Twentieth: Willows by the Dike in Their Withered Fragrance (Part One)
After a hundred years of cultivation, Weng Yu was able to transform into human form. So he descended the mountain to enjoy himself in the human world.
I overheard her name.
Originally, a group of people went up the mountain to enjoy the scenery. Tired from their walk, they sat down near her original form and, having nothing better to do, began to compose poems. One of them wrote a poem praising her original form's lushness, using the characters "蓊郁" (wéngyù). The flower fairy, who at the time only had a sliver of consciousness, only remembered these two characters. Later, when others asked her name, she would pronounce them. Because the flower fairy was illiterate, the listeners automatically corrected her, changing her surname to a common one, and she became Weng Yu.
After the flower fairy transformed, she was born with beauty far surpassing that of ordinary people, attracting the attention of many men, women, young and old. Among them, one person was particularly famous in the city where Weng Yu was visiting. He was the second son of a wealthy local family, a dissolute and irresponsible playboy. Everyone in the city both feared and flattered his family's power, and he flaunted his authority throughout the city. Thus, he and Weng Yu, both well-known figures in the city, quickly learned of each other's existence. After much deliberation, they were arranged to meet.
The second young master, unwilling to miss out on such a beautiful but clueless girl, readily began to associate with her. Weng Yu, new to the human world, wanted to experience all sorts of things. Coupled with the second young master's frequent amusements among the people, everyone, young and old, was more or less bewildered and unaware of their own limitations by his eloquent words. Soon, Weng Yu became one of them. The only difference was that Weng Yu had no clear purpose; she was not after gold, silver, or fame, but simply sought the joy of being human.
"The joy of being human?" Mingjin walked along, her brow furrowing as she changed the subject. "She spends all her time cultivating in the mountains. How could she possibly experience the joy of being human? She actually came down the mountain specifically to cultivate for that. She might as well be chasing after lotus flowers. Wanting to have legs to run around is a more plausible reason, and it won't disappoint them too much."
“That’s what’s interesting,” Mr. Jiang said with a smile. “Fantasy can bring the strongest will, and what people find hardest to face is the truth. That’s also why the mother and daughter were separated.”
The second young master was always strictly disciplined in his family. His elder brother and two older sisters were both well-behaved, but he was an exception. When he was born, his mother was old and exhausted from raising children; his father was away serving as an official; his elder brother was diligently studying to uphold the family name; and his two sisters were playmates. No one in charge of the family paid him any attention. He was undisciplined in his youth and unruly in adulthood, thus developing these bad habits. After a heated argument, the second young master ran away from the mansion and rented several rooms to live in. He spent his time with his friends there. After becoming acquainted with him, Weng Yu also moved in with him.
Their relationship started off very intimately, and the rumors spread far and wide. Such things weren't a big deal for a wealthy young man, but they were still unpleasant to hear, so his family began to distance themselves from him. Later, he ran out of money and couldn't afford to entertain everyone, and his household quickly fell into decline.
Weng Yu simply couldn't understand the comings and goings of people in the world, yet he remained with him all along.
Later, Weng Yu became pregnant.
When he was four months pregnant, the second young master's second sister got married, but no one came to call him back.
"Why don't you live with your parents, brothers, and sisters?" Weng Yu would ask when he didn't understand something. However, everyone chose to understand each other without saying it aloud, but the flower fairy didn't understand these human customs, and her question was something the second young master didn't want to mention: "Other families all live together. Besides, I saw that other families had weddings, and the whole family came to send them off."
“Everyone has different opinions,” the second young master poured himself a cup of tea. He knew that Weng Yu was just like that. At first, he felt very offended and couldn’t respond, but after a while, he didn’t care anymore. “I don’t have to live with my family, just like you don’t have to live with your family.”
“That’s still different.” Weng Yu felt that the second young master was definitely just a human, not a flower fairy, so she thought he was wrong. She didn’t have the ability to think further, so she stopped there.
Five months pregnant, she still went out for a stroll as usual and was quickly recognized. The news reached the ears of the second young master's steward and then the old lady. The old lady was at the time helping her eldest daughter-in-law take care of her grandchildren. When she heard that her second son had an heir, she was happy, but she scolded the woman for being so irresponsible, still acting without any regard for her health even though she was heavily pregnant. So she asked her old mother, who had been by her side for decades, to take care of her.
The second young master hadn't expected his mother to come. He was somewhat afraid of these elders, and since she had come with his mother's orders, he dared not disobey too much. Weng Yu didn't know who she was, only that after she arrived, she followed him around all day, forbidding him from doing many things, and even from leaving the house. In the end, the old woman could only allow her to bring a stool and sit idly with the second young master in the courtyard. Staring motionless at the four corners of the sky, Weng Yu initially savored the days when he was just a blossoming tree, but as time went on, he found it boring.
