Chapter 152 A Guest Arrives
Wang Zhou scratched his head. He had a feeling of unreality. Looking at the layout of the room, he realized that it was not his own room.
"I must be dreaming." He lay back down.
Du Li laughed, "Whether it's a dream or not, you'll know once you get up and come with me to see your mother."
Wang Zhou opened her eyes and stared at him inquisitively.
"Hurry up." Du Li turned to leave. "I need to take the child back to your mother."
Wang Zhou got up again, untied the sheet wrapped around him, slipped out of bed, put on his shoes, and went upstairs.
Du Li led him back to the courtyard where his family lived and asked, "Do you still feel like you're dreaming?"
Wang Zhou shook his head.
"Want to see your brother again? You can look from outside. Your mother is sleeping inside. She didn't sleep a wink last night. Don't say anything when you go in." Du Li squatted down. "Go ahead and look."
As the boat approached, the baby in the swaddling clothes was red, thin, and not good-looking.
"It's very beautiful," he said insincerely. "I'm going to see my mother."
Du Li looked at the child in her arms, then at Wang Zhou's eyes, and after trying to hold back, she couldn't help but say, "You're so hypocritical."
"I'm being sincere, but you're still unhappy." Wang Zhou said helplessly, "I'm going to see my mother."
Du Li: "...That's true."
Meng's mother was in the room with Meng Qing. When she saw the three of them come in, she took the second son and placed him next to Meng Qing.
Wang Zhou found it fantastical, so he took a nap, and his mother's belly flattened, and his brother was born.
"How come I don't know anything about this?" he muttered.
Du Li led him outside, took him back inside to change his clothes, and asked, "Do you want to take the day off and stay home?"
Wang Zhou thought for a moment, then shook his head and refused, "I'll come back at noon."
"Okay." Du Li handed him the book box. "Let's go have breakfast."
After finishing breakfast, Wang Zhou finally came to his senses and complained, "Dad, Grandpa, you should have woken me up last night. I don't know anything."
“It’s your father’s fault; he’s the one who took you away,” Meng’s father said, trying to deflect blame.
“Your mother wants to give you a surprise,” Du Li said. “Is it a surprise?”
Wang Zhou nodded, "I guess so."
"That's good then." Du Li picked up his book bag. "Are you full? Let's go."
Wang Zhou was still a little unhappy. He followed the child out the door, saying, "Dad, I'll be eight years old in six months. I'm all grown up now. You can't hide anything important from me anymore."
“Who’s older, you or your third uncle? You knew about this surprise before he did,” Du Li said.
Upon hearing this, Wang Zhou suddenly started running and rushed into the government office. As soon as he entered, he shouted, "Third Uncle, Third Uncle, I have a surprise for you! My mother gave birth last night!"
"What?" Du Min exclaimed in shock. "Your mother was perfectly fine when we left last night, wasn't she? When did this happen? Did she go into labor in the night? Why didn't you send anyone to inform us? Where is your father?"
“My dad deliberately kept it from us, he wanted to give us a surprise,” Wang Zhou complained. “He’s behind us, I’m here to tell you the good news first.”
Du Min chuckled a few times and went out to greet Du Li, who threw a punch at him.
Du Li was prepared. He took two steps back and asked with a beaming smile, "What's wrong so early in the morning? Your second sister-in-law gave birth to another boy just before dawn this morning. I've come to tell you the good news."
"What were you doing last night? Why didn't you tell me?" Du Min was angry and regretted it. "I shouldn't have let you move out. My sister-in-law gave birth, such a big thing, and you didn't even tell me. Do you even consider me family? Am I a relative? Do you even know how to handle things?"
"Let's go inside and talk, don't let people laugh at us." Du Li pushed him into the government office and said, "What use would you be if you went? You wouldn't be of any help."
Du Min kicked him, "Does it have to be useful before you can go? Can you even help? What's the point of you just standing guard outside?"
Du Li deliberately didn't come to notify him. He dusted off his legs and nodded to greet Yin Caiwei.
"Second brother, wait a minute, I'll go pack some things, and we'll go back with you to see my sister-in-law." Yin Caiwei was still a little dazed, surprised by her sister-in-law's rapid delivery and by the way the two brothers got along. She asked somewhat absentmindedly, "How is my sister-in-law? Should we have a doctor check her pulse?"
“I’ll go invite him later,” Du Li said.
Du Min glanced at him and immediately sent a servant to invite him.
Du Li glanced at Du Wangzhou, who snorted and said with his head held high, "Third Uncle, I'm going to the study for morning reading."
"Alright." Du Min took the book box from Du Li's hand and handed it to Wang Zhou. Only then did he calm down. "The second son is also a boy? Like my second sister-in-law, right? He should have a smart head. I will teach him to read and guide him in the imperial examinations. Twenty years later, the three of us uncles and nephews will all be working in the officialdom, and I will be their backer."
