Chapter 581: Each Has Their Own Worries |
The Hour of Zi (11 PM - 1 AM), beside the Sky Bridge.
A bowl of steaming hot wontons with added pepper, sprinkled with cilantro and dried baby shrimp, was already the best late-night snack for the beginning of autumn.
On ordinary days, this hour was the most bustling. The servant boys and brothel workers finishing their shifts one after another from the Eight Great Hutongs would rub their hands and run over, hand over a few warm copper coins, hold a bowl or several bowls of wontons, and then hurriedly disappear into the alleyways leading to the back doors of the various buildings and establishments.
In another two Shichen (four hours), the sound of the watchman's clapper would come from the canal docks. The canal workers and Boat Trackers would feel their way in the dark to come here first. With one mouthful of hot pepper soup down their stomachs, their bodies would instantly warm up, and only then would they go to pull the heavy canal boats and their livelihoods.
At the beginning of the Ning Dynasty's founding, pepper was originally a rare item, needing to be brought back from even more distant places by merchant fleets going out to sea. It had the reputation of "one tael of pepper is worth one tael of gold."
When the national treasury was running a deficit, the imperial court even distributed pepper to Officials as a substitute for their official salaries.
But over several hundred years, pepper became increasingly widespread. Even canal workers and Boat Trackers could drink a bowl of high-quality and inexpensive hot pepper soup, yet the imperial court still distributed pepper as a substitute for salaries, leaving the Officials suffering unspeakably.
It wasn't until the eleventh year of Emperor Zhengde, the preceding emperor, that a decree was issued ending this chaotic phenomenon.
At this time, Chen Ji and Bai Li sat face-to-face beside the stall at a low elm wood small table. The table had been rubbed shiny by countless pairs of hands, and stains accumulated over years and months still remained at the corners.
Chen Ji turned his head to look at Bai Li's thin and pallid cheeks, sighing: "You have suffered a lot of bitterness."
Bai Li gently shook her head: "Actually, it wasn't that bitter. With The Empress looking after me, I didn't worry about food or clothing. Every day in the Palace of Earthly Tranquility there were seasonal vegetables and fruits, and even some items rarely seen ordinarily, which I hadn't even seen in the Princely Estate. Oh right, the envoys from Annan brought a kind of ugly fruit covered in thorns from the south, called 'Lingering Attachment' (Durian). The Annanese hid it in sand carts all the way to transport it to the capital city. One has to split open its thick skin to eat the meat inside. But once that ugly fruit was opened, it was spoiled and stank unbearably. The Empress had Aunt Yuanjin quickly throw it away."
Chen Ji raised his eyebrows.
Bai Li continued recalling: "Every day, The Empress would send someone to pick me up to the Palace of Earthly Tranquility to play bridge cards when we were idle. The Empress's card skills were very good. Legends say that in her youth she even won a lot of silver from my father... Prince Jing, and the Emperor. When we wanted to go out, we could also go to the Imperial Garden to take a look. The Empress would lead us to watch butterflies. The Empress was very formidable, able to recognize every kind of butterfly. Her heart was very kind; she only allowed us to watch, but didn't allow the maidservants to catch them. She said butterflies take several months to transform from caterpillars to butterflies, and the best-looking time of their entire lives is only twenty-some days. During their best-looking time, they should fly in the sky, fly in the flower bushes..."
She said in a low voice: "Later when your newspaper was published, The Empress would have the palace maids buy it back every day. Everyone held the newspaper and read it repeatedly. The Empress read it, I read it, the maidservants read it, until everyone read the Bamboo Paper so much its edges curled up and holes wore through, only then would The Empress put the newspaper away. The Empress really liked the newspaper very much, she had to read every issue several times, even reading the advertisements at the very end of the newspaper with great relish."
Bai Li seemed to want to tell Chen Ji about all the interesting things she experienced in the forbidden palace, but unfortunately there weren't many interesting things in the forbidden palace to begin with, and she finished telling them in a short while.
She looked up at Chen Ji: "Thank you. After having the newspaper to read, The Empress was much happier and also had something to look forward to every day. Can you give me some recent newspapers? The ones The Empress hasn't seen yet. I want to burn them for her when making offerings."
Chen Ji nodded: "I'll ask Brother Pao to help find them, he should have kept copies on file there."
