At this moment, they suddenly saw the azure-robed man from the morning riding from within the city, with another jujube-red horse behind him, tied by rope to his white horse and galloping along with him.
“Second Brother!” The azure-robed man called out excitedly, raising his hand high upon seeing the white-robed man.
The white-robed man quickened his pace, pulling Zhenzhen as they ran to him. He quickly untied the jujube-red horse’s rope, helped Zhenzhen mount the horse, then leaped up behind her, reaching around to control the reins and spurring the horse to gallop.
In this way, Zhenzhen felt as if she were being embraced in his arms, extremely uncomfortable. Her elbows involuntarily pushed back, wanting him to stay farther away from her.
The man sensed her resistance and said seriously, “This concerns our safety—I hope Miss will forgive me.”
Hearing the urgent sound of pursuing hoofbeats behind them, Zhenzhen couldn’t worry about such details and had to continue forward sharing one horse with him.
Approaching the city gate, the burly man from the deer meat shop feared that once they entered the city it would be even more inconvenient to pursue them, so he spurred his horse even more frantically. The distance between him and Zhenzhen’s group grew smaller and smaller. Looking back and discovering this, Zhenzhen felt quite anxious. Turning her head, she suddenly saw another group of people on horseback coming from the right road—some carrying bows and arrows, others with weapons at their waists, probably returning from hunting, joining the main road ahead of them and preparing to enter the city.
The leader wore green clothing, and his figure was very familiar to Zhenzhen—it was Yang Shenglin, with whom she had broken off her engagement.
With a flash of inspiration, Zhenzhen immediately pointed at Yang Shenglin and shouted back at their pursuers, “The official is coming!”
This “official” referred to government officials—the term Pujiang people used for county magistrates, county captains, and other officials. These officials wore green robes. The green clothing Yang Shenglin currently wore was actually more yellowish, like early spring new green, not consistent with officials’ green robes. But with dusk already deep and seen from afar, this color difference wasn’t very obvious.
Hearing this, Yang Shenglin looked back and immediately beamed with joy: “Zhenzhen!”
The people from the deer meat shop saw that the green-clothed man’s followers all carried weapons. The county captain’s daily duties included managing archers and handling legal arrests and punishing criminals. Having guilty consciences, without looking carefully they assumed this person was the county captain. Hearing Zhenzhen repeatedly calling “official,” and seeing that the “county captain” seemed to recognize Zhenzhen, the burly man didn’t dare linger. He immediately reined in his horse, turned around, and called his men to flee the area.
Seeing the pursuers escape, Zhenzhen breathed a sigh of relief. After entering the city gate, she ordered the white-robed man to dismount. He had no objection and dismounted with a smile. The azure-robed man immediately dismounted from his own horse and handed the white horse he’d been riding to the white-robed man to ride.
The white-robed man thanked the azure-robed man and introduced him to Zhenzhen: “This is my cousin. When my mount died of poisoning today, he went into the city first to help me buy a horse.”
Zhenzhen nodded and exchanged bows with the cousin in greeting.
Yang Shenglin rode his horse close to Zhenzhen, making conversation with apologetic smiles. He asked why Zhenzhen was in such circumstances today. Zhenzhen didn’t answer, only asking irritably, “Are you recovered from your illness?”
Yang Shenglin said, “Minor illness, nothing serious—I recovered long ago.”
Zhenzhen glanced at the people he’d brought and said, “You must be quite recovered, otherwise you wouldn’t have the mood for pleasure-seeking.”
“Sigh, about what happened before, I was wrong. My parents were also inconsiderate and caused trouble for you and Auntie.” Yang Shenglin carefully apologized, then added, “In a few more days, when my parents’ anger subsides, I’ll ask them to come propose marriage again.”
“Please don’t,” Zhenzhen sneered, controlling her horse to move forward. “I don’t want to hold another marriage-cancellation banquet.”
Yang Shenglin moved closer to ride alongside her: “Zhenzhen, you should be more understanding about this matter. For men, it’s just a way to relax—like when you’ve been reading for too long, you’d definitely want to play cuju and kick a ball or two.” Turning his head, he noticed the white-robed man riding close behind them, listening to their conversation with interest, so he casually said, “Brother, don’t you agree? Men certainly understand such things.”
“I don’t understand,” the white-robed man didn’t cooperate with him at all. “I only know how to study diligently every day—what do I know about cuju?”
Yang Shenglin was startled. Suddenly remembering that this man had actually shared one horse with Zhenzhen, he became greatly puzzled and stared at the white-robed man, asking, “May I ask your honored surname and given name, brother? Why are you traveling with Zhenzhen?”
