Chapter 117 Xiao Yu saves every tael of silver for his wife…
In October, Luo Lan and Pei Xingshu married their daughter Yingjie. In late November, they also sent their daughter Zhijie to get married. Since the two sisters-in-law were the same age, they were originally scheduled to get married in the same year. However, due to the Northern Expedition, which delayed the marriage for more than half a year, they had to wait until winter.
After attending her niece's wedding banquet, on the morning of the second day of the twelfth lunar month, Luo Fu went to the palace gate and presented Empress Xie with a visiting card requesting an audience.
The eunuch in charge of delivering the message made a round trip, smiling as he led the third wife of the Xiao family, who was favored by both the Empress Dowager and Empress Xie, to the central palace.
With Princess Yi'an's marriage and the Crown Prince living alone in the East Palace, Empress Xie, who had always disliked socializing with the concubines, became increasingly lonely. Fortunately, Empress Xie had a refined taste and enjoyed appreciating poetry, calligraphy, and paintings or tending to flowers and plants by herself, remaining content and at ease. This aloof beauty, like a fairy from the moon palace, lived a life seemingly untouched by worldly affairs.
"How did you manage to come here in such cold weather?"
Empress Xie brought Luo Fu to the warm pavilion to admire the flowers and asked curiously.
Luo Fu smiled and said, "I've come to say goodbye to Your Majesty. Tomorrow I'll be going to Jicheng to visit my master Xiao and spend the New Year with him there. He'll return on the sixth day of the new year when he goes back to work. In case Your Majesty wants me to send someone to deliver the imperial invitation during this time, I've come to tell Your Majesty in advance."
Empress Xie was somewhat surprised: "Since you miss him, why don't you spend more time with Lord Xiao?"
Empress Xie did not have a loving husband, so she did not suffer the pain of lovesickness because of her emperor husband's northern expedition. However, she had grandparents whom she missed dearly. If she had the opportunity to return to Jingzhou to visit her relatives, she would have only hoped to stay in Jingzhou for a longer period of time.
Luo Fu: "What do you mean by missing him or not? He doesn't miss me as much as he did when he was younger, and I'm even less inclined to miss him. I'd rather spend more time with the two children. But this year on the first day of the Lunar New Year, probably thinking about going to war, he wanted to bring good luck, so he asked me to accompany him and made a promise that we would celebrate the New Year together every year and grow a year older together. Now he's on a regular post in Jizhou and can't leave, so I have to make the trip to fulfill my promise."
Empress Xie imagined the scene, and a hint of envy appeared in her eyes: "I wish to find one heart to love, and stay together until our hair turns white."
That was indeed the sentiment, but when Empress Xie said it, Luo Fu felt her face burning. She stubbornly said, "I don't understand these poems and lyrics. I just think that a gentleman keeps his promises. Xiao Yu once said that a gentleman refers to a person of noble character, not necessarily a man. So I also want to be a gentleman who keeps his promises."
Empress Xie smiled and said, "The lotus is the noble flower among flowers, and Fu'er is naturally a noble person in the world as well."
Luo Fu blushed and said, "There are many gentlemen in the world, but Your Majesty is a fairy goddess who descended to earth, one of a kind."
After the banter, Empress Xie asked Luo Fu what preparations she had made for the trip. Upon learning that the Marquis's residence would send eight guards to escort her along the way, and that Ping An would also serve her closely, and that there had been no reports of bandits in Jizhou in recent years, Empress Xie was somewhat relieved.
When a noblewoman from outside the palace enters the palace, the Imperial Guards will inform Emperor Xianping. Emperor Xianping doesn't care much about others. If Luo Fu comes with the Eldest Princess and the Princess Consort of Shun, it's definitely to play cards with Empress Xie, and Emperor Xianping won't care. But when Luo Fu comes alone, Emperor Xianping becomes curious about what she wants with Empress Xie.
At noon, Emperor Xianping summoned Empress Xie to the Qianyuan Hall to dine with him. While waiting for the palace servants to set the table, Emperor Xianping naturally asked, "I heard that Lady Luo came to the palace this morning. What was the matter?"
Empress Xie: "She is going to Jicheng to spend the New Year with Xiao Yu, and she came to say goodbye to me."
Emperor Xianping was also quite surprised: "Didn't Lady Luo dislike accompanying Xiao Yu to his post in the provinces? Why has she changed her mind this year?"
