Chapter 454: Side Story 6: Lady Yu — Narkissos

Side Story 6: Lady Yu — Narkissos

Side Story 6: Lady Yu — Narkissos

Zhang Lihua's father was a fishing boss.

Zhang Lihua had been the little demon king of Yun County since she was a child.

Zhang Lihua ended up marrying a Tanhua.

...A real Tanhua, not from Liao—Liao was long gone—the kind of Tanhua who would parade through the streets of Dongjing.

Would you believe it?

Anyway, Zhang Lihua didn't. When that old fortune-teller who'd wandered into Yun County from who-knows-where muttered this to her with a mysterious air, Zhang Lihua was clutching a basket half-full of fish, the veins on the back of her hand rising and falling, rising and falling. Finally, staring at the wrinkles on his face and recalling her father's talk about respecting the old and cherishing the young—well, her father couldn't spit out such refined words—but roughly that was the idea. Her small, palm-sized face glowered darkly for a moment, then she twisted her head and spat loudly to the side—

Pah!

She was young and illiterate, but she wasn't stupid. What Tanhua would take a fisherman's daughter like her? Yours, maybe? If you're going to make up a lie to trick someone, at least make it sound plausible. If you want money, just say so—anyway, she, Zhang Lihua, was poor too, and there was no way she'd give a single coin. Feeling duped, Zhang Lihua angrily lugged her half-basket of fish home and told her father about it. To her surprise, her father just chuckled as if amused, then pursed his lips and glared: "Why can't my Zhang Rong's eldest daughter be a chancellor's wife?"

"Huh?" Zhang Lihua's grimy little face was plastered with the words "What nonsense." "Has the old man gone mad? What could he possibly see in me?"

Her father pondered for a while: "True enough."

Zhang Lihua was half-dead with anger at her father again.

How did those plays and storybooks put it? Oh, a twist of fate, no coincidence no story. When Zhang Lihua heard those words, she felt a deep familiarity. Why? Because she felt her own life had the same ups and downs as the fairy maidens in the tales, and she really did end up marrying a Tanhua, just like that old man's made-up nonsense—pah pah pah—his divination had foretold. By then, her father was already a formidable general.

Zhang Lihua had never imagined she'd land a golden husband, just as she'd never expected her father to become a general, wearing carved leather boots, clack-clack-clack, strutting around all high and mighty. At first, all Zhang Lihua hoped for her father was that he'd stop throwing his weight around just southwest of the marsh and find a way to suppress those fishing bullies. Later, all she hoped for was that he'd find a wife quickly. Word had it that the previous emperor wanted to implement some Flower and Stone Network, and her father was nominated as some kind of leader, which landed him in prison, and her mother cried herself to death.

When her father was rescued by those uncles and elders and rebelled by killing the officials and going to Mount Liang, the refined Uncle You grabbed her and hurried to catch up with her father, at least not leaving her behind. Zhang Lihua stared for a while at the blood and gore staining her father's clothes, then listened for a moment to the layered cries rippling through the air: "Born and bred on Mount Liang, born to kill."

Zhang Lihua said to her father: "Mother's dead. Died a few days ago. Uncle Xiao, Uncle Five, and the others borrowed some silver and helped bury her. Remember to pay them back."

Zhang Lihua's throat was a bit dry; she licked her lips and added: "I haven't rested. Find me a place to sleep for a while."

—After one sleep, she, Zhang Lihua, would be the lively little demon queen of this land again.

Her father led the men singing "Fear not the court, fear not the officials," and she, Zhang Lihua, wasn't afraid either—not even of her father. He also sang something like "Heroes don't read poetry and books, they only live on Mount Liang," and she found it quite contemptible. What? Proud of not reading? It was because he couldn't read that he'd been jailed by those who could, and he still talked about killing those damned officials in Dongjing. Pah! Did he think his daughter didn't know his background? Who knows what year he made a trip to Dongjing, and came back constantly mouthing the phrase "air of wealth and splendor" he'd picked up from some damned scoundrel in Dongjing, envying it like crazy. Did she, Zhang Lihua, not know that her father wanted more than anything to live in Dongjing City?

She, Zhang Lihua, wanted it too!

Zhang Lihua thought it through clearly: Dongjing City was full of wealth and splendor, so why should only those officials and chancellors enjoy it, and not them, the ones who delivered the Flower and Stone Network? Didn't they know that because of the Flower and Stone Network, they couldn't even fish anymore? Before, she, Zhang Lihua, could slip away at any chance, leading a bunch of kids out of Yun County to roam the mountains and waters. Why now did she have to stay on Mount Liang? Her father said Dongjing had everything, but Mount Liang had nothing but water, water, water, and grass, grass, grass—what was there?

