Chapter 24
Xie Qinghong had never been to Huaizhou; all her impressions of it came from her mother's descriptions: a ten-mile-long street, a bright moon over cold mountains, and continuous misty rain. While not as prosperous as the capital, it was imbued with a scholarly atmosphere, making it a place vastly different from Wangjing. Jiangnan had many academies, where renowned scholars often lectured and debated; this explained why Zheng Yingluo had disguised herself as a man and followed Qin Erlang south to study.
Xie Qinghong now feels calm and peaceful when he thinks of Zheng Yingluo and Qin Heng, and he hasn't had that strange dream again. It seems that throwing away the book in the dream was quite effective.
From Wu County, they had to switch to waterways. Xie Qinghong had never been on a boat before, only to watch operas on painted boats in the capital. Those painted boats were slow and not much different from the opera stages on the shore. He thought that taking a boat this time would be no problem, but as soon as he boarded the boat, he felt dizzy and nauseous. After vomiting, he could only lie on the bed to rest.
Liang Yu was heartbroken. Fortunately, the family's female physician had accompanied them. After examining Xie Qinghong, she said it was seasickness. She cut thin slices of ginger and had Xie Qinghong hold them under her tongue. However, Xie Qinghong wanted to vomit again as soon as she smelled the ginger.
Standing outside the door, Pei Du's brows were already furrowed just from his voice. He instructed, "Settle down in Le County tonight. Tomorrow we'll travel by land to fetch some orange peels."
Xie Qinghong had a headache, but his hearing was perfectly fine. He raised his voice and said, "No!" This startled both the female doctor and Liang Yu. "What do you mean, no?"
Xie Qinghong took a deep breath and said firmly, "I won't go by land; I want to take a boat."
"You've already suffered so much, why do you still want to take a boat?" Liang Yu understood and thought that Prince Pei's idea was good and quite considerate.
Xie Qinghong had just gagged, and her eyes were slightly red from the effort, with some glistening tears. She rinsed her mouth and said, "Mother, I will have to take a boat in the future. There are many waterways in the south, so waterways are naturally more suitable for travel."
She lowered her voice and said, "Mother, please tell Prince Pei that I think it's fine and there's no need to switch to the land route to avoid trouble."
Liang Yu remained silent. She often said that her daughter was spoiled by her, but in reality, A-Yao was independent and decisive, never pampered, and did everything according to her own principles. If A-Yao hadn't agreed to this arranged marriage herself, the Xie family would definitely not have agreed.
“Ah Yao doesn’t need to be so understanding. If he finds it troublesome, we’ll just go by ourselves.”
Xie Qinghong's eyes were clear and bright. She pursed her lips, knowing that her mother cared about her, but she also had to care about her mother. Traveling by carriage overland was too tiring for her mother, and besides, she couldn't keep avoiding boats forever.
Therefore, she firmly shook her head: "Mother, I want to overcome this."
Xie Qinghong lay down and slept for a while, but when she woke up it was already past midnight. A-Xing had been keeping watch, and as soon as she saw that she was awake, she immediately went to the kitchen to get some warm soup. Xie Qinghong put on her clothes and got out of bed. Seeing the moonlight shining through the window, she simply opened the window, and a cool breeze greeted her.
They were sailing at night, though at a slower pace. Looking out the window at the rippling water, the bright moon hanging high in the sky, and the distant, dark mountains, she had never seen such a dynamic night scene before, and everything seemed new and exciting.
There were two knocks on the door. If it were Ah Xing, she wouldn't knock again. She turned around and asked curiously, "Who is it?"
It was Pei Du who responded: "It's me. Are you awake?"
Xie Qinghong was thinking about what happened during the day and forgot that her hair was disheveled. She went to open the door and only realized what was going on when she saw Pei's slightly surprised expression. She then slammed the door shut, almost pinching Pei Du's fingers.
"...Xie Qinghong, what are you doing?" Through the door, Pei Du was at a loss for words. The fleeting glimpse he had just caught had allowed him to see a different side of the usually refined girl; even without makeup, she was still a beauty.
