Lu Er Lang Lu Xian’s dreams, when they suddenly came, were usually hard to understand due to their chaotic timelines. In the past, he always had to pray to gods and Buddha, struggling to interpret dreams, and often interpreted them wrongly. But ever since his third brother also knew about his dreams, the heavy stone in Lu Xian’s heart didn’t feel quite so tight.
When he woke from his dream in the night, after drinking a cup of cold tea, he felt extremely anxious about Cousin Luo’s miscarriage in the dream.
He hadn’t dreamed of what happened after the miscarriage, but given his third brother’s love for their cousin, it would surely pain him to death. His third brother had always been lonely, and it hadn’t been easy for him. Now that he had a wife, if he were to lose a child, how devastating would that blow be?
The only consolation was that compared to previous dreams of death or injury, even someone as slow as Lu Er Lang could see that this crisis seemed much smaller. Lu Xian sat before the cold bamboo couch drinking cup after cup of cold tea, lost in thought—
Could it be that this crisis was smaller because of the third brother’s intervention?
This dream should be told to the third brother.
…
However, Lu San Lang was extremely busy these days: firstly, the peace talks with the Northern Kingdom had reached a crucial point; secondly, as spring was the time for planning the year and early spring was for farming, as governor he had to personally supervise and urge on the work; thirdly, he was busy communicating with Luo family elders, selecting an auspicious date for the wedding.
The matter of the miscarriage wasn’t urgent, so Lu Xian thought to wait until his third brother was less busy before telling him. But having made his calculations, when he saw Luo Lingyu again, Lu Xian’s eyes unconsciously lowered to his cousin’s flat belly, happily guessing when she would become pregnant. Counting the days, it would probably be shortly after their wedding.
Luo Lingyu felt embarrassed being stared at: “…”
Second Cousin was still so strange.
On the spring festival day of mid-spring, altars were set up to worship the farming god and pray for abundant harvests. The Southern Kingdom officials in Nanyang all followed their highest official, the provincial governor Lu San Lang Lu Yun, to inspect agricultural affairs and personally farm, to comfort the farmers. Many good fields had been destroyed after the war, so Lu Yun had specially written a memorial back to Jianye, asking the court to pay attention to farming matters.
While the young lords went to the farm, the ladies were not to be outdone.
After the war, the city needed to recover, and Nanyang’s noble ladies had grown accustomed to helping the common people in recent months. So when Luo Lingyu invited them to help with farming, the ladies giggled, carrying hoes playfully, treating it as a novelty, and agreed.
But farming was difficult, not as easy as the ladies had imagined. Though enthusiastic at first, after half a day the ladies found various excuses to leave.
At dusk, when Lu Yun came to the field ridge looking for Luo Lingyu, he saw the lady buried among the green seedling fields. Like parting flowers and willows, the lady bent at the waist planting seedlings and burying soil, her forehead covered in sweat, her double-collared skirt hem stained with much mud. Outside the field, ladies had set up seats and tents for feasting, they craned their necks to look, none having the courage to enter the field under the scorching sun.
Lu San Lang stood among rows of neatly laid field ridges, his white jade crown binding his hair, wearing a white wide-sleeved robe above and scarlet skirts below, with black inner clothing, his jade belt tablet inserted upward from below at his waist, following this era’s fashion. The young lord stood like jade beside her, how magnificent and outstanding.
The noble ladies outside the field looked on with hot eyes and regret. Thinking if they had been busy like Luo Lingyu, Lu San Lang would also be standing beside them watching them.
Nearby, Luo Lingyu turned her head to ask Lu Yun: “How did your sacrifice ceremony end even faster than ours?”
Lu Yun smiled lightly, stepping on her shadow following behind her, watching her brush past clusters of waist-high greenery. Lu Yun said mildly: “Just putting on a show. Only you’re so sincere, actually going to farm.” The court’s merit lay in teaching and supervising, not in actually having scholars go to the fields to plant rice seedlings with the farmers.
