Under the same pitch-black night sky, without stars and without moon.
Along the banks of the Huai River, clusters of military tents stood, bonfires blazing high. The soldiers had just won a battle that day, their blood still running hot. They drank and feasted on meat, clapping and singing with reckless joy.
Inside the main command tent, before a sand table of defenses, Pei Xia was in discussion with the Second Prince about the next phase of their campaign when he suddenly faltered.
The Second prince, deeply engrossed, looked up in puzzlement at his abrupt pause: “Shouzhen?”
“It’s nothing.” Pei Xia’s brow creased almost imperceptibly. Why had he suddenly thought of Yuniang, and in the middle of military deliberations, no less?
He lowered his eyes, suppressing the untimely thought. His long fingers held the command flag, pointing to a corner of the sand table, resuming his calm tone: “…In encirclement we must scheme, in desperation we must fight. In my view, tomorrow let Generals Liang Liangyun and Kang Zhizhang each lead eight hundred elite troops, split into two routes, to besiege Nanling and Wenchang counties. Vice Generals Peng Xi and Di Ting will go to Lu Mountain to the south, ambush the rebels’ grain convoy, and cut off Zhang the traitor’s supply lines from the rear…”
After the time it took for one stick of incense to burn, Pei Xia stepped out of the main tent. His attendant, Jing Lin, immediately came forward: “My lord, a letter from the household has arrived. The courier is waiting inside your tent.”
So it was a family letter.
Pei Xia’s expression eased slightly, seizing on this as the reason for his earlier distraction.
Once inside, he removed his frost-colored crane cloak and handed it to Jing Lin, then seated himself before the long desk.
His gaze lingered briefly on the family letter and the bundle atop the desk, then shifted to the guard standing within. “All that was entrusted from home, it’s all here?”
“Yes, my lord, all here.”
The guard, one of the Pei household’s trained retainers, bowed deeply: “Gao Momo, from the Madam’s courtyard, handed them over in person. Once I received them, I rode hard to deliver them here without delay.”
Pei Xia picked up the letter but did not yet open it, instead asking, “Nothing came from the young madam’s quarters?”
The guard’s heart skipped, recalling how Gao Momo had sternly warned him before departure: under no circumstances was he to let slip even the least hint of the young madam’s calamity. If it unsettled the lord’s mind and compromised his judgment in battle, the consequences could be as grave as the ruin of the entire Pei clan, or at the very least, the loss of their household servants’ lives.
“Ever since learning that Miaoan Hall was pillaged by rioters, and that Abbess Jingci and the nuns immolated themselves on the back mountain, the young madam fell ill. Since then, she’s remained in her quarters, chanting scriptures and copying sutras daily, rarely going out.”
Head bowed, the guard parroted the explanation drilled into him by Gao Momo: “Madam, knowing the young madam was shaken, excused her from her daily greetings, telling her to rest in peace. But Gao Momo said, when she handed me this bundle, that the young madam entrusted one item to be included with Madam’s things.”
At this, Pei Xia set down the letter and opened the bundle.
Inside was a collection of bottles and jars, all medicine.
On campaign, provisions came with the army, but medicines were hardest to come by. These costly salves and pills were clearly prepared with care by Madam Wang.
Among the medicines lay a Buddhist scripture with a sandalwood-colored cover.
Pei Xia picked it up and flipped it open. That elegant handwriting, he knew it at once.
His wife came from a scholarly family; her grandfather, Chancellor Shen, was famed throughout the realm for his calligraphy piece Yuanlong Tie.
No doubt she had inherited a trace of his talent. Her regular script was steady yet graceful, delicate and flowing, with something of Madam Wei’s style.
The last time he wrote to her, she hadn’t replied with so much as a word. Yet now she had sent him a hand-copied scripture?
His long fingers traced lightly over the refined ink strokes. She had always been cautious and restrained at home; no doubt anything she sent had to pass under her mother’s eyes, which left her little freedom. So she had chosen to send a scripture for blessing and safety instead.
“You may go and rest,” Pei Xia told the guard. “We’ll send a reply home in the morning.”
The guard acknowledged and withdrew.
As the tent flap lifted and fell, Pei Xia once more opened the scripture, turning a page or two, and in his mind’s eye he saw her tranquil figure behind a lattice window, hand raised as she copied sutras.
She had always been slender. After an illness like this, she must have grown even thinner.
After a long while, he set down the scripture and called Jing Lin to grind ink.
The next morning, two family letters were handed to the Pei household’s guard.
Alongside them was a mist-green sachet patterned with bamboo leaves, within which he had placed a freshly picked osmanthus sprig still dewy from that morning near the camp.
