Chapter 131 If you don’t see me when you return to the mountain, I will go to see the mountain myself
"Okay." Cheng Xianzhi agreed readily. Lu Tingwan led people back to the courtyard from the village entrance and saw many villagers greeting her, and some villagers cast strange eyes on Cheng Xianzhi.
Upon entering the courtyard, Mr. Liu was holding a book under the grapevine trellis. Cheng Xianzhi was stunned for a moment when he saw the strange man. Lu Tingwan had already entered. "This courtyard is simple, not comparable to the Cheng Mansion. Please sit down first. I'll go make tea."
Seeing that Cheng Xianzhi didn't move, his eyes fell on Mr. Liu. Mr. Liu was also used to it and thought that it was just a merchant brought back by Lu Tingwan. He just nodded and saluted. But this action made Cheng Xianzhi think more. He was so skillful and casual, just like the male owner of this house.
Lu Tingwan took the teacup and came out of the side room, "Liu Qu, where did I put my spring tea?"
"It seems like Fengxin was in the right place yesterday, take a look."
Lu Tingwan went to the main hall again. Cheng Xianzhi stopped and glanced at the courtyard. It was a small courtyard with simple decoration, but it was full of famous plants.
"Sit down, no need to be so reserved." Lu Tingwan took out some tea leaves and sat down in front of the bamboo table. Only then did Cheng Xianzhi sit down.
"Did you arrange all these?" Cheng Xianzi withdrew his gaze. On the bamboo table were tea-making tools, with a Clivia miniata placed on top. The water in the teapot was still hot. Her tea-making technique was professional and skillful.
"Yes, when I have nothing to do, I tend to the flowers and plants, and my mood is different." When I first returned to Jiangling, business was not all going smoothly.
The rainstorm damaged the famous products in the flower fields, and the contracted orders could not be supplied. They had to pay liquidated damages, and also had to compensate for the capital used in the flower fields.
Later, Lu Tingwan took a different approach and led the villagers to pick the flowers damaged by the heavy rain and dry them, and make them into rouge or spices to reduce the losses. Fortunately, the rain did not last long, so the compensation was paid.
Later, she went out to sea to seek another way to make a living. After many twists and turns, she achieved her current success.
"Who is this?" Cheng Xianzhi couldn't help but ask.
Lu Tingwan glanced at Liu Qu and said, "The teacher from the private school brings his students to the flower fields and tea mountains to collect folk songs. He lives in the village."
Cheng Xianzhi secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Seeing her so happy, he should be happy for her. He knew that he was right not to force her to stay. However, he was full of longing for her, but he could not express it recklessly for fear of disturbing her peace.
It’s not that Lu Tingwan hasn’t missed him, but she didn’t want to set foot in Kyoto again. Besides, her life was busy and she had a lot of things to do, so those thoughts of him became a not-so-important sweetness in the busyness.
"This tea is the first spring tea produced this year. It was just roasted two days ago. Try it. Does it taste good?"
Cheng Xianzhi took a sip; it was fragrant, smooth, and sweet. "Very good. Where are you going to sell this tea?"
"We originally wanted to ship it overseas, but the production volume was low in the first year. We are looking for some local merchants first. We have a lot of foreign business dealings. After a year of accumulation, we will make a decision next year."
"Businessmen value opportunities the most. After accumulating for a year, aren't they afraid that others will replace them? Once they occupy the market, it will be difficult for you to get a share." Cheng Xianzhi took another sip, and it was fragrant.
"It's open to overseas markets and there are tariffs. I know it's important to seize the market, but my ambition is not limited to this. There's no need to rush." Lu Tingwan said calmly, his eyes revealing the acumen of business. Cheng Xianzhi seemed to see himself in the past when he was good at strategizing about government affairs.
He recalled what Lu Tingwan said to him the day she was leaving: everyone has their own reasons, so why force themselves to be together? Now he understood and saw things clearly.
"I've finished my tea," Cheng Xianzhi stood up. "I've met the people I wanted to meet. I should be leaving now."
"I send you!"
