Chapter 1, Chapter One: Awakening from a Dream
On a spring evening, the earthen-yellow village is covered in emerald green, and the shimmering water reflects the magnificent sunset.
A small boat broke through the calm river surface and stopped at the Dujiawan ferry. Three men covered in mud and smelling of fish got off the boat. The man in front paid the fare and quickly walked up the stone steps that were submerged in water.
"Second Uncle." A seven or eight-year-old child peeked out from the mulberry tree by the water. "Second Uncle, you're back. My second aunt gave birth to a little brother today."
Upon hearing this, Du Li turned and ran home, the bucket he was carrying suddenly splashing water, most of it soaking his legs and shoes.
"Young Li is back? What a coincidence, your wife gave birth to a baby boy today," said the second aunt at the village entrance.
Du Li didn't have time to reply. He ran all the way and finally got close to his house. The walls were made of yellow mud and the roof was thatched. Smoke was coming out of the chimney. His mother was chopping grass on the bluestone slab outside the yard to feed the chickens and ducks. Everything was just like an ordinary day. It didn't look like there was a happy occasion in the family.
"Mother, Qingniang gave birth? Wasn't she supposed to give birth in mid-March? How come she gave birth early? Is she alright?" Du Li asked, both happy and surprised.
“What could possibly happen? She’s going to give birth half a month early, what can I do about it? Anyway, I didn’t push her, bump into her, or tire her out.” Du’s mother said sarcastically, “If you’re worried that something might happen to her in our house, you can send her back to the Meng family and let your mother-in-law take care of her.”
Du Li's joy froze, and his expression turned ugly. He didn't bother to argue and strode into the courtyard, where he encountered his sister-in-law, Li Hongguo.
"Second brother? I thought I misheard. It really is you back. Isn't your term of service still up? I figured you wouldn't be back for another four or five days. Is the ferry crossing finished?" Li Hongguo came out of the granary carrying a rice basin, looking puzzled.
Du Li nodded, put down the bucket and padded jacket he was carrying, and asked, "Qingniang gave birth? I'll go see her."
"She gave birth, a boy, sometime after noon. I didn't know you'd be back today; your older brother went into town to tell your parents-in-law the good news," Li Hongguo said.
Du Li pushed the door open and quickly closed it again. It was dusk, the door faced west and the window faced east, and the room was dimly lit. He walked to the bedside and then he could see the mother and child sleeping on the bed. The woman had her brows furrowed and looked angry, and the child sleeping on the inside had the same expression as her.
"Qingniang, Qingniang?" he tried calling out twice.
Meng Qing didn't react. She was lost in a dream, where a noisy, hoarse voice forcefully and violently poured into her ears, as if she were drowning...
"Du Min's second sister-in-law? I know her. She's a merchant's daughter, and she's always been cunning and scheming. Even after getting married, she hasn't changed. Du Min is a perfectly good scholar, and she used his reputation to get business for her family, almost preventing him from taking the imperial examinations..."
"...The merchant's daughter is shrewd and calculating, and she's petty to the core. You don't know, she gave Du Min two taels of silver to use, and she told everyone in the village about it, as if she was afraid that others wouldn't know about her contribution. She didn't even think about whether her brother-in-law would be ashamed."
"...Du Min's mother was really unlucky to have such a daughter-in-law. Before she married into the family, the Du family was peaceful and quiet. After she entered the family, Du Min almost went astray. Du Li also turned against his in-laws and always sided with his parents. He was so unfilial!"
"Not only that, I heard that Meng Qing also wanted to have her son adopted by her brother-in-law. Now that Du Min has passed the imperial examination with flying colors and become the third-ranked scholar, if she really succeeds, she will be getting a huge advantage..."
The unfinished words continued. Meng Qing's consciousness drifted above Dujiawan. She couldn't see the speaker's face, but she clearly heard the slanderous words against her. She wanted to refute and curse, but she couldn't utter a word despite her best efforts.
"Moo—"
A deep, resonant moo of a bull pierced the mist, and the sharp, shrill cries of condemnation quickly receded. Meng Qing's consciousness was uncontrollably drawn into a vortex. When she regained consciousness, she heard the loud announcement of names, and she found herself inside the imperial city of Chang'an, suspended in mid-air, witnessing the grand announcement of the imperial examination results for the first year of the Linde era. Just as she was about to search for Du Min's name on the list, in the blink of an eye, she found herself at Qujiang Pool, where she saw her brother-in-law, Du Min, dressed in a white robe, riding a tall horse, hailed as the "Top Scholar," touring famous gardens and picking renowned flowers.
"Third brother! Third brother! Du Min, you passed the imperial examination!" Meng Qing was overjoyed and shouted excitedly, but found that he did not respond. Looking at the faceless people crowding around her, she suddenly realized that something was wrong. Watching him ride away on horseback, she tried to follow him in a panic, but she was like a person sealed in a jar and could not move. No matter how she struggled, it was useless.
Gradually, she could no longer hear anything.
"Third brother!" Meng Qing shouted. She suddenly opened her eyes and sat up, only to find the room pitch black. She couldn't tell if she was still dreaming.