Luo Lingyu raised her beautiful eyes, smiling: “I’m also just putting on a show.”
Just that when she put on shows, she was always very sincere. Lu Yun had long experienced this.
Lu Yun smiled, not saying much, but his lowered gaze watching her held much tenderness. Luo Lingyu was indeed as she said, doing it for a good reputation. No matter how much she did, how much she helped others, it was always with purpose. Feeling she had already worked hard setting an example for a day, Luo Lingyu turned her head to talk with the maid beside her, handing over the hoe and straw hat and such, passing on the farm work.
Lu San Lang standing beside her made her heart pound, her cheeks burning hot, somewhat uncomfortable yet somewhat delighted. Because she thought of that night’s vows. She secretly watched Lu Yun with her peripheral vision, discovering Lu Yun was looking down at her. When their gazes met, the smile in his eyes deepened, and he said softly—”Will you marry me? Sister seems not to have answered me yet?”
Luo Lingyu turned her head, looking again at the young lords and ladies standing in twos and threes beyond the fields.
And at the farmers and farmwives shuttling through the fields.
Luo Lingyu gave him a reproachful glance: this person… had already gone to discuss auspicious dates with Madam Luo and others, yet still insisted on waiting for her word.
Lu Yun quietly, self-mockingly said: “If sister doesn’t agree personally, I’ll never feel at ease.”
Luo Lingyu thought briefly, lowered her head, and bent down, her gaze sweeping across the field ridge, reaching out to pick up a wooden branch from the ground. She stood up, slim-waisted and narrow-shouldered, her skirts trailing the ground, the wooden branch in her hand just right for pressing into the soil. Luo Lingyu gripped this branch, speaking softly to Lu Yun: “Brother Xuecheng, watch me.”
So Lu Yun watched.
He saw the lady in a white jacket and skirts step backward, the wooden branch poking into the soil, writing several characters—”My heart is very small, after marrying you, you’re not allowed to take concubines. Will you agree?”
Lu Yun looked for a long while, raised an eyebrow, and smiled.
Maid Lingyu stood beside Young Miss, watching the lady lower her eyes, smiling on her lips but her face tense. After reading what Young Miss wrote, the young lord said nothing, he also crouched down, picking up a wooden branch from the ground. Standing to Luo Lingyu’s right, Lu Yun stepped backward, using the branch to write on the ground—”Agreed.”
Lu Yun paused, then wrote: “After becoming a wife, you cannot flirt with other young lords. Will you agree?”
Luo Lingyu smiled slightly, stepped back again, and wrote: “Agreed.”
Maid Lingyu’s eyes widened, staring intently as Lu San Lang and Young Miss stepped backward one by one, the wooden branches in their hands scratching the ground, writing out question after question, answering problem after problem—
“If I do something wrong when others scold me, you’re not allowed to.”
“Naturally I’ll comfort sister first, then scold sister.”
Luo Lingyu humphed: “…”
A clear breeze brushed their faces, he stood one step further back than her. She followed his steps, walking backward again, writing again: “I’m very jealous. If I’m jealous of other ladies, you must take my side, cannot speak for others, cannot dampen my spirits.”
“Of course. My temper is bad, I often lose my temper, if my sister sees me lose my temper, don’t be angry with me. I don’t mean it, it’ll be fine after a while.”
Luo Lingyu: “You must listen to what I say, don’t always think so badly of me.”
Lu Yun: “Don’t always be so sensitive either. Many times I’m not looking down on you, yet you feel I despise you.”
“When you have things on your mind you must tell me. I want to share brother’s matters.”
“Sister’s secrets should also be shared with me.”
“Brother Xuecheng must respect me.”
“Please Sister Lingyu respect me too.”
“Don’t say that about me. After I marry Jianye, and become a Lu family daughter-in-law, I’ll be your family. I have no power behind me, if you make me leave, I don’t know where I could go.”
“…It will never be like that. I also fear my sister saying she’ll leave me every time we argue. I can’t bear that.”
“Will brother always be good to me, like me?”
