The young lady stood not far off, chanting — her voice neither sorrowful nor joyful, level and toneless yet perfectly clear and crisp, crisp enough that it made the soldiers who’d come to watch the spectacle weep.
Over there, everyone was wiping away tears; sorrow hung over the whole crowd.
Earl Chang Mianshen, the founding earl, was also watching from a distance, but his expression gradually grew strange. He thought, damn it, that little beast — how could he not keep his mouth shut? How could he have told her everything? I was just talking casually, and now look, I’ve lost all face — that girl just shouted it out in front of these thousand-odd soldiers, so what, am I some warlord who seized a commoner girl by force? That matter can’t be brought up anymore.
Who wanted to bring it up? It was just father and son chatting idly! But that little beast took it seriously. It infuriated him — his whole life he’d conducted himself openly and aboveboard, and today he’d ended up in such an awkward position…
He was both embarrassed and angry, but then he saw his own little beast slowly approaching with the young lady.
Should he see them or not?
Qiqian’er was being led by Chang Lianfang toward the earl. On the way she asked him, “Uncle, may I ask, does my father-in-law-to-be have a courtesy name?”
Chang Lianfang was curious. “Sister-in-law, why do you ask that?”
Qiqian’er said, “Your father is a person of rank now — should I kneel when I go over, or not?”
Chang Lianfang laughed lightly. “You’re not an outsider! My father doesn’t mind about that, whatever you do is fine, sister-in-law.”
Qiqian’er said, “Whatever you do may be fine, but it’s not fine for me. Though you and my Choutou have some rapport, the elders on your side may not necessarily support it. Choutou may hold a seventh-rank official post now, but he and I are still short the proper two rites, so we can’t count as family in the formal sense. If I get the weight of it wrong when I meet the elders, it’ll be awkward on both sides. I’m familiar enough with you to say ‘father-in-law-to-be,’ but if I went and said that directly, it would make a joke of things — it wouldn’t be respectful.”
Ah, I see.
Chang Lianfang stopped walking, thought it over, and nodded. “My father’s courtesy name is Jiecheng.”
The moment Qiqian’er heard the name, she laughed at once and nodded. “Your father must have been born in the shen hour. Afterward people realized that though it was shen, it was also constrained — delaying it further would invite official misfortune. Though all things reach completion, they also decline, so the name Mianshen — ‘avoiding shen’ — was chosen simply to seek safety. But your father’s temperament turned out lively and restless, which gave the elders of the household headaches. So later, once he grew up, they could only settle on Jiecheng — ‘all things completed.'”
Chang Lianfang stopped and looked at Qiqian’er, his face full of open admiration. He laughed, “Sister-in-law really has read more than just one book — that’s exactly it. The ninth of the twelve Earthly Branches. My father was born in the shen hour, and my grandfather realized back then that the shen hour was somewhat lacking — his fortune would start high but gradually decline — so he chose Mianshen, giving up the ‘high start’ in favor of steady safety. Later my father… hmm, I can’t say more, but that’s the gist of it! To make up for this name, my grandfather went and hired a master diviner — spent five hundred coins and five catties of mutton on it.”
With that, the two of them burst out laughing together, and walked up to the earl still smiling brightly.
The earl felt awkward inside, so he had his chair brought out and sat down on it solemnly, upright.
Ever since he’d become an earl, the one bit of dignity it had added was that wherever he went, he had someone carry along a round-backed chair, with the hide of the tiger he’d once killed with his own hands spread over the seat, carried everywhere with him.
Qiqian’er came before him and stopped ten paces off. She first brushed the dust from her clothes, straightened her garments, tidied her stray hair, and only once everything was in order did she stand upright and solemn — right hand pressed over left, raised level before her — then stepped forward three paces, lifted her hands to brow height, and bowed deeply from the waist. This was the “heaven bow” — the ceremonial bow used for greeting elders.
An ordinary commoner meeting someone like the founding earl ought to kneel, but Qiqian’er had no intention of kneeling, no matter who it was.