Bai Li hesitated for a moment: "I also heard a lot of things about you in the palace. The Empress would even specially dispatch Inner Officials to go to the teahouses to inquire about your affairs, and then tell them to me. Have the injuries on your body healed? Do they still hurt?"
Chen Ji suddenly changed the topic, saying with a smile: "Right, do you still remember She Dengke? He took several hundred taels of silver to seek refuge with relatives and friends. He should buy dozens of mu of land with Chun Hua and live a peaceful life. If he acts faster, maybe their child has even been born by now. And Liu Quxing, I left the Land Deed for Taiping Medical Clinic to him. I don't know if his three-legged cat medical skills can manage to open the medical clinic, but when we were on Anxi Street, he studied the hardest..."
Chen Ji continued speaking as if to himself: "After the Prince Heir was rescued from the Inner Prison, the Master led him along with the brothers Gou'er and Mao'er toward the Jing Dynasty. I heard they will go south to Yangzhou first, then take a boat to head to Lüshun. I don't know if they'll get seasick. Although there hasn't been news of him for a long time, with the Master by his side to protect him, I assume it won't be too bad. It's just that the Master's mouth is unforgiving, I fear he hasn't spared him from sarcastic remarks either."
Thinking of Old Yao's poison-dipped mouth, Bai Li also couldn't help but slightly raise the corners of her mouth: "Master, the old man, has a cold face but a warm heart. Do you remember the red cloth strips we hung on the apricot tree? Vertically he complained we shouldn't have done it, but once when there was a strong wind in Luo City, he closed the doors to the main hall to prevent the cross-draft from blowing and breaking the branches."
Anxi Street, Taiping Medical Clinic, the place where the story began.
Chen Ji looked at Bai Li in front of him. It was as if he had once deposited time with the other party. As long as he saw the other party, the other party could take him through the long river of time, back to the past.
Right at this moment, Bai Li asked curiously: "Did you ever see my mother again later? The Canal Transport Guild has been looking for her all along, but hasn't been able to find her."
Hearing this, Chen Ji's heartbeat skipped a beat, and he just stiffened on the long bench like that.
Until the old man walked over carrying two bowls of wontons, interrupting the two people's train of thought: "Guest officers, the two bowls are ready."
Chen Ji recovered his senses, gently pushing one of the bowls in front of Bai Li: "Eat while it's hot."
Bai Li softly said a sentence of thanks. Her fingers touched the warm bowl wall, paused, and only then picked up the soup spoon. She scooped up a little soup, blew on it carefully, and sent it into her mouth.
The spicy fragrance of the pepper, the mellow thickness of the bone broth, and the umami flavor of the dried baby shrimp and cilantro diffused in her mouth. Her back, which had been kept somewhat stiffly straight all along, also relaxed a bit: "It is indeed very delicious."
Chen Ji kept his head down, stirring the bowl with his soup spoon. He deliberated for a long time before answering: "After Prince Jing passed away, I haven't seen Consort Yun again."
Bai Li gave an "mm": "Mother originated from The Jianghu, I assume she has her own means of hiding herself."
Chen Ji suddenly said: "I fear there are still people watching these few days, so we can't leave yet. But after three days on the Double Ninth Festival, the Annan envoys will bid farewell to the imperial court. At that time, the wine ban over the neighborhoods will be lifted, and presumably it will be much more bustling. If we leave on that day, it will be Absolutely Foolproof... Where do you want to go? Traveling far overseas or going north to the Jing Dynasty are both fine."
Chen Ji spoke of his plans: "If traveling far overseas, we have to take a boat down to Jinling first, linger in Jinling for a while, and find a path to go out to sea. There are two paths we can take. The first path is to look for merchants heading to Siam and travel together with them. The benefit of going to Siam is that there are many Ning Dynasty people there, and the customs in many places were passed over from our two Guang provinces (Guangdong and Guangxi). The second path is to have the Zhang family's death warriors arrange a large ship to go out to sea from Tongzhou. Presumably there are also many interesting places overseas. Outside the Ning Dynasty there is still a very big world, there will be many people with blonde hair and blue eyes, speaking languages completely different from ours..."
