Li Diudiu pushed open the courtyard gate and stepped inside. At a glance, he saw his master standing on a small stool, wiping the windows — wiping them so carefully that even the corners of the window frames were being scrubbed clean with a strip of cloth wrapped around a small wooden stick.

“Master.”

Li Diudiu came in with an enormous pack on his back. Changmei Daoren turned to look, and the corners of his eyebrows lifted.

“Buying so many things — throwing money around again.”

“Not all of it was bought. Some of it was New Year’s gifts from Manager Sun and his family at Yunzhai Teahouse.”

Changmei smiled and nodded. “Did you remember to thank them?”

Li Diudiu said, “Master, how old do I have to be before you stop asking if I remembered to say thank you?”

His master laughed and said, “I’m just asking out of habit… Since they already gave you New Year’s gifts, why did you go and buy more? Can you return any of it?”

Li Diudiu: “…”

Changmei Daoren looked to be in very good spirits — much better than the day before, and far better than he had been when they’d first left Qianlie County. He was even humming a little tune while wiping the windows.

The moment Li Diudiu had walked through the gate, he’d recognized that this was a tune he’d never heard before. The songs he sang at Yunzhai Teahouse were mostly ones his master had taught him long ago; another portion had been taught to him by Teacher Yan, and the rest were melodies and lyrics Li Diudiu had composed himself.

But this little tune — he had never once heard his master hum it. It wasn’t a folk melody, and it wasn’t the style of opera from any particular region. So Li Diudiu immediately knew his master must have picked it up from somewhere.

He smiled and said, “Come on, tell me — what is this scandalous melody?”

His master’s face flushed red in an instant. He shot Li Diudiu a look and said, “What do you know? This is a fisherman’s song sung by the people along the riverbanks.”

Li Diudiu asked, “If I were to ask you which river, would you dare answer?”

His master’s face went even redder. That old face, flushed as it was, looked a few years younger for it. He stared Li Diudiu down with the air of someone who intended to fight to the bitter end and said, “Why wouldn’t I dare? Is the Spring River not a river?”

Li Diudiu said, “Yes, yes, of course. Whatever you say, Master.”

He rolled up his sleeves to help with the work, but his master hurried to stop him.

His master looked at Li Diudiu and said, “You are a scholar now. How can a scholar be doing rough labor like this?”

Li Diudiu said, “What are you saying — that I’m not rough enough?”

Changmei Daoren said, “Where do you pick up words like that?!”

Li Diudiu said, “And what about that song you were just humming, ‘Spring River, Flowers, Moon, Night’? What kind of words are those?”

His master glared at him and said, “Get back inside and rest. If you don’t want to rest, read for a while. If you can’t focus on reading, take a nap. It’s the New Year holiday — proper rest is the important thing. You don’t need to stick your hands in this.”

Li Diudiu scoffed. “The old man just gets more and more disobedient every day.”

He found a cloth and started wiping windows alongside his master. His master kept telling him to go back inside — first saying it was cold, then saying scholars shouldn’t be doing this kind of thing — until Li Diudiu threatened to pull out every last whisker if he didn’t stop talking nonsense. Only then did the old man laugh and fall silent.

“I bought meat, eggs, and vegetables. I also got rice, flour, and oil.”

Li Diudiu worked and talked at the same time. “But the New Year is still half a month away, so we’ll probably run out before New Year’s Eve. I’ll go buy more just before the holiday. We have never once celebrated the New Year lavishly — this time, we do it properly. We spend money. We splurge.”

Changmei Daoren, completely out of character for his usual frugal self, declared loudly, “That’s right! This New Year, we celebrate properly! We splurge!”

Just then, a knock came at the courtyard gate. Li Diudiu thought to himself that not many people knew where he and his master were staying — could it be Xiahou Zuo?

He jumped down from the stool and trotted over to the gate. “Who’s there?”

The person outside replied with a single word, delivered with a hint of awkwardness.

“Me.”

“Teacher Yan?”