Empress Xie then recounted the promise Luo Fu and Xiao Yu made on the first day of the Lunar New Year to grow old together, lest Emperor Xianping truly regard Luo Fu as a wife unwilling to share hardship with her husband. Empress Xie added, "Loujiang is too far, and Luo Fu would be too tired to walk the mountain paths if she went there, which would only be a burden to Xiao Yu. That's why she stayed in the capital back then. Although the journey to Jicheng is easier this time, there are two children here in the capital, and as a mother, how can she bear to be separated from them for long?"
Emperor Xianping didn't care what Luo Fu was thinking, but he was subtly moved by the vow of lifelong commitment between Xiao Yu and his wife.
During the meal, Emperor Xianping glanced at Empress Xie silently several times.
Empress Xie, at thirty-nine years old, with a full head of black hair, though her face bore the marks of time, remained as beautiful as a goddess, like the moon in the sky, unattainable and elusive. Although Emperor Xianping could embrace this moon at any moment, he could sense that Empress Xie's heart was not with him. Perhaps she was born unbound by romantic love, preferring instead the refined arts of poetry, calligraphy, and painting.
Before his failed Northern Expedition, he could still navigate Empress Xie's presence with ease, relying on his noble status. Now, having suffered a major humiliation, it was as if he had written a terrible poem for her to read. Even if Empress Xie didn't say anything, Emperor Xianping knew that his importance in her heart had diminished further. To make matters worse, his hair had prematurely turned white, so much of it difficult to pluck. Growing old ahead of everyone else, could he truly grow old with the woman before him?
.
Because Xiao Lin said he would arrive in about twenty days, Luo Fu set off early on the third day of the twelfth lunar month. The road from the capital to Jicheng was relatively flat, but the winter days were short, and she was caught in two snowstorms that prevented her from setting off. It was already New Year's Eve, and Luo Fu was still more than fifty miles away from Jicheng.
Fortunately, there were only fifty-odd li left. We weren't afraid of the bumpy ride and made the carriage go faster. We should be able to get into the city before the gates closed.
After having a hot bowl of soup noodles at the post station, and carrying some dry rations and hot water for lunch, Luo Fu and Ping An got into the carriage and headed north under the escort of eight guards.
The capital was colder than Yangzhou, and the northern Hebei region was even colder than the capital. The wind from the moving carriage blew in through every gap in the carriage. Even though the master and servant were both holding hot water bottles, wrapped in cloaks and covered with quilts, they still felt cold. It was so cold and bumpy that, as Ping An would say, their buttocks were about to be shaken in two.
“I used to think it was amazing that Third Master rode a horse back and forth every month when he was supervising the canal. Now I find even riding in a carriage too tiring, so I admire Third Master even more,” Ping An said, standing close to his wife.
Luo Fu: "Mainly because it's winter, we can open the window and look at the scenery along the road in a different season."
Now, when you open the window, a biting cold wind blows right in your face, making your face sting.
Ping An spoke up for Third Master: "Then Madam can stay in Jicheng for a couple more months. We'll go back when it gets warmer in the spring. The young master and young lady can move to the Marquis and his wife's place. They'll have someone to take care of them and someone to play with them. At most, they'll miss Madam at first, but they'll get used to it."
Luo Fu remained silent.
She lived with Xiao Yu in Jicheng. Xiao Yu had a proper job, leaving early and returning late. What did she do all day? Waiting foolishly for his return? If that were the case, Xiao Yu's life would be comfortable, but it would make her, who missed her two children, and her two children, who missed their mother, suffer. Rather than having three out of the four of them suffer, it would be better for Xiao Yu to suffer alone, in addition to her longing for her husband.
Besides, Luo Fu's stay in the capital not only made her and her children more comfortable, but she could also visit the palace from time to time. Whenever Emperor Xianping heard "Lady Xiao Yu," he would think of Xiao Yu. The more he thought about her, the more likely he would remember all the good things about Xiao Yu. Moreover, Luo Fu had other ways to make Emperor Xianping forget the shame of his repeated rejections of Xiao Yu during the Northern Expedition.
If there's a way, try it. Trying it doesn't guarantee it will work, but if you do nothing and just expect Emperor Xianping to remember Xiao Yu's good deeds, how long will that take? Emperor Xianping is no idle man. He has a bunch of state affairs to handle, a group of ministers vying to please him and climb the ranks, and internally, he has favored concubines, beauties, princes, and princesses fighting for his favor. If Luo Fu and Xiao Yu really just wait patiently, that would be foolish.
Xiao Yu is foolish, but Luo Fu is not foolish, nor does she admit to being foolish.
"Madam, it's snowing!" a guard suddenly said.
