Chapter 11
"I have to leave tomorrow, so I'm in a hurry. I'm just hastily hosting this banquet under the pretext of the Supreme Court," Xue Heng said slowly as he sat down at the table. "I hope Brother Wei and the young marquis will bear with me."
Shen Yi took the chopsticks first. The dishes on the table were all ordinary meals. It tasted not enough for his usual consumption. "Zongzhi was indeed in a hurry. I guess the news hasn't spread out of the palace yet?"
Xue Heng put down the cup he had just picked up and turned to Chen Yi. "Young Marquis is intelligent. It was summoned by His Majesty himself." He smiled faintly. "Now it is still a verbal order. If you follow it, who knows what will happen tomorrow."
"I think even if there are changes, I will go to Longxi in person," his smile turned to have a meaning that everyone understood.
Shen Yi met his gaze and said, "So, for holding a banquet today, Congzhi also has something to ask of you two." He naturally understood that the people in front of him were more asking of him. Perhaps that was not right. Xue Congzhi should have asked of the Huo family.
He suddenly felt that today was a bit boring, but because of the matter in Longxi - although Xue Congzhi did not point it out clearly, his intention would not be easily changed.
Shen Yi tugged at his sleeve. If he was begging, the other party was really exaggerating. He was distracted for a moment, and suddenly realized that there were only three of them in the room. Wei Qianyu was always taciturn, and now it was more like a conversation between him and Xue Congzhi.
"The journey to Longxi is long. I've heard stories about General Huo since I was a child," Xue Heng continued, detailing his request. "He's been in the court for less than a year. I'm afraid going alone will inevitably lead to some oversights..."
"Regardless of anything else, I hurriedly invited you tonight just to get some information from the young marquis and Brother Wei so that I won't be embarrassed in front of others later."
Chen Yi burst into laughter, stopped eating and thought about the old stories that his grandfather had told him before. It was also a way for him to reduce the unhappiness of the old man's trip to Longxi.
He mentioned that his grandfather disliked scholars and advised Xue Heng to keep his words short. Unless it was urgent, it wouldn't be a problem if he didn't speak. He also mentioned that alcohol was not strictly prohibited during the march, and that any clashes in the barracks should be reported directly to the general's tent for resolution.
He tried to speak again, but couldn't find anything else to say. Instead, he remembered more things. After reciting them in his mind, he smiled and ended his long speech. "The rest is just some family matters that are not worth mentioning. From now on, I don't know when I will reach Yumen."
Wei Chen listened to their conversation and interjected a wish at the right moment, "Perhaps we can meet the old general returning victoriously, and he may not even make it to Longxi."
Shen Yi was delighted to accept the drunken wish, laughing heartily. He drank half a cup of tea and then spoke of his entrustment. "Tomorrow—tonight—I will send someone to deliver these tokens to Congzhi. Even before they reach Longxi, someone will recognize them as tokens from the Huo Mansion."
Xue Heng bowed to him in thanks, then remained silent while listening to his next words. "If Congzhi has time, please send a letter to Brother Wei or me, so that we can know how he is doing along the way."
"I would like to thank you, Young Marquis and Brother Wei. I will find time to write to you when I rest at the post station. I am grateful for your care and help, Young Marquis. Although I cannot repay you for the time being, I will certainly not forget to deliver the letter."
As if they had entrusted each other with a duty, none of them touched the food on the table more than once, except for the waiter who occasionally added charcoal and made tea. Xue Heng spoke again, somewhat imitating the tone of the storytellers in the teahouse during the day, recounting the strange and interesting stories he had heard from an old man he had met by chance.
Shen Yi was fascinated by what he heard. When he asked about things outside Chang'an, Xue Heng told him about the several cities he had visited, most of which were bustling urban areas.
The moon was hanging high in the sky. When the waiter was refilling the tea for the last time, he mentioned the time. Shen Yi was leaning forward to continue listening, while Wei Chen straightened his clothes and prepared to leave.
Chen Yi sighed lightly, feeling sorry for not being able to finish listening to the story. He also knew that there were only a few hours left before Xue Heng set off, so he followed Wei Qianyu and left the table.
When he returned to the Marquis' Mansion, the lights in the courtyard were almost out. Shen Yi called the servant who was usually agile, found a wooden sign that he had taken from the Huo Mansion before, wrapped it in cloth, and threw some silver money to the servant, only asking him to send it to the Xue Mansion now, the sooner the better.
He placed the oil lamp on the table to illuminate the room, and then pushed the tightly closed window open a little to let some air in. Having just heard a story full of twists and turns, and Xue Heng leaving him with plenty of suspense, he couldn't fall asleep even though it was late at night.
Chen Yi thought for a moment, then dug out the wooden box he'd kept in his closet since childhood and sorted through the miscellaneous items inside. As he opened the box, as he remembered, his fingertips were stained with dust. Although the servants always wiped it, perhaps it was specifically instructed by his mother, the contents of the box remained largely untouched.