Under the weeping willows at the entrance of the village, Cheng Xianzhi looked reluctant to leave. Lu Tingwan waved goodbye to him. The horse's hooves raised dust, the spring breeze sent the old friend away, and the setting sun fell on the colorful flower fields. She took small steps to pick a blooming peony, put it behind her ear, and hummed a little tune.
In the seventh year of Changhe, it was spring again. There were several heavy rains around the Qingming Festival. The weather warmed up and the young buds grew quickly. The first spring tea on the tea mountain increased a lot compared to last year.
Lu Tingwan was inspecting the roasted tea in the tea room when Feng Xin came to tell him that an old friend wanted to see him in the courtyard.
Lu Tingwan's thoughts were in a trance. Could it be him again?
The villagers were envious of the process. They still remembered the man's appearance, and his clothes did not look like those of a local. Even his accent was that of a Beijinger.
Everyone in the village knew that Lu Tingwan had lived in the capital for several years, and they couldn't help but speculate about the relationship between the two.
The enthusiastic and talkative aunt began to praise Lu Tingwan, "Yan Li grew up in our village. If she hadn't taken care of the flower fields and tea plantations and taken care of the villagers over the years, we wouldn't be able to live such a comfortable life."
"As elders, we naturally want to see her get married. It's not a good future for a woman to drift around in the wind and rain. She must find a good home as soon as possible so that she can have someone to rely on in her old age. Mr. Liu often comes to the village and can occasionally look after Yanli. He's a caring person."
Cheng Xianzhi's face was bitter and he didn't know what it felt like.
On the way back to the courtyard, Lu Tingwan met Liu Qu, and the two returned to the courtyard together. Cheng Xianzhi heard the noise and turned around. The two were chatting happily on the path.
Lu Tingwan had a smile on her face, and Liu Qu was even more eloquent, telling her the interesting stories of the students' field trips. Lu Tingwan couldn't stop smiling, and her voice floated on the edge of the field.
She stopped talking only when she approached the courtyard, but the smile on her cheeks was hard to put away, until the familiar black figure in the courtyard came into her sight, and the warm and cold facial features came into her eyes. She stopped and had already expected that it was him.
Lu Tingwan took a deep breath. Liu Qu stopped, nodded, and looked at Lu Tingwan again.
"I guessed it was you," she said, her smile subdued. "Liu Qu, this is the husband I told you about in the capital, Minister Cheng Xianzhi."
Liu Qu was calm and composed, bowing and saying, "I greet you, Lord Shangshu. I saw you once in my courtyard last time, and I thought you were a businessman looking for Yanli to discuss business. Your Excellency's talent is not worldly. Later, Yanli confessed that he was not a business guest. I hope you will forgive my poor hospitality."
"No problem."
"Please sit down," Lu Tingwan invited Cheng Xianzhi in to reminisce about the past. "Are you passing through Jiangling again this time?"
Liu Qu was also sitting nearby. Cheng Xianzhi said bluntly, "I came all the way here to see you."
"You came here specially from the capital, so it would take more than half a month to get there by horse, right?" Liu Qu poured tea.
When the Turks in the northwest invaded, Cheng Xianzhi volunteered to go and repel the foreign enemies. He wanted to take one last look beforehand. He traveled all night and arrived in Jiangling in seven days, less than half a month.
"Coming from the village, I saw that the tea trees on the mountain were growing well. How is the yield this year?" Cheng Xianzhi tried to find a topic to talk about.
"Of course I'm much better. I just came back from the teahouse and was very busy. Fortunately, Liu Qu brought his students here to collect folk songs and they were able to help me pick tea as well." Lu Tingwan chatted as if he were talking about family matters.
"If Minister Cheng likes this tea, please take some back. After Qingming Festival, this first batch of spring tea will be gone."
"Have you found a market?"
"The imperial court has readjusted tariffs, and I've contacted old overseas merchants. We've already secured orders, and we're all working hard to get the tea shipped out as soon as possible," Lu Tingwan said. "I mentioned this to you when you came last year, and the prefecture ordered the tariff adjustment three months later. But did you do it back in Kyoto?"