“Give the sachet to the young madam,” Pei Xia instructed. “Tell her that I may not be able to return for Mid-Autumn, but I send this branch of Huainan’s autumn as a token. Tell her to take care of her health and rest well. If the campaign goes smoothly, I’ll be home before year’s end, and take her to Chang’an to see the snow on the Wild Goose Pagoda.”
“Yes, my lord.” The guard, not daring to raise his eyes, swiftly departed with the letters and gifts.
Once the letters had been dispatched, Pei Xia lifted his gaze to the crimson dragon-banner snapping against the clear blue sky. For an instant his thoughts wandered.
But only for an instant. His jade-like face soon returned to its usual calm indifference, and he turned back toward the command tent.
Not far from Huainan, in Jinling City, today was also a fine day with not a cloud in sight.
Early in the morning, Wildcat drove a ewe into the Xie family’s little courtyard: “The shepherd heard it was you, Boss, who wanted to buy a sheep, and didn’t dare hold back. He immediately picked out the strongest one. Look, the udder’s all full, squeeze and out comes milk, more than enough for that little baby to drink!”
Xie Wuling bent down, glanced at the ewe’s swollen udder, and said with satisfaction: “You did this job well. When your sister-in-law and I hold our wedding feast, I’ll have you seated at the main table!”
Wildcat, short and chubby with a big round face, scratched his head sheepishly at these words.
But when Xie Wuling led the sheep into the back garden, where the vegetable patch lay barren, Wildcat still couldn’t help but lower his voice and ask: “Boss, are you really planning on keeping that little lady? Sure, she does look like a fairy, but I heard Old Li say she’s carrying one already! If you marry her, not only will you have to raise her, but also her child from another man. That’s a losing deal… Ow! Boss, don’t hit me!”
Wildcat clutched his head after taking a knock, looking aggrieved: “I was just standing up for you.”
“What do you know? The fact that she can conceive and bear shows she brings fortune and prosperity to the household!” Xie Wuling snorted. “When the child is born, he’ll take my surname. You don’t say it, I don’t say it, then I’ll be his real father! I raise him to adulthood, and he’ll be the one to care for me in my old age!”
Wildcat scratched his head again, then stuck his thumb up: “Boss is truly Boss! What breadth of mind, tsk, magnanimous!”
Xie Wuling ignored his flattery, tied the ewe securely, then looked up at the blazing sun, muttering: “That woman probably didn’t sleep a wink last night. By this hour, still hasn’t woken.”
“A woman doesn’t have much else to do, let her rest.” Wildcat said. “But Boss, don’t forget, today’s the thirtieth. As usual, you need to show up at Sixth Master’s.”
“I won’t forget.”
Xie Wuling waved him off, walked to the front yard, and cast another glance at the wooden door of the bedchamber.
After a whole night, had she made up her mind yet?
Last night, when she learned she was with child, her first reaction had been to get rid of it. That alone showed her bond with her short-lived late husband wasn’t deep.
Good. The less deep, the easier for him to take his place.
What he feared was if her feelings for that dead man had been deep and unwavering. That would be hard to deal with, after all, how could a living man compete with the dead?
“Wildcat, what do you think of me as a man?”
The abrupt question stunned Wildcat, but once he caught on, he quickly praised: “Boss, you’re young, strong, fierce, and unmatched in looks, like Pan An himself! Any woman who marries you has all the luck in the world!”
With his face and build, many lovely girls along the Qinhuai River had wanted to be with him. Like that courtesan Furong from Drunken Immortal Pavilion, after saving enough money to buy her freedom, bringing with her a box of gold and jewels, she gave up being a wealthy man’s concubine to come to him of her own accord.
But Boss just said he wanted a wife like the Bodhisattva in the temple.
Furong thought he was mocking her for being a faded flower, and in a rage she tried to smash the jewel box at him: “Bah! You scoundrel! A beauty like me is willing to pay to be with you, and instead of being overjoyed, you want to marry a Bodhisattva? Keep dreaming!”
And now, Boss really had a woman he wanted to marry.
In terms of looks, she really did resemble a Bodhisattva.
But who would have thought, this Bodhisattva was a Child-Giving Bodhisattva.
Wildcat felt in his heart that it was a loss. But since Boss himself didn’t care, he had no grounds to say more. After all, it was Boss’s life to live, no one else could live it for him.
—
Shen Yujiao indeed hadn’t slept all night.
When she woke, her left temple was still throbbing faintly.
Beside her, little Ping’an was already awake, lying quietly with wide, dark eyes staring at the green gauze canopy, neither crying nor fussing. Likely from having suffered hardship, the child was unusually well-behaved.
She gathered Ping’an into her arms. Then, thinking of the tiny sprout in her belly, lowered her gaze to her still-flat stomach.
