Ever since the eagles suffered heavy damage that night, there were no more attacks along the way. By the time Di Renjie waited in Luoyang for the Yellow River to thaw and returned to Chang’an, it was already the third month of spring.
The atmosphere in the Yun household today was particularly solemn, yet an undertone of joy couldn’t be concealed no matter what. Xinyue was absolutely the center of attention, because the Yun family’s First Madam was going into labor today. When wealthy families gave birth, it was different from ordinary common people. Giving birth also required two days. If only one child was born, how could it display the distinction of a titled lady? Giving birth to two in one go—that showed the First Madam’s capability.
It was almost like a thunderclap on level ground—the Yun family had new additions! A young master and a daughter, both born to the First Madam. But strangely, the Imperial family’s customary rewards also came down, only it was a bit odd—the daughter’s rewards were much more generous than the young master’s.
In the room, Yun Ye held both children, so happy his mouth couldn’t close. He basically didn’t dare move his upper body. The wet nurse carefully placed both children in the Marquis’s arms, still carefully supporting their heads, fearing any mishap.
Two beds were placed in the room. On one lay Xinyue, on the other lay the pale-faced Li Anlan. Compared to Li Anlan, Xinyue’s complexion was much better. Having given birth to another son was tremendous good fortune—even Heaven was looking after her. Li Anlan had given birth to a daughter. Xinyue immediately felt her previous worries were truly laughable. Giving birth to a daughter and still having to say she crawled out of one’s own belly—just thinking about it made her happy.
“Sister Lan, there’s no helping this matter. This child must enter the Yun family genealogy, so we can only use this method. The child was born by you—the whole family knows it. But we adults have too many complicated twists and turns. There’s no other way—I can only wrong you.”
Yun Ye very much looked forward to the children’s arrival, but he somewhat disapproved of Zhangsun’s overbearing attitude. Was it easy for a woman to painstakingly give birth to a child? Yet they had to say someone else gave birth—no one would be too happy about that, even with the biggest reason in the world hanging over their head.
“Anlan, the child is yours. No one can take her away. In our family, whoever gives birth owns the child. There’s no such thing as fostering. Giving birth to the child is one part; the upbringing afterward is even more important. If you give the child to Monkey now and let several years pass, she’ll definitely think Monkey is her mother. So, raising the child yourself cannot be taken lightly.”
Hearing Yun Ye’s words, some color finally returned to Li Anlan’s pale face. She reached out to receive her daughter and gently nuzzled the soft baby hair with her nose, full of tender love.
Xinyue also held one in her arms, but she kept craning her head to look at the daughter in Li Anlan’s arms. She also wanted a daughter, but if she switched with Li Anlan, she would go mad.
“Stop looking. No matter how much you dote on the child, she’s someone else’s. Watch your own child carefully. Look, how are you even holding her? The child has spit up.” Toward women in their confinement month, Yun Ye didn’t dare provoke them. Several servants were tiptoeing around making a hole in the wall, preparing to move Li Anlan to another room. Women in their confinement month couldn’t move locations, but by breaking through the wall to connect the two rooms into one, this was currently the only thing they could do.
Wearing a sable fur coat, Di Renjie rode his carriage back home. Seeing the lanterns hanging at the entrance, he smiled happily, knowing his master’s wife had given birth again. He rushed hurriedly into the house, causing Old Qian to chase anxiously behind him—people returning from outside couldn’t enter the confinement room directly, lest they bring in unclean things.
No need for Old Qian to stop him—Xiao Wu and Xiao Ya, arms folded across their chests, stood in the corridor blocking Di Renjie, their noses pointed high in the air, looking like arrogant mountain bandits.
“Aunt Xiao Ya, Senior Sister, when I was idle in Luoyang this time, I specially went to Caoji to buy you apricot blossom cakes and malt candy. Uncle Little Eagle and Aunt Daya also brought you gifts—they’re all on the carriage outside. I just want to see my junior apprentice brother. Could you two ladies let me through?”
Hearing there were gifts, their expressions immediately became much warmer. Just as Xiao Ya was about to step aside, Xiao Wu suddenly said, “I heard you killed people in Yuezhou this time, so you can’t go in to see Junior Apprentice Brother and Junior Apprentice Sister. You must bathe and dispel the evil energy first before entering. You’re such a grown person—don’t you understand even this basic rule?”
Old Qian quickly chimed in, “Young Master Jie, your bathwater has already been prepared by this old servant. Pine and cypress seeds and mint leaves are all soaking in the water. As soon as you bathe and step over the fire basin, you can go see the young master and young lady. Our family has had nothing but the good fortune of new additions these years.”
Hearing Old Qian’s words, Di Renjie reluctantly went to the wooden tub in his own room to bathe. The family bathhouse now never had anything to do with him or his master.
In the study, Yun Ye listened as Di Renjie recounted his journey to Yuezhou from beginning to end. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief and say to Di Renjie, “Sometimes our good intentions may not necessarily be appreciated by others. Now that you understand some principles, your master can rest assured. Ten days from now, you should also participate in the Academy assessment. What you’ve learned from the Yun family far exceeds your peers, so guarding against arrogance and rashness is what you need to learn. Going to the Academy is to teach you how to deal with people. Don’t get involved in the Nine Corpses Welcome Guests affair anymore. Focus your thoughts on studying. When summer vacation comes, go live at your family home. Your father should also come to the capital to take up his new post in a few months.”
