Chapter 23 Steamed Chicken: The Steamed Chicken Has Been Found - Lin Wen'an

Yao Ruyi followed the mother dog forward, with a litter of kittens and puppies waddling along behind her. She looked around blankly, feeling both anxious and regretful.

Even on a bitterly cold winter day, Bianjing (Kaifeng) was still bustling with activity.

Tomorrow is the Winter Solstice, and the streets are already filled with a festive atmosphere. White smoke billows from the chimneys of the riverside teahouses, and colorful banners cut into various auspicious patterns hang from the eaves. Further on, the crowds grow denser, and mule carts carrying charcoal occasionally roll over the dirt road, leaving two black tracks under their wheels, which are quickly trampled into mud by the passing people and animals.

Once outside the alley, the smells became mixed. At first, the mother dog sniffed the air with her wet nose, then quickly whimpered, flicked her tail, and ran towards Jinliang Bridge. But when she reached the bridgehead, she sniffed the ground again, then just circled back and forth on the bridge, seemingly unsure of where to go.

Yao Ruyi felt like she was being fried in oil. She bent down and stroked the fur on the mother dog's back. After standing up, she looked around. Grandpa Yao must have lingered here, but where was he? She asked several pedestrians and stall owners along the way, but everyone shook their heads. After all, there were too many people coming and going in the market.

Yao Ruyi had no choice but to squat down again and rub the mother dog's head: "Can't you smell anything anymore?"

Before the words were finished, the sound of oars creaking came from under the bridge. A carved and painted boat broke through the water, its upturned prow slowly emerging from the shadows of the bridge arch. The mother dog's ears perked up instantly, and she rushed to the bridge, barking loudly at the boat, her front paws raised as she lunged at the railing.

Yao Ruyi hurriedly rushed to the railing and peered over her shoulder. Hearing the dog barking, the people on the boat looked up, and one sharp-eyed man shouted, "Isn't that Miss Yao! Stop the boat immediately! Stop the boat!"

Once the boat had glided out of the bridge arch, it became clear that three young men in brocade robes stood at the bow, surrounded by a circle of servants in blue robes.

She recognized him at a glance: among the three richly dressed youths, there was one with squinty eyes and a perpetually sour expression. She didn't recognize the one with squinty eyes; she recognized the two twin servants behind him, each with a mole on one cheek!

The two looked remarkably alike. They arrived around noon, when only a few aunties were chatting in front of her shop. The first one bought chicken eggs, and as he entered through the back gate of the Imperial College, he turned around and immediately followed, with an identical man buying over a dozen skewers of grilled sausages. Yao Ruyi almost thought she was seeing a ghost.

The two servants practically jumped up and shouted, "Dr. Yao is right here! He insists on taking a boat to Fengshui County, Guizhou Province in Lingnan Circuit. No matter who tries to persuade him, he won't go home. We have no choice but to hire a boat and keep going back and forth on the Bian River. We dare not go far. We have already made more than ten trips back and forth!"

Yao Ruyi looked closely and saw half of an old, wrinkled, square face peeking out of the porthole. She relaxed, and the tears she had been holding back for so long flowed out. She sat down on the ground with a thud, wrapped her arms around the dog's big furry neck, and whimpered. The dog's body immediately twisted away in disgust.

Yao Ruyi ignored it and even wiped her tears on the dog's neck.

That really scared her to death.

When the boat docked, Yao Ruyi led the dogs on a jog and jumped aboard, finally meeting Grandpa Yao.

No sooner had they boarded the boat than the mother dog bared her teeth and growled at Grandpa Yao, as if about to pounce on him. Startled, Yao Ruyi hurriedly grabbed its large head: "Misunderstanding, misunderstanding! I asked you to find someone, not to eat people!"

The mother dog whimpered fiercely a few more times before finally lying down reluctantly, soothed by the various foods Yao Ruyi offered her.

Yao Ruyi breathed a sigh of relief, finally able to get up and go see Grandpa Yao.

Yao Qizhao was sitting on a low stool in the cabin, his clothes neat and tidy, his hair perfectly in place, his old eyes cloudy, staring fixedly at the surging eastward-flowing river, his expression wooden.

"Grandpa!" Yao Ruyi touched his arm and then checked his forehead. Fortunately, he was unharmed. She couldn't help but feel annoyed. "Where did you run off to in the blink of an eye!"

Yao Qizhao shoved her aside, his face full of suspicion: "Who are you? Why are you pulling me?" He then turned to Geng Hao, who was standing to the side, and asked, "Have we arrived yet? Have we reached Fengshui County?"

"What are you doing going to Fengshui County!" Before Geng Hao could even respond, Yao Ruyi interrupted him without regard for etiquette. Thinking about how she was already on the verge of a meltdown, and how she had finally found someone only to be pushed away again, she couldn't help but raise her voice in aggrieved tone, "I was almost frantic just now!"