Li Diudiu was taken aback. He hurried to pull the gate open — and was left even more stunned. Teacher Yan was standing there pushing a wheelbarrow. On it sat rice, flour, oil, meat, a quilt, a book chest…

Li Diudiu stared, completely at a loss.

“Teacher, you…”

Li Diudiu asked.

“That… it’s nothing, it’s just…”

Yan Qingzhi felt that his current appearance was perhaps a little undignified, so he straightened up and said, “Every year during the New Year, I spend it alone at the academy. This year, I thought — since you and your master are spending your first New Year in Jizhou, it’s only right that I, as your teacher, come by to lend a hand.”

Li Diudiu grinned. “Just say you want a free meal.”

Yan Qingzhi’s face went faintly red.

Li Diudiu quickly took the wheelbarrow from him and pushed it into the courtyard, then carried the quilts, pillows, and such inside. The courtyard was not small — five main rooms in the central hall, and three wing rooms on each side. It could accommodate far more than one extra person; even ten or eight more could fit comfortably.

“You’re cleaning, I see. Let me help.”

Yan Qingzhi rolled up his sleeves to pitch in. There was no way the old Daoist was going to let a guest do the work. He dumped out the bucket of water and said, “All done. Teacher Yan, please come inside — I’ll brew you some tea.”

Yan Qingzhi had already been feeling a little embarrassed, though he himself couldn’t quite say why. He had long grown accustomed to living alone. The New Year was no different from any other day for him — apart from the occasional meal at Director Gao’s house, he spent the rest of the time in solitude. He liked solitude.

On winter days like these, he liked to settle into the reclining chair by his window with a book. When his eyes grew tired, he would doze off in the chair.

But these past few days had felt off, somehow. He kept feeling that passing the New Year this way would be unbearably dull.

He happened to know that Li Chi had already returned, so he simply went to the academy, found a wheelbarrow, loaded it up, and headed out.

“My main reason is actually…” Teacher Yan said with great solemnity to Changmei Daoren: “Didn’t I say before that Li Chi and I were going to set up a tutoring course together? The New Year holiday gives us free time, so it’s a good opportunity to work out the details with Li Chi.”

“Yes, yes, of course. Thank you for the trouble, Teacher.”

Changmei Daoren ushered Yan Qingzhi into the room, then turned back to bring in the things Yan Qingzhi had brought. Li Diudiu came out from the neighboring room with a grin and said to Yan Qingzhi, “Teacher, the bed is already made up. Does it look all right to you?”

Yan Qingzhi quickly said, “It’s fine, it’s fine — no need to be so formal. I barged in without any notice; I’m the one who should feel awkward…”

Li Diudiu said with great seriousness, “Teacher, that’s exactly your failing, and you should work on it with humility. Look at me — when I come to your place for free meals and free lodging, do I ever feel the least bit awkward? In my eyes, Teacher is not only my teacher, but an elder and a true friend.”

Yan Qingzhi was genuinely touched to be called a mentor and friend.

“As it happens, there are some things I was planning to ask you about at the academy tomorrow morning.”

Li Diudiu ran back to his room and came out flipping through a volume as he walked. “This is one of the books that Teacher Li left behind. There are parts I simply cannot work out no matter how hard I think.”

Yan Qingzhi said, “Sit down. Let’s look at it together.”

The two of them sat facing each other, reading and discussing as they went. Changmei Daoren carried in a pot of hot tea and stepped in to find them absorbed in the exchange. He froze in the doorway. In all the years he’d spent wandering the jianghu, he had never imagined he would one day witness such a scene. In that moment, for a reason he couldn’t quite name, Changmei Daoren’s nose began to ache. He felt close to tears.

He also felt, just a tiny bit, tremendously proud of himself.

The two of them were deep in discussion, and before they knew it, two hours had passed. Changmei Daoren had not had the heart to interrupt — but now the sky was darkening, and it was time to think about dinner.

The house had plenty of rice, flour, oil, meat, and vegetables, but with Teacher Yan here as a guest, going out to eat felt more appropriately festive.

So he crept over quietly, careful not to startle anyone, and asked gently, “Shall we go out to eat?”

