Chapter 58: Spring Swallows Carrying Mud

Twenty miles south of Jingcheng Prefecture, there is a place called Wanshou Township.

In the township lived a young couple. The husband, Wang Qiao, was young and strong, capable of fishing, hunting, and farming. The wife, Li, was virtuous and managed the household well, skilled at the loom and needlework.

The two were a match made in heaven—he was the jade wall, she the bright pearl; you were the dung, I the dung beetle.

In the cold month, Wang Qiao went out fishing with a guild and returned with a fine pomfret.

This was no ordinary pomfret, but a silver pomfret; its flesh was not only delicate, but its taste was also exceptionally delicious.

Wealthy local squires were willing to pay a high price just to taste a morsel of its freshness.

Wang Qiao did not care; he only thought of his pregnant wife, who often had no appetite. Having heard that pomfret was delicious and could stimulate the appetite, he had specifically joined the fishing trip to save this rare delicacy, and thus he could never part with it.

Besides the husband's meticulous care, the wife, Li, was also very virtuous. One day, while Wang Qiao was up the mountain gathering firewood, Li was at home threading a needle, sewing winter clothes for her husband and children. Halfway through, Li was suddenly pricked by the needle tip in the center of her finger, the pain unbearable.

Her heart palpitated, and she felt restless, thinking that her husband had been out gathering firewood for a long time and had not yet returned, fearing he might have encountered some trouble.

Thinking of this, she put down her work, entrusted her children to a neighbor, and after much pleading, finally persuaded the villagers to go up the mountain to search for him.

The villagers could not bear the woman's crying and pleading; though they grumbled and complained, they truly did their best when searching for him.

By dusk, someone discovered Wang Qiao, who had slipped and fallen into a mountain ravine, unconscious.

It was late autumn and early winter; during the day, one could survive in a single layer of clothing, but the night was different—it could truly freeze a person to death!

It was foreseeable that if not for Li persuading the crowd to search the mountain, Wang Qiao's fate would have been uncertain.

In the mortuary, Xu Qing, who had been single for two lifetimes, felt a wave of nausea.

The key was that this Wang Qiao was different from the corpses he usually transcended; other corpses obsessed over fame, wealth, lust, profit, or grudges.

Wang Qiao, however, had blurry memories of everything else, yet he remembered the loving daily life between husband and wife with perfect clarity!

Xu Qing skipped these teeth-achingly sweet fragments, and the scene shifted to several years later.

By this time, Li had already given Wang Qiao a pair of children; the family was so happy that even immortals would envy them.

We don't know if a petty immortal truly grew jealous.

The usually capable Li suddenly fell ill with a severe case of consumption. This disease, let alone in the township, even the physicians in the prefecture shook their heads at it.

Wang Qiao loved his wife from the bottom of his heart; he wouldn't care what others judged.

Her mother came to see her daughter and casually said: "When my daughter was young, a fortune teller looked at her and said her life line was born short, destined for a thin fate, so Heaven has come to collect her."

Wang Qiao felt stifled upon hearing this, but could not vent his anger at his mother-in-law. When night fell and it was quiet, he secretly bit his fingertip and extended a bright red life line onto Li's hand.

Li felt a sharp pain in her heart, woke up from a dream, saw this scene, and asked him what he was doing.

Wang Qiao replied: "The fortune teller said your life is short and mine is long, so I'll just extend it for you. From now on, my life is your life. Whatever you laugh at, I will laugh with you. Whatever you cry at, I will wipe away your tears."

Perhaps Heaven had eyes; one day, a passing peddler told Wang Qiao: "At the Baisha River pier, there is a wandering Daoist priest. Don't talk about consumption; even if the King of Hell has invited someone, he can pull them back!"

"It's just that this priest wanders everywhere, and he only appears at the pier once or twice a year. The last time I met him was around this time. If you keep an eye out, you might be able to save your wife."

Upon hearing this, Wang Qiao felt as if he had grabbed a life-saving straw. Regardless of how true or false it was, he explained the household matters to his mother and children, packed his bags, and went to the Baisha River pier.

Just like that, he carried heavy loads and moved goods at the pier during the day, and slept at the boat dock by the shore at night, keeping an eye on the boats and travelers arriving by water.

Working so hard day and night, and sick with longing, Wang Qiao failed to notice danger during one loading job and was struck in the head by a wooden crate tied high up at the dock, falling into a critical condition.

Some fishermen witnessed this scene and called for help, but it was too late.

In his final moments, Wang Qiao was still tilting his head, looking at the pier, muttering about the miracle-working Daoist.

Xu Qing came back to his senses, silent for a long time.

From Wang Qiao's blurry vision before death, he saw a Daoist with a banner appear at the pier.

But he could not distinguish whether that was Wang Qiao's hallucination, or if he had truly waited until the final moment for the legendary divine physician.

However, even if he had truly waited, Wang Qiao had no strength left to beg the other party to save his wife.

Pity the bones by the Wuding River, still the people in the spring boudoir's dreams.

In the past, when Wang Qiao fell into the mountain ravine, his wife Li had a premonition; now that he died in a foreign land, one wonders how Li would miss him.

"Jingcheng Prefecture, Wanshou Township."

Xu Qing muttered to himself, then began to groom and dress the laborer in front of him.

In the third month of spring, swallows carry mud.

On this day, outside the mortuary, a new swallow flew in from the south and built a nest under Xu Qing's eaves.

At first, Xu Qing didn't care, until he saw another swallow fly in shortly after, and he suddenly realized that swallows always come in pairs.

A poem once said, "Only the pair of flying swallows are affectionate; they don't avoid coming just because a person is poor."

Another said, "Thinking of being a pair of flying swallows, carrying mud to nest in your house."

There are also poems wishing to send a pair of flying swallows to fly northwest for me.

Xu Qing watched the two chirping swallows; the young couple carried mud and broke branches, extremely affectionate.

He watched for a moment, then thought of the laborer Wang Qiao, whom he had transcended yesterday.

"When will the pair of flying swallows return? The peach blossoms on both banks bloom dipped in water."

Xu Qing took out the crane-bone flute, compared the two, and had already gained some enlightenment in his heart.

On the ninth day of the third month, the Wu brothers next door rented a carriage, preparing to head to the prefectural city to take the exams.

Linhe Ward is the most prosperous water and land freight hub in the Yong Dynasty. A hundred miles north is Jingcheng Prefecture, and ten or twenty miles south is the seat of Baisha County.

Facing the invitation from the Wu brothers, Xu Qing thought for a moment and finally decided to head to the prefectural city alone.

Before leaving, he specifically went to the coffin shop on the street and asked Hu Baosong for a coffin.

Old Man Hu was still full of spirit. Seeing Xu Qing enter the door, he raised his eyes and said, "Who died again?"

Xu Qing was speechless: "Can't it be something good?"

"No one who enters my coffin shop brings anything good. You even more so; if no one died, would you think of coming here?"

Xu Qing was dumbfounded.

This old man is really a buzzkill.

"A stranger died. I happen to be going to the prefectural city, so I'll send him off on the way, so he can return to his roots."

"Return to his roots..."

Hu Baosong raised his eyelids upon hearing this, muttering to himself.

"Little Xu, if one day I ask you to send me to my burial, as neighbors, you cannot refuse."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 59 =====