, he always said that he would go offer incense to his father, but he never forced Qin Xiaoman to go again.
Now, after experiencing the ups and downs of more than half his life, he had gradually come to accept the cycle of life, aging, illness, and death, and had become much more at peace with it.
He took Du Heng’s hand and headed toward the hill behind their old home. Finally, they stopped before two graves side by side.
Du Heng had come before to pay respects to his father-in-law and younger father-in-law. Once, when he was drinking with Second Uncle, the latter had gotten drunk and brought him here, making him swear before his father-in-law and younger father-in-law’s graves that he would never let Xiaoman down.
After that, whenever the proper time came to pay respects, he would come. Xiaoman, however, came less often. Even when he did come, he would stand far away, unwilling to approach.
How could Du Heng not know the sorrow in Xiaoman’s heart? He had never forced him.
Later, after they went to the capital, he had not come here for many years either.
He had not expected that this time, after returning, it would be Xiaoman who took the initiative to bring him here.
People from the old home often came to pay respects at the two graves. Before the tombstones, there were still traces of burned paper money, ashes, and incense. Judging from the manner and style of it, there was no need to say who had done it—it was naturally Qin Xiong, who burned incense whenever anything of any importance happened.
The two earthen graves that had originally been completely bare had, as the Qin family rose to prosperity, gradually been fitted with stone. The surrounding area had also been built up with stone slabs and a blue-brick wall. From a distance, one could tell that these were the graves of a wealthy family. Later generations had the ability, and therefore no one dared to casually come and damage them.
“I’ve come back.”
Qin Xiaoman looked at the two graves and softly said those words.
He stepped forward and blew the dust from the tombstone. “We’ve been doing quite well all these years. My husband is very good, and our son is also very sensible and obedient. It’s just that we haven’t had much time to come back and see you.”
“Second Uncle always says that it was Big Dad and Little Dad’s spirits in heaven protecting me. Thinking about everything that has happened over all these years, I think Second Uncle was right. Otherwise, with my rotten temper and personality, how could I have been able to live this kind of life?”
Hearing this, Du Heng gently patted Qin Xiaoman’s back. In truth, there were many things he could not explain either. Perhaps, in some unseen way, it really had been his father-in-law and mother-in-law who had brought him to this family.
No matter what, spending this lifetime accompanied by Xiaoman had made him incomparably grateful and content.
“No matter how long the days ahead may be, we will accompany and remain by each other’s side until the very last moment of our lives.”
Author’s Note:
The “retirement and return to one’s hometown” arc ends here. Starting tomorrow, I’ll begin updating the extras for Chengyi and Danshe!