“This junior pays respects to Lord Jiecheng.”
This had originally been a bow used only by men, though the etiquette texts never actually forbade women from using it either — so women of high birth who’d studied the classics had used it first, and later it spread until it became a bow used by both men and women on solemn occasions.
It was rarely seen in ordinary places.
Qiqian’er’s bearing as she performed the bow was dignified and gracious, her posture smooth and pleasing to the eye, elegant and correct, her manner respectful — it made the earl, sitting stiffly, gradually straighten his own back, until finally he coughed a few times, and in his heart he stopped dwelling on that awkward matter after all.
Chang Lianfang introduced her with a smile: “Father! This is the wife of my sworn elder brother Chen Dasheng — Madam Huo.”
The earl was quite pleased. Feeling well-disposed toward her, he laughed heartily and waved his hand. “No need, no need, no need for ceremony — you’re not an outsider, why bother with formalities? Get up, get up! Little lady, such courtesy — pity your aunt isn’t here, it’s truly inconvenient. Come visit the house another day; for now just treat this as an informal meeting of family elders, more casual, more casual…”
He thought to himself, honestly I can’t stand all this formality, I’d rather be at ease myself too.
Qiqian’er accepted his acknowledgment, stepped back, bowed halfway again, lowered her head slightly and said, “As is proper.”
Having said that, she straightened up properly, and looked up at the founding earl with a bright, open smile.
The founding earl was, to outsiders, a rough sort of man, ordinarily blunt and direct in his dealings. Before His Majesty he made no secret of his roughness — he’d well up with tears and drop to his knees with a thud, knocking his head three times loudly against the ground, no matter the occasion.
Even now that he’d been enfeoffed and become a high-ranking court official, he was still exactly the same. If he went a few days without seeing His Majesty he grew restless; even after court, if he passed anywhere nearby he’d go pay his respects again. All the messy affairs of his household he loved to ramble on about to His Majesty, asking him to settle matters.
When His Majesty told him to discipline his wife, he went home and did it in earnest — the two of them fought so hard they ended up on the roof, trampling half a street’s worth of blue roof tiles flat. The next day he showed up at court with a black eye and bruised face, was reported by the censors, and yet reported to His Majesty with a face full of delight that his troublesome wife had indeed become much more obedient…
Out on the battlefield he was fierce and skilled, with merit enough to have been enfeoffed a marquis. But the rank of marquis, twenty-fifth in line, no one else wanted to yield it to him — the emperor’s second empress, née Cao, made such a fuss over the matter because of her elder brother, that he yielded the marquisate and stepped back to the rank of earl instead.
The emperor felt guilty about it, so he enfeoffed the earl’s two eldest sons as viscounts. And so the Chang family now had four great pillars — one founding earl, two founding viscounts, and Chang Lianfang besides, who in his own right was a proper fifth-rank general. His Majesty liked to bring him along everywhere, treating him like his own nephew, even encouraging him to socialize and play with the imperial princes without the slightest wariness.
The Chang family had gained much benefit from this, but there were downsides too — because of his crudeness, the earl never received proper respect out in public. People treated him carelessly coming and going, and naturally the younger generation picked up the same habit.
The earl felt quite pleased with himself. Though he looked over the girl before him — plain cotton skirt, sparse yellowish hair, round eyes and thick brows, a nose neither too high nor too flat, a mouth not quite cherry-shaped and a good half-size smaller than a wide mouth, sallow skin, a frame so thin it looked like it might blow over in the wind — none of that mattered. This was a sensible girl! Looking more carefully, pleased with her, she even seemed rather delicate and touching.
Seeing Qiqian’er smile at him, the earl pointed at his own son and said, “This little beast hasn’t caused you enough trouble, has he? I’d meant to settle things down and then invite your grandmother’s household over to get acquainted properly as relatives! Who could have known things would turn out like this — no choice but to come now, in this state. You children, you don’t know how to weigh things, really, rushing about however you please? Do you have any idea how serious this matter is? Lucky that we’re family — as soon as I got word I came straight here. Even though the proper courtesies have been neglected, at least we’re not strangers, so it’s fine to meet like this.”