She had only spent a little over a month with her grandfather, but having taken over the body of the original owner, she felt it was her duty to shoulder this responsibility. Besides, she felt sorry for his lonely old age, and while she and her family worked hard to make ends meet, she also hoped that he could enjoy his remaining years in comfort.

“My son and daughter-in-law wrote, saying there’s a major epidemic in Fengshui County, and they need to stay in the city to oversee things. I have to go see them.” Yao Qizhao seemed increasingly confused, and asked again, “Have they arrived? Have they reached their destination by boat?”

Geng Hao, who was eager to eat, had been waiting for so long and was already impatient. He casually coaxed, "We're here, we've reached the shore. We'll be there soon."

Zhang Heng stood at a distance, arms crossed, watching the farce with great interest.

Yao Qizhao tried to get up, but he shakily rose, leaning on the boatpost. He was still muttering to himself, "What am I going to do? My wife left me with only this son. He finally got married and established himself, and finally got elected as the magistrate of Fengshui County. Why did my son and his wife have to be hit by the plague? Heaven is so unfair to the Yao family..."

Yao Ruyi's outstretched hand, which she had intended to help, froze in mid-air.

Yu Tong, being a gentleman, explained to her in a low voice: "Mr. Yao just kept repeating these words. If we listened carefully, it seemed that he was not talking about the great plague in Guizhou that we heard about this year, but rather the plague in Fengshui County, Guizhou thirteen years ago... We really had no choice just now. If we went against his wishes, he would go crazy and shout, and we were afraid of hurting his health, so we had to go along with him. I just sent someone to your house to inform you, but I missed it."

As Yao Ruyi listened, her heart trembled. She thanked the three of them in a low voice, and for a moment she didn't know what else to say. She just stared intently at Grandpa Yao.

She remembered that when she was tidying up the storage room before opening the shop, she found an old official's robe and an opened letter in the boxes where Grandpa Yao kept his books. The envelope was full of wormholes, yellowed and brittle. When she picked it up, a piece of paper fell out from the middle.

She picked it up, intending to put it back, when she caught a glimpse of a passage: "...Although my husband and I are not skilled in medicine, we cannot let the people of the county live on. The city is now filled with plague, and corpses block the roads. Staying here is a matter of life and death, but if my death can save the lives of the people, I will not regret even if I die nine times."

At the time, she didn't know who had written the letter to Grandpa Yao, and she felt that other people's letters should not be opened without permission, so she quickly stuffed it back, sealed the letter and the books, and moved them back to Grandpa Yao's house, finding a place to put them.

Looking back now, it was no ordinary old item; it must have been a final note sent by Grandpa Yao's son.

The phrase "Even if I die nine times, I will not regret it" lingered in Yao Ruyi's mind. When she looked at her grandfather's somewhat hunched back again, a sour feeling welled up in her throat.

At this moment, his expression was stubborn and resolute, no longer resembling a foolish old man. The wind howled from the shore, seemingly carrying away his old age and white hair, sweeping across the years, making his back straight and his black hair thick.

Standing at the bow of the boat, staggering towards the shore, he seemed to become Yao Qizhao, in the prime of his life.

Even after searching through the original owner's memories, Yao Ruyi didn't know many of the Yao family's past events. Perhaps the original owner was too young and ignorant to remember them clearly. But even from just a few words, one could glimpse Grandpa Yao's life: losing his wife in his youth, losing his son in middle age, and in his old age... How much suffering must one endure in this life before it's over?

How did he manage to endure so much suffering all by himself? Yao Ruyi couldn't bear to think about it too deeply.

Yu Tong gestured for his attendant to step forward and, in place of the bewildered Yao Ruyi, steadily support Yao Qizhao, who was about to abandon the boat and go ashore. He himself stepped forward and gently comforted him, "Sir, don't be anxious. Magistrate Yao is a lucky man and will surely turn misfortune into good fortune."

Upon hearing this, Yao Qizhao paused, turning his head to look at him. On his deeply lined face was a calm that had been washed away by extreme grief: "You're wrong. My son and his wife are likely dead. The plague is rampant, and the court has ordered the sealing off of the county. Fengshui is a thousand miles away from Bianjing. By the time I get there, I'm afraid I won't even be able to see them one last time... But I have to go."

Yu Tong was slightly taken aback.

The old man before me, dressed in shabby clothes, had such a calm, resolute and tenacious expression on his face—perhaps back then, he carried the same thought that he would not be able to see his loved ones one last time, and traveled alone from north to south, traveling thousands of miles day and night.

Even if I can't see anyone, I still have to go.

"Otherwise, who will collect their bodies?"

"I have to go."

"I have to go."

He shook off everyone's hands, and with faltering steps, he moved forward.

***

Zhao Taicheng's Medical Clinic is located at the crossroads south of Zhouqiao Bridge, and it is very grand.