“My surname is Song, given name Ai,” the white-robed man raised his eyebrows to meet his investigating gaze and smiled meaningfully. “The ‘Ai’ from ‘Pure as snow on the mountain, bright as moon among clouds. Hearing you have divided feelings, I come to make a clean break.'”
Zhenzhen interrupted their conversation, demanding they quickly rush to the county government office to report the case. Song Ai immediately agreed, ignoring Yang Shenglin and spurring his horse to gallop toward the county office with Zhenzhen.
Arriving at the government office entrance, the sky had turned completely dark. The office’s main gate was tightly closed, with two lonely lanterns under the eaves dimly illuminating the path before the gate. Within the lanterns’ glow, there were no human figures.
Zhenzhen stepped forward to knock on the door. After a long while, a minor official opened the door, poked his head out to look at them, and asked what they wanted. Zhenzhen briefly told the official about the fake deer meat matter and requested to see the county magistrate. The official listened with waning interest and said, “It’s not even a big matter. The office is already closed—the county magistrate won’t see you overnight. Come back tomorrow morning.”
Having spoken, he was about to close the door. Zhenzhen stopped him and gestured to Song Ai, saying, “Earlier we were chased by people from the meat shop. They must have guessed that I went undercover to investigate the truth and informed this young master. They’ll certainly work through the night to clear away the dead horse meat and eliminate traces of forging deer meat. If we go tomorrow, we won’t find evidence of their counterfeiting.”
The minor official wasn’t patient enough to listen to her explanation. He yawned and insisted on closing the door. Song Ai gestured for his cousin to step forward and hold the door while he took a jade pendant from a brocade pouch at his waist and handed it to the minor official, saying gently, “Please trouble yourself to present this object for the county magistrate to examine, saying that Ai has come to visit.”
The jade pendant was fish-shaped, with lustrous jade quality and very fine carving. The back seemed to have some characters carved on it. The minor official lazily received it and originally looked at it with complete boredom, but after seeing the characters clearly, he first froze, then his voice suddenly became much gentler: “Please wait a moment—I’ll go and return shortly.”
The minor official ran inside gripping the jade fish. When he returned, he wasn’t alone. The government office’s main gate opened wide, with several officials holding lanterns arranged on both sides. County Magistrate Cui Yanzhi, with cap and ornaments properly arranged, strode out to greet them. Upon seeing Song Ai, he bowed deeply: “Not knowing an honored guest was visiting, I failed to perform the ceremony of greeting from afar. How disrespectful! Please, Great…”
Song Ai supported him with a gesture and stopped him from continuing, smiling and saying, “Ai was passing through this place and originally didn’t want to trouble the county magistrate, but unexpectedly encountered a case concerning the people’s food safety, so I had no choice but to come visit. I hope the county magistrate will handle it promptly.”
County Magistrate Cui invited Song Ai and Zhenzhen’s group into the government office, questioned them carefully about the details, then dispatched officials to rush to the suburbs overnight to seal the deer meat shop and detain the relevant people. Subsequently, County Magistrate Cui invited Song Ai and his cousin to rest in the government office, and had people escort Zhenzhen and Yang Shenglin home. But Song Ai expressed his wish to personally escort Zhenzhen back. Seeing this, Yang Shenglin also requested to escort Zhenzhen, but Zhenzhen glared at him: “You go back quickly! If your parents knew you encountered me again, they’d definitely fear I’d harm you and wouldn’t know how anxious they’d be.”
Zhenzhen didn’t much refuse Song Ai, silently allowing him to accompany her.
After leaving the government office, Zhenzhen couldn’t help asking Song Ai, “What kind of official are you? Why did County Magistrate Cui treat you so respectfully upon seeing your jade pendant?”
Song Ai waved his hand and smiled: “Minor official, not worth mentioning.”
Zhenzhen thought of the earlier palm-reading incident and asked again, “Then your palm reading and fortune telling was also fake, right? But how did you know about my family background and the purpose of my trip?”
“Half deduction, half guessing,” Song Ai said. “Your hands have overall soft and delicate skin. Where there are occasional calluses, you can see they’re from riding horses and holding reins, with no traces of usually handling household affairs. You’re also straightforward and strong-willed, showing your family circumstances are good—you’re not someone accustomed to bowing and scraping. Your actions show considerable willfulness, traveling alone on horseback, which isn’t the style of a sheltered young lady, so I guessed you come from a wealthy merchant family. When I encountered you at dusk, you were both fragrant and…”
Hearing this, Zhenzhen glared at him and scolded, “You’re the one who’s both fragrant and smelly!”