Qiqian’er nodded. “Yes. The elders at home often talk about you too, always full of praise — they’ve long wanted to come pay a visit, but with the war it wasn’t possible to settle anywhere long enough. Now it’s finally happened, and meeting you, my grandmother, sure enough, you’re just as she described!”
Hearing this, the earl was even more delighted. He straightened up, then suddenly broke into an odd grin and pressed her: “Oh? Your family elders always praise me?”
Qiqian’er’s face showed a flicker of embarrassment, but she quickly composed herself and said earnestly, “Yes, that’s right.”
The exasperating man wouldn’t let it go, though, and said, “Since your grandmother often talks about it — well… ahem, we’re not strangers — why don’t you tell me exactly what she said?”
Chang Lianfang was mortified to death and could only cry out loudly, “Father!”
Qiqian’er blinked, thinking to herself, what shameless old man is this, wanting to be praised right in front of everyone — well, it’s just praise, isn’t it? She could do that.
So she said very earnestly, “Well, there were plenty of kind words — I’ve forgotten the details, it was all so rambling — but what my grandmother said was, hmm, that you’ve always been affectionate and deeply filial, especially generous and giving, helping the weak and aiding the poor, never hesitating no matter how urgent, and that the whole community praises you as a man of great virtue.”
So he had this kind of reputation among the common folk after all? The earl felt marvelous, like drinking ice water in the height of summer — so refreshing that bubbles seemed to rise from the soles of his feet straight to the crown of his head. What a shameless man he was; he patted the arm of his chair and said, “Ha! Ha! Even you all the way over there have heard of it! That’s right, that’s right, that’s exactly how they talk about me — heh, I keep telling them not to bring it up, and here you all know about it too, what is this even about!”
Chang Lianfang, standing to the side, wanted to die of embarrassment, while Qiqian’er kept a solemn expression and even earnestly scolded him: “You mustn’t talk like that — I won’t hide it from you, father-in-law-to-be, there have been plenty of good reputations throughout history, but those were all written by petty scholars, and who knows how much filth lay behind them! They’re nothing like you — yours is a reputation praised by the villages, passed mouth to mouth. We’re nobody of any standing, just women of the inner quarters with no real knowledge of the world, and yet even this reached our ears — which shows just how far your reputation has spread…”
Oh, how comfortable! How joyful! How marvelous! How wonderful!
The earl was flattered nearly to the point of shyness. He patted himself down all over, meaning to give her some kind of reward, but his wife’s hands were quicker — she’d already patted him down three times first. Finally his hand found a dagger tucked in his sleeve; realizing that wasn’t appropriate, he said, a bit embarrassed, “Well… little one, things are hurried today, I’ve got nothing to give you — don’t hold it against me. Tomorrow I’ll have your aunt make you a set of gold jewelry, so when you have your wedding ceremony, it’ll add to your standing.”
Now that’s something real — give it to me and I’ll take it.
Qiqian’er immediately bowed. “How wonderful — then I’ll shamelessly accept my elder’s fine gift. Thank you, father-in-law-to-be.”
Delighted, the earl stood and helped her up. “Ha! What’s there to thank, it’s only proper, only proper! Right then, things are rushed today, and I hate all this formality more than anything, so I won’t say more. Little one, I know about your situation now — go on back for now, and I’ll make sure your uncle here sorts it all out properly for you, won’t let you come out the worse for it.”
He glanced at the sky and added kindly, “Now, is there anything else you want to say to me? Don’t worry, I may be an ordinary man, but as long as it’s not unreasonable, feel free to speak.”
Hearing this, Qiqian’er really did think it over seriously and said, “Well, there is actually one thing.”
Father and son both fell silent for a moment, but the earl, being worldly, still smiled and said, “Oh? Go on, then.”