The two-story house, with its blue bricks and gray tiles, has three open front rooms. Several medicine cabinets stand against the walls, reaching up to the roof beams. Large and small camphor wood drawers are filled with various medicinal herbs, and over a hundred small drawers are engraved with characters like "Angelica sinensis" and "Rehmannia glutinosa." The clinic's clerks, straddling low ladders, deftly move about like stilts, dispensing medicine with practiced ease.

The left wing room has a dozen or so simple bamboo and wooden beds, separated by coarse cloth curtains. It is used to treat critically ill patients who have suffered strokes and coma or have knife wounds. Men and women are treated in separate rooms, and each room can accommodate about ten people.

Previously, after Grandpa Yao suffered a stroke and was unable to move, he was "hospitalized" here for treatment. The right wing room was used to accommodate patients who needed acupuncture and medicated baths, and its interior structure was roughly the same.

After thanking the three men profusely, Yao Ruyi used the excuse of "why not buy some raw herbs to take to Fengshui" to trick Grandpa Yao from near Jinliang Bridge to Zhao Taicheng's clinic. Now, after drinking the calming soup prescribed by the doctor, he is fast asleep in the side room, receiving acupuncture and moxibustion.

A line of dogs, big and small, and cats lay at Yao Ruyi's feet. They had followed her from Jinliang Bridge to Zhou Bridge, panting heavily with their tongues lolling out. Some of the clinic's staff loved cats and dogs and even offered to fetch well water for them to quench their thirst.

She sat nervously on the bench, listening to Dr. Chen, who was used to giving her grandfather acupuncture:

"Just now, when I took his pulse, Dr. Yao's pulse was stronger than before, and his complexion was also rosy. In my opinion, his recent commotion is not due to a worsening of his condition, but rather because the medicine and acupuncture he has been taking recently have been effective. His brain meridians, which were blocked by phlegm and blood stasis, are gradually clearing up, and he is slowly becoming more awake and able to remember more things. However, the blockage is not completely gone, and his old and new memories are mixed together, hence the confusion. This is a great turning point, so my lady should be at ease."

Yao Ruyi breathed a long sigh of relief.

Indeed, she had noticed that Grandpa Yao was more lucid lately. Occasionally, the way he looked at her and spoke to her was just like a normal person; it turned out that her perception wasn't just her imagination.

"You've taken good care of your grandfather these past few days, you've gone to great lengths! That's good, please continue to come back for treatment." Doctor Chen picked up his brush, dipped it in ink, and revised the prescription. "Originally, he only took some medicines to promote blood circulation, remove blood stasis, and replenish deficiency and purge excess. Now I'll add some Acorus tatarinowii and Polygala tenuifolia to open the orifices and refresh the mind, and supplement them with Astragalus membranaceus and Angelica sinensis to replenish qi and blood. Come back in a few days and we'll observe the effect."

Yao Ruyi thanked the doctor and waited at the clinic for Grandpa Yao to wake up before they went back together.

When she reached the alley, she realized with a start that she had forgotten to close the shop window! So many of her things were still there!

This is bad!

She hurried forward a few steps, but slowed down after seeing clearly. Aunt Yu and Madam Cheng were sitting at the table and chairs under the window talking, while Xiao Song, Jasmine, and Little Stone were squatting in front of her door playing with candy wrappers—whoever could blow all the candy wrappers over in one breath would win.

When the aunts and sisters-in-law saw her return with Grandpa Yao, they all breathed a sigh of relief, saying that they had heard from Old Xiang that Dr. Yao was missing and they wanted to help look for him, but someone came back to report that he had been found, so they didn't go to cause any trouble.

Aunt Yu joked, "I helped you sell a lot of things, you have to pay me back later."

Upon hearing this, Sister You immediately exposed her, and went over to complain to Yao Ruyi: "Ruyi, you must not let your Aunt Yu fool you! She is not cut out for business. When you were not here, a fussy and pedantic fellow came and asked for a pen about where the bamboo was from, what kind of hair it was, how soft and hard it was, and how much the tip was. He asked for half an hour. Your Aunt Yu got angry, snatched the pen back, and said she would not sell it to him. She drove him away in a huff."

"That poor bastard is so fussy! He wants to try writing on a pen that costs twenty coins, and if he doesn't buy it after trying it, who will buy it?" Aunt Yu glared at her, then turned and handed the money to Yao Ruyi. "He only sold a few chickens and three ink sticks. Here, the money is all here!"

Yao Ruyi took Grandpa Yao's arm and said sincerely, "These days I've been so grateful for the care and support of my aunts and sisters-in-law. I'm also very grateful for their understanding and support. Tomorrow is the Winter Solstice, so I'd like to invite everyone to my house for dinner."

"What do you want to eat?" Cheng Niangzi teased her. "I won't come if you don't cut a leg of lamb."

