Although Cheng Chumo was extremely unwilling, he had no choice but to return home with Yun Ye and Niu Jianhu. Long-distance bumpy travel would damage the health of the two pregnant women, so when returning home, Yun Ye chose to travel by boat. Although going upstream was slower, it was more stable.
The scenery on both banks of the Yellow River really had nothing worth seeing. Low shrubs and desolate weeds constituted the main landscape. The annual peach blossom flood would destroy all plants rising above the water surface. Yun Ye most liked lying at the bow watching the water surface—this would give you a strange picture of the water not moving while both banks were moving by themselves.
Xinyue sat on one side, clutching Yun Ye’s clothes. She was very worried her husband would fall off the boat. Shishi grabbed Yun Ye’s feet on the other side. Whenever he wanted to get closer to the water surface to feel this pleasant sensation brought about by different reference points, Xinyue and Shishi would drag him back a bit. Xinyue didn’t have as much strength as Shishi—she alone could drag Yun Ye.
How boring. The two women were really spoiling the mood. Yun Ye turned around and lay on the deck face up toward the sky, looking at the sun through the gaps in the bamboo shelter. Being on the Yellow River, even the June sun seemed to have lost its power and was no longer scorching hot.
He fished out a pine nut from his bosom and cracked it open very easily. This was because the pine nut had been struck by countless Mighty Vajra Palms. This wasn’t a joke—it had truly been struck by Mighty Vajra Palms, which made it so crispy.
Jue Yuan had spent an entire night roasting a bag of pine nuts, finally using his palm power to crack open the outer shell of every single pine nut. This was a snack he specially prepared for his daughter. The poor father, being a monk, had no good things to leave his daughter, so he could only express fatherly love this way. Shishi was reluctant to eat them. After Yun Ye tasted one, he exchanged them with her daily using osmanthus cakes. The little girl loved sweets most and couldn’t resist the temptation of osmanthus cakes, being tricked out of pine nuts bowl by bowl. Now there weren’t many left.
Why he didn’t use tools but insisted on using his hands, Yun Ye didn’t know. Perhaps he was learning from that fellow who stripped himself naked to feed mosquitoes so they wouldn’t bite his mother. They were all a bunch of lazy fools. Wild wormwood grew everywhere—just pull a few stalks, dry them and light them for an excellent mosquito repellent. Why use such idiotic methods?
The fragrance on Dan Ying’s body came from this very thing. With just a few added herbs and spices, it became the best mosquito repellent. Yun Ye had originally planned to buy the formula from Dan Ying for two hundred strings of cash. Who knew this fellow had become clever? After asking what Yun Ye planned to do with it, he banged his head against the door board with loud thuds. Yun Ye and Cheng Chumo watched from the side, sucking in cold breaths. The door of the Hou Family’s guest room was done for.
Now those women and children not only manufactured matches but also made mosquito coils. To buy materials, Dan Ying had no choice but to owe Yun Ye another five hundred strings of cash in debt. This time returning to Chang’an with him was in the capacity of security captain to repay the debt. In Luoyang, Qi Cheng and Ma Ci were doing very well, especially Qi Cheng. Once he put on robes, who could tell he had been wielding a fake hammer as a highway bandit just days ago?
Luoyang City was calm as ever. The past event of strongmen entering the city to kill had become a vague legend. After some more time, perhaps it wouldn’t even be a legend. A person named Long San had never existed. Making such a big fuss over a few thoroughly wicked ruffians really wasn’t worth it. After Magistrate Liu turned Long San’s mansion into a Longevity Hall specifically to shelter the lonely and widowed, the magistrate’s prestige suddenly rose several notches. Luoyang citizens even specially drafted a petition requesting submission to the court, asking His Majesty to commend good officials like Magistrate Liu. Everyone above and below was satisfied. Wei Shou and Du Yan were even more jubilant, putting on the appearance of meritorious officials before the magistrate, making one have the impulse to slap them.
Hou Junji played deaf and dumb. He was certain this matter was done by these three brothers, but had no concrete evidence. He could only hold his nose and acknowledge Magistrate Liu’s merit, gritting his teeth as he left his name on the petition.
In the end, he didn’t get to see what Hou Lian’er looked like, only smelled the strong fragrance from behind the screen. He didn’t know if she was bathing in perfume. Yun Ye was very worried for Li Chengqian. The Yun Family’s perfume sold very expensively—he wondered if His Highness the Crown Prince could afford to supply it.
Madam Hou, beaming with joy, invited several more doctors to once again confirm that Xinyue and Madam Niu were pregnant. She then hid in the room with the two women whispering for an entire day. After returning, Xinyue made countless rules for Yun Ye, including that after drinking alcohol he must not enter the bedchamber, and after retiring at night, only the upper body could move—the waist and below the waist were strictly forbidden. Violators would be expelled from the bedchamber without leniency. This made it so that whenever Yun Ye turned over at night, Xinyue would kick him aside with her feet. One bed with one person at each end had already created the atmosphere of the boundary between Chu and Han.
Hou Jie was a good child who nearly emptied the Hou household. Although Yun Ye told him that when going to the academy, none of these things could be brought into the academy, he didn’t believe in such superstitions, thinking that with the backing of Yun Ye, bringing some things wouldn’t be a problem. He still didn’t know what kind of demon Liu Xian was.