Qiqian’er bowed and said, “Though I’ve married into the Huo family, because the world was in chaos before and the fighting was pressing, my husband and I have never been able to meet — he doesn’t even know yet that I exist. I ask that you grant me a favor: could you give me paper and a brush? I’d like to send my husband a letter.”
It was only this? The earl felt a genuine fondness for her welling up again. He called for someone to bring brush and ink, and casually said to his own son, “Come here, bend down! Let your sister-in-law write on your back — there’s no table handy here, it’s inconvenient.”
Poor Chang Lianfang, the handsome fifth-rank young general who’d taken the ruined city — caught between fearing both sides, his wits scattered, he actually came forward at that, though he didn’t bend down — he simply crouched with his back to Qiqian’er.
The earl had only said it offhand; there was no way he’d actually have his son bend down like that. But since his son had crouched down himself, he couldn’t very well say anything about it either.
At once he felt awkward again, and glanced left and right. He was used to being unruly, so his subordinates all lifted their heads and stared at the sky in unison — what fine weather today, the earl had come into a windfall, and they’d each get a new set of clothes out of it…
Qiqian’er paid no mind to the little scene between father and son. She picked up the brush and ink, thought for a moment, and quickly sketched a rough diagram of a salt well on Chang Lianfang’s back, then handed it to the earl.
The earl didn’t even look at it — he just shook the paper and set it carelessly on the chair to let the ink dry.
By the time he turned back around, he saw that Qiqian’er had already finished a second sheet, and was holding it out with both hands for him to see, saying, “I’m troubling you greatly, father-in-law-to-be — we truly have no other way to reach him.”
So quickly?
The earl took the paper and looked down, and saw that on it, in neat, elegant handwriting, were written just two names — Chen Dasheng above, and Huo Qiqian below.
Puzzled, he said, “Just this? What does this mean?”
Qiqian’er explained with a smile, “He doesn’t know how to read either, and if I write too much he’ll get confused. I just want to tell him that Chen Dasheng now has a wife, named Huo Qiqian, and that I’m waiting for him at home — he needs to take care of his health, and come back whole and complete…”
Ah, I see. Hearing this, the listener felt a pang of sorrow; the earl, being an emotional sort, even sniffled and nodded. “Yes, that’s right, that’s right, good, this is good! This is good — little one, don’t you worry. I don’t know about the others, but as for the Tan family’s army…”
He didn’t finish that sentence, and let it drop. In truth he very much wanted to tell Qiqian’er, but the matter touched on all sorts of hidden schemes and shadowy dealings, ghosts and demons of every kind… This child had such a clean, pure temperament — saying it would only sully her ears.
The realm was mostly at peace now; even if His Majesty still needed men, once Tan Er was gone, he likely wouldn’t rely on the Tan family’s army anymore. So as long as Chen Dasheng stayed alive with all his limbs intact, he’d be safe from now on.
It was only a pity that things were sensitive right now, and His Majesty had many entanglements with the Tan family — with a knot in his heart, he couldn’t simply reach his hand into the Tan family’s army and pull someone out.
He’d just have to wait — tomorrow, once the campaign was over, he could quietly have the man brought out, but the timing had to be right. Someone who’d risen to seventh-rank commandant in the Tan family’s army wasn’t just anybody — he worried the other side would rather see the man harmed than hand him over.
The truth was, the upper ranks of the Tan family had grown thoroughly rotten. This Chen Dasheng was a boy from a bitter, poor background — if it weren’t for enormous merit, it would be unjustifiable not to reward him, given how stingy that family was. Hmph!
Hearing this, Qiqian’er nodded. “I understand. I won’t delay you further — I’ll take my leave now. My grandmother at home is still worrying.”
The earl nodded. “Go on, go on, don’t keep the old lady waiting.”
Then he added, instructing Chang Lianfang, “I brought along today’s provisions in the rear — go get a few hundred catties of the good stuff for your sister-in-law to take along. Right now what’s needed most is food — mustn’t let the old lady go hungry. We’re all family; no matter who it is, we mustn’t shortchange our own elders’ meals. Go on, see your sister-in-law safely home, and give the old lady my regards… And tomorrow… once we’re back, let’s have the two families meet properly, and have your sworn brother kowtow to the old lady and to your mother too.”