Yao Ruyi thought for a moment, then had an idea and said with a smile, "Just come on over, the secrets of heaven cannot be revealed!"

"Still keeping us in suspense!"

After making arrangements with everyone, they inquired about Dr. Yao's condition and only dispersed after learning the details. She then helped Grandpa Yao back into the house. Strangely enough, after leaving the clinic, Grandpa Yao seemed to stop mentioning Fengshui County. Perhaps it was because he had just woken up and had been coaxed by Doctor Chen to drink a bowl of terribly bitter medicine, which made him so dazed that he obediently followed her home upon hearing that they were going home.

On the way back, the dog family followed them, but when they reached the gate, the mother dog led her puppies to a stop. Yao Ruyi noticed and turned around to wave, "Come on, Big Yellow, come in!"

"Suckling."

At the sound, Big Yellow didn't move, but several puppies and kittens had already run happily into the Yao family's yard. The Yao family's yard was more spacious than the Lin family's small courtyard, and the furry little creatures chased each other all over the yard, meowing and barking noisily.

Yao Ruyi raised an eyebrow triumphantly, now she was using the puppy to control its mother.

The large, yellow-haired, scarred dog in front of the gate glanced at her, then reluctantly shuffled into the yard.

It took more than a month to finally bring this litter of puppies into our home!

Yao Ruyi suppressed her joy, glanced at the sky, and then asked Grandpa Yao to sit in the yard and play with the dog for a while. She went into the kitchen to prepare new starch sausage paste—the meat paste prepared in the morning had already sold out.

Take the chicken from the cellar, mince it, and mix it with diced pork fat, salt, and sauce until it becomes sticky. Then prepare a starch paste, add ginger and scallion juice, and rice wine. Mix the minced meat and starch paste together in a 1:3 ratio, stir clockwise until it becomes elastic, and a bowl of glossy starch sausage paste is ready.

It's quick and easy.

It smells delicious even before it's baked.

The chicken was a live chicken bought yesterday, frozen for only one day, and the muscles were still elastic. She didn't have a meat grinder, so when she chopped the meat into mince by hand, some small pieces would remain. The resulting chicken paste was starchy and you could still see tiny chunks of meat.

Highly rated ingredients! Yao Ruyi was quite satisfied and set them aside for the time being.

She kneaded a lot more dough and steamed a dozen or so round steamed buns—after the students finished school, she planned to sell some baked pizzas. Pizzas can be baked in an ordinary oven with steamed buns and eggs; it's very simple, and it's Grandma's special skill!

After she finished steaming the buns, she went down to the cellar to get some cured meat and scallions. She found that there was only one and a half chickens left in the cellar. Yao Ruyi decided not to keep them. Grandpa Yao had suffered such a shock, so she would steam a chicken for him tonight to make him stronger!

Since we've finished eating them anyway, we can just buy more.

Rub the chicken with coarse salt, ginger slices, and fermented rice wine, then steam it without adding any other seasonings or water. After steaming for an hour, a golden, rich chicken broth will appear underneath the chicken, and the chicken itself will be thick, fragrant, and delicious. It's also a very easy method.

When steaming the chicken, Ruyi also placed the rice in the next steamer rack, with the water just covering the rice grains. This way, the chicken juices steaming from the top would condense and drip into the rice, resulting in rice that was oily and slightly yellow, infused with the aroma of chicken broth, yet not too soft—it was delicious.

As she tended the stove, she could still hear Grandpa Yao complaining outside: "Where did all these puppies come from! Huh! How come there's a cat mixed in too? Hey, get out of here, don't pull on my pants leg!"

She smiled upon hearing this, but then suddenly remembered what Doctor Chen had said, and couldn't help but feel a little down again.

As Grandpa Yao gradually regains consciousness and remembers more and more, he might discover that she is different from the original owner of this body. Even so, she still feels that even with the risk of being exposed, she is willing to do anything as long as Grandpa Yao can recover.

As dusk gradually fell from the rooftops to the ground, the aroma of steamed chicken filled the courtyard from the kitchen. The puppies were already impatiently waiting at the kitchen door, their two chubby front paws pawing at the high threshold set up to keep out mice, their round bodies standing upright in a row.

When Yao Ruyi brought out the chicken, her plump tails wagged so hard they could practically fan the wind.

They had been trying to climb in, but a low bark from the big yellow dog lying by the gate startled them, causing them to shrink back and slowly retract their paws.

Yao Ruyi placed the steamed chicken on the stove table, which was covered with a quilt.

"Grandpa, come and eat!"

Yao Qizhao was sitting in a rocking chair in the corner of the yard. Hearing the sound, he looked up and slowly stood up, holding onto the back of the chair. He had smelled the strong aroma of chicken soup earlier, and his stomach was rumbling. But with so many dogs in the yard now rushing up to eat, he couldn't be as impatient as the dogs, could he?

