Chapter 39 Winter's Chill: Her Madness Earned His Promise
Changsun Qingjing instructed Acai to take his several book chests, commonly used clothes, jewelry, and spices, in preparation for setting off for Cuiwei Villa in Zhongnan Mountain.
As she and Li Shimin helped Lady Dou out of the bedroom, the three of them suddenly felt that the sky was clear and bright, and Lady Dou's heart was also as relaxed as if it had been wiped clean, as if the pent-up emotions of the past few months had been expelled.
Two carriages stood side by side in front of the main gate of the Duke's mansion. Li Jiancheng and his wife, along with their children Li Qiongxi, Li Longyue, and Li Yuanji, all came to see them off.
Li Zhiyun hurriedly bid farewell to Wan Xuandao and went straight back to her elder brother and sister, not daring to watch her uncle's carriage drive away.
The head of the family, Li Yuan, arrived late, seemingly deliberately avoiding Wan Xuandao, perhaps still pondering how to persuade his wife to stay.
Changsun Qingjing realized that Lady Dou and Li Shimin, mother and son, had won their gamble.
However, Madam Dou seemed uninterested in the gamble. She won miserably and felt no joy, only gazing at the verdant mountains to the south.
"Madam, as you instructed, I have entrusted Yuwen Shiji to present those fine Turkic horses and several hawks to His Majesty..." They did not directly mention Lady Wan or Wan Xuandao, as if these two had never appeared in their lives.
However, the Duke of Tang did indeed reaffirm Dou's position in his heart by relying on his wife the most.
Li Shimin's face showed joy; after all, he was a descendant of Dou Shi and Li Yuan. The part of him that belonged to his mother accused his father of being heartless, while the part that belonged to his father quickly forgave him because of some easy gestures of goodwill.
Lady Dou simply nodded, without turning to look at her husband. Li Yuan awkwardly took off his own fur coat and put it on his wife.
"I left the peacock screen to the Duke. This morning I suddenly remembered that it was something the Duke had asked my father for years ago. It's just an old item; the Duke can do whatever he wants with it," Madam Dou said coldly.
He didn't try to persuade her to stay, because his wife always kept her promises, and there was no point in trying to persuade her further, so he simply let her have her way.
Madam Dou, unusually, did not respond to this expectation and tenderness, and withdrew her hand: "Shude, I'm leaving."
The carriage sped along Zhuque Avenue, leaving behind the tenderness, ideals, and sorrows of the people inside over the past thirty years, along with the swirling dust.
The violent coughing inside the carriage occasionally prompted Li Shimin to rein in his horse and lean out to ask his mother if she needed to rest. The coachman, unable to bear it, would rein in his horse and proceed slowly, dragging the carriage out of Mingde Gate for quite some time.
On the main road in the suburbs, Madam Dou briefly regained her mental clarity.
"Qingjing, have you read 'Ta Yao Niang'?"
"I've seen it."
Do you enjoy watching it?
Faced with the shrewd Madam Dou, Changsun Qingjing hesitated for a moment, then decided to be honest. There was no need to use clumsy lies to cover up her passionate and daring personality.
"I don't like it." Virtue wasn't defined by mere obedience, she thought to herself. She was prepared to accept her mother-in-law's decision, and hoped that her mother-in-law would also accept her own likes and dislikes.
"I think I heard Mother secretly talking badly about her son in front of Qingjing?" A handsome smiling face peeked through the curtain. "Guanyinbi, don't listen to Mother's nonsense. She always likes to expose my shortcomings for no reason."
Dou grabbed her fur coat and slapped her son's face: "Go on your way, don't eavesdrop on our conversation!"
Everyone burst into laughter.
Changsun Qingjing suddenly realized how satisfying it would be if Physician Su's wife slapped him hard and then left without looking back.
The group walked and stopped intermittently, and by noon they were not far from Cuiwei Villa. A dozen servants and maids were already waiting on both sides of the road.
Changsun Qingjing helped Madam Dou down from the carriage. Jiasheng had already prepared an empty sedan chair, so the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law switched to the sedan chair.
The two women pointed out several scenic spots in sight to Li Shimin, and they entered Cuiwei Villa while chatting and laughing.
After all her personal belongings and belongings were properly arranged, Dou Shi was not willing to rest and took a walk in the courtyard during the warm midday.
Unable to withstand the cold any longer, she went inside.
The maid had already placed the phoenix-shaped screen in front of the couch. Madam Dou examined it carefully, her face showing delight, praising the new screen as being better at keeping out the cold and wind than the old one.