The Song Family, whose flowers had been picked clean by Xinyue, this time received a great prize. Yun Ye decided to select several of the best peonies from their family to present to Zhangsun, who loved large flowers. Zhangsun just liked flowers without fragrance, saying that fragrant flowers easily attracted bees and butterflies, appearing undignified in the palace. These peonies without fragrance that could bloom in winter would certainly attract her attention. This was the supreme glory of the Song Family. The Song Family, who had cried for nearly ten days, immediately stopped crying. The old master of the Song Family, that old man who loved flowers to the point of obsession, personally used a hoe to dig up six peony plants and had his son follow Yun Ye to the capital to present them to the Empress.
At Tongguan, the boat turned into the Guangtong Canal. The Guanzhong Plain made one’s vision immediately much more expansive. As the family head, it was inappropriate for Yun Ye to leave at this time. The wheat in the fields had long been harvested, leaving only wheat stubble over a foot long. The Tang Dynasty farmers still followed the old customs of previous years—only harvesting wheat heads, not wheat stubble. After it withered and dried, a fire would burn the wheat stubble to ashes, returning it to the earth.
Without the family head performing the Nuo ritual, he didn’t know how the harvest was at Yun Family Manor. The scene of tenant farmers transporting wheat to the Yun Family storehouse was something Yun Ye never tired of watching. Although it wasn’t worth much money, no one dared look down on it. Gold, stone, pearls and jade couldn’t satisfy hunger or quench thirst. Only when the granary was full of grain would people’s hearts not panic. This was a stabilizing pill—they couldn’t do without it.
When still fifty li from Chang’an, they saw Old Zhuang with two guards galloping along the riverbank on horses, cupping his hands into a megaphone and shouting loudly toward the boat. After listening for quite a while, he finally understood—Old Madam was waiting for Yun Ye’s arrival at the dock ahead.
One could be certain that the old lady absolutely wasn’t there to welcome Yun Ye. These days, Old Madam had been finding Yun Ye more and more displeasing to the eye. Giving her eldest grandson to a woman without status—just this one thing was enough. Now hearing the joyful news reported by the servant who rushed home on fast horse, she couldn’t sit still at home. There was also Old Madam Niu—Old Niu was also there. When did he return?
Since it was downwind, the thirty li distance passed in the blink of an eye. Xinyue stood on the boat hugging her belly, full of pride and satisfaction. Women relied on their bellies to gain face—this was an eternal truth in Great Tang. Shishi supported Xinyue, Xiao Qiu held an umbrella. Seeing a large dark mass of people on the dock, Xinyue stretched her fair neck trying hard to see if the people who came to welcome her were of sufficient status.
Upon landing, Old Madam didn’t even look at her formerly treasured grandson. Without even using her cane, she pulled Xinyue to look left and right, saying repeatedly that she looked much more prosperous, and her belly had also risen.
It would be strange if the belly could bulge in less than two months. Old Sun was very unwillingly called over by Old Madam. After feeling Xinyue’s pulse for a moment at her wrist, he said to Old Madam: “That’s right, it’s a pregnancy pulse, nearly two months along.” After speaking, he stood beside the anxious and agitated Old Niu waiting for Little Niu’s wife on the second boat so he could feel her pulse again and give the Niu Family a reassuring pill.
Old Niu had no mind to acknowledge Yun Ye’s greeting. His Niu Family was now also a single line of succession. Old Madam Niu anxiously grabbed Old Niu’s arm and wouldn’t let go. Seeing the boatman make slightly loud movements docking, her eyebrows shot up. Probably thinking there were many people and it wasn’t good to lose her temper, she forcibly suppressed it. In her heart, she had probably already killed the boatman more than a thousand times.
After Madam Little Niu disembarked, the Old Niu couple rushed over. After Sun Simiao finished feeling the pulse and gave a definite answer, only then did Madam Niu relax, repeatedly praising that the Buddha of Shaolin Temple was truly efficacious.
From the Old Cheng household, only a steward came. Jiu Yi’s status wasn’t enough to mobilize Old Cheng and his wife. Cheng Chumo was a bit unhappy, and Jiu Yi also looked like she was about to cry at any moment. Seeing other families bustling while their own was quiet, both felt uncomfortable in their hearts.
After Old Niu finished laughing, he remembered it had been a long time since he’d seen Yun Ye. Smiling, he nodded at Yun Ye and said: “Haven’t seen you in a year—you’ve grown up after all. Now you’re about to become a father. Living your life well is better than anything. Mind less of the rights and wrongs in court. Go directly back to the manor—don’t go to Chang’an City.”
These words made Yun Ye’s heart tighten. Right now he was extremely sensitive. From Old Niu’s words, he heard that the court wasn’t as peaceful on the surface—undercurrents must be surging fiercely.
The Lingnan matter ultimately still had aftereffects. The military system’s grand gesture must have caused unease in the civil official system. Having gotten no share of the benefits, they were striving for initiative in court, wanting to recoup lost authority from elsewhere. The grasslands were very likely to bear the brunt, after all, Yun Ye had the suspicion of being in a melon field or under a plum tree.
“Uncle Niu, seeing you’ve returned, could there be new troubles on the grasslands?” Yun Ye asked Old Niu.
“Li Ji is now managing sixty thousand troops on the grasslands alone—his strength is insufficient. So the court has decided to dispatch some civil officials to station on the grasslands to assist Li Ji in managing grassland civil affairs. You need to be mentally prepared. This time their eyes are red looking to find fault. That concubine of yours didn’t do things cleanly—they caught her red-handed. Now other tribes on the grasslands are all crying to His Majesty about her wicked deeds, hoping the court will give an explanation.”