Originally, he inspected taxation to understand the local people's sentiments. Lu Tingwan mentioned it once, and he sent people from the Ministry of Personnel to conduct a customs investigation in Dalan. This matter was discussed in Hanzhang Palace, and the rectification order was issued only after it was unanimously agreed upon by the Minister of the Central Secretariat, the Ministry of Personnel, and the six ministries.
Cheng Xianzhi didn't explain too much. The peonies in the courtyard were in full bloom. "Can I go see your tea mountain?"
Lu Tingwan took a sip of tea and agreed, "Of course."
"Liu Qu, go to the tea room and keep an eye on it for me. I'll be back later."
Liu Qu patted his robe and said, "Well, this gentleman who came to collect folk songs has become your servant."
"I'll treat you to a drink when I come to the city someday."
"I'm not going to Jiyue Pavilion." Liu Qu waved his hand.
Lu Tingwan smiled, shook her head, and walked out of the yard first. Cheng Xianzhi walked side by side with her. The path was not wide, but it could accommodate two people.
"You seem to be very familiar with him?"
Lu Tingwan did not hide it, "Caifeng has been staying in the village for more than a month. We have become familiar with each other after frequent interactions. The uncles and aunts in the village are very enthusiastic and want to match us up."
Matchmaking...
"So what do you mean?" Cheng Xianzhi's tentative tone hid his panic.
"When did you become like those uncles and aunts?" Lu Tingwan teased. Golden light bathed the fields, and dusk was drawing near. "Are you leaving before nightfall this time too?"
"Um!"
He stood on the hillside, overlooking the entire Baihua Village, and understood why Lu Tingwan was so determined to leave Kyoto.
The mountain breeze took away his regrets, and it was time to set off!
Before dark, Lu Tingwan sent Cheng Xianzhi away again.
She kicked stones at the entrance of the village, putting away her smile. The evening dew and mist rose and hit her shoulders.
Lu Tingwan looked at the lights on the houses in the village and the curling smoke. When he turned around, there was no figure left under the weeping willows at the entrance of the village. The dust kicked up by the horses' hooves settled, hiding the feelings he had never expressed in words along with the dust.
Lu Tingwan sighed into the darkness.
In the eighth year of Changhe, another year later, on the same spring day, Lu Tingwan went to the tea mountain as usual and returned to the courtyard before sunset. She wandered under the crabapple tree outside the courtyard, and squatted down to pick a small flower from the grass, as if waiting for someone to come.
The sunset glowed warmly over the entire village. Lu Tingwan raised his sleeves to block the glaring light. The figure that came down carried a familiar aura, with delicate and small facial features revealed from his sleeves. He tilted his head back, and the afterglow fell on the man's dark brocade robes.
"Cheng Xianzhi?" she shouted.
"Lu Tingwan! What are you doing here?" He said teasingly, sweating from the haste of travel. "Are you waiting for me?"
Lu Tingwan stood up, holding a small flower in her slender fingers. She took two steps back, keeping her entire body in sight.
When his wish came true, Lu Tingwan did not feel happy, but heavy. The two looked at each other for a long time without saying much.
As the afterglow faded, Lu Tingwan knew he was leaving and cleared her throat, "Cheng Xianzhi, don't come here again."
Cheng Xianzhi's smile froze. The sound of a baby crying was heard in the courtyard. Liu Qu was holding the child and comforting him under the grape trellis. The two of them looked in the direction of the sound.
There was hurt in his eyes, he didn't ask anything, but it seemed like he had asked.
Suddenly, Lu Tingwan fell into his warm arms. She tried to break free, but Cheng Xianzhi held her tighter, burying his head in her shoulder. "Ah Wan, just hold me for a while."
Lu Tingwan knew why he came every spring. Cheng Xianzhi came to Jiangling because he couldn't wait for her to return to the capital at Shili Pavilion.
The first year, Lu Tingwan passed through on his way south to inspect salt, and he didn't think much about it.
On the same day the following year, I passed by there again. Maybe it was a coincidence.