Hearing the sound, Du Li pushed open the door and peeked in, saying, "It's my third brother who's back. I'm asking him to give our child a good name."
"Second sister-in-law, did you call me for something?" Du Min asked from outside the door.
Meng Qing looked dazed. It wasn't a dream. She lay back down wearily and said, "It's nothing, just a dream."
After catching her breath, she roused herself and added, "In my dream, I saw my third brother pass the imperial examination and become the third-ranked scholar, riding a tall horse and touring famous gardens in Chang'an."
Hearing this from outside the door, Du Min was overjoyed, even if he didn't believe it. He smiled and said, "Then I'll take your kind words, Second Sister-in-law. If that day ever comes, I will definitely bow to you three times."
Meng Qing remained silent. She closed her eyes and recalled the events of her dream. The dream was too strange. She had never been to Chang'an, yet she dreamt of the imperial city. The majestic city walls were completely different from what she had seen on television in her previous life. Was it real or an illusion?
How could she have such a dream? And the slanderous and defamatory words she heard in her dream...
Footsteps approached, and Meng Qing opened her eyes. A cluster of flames leaped, and she saw her husband, Du Li, holding a burning stick to ignite an oil lamp on the table. The blazing fire illuminated his face, revealing his grotesquely sunken cheeks. He had lost a lot of weight, making his nose and brow bones appear even more prominent, and his whole appearance seemed more angular than before.
"Why are you back? Your twenty days of corvée labor haven't been up yet. Are you going to be conscripted again in the fall?" she asked.
“Once the ferry crossing in Pingwang Town was completed, the official let us come back. We’ll definitely have to go back to work for another five days in the fall to complete our term of service,” Du Li explained. He walked to the bedside and asked, “Why did you go into labor half a month early? I thought I could come back before you gave birth.”
Meng Qing then remembered that she had given birth to a child. She turned her head and saw a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes sleeping on the inside of the bed, with the same red and wrinkled skin as when the baby was born.
"It's probably not premature; they might have miscalculated the date. She must have conceived him on her wedding night." Meng Qing didn't suffer much during childbirth, so the baby in her belly must have been born naturally, not prematurely.
Upon hearing this, Du Li coughed lightly and awkwardly changed the subject: "Are you hungry? There's your favorite four-gilled perch stewing in a clay pot, shall I bring it to you?"
"Where did you get this four-gilled perch? Did you bring it back?" Meng Qing knew that even if her mother-in-law had lost her mind, she wouldn't be willing to buy four-gilled perch for her to eat.
“I caught them at the ferry crossing in Pingwang Town, I caught three,” Du Li said. “I’ll go get you some soup.”
"Wait a minute." Meng Qing called out to him, asking him to bring in a chamber pot first.
Du Li went out and came back in, came in and went out again, and it was not until after a cup of tea that Meng Qing finally got to eat the fish soup.
Every autumn and winter, the four-gilled perch migrate back to the estuary to spawn and fatten. In spring, they migrate from the deep sea to the river mouth. At this time, which is March, the perch that has migrated from saltwater to freshwater has delicious flesh with a fragrant and sweet aftertaste. Meng Qing immediately had an appetite after tasting the first bite.
Halfway through the meal, the baby woke up. Meng Qing breastfed the baby and handed the large black bowl to Du Li, saying, "You eat, I'm not eating anymore."
When Du Li saw her turn to the side and lift her clothes, he hurriedly stood up and said, "I...I'm going out to eat."
As he reached the door, he said again, "I'll be right outside. Call me if you need anything."
Meng Qing lowered her head and hummed in agreement.
The couple had been married for only two months when Meng Qing discovered she was pregnant. She was vomiting everything she ate, and even the smell of food made her nauseous. Within a month, she had lost a significant amount of weight. The time when she needed the most care coincided with the busy farming season, and her in-laws couldn't spare anyone to look after her. After discussing it with Du Li, she moved back to her parents' home to be cared for by them, until she was five months pregnant before returning to Dujiawan. However, less than a month after returning, she had a fight with Du's mother and, in a fit of anger, went back to her parents' home. After that, she stayed at her parents' home for extended periods and at her in-laws' home for shorter periods, until she moved back home about two weeks ago when she was close to giving birth.
Unfortunately, just two days after she moved back, Du Li had to leave home again to perform corvée labor. The couple spent little time together, and even after having a child, they were still as awkward and shy as newlyweds.
After Meng Qing finished breastfeeding, Du Li reheated the cooled sea bass and tofu soup and served it to her.
“Eat! Look how thin you’ve become. The busy farming season is coming soon. If you don’t eat something good, how can your body handle it?” Meng Qing said, feeling sorry for him.
"I'm fine, I can eat anything, I'm not short of food." Du Li took the child and handed him the sea bass and tofu soup. He smiled and said, "Eat up, I know you love this and you can finish it."
Meng Qing glanced at him, and Du Li waved his hand, "Eat quickly, or the soup will get cold again."
Meng Qing didn't say anything more. She held the big black bowl, drank a few mouthfuls of soup, and ate the remaining sea bass and ten pieces of tofu.