That wasn't what Zhang Lihua cared about most. Looking around Mount Liang, all the aunties and young ladies had husbands. What about her father? When he came back after losing her mother, all he did was point fingers at her, saying her mending wasn't as good as her mother's, her cooking wasn't as good as her mother's—was that fair?! And there was more: one of the uncles who helped bury her mother, still young, had a hole torn in his shoulder, bandaged it roughly, but couldn't go outside to find a good physician and died. There were many such cases. Life and death—Zhang Lihua didn't take them too seriously, but her father was a leader; he had to look after others' lives, didn't he? Just like before, when you said you were a fishing boss, everyone acknowledged it. The Flower and Stone Network left everyone starving—if you didn't go to the officials to plead, who would? The fish in the basket?

That made no sense!

Zhang Lihua didn't accept the logic of the officials in Dongjing City. She thought those damned men had no logic either. She had her own logic, but logic couldn't stand up to the crooked reasoning of the book-learned. Later, Zhang Lihua added another principle: the crooked reasoning of the book-learned couldn't stand up to those who wielded swords and blades. Those people—more savage than them, the fishermen—later she learned they were the Jurchens of Jin—were even wilder than the "heroes" who didn't read. Before, it was a subtle feeling, making you sense that this world didn't seem to want you to live well. Now? Now it was out in the open, telling you that in this world, you fishermen, farmers, and woodcutters couldn't survive!

Zhang Lihua refused to accept it. The officials and chancellors talked about killing and chopping all the time. What about the Jurchens? Why shouldn't people be allowed to live? Why should the people of Jizhou be your arrow targets? Why should over a dozen towns in Jingxi be slaughtered clean just because they caught your eye? Those Hebei people also had two eyes and one nose—why should they be treated like animals? When her father spoke indignantly, Zhang Lihua nodded like a chick pecking at rice. She'd never been to those places, didn't know many Hebei people, but she felt her father was absolutely right! She grabbed a wine bowl, drank it all in one heroic gulp, and slammed it heavily on the table—bravo!

Bravo my ass—her father's face darkened, and he rapped her on the head.

Her father's dark face wasn't very noticeable—Zhang Lihua had never seen him pale. She took after him; at first glance, she was unmistakably his daughter—tall, with a dark face too. She could never figure out why her father had named her "Lihua" (Pear Blossom). Didn't he know pear blossoms were that white? Who was he mocking with that name? And that wasn't all—Zhang Lihua felt she was hardly a flower, was she? Flowers swayed in the wind, all delicate and graceful. She, Zhang Lihua, would only climb a tree and shake it hard, making those flowers on the branches tremble even without wind.

Zhang Lihua asked her father about this. He glanced sideways at her: "Can't you learn a bit from that Lady Liu?"

Zhang Lihua was annoyed. She kicked a plank apart and threw it into the woodpile, then chopped the bloody cow into pieces with a couple of thuds, sneering coldly in reply: "If I learn, will I have some peach-pink and willow-green attendants to serve me tomorrow?"

Zhang Rong stared at the blunted knife in his daughter's hand and quietly shut his mouth.

Actually, learning or not didn't matter—being fierce was better than being a pushover. Zhang Lihua knew her father was just saying it. She was past fifteen and hadn't even had a single matchmaking prospect. Whose fault was that? It wasn't that she, Zhang Lihua, didn't have a fierce reputation. Among her father's men, there were some fine young fellows who might have liked her type, but her father wasn't willing. He thought they had no future and no culture, and their skinny frames might not even be able to outfight his daughter. So Zhang Lihua couldn't be bothered to argue. She didn't care whether she married or not, and watching her father's picky attitude, what kind of flower could he possibly pick!

...And she never expected—he picked a Tanhua.

She wasn't there when her father did the outrageous thing of kidnapping that Tanhua. Word had it that at first, her father made a mistake and grabbed the wrong person, but somehow, in the end, the Tanhua himself came to her father with an imperial decree. Oh, when Zhang Lihua found out about this, she was stunned—she'd lived nearly twenty years and had never been so shocked. Now her father was a high official too, and Zhang Lihua had a mirror her father bought her. She looked into it—hey, she was actually a pretty good-looking young lady, just a bit dark—but then again, this bronze mirror wasn't very bright. Could her beauty really have spread to Dongjing? Reached the ears of that Tanhua Yu? Impossible, right? So what did this Tanhua Yu see in her?

Was he some kind of fool? She wouldn't want a fool who only knew how to read either!

The junior officer who came to fetch her—someone she'd been buddy-buddy with back on the marsh—grinned and said: "It's not that Tanhua Yu took a fancy to you; it's that His Majesty took a fancy to your father!"

Zhang Lihua understood. Though she felt something was off about that statement, it didn't stop her from having a sudden realization. What kind of man was His Majesty? This emperor was different from the previous two. If His Majesty had taken a fancy to her father, she was a hundred percent willing and relieved!

