Jinxia returned to her room and called YangYue outside. In a low voice, she told him everything in detail. Hearing that this plan was arranged by Lu Yi, he hesitated a little as well, and was a little suspicious: “Lu Daren said he wanted to send her to Gusu?”
“Ms. Zhai’s problem is not easy, and behind her is not only her adoptive family. I think Lu Daren is being careful, sooner or later she will be found out if she stays here. Although Gusu is not a long-term plan, this is the first step.”
YangYue was still hesitating. In the end, he nodded, “Let’s just do what Lu Daren has said.”
“There’s another thing,” Jinxia added in a whisper, “Lu Daren is willing to take care of us in this matter, this means we owe him a great favour. I’ve thought about it, if for some reason this plan is exposed, we should bear the consequences and don’t let it trouble him.”
“That is for sure.” YangYue said.
Jinxia didn’t have anything else to say, she went to her bed and took the Zhai Lanye’s clothes that she had taken off earlier, giving them to YangYue. “Take this dress and throw it in the lake, it’s better if there is a little blood stain…”
YangYue understood her intention: the officers that would be involved in the case would find that dress and, if they were careless enough, they would close the case in a short amount of time, especially if no body was found. This was naturally the best plan. After wrapping up the clothes, YangYue didn’t bother waiting until it was dawn and ran out to find Shangguan Xi in a hurry.
Jinxia went back to Zhai Lanye. “It’s been well organized, as soon as the sky gets bright, we will get a boat and take you to Gusu… Sister, have you thought about it carefully? If you want to change your mind right now, you can still do it.”
“Gusu…” Zhai Lanye smiled bitterly, “I’m just afraid that it’s not far enough, how can I regret it?”
Jinxia saw that she had made up her mind, therefore she stopped trying to persuade her and nodded, “Would you like to take a break while it’s still dark?”
Zhai Lanye listened to the heavy rain outside and thought back to the time when she’d heard the sound of rain outside her house: her feelings were no longer the same. Leaving behind her adoptive family, leaving the days of boating, of waiting for people and their gifts, finally leaving his control… Zhai Lanye was no longer angry. All of a sudden she felt extreme courage. Leaving him, fleeing far away, letting him know that she would no longer obediently wait forever.
Pouring a cup of tea for her, Jinxia hesitated for a moment, but finally opened her mouth and said, “Sister, you will be leaving soon. Before that, I want to ask you something so I can understand better, regarding your connection to the late Zhou Xian, Zhou Daren.”
The late Zhou Xian… Zhai Lanye was silent, then softly said, “Just ask.”
“If you have someone else in your heart, why did you still approach Zhou Daren?”
“I…. Zhou Daren, I was the one who let him down, but I never thought that he would end his life.” Zhai Lanye said. She couldn’t help it and started crying.
“Zhou Daren, it’s because he didn’t have enough silver to marry you, so…”
“No, when he brought the silver, I rejected him.”
“What?”
Zhai Lanye looked at Jinxia, “Since the situation is already like this, I can only be honest with you. When Zhou Daren arrived in Yangzhou, I received an order to become his type and befriend him.”
“Whose order?”
“You don’t need to ask, I can’t say…” Zhai Lanye shook her head and continued to say, “Zhou Daren was a very good person and always treated me politely. I respected him in my heart. Later, he said he had written a letter to his house to raise money, and when the land at home would have been sold, he would have married me.”
“He was very kind to you.” Jinxia sighed.
“I knew that I could not drag on any longer, so I told the master*. The master told him that there was another young man from another family who wanted to marry me, and asked him to forget everything. Who would have thought that, a few days later, he’d have come with money, but I really couldn’t marry him, so I cruelly rejected him. Who knew, that very night… That night he killed himself.”
*[The master she mentioned is her adoptive father, TN]
In her heart, Jinxia was starting to understand the situation; within a few days Zhou Xian brought the money to her, it was clear that it was not the money from him selling his land, but it was the money of the river repairment funds. But, what she didn’t understand was: the funding was one hundred thousand taels of silvers, then where did the rest of the funds go?
“Your two windows…” she asked.