“I know why sister is marrying. But if one day I have no more wealth, will you still stay by my side? Will you betray me, abandon me?”
Luo Lingyu froze, tears welling in her eyes.
Perhaps her disdain for poverty and love of wealth made him uneasy, perhaps he didn’t know she was gradually giving up her old demands for him. She said slowly: “I won’t. I admire brother, whether brother is rich or poor, wielding supreme power or banished and wandering, I won’t leave brother.”
Lu Yun then said: “My heart is the same as yours.”
The good fields were boundless, the green endless. The young lords and ladies standing outside the field, maid Lingyu beside Young Miss and the young lord, and the farmers resting on their tools, all stared dumbfounded at Lu Yun and Luo Lingyu. Watching that talented scholar and beautiful lady, their wide sleeves like floating clouds, profiles like jade, heads lowered writing characters. Step by step backward, step by step writing.
The wind blew through the wheat waves, green as far as the eye could see. In the space between field ridges lay the questions and answers between man and woman. None knew how many questions could be asked, or where the end would be. But the fears in their hearts, the ethereal threads of emotion, as their eyes met intermittently and their hands and sleeves occasionally touched, all gradually settled like dust—
That marriage fate was heaven-ordained.
Yet even heaven-ordained marriages could go wrong. One must always analyze matters of the heart and must ask the questions. What cannot be said aloud must be written down. Only then can one be at ease, can one be certain of marriage’s predestination?
Maid Lingyu at first just watched with wide eyes, heart full of shock. She suddenly came to her senses, running away and returning, catching up to the man and woman with flowing sleeves who were still stepping backward writing characters. Dense characters pierced into the soil, like a secret language, clear as day. The maid held a booklet and brush, quickly recording the questions and answers between the young lord and lady.
Field Ridge courtship.
To be passed down as a beautiful tale.
…
“Hya—” a fine horse approached, several young men jumping down from it. There were both Southern and Northern Kingdom officials. They wanted to ask Lu San Lang again about matters concerning the peace talks between North and South. When they were about to call out, Lu Er Lang Lu Xian standing outside the field stopped them. Lu Er Lang gestured for them not to disturb the couple, watching entranced in the dusky sunlight as the talented scholar and beautiful lady glanced up and down at each other with eyes full of smiles, so intimate.
He didn’t know that the people who came behind him, following his gaze to Lu Yun and Luo Lingyu, all paused for a moment, falling into strange silence.
Prince Hengyang Liu Mu looked at Luo Lingyu, his gaze darkening, thinking: If I could be like this with Lady Luo… how wonderful that would be.
The Northern Kingdom’s Luoyang governor following behind his superior was also lost in thought: If Snow were truly my concubine… how wonderful that would be.
When lovers pair up, when an outstanding beauty’s marriage is settled, there will always be others who feel heartbroken and lost because of them. But that’s merely inconsequential.
…
First was the impromptu proposal, then the night star vow carving, and finally the field ridge questions and answers. Only after Lu San Lang’s three attempts did he receive Luo Lingyu’s “yes.”
Just as in Lu Er Lang’s dream, with no one obstructing, Lu San Lang couldn’t wait. After Luo Lingyu’s reserved nod, the auspicious date was set for mid-March of the following month, when Lu San Lang would marry Lady Luo Lingyu of Nanyang’s Luo family.
Zhou Yangling was delighted to see these two marry before her departure, which was a great comfort to her; Nanyang Fan family’s Fan Si Lang Fan Qingchen got thoroughly drunk, not daring to attend the ceremony.
Though they said Nanyang’s conditions were somewhat inferior to Jianye’s, within his capabilities, Lu Yun still gave Luo Lingyu a magnificent wedding feast, satisfying her vanity. This marriage, through various twists and turns, attracted both Southern and Northern Kingdom officials to attend the ceremony. As the peace talks were progressing well, Northern Kingdom officials also came to congratulate Lu San Lang on marrying his bride, bringing generous gifts.
Congratulations and gifts from Jianye also came in endless streams.