Xie Qinghong frowned in annoyance, then put on her veil, turned around and opened the door again, preemptively asking, "You didn't see anything just now, did you?"
Pei Du couldn't help but say, "I see it, the moonlight is so bright."
The moonlight was indeed quite bright, hazy and like a light veil, revealing some secrets hidden behind people. The dark night melted into the moonlight, and the breeze on the river lifted a corner of Xie Qinghong's veil, revealing her chin.
She tilted her head slightly, but her vision was obscured by the netting, so she couldn't see the person in front of her clearly. She was a little annoyed: "How come your eyes are so sharp?"
Pei Du chuckled: "Not as good as your ears."
Xie Qinghong then remembered the important matter and hurriedly said, "I feel much better now. We will continue by water tomorrow. I have checked, and it will take another four or five days to reach Huaizhou. However, it will take seven or eight days by land. If we encounter any city gate checkpoints, we may not be able to get there in time."
Pei Du was surprised: "Where did you see that?"
At this point, Xie Qinghong was no longer sleepy. He immediately turned around, pulled out a travelogue from under his pillow, and pointed to a page for Pei Du to see: "Look, it's written here!"
Pei Du was stunned when he saw the book, then smiled and asked, "Where did this book come from? It's written in such detail."
Xie Qinghong boasted, "My brother gave this to me; your brother would never give it to you." She still remembered comparing her brother with this person before. Although her brother was better in every way, she felt frustrated by the comparison.
Pei Du sighed: "Yes, my elder brother never buys books for his younger brother, so he has to support himself and write his own books."
He bent down slightly, pointed his finger at the spine of the book, and continued, "I wrote 'Southward Crossing,' thank you for your patronage."
Xie Qinghong: "...Really? I don't believe it." She tightened her grip on the spine of the book slightly, and if Pei Du said another word, she would lose control and shove the spine of the book into his face.
Fortunately, Pei Du knew when to stop. He straightened up and resumed his gentlemanly demeanor from the daytime, speaking with righteous indignation: "It's chilly at night, Miss Xie, you should go back inside."
Xie Qinghong was taken aback, then heard A Xing's footsteps. Pei Du then gracefully stepped back, nodded, and took his leave: "It's late, Miss, you should rest early. I'll take my leave."
When Ah Xing reached the third floor, she only saw Pei Shizi's back, while her young mistress stood outside the door wearing a veiled hat and holding a book in her hand. Startled, she quickly went over and asked, "Why are you standing outside, young mistress? It's a bit chilly, please come inside."
Xie Qinghong entered the room without a word, took off her veil, silently drank the chicken soup, and then lay down on the bed and closed her eyes again under A Xing's nagging.
In the stillness of the night, Xie Qinghong grew angrier and angrier. Finally, he couldn't help but get up and carefully examine the book "Southward Crossing" by candlelight. The more he looked, the more familiar the character "South" on the cover seemed. The strokes of the character were sharp and the vertical stroke went straight down, like a sword cutting through the fog, moving forward without hesitation.
After thinking carefully for a long time, a flash of inspiration struck her. She had seen this character before, on the folding fan that Pei Du used to shield her from the rain at the Shangsi Flower Appreciation Banquet.
“A cassia tree on Nanshan Mountain,” she murmured to herself, finally recalling the poem by an unknown poet, used to express her feelings: “Above are two mandarin ducks, their necks intertwined for a thousand years, their love unforgettable.”
If Pei Du wrote the words "Southward Crossing," then it would be obvious who wrote the line "A cassia tree on the southern mountain."
Belatedly realizing what was happening, she slowly loosened her grip on the spine of the book.
She had initially suspected that the folding fan was part of someone else's scheme to deliberately implicate Pei Shizi in her affair. But who knew that Pei Du himself had written it! No wonder, no wonder he didn't give her a straight answer when she asked him back then—was he feeling guilty?
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