Zhai Lanye didn’t think that she knew about this matter, “That’s right, from where I lived, I could see where he was living. If you use a binocular, the view is more clear. At that time, he was busy with his work, he had to go and spectate the river, we could not meet everyday, so during that time, we often looked at each other from afar through each other’s windows.”
“That’s why he deliberately opened the window that night… He wanted you to see him hang himself?”
“I… I didn’t expect him to…” Zhai Lanye used her hands to pinch the clothes closed to her chest, and started crying, “I was wrong, he must’ve hated me.”
“Him… At his grave, there was a fragrance bag, was it yours?”
“You even found the fragrance bag?” Zhai Lanye was not familiar with their investigating method, and looked surprised, “It’s mine. Since that night… After Zhou Daren died… I’ve always had nightmares about him. After that, mother said it was because he missed me. She told me to cut a piece of my hair and to bury it in his grave, so that maybe he could be at peace.”
“The stitches on the fragrance bag in the grave and on Zhou Daren’s clothes were sewn by the same person,” Jinxia was understanding more and more details, “It was not your doing?”
“No, it was my mother who sewed them,” Zhai Lanye looked embarrassed, “Those clothes… Zhou Daren thought I’d sewed them.”
Jinxia didn’t know what to say. Zhai Lanye abandoned Zhou Xian, now it was her turn to be abandoned. Zhou Xian had hanged himself and she’d thrown herself into the lake…
When it was dark, YangYue came back and said that everything had been arranged.
Jinxia dressed Zhai Lanye as a man, together with YangYue escorted her to the boat. Seeing that standing in front of the boat was A’Rui, Jinxia let out a sigh of relief. She secretly admired Shangguan Xi for her careful work, but didn’t understand why A’Rui was glaring at her fiercely.
“Shangguan Bangzhu said in Gusu there is an embroidery workshop; she can work as a tailor there, but she will be a little tired, and her life will be hard, I’m unsure if she can handle it.” YangYue watched Zhai Lanye boarding on the boat.
“Later when all this matter subsides, you can take time off and go visit her.” Jinxia watched as the boat sailed steadily, “Taking a night boat, sailing at night, they should be there by morning.”
YangYue said nothing more, he just looked at the boat slowly disappearing from his sight.
***
Two days later.
Radishes, spinach, mushrooms, and… toon leaves.
Jinxia was hanging out in the kitchen, carefully arranging the vegetables in the basket. Looking back at the servant, she said while laughing, “Can you give me two eggs?”
After one cup of tea had passed [time], the servant could not help but watch her as she placed the vegetables in the basket: mushrooms, spring bamboo shoots, sliced tofu, radish, chicken eggs… Luckily, those vegetables didn’t cost much, so he just ‘opened one eye and closed the other’.
*[Opened one eye and close the other = See something, but pretend not see it, TN]
“Are you preparing a vegetarian menu?” the kitchen servant asked.
Jinxia smiled and nodded her head, “Yes, today is vegan day, you will earn ten thousand merits, you should also do it.”
*[Thousand merits = Indicated that someone had done bad things or hadn’t been living their lives well. Eating vegetables on vegan days accumulated points toward luck or a better life, TN]
“Really?”
“Of course, I’ve seen it in books.”
Jinxia carried the basket of vegetables, walked out of the kitchen and headed straight to the yard where Lu Yi lived. Lu Yi’s residence actually had a private kitchen, but he’d never used it since when he had arrived in Yangzhou because he didn’t bring a kitchen servant; pots and pans were available all the same.
She used the well water to wash all the vegetables and sorted them. The tofu was washed three times with the well water, then she sliced the bamboo shoots and boiled the mushrooms as well. Jinxia kneaded the dough, covered it with a wet cloth, and sniffed the fragrance of the mushrooms. She was very satisfied… Inviting Lu Yi for dinner, that was the best and most direct way of showing her gratitude.
Due to her limited funds, she was really embarrassed in terms of the ingredients: she had only a handful of copper coins on her. Not to mention fish and meat, even fruits and vegetables could hardly be bought. Naturally, she could only go to the post station kitchen to get their supplies, also she’d deliberately checked the book for dates. Today was vegan day, and the best day to invite guests for dinner.