Teacher Yan quickly got to his feet. “No need, no need — we have everything at home, don’t we? Let’s cook together. I’d actually rather have some home-cooked food.”

He looked over at Li Diudiu. “How about we make dumplings?”

Li Diudiu’s eyes lit up instantly. “Let’s do it!”

A quarter-hour later, Teacher Yan stared at the basin of dough in front of him and realized that his impulsive decision to take charge of kneading it had been quite rash.

“This is really more of an academic problem…”

Yan Qingzhi laughed awkwardly and said, “Too much water, add more flour. Too much flour, add more water. Where does it end?”

Li Diudiu had already finished mincing the meat filling. He glanced back and saw that the dough was nearly overflowing from the basin — it looked like a giant white mushroom. He felt it would be impolite to laugh at this moment, and yet…

Fortunately, Changmei Daoren was the most experienced of the three. He got the dough sorted out, and the three of them sat around the small table to wrap dumplings together. With cheerful chatter, the work went quickly, and in no time, enough dumplings for about eight people were wrapped and ready.

Yan Qingzhi suddenly realized — it was fortunate that he’d over-kneaded the dough. He had quite forgotten about Li Diudiu’s appetite…

The water in the pot was brought to a boil, the dumplings were dropped in, and as steam rose in great billowing clouds, all three of them sat back with a certain barely-containable pride.

But when the dumplings were lifted from the pot, all three of them stared in stunned silence.

“Strictly speaking,” Teacher Yan said, “these probably shouldn’t be called dumplings anymore.”

“They might be better described as flat-dough soup,” he continued.

Li Diudiu said, “I’d say they’re more of a meat porridge…”

Changmei Daoren waved his hand dismissively. “Never mind what to call them. Flat-dough soup, meat porridge — if it tastes good, it’s good.”

Another quarter-hour later, the three of them had changed clothes and were on their way to the restaurant.

Meanwhile, not far away in a restaurant, Tian Zhanyuan — the fifth-in-command of the Yanshan Brigade — sat eating and listening to his subordinates report on the information they had gathered. He was picking out dishes for the woman seated beside him. He glanced sideways and noticed there was a grain of rice at the corner of her mouth. He quickly took out a clean handkerchief and reached over to wipe it away — and she instinctively flinched.

His expression shifted. She immediately leaned back toward him, head lowered, and murmured a soft “thank you.”

Tian Zhanyuan turned back to his subordinates, and his expression darkened again.

“An entire half-day, and you’ve turned up nothing. If you can’t handle minor tasks like this, what use are you to me? Have I not told you — those people are not from the Left Defense Guard camp. That means they’re Jizhou Army. Either they belong to Military Governor Zeng Ling, or they belong to Prince Yu’s household.”

He frowned. “What’s so difficult about that?”

His subordinates stood there in silence, not a single one daring to speak.

A whole table full of dishes, and only he and his wife were eating. Everyone else stood with their heads bowed along the sides.

“All of you, get out.”

Tian Zhanyuan said, “Don’t disturb my meal. Tonight I’ll let you have some freedom. You may go to the pleasure houses — but not the gambling dens. And even at the pleasure houses, you are absolutely not to cause trouble. Whoever ruins my plans will answer to me with their head.”

“Yes, sir!”

The group responded in unison, and looks of delight spread across their faces.

“Scram.”

Tian Zhanyuan gave a wave of his hand.

The men immediately turned and filed out of the private room, thundering down the staircase in a rush, each one’s feet eager to take flight. They were heading down while Li Diudiu’s group of three were heading up. There were many going down, so Li Diudiu and the others waited at the landing. These men were rough and dangerous types; the way they looked at people was naturally different from ordinary folk. As they descended, every one of them stared at Li Diudiu’s group — as if, despite having been given the right of way, they somehow still felt affronted.

Changmei reached back and tugged on Li Diudiu from behind, signaling him not to start trouble. Step aside and let it go.

Li Diudiu nodded to show he understood — but just then, the last man coming down, a bushy-bearded fellow, deliberately stepped on Li Diudiu’s foot. And he put force into it, grinding his sole back and forth.

—