They've become concerned about saving face.

He slowly sidled over to take a look, intending to find fault with it, but he saw that the chicken skin in the earthenware pot had turned yellow from steaming, and the pieces of meat were soaking in the thick, bright golden chicken soup at the bottom. The aroma of the wine lees, ginger, and chicken was so enticing that he couldn't say a word and just kept swallowing his saliva.

Yao Ruyi tore off some chicken breast, poured a spoonful of chicken broth into the rice porridge, and put it in a large bowl by the gate. The puppy and Xiaomi immediately swarmed over, their faces covered in meat juices.

Big Yellow's ears perked up, and although it was sniffing the aroma, it lay quietly waiting for its babies to eat first.

After setting out the bowls and chopsticks, Yao Ruyi first served Grandpa Yao a large bowl of rice, then strained out the rich chicken soup from the bottom, poured a spoonful over the rice, and added a fatty chicken leg and a few pieces of good meat: "Grandpa, please try this."

Yao Qizhao tremblingly picked up a piece of meat and put it in his mouth. The steamed chicken was incredibly fragrant, and with a gentle bite, the meat and bone separated naturally, even the tendons had a soft, chewy texture. He chewed another bite, expecting the dry-steamed meat to be tough, but it was surprisingly tender, bursting with rich, flavorful broth. He then shoveled a large mouthful of rice into his mouth, each grain coated with a thin, glistening layer of oil, yet not greasy, leaving a warm, comforting feeling in his stomach.

Yao Ruyi watched as Grandpa Yao suddenly sped up his eating after the first bite, then focused on shoveling rice and meat into his mouth, occasionally letting out a comment like, "Not bad, um, not bad!"

Of course! The secret to dry-steamed chicken lies in the word "dry." It relies entirely on the chicken's own fat and the moisture from the fermented rice to steam out the chicken broth, and the flavor is incomparable to ordinary stewed chicken broth.

The puppies smacked their lips and licked the earthenware plate until their bellies were bulging. Only then did the mother dog stand up, bend down to eat, and sweep up the remaining meat porridge.

Seeing this, Yao Ruyi was worried that it wasn't eating enough, so she added a large spoonful of rice and two pieces of chicken.

She herself ate a large bowl of chicken soup with rice and a big chicken leg, feeling quite full. Now, propping her chin up, she watched Grandpa Yao, burping as he picked up a piece of meat, almost to the bone, eating with great care, even gnawing away the bits of meat between the bones. A grain of rice stuck to his chin, trembling slightly with each chew, quite comical, but he was completely oblivious, enjoying his meal immensely.

"It's okay. I was born into this world for free. Being able to live a few more years, see so much of the world, and enjoy a life without illness is enough. I've lived and been here."

Yao Ruyi said silently to herself.

A cold sensation landed on her eyelids, and she looked up.

The swirling snowflakes, illuminated by the lights of countless homes, fell like shattered stars into her eyes.

At this very moment, in the cold, dark night, not only was smoke rising from the Yao family's chimney, but the smoke from every household in the alleyway also billowed like clouds, topped with snowflakes, continuously reaching the sky. But inside the Imperial Academy, there was still an unfortunate fellow, starving and sighing at the mountain of documents piled before him.

Just now, the first snow of this winter finally began to fall.

Several red-crowned cranes kept in the Zichen Palace garden somehow ended up in the Academy, their necks held high, strolling leisurely in the first snow.

In the Eastern Study of the Academy, Meng Qingyuan put down his pen, rubbed his wrist, and looked out the window. It was said that these cranes were raised by His Highness the Crown Prince. Perhaps because the food in the palace was too good, each of them had full, shiny feathers, round and plump bellies, and even their slender, ethereal necks had become much thicker.

When Meng Qingyuan was first appointed as a junior official in the Imperial Academy, he was unaware that such a group of crane ancestors were being kept in the Forbidden Court. He thought they were geese that had escaped from the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. Later, after his friend and colleague Xie Qi explained, he learned that they were cranes that the young prince had raised since they were a cub. They had been spoiled so much that they had grown so round and plump.

"There's nothing we can do about it," Meng Qingyuan thought to himself. The Emperor has few children—three daughters and one son, all born to Consort Zhang. Because he only has one son, even the Empress Dowager shows him special favor. Years ago, when the Emperor wanted to set up a duck-raising facility within the Forbidden City to raise ducks for food, the Empress Dowager ruthlessly rejected it. But now, the young Crown Prince not only keeps cranes, greyhounds, and civets, but also a pair of Tibetan foxes brought back from the Western Regions by Xie Santong!

Thinking of that Tibetan fox, Meng Qingyuan had a lot to say.