But he still came in the third year. Lu Tingwan could understand, but Cheng Xianzhi couldn't let go.
"Don't come here again. Even if you come a hundred times, my answer will be the same as it was in Kyoto that year. It will not change." Lu Tingwan rested his chin on his shoulder armor.
The two figures who had clung to each other on the same bed for many days and nights, now because of their different paths, she let go and chose her own path.
But Cheng Xianzhi didn't want to let go. The man and the baby in the yard were the last thorn that broke him.
"The road to the northwest is long. I came to see you and then left. Ah Wan doesn't like me coming, and it may be difficult for me to come back in the future."
Cheng Xianzhi let her go, cupped her cheek in his palm, and with the last ray of afterglow, he covered her lips and kissed her, reaching inside. The long-lost touch replenished the dry body with nectar.
Lu Tingwan didn't push him away. Cheng Xianzhi swallowed the sweetness that drove away the bitterness, turned around, mounted his horse, and took one last look.
She stared at the figure disappearing into the night for a long time, then turned back to the courtyard. Lu Tingwan took the child from Liu Qu's arms and said, "She must be hungry. Mrs. Zhang should be back from the mountains by now. I'll take her there."
Liu Qu handed the child to her and exposed her intentions. "You said you couldn't take care of this little kid normally, but today you agreed to take him in and take care of him for a day. Did you mean you wanted to show him to others?"
Lu Tingwan argued cunningly, "Uncle Zhang's family has gone up the mountain, and I happen to be free. It won't hurt to watch over him for a day. After all, if he cries, I can comfort him. Why should I show it to others? Do I, Jiang Yanli, still need to stay in Baihua Village to establish my merit of helping others?"
"Yes, yes, whatever Shopkeeper Jiang says is what it is."
Lu Tingwan carried the child out of the yard. Liu Qu stood there and shook her head. The man who came to Jiangling as scheduled every year was her husband, which showed that her love for him was still there. She also understood the meaning of Lu Tingwan's move.
In the spring of the ninth year of Changhe, Lu Tingwan no longer waited for Cheng Xianzhi's arrival. Instead, someone else arrived as expected. Beneath the weeping willow at the entrance of the village, two figures stood. Lu Tingwan looked into the distance, and Han Zhou said, "Madam, there's no need to look. The master hasn't come."
"You don't have to call me that. I'm no longer his wife."
"Shopkeeper Jiang!" Han Zhou changed his words.
"What's the difference between you coming and him coming?" Lu Tingwan was puzzled.
"Last year, the Turks in the northwest invaded, and you led the army to fight. In the battle on New Year's Eve, the army's route was disrupted on a snowy night. The Turks ambushed us from the front and back. You fought bravely in the snow, carving a bloody path for the soldiers, but you yourself could not come back from that snow." Han Zhou said calmly.
The wind blew her hair wildly, making her feel at a loss. Lu Tingwan stood there for a long time, unable to come back to her senses. Han Zhou's words seemed like a dream.
"I'm here to take his place for the last time."
"What did you say?"
"Before the Lord went to the battle, he asked Han Zhou to give him something. If I return to the capital after this battle, he asked me to bring this thing to you." Han Zhou took out an envelope from his arms, which showed traces of time.
Lu Tingwan took it with trembling hands, and tried to keep steady. After tearing it open, her eyes widened.
"This is?"
This was the divorce agreement she left behind, which Cheng Xianzhi had never signed before.
But that day, she had told him outside the courtyard not to come again. If she wanted to marry someone else and have children, she would no longer be married to him in name only. So, before leaving for the war, he took the divorce agreement with him, and on the eve of the snowy night, he signed it and gave it to Han Zhou.
"My Lord said that if he is ill, I should go to Jiangling after returning to the capital and hand this item to you personally."
Lu Tingwan felt a lump in his throat and could hardly breathe. He recalled that day when he was hugging her and said he was going to the northwest. Although Lu Tingwan had doubts at that time, Dalan had no shortage of military generals, so why did they insist on asking him, an imperial teacher, to go to the battle? If he had not asked to go, who could drive him?