Both upper-class nobles and ordinary commoners were invited, armies and officials all received favor and came specially to congratulate. Lu San Lang’s reputation had greatly risen in Nanyang, and Lady Luo also had quite a good name, this marriage of golden boy and jade girl became a beautiful tale spread among the common people. The wedding was luxurious, rich, and magnificent, beyond imagination.
From nightfall to dawn to dusk, instrumental music, fruits, and elaborate decorations came in endless waves.
At dusk Lu San Lang wore his wedding clothes, going to the Luo family to receive the lady. Luo Lingyu’s cousin Luo Yan personally carried the lady out on his back, handing her to Lu San Lang. Then they rode in carriages, the two boarding together, touring once around Nanyang city. The young lord and lady together received onlookers’ blessings, their carriages several times getting stuck unable to move forward.
Some women called out: “Young lord, young lord…”
There were also men lamenting: “How could Lady Luo be married…”
Stop and go along the way, people following on the road receive scattered golden and silver melon seeds, and the Lu family’s wealth and generosity make common people overflow with joy. After a full hour, Lu Yun finally brought Luo Lingyu from the Luo family to the temporary Lu residence, originally just two alleys apart.
With the elders absent, Lu Er Lang guided this newlywed couple, under the master of ceremonies’ chanting, to first bow to heaven and earth, then turn to bow to the empty tablets of their parents. With Lu family elders absent, the Nanyang Luo family elders watching from the side had reddened eyes, sighing that both young people were without parents. Finally, Lu Yun and Luo Lingyu solemnly bowed to each other.
Raising his head, Lu Yun saw only a splendid view, but opposite him a fan covered the face, showing only the lady’s smiling eyes.
Under everyone’s witness, they knelt to perform the ceremony of sharing the ceremonial cup. Red silk thread tied their hands together, after the ceremony was complete, Lu Yun led the fan-holding lady to the bridal chamber in the back. The witnesses following the couple still lingered, wanting to follow. The Southern Kingdom at this time had a custom of teasing the newlyweds, and Luo Lingyu was such a beauty, who wouldn’t want to enter the bridal chamber to see the new bride?
However, the newlywed husband was stingy. They had just followed out of the main hall when army soldiers stepped forward, blocking people with stern words and expressions, not letting guests enter to tease the new bride.
More arguing followed.
Then persuading.
After all the commotion, the bridal chamber finally quieted, another hour had passed. The room was silent, Luo Lingyu’s hands were sore, and feeling there was no more movement, she lowered the fan in her hands, and saw Lu Yun sitting beside her, his eyes blazing. In the quiet, strangely, both felt shy.
Luo Lingyu’s heart trembled, watching Lu Yun move his gaze away, pour a cup of wine, and rise to walk toward her sitting on the couch. He stood before her, bending down to hand her the wine, and saw Luo Lingyu pause slightly, a hint of craftiness suddenly appearing in her eyes.
Luo Lingyu took his hand, and looked up, smiling at him: “Thank you, husband.”
Her sweet call of “husband” made Lu Yun’s heartburn. But Lu Yun looked at her once, feeling her “thank you” sounded strange. He tilted his head: “What are you thanking me for?”
Luo Lingyu: “That day when I prayed to Buddha and Bodhisattva, rushing about like a headless fly. I made a wish to marry a good husband, and you scolded me, saying rather than pray to Bodhisattva, I should pray to you. You told me off then, husband, saying particularly harsh words.”
Lu Yun’s lips held a smile as he lounged on the couch, leisurely and elegant, like a jade mountain tilting. He smiled and said: “Was I that bad to you? I don’t remember.”
Luo Lingyu raised her lips, standing up, drinking down the wine he had handed her in one gulp, then spoke cleverly: “You were just that bad… but I still want to thank you, husband, for letting me marry a good husband.”
Lu Yun reached out to pull her into his embrace, lightly sniffing at her neck, then teased in a hoarse voice: “Oh… so who is this good husband? Who is darling praising?”
“You… you know perfectly well!”