◎Main Text Complete◎

Lan Shanjun had never imagined that Yu Qingwu had also written a journal for her.

She sat there and opened it to read—from when they first met, he wrote “I suspect she is an old friend,” to when he doubted her, writing “Shan Zun promised ten years, my heart is uneasy,” to finally when the dust settled, writing again “born from the same lotus, never abandoning each other for all eternity.”

She said softly: “Qingwu, you are truly meticulous and bold.”

From her few words he had known her past, and dared to stake everything on confirming an absurd guess.

But Yu Qingwu was rather proud: “In this life, I’ve only investigated two matters.”

The court, and Shanjun.

Thinking about it now, Heaven had truly been generous—he had established himself firmly at court, and he possessed Shanjun.

He said with emotion: “Heaven has pitied me.”

Of course, Nanny Qian’s contribution was also great. She had created the Egg Faction and the Radish Faction, benefiting him immensely. In his journal, he had also written about these two methods, to leave behind rules for pursuing wives for posterity.

Nanny Qian: “…”

She laughed heartily, staring at Yu Qingwu continuously, then finally turned to ask Lan Shanjun: “Is he clever or foolish?”

Lan Shanjun said while picking flowers: “Great wisdom appears foolish?”

Nanny Qian handed over a letter: “Probably so. When roosters get too big they do look blockheaded.”

Lan Shanjun smiled with pursed lips, set down the flowers and took the letter. She didn’t correct her, only asked with a smile: “Whose is it? Huihui’s?”

Nanny Qian: “Mm-hmm.”

She said: “The day before yesterday there were five letters, today only one, so clearly this one was sent back in haste. Quickly look at what it says.”

Nanny Qian now had an additional task of receiving letters. She had never seen such prolific letter writers. Every few days there were letters, and when they came there were several. Once when no letters arrived for half a month, Nanny Qian had been somewhat worried, but when letters finally came again, they arrived in a box.

A whole box full. Only after reading the letters did she learn they had been traveling by water at that time, with no opportunity to send letters for half a month.

She urged Lan Shanjun: “See what Miss Huihui said.”

Lan Shanjun opened the letter to look, then smiled: “Huihui encountered Miss Su on the road.”

Meeting an old friend in a foreign land was naturally delightful.

She said: “When Huihui wrote this letter, she was almost at Nanzhou.”

In early November, Lan Shanjun received another letter from Huihui saying she had bought a residence in Nanzhou and was living together with Miss Su and Miss Su’s female bodyguard.

“They were invited by the county magistrate of Xu City in southern Nanzhou to investigate an illness.”

Su Hexiang was now very famous. When treating the poor she charged no silver; when treating the wealthy she only required them to provide porridge for the destitute. Because of her compassionate heart, people called her Bodhisattva Su.

Lan Shanjun then made time to write letters to both of them, selecting some useful items to send over. She said: “Consider it sending New Year goods.”

But it would certainly not arrive in time.

In the evening Yu Qingwu came back and discussed with her the matter of repairing the canal transport system.

“Once it’s repaired, your letter sending will be much faster.”

He paused and asked again: “Shanjun, if you endure two more years building seniority, perhaps you could also go to Shuzhou for a few years.”

Shuzhou wasn’t far from Nanzhou.

Lan Shanjun’s hand writing the letter paused. Looking at his unwilling expression, she said with a smile: “If I can go to Yuzhou, I’ll go to the Yuzhou army first.”

Yuzhou wasn’t far from Luoyang.

Yu Qingwu’s eyes immediately brightened. His heart softened as he took her hand: “Then during my rest days I can also come find you.”

Lan Shanjun: “This talk is still far off. It won’t be easy for me to go to Yuzhou.”

Her seniority was still very shallow. She picked up her brush and wrote down several generals’ names: “General Liu has already been in the Yulin Guards for ten years. This time no matter what it should be his turn.”

“Then there’s General Lin. Last time in the palace upheaval he earned top merit—he can’t be passed over either.”

She still had much waiting to do.

She said: “You also worked your way up step by step from Huailing county magistrate. As long as I don’t advance slowly, that’s enough.”

She set down her brush, feeling her neck was somewhat stiff. Just as she was about to raise her head and ask Yu Qingwu to help her massage it, she saw snow falling like willow catkins outside the window.

She paused: “It’s snowing.”

This year’s snow was also early.

She pushed open the window and reached out her hand to catch the snow, suddenly saying: “Now… I don’t hate snow so much anymore.”

She even liked it somewhat.

Time truly could change a person’s preferences.

Yu Qingwu draped one of his own thick garments over her, saying with concern: “This year the horses will probably have another hard time.”

He immediately took out an abacus to calculate, then breathed a sigh of relief and smiled: “As long as those above aren’t muddled and those below aren’t greedy, such natural disasters can be endured.”

Nanny Qian brought over a hot pot and small wine cups. She said with a beaming smile: “Oh my, the hour is still early. Quick, eat something hot to warm your heart and stomach.”

Lan Shanjun and Yu Qingwu then cleared the area by the window. Taking advantage of the fact that the wind and snow weren’t yet heavy, the three of them ate Shuzhou hot pot together.

Nanny Qian originally didn’t like spicy food, but now eating with them, she ate spicier day by day, even saying: “Spice enters the mouth, heaven and earth endure.”

The flavor lingered thickly in the mouth without dissipating. Eating a bit of pickled vegetables with it—that was a divine existence.

While eating she sighed with emotion: “When I was small, where could I have imagined having such good days?”

She confided in the two of them: “I’m several years younger than the old mistress, and I also felt I could live long, so when she and Master Wu didn’t have children, I was quite worried.”