"Hasn't the northwest always been guarded by Chen Feng? There are many military generals in the court. He is the emperor's teacher and the first among the court officials. Why should he be sent to the battlefield?" Lu Tingwan's voice was choked with sobs.
"It was the master who volunteered," Han Zhou said, "There's something the master has always forbidden us to say. When you were leaving Beijing, he wanted to stay but didn't dare."
"You've been in the Cheng Mansion for these years, and the master knows he has been unfair to you. If he hadn't spared your life when the entire Lu family was executed, how could he have made such an offer to the late emperor?"
The thing that Lu Tingwan had been unable to figure out for many years finally got the answer at this moment.
"condition?"
"I will guard the imperial power all my life, live for the imperial power, and die for the imperial power."
"He has planned everything except himself. Without this promise, he would be willing to leave Kyoto with you."
"What did you say?" Lu Tingwan's mind was in a mess at the moment. The hand holding the letter paper couldn't stop shaking, and a feeling of suffocation pressed on his heart.
So Cheng Xianzhi had been able to save his life by striking a deal with the late emperor? Everything he hadn't figured out was now clear.
Lu Tingwan sat under the candlelight, spread out the divorce letter, and put it into the brazier. Under the moonlight, it turned into ashes.
If Cheng Xianzhi didn't know his own fate, how could he have signed the divorce agreement on the eve of the war? It was a battle for his life, and he had no intention of coming back alive.
The lamp oil burned out, and Lu Tingwan sat in a wooden chair, awake all night. Images of Kyoto flashed through her mind: Han Jinzhang outside the window of Zhichunli in Fenglin Lane, the man who caught her falling off a cliff at Qingyao Mountain, and Cheng Xianzhi traveling back and forth to Yansheng Hall.
She had been asking for a divorce papers for several years and finally got it.
It turns out their story began with a marriage certificate and ended with a divorce certificate. As the dawn broke through the darkness and approached, a tear finally fell from the corner of my eye.
Lu Tingwan opened the window and greeted the morning dew. Another day had passed.
The sunlight from the flower fields slanted across the hilltops. In her dream, Lu Tingwan seemed to hear shouts. The light was blocked, and her nose itched. She heard a few childish calls, "Sister Yanli."
"Sister Yanli, wake up."
Sweat beads appeared on Lu Tingwan's forehead, and her head felt dizzy. Several children looked down at her and said, "Sister Yanli, there's a handsome older brother at the entrance of the village looking for you."
Lu Tingwan was in a trance. She took a deep breath, and the fragrance of flowers came to her. She rubbed her forehead and asked, "Are you looking for me?"
"Yes, yes, that brother is riding a big horse, so majestic."
Lu Tingwan stood up, pushed aside the airless space surrounded by children, and finally saw the light of day. "Little naughty boy, go play outside. Be careful not to step on my flowers, or you won't get any candy."
Several children ran away happily. Lu Tingwan walked to the village entrance as the sun set. Under the weeping willow tree, a graceful and gentle figure caught his eye. He stood with his hands behind his back, waiting for his old friend.
Lu Tingwan rubbed his eyes, "Cheng Xianzhi?"
The dream was too real. She looked back at the mountains in the distance, but they were not tea mountains. It was indeed a dream. Only then did she wake up completely.
"Should I call you Lu Tingwan or Jiang Yanli?" Cheng Xianzhi teased as he basked in the afterglow.
Lu Tingwan put one hand behind his back, his eyes reddened, "You, are you passing by here on salt inspection or tax inspection?"
Cheng Xianzhi was surprised and confused, and said, "Outside the Ten-Li Pavilion in the suburbs of Beijing, wild geese fly north in spring, but I didn't wait for my wild geese to leave, so I had to come south to look for them."
"If the mountain can't see me, I will go and see the mountain." Cheng Xianzhi stretched out his hand towards her.
The spring breeze is blowing for ten miles, willows are weeping in March, Lu Tingwan is bathing in the afterglow, and her smile is wrapped in the spring breeze.
——End of text
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The author has something to say: The extra chapters will continue, but they won’t be long.
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