She was leaving and going to the next place.
One day, while the second young master was drinking tea and flipping through a book, Weng Yu casually said, "I want to leave here."
"Wait a little longer," the second young master said, oblivious to the deeper meaning of the words, his eyes still fixed on the book. "Once the baby is born, you can go wherever you want. If you leave now, the old woman will do everything she can to bring you back."
Weng Yu was startled by the second young master's unintentional remark, thinking that his mother was a master hiding in the city. So he dared not resist and followed his mother's wishes to spend the last month or two of his pregnancy.
As childbirth approached, the changes and pains that a person experiences gradually intensified in Weng Yu's previously numb body. Her magical abilities were exceptional, allowing her to perfectly comprehend human emotions—joy, sorrow, and pain. Thus, during labor, she lay on the bed, sharing a day and a night with the extreme pain of human suffering. The sweat and blood she shed during this time soaked through her fragile, paper-like thoughts of humanity. Between several fainting spells and awakenings, Weng Yu forgot all her memories of being human. Even after the child left her body, before she could rise, she pondered whether to go to the next place or return to being a pure flowering tree.
In the end, she chose the latter.
She had held the child a few times, and the old woman said she was her daughter, but Weng Yu didn't have a good impression of her, only resentment.
The second young master quite liked the child, but only because it was his first child, and that was all that made him interested.
The day Weng Yu left was just another ordinary day. She sat on the bed, her old mother was looking after the children in another room, and the second young master was dozing in the study. She should have been lying in bed as usual, but suddenly, she felt her body had been fully restored, a light feeling spreading throughout her body. So she changed her clothes, jumped over the wall, and left. Leaving her old mother and the second young master bewildered in the empty room the next day, they searched the town but to no avail, and had to give up.
The second young master simply didn't want to take care of the child himself, so he asked the old woman to take the child back and hand him over to the old lady. He then locked himself in the courtyard and entertained himself, though he hadn't died yet.
This child later became known as Dangen. She wasn't called that at the time, but as time passed, she no longer remembered her original name, only the two characters "Dangen." Originally, the old lady raised her, but as she aged, she couldn't properly care for the child. With her two daughters married, she had to entrust the child to her eldest daughter-in-law. At that time, the eldest daughter-in-law had two sons and a daughter of her own, and since she also loved children, was young, and was a member of the family, they raised her together.
Dangen was raised like an ordinary young lady from a wealthy family. As she grew up, she looked very much like her mother, but because the old lady had ordered that the couple be mentioned less, no one else ever mentioned them in front of her.
Things changed when Dangen was sixteen.
One day, Dangen was learning needlework in his room as usual when he suddenly heard a noise coming from the garden. However, the two servants in the courtyard seemed not to notice. Dangen went out into the courtyard and walked to the sycamore tree. He looked up and saw a strange-looking person, and was momentarily startled: "Who are you? Who gave you permission to come in?"
"You don't recognize me?" The man was surprised to see Dangen's appearance. "We haven't seen each other for a few years, and you can't even recognize me? That's really hurting a good friend's feelings."
“I have indeed never seen you before,” Dangen said nervously upon hearing his statement. “Who are you? Tell me your name. Our servants are nearby. If you can’t answer, they will surely throw you out.”
Upon hearing this, the figure immediately jumped down from the tree.
He looked like a man, and Dangen quickly took a few steps back. The man was dressed as a fisherman, wearing wooden clogs, with his sleeves and trouser legs rolled up halfway, revealing tanned skin that contrasted sharply with Dangen's fair skin.
“Weng Yu, you’re not confused, are you? It’s me, Shan Liu.”
Upon hearing the name, Dangen realized something was amiss and said, "I am not. The person you are looking for is my mother. However, I do not know where she is."
"Your mother?" Shanliu frowned, the deepest brow Dangen had ever seen. "Weng Yu has children? No wonder I mistook you for someone else; you two look so alike. Back then, she went down the mountain to play and didn't return for several years. It turns out she stayed behind to take care of the children. Where is she?"
“She’s not here. I’ve never seen her, and nobody around here mentions her.”
"If that's the case, then you must not know that your mother is actually a flower fairy," Shanliu said with a grin.
"A flower spirit?" Dangen was surprised, flustered, suspicious, and confused. "What flower spirit? You've been listening to too many folk tales. How can you prove what you're saying?"
"You don't believe me?" After being questioned, Shanliu raised her eyebrows, one higher and one lower. "Look."
At this point, Shanliu raised her right forearm, and to Dangen's bewildered gaze, Shanliu's arm suddenly transformed into a willow branch of roughly the same length. The branch could move freely and stretched out in front of Dangen.