The maidservant warmed the jar and moved it closer to the bed. She also presented two hand warmers.
Changsun Qingjing devised different wording based on the degree of intimacy revealed in Madam Dou's words, barely managing to keep up with the thoughts of a person suffering from a serious illness.
After writing the letter, Changsun Qingjing followed the instructions and wrote down a list of various Western Region treasures to purchase. He then sent a message to his maid, Jiasheng, to immediately go to the two markets in the city to collect them, and then send them to relatives and friends along with the letter.
After a busy half-day, Madam Dou was dazed and tired, and felt a little sorry for her eldest grandson Qingjing, who had been writing on behalf of others from the temple from dawn till dusk without rest.
She carefully read through the letter her daughter-in-law had written to the Duke of Chen, and after much deliberation, said, "Remove the first few polite words, and tell your uncle: If you are serving His Majesty, speak highly of how difficult it was for the Duke of Tang to obtain the Turkic horses, how much he missed His Majesty in the Western Capital, and how grateful he was for the honor of serving His Majesty in the Eastern Capital. If any villains frame you, I hope you will defend yourself vehemently and not arouse the Emperor's suspicion. Describe your father's situation as difficult, so that it will move your uncle."
"Okay, I'll revise it right away. I'll show it to Mother after I finish writing it, and then I'll copy it immediately." Changsun Qingjing couldn't resist his fatigue and yawned.
Changsun Qingjing smiled and took a sip of clove drink, thinking that the correspondence for the day had come to an end. He rubbed his sore wrists and chewed on the crystal pastry that the maid had served him.
Upon hearing this, Changsun Qingjing immediately wiped his hands, which were covered in grease, cleaned them and took a piece of white paper from the table.
“No white wax paper.” Madam Dou pointed to the bottom of the stack of papers on the table. “Write on the most solemn stiff yellow paper. Move the small table where you put your writing brush and inkstone closer to me, hold me steady on the yellow wax paper, I want to write a letter to your mother myself…”
Madam Dou had already picked up her writing brush, and with her other slender, cool hand gently stroking Changsun Qingjing's peach-like full cheek, she shook her head and said, "Etiquette should not be neglected. I should personally thank your mother for entrusting our precious daughter, whom we call Jingyu Suizhu, to our Li family."
Every word Madam Dou wrote seemed to come from the depths of her heart, so sincere that Changsun Qingjing suddenly wanted to burst into tears by the bedside. However, her remaining rationality restrained her, and she helped Madam Dou complete a letter that was as precious as gold.
………………
When Li Shimin returned to his Cuiwei Villa from several palaces and temples in the Southern Mountains, it was already past midnight. He first paid his respects to his mother, who was already resting.
The maid conveyed Madam Dou's message, asking the young master to go and take care of Lady Changsun first.
A Cai ran over and told Li Shimin that Lady Changsun had settled her in a small pavilion next to Lady Dou's bedroom.
He followed Ah Cai to the temporary residence arranged by his wife, where he saw letters written in the character "王" (Wang) with the ink still wet on the floor, arranged one by one with the newly purchased rare items.
Changsun Qingjing was dozing on her desk, a writing brush still in her hand. A sudden noise in the room startled her awake.
“Vitiha, you’re back! Did you perform divination for Mother?” Changsun Qingjing looked up from a pile of white wax paper, her jacket slipped off, her hairpin fell to the ground, only the pen was still tightly held in her hand.
“Great fortune.” He didn’t believe in tortoise shell divination, but this time he chose to believe it.
"You are so filial, Heaven couldn't bear to separate you from your mother." She tried to squeeze out some comforting words, but her tongue felt numb.
“You are so understanding. I heard you spent the whole day writing letters for your mother.” His smile seemed to soothe her fatigue from the day.
"It's nothing. My mother is suffering from illness, and I'm powerless to help. All I can do are some trivial things..." Overwhelmed with sorrow, she began to sob uncontrollably.
Li Shimin was stunned for a moment, unsure whether to offer her some advice, find a handkerchief, or simply pull her into his arms.
He felt that whenever she became sentimental, he would also be unable to hold back his tears.
He glanced at the wine pot on the desk and asked, "Qingjing, why are you drinking?"
“This is Yu Xie wine, a gift from my mother,” Changsun Qingjing said indistinctly. “We wrote many letters together, and instructed the servants to buy a lot of gifts. I accompanied my mother to drink Fangfeng porridge and roasted mutton. My mother mentioned that she loved to drink Yu Xie wine when she was young. Coincidentally, there were Hu people selling Yu Xie wine in the city today, and they boasted that it was exactly the same as the one the emperor drank, so a servant bought a few jugs. The taste was quite good. I was a little sleepy at dusk, but after drinking a few cups, I felt refreshed and finished copying all the drafted letters in one go.”