Seeing the colour of the sky starting to darken, she didn’t know why Lu Yi had yet to come home. While waiting, she took a small carrot that had been washed clean, bit the head and kept scanning around the place in silence…
It just so happened that outside the crescent-moon gate, there was someone.
“Da Yang!” She hurried and called out after recognizing him.
“I just went to your room looking for you, but I guessed that you would be at Lu Daren’s place.” YangYue stepped into the courtyard, and in one moment, he was able to smell the cooking, “You took bamboo shoots and mushrooms to make soup?”
“Yes, it smells good, right? I have to add the tofu in later.” Jinxia said all happy, “You came in just at the right time. I want to take pig oil to cook the radishes, but you have to boil them first, don’t you?”
“No, they will turn out too soft.”
YangYue went into the kitchen, rolled up his sleeves, washed his hands, then took the white radish and cut it into small evenly pieces.
As soon as he came, Jinxia was able to feel relieved, she leaned against the door frame, still chewing on her carrot, while mumbling she said, “I have mixed the flour… wanting to make spring pancakes… you remember…. They have to be thin…”
“Got it.” YangYue took off the wet cloth, poked the bottom of the dough with his hand, testing the softness, and said, “You’re going to invite Lu Daren to eat, but the menu is full of vegetables, is this good?”
“Lu Daren hasn’t eaten anything good, even if I sell all my possessions and buy him chickens and ducks, it’s not certain that he will like it.” Jinxia tried to defend herself, “Even though my pocket doesn’t pass the test, my loyalty doesn’t need to be tested. Inviting him to eat, it means showing the intention of my heart, how could he not understand?”
At that time, someone came in quietly from the crescent-moon gate, but she didn’t notice it.
“By the way, why were you looking for me? Did the master have an order? Or… did something happen?” Jinxia asked YangYue.
“I heard her clothes have been found,” YangYue’s expression darkened, but his hands didn’t stop working, “it looks like they are mobilizing people to look for her in the lake.”
“Good, maybe in two days at the most, they might stop looking. The Japanese are still rebelling on the outskirts of town, they also can’t take care of too many things at the same time.” Jinxia watched YangYue’s face closely, “Do you miss her?”
YangYue lowered his head and smiled, but did not answer her question. “…I have a letter for you in my pocket, you can take it yourself.” His hands were full of flour, so it was not easy to reach it.
“A letter?!?” Jinxia said in surprise. She put the radish in her mouth, bent her body and quickly took out a letter.
“It was sent along with a letter to father, it looks like your mother had someone send it.”
While he was speaking, Jinxia had already taken out the paper from the envelope, tilted her head and read it carefully. She noticed that the words on the letter were written by her younger brother, Yuan Yi, but the content…
She was speechless for a quarter of an hour, “This, this…How much dowry did my mother promise for this marriage? Why did the Yi family accept it so easily?”
YangYue had read the letter earlier, laughed and said, “It seems that the third son of the Yi family is very interested in you, perhaps it’s because you helped him beat up the Hei Taisui* when you guys were younger.”
*[Hei Taisui = indicating ‘gangsters’, TN]
Jinxia restlessly massaged her forehead: “That little matter, this master has already forgotten about it, it’s not a big deal… wouldn’t it be enough for him to use this marriage proposal as a repayment, right?”
“Master Xia, take a deep breath first, and I have to tell you something else.” YangYue steadily rubbed the noodles.
She looked at him, wary, “Good thing? Bad thing?”
“It depends on how you see it. Anyways, I think it’s a good thing.”
“Say it…” Jinxia had a bad feeling.
“Xie Xiao, your brother Xie, ran to my father and said that…” YangYue deliberately paused, “he intends to marry you and wants to write to your mother to talk about this marriage.”
“…”
At that moment, the carrot in her mouth was no longer chewed, she just stood there dumbfounded.
YangYue nudged her, “Find a fortune-teller, are you lucky these days?”
After a long while, Jinxia sighed, “This matter… this master hasn’t been on the market for three years, otherwise you could have seen a queue of people in front of my house asking to marry me!”
Behind her, she heard the voice of a person, speaking in his usual calm manner.