Ping An wanted to open the window to look out, but Luo Fu stopped her with a look and said to the coachman, "Whether it's snowing or raining knives, as long as the carriage can still move, we must get to Jicheng tonight."
"Yes, madam, just sit tight!" The coachman, wrapped up like a bear, cracked his whip and increased the speed.
At midday, the horses needed to rest, so Luo Fu and her servant sat in the carriage, munching on dry rations with lukewarm water. Taking advantage of the calm weather, they peeked out through the curtains and saw that the entire world outside was covered in white, with large snowflakes falling in abundance—clearly a heavy snowfall.
Despite the cold, this experience was quite novel for Luo Fu. After eating, she took Ping An for a walk and waited for the horse to rest before getting back into the carriage.
Before dusk, after Ping An showed the city guards his travel permit and Lady Luo Fu's waist token, the group from the capital finally entered Ji City, the capital of Ji Province.
Jicheng was the most magnificent and prosperous city in the entire Jizhou. It contained the governor's office and the general's office. Civil and military officials of the province, such as the governor and the general, lived in the back residence of the government office. The subordinate officials were frequently transferred. Those who had money and were willing to spend it could purchase their own residences, while those who did not have money or simply did not want to waste money lived in the official residences near the government office.
Xiao Yu lived in the official residence. After all, he was a third-rank official, and he was assigned a small courtyard with two sections. The front was for receiving guests, and the back was for settling his family.
Xiao Yu had no family. Apart from the two servants and the water-boiling woman assigned by the official residence to clean the courtyard, there was only him and Qingchuan. They didn't even hire a cook and ate communal meals at the official residence's dining hall every day.
New Year's Eve is a big holiday, and Xiao Yu finally splurged for once. He had taken Qingchuan to the market to buy rice, flour, vegetables, meat, and even a jar of fine wine. The master and servant were going to make dumplings and cook a good meal for the New Year. Their cooking skills were honed when they were at Loujiang.
"Third Master has lost weight. How about we hire a cook after the New Year? We won't have to eat big meals of meat and fish every day. Home-cooked dishes are much better than the big pot dishes at the canteen."
In the kitchen, Qingchuan swallowed hard as he plucked the feathers from a scalded chicken. He was really bad at cooking, and even Third Master wasn't much better.
Xiao Yu: "Eating at the canteen doesn't cost us a single extra penny. But hiring a cook and buying rice and vegetables would cost at least two taels of silver a month."
Qingchuan: "Your current monthly salary is twenty-eight taels, which is not even a fraction of the total."
Xiao Yu: "Two taels a month, that's twenty-four taels a year, which is equivalent to two and a half months' salary for the lady."
Qingchuan: "...When the Grand Canal was opened last time, the Emperor rewarded Third Master with a thousand taels of gold, which Third Master gave to Madam. Madam will not care about these twenty-four taels."
Xiao Yu placed the dumplings he had just made aside, picked up a new dumpling wrapper, and said without looking up, "Yes, she will. She'll nag for a while if she loses five taels of silver at cards."
As soon as he finished speaking, several footsteps echoed through the courtyard.
Xiao Yu looked at the dumpling wrapper in her hand, then at the chicken feathers stuck to Qing Chuan's hands, and reluctantly put down the dumpling wrapper. She walked to the kitchen doorway with a thick curtain hanging above her, lifted the curtain with her elbow, leaned down and then looked up. In the snow-covered courtyard, she saw a figure wearing a pomegranate red cloak. Through the countless falling snowflakes, Xiao Yu squinted before she could finally make out the person's face.
"lady?"
The face is the face I remember, but how could that be?
So Xiao Yu just murmured a call, still standing frozen at the door, maintaining the posture of supporting the thick curtain with his shoulder.
He dared not recognize himself, but Luo Fu was absolutely certain that the man in the cloth robe with his sleeves rolled up was her husband. So she ran through the flying snow, climbed the two steps outside the kitchen, and threw herself into Xiao Yu's arms, tightly hugging the man's slender waist.
Xiao Yu stumbled backward, caught off guard. Fortunately, the curtain was heavy enough to help him regain his balance.
With his waist tightly bound, and the familiar hairpin in his wife's black hair in front of him, Xiao Yu was overjoyed to confirm that it was real. He hugged his wife tightly with both arms and turned to shout inside, "Qingchuan, quickly go to the best restaurant in the city and hire a chef. As long as someone is willing to cook for us, they can name their own wages!"
Qingchuan: "..."
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Author's Note: Qingchuan: A stingy boss, you can't even eat properly if you work for him!
Hehe, 100 little red envelopes, see you tonight~
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