The Records of the Grand Historian once recorded that "the Western Rong have many cunning beasts," and historical materials from the early Tang Dynasty also frequently mention "Tibetan foxes." When Meng Qingyuan was studying, he thought that foxes born under the snow-capped mountains of the plateau and raised by Buddhist scriptures must be pure white and ethereal.

Who knew that the Tibetan fox was... a mottled yellow-brown coat, a big face, and dead fish eyes. Now it was kept with the Crown Prince's cats and dogs, and it always loved to wail hoarsely. When it opened its mouth, it would startle even the dogs.

It's truly a jarring and unpleasant sound!

My dream is shattered; it's not even as pretty as the red fox in the mountains of Shouguang during the Song Dynasty.

When Meng Qingyuan first saw the big-faced fox being led out for a walk by a eunuch in the outer corridor near Duanben Palace, an absurd thought popped into his mind: if all the fox spirits in the storybooks who sucked the yang energy of scholars looked like this, then the term "vixen" probably wouldn't exist.

The sound of a gong came from outside. Seeing that it was getting dark, Meng Qingyuan chased away his random thoughts, got up and stretched. He counted the mountain of account books and reports piled up on the long table, and sighed in frustration. He would have to stay in the palace to work on it again today.

The Imperial Academy was responsible not only for drafting edicts, decrees, and official documents, but also for compiling national history, participating in the imperial examination question setting, and so on. The affairs were numerous and complicated. This year, the "History of Tang" was being revised, and most of the Hanlin scholars were dispatched to work on this project. The daily trivial paperwork fell to minor officials like Meng Qingyuan, so he had not been on duty during regular hours for some time.

I got up and poured myself a drink of water. Then I heard the sound of a child running around outside the carved window. A moment later, a round little head peeked in through the threshold and a childish voice said, "Uncle Meng! You're still here? My father and I have to go home now!"

Upon hearing the sound, Meng Qingyuan turned his head, and half of a smiling, chubby, fair-skinned little face peeked out from behind the door frame. She was wearing a small, light green dress and had her hair tied in two round little buns.

"It's Shuhe! Are you here with your father again today?" Meng Qingyuan hurried over, bent down and patted her head, then glanced back. Xie Qi was standing two steps away at the door of another document room, bowing politely to bid farewell to his superior.

Meng Qingyuan breathed a sigh of relief. Although children wouldn't get lost in the palace, he still squatted down and told Shuhe, "Don't run around next time, understand?"

Xie Qi's wife was quite familiar with the emperor. Her child was still young and there were no strict rules about gender separation, so she was allowed to move freely within the imperial palace with imperial permission. All the young eunuchs serving in the government office recognized her and often played with her.

Shuhe was only three years old, but already very clever and loved to imitate adults' speech. Upon hearing Meng Qingyuan's words, she immediately said in a pretentious tone, "I know what's important, I just came to say hello to you, Uncle Meng. Uncle Meng, aren't you going off duty yet? It's getting late!"

The sound was crisp and tender, like a bamboo shoot breaking through the soil in spring.

"There are still documents to be written, how can we leave? Oh, did your father finish writing them already?" Meng Qingyuan sighed, his head aching at the mention of the complicated official duties. Xie Qi, Shang An, and Ning Yi were classmates for many years and also passed the imperial examination in the same year. Shang An was sent to Jiangnan, and Ning Yi was originally also sent to a post outside the capital, but he couldn't stand the corrupt and seniority-based atmosphere of officialdom after only two days in office, so he resigned gracefully and is now traveling around the world, vowing to eat all the delicacies in the world.

Last year you wrote that it had reached Jingdong Road, but I don't know how it is now.

He and Xie Qi were the only ones who were truly destined to be together, as they were both assigned to the Academy of Scholars, which meant they could look out for each other. However, Xie Qi was much smarter than him, and his handwriting was excellent. He could write documents with confidence and in one go, unlike him who had to stay up late in the yamen.

Sure enough, Shuhe tilted her chin up proudly and said:

“My dad finished writing it a long time ago, and he even helped the other uncles copy it. Now they’ve all finished copying it.”

Meng Qingyuan was immediately depressed.

News of the great plague in Guizhou had actually reached the Emperor's court more than ten days ago, but it was only now that it had spread to the people. The Emperor issued a series of edicts, dispatching dozens of imperial physicians from the Imperial Medical Bureau to Lingnan Circuit, canceling the winter palace celebrations, and allocating funds from the Imperial Treasury to send medicine to Guizhou. These edicts had already arrived at the Academy of Scholars like snowflakes a few days ago, and he had been copying them daily and urgently summoning them to be distributed to various prefectures, staying in his office for more than ten days without returning home.

There are also many documents to be copied today. The government wants to recruit doctors who are skilled in typhoid fever and plague from all over the country and offer them a large sum of money to come to Lingnan to save the people. It also requires monasteries and Taoist temples in Guizhou to set up wards and nursing homes to isolate patients. Taoist doctors are not separated from Taoist doctors. Many Taoist priests are well-versed in the art of medicine and can combine treatment and care.