Yin Caiwei looked at him.
"Have you chosen a name yet? I've already come up with several. I'll let my second sister-in-law choose one later," Du Min said to himself.
"We've chosen a name, Wangchuan, which was chosen by your second sister-in-law," Du Li emphasized. "It's based on the name Wangzhou, meaning boat and water are interdependent; a boat cannot live without water, and water can support a boat. We hope that the two brothers can support each other in the future."
Du Min said "Oh," and then pondered for a moment before saying, "If I have a son in the future, I will name him Wangshan. The end of the river is a mountain, and one can cross the river by boat to enter the mountain."
Du Li glanced at Yin Caiwei, but didn't reply.
Yin Caiwei silently read it over: "Looking at the boat, looking at the river, looking at the mountain. With a boat, a river, and a mountain, it must be a good place. This name is alright."
"My lady, everything is ready." Mother Sun brought over a basket.
Yin Caiwei looked at Du Min, "Husband, can we go now?"
Du Min went to his study and came out saying, "Let's go."
The three of them left the government office together and arrived at the Meng family's residence. Just then, Meng Qing woke up and was having breakfast.
Yin Caiwei went in to visit, and Du Li brought the baby out for Du Min to see. Du Min looked the baby over carefully and then reached out to take the swaddled baby.
“She looks like my second sister-in-law, she’s really good at pleasing people.”
Du Li: ...
"Oh! He's opened his eyes. His eyes look most like my second sister-in-law's. Second brother, why is he crying?"
"He's either hungry or he's wet himself." Du Li took the child from her. "Give him to me, I'll take him inside."
"Wait a minute." Du Min took out a silver seal from his sleeve. The seal was exquisite and small, and it was engraved with Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures. He placed the small seal in Wang Chuan's palm and said, "Our Du family has gained another member. This is a gift from your third uncle to you. I wish my nephew great fortune in the future, that he may be ennobled and appointed as a high-ranking official, and hold a precious seal in his hands."
Upon hearing this, Du Li said sincerely, "Third brother, thank you for your thoughtfulness."
Du Min glanced at him. "Never mind, you have a happy occasion today, so I won't say anything unpleasant. Hey, you didn't put in as much effort as I did, did you?"
Du Li gritted his teeth, picked up the child, and left.
Du Min hummed a tune happily.
Yin Caiwei opened the door and came out, but her steps faltered upon hearing the sound.
When Du Min saw her, his voice trailed off. "How is Second Sister-in-law?"
"You look good," Yin Caiwei said. "My second sister-in-law asked me to thank you; she really likes the seal you gave the child."
Du Min frowned; the politeness was nauseating. He wanted to yell something through the door, but he held back because his wife was there.
"When did you prepare this for the child? Did you have it made yourself, or did you buy it?" Yin Caiwei asked. "Besides the seal, what else is there?"
"An abacus." Du Min had a silversmith make a seal and an abacus. If his second sister-in-law had given birth to a daughter, he would have given her the abacus, hoping the child would inherit the legacy her mother had planned. But later, his second sister-in-law planned to hand over the free school to government officials. The spoils had been divided up, leaving only a small piece. It was hard to say what things would be like twenty years later, so the silver abacus seemed somewhat out of place. But he didn't replace it with anything else, thinking it would be good to keep it as a memento.
"I'll bring it over and give it to my second sister-in-law another day," Du Min had another idea.
"What should we send?" Du Li came out. "Your second sister-in-law said you don't need to send anything else. If you miss her, just come over and visit her when you have time."
“Even if she hadn’t told me, I would have come here often,” Du Min said.
"Go ahead and do your work," Du Li said, shooing him away. "What time is it? Aren't you going to your shift?"
Du Min did indeed have important business today. Two days ago, Prefect Yin sent someone with a message that an old marquis in Luoyang had died. This was a founding hero, and his funeral was grand, even more so than some royal family members' funerals, which could be said to be against regulations in every way. But they wanted to bury him in Beiman Mountain, which was putting him in a difficult position. If he stopped them, he would only face death; if he didn't, he would lose face. He had no choice but to hide.
"Today I'm taking my constables to Wangwu Mountain in the west. The Yellow River's water level hasn't risen significantly this year, and I've heard there's a severe drought upstream. I'm going to check on the situation. If I don't return by this evening, I'll be back tomorrow, or at the latest, the day after tomorrow," Du Min instructed.
"Take more people with you," Du Li instructed.
“I’ll go back and help my husband pack his luggage.” Yin Caiwei had no idea that he was leaving Heqing County. “Husband, why didn’t you say so last night? We could have packed earlier and prepared some dry food for you. The sun is too strong, why don’t you take the carriage I brought?”
