When the emperor launched the Northern Expedition, Bianjing was actually in chaos at first. Big merchants tried to drive up prices, rumors were rampant, and all kinds of strange phenomena were normal. Song Wanru was distracted by the noise in the teahouse for the first two months and had no time to play the piano. She was also investigated by the Imperial City Bureau twice. Then one night when she was reading by candlelight, she saw the city on fire.
Song Wanru was panic-stricken for the whole night. Later, when she heard that the emperor was standing still outside the city and her husbands had quickly resolved the issue, she suddenly realized that Tokyo had been peaceful for too long.
——Is it our turn to take the initiative to march north now? If we succeed in this campaign, will we finally usher in a peaceful and prosperous era?
This was indeed the case. The days of three surprises a day soon passed, and the good news in the court newspapers appeared so frequently that it did not even cause discussion among the people. At the end of the year, Bianjing became as lively as ever. There were continuous reports of victory in the march, and the cities of Yuancheng and Taiyuan were taken down on New Year's Eve... Almost everyone, whether they agreed or disagreed with the Northern Expedition, said that the emperor was a true figure like Emperor Wu of Han and Emperor Taizong of Tang, a true dragon born with extraordinary powers.
Song Wanru couldn't remember many things in the past. Sometimes she felt that the taste of the sheep's head was the same as in the past, but sometimes it was different. She suspected that she had remembered it wrongly. The prosperous Bianjing in front of her slowly covered her past memories. She had heard that someone had written a book about the old dreams of Tokyo for the government. She had been interested in describing the present in her spare time, but she had edited the manuscript countless times and was unable to write it after pacifying the Jin Kingdom. There were too many things worth writing about, and too many things she wanted to add or delete.
When she mentioned this to her sister-in-law who had come with her at the Xiangguo Temple's fasting meeting, her sister smiled and said, "Your thoughts are so confused, is there something else that's worth thinking about?"
They were standing in the corridor of the main hall. In the distance, the sound of monks chanting scriptures could be heard, and nearby, the laughter of men and women of all ages who were having fun and attending the meeting filled the ears. Song Wanru looked at the intricately carved figures on both sides of the hall, and leisurely recalled that when her father carried her here to participate in the vegetarian meeting, he pointed at the dancing woman on the mural and joked that when she grew up to be a graceful lady, she wondered which lucky son would be able to enjoy the great blessing.
She was still young at the time, but she had already read the Book of Songs. She blushed and crawled into her mother's arms. She heard her brother behind her laughing and saying, "It must be a gentleman riding a tall horse with an imposing manner to be favored by my gentle and clear lady—"
"My wife—"
She turned around suddenly and saw a handsome man standing where her brother and father used to stand. The quick encounter a few years ago suddenly reappeared in her mind, and he also had a red face and a flustered look.
"Madam, may I ask your name... er," he blurted out, then immediately realized that he was being abrupt and quickly changed his words, "No, it's someone..."
More than 20 years of turbulent past drifted away like smoke, and her clear eyes looked over, precipitating the natural beauty, the peace of reading and the clarity of seeing the heart and nature. Just standing there in the noisy and lively crowd, it seemed as if she had penetrated those gorgeous, dirty, chaotic, sad and peaceful times, and was as stunning as a painting of a beautiful woman in a prosperous era.
She was almost in her prime, and suddenly she felt like a young girl who had just begun to fall in love. Through the veil, she suddenly felt the long-lost shyness, panic and joy.
"Song Wanru."
She stood in the beautiful and peaceful scenery of Bianjing City and said softly, "My surname is Song, and my name is Wanru."
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