“You know, you shouldn’t use such words
Jinxia returned to her room and called YangYue outside. In a low voice, she told him everything in detail. Hearing that this plan was arranged by Lu Yi, he hesitated a little as well, and was a little suspicious: “Lu Daren said he wanted to send her to Gusu?”
“Ms. Zhai’s problem is not easy, and behind her is not only her adoptive family. I think Lu Daren is being careful, sooner or later she will be found out if she stays here. Although Gusu is not a long-term plan, this is the first step.”
YangYue was still hesitating. In the end, he nodded, “Let’s just do what Lu Daren has said.”
“There’s another thing,” Jinxia added in a whisper, “Lu Daren is willing to take care of us in this matter, this means we owe him a great favour. I’ve thought about it, if for some reason this plan is exposed, we should bear the consequences and don’t let it trouble him.”
“That is for sure.” YangYue said.
Jinxia didn’t have anything else to say, she went to her bed and took the Zhai Lanye’s clothes that she had taken off earlier, giving them to YangYue. “Take this dress and throw it in the lake, it’s better if there is a little blood stain…”
YangYue understood her intention: the officers that would be involved in the case would find that dress and, if they were careless enough, they would close the case in a short amount of time, especially if no body was found. This was naturally the best plan. After wrapping up the clothes, YangYue didn’t bother waiting until it was dawn and ran out to find Shangguan Xi in a hurry.
Jinxia went back to Zhai Lanye. “It’s been well organized, as soon as the sky gets bright, we will get a boat and take you to Gusu… Sister, have you thought about it carefully? If you want to change your mind right now, you can still do it.”
“Gusu…” Zhai Lanye smiled bitterly, “I’m just afraid that it’s not far enough, how can I regret it?”
Jinxia saw that she had made up her mind, therefore she stopped trying to persuade her and nodded, “Would you like to take a break while it’s still dark?”
Zhai Lanye listened to the heavy rain outside and thought back to the time when she’d heard the sound of rain outside her house: her feelings were no longer the same. Leaving behind her adoptive family, leaving the days of boating, of waiting for people and their gifts, finally leaving his control… Zhai Lanye was no longer angry. All of a sudden she felt extreme courage. Leaving him, fleeing far away, letting him know that she would no longer obediently wait forever.
Pouring a cup of tea for her, Jinxia hesitated for a moment, but finally opened her mouth and said, “Sister, you will be leaving soon. Before that, I want to ask you something so I can understand better, regarding your connection to the late Zhou Xian, Zhou Daren.”
The late Zhou Xian… Zhai Lanye was silent, then softly said, “Just ask.”
“If you have someone else in your heart, why did you still approach Zhou Daren?”
“I…. Zhou Daren, I was the one who let him down, but I never thought that he would end his life.” Zhai Lanye said. She couldn’t help it and started crying.
“Zhou Daren, it’s because he didn’t have enough silver to marry you, so…”
“No, when he brought the silver, I rejected him.”
“What?”
Zhai Lanye looked at Jinxia, “Since the situation is already like this, I can only be honest with you. When Zhou Daren arrived in Yangzhou, I received an order to become his type and befriend him.”
“Whose order?”
“You don’t need to ask, I can’t say…” Zhai Lanye shook her head and continued to say, “Zhou Daren was a very good person and always treated me politely. I respected him in my heart. Later, he said he had written a letter to his house to raise money, and when the land at home would have been sold, he would have married me.”
“He was very kind to you.” Jinxia sighed.
“I knew that I could not drag on any longer, so I told the master*. The master told him that there was another young man from another family who wanted to marry me, and asked him to forget everything. Who would have thought that, a few days later, he’d have come with money, but I really couldn’t marry him, so I cruelly rejected him. Who knew, that very night… That night he killed himself.”
*[The master she mentioned is her adoptive father, TN]
In her heart, Jinxia was starting to understand the situation; within a few days Zhou Xian brought the money to her, it was clear that it was not the money from him selling his land, but it was the money of the river repairment funds. But, what she didn’t understand was: the funding was one hundred thousand taels of silvers, then where did the rest of the funds go?
“Your two windows…” she asked.