"Second Brother, have you eaten?" Du Min's voice rang out from outside the door.
"We'll go in a bit, you guys eat first," Du Li said.
"We've already eaten."
Du Li placed the child, whom he had just put to sleep, on the inside of the bed. He then took the empty bowl outside and asked, "Did you need something?"
“There is something, but it concerns my second sister-in-law. It's like this: during the Qingming Festival, Uncle Meng’s paper horse shop made a pair of galloping paper horses. One of my classmates saw them by chance, and after returning home, he had an idea to order a pair of flying horses to burn on the anniversary of his grandfather’s death. His grandfather loved horses and had collected several famous paintings. He wanted to ask Uncle Meng to make paper horses that were almost identical to the horses in the paintings.” Du Min said, looking at the closed wooden door.
Du Li nodded, "My mother-in-law will be coming the day after tomorrow for the baby's third-day celebration. I'll mention it to her then."
Du Min shook his head. "I've had the pleasure of seeing the famous painting in his grandfather's collection. It's a masterpiece, and the spirit of the horse in the painting is so vivid that it's hard to reproduce it exactly. He also asked Uncle Meng, but Uncle Meng couldn't guarantee that it could meet his requirements and didn't take the job. My classmate knows that my sister-in-law is from the Meng family, so he asked me to put in a good word for her and see if Uncle Meng would put in a little more effort to make it for him. Unable to resist his pleas, I went to Uncle Meng's house today to sound him out. The Meng brothers revealed that if my sister-in-law were to do it, they would probably have a 70-80% chance of success."
"Your second sister-in-law won't be out of confinement until early April. When is the anniversary of her grandfather's death?" Du Li asked. "What's your classmate like? If the paper horses aren't made to his liking, he won't cause trouble for the paper horse shop, will he?"
"No, no, not even for my sake," Du Min assured. "His grandfather's death anniversary is in June. My second sister-in-law can take action after she finishes her postpartum period. It just depends on whether she's willing or not."
Du Li thought for a moment and said, "In April and May, we need to boil cocoons and reel silk, and also harvest early rice. Everyone in the family, young and old, is busy. Mother can't take care of your nephew, and your second sister-in-law has to take care of her child. I'm afraid she won't have the energy to do this anymore."
Du Min stepped forward and whispered, "Second Brother, my classmate's family is wealthy. He's offering a high price. If my second sister-in-law can capture seven or eight tenths of the spirit of the horse in the painting, she can ask for a high price. Uncle Meng can earn at least ten strings of cash from this deal. If this business makes a name for itself, most of the people in our academy will become customers of the Meng family's paper horse shop. Talk to my second sister-in-law and see what she thinks."
Du Li took a deep breath, handed the empty bowl to him, and said, "I'll go talk to your second sister-in-law."
Du Min grabbed him and then pulled a rolled-up piece of paper from his sleeve. “Second brother, there are some things I can’t say out loud, and I can’t ask you to pass them on. Please give this paper to my second sister-in-law.”
Du Li frowned, glanced at him a few times, and then rolled up the paper and went inside.
Meng Qing vaguely heard a few words inside the room. After hearing Du Li's retelling and seeing the words on the paper, she clenched her hands in panic.
"What's wrong? What's written on the paper?" Du Li asked, puzzled.
"Your third brother wants to be a shady broker. He's introducing business to my family's paper offering shop, and if a deal goes through, my father has to give him a cut." Meng Qing couldn't help but think of the scene in her dream. One of the infamys she bore was using Du Min's status as a scholar to bring business to her family. In her dream, she found it absurd. She had never had such thoughts. She married Du Li, betting that Du Min would have a bright future in his studies, which would benefit her descendants. How could she do something so reckless?
Unexpectedly, Du Min, this scholar, delivered himself to our doorstep; did he want to profit from the merchants' business?
Could that dream have been real?
What else was in her dream? She was called a troublemaker, accused of leading Du Li against his parents, and accused of favoring her and even her family? She looked up at Du Li, unable to believe he could do such a thing. As the least favored second son in the family, how could he have the courage to defy his parents?
Thinking of the infamy she had for wanting to give her child away, Meng Qing looked at her son on the inside of the bed. Even if she were crazy, she would never give the child she had endured so much to give birth to to her brother-in-law.
How could a dream be real?
"This won't do. I'll go tell my third brother that he's doing this to profit from the business world. If word gets out, he'll never be able to take the imperial examinations again." Du Li was furious. Merchants were considered lowly, and their families were forbidden from holding official positions for generations. Was Du Min out of his mind? How dare he do something so self-destructive?
When Meng Qing saw that he was about to set the paper roll on fire, she quickly said, "Wait, give me the paper."
Du Li paused, but he didn't listen to her and completely destroyed this handle against him.
Meng Qing glanced at him. She wanted to see if Du Min would still try to make things happen after he refused on her behalf. If Du Min was involved in commercial interests, then the things in her dream wouldn't be unfounded.
If the dream was real, and considering the infamy she bore, Meng Qing smiled; things were getting interesting.
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