If no one said it, who would know she carried another life inside?
The child in her arms babbled. She looked down, her voice soft and gentle: “Ping’an, you must be hungry. Auntie will find you something to eat.”
As for where to find it…
She glanced toward the sunlit window, pressing her lips together in embarrassment.
Though she knew she shouldn’t, the only one she could turn to at this moment seemed to be that ruffian leader who kept pestering her to be his wife.
She dressed herself, held the child, drew a deep breath, and pushed open the wooden door,
But instead of that tall, straight figure, she found Aunt Liu from next door sitting in the courtyard, two baskets of vegetables at her feet, deftly picking through them.
Hearing the door creak open, Aunt Liu looked up with a smile: “Oh my, Jiaoniang is awake.”
The name startled Shen Yujiao for a moment. Then she realized, Xie Wuling must have told her.
She remembered Aunt Liu yesterday praising the name “Cuilan” as fated for her, only to find out today that it was false. Her thin face flushed hot.
Aunt Liu, seeing her hesitate, guessed her embarrassment and laughed heartily: “Never mind, Ah Ling already told me, your name is Jiaojiao. And truly, this name suits you much better than Cuilan.”
Grateful for the way out she was given, Shen Yujiao wasn’t tactless. She smiled apologetically: “Auntie, please don’t hold it against me.”
“Pah, such a small matter. You’re a young woman fleeing hardship with a child, it’s only right to be cautious.”
Aunt Liu waved her hand dismissively, then added: “You must be hungry. There are steamed buns on the stove, and the sheep’s milk for the baby has been boiled, it’s still warm in the pot.”
“Sheep’s milk?” Shen Yujiao was taken aback.
“Didn’t I say Ah Ling is rough on the outside but careful inside? Seeing you can’t be apart from the child, he had a ewe brought early this morning. She’s tied up in the back now. From now on, you can feed the little one on sheep’s milk, it’ll raise him sturdy and strong.”
At this point, Aunt Liu cast a meaningful glance at Shen Yujiao’s belly. Though she felt it wasn’t worth it for Xie Wuling, still, thinking the young woman was also a bitter-fated soul, that all sorts of fortunes and mishaps in this world couldn’t really be blamed on her, she softened her tone and said: “Go wash up and eat. If you go hungry, Ah Ling will surely feel distressed.”
Shen Yujiao’s gaze shifted slightly. When she walked to the stove and saw the steaming flatbreads and the smooth, white sheep’s milk, something in her heart seemed to break through the soil like bamboo shoots after the rain.
After filling her own belly and feeding the child, the afternoon sun lay warm and gentle over the courtyard.
Shen Yujiao carried out a small stool and sat beside Aunt Liu, picking vegetables with her.
Aunt Liu saw that though her skin was delicate and her fingers slender, she worked with focus, without any airs. She didn’t stop her, after all, since she would be living her days with Ah Ling in the future, this was just getting familiar ahead of time.
Although customs in this dynasty weren’t as open as in the previous one, widows remarrying was still common. Aunt Liu’s own husband’s younger sister was a widow, her husband had died when she wasn’t yet twenty. Before long she paired with a widowed butcher in the west of the city, and now the two had a son and a daughter, living happily together, their household lively and harmonious.
So what if a husband dies? Once the dead are in the ground, the living must go on living.
Thinking this to herself with a quiet sigh, Aunt Liu remembered Xie Wuling’s request, and prepared to talk the young woman around.
But before she could open her mouth, the young woman in plain coarse cloth, whose beauty and grace could not be hidden, spoke first: “Aunt Liu, he… where did he go?”
Aunt Liu blinked, then answered: “Ah Ling? He went to Sixth Master Chang’s. He’ll likely be back later.”
Yesterday Shen Yujiao had learned from Aunt Liu that this Sixth Master Chang was a wealthy and powerful local gentryman in Jinling. Since Xie Wuling once took a blade for him, he had kept Xie Wuling under his wing, sending him on errands and tasks,
As for what tasks, they were none other than filthy business like bullying men and women, pressing debts, and collecting money.
Thinking of him doing such work outside, Shen Yujiao’s thin shoulders drooped slightly, her heart sinking with them.
Seeing her frown, Aunt Liu asked: “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Shen Yujiao shook her head lightly. After a pause, she lifted her clear, stream-washed eyes, her tone earnest: “Auntie, if you don’t mind, tell me about him.”
Yesterday when she had mentioned Ah Ling, she had shown nothing but indifference.
And now, she was taking the initiative to ask?
Aunt Liu’s eyes curved into a smile, and she answered at once: “Good, good! Whatever you want to know, I’ll tell you!”