Who would she serve when she grew old?

Who would be her master?

Lan Shanjun fished out a slice of lotus root and put it in her bowl, asking curiously: “You truly worried about such things?”

Nanny Qian: “Truly!”

Being a servant her whole life—if suddenly there was no master to inherit her, what would she do?

She said: “I worried so much I couldn’t sleep!”

The old mistress and Master Wu also laughed. Especially Master Wu, who laughed until he couldn’t catch his breath, holding his belly as he laughed heartily: “Mo Niang, oh Mo Niang, if you’re really worried, have one yourself! If you’re unwilling to give birth, adopt one from the charity home?”

Nanny Qian was unwilling.

She said she wanted a master, not that she wanted a son.

Master Wu laughed so hard he pounded the table: “Then how about if my wife and I raise a dog?”

Nanny Qian got angry too: “What, when I’m old and decrepit, I’ll still have to serve a dog?”

Yu Qingwu listened and couldn’t help smiling quietly: “Master Wu was a wonderful person.”

Nanny Qian paused, then suddenly said: “That whole group of them were wonderful people.”

She still remembered Master Wu saying: “I fear the times are going to become chaotic. Otherwise why would so many people more capable than me appear?”

Troubled times produce heroes.

The old monk was a hero. Lan Shanjun also smiled, and smiling, she saw the snow outside getting heavier. Her heart suddenly, quietly, felt a pang of melancholy.

She set down her bowl and chopsticks, stood and walked to the doorway, standing quietly by the door and saying: “Do you think the old monk has come back to see me?”

She still remembered that snow in the eleventh month of Yuanshao’s forty-seventh year.

That was her first day back in Luoyang.

Yu Qingwu: “If you feel he has, then he probably has.”

He looked outside and said softly: “You must believe your feelings. You two were the closest people.”

That night Lan Shanjun indeed dreamed of the old monk.

Again beneath ancient willows and tall locust trees, and again her young self.

The old monk held a monk’s blade in his hands, sitting on the moss-covered stone steps of the broken temple teaching her: “Shanjun, faster—a quick blade can save your life.”

Lan Shanjun kept her head down, her hands moving faster and faster. The old monk was amazed: “Little Shanjun, how did you suddenly gain such skill?”

Lan Shanjun raised her head, tears in her eyes. The old monk’s expression froze, then he raised his hand to pat her head: “Ah, so Big Shanjun has come.”

Lan Shanjun lowered her head under his caress and discovered she held much silver in her hands.

She cupped the silver to show him: “Master, look, I have silver now. Let me take you to see a doctor.”

The old monk said gently: “Mine was called dying of natural causes at a ripe age, not called dying of illness.”

He muttered: “So after all these years, you still remember this?”

He took the silver from her hands: “Fine. Since it’s your filial piety, I’ll accept it. Next life, I’ll try hard to live a bit longer.”

Lan Shanjun threw herself forward to hug his body that was so thin it was only bones, asking aggrievedly: “Master, why did you only come see me now?”

The old monk smiled: “I couldn’t come. I’m a dead person.”

He gently stroked her back: “But Shanjun, without me, you’ve done very well. I saw everything.”

Lan Shanjun raised her head: “Really?”

The old monk: “Really.”

Lan Shanjun tightened her grip on his hand: “Master, are you leaving again?”

The old monk: “Leaving.”

Lan Shanjun began crying again, clinging persistently: “If you leave, what will I do? I miss you so much I could die.”

The old monk sighed: “You’re already so grown…”

Lan Shanjun rolled on the ground: “I don’t want you to go, I don’t want you to go!”

The next instant, she found herself squatting by a well. The old monk was washing clothes while cursing: “What karma! I was also a mighty and imposing general—how many clothes have I washed for you? In the future without me, who will wash your clothes?”

Lan Shanjun squatted beside him, propping up her face: “Yu Qingwu can wash clothes.”

The old monk lifted water and poured it into the basin: “You just bully people!”

He suddenly smiled: “Shanjun, after I leave, don’t bully him too much. He’s also a little bitter melon.”

Lan Shanjun became anxious: “Where are you going? I’ll go with you.”

She cried urgently, pulling at the old monk’s tattered kasaya as tears fell: “Master, I’ll go with you.”

The old monk used his tattered sleeve to wipe her tears: “No.”

“This time, don’t follow me.”

He hung the clothes to dry on the bamboo pole in the broken temple and turned to leave. In an instant, he was already thirty feet away.

Lan Shanjun chased after him anxiously. Reaching out, she actually managed to grab his sleeve.

The old monk smiled, turned to look at her: “Shanjun, silly girl, I’m going to reincarnate.”

Lan Shanjun raised her head, tears in her eyes: “Reincarnate?”

The old monk: “Yes. Sending you back has already delayed my rebirth. If you keep blocking me, how can I go be reborn as a wealthy young master?”

He gently released her hand: “Shanjun, I won’t come see you anymore after this.”

Lan Shanjun reluctantly released her hand, watching him disappear step by step into the temple.

She cried grievously and loudly.

She cried so hard she was exhausted. She opened her eyes.

Yu Qingwu was looking at her with concern: “Shanjun, do you want to light a lamp?”

Lan Shanjun stared blankly for a moment, then reached out to embrace his neck and cried loudly: “The old monk is gone, he’s gone.”

Yu Qingwu held her and coaxed: “It’s all right, it’s all right, it’s all right.”

He said: “Look, the snow is still falling.”

“He’ll come accompany you every year.”

He took her hand outside to look at the snow, saying softly with a smile: “Shanjun, don’t be afraid. I’ll accompany you every day.”

—Main Text Complete.