He picked up the corner of his clothes, wiped off the dust and took out the things one by one. Some of them could be recognized at a glance. He picked them up, wiped them clean, and put them back in their original place.
He placed some that he couldn't identify on the table, illuminated by the oil lamp. He waited until he had unlocked all the wooden boxes with mechanisms and taken a look before sitting back at the table.
Chen Yi picked up the rough wooden carving. He had no idea when his grandfather had given it to him. He held it in his hands and examined it, looking at the thing that looked like a bird but not quite a bird, and touched the rough carving marks and the few wrong strokes inch by inch.
My mother seemed to have mentioned this incident before, saying that she had fallen in love with the ornament that my sister bought on the street and cried and made a fuss, asking for an identical one. When the servants went to the street again, the vendor had sold out of it.
The old man was particularly annoyed by his crying, so he just happened to be on leave and took a machete from the weapon rack. And then... what did my mother say?
Shen Yi propped up his head and began to feel sleepy for some reason, but his mind was distracted by the object in his hand. It took him a long time to remember what Huo said next.
She said that she was frightened by the silver-gleaming scimitar at that time and didn't know when she stopped crying. Although her grandfather's carving was not very beautiful, she always thought about the scimitar, holding it in her hand and refusing to put it away even when she went to bed at night.
The old man was coaxed into being happy. He picked him up and rubbed his face against his, saying that he was still as skilled as ever and would carve a few more for his grandchildren to play with.
As for whether there was any more carving later, Huo never mentioned it again, and Shen Yi could no longer remember these things.
He wrapped the wooden bird in a clean silk cloth and placed it back in the wooden box. He then lowered his eyes to look at the other items on the table. Some of the jade stones were probably birthday gifts he had received before. The patterns engraved on them were almost the same. When he picked them up to examine them carefully, he could not help but knock off the tassels.
Shen Yi collected these together and put them into a new empty box. Feeling that there was no one to be on guard against, he cleared out a wooden box with the most ingenious mechanism for himself to store other things.
The rest - his eyes swept over the remaining things on the table one by one, often picking them up to look at them carefully before putting them down again. He really couldn't remember when he had these things, whether they were gifts or toys from childhood. Now they were in front of him, and they felt extremely unfamiliar.
He seemed to have never seen these things before. He had a few vague memories, but he couldn't remember who he was with at the time, or what was so happy that he put these things into the wooden box and locked it up.
Chen Yi covered his sleeves with a yawn and put the things back into the wooden box, taking out the empty box and placing it next to his pillow. He would always have to lock up some things and hide some things in the future.
He took off his cloak and outer robe, removed his shoes and socks, covered himself with a thick blanket, and lay flat on the soft couch. That empty box would eventually be filled. For some reason, Shen Yi suddenly had this inexplicable feeling.
But when he thought about it carefully, there was nothing that he needed to hide to such an extent. He just thought that his mind was easily disturbed at night.
He turned over and stuffed the wooden box into a place where others could not easily touch it. Finally, he succumbed to the sleepiness that had just come over him and closed his eyes.
There were a few scattered white pigeons in the yard that failed to fly back on time at night. They flapped their wings impatiently, and when they saw that no one was scattering rice, they cooed a few times.
Finally, they flew around the courtyard unwillingly for a few times. Seeing that there was no one to take care of them, they decided to fly high and land on a dead branch, waiting to occupy a good spot and eat their fill early tomorrow morning.
The noise in the courtyard did not wake up the sleeping people in the house. Shen Yi began to have another tangled and confusing dream, one after another, continuing with things he had not thought through.
He initially took the initiative to continue Xue Congzhi's unfinished story, adding some ghost stories at the end. He was always bold, and just as he was about to go forward to investigate, he wandered off to another place. The wind and sand stung his eyes, and he paused for a moment, thinking, This must be Longxi. War horses galloped past him, leaving behind only the flashes of swords and sabers, but he couldn't make out the rest. When he opened his eyes again, he felt much smaller in his dream. He held the rough hands of the person next to him, walking through the bustling streets, but the crowd made him uncomfortable, and he began to cry loudly.
Later it was more like a dream within a dream. He was held in someone's arms, patted on the back to sleep, and the sounds around him faded away, leaving only the warm breathing sounds rising and falling. So he closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep.
Shen Yi had a very deep and long sleep. When he was awakened by the noise in the courtyard, the white light coming in from the window was enough to illuminate the whole room.
He sat down in front of the bronze mirror and tied his hair according to his memory. Finally, he managed to tie the hairband. Except for a few more strands of hair scattered around, it seemed no different from usual.
Shen Yi looked at himself in the mirror and smiled, then he laughed along, then stood up and took a closer look at the quarter hour, counting the hours that had passed.
It was almost noon. He found the servant from last night and questioned him. He was relieved to learn that the token had been personally delivered to Xue Heng. As for their relationship, the farewell was just a guise for reciprocity. Since they both had something to ask for, Xue Congzhi would not let him down, right?
Good and bad are interdependent, and they all know which path they should choose. At least, they should take an easy path, a path that they can arrange freely.
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