“Don’t drink so much next time. You two, your mother and you, are both so impatient and willful,” Li Shimin said helplessly. “You could have advised your mother not to overwork herself.”
There was a wild, unrestrained soul, beyond anyone's control, clamoring, frolicking, and struggling within the originally gentle body.
"Ah Cai, where's my pipa? Where's my pipa?" Changsun Qingjing cried out.
Ah Cai dared not respond to her wife's drunken erratic behavior and had already hidden under the eaves.
"Ta Yao, He Lai! Ta Yao, Mother is suffering, He Lai!" She stood swaying on the floor, humming the most popular sad love song in the two capitals, and asked her husband of three days, with a smile, "Will you become him?"
"I will not become a Su Pa," Li Shimin promised.
He resisted this strange, vibrant light yet unconsciously drew closer. He hated Changsun Qingjing's sorrowful humming of songs he disliked, hated the injustice God had shown to his mother, hated the deep scheming of the Wan siblings, and hated that his parents could not reconcile as he wished.
"Enough, enough. Be as elegant and refined as a true lady from a noble family in Luoyang, a city of China." He pulled Changsun Qingjing down to sit.
“This is a pen, not a sword; it can’t hurt me.” Li Shimin grasped Changsun Qingjing’s wrist, prying her fingers off the pen one by one, which were tightly pressed against the pen’s handle, and placed the pen back by the inkstone. The two looked at each other in silence.
Li Shimin began to seriously consider Changsun Qingjing's strange, unreasonable, and pointed questions.
A mad vine spread all over him, burrowing into his skin, growing along his veins, and seizing his heart.
A stronger cup of wine was poured down Li Shimin's throat. He reached out and pulled Changsun Qingjing into his arms. He held the thin body before him tightly, as if it were part of his own. Their hair brushed against each other, their blood mingled, both of them youthful, soft, and warm.
She trembled violently, her heart sinking.
Changsun Qingjing instinctively wrapped her arms around his broad, sturdy back, feeling a burning pain all over her body.
Li Shimin loosened his grip and moved her shoulders slightly to get a better look at her sobbing, flushed face.
Stars dotted her vibrant eyelashes, and a delicate crescent moon played in her rippling eyes.
Suddenly, an awkward kiss landed on Changsun Qingjing's lips.
The boy's secret desires, his unspoken vows, and the girl's drunken, delirious ramblings fueled his urge to conquer, all poured out in that passionate kiss.
Changsun Qingjing could not withstand this unpredictable, raging, and furious hurricane-like passion. She broke free from that wildly blazing fire.
"I...I still haven't finished writing the letter to your uncle..."
She had sobered up, but he was still deeply drunk.
Li Shimin's hairline to his ears was a deep crimson, his skin had a clear, glassy glaze, and his blue veins bulged, almost overflowing from the glaze.
"Or, your father," Changsun Qingjing silently thought of the person Li Shimin dared not mention.
...
A strong wind blew outside the window, howling and rushing, knocking down rocks and felling trees, tearing down the forest.
Li Shimin stayed by his mother's bedside all night. Before him was his mother's pale yet gentle face, her breathing unusually even.
The lamp in the neighboring pavilion burns ever brightly, a testament to my wife's calligraphy.
The spring has arrived, and the harsh winter is coming to an end.
The young man didn't ask for much; he simply wanted to spend more time with the woman who had brought him into this world and the woman who would accompany him when he left it.
Author's Note: Qingjing's frustration stems from witnessing Lao Li's outrageous actions just a few days after moving into her new home, leaving her feeling lost about the future.
The novel repeatedly mentions "Ta Yao Niang" and "Tan Rong Niang," which are recurring themes of tragic and heart-wrenching love stories from the Sui and Tang dynasties.
However, Madam Dou, Qingjing, and San Niang all questioned the plausibility of the story, expressing their incomprehension of the female protagonist's tolerance of Su Langzhong (Zhonglang, both versions are acceptable).
The show is often mentioned to illustrate that social norms and actual perceptions are not always the same, and that there are always clear-headed women out there.
Li Shimin understood that Qingjing's question was simply, "Will you end up like your father?"
However, due to filial piety and the need to protect his father, he couldn't answer directly. So, he handled it as part of the plot.
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