This time Chang Lianfang was truly delighted, and answered cheerfully, “Yes! Understood, Father! We’ll be off now.”
The earl pointed a finger at him with a laugh — after all, he was the youngest son, and the one he worried over most, so he always had a bit more tenderness in how he spoke to this one.
“You’ve got no ambition, boy — if it were your older brothers, I’d have kicked them to death long ago. Ah, if I really indulged you the way you like, you’d just keep smiling at your old man. Go on, get out of here! Go see the elders and hurry back — there are urgent matters right now, and I can’t trust just anyone else with them.”
And with that, several hundred catties of food, just like that?
Hearing this, Qiqian’er was stunned for a moment, and this time her bow was truly sincere — she had genuinely accepted him as her father-in-law-to-be.
Food could be traded for lives — several hundred catties of grain could buy quite a few Huo Qiqians. She was grateful.
She watched the two younger relatives lead away the three large carts they’d chosen beforehand. The earl didn’t even bother asking what had been taken; it was just a cart of grain after all, nothing worth fussing over — at least it hadn’t gone to some outsider’s advantage.
He watched for a long while before finally looking away with a sigh. “Ah, forget it — a foster son’s wife is still a daughter-in-law after all! That clever little rascal.” He chuckled to himself as he walked back to his round-backed chair, picked up the map, glanced at it, then tucked it into his sleeve pocket with a touch of pride, murmuring, “What a lovable little troublemaker…”
As Qiqian’er and Chang Lianfang made their way back, this time Chang Lianfang knew she was taking a roundabout route, and asked curiously, “Sister-in-law, why don’t we take the main road?”
Qiqian’er thought for a moment. “There are refugees on the main road.”
Was it that she couldn’t bear to look? So soft-hearted, this little woman.
Well, if she didn’t want to look, so be it. They continued along the original detour, and came again near the Plague God temple. Qiqian’er had the cart stopped once more.
Chang Lianfang brought the horses back around, his expression genuinely strange.
Qiqian’er said, both embarrassed and annoyed, “Uncle, don’t think anything strange — that’s just an old shrine to the Plague God. When I was starving in the past, I used to eat the offering fruits there to save my life, so every time I pass by, I have to go in and tidy up.”
Ah, I see — well, if there really was a god there, Chang Lianfang said, “Then let me go in with you, sister-in-law, and pay respects together?”
Qiqian’er scolded him at that. “Foolish boy, still wet behind the ears, you don’t know anything! You handle weapons all the time, Uncle — you mustn’t go rushing into a shrine like that. I’ve got food now, so I’m going to offer it to the Plague God as thanks. You wait here a moment, I’ll be quick about it…”
With that she got down from the cart, and from the sacks of grain Chang Lianfang had just given her, picked out some marching hardtack and tucked a bundle of it into her clothes.
From a distance she could already see the temple gate wide open. Going in for a closer look, sure enough, those people were gone, and naturally her donkey cart was gone too.
After solemnly offering the tribute to the Plague God, Qiqian’er triggered the hidden mechanism and went down into the secret chamber — this time, she remembered to bring along the two books Eunuch Liao had given her…
Outside the sick-and-wounded camp at Quanqian Estate, the old lady and Meng Wanquan sat waiting and waiting on the millstone, until finally Qiao Shi came over carrying a bowl of hot noodle soup.
She set the bowl down and said to Meng Wanquan with a smile, “Look how late it’s gotten — hurry and get the old lady something hot to eat. This Qian’er, really, no sense of propriety at all… not that I’m one to talk, but old lady, you really are too trusting — that’s a whole camp of unmarried soldiers, and our girl hasn’t even had the wedding ceremony yet…”
Before she could finish, she suddenly felt heat splash across her face — the bowl of noodle soup she’d brought, the old lady dumped it thoroughly right onto her face.