Still, that said, it was she, Zhang Lihua, who had to do the marrying. The wife her father had taken later wasn't very reliable; she went on and on about the Tanhua all day, making Zhang Lihua nervous too. Could the Tanhua wield a blade? Ride a horse? Swim? Did he like sour or sweet? Could he drink a jar of strong preserved wine? This new mother who'd married in was also simple-hearted, stamping her feet anxiously: "Why are you asking about all that! The Tanhua is a literary star! A scholar!"

Oh—! A scholar! Then what books had the Tanhua read... No, what books hadn't the Tanhua read?

Zhang Lihua rolled her eyes and let her face fall. Could this life even work? Would he read while she wielded a blade? If she married him, would he immediately despise her? Her father was at least someone His Majesty had taken a fancy to—maybe he couldn't produce a letter of divorce, but surely she, Zhang Lihua, could get a separation agreement?

Zhang Lihua sighed long and hard, moping like a young lady... like a pampered, spoiled young lady... well, not really. When other young ladies fretted, they recited verses to the birds and sparrows. When she, Young Lady Zhang, fretted, she grabbed a whip, rode a horse, and ran wild. Someone who used to swim like a fish now improved her riding skills by leaps and bounds. On the eve of her wedding, she was awkwardly powdered and painted, adorned with hairpins and rings, and went out with a head full of pearls and flowers to face her father. They both found the whole bridal display hilarious, with a touch of awkward embarrassment. Her mother, on the other hand, was sobbing, her lips moving in a mumble for a long time before squeezing out: "If you quarrel... come back... don't draw a blade on your husband..."

Zhang Lihua heard it clearly. Her father couldn't help but snort twice. She got angry, flicked her sleeves, and strode out in big steps. When she reached the gate of the Tanhua's residence, she stealthily looked around—hey! Zhang Lihua snapped back to reality!

She, the only daughter of Grand Commandant Zhang, Zhang Lihua of Yun County, was marrying by imperial decree!

Her backbone was strong, and her confidence was high!

Zhang Lihua instantly perked up, puffed up with pride. She marched triumphantly into the Yu family gate and became Lady Yu, the Tanhua's wife... the wife of Tanhua Yu Yunwen...

Zhang Lihua stared straight at young Tanhua Yu with her almond eyes, not even blinking. The soaring spirit that had just risen in her was instantly cut in half.

Handsome face.

Tall and imposing.

Tanhua, full of talent.

And he'd burned the Jurchens' boats with her father!

Hiss! Zhang Lihua was dazed. Really? A man like this had become her husband? Did she, Zhang Lihua, deserve such a person?

—She'd lived all these years for nothing! She never imagined she, Zhang Lihua, was such an extraordinary young lady!

Zhang Lihua had a new understanding of herself. As for our young Tanhua Yu Yunwen, he too felt a bit nervous. Maybe he'd imagined Young Lady Zhang too much based on Grand Commandant Zhang. Now that he saw her—willow-leaf brows, almond eyes, vermilion lips, not as dark as Grand Commandant Zhang. Tall, yes, but not as tall as him.

A heavenly beauty she certainly wasn't—Yu Yunwen hadn't thought that for a moment. But she wasn't an ugly hag either; the young lady was quite pretty!

Being stared at by such a pair of dark, shining eyes from the woman who was about to become his wife—on their wedding night, wouldn't he be shy?

—Of course he would!

Once that auspicious day and night passed, Zhang Lihua's dark clouds cleared, and she grew even more vibrant. Yu Yunwen let out a long breath, a little worn out. Zhang Lihua was very satisfied with her Yu Lang. The more she thought about it, the more she admired her father for having kidnapped this Yu Lang. Later, Zhang Lihua grew truly curious. She cupped her face, lowered her voice, and with a rare hint of sticky shyness, called out: "Let me ask you something."

Yu Yunwen looked up: "?"

"Hey," Zhang Lihua said softly, "back then, how did you think to come to Father's place with the imperial decree?"

That phrasing sounded wrong—what did "come to" mean? Yu Yunwen immediately wanted to explain the whole story to clear things up, but first, the story wasn't easy to tell, and second—

"What made you think to ask about that?" Yu Yunwen said.

"Oh, it's that, that what's-it-called, that thing..." Zhang Lihua hemmed and hawed for a long time without coming up with it. "What's that saying you court officials always use?"

Yu Yunwen looked blank: "...Please behead Yang Yizhong?"

Oh, how ferocious. Zhang Lihua slapped the table and said angrily: "—Every matter must have its beginning!"

Yu Yunwen understood. He thought for a moment: "I happen to have no wife..."

Zhang Lihua's face darkened by about a shade.

"And then after years of wandering, His Majesty also knows that most court officials don't have daughters of marriageable age..."

Zhang Lihua's face grew more and more like her father's.

Yu Yunwen's voice carried a hint of a smile: "So isn't this a coincidence? A thousand li of fate tied by a single thread. Among those who passed the same examination, none are quite like us."

Zhang Lihua's expression softened, and she began to look like she shared a married couple's features with Yu Yunwen again. She savored it for a moment, then came back to her