Zhai Lanye didn’t think that she knew about this matter, “That’s right, from where I lived, I could see where he was living. If you use a binocular, the view is more clear. At that time, he was busy with his work, he had to go and spectate the river, we could not meet everyday, so during that time, we often looked at each other from afar through each other’s windows.”
“That’s why he deliberately opened the window that night… He wanted you to see him hang himself?”
“I… I didn’t expect him to…” Zhai Lanye used her hands to pinch the clothes closed to her chest, and started crying, “I was wrong, he must’ve hated me.”
“Him… At his grave, there was a fragrance bag, was it yours?”
“You even found the fragrance bag?” Zhai Lanye was not familiar with their investigating method, and looked surprised, “It’s mine. Since that night… After Zhou Daren died… I’ve always had nightmares about him. After that, mother said it was because he missed me. She told me to cut a piece of my hair and to bury it in his grave, so that maybe he could be at peace.”
“The stitches on the fragrance bag in the grave and on Zhou Daren’s clothes were sewn by the same person,” Jinxia was understanding more and more details, “It was not your doing?”
“No, it was my mother who sewed them,” Zhai Lanye looked embarrassed, “Those clothes… Zhou Daren thought I’d sewed them.”
Jinxia didn’t know what to say. Zhai Lanye abandoned Zhou Xian, now it was her turn to be abandoned. Zhou Xian had hanged himself and she’d thrown herself into the lake…
When it was dark, YangYue came back and said that everything had been arranged.
Jinxia dressed Zhai Lanye as a man, together with YangYue escorted her to the boat. Seeing that standing in front of the boat was A’Rui, Jinxia let out a sigh of relief. She secretly admired Shangguan Xi for her careful work, but didn’t understand why A’Rui was glaring at her fiercely.
“Shangguan Bangzhu said in Gusu there is an embroidery workshop; she can work as a tailor there, but she will be a little tired, and her life will be hard, I’m unsure if she can handle it.” YangYue watched Zhai Lanye boarding on the boat.
“Later when all this matter subsides, you can take time off and go visit her.” Jinxia watched as the boat sailed steadily, “Taking a night boat, sailing at night, they should be there by morning.”
YangYue said nothing more, he just looked at the boat slowly disappearing from his sight.
***
Two days later.
Radishes, spinach, mushrooms, and… toon leaves.
Jinxia was hanging out in the kitchen, carefully arranging the vegetables in the basket. Looking back at the servant, she said while laughing, “Can you give me two eggs?”
After one cup of tea had passed [time], the servant could not help but watch her as she placed the vegetables in the basket: mushrooms, spring bamboo shoots, sliced tofu, radish, chicken eggs… Luckily, those vegetables didn’t cost much, so he just ‘opened one eye and closed the other’.
*[Opened one eye and close the other = See something, but pretend not see it, TN]
“Are you preparing a vegetarian menu?” the kitchen servant asked.
Jinxia smiled and nodded her head, “Yes, today is vegan day, you will earn ten thousand merits, you should also do it.”
*[Thousand merits = Indicated that someone had done bad things or hadn’t been living their lives well. Eating vegetables on vegan days accumulated points toward luck or a better life, TN]
“Really?”
“Of course, I’ve seen it in books.”
Jinxia carried the basket of vegetables, walked out of the kitchen and headed straight to the yard where Lu Yi lived. Lu Yi’s residence actually had a private kitchen, but he’d never used it since when he had arrived in Yangzhou because he didn’t bring a kitchen servant; pots and pans were available all the same.
She used the well water to wash all the vegetables and sorted them. The tofu was washed three times with the well water, then she sliced the bamboo shoots and boiled the mushrooms as well. Jinxia kneaded the dough, covered it with a wet cloth, and sniffed the fragrance of the mushrooms. She was very satisfied… Inviting Lu Yi for dinner, that was the best and most direct way of showing her gratitude.
Due to her limited funds, she was really embarrassed in terms of the ingredients: she had only a handful of copper coins on her. Not to mention fish and meat, even fruits and vegetables could hardly be bought. Naturally, she could only go to the post station kitchen to get their supplies, also she’d deliberately checked the book for dates. Today was vegan day, and the best day to invite guests for dinner.