Du Min gave a few perfunctory "uh-huhs" and left with his nagging wife.
Back at the government office, he hastily packed two sets of clothes and shoes, dismissed the constables who used to accompany him to intercept funeral processions at the foot of Beiman Mountain, and swaggered away.
Two hours later, Magistrate Zhao fled to Heqing County to find Du Min, only to learn that Du Min had run away without saying goodbye. He was furious.
As he left the county government office, Magistrate Zhao wiped the sweat from his brow. Just as he was hesitating whether to pretend to fall and faint, he saw Wang Zhou coming around the corner wearing a woman's veiled hat. Suddenly, an idea struck him.
"Wangzhou, are you going to find your third uncle? I'll go with you." Magistrate Zhao strode over and put his arm around Wangzhou. "Where are you going?"
"Going home." Wang Zhou lifted the thin silk and asked, "Uncle Zhao, are you looking for my third uncle? Isn't he at the yamen?"
Magistrate Zhao was overjoyed; it seemed that Wang Zhou was unaware that Du Min had gone on a long journey.
No, do you know where he is?
"You don't know where he is, nor do you know where I'm going, so how can you say I'm going to find my third uncle?" Wang Zhou snorted, struggling to dodge away, and asked warily, "What are you going to do? I'm going to call for help."
"I'm looking for your third uncle. I just came from the yamen." Magistrate Zhao was exhausted. How could a little brat have so many tricks up his sleeve? "Where is your mother? I want to talk to her about donating to our Heyin County Charity Association."
Wang Zhou glanced at him and said, "Come back next month, my mother is in confinement after childbirth."
“Good news! I’ll go and visit him.” Magistrate Zhao was determined not to return to Heyin County, so he quickly said, “You lead the way. Maybe your third uncle is at your house. I’ll run into him when I get there.”
Wang Zhou took him away.
Magistrate Zhao delayed his return, and the yamen runners, knowing his attitude, hid themselves inside the yamen. The funeral procession from Luoyang traveled through Heyin County in a grand procession until it was completely dark, when the last hearse disappeared into the mountains.
Magistrate Zhao was still hiding in the Meng family's house. Meng Qing kept him there under the pretext that he had been knocked unconscious by a falling tile from the roof of the Meng family's house, in exchange for the school only donating 1,000 strings of cash to the Baishan Association of Heyin County.
As the night passed, Magistrate Zhao emerged from the Meng family home wearing a white cloth stained with chicken blood. Meng's parents followed him apologetically, explaining to everyone they met that a tile had fallen from the roof of the Meng family home and injured Magistrate Zhao, causing him to be unconscious for a long time. The two explained all the way and escorted him straight back to the Heyin County government office.
Yin Caiwei mistakenly believed it to be true. She brought gifts and went to the Meng family under the scorching sun, intending to discuss with Meng Qing about her apologizing to Magistrate Zhao on her behalf. Only then did she learn the truth behind the rumors.
"Back then, I tricked the Mingqi Shop of Heyin County into donating 18,000 strings of cash to the Baishan Association of Heqing County, and the Yishu also donated 22,000 strings of cash. This time, the Baishan Association of Heyin County is raising funds, and it would be inappropriate for me to donate too little, as it would damage my reputation. Magistrate Zhao will not let go of the opportunity to rip me off." Meng Qing explained, "I was just worried about not having a reason, and he delivered himself to my door."
"Magistrate Zhao has agreed, but isn't Second Sister-in-law worried about the reputation of the free school? Or do you have some other agreement?" Yin Caiwei asked curiously.
"I plan to set up two bamboo workshops in Heyin County to employ migrant workers and people struggling to make a living in Heyin County. They will be provided with three meals a day and wages every month. This is how the free school can win the hearts of the people and gain a good reputation," Meng Qing explained. "Magistrate Zhao also agreed to explain to the public that this is compensation for insufficient donations to the free school. At the same time, he is also responsible for vetting the candidates for the bamboo workshops."
Yin Caiwei listened with great interest. "I've heard my father say that the workers in Luoyang's bamboo workshops were also refugees, beggars, and people struggling to make a living. Nowadays, you can hardly see any beggars in Luoyang."
Meng Qing nodded, "As of March this year, the total number of workers in Luoyang's bamboo workshops and dyeing workshops has increased to more than 160."
"Qingniang." Du Li knocked on the door and peeked in, saying, "We have guests visiting. They've come from Chang'an, some of them are apprentices you took in a few years ago when you ran a free school there."
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Author's Note: Taking readers' suggestions into consideration, the name "Wangshui" has been changed to "Wangchuan".
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