Out of curiosity, Dangen reached out and touched it, and it did indeed feel like a tree trunk.
"That's really true."
Dangen took his hand back, utterly astonished.
She possessed the blood of spirits, and when she touched the branches of the mountain willow, she instantly breathed in the mountain breeze and felt the refreshing coolness of the budding branches. She clenched her right hand and found that her palm, which was originally no different from anyone else's, had somehow turned dark blue, and then her five fingers slowly transformed into the shape of tree branches.
She was surprised and delighted, but although she could change back, she couldn't change back, and the smile on her face immediately disappeared. Shanliu saw her like that and knew that she really knew nothing. Then he gave her a little pointer, and Dangen suddenly felt a faint power in her body, which then circled around Dangen's fingers and turned her hand back to its original shape.
"Now you believe me?" After saying that, Shanliu withdrew her hand, and the willow branch instantly turned into a human arm. "Since you are Weng Yu's child, do you know any magic? I think you are about sixteen or seventeen years old. The last time I saw Weng Yu was ten years ago, but I don't think I heard her mention having a child. Where is your father? You can only have a father if you have a father."
“I have never met either of them. I was raised by my grandmother and aunt,” Shanliu said. He was only in human form and had no sense of human thoughts, so his words pierced Dangen’s heart. “However, from what Mr. Shanliu said, you must be an old friend of my mother. What kind of person is my mother?”
“Well, how should I put it,” Shanliu pondered, “her original form was a flowering tree, and after transforming into human form, she looks almost exactly like you now. I haven’t been back to the mountain for a long time, and I don’t know if she has returned.”
"You're all up in the mountains?"
“We are all trees, originally on the mountain, and can be considered neighbors. As spirits, as long as we can find our original selves, we can call upon the spirits that have taken form outside.”
"So you can actually find my mother, right?"
Hearing Shan Liu say this, Dan Gen's consciousness realized that if she could find her mother's original form, she might be able to see her. Because everyone around her was being secretive, she didn't dare to ask casually, but she couldn't help feeling curious.
"If you really want to see her, I can take you there. I've been busy moving recently. I'll come and take you there tomorrow night."
“But I can’t leave.” Dangen thought Shanliu probably didn’t know anything, and to avoid making things worse, he quickly explained his predicament, “The mothers around me have been watching me. Now that they’ve gone out to relax during their midday break, we can finally have a few words. I definitely can’t go with you; it would cause a lot of trouble.”
“Well, there’s nothing I can do about it,” Shanliu said, not knowing the reason behind this and not knowing how to help her. He could only scratch his head. “I’ll still be in this tree tomorrow. If you can find a chance, come down to the tree and call me. If you don’t come, then I’ll leave.”
After saying that, Shanliu turned around and leaped up into a tree. But when Dangen followed, he found that there was no trace of her on the tree.
It's not uncommon for children to be raised by their uncles, and Dangen knew quite a bit about it growing up. However, while others talked to them about their parents' pasts, she herself couldn't speak of it. Over time, although Dangen dared not mention it, her curiosity never waned. Now, she wanted to know about her mother's past; if she missed Shanliu, she might never have another chance.
Although her courtyard was almost always guarded, she had never slept well since childhood, so she often asked everyone to stay away when she went to bed at night. As night fell, Dangen pretended that she hadn't slept well and had a headache, so after dinner she sent everyone out and then sat at her desk to observe the movements in the courtyard.
When it was almost time, Dangen put on an outer robe and ran to the paulownia tree. A little afraid of being discovered, he called out Shanliu's name.
“You’ve come at the perfect time,” Shanliu said, hanging upside down from the tree trunk and reaching out to Dangen, “Hold on to me.”
Shanliu can use magic to move between willow trees within his line of sight, and he can also use this magic while carrying Dangen.
The city was lined with willows, and the two quickly crossed the moat and reached the city gates. Shanliu knew the journey was risky, so they traveled under the stars and moon. Weng Yu's original location wasn't far from the city, but the mountain path was difficult. Dangen never needed to do much work, so they walked until dawn. Dangen felt he was about to suffocate when he heard Shanliu say, "We've arrived."
Dangen, leaning against a tree, trudged along, his aching feet crunching over the splintered stones, until he finally reached a flat area in the mountains. Before him stood a towering, verdant tree, its branches twisting and turning, stretching endlessly towards the sky. But summer was over, and autumn was approaching, so there were no blossoms. Although Dangen's eyes were fixed on the tree, his exhaustion caused his gaze to gradually descend, landing on Shanliu standing beneath it, seemingly saying something.
When she reached the tree and took out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat from her forehead, she suddenly heard the sound of someone landing behind her. She turned around stiffly and saw a woman who was both familiar and unfamiliar looking her over.
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