Watching Di Renjie respond earnestly and methodically, Yun Ye didn’t know how to evaluate his student. Intelligence and adaptability were both superior. The only shortcoming was insufficient grasp of human nature. Going to the Academy to be with peers might make things better. After all, there was too much feminine energy at home.
No matter what happened outside, spring plowing and autumn harvest were always the top priority and could not be taken lightly. All the male members of the Yun family went to the fields. This year, the one performing the dance was the Yun family’s eldest young master, Yun Baobao, also known as Yun Shou. Wearing clothes covered with pockets and a large flower pinned in his hair, he hopped around in the field a couple of times, and that was that. Liu Jinbao had snatched a horn from the spring ox for the family. Old Qian wrapped it in red cloth and asked the old matriarch to send it to the ancestral shrine. This was face.
The same scene was repeatedly performed at the same time across the Guanzhong region. As all things revived, so did human hearts. When the dripping sound once again rang out from the small pit beneath the dripping eaves, a battle report arrived in the capital: Hou Junji had deployed ten thousand troops from Yinshan, brought along one hundred thousand surrendered grassland tribes, and exterminated the Nine Surnames of Zhaowu. At the same time, Zhang Jian and Qibi Heli took advantage of Goguryeo’s internal chaos to advance their troops together, pushing the battle line to the banks of the Liao River. If not for the spring floods, Qibi Heli would have even wanted to push the battle line to the Yalu River.
Dawang City had been repaired, only those waterways had been sealed. Wanting to learn from Yun Ye’s method of burning down Dawang City was no longer even slightly possible. The originally blue city walls, after two years of repairs, remained pitch black. It was said that even now, the clear water drawn from wells in Dawang City still carried the smell of smoke and fire.
When the Yun family caravan departed to collect ginseng and sable pelts in Goguryeo, Ronghua had already left with her son. Who knew what complex emotions she would have when she saw Yeon Gaesomun? After years of separation, what changed most easily was the human heart. “If life were only as first meeting, why should the autumn wind grieve over painted fans? Casually the old friend’s heart changes, yet they say the old friend’s heart changes easily.” Yun Ye had added countless soul-stirring elements to their poignant love story—life and death, separation of the living and parting of the dead, trust and loyalty, deception and betrayal, truth and falsehood, reality and illusion. To see through it all required great wisdom and true trust.
Ronghua saw through worldly affairs and with her most resilient nerves won the final victory. Only the cost behind this victory was too heavy. Who knew what perspective Takayama Yoko, now in Goguryeo helping Yeon Gaesomun, would use to view this relationship? Or perhaps emotion had never existed in Takayama Yoko at all. The success of the envoy to Tang had caused her status in Wa to skyrocket, second only to Prince Oizumi Minami. For a woman with a strong desire for power to conquer Goguryeo with her body might prove difficult, because what Yeon Gaesomun now uniquely possessed was power, which he probably wouldn’t give to anyone.
Long-standing victories had made the people of the Great Tang accustomed to continuously arriving victory reports. How many enemies were killed at the borders—that was just a pile of dry numbers. Only the cartloads of gold, silver, and treasures sent to Chang’an could arouse their desire to gather and watch. In the current Great Tang, even individual households dared to reclaim the most fertile lands on the grasslands, dared to confront the most ferocious barbarian tribes with just a manure fork, and achieved final victory.
This wasn’t legend. Ever since three farming households at the border mysteriously died, the enraged Great Tang border troops created horrifying slaughter within a hundred-li radius. Even cattle and sheep were all killed. Two large clans of a full three thousand people vanished overnight on the vast grasslands. From then on, the Han people learned how to fight.
The Nine Surnames of Zhaowu had become legend. Hou Junji sent back treasures piled like mountains but no corresponding population, not even royalty. The ceremonial officials of the Court of State Ceremonial had always wanted to gather enough royal prisoners to perform “Prince Qin Breaking Through Enemy Lines.” Discovering that no royalty had been sent, they were greatly disappointed and begged the generals that when they went on campaign in the future, they must absolutely leave him a few people. To perform in the Imperial Ancestral Temple during ancestor worship would truly be supreme glory.
Guanzhong became increasingly crowded, not because the population born in recent years was too large, but because groups of people kept running out of the Qinling Mountains to find the authorities, hoping they could register them in the household system.
The officials of Lantian County were both happy and troubled. When these desperately poor people, wearing tattered clothes, knelt before his county office, he could even discover several old acquaintances among those ghost-like people.
All were fugitives, the earliest even traceable to the Daye years. Who knew how these people had competed with wild beasts for food in the wilderness.
The Emperor didn’t care whether there was land or not. He believed the territory he had conquered was enough for the common people to farm. If needed, he felt he could still take up sword and blade to continue expanding territory. A single “Decree on Gathering Refugees” absolved all those fugitives of all crimes. When all the refugees tearfully thanked His Majesty the Emperor for his benevolent policy, the Lantian County Magistrate was secretly worrying as he looked at the increasingly scarce farmland.