Seeing the colour of the sky starting to darken, she didn’t know why Lu Yi had yet to come home. While waiting, she took a small carrot that had been washed clean, bit the head and kept scanning around the place in silence…
It just so happened that outside the crescent-moon gate, there was someone.
“Da Yang!” She hurried and called out after recognizing him.
“I just went to your room looking for you, but I guessed that you would be at Lu Daren’s place.” YangYue stepped into the courtyard, and in one moment, he was able to smell the cooking, “You took bamboo shoots and mushrooms to make soup?”
“Yes, it smells good, right? I have to add the tofu in later.” Jinxia said all happy, “You came in just at the right time. I want to take pig oil to cook the radishes, but you have to boil them first, don’t you?”
“No, they will turn out too soft.”
YangYue went into the kitchen, rolled up his sleeves, washed his hands, then took the white radish and cut it into small evenly pieces.
As soon as he came, Jinxia was able to feel relieved, she leaned against the door frame, still chewing on her carrot, while mumbling she said, “I have mixed the flour… wanting to make spring pancakes… you remember…. They have to be thin…”
“Got it.” YangYue took off the wet cloth, poked the bottom of the dough with his hand, testing the softness, and said, “You’re going to invite Lu Daren to eat, but the menu is full of vegetables, is this good?”
“Lu Daren hasn’t eaten anything good, even if I sell all my possessions and buy him chickens and ducks, it’s not certain that he will like it.” Jinxia tried to defend herself, “Even though my pocket doesn’t pass the test, my loyalty doesn’t need to be tested. Inviting him to eat, it means showing the intention of my heart, how could he not understand?”
At that time, someone came in quietly from the crescent-moon gate, but she didn’t notice it.
“By the way, why were you looking for me? Did the master have an order? Or… did something happen?” Jinxia asked YangYue.
“I heard her clothes have been found,” YangYue’s expression darkened, but his hands didn’t stop working, “it looks like they are mobilizing people to look for her in the lake.”
“Good, maybe in two days at the most, they might stop looking. The Japanese are still rebelling on the outskirts of town, they also can’t take care of too many things at the same time.” Jinxia watched YangYue’s face closely, “Do you miss her?”
YangYue lowered his head and smiled, but did not answer her question. “…I have a letter for you in my pocket, you can take it yourself.” His hands were full of flour, so it was not easy to reach it.
“A letter?!?” Jinxia said in surprise. She put the radish in her mouth, bent her body and quickly took out a letter.
“It was sent along with a letter to father, it looks like your mother had someone send it.”
While he was speaking, Jinxia had already taken out the paper from the envelope, tilted her head and read it carefully. She noticed that the words on the letter were written by her younger brother, Yuan Yi, but the content…
She was speechless for a quarter of an hour, “This, this…How much dowry did my mother promise for this marriage? Why did the Yi family accept it so easily?”
YangYue had read the letter earlier, laughed and said, “It seems that the third son of the Yi family is very interested in you, perhaps it’s because you helped him beat up the Hei Taisui* when you guys were younger.”
*[Hei Taisui = indicating ‘gangsters’, TN]
Jinxia restlessly massaged her forehead: “That little matter, this master has already forgotten about it, it’s not a big deal… wouldn’t it be enough for him to use this marriage proposal as a repayment, right?”
“Master Xia, take a deep breath first, and I have to tell you something else.” YangYue steadily rubbed the noodles.
She looked at him, wary, “Good thing? Bad thing?”
“It depends on how you see it. Anyways, I think it’s a good thing.”
“Say it…” Jinxia had a bad feeling.
“Xie Xiao, your brother Xie, ran to my father and said that…” YangYue deliberately paused, “he intends to marry you and wants to write to your mother to talk about this marriage.”
“…”
At that moment, the carrot in her mouth was no longer chewed, she just stood there dumbfounded.
YangYue nudged her, “Find a fortune-teller, are you lucky these days?”
After a long while, Jinxia sighed, “This matter… this master hasn’t been on the market for three years, otherwise you could have seen a queue of people in front of my house asking to marry me!”
Behind her, she heard the voice of a person, speaking in his usual calm manner.
“You know, you shouldn’t use such words