This is a matter of life and death, and he and his colleagues are so fast that they dare not delay even if they break their hands copying. Fortunately, he didn't even eat lunch today, and he has been copying all day and is about to finish.

But looking at Shuhe's soft and cuddly appearance, he couldn't help but feel fond of her, so he patiently and gently squatted down to chat with her: "By the way, where's your brother? Aren't you two always inseparable? Why didn't he come here to play today?"

“He went to Dali Temple with my Uncle Xiaochuan, saying that there was a rare tea-braised chicken egg to eat.”

"Then why don't you go?"

"What's so special about tea-braised chicken? Even my Uncle Tang can make it. Besides, Uncle Yanshu can't go to the palace; he can only wait outside Donghua Gate. If I go, won't there be no one to keep Father company while he's on duty? Father is busy at his desk all day, and there's no one to pour him water or get him snacks. How lonely he must be!"

Meng Qingyuan was struck in the chest by another arrow. He was only a few years younger than Xie Qi and was still unmarried. His parents had arranged several marriages for him, but he refused them all. His mother often scolded him, asking what kind of celestial being he wanted to marry. He dared not answer. These days, every time he returned home on his day off, he was subjected to his parents' nagging and ear-pulling; it was awful.

Thinking about it that way, being busy in the duty room isn't so bad.

He pinched Shuhe's chubby cheeks with a mixture of heartache and tenderness. What a wonderful little girl.

Every time he saw Shuhe, he thought about getting married and having children, but as soon as he returned home, he saw his father beating his younger brother, his mother beating his father, and the dogs and donkeys jumping around, arguing endlessly, and he would give up the idea.

"Meng San, aren't you leaving yet?" Xie Qi said a few words to the officer in charge and then came over.

The lanterns were already lit, and the fine rain was illuminated by the yellow gauze palace lanterns, making the world dim. But when Xie Qi turned around and walked out of the misty rain in the corridor, he was a sight to behold.

The wind stirred his clothes, and even in his plain, wide-sleeved blue official robe, he exuded an air of noble bearing.

Meng Qingyuan shook his head, stood up, and said with a smile, "Anyway, I have no family. I'll organize the documents that need to be compiled today and tomorrow before I leave. That way, I won't be in a rush when I return from my winter break after the winter solstice. You and Shuhe should leave the palace first. It gets dark quickly in the snow, so don't delay any longer."

Besides... if he goes back too early, his fourth brother will probably suffer again. It's better to go back later. After his parents have rested, he can sneak into the house to sleep and have a peaceful night.

The two were very familiar with each other. Xie Qi asked if he needed any help, but Meng Qingyuan refused. He didn't say anything more, but stepped forward and patted him on the shoulder: "See you the day after tomorrow."

Meng Qingyuan waved his hand: "Go."

Shu He didn't leave immediately. She stretched out her short, chubby hand and rummaged through the small diamond-shaped bag she was carrying. She pulled out a piece of dragon's beard candy and raised it to hand to Meng Qingyuan: "Uncle Meng, here, have this." She raised her little dumpling-like face and solemnly instructed, "To fill your tummy."

Meng Qingyuan felt a warmth in his heart, solemnly accepted the gift, and bowed slightly, saying, "Thank you very much, young lady."

Shu He smiled and waved goodbye to him. Then she turned around, took Xie Qi's hand, and followed the two eunuchs who were holding umbrellas and lanterns to lead the way, skipping and hopping out of the palace.

Meng Qingyuan watched the father and daughter disappear outside the vermilion palace gates, peeled a piece of candy and stuffed it into his mouth. He then went back to his office and worked for half an hour before returning to his duty room to change out of his official robes. Hungry, he left the palace and went home.

Although the palace was small, it had all the necessary facilities. The Academy of Scholars was located in the southwest corner of the Imperial City, near the Right Gate, and was separated from the Privy Council by only one palace alley, making it very convenient to leave the palace.

He retrieved his donkey from the palace gate. The donkey was old and its temperament had become somewhat docile, but it still loved to fart, and this time it was louder and smellier! Meng Qingyuan stroked the donkey's neck and mane, listening to the spitting sounds from its rear end, and sighed, "Which little eunuch didn't listen to advice and fed you beans again?"

The old donkey brayed innocently a few times.

After years of companionship, Meng Qingyuan could no longer bear to ride it. He simply had it carry his satchel while he walked along the snow-covered path, holding an umbrella. After passing the Imperial Street to the west, and then walking for another quarter of an hour past Xingguo Temple, he would reach the alleyway leading to the Imperial College.

By this time, it was completely dark, and the snow was falling even harder. The guardhouses at the entrance of the alley were lit with warm charcoal stoves, and lanterns from each household illuminated the alley.

