Fox Zhao summoned him to the Buddhist hall.

A sandalwood stick was inserted in the incense burner, white smoke curling. Fox Zhao sat cross-legged before a small table, dividing tea.

Seeing him arrive, Fox Zhao indicated he should sit, then handed over a cup of tea.

As he accepted the tea, he felt only its fragrant aroma pervading.

“This tea-dividing skill was taught to me by my teacher.”

Fox Zhao sipped once, saying calmly:

“Tea has three flavors—one strong, one mild, one light. Tea floating and sinking, tea warm and cool, tea strong and light—all are flavors, all must be tasted to be known.”

He looked at Fox Zhao. Wrinkles accumulated at this person’s eye corners.

“Just as with your qin playing, the joy and anger within can only be savored after hearing it completely. My apologies, Chengfeng—in your three years beside me, I never heard a single piece through to completion.”

Fox Zhao glanced at the envelope on the table.

“Inside is my recommendation letter. There’s a vacancy in Liangzhou. If you’re interested, go experience officialdom.”

Liangzhou was the prefecture nearest his hometown. Fox Zhao’s action shocked him tremendously.

“Why help me?”

“You shouldn’t merely be a qin master.”

He pushed the envelope back. “I have no interest in being an official.”

“More like you don’t dare!”

“Is there anything I, Dong Chengfeng, dare not do?”

He thought since he was leaving anyway, Fox Zhao couldn’t do anything to him. “I just think the people there are dirty, the affairs dirty.”

Fox Zhao picked up the envelope and tore it forcefully.

“It seems there’s no wild horse in this world that cannot be tamed. Three years of confinement, and you’ve lost even the courage to leave the cage. The qin master who once played the Tan siblings at his fingertips is already dead.”

“What nonsense are you spouting?”

Dong Chengfeng most hated when people mentioned this matter. “Rewrite one. Master Dong will go report immediately!”

“Rewriting is possible, but I must make a request.”

After three years, the fox still liked playing this game.

“Speak. What request?”

“I hear you and Female Physician Shen get along quite well.”

Dong Chengfeng’s gaze immediately grew vigilant. “You… what do you mean?”

“In the future, if she faces difficulty, lend her aid. That’s my request.”

Dong Chengfeng shuddered. “What difficulty could she face?”

“I’m merely preparing for rainy days.”

“You’re the Crown Prince. What rain to prepare for, what days to provide for? In a few more years, this entire realm will be yours.”

“Plan defeat before planning victory.”

Fox Zhao sipped his tea. “Don’t you even understand this principle?”

Don’t understand!

Your tone makes it sound like you’re driving her out of the Crown Prince’s palace.

Dong Chengfeng gathered his courage. “Old Fox, do you know she…”

“Chengfeng.”

Fox Zhao interrupted him. “The hour grows late. Go. Tomorrow I won’t see you off. Farewell forever!”

At this moment, Xiao Ze pushed open the door, making a gesture of invitation.

He walked out of the courtyard in a daze. Turning the corner, he grabbed Xiao Ze’s hand:

“I’m leaving tomorrow. Give me a straight answer—does your master know Shen Duruo she…”

“Mind your own business, less of others’.”

Xiao Ze unprecedentedly spoke: “Tomorrow morning, I’ll see you off.”

Unable to wait until the next day, that evening he packed up. After greeting Xiao Ze, he groped his way through darkness to Shen Duruo’s small residence in the capital.

Having come to the capital for three years without ever leaving the Crown Prince’s palace gate, he couldn’t distinguish east, south, west, or north of the capital. He searched for a full hour before finding the door.

Seeing him, Shen Duruo was greatly shocked. “Weren’t you leaving tomorrow?”

“Can’t quite let you go. Came to check on you. Sleeping at your place tonight.”

He acted casually. “Treasure this one night. In the future, we may never meet again.”

Shen Duruo led him inside, pointing at a pile of medicinal herbs on the floor.

“I was just dividing medicine for you, to bring along just in case.”

“What use is that? Eventually it’ll all be used up.”

He said with a playful smile, “Bringing you along would truly be ‘just in case.'”

“Don’t be improper.”

She glared at him. “Have you eaten dinner?”

“Not yet. What do you have here to eat?”

“This residence doesn’t cook.”

“Perfect. I’ll inaugurate it.”

He untied one bundle. Inside were all raw vegetables brought from the Crown Prince’s palace, plus a jar of rice wine he’d brewed himself.

“Let’s make four dishes and a soup. You can taste my cooking.”

To cook required firewood in the stove.

While Shen Duruo went to the neighboring household to buy firewood, rice, oil, and salt, he’d already cut and washed the vegetables clean, the wok scrubbed to a shine.

Lighting the fire, heating oil in the wok, wielding the spatula…

Back in the mountains, master and disciple’s meals were all made by him. Master often said he was originally a cook, forcibly kidnapped to play qin.

Four dishes and a soup served on the table, Shen Duruo picked up a chopstick-full and put it in her mouth. Her eyes immediately brightened.

After several cups of wine, he spoke.

“Shen Duruo, come with me to the Qinhuai River. I’ll play qin, you’ll treat patients. Let’s earn all the silver of Jinling Prefecture’s wealthy people. How about it?”

Shen Duruo: “Joking words, yet you take them seriously.”

“Seriously.”

As long as they’re your words, I take them all seriously.

“I have my father in the capital, my mother, many things I can’t leave behind.”

What you most can’t leave behind is him, right?

“You told me your life’s greatest wish was seeing the world’s scenery, treating the world’s illnesses. If you don’t like Jinling Prefecture, we’ll change locations.”

Shen Duruo shook her head.

“Past this village, there’s no such shop.”

She still shook her head.

He lightly patted the table, deliberately smiling mischievously. “You… don’t have someone you’re thinking about, do you?”

Shen Duruo’s facial expression was subtle. She pressed her lips together. After a long while, she said softly:

“I do!”

Shen Duruo only told him these two words. He didn’t ask further.

That entire night, they just sat there, chatting about the past, speaking of the future, slowly drinking that entire jar of wine.”

When the wine ran out, day broke.

She saw him off to the alley entrance.

He extended his hand, for the first time ruffling her hair. “Duruo, we must part.”

She smiled sweetly at him. “Chengfeng, we will meet again.”

Perhaps!

He smiled back, then turned to leave.

“I didn’t look back again, but I could sense a gaze from behind following all along, like many years ago when I followed Master away and Mother chased out, watching from afar.”

Dong Chengfeng took a deep breath.

“People on the Qinhuai River all said I was like a wild horse—no one could capture my heart. Does the heart need capturing? No. She just stood there, and my heart naturally went over.

Unfortunately, she didn’t want it.

Later, I went to Liangzhou. Relying on Fox Zhao’s connections, I became a mid-level official, busy as anything every day. But at night I’d wake for no reason.

Once awake, I couldn’t sleep. I’d think of her, think of Fox Zhao, wonder if she’d already become one of his many consorts.

Thinking and thinking, I’d suddenly feel those three years were like having a dream.

When the dream ended, my heart felt hollow.”

These words carried a desolate feeling, making Yan Sanhe’s heart ache.

“So when you left the capital, you didn’t know what stage their relationship had reached?”

—