"If going north to the Jing Dynasty, we go through Taiyuan Prefecture to Guyuan, and disguise ourselves as traveling merchants to exit the pass from Guyuan. My original intention was to go to the Jing Dynasty, because the Prince Heir and Master are there. Princess Liyang might also be able to provide some help, creating forged Household Registrations for you and me... At that time, we will first find the Prince Heir and Master to converge, then go together to build a hut and live at the foot of Changbai Mountain in the Jing Dynasty. I will teach you how to hunt, catching fish and digging out frogs in the summer, and catching hibernating blind bears in the winter... Only by leaving the Ning Dynasty can you be considered thoroughly free."
But this time, Bai Li lowered her head and stirred the wontons in her bowl: "Chen Ji, I can't leave yet. I still have things to do."
Chen Ji was startled for a moment: "Do what?"
After being silent for a long time, Bai Li finally said in a low voice: "I mean, accompany me to the Public Cemetery outside the city tomorrow. Princess Yongchun is buried there. I want to bury her together with Zhou Zhuoyuan. In addition, I also want to meet Aunt Yuanjin. Can you help me inquire where she is? After The Empress passed away, she left the Forbidden City."
Chen Ji thought for a moment: "Okay."
...
...
A bowl of wontons took almost half a Shichen (one hour) to eat. When getting up, Chen Ji saw figures milling about in the shadows in the distance. When his gaze swept over, the figures immediately retreated into the darkness.
Maintaining an unruffled expression, Chen Ji took out a piece of broken silver and tossed it onto the table, getting up and walking north with Bai Li. He turned his head back several times, and could see figures silently tagging along in the distance.
When passing through Chuanban Hutong, Chen Ji suddenly grabbed Bai Li's wrist and hid at the corner. He protected Bai Li by his side, silently listening to the footsteps outside the alley approaching bit by bit.
Chen Ji held his breath, prepared to take this person down, to see which faction's forces were tailing him.
Bai Li stood by Chen Ji's side, tilting her head up and quietly looking at Chen Ji's profile, seeing how the other party had shed almost all childishness and greenness in less than a year.
It turned out the other party had always been living days holding his heart and hanging his gall (living in anxiety and fear).
At this time, the footsteps stopped at a distance of five or six zhang (15-20 meters). Chen Ji tensed his body and waited for a long time, but didn't see the other party take another step closer. He pondered for a moment, then flashed out from the corner, but there were no longer any figures outside the alley.
Bai Li asked curiously: "Someone is following us?"
Chen Ji shook his head: "It's nothing."
He was certain someone was definitely following just now. It was just that this person tailing them was so alert. Was it the Secret Spy Division, the Canal Transport Guild... or the Military Intelligence Division?
Chen Ji exhaled a long breath of turbid air: "Let's go, going home."
When returning to Liquor Alley, both of them had a bit more on their minds.
Xiaoman and the Little Monk were sitting in the courtyard, propping their chins with their hands and dozing off.
Hearing the sound of the door opening, Xiaoman hurriedly got up and rubbed her eyes: "Where did Young Master go, why are you only coming back now... Commandery Princess Baili."
Xiaoman was somewhat restrained when seeing Bai Li: "Have you eaten? There is still cured meat and eggs in the kitchen, I can cook two dishes in a moment."
Chen Ji laughed and said: "Don't busy yourself, we're not hungry."
Xiaoman immediately pushed Chen Ji and Bai Li's backs: "Then rest early. Everything inside the house has been prepared properly, and the bedding has also been changed to new ones."
Just as they pushed open the door to the main room, what greeted their eyes were two red candles. On the table lay a jar of wine and two gourds, clearly the utensils used for drinking the nuptial cup wine.
Chen Ji turned his head again, and surprisingly, brand-new great red bedding was spread on the bed as well.
He hurriedly stepped forward and blew out the red candles, lowering his voice and glaring at Xiaoman: "What are you doing putting these out?"
Xiaoman was stunned: "Ah, me? Ah, you guys?"
Chen Ji dropped a sentence to Bai Li, "Rest early, I'll accompany you to the Public Cemetery tomorrow," and then pulled Xiaoman and the Little Monk to flee the main room in a fluster.
Xiaoman scrutinized Chen Ji: "Young Master, you..."
Chen Ji pinched her mouth: "Stop speaking nonsense, go back to your west wing room and sleep."
When Chen Ji let go, Xiaoman asked in disbelief: "Then what about you, Young Master?"
Chen Ji glanced at the east wing room: "I'll sleep in the east wing room with the Little Monk." (End of Chapter)