Meng Qingyuan, leading his donkey, nodded to the guards on duty. The guards, seeing the fish bag hanging from his waist and recognizing his face by holding up a candlestick, bowed and retreated.

It was well past the time when the Imperial Academy would close, and snow had fallen. The alley should have been deserted, but a fragrant aroma filled the air. Quite a few students in blue robes lingered in the alley, in twos and threes. Some held long bamboo skewers with sausages on them, while others held oil paper packages containing strange, "exposed" triangular cakes with all the fillings on the outside.

A group of students jostled and scrambled past him, eating and making noise as they passed by, their faces filled with confusion.

Aside from a piece of candy given to him by Shu He, Meng Qingyuan hadn't eaten anything all day. He was already starving, and the aroma of meat, oil, and pancakes wafting through the alley made his stomach rumble. He couldn't help but lead his old donkey along, craning his neck to look around. Finally, he discovered the source of the commotion—a group of people had gathered near the back gate of the Imperial College, and two lanterns under the eaves were swaying slightly in the wind and snow. Upon closer inspection, they seemed to have the words "Yao Ji Xinglong" written on them.

Yao's Restaurant? Dr. Yao's family home? When did his family open a restaurant?!

Surprised and curious, Meng Qingyuan quickly tied the old donkey, which was constantly farting, to the front door and, without going inside, hurriedly peered into the surging crowd.

Just as he hurriedly made his way to the Yao family in the snow, amidst the increasingly bleak wind and snow, outside the Jindu Water Gate, the tall grain transport ships finally lined up one by one to dock and unload grain on the water, which was covered with a thin layer of ice.

Lin family steward Cong Bo carried two jugs of hot water from the boiler room at the bottom of the cabin to the upper cabin. As soon as he entered, he excitedly chattered to the young man inside, "Second Brother, we've finally arrived! Our ship is number thirtieth, so we should be able to disembark first thing tomorrow morning."

The tall, thin young man sat behind the square table, his eyes lowered, intently wiping a slender, long portable sword. He didn't look up, only giving a casual reply.

Before him was only a small, solitary lamp, its dim, flickering light sometimes outlining his sharply defined profile, sometimes reflecting his deathly pale face, and sometimes casting a dim glow on his brow. In this dim light, his features were robust and handsome, his expression indifferent.

Although he was frail and emaciated, he was still quite strong, standing tall and straight like bamboo in the snow, supported by his faded old robe.

"Oh dear, these past forty-odd days adrift on the water, eating only porridge and cakes for half a month, seeing nothing but water and boats all day long, it's been so tedious. But now it's finally over." Uncle Cong filled the copper brazier with hot water and continued his rambling, "Erlang, I originally said it would be fine to take the tribute boat, since you're not in good health and could walk slowly, but you insisted on taking the grain boat. Now look what's happened, your legs are hurting again..."

Hearing Uncle Cong's words, he remained silent for a while, not daring to argue, otherwise Uncle Cong would continue nagging for an hour without stopping. He remembered the correspondence between his teacher and his cousin, who always complained that his teacher's granddaughter was irresponsible and that his teacher, at his advanced age, had to take care of the young, which made him frown.

This year, Wang Yong wrote to me at the end of summer, saying that you had suffered a stroke and had been bedridden for more than a month. He also said that your family had been slandered by the Deng family for many years, and now your family was in ruins and in a very sad state.

No wonder the gentleman never replied to his letters.

Although he guessed that his friend Wang Yong was deliberately trying to lure him back to the capital with the teacher, he had no choice but to return.

Lin Wen'an sighed. When he was still a child, his father was busy, his mother was frail and sickly, and he also had a younger sister to take care of. His father simply sent him to study at the Yao family's school, and he practically grew up under Yao Qizhao's care.

In those years, Mr. Yao had already lost his only son, and his five-year-old granddaughter was still being raised by her maternal grandparents in Tanzhou. He was like Mr. Yao's own son, receiving his teachings, his care, and his financial support.

Until he passed the imperial examination and entered the Eastern Palace, he was soon imprisoned and tortured. Father said that the situation was dire at that time, and the Prince of Jin's henchmen were arresting people everywhere, and everyone was in danger. Our family was of humble status and had no way to plead for help. At least Mr. Yao had some students and former officials. In order to rescue you, he, a man who refused to accept bribes, almost emptied his pockets and begged people everywhere. He was turned away countless times, but he managed to bribe a few executioners to stop the torture and save your life.

Lin Wen'an gripped the knife hilt and turned his head to look.

Outside the window, snow was hitting the glass; it was already a cold, drizzling night.

How are you, sir?

I just hope it's not too late.

————————

Big Yellow: I think you've issued a kill order.

Note: "Academician's Right Attendant" is a temporary official position, similar to... a contracted temporary worker.

Please call me Fatty Song (hands on hips)