Song Ai laughed heartily: “Then let me put it this way: Miss’s clothes carried meat fragrance, quite rich, probably from coming out of a place with sauced meat. You also instructed me not to sell my horse to people or bury it, which must be because you feared my horse would be skinned and carved up. I guessed your trip was probably to a shop that stewed horse meat. Since you frequented such shops, your family’s livelihood must be related to food and drink. So I boldly talked nonsense with Miss.”
Zhenzhen thought about it and asked again, “Then weren’t you afraid I was one of the horse meat shop people? Later, when you saw people chasing us, how did you know they mainly wanted to catch me rather than you?”
“Since you reminded me not to sell my horse, you’re obviously not in league with the horse meat shop people,” Song Ai said. “I saw that among the pursuers were people who had asked to buy my horse. Though I didn’t sell the horse to them, I hadn’t offended them in conversation, and the horse was burned, so they had no reason to pursue me and create additional trouble. They probably saw you talking with me and understood you had leaked the meat shop’s secrets, so they came to catch you.”
Zhenzhen stared at Song Ai and couldn’t help sighing, “You really aren’t stupid at all.”
Song Ai bowed to her and smiled, “Miss praises me too much—I’m ashamed, ashamed.”
Seeing Zhenzhen speechless, Song Ai asked her gently, “Then may I ask Miss some questions?”
Zhenzhen nodded. Song Ai then asked about her family situation and why she insisted on buying deer meat. Zhenzhen told him everything, explaining the grievances with Yibei Lou and the village drinking ceremony matter. Finally, she sighed, “I originally thought buying deer meat could be used for main dishes to refresh the candidates’ eyes and ears, but unexpectedly the deer meat was fake. I don’t know what other rare ingredients to find to win this round against Yibei Lou.”
Song Ai asked, “Why must Miss find rare ingredients?”
Zhenzhen said, “Only rare ingredients can make a deep impression, like the dishes at my marriage-cancellation banquet—carefully selected ingredients that shocked all of Pujiang. Unfortunately, my mother won’t let me use those recipes anymore… Using rare ingredients can also reflect the ‘precious’ character in our Shizhen Lou’s name.”
“Shizhen Lou is a very good name—who chose it?” Song Ai asked.
“Perhaps my mother,” Zhenzhen said. “I’m not certain either. Since I became aware, our tavern has been called this.”
Song Ai asked again, “Then do you know the meaning of this name?”
Zhenzhen shook her head.
Song Ai said, “If my guess isn’t wrong, this contains a hidden allusion: Our dynasty’s Emperor Taizong once asked the then Hanlin Academy Scholar and Presidential Decree Writer Su Yijian: ‘Among foods, what is most precious?’ Su Yijian answered: ‘Food has no fixed flavor—what suits the palate is precious. For this subject, pickled vegetable juice is most delicious.’ Taizong laughed heartily and asked him why. Su Yijian said: ‘One night it was extremely cold. This subject sat by the fire drinking wine, unknowingly became quite drunk, and fell asleep on thick quilts and pillows. Waking at midnight, I was very thirsty. Taking advantage of the moonlight, I came to the central courtyard and saw a pickle jar covered in remaining snow. Not waiting to call a servant boy, I washed my hands with snow and drank several cups full. The soup was ice-cold and sweet, perfectly able to resolve the body’s inner heat. At that time, I felt that even celestial kitchen’s phoenix marrow and phoenix fat wouldn’t have such flavor.’ Later, when someone asked Su Yijian’s servant how this pickle juice was made, the servant said: ‘It was just clear noodle vegetable soup with soaked vegetables.’ Therefore, whoever named Shizhen Lou must agree with the principle ‘food has no fixed flavor—what suits the palate is precious.’ The reason food is precious isn’t always because of rare materials, but because it suits the diner’s taste at that moment.”
Zhenzhen looked thoughtful. Without realizing it, the two had passed several streets. Song Ai saw Shizhen Lou’s signboard appearing not far away, so he reined in his horse and stopped, smiling at Zhenzhen: “I have urgent matters and must leave Pujiang tomorrow. I still have one question—I hope Miss will answer it.”
Zhenzhen said, “Speak.”
Song Ai’s eyes carried a smile as they swept over Zhenzhen’s eyes and brows: “Just now, sharing one horse with me—how did it feel?”
Zhenzhen’s face turned slightly red as she gave him a look: “Very crowded feeling. I’ve never shared one horse with anyone before, and I never will again.”
“What a coincidence—I’ve also never shared one horse with anyone,” Song Ai smiled. “Then let’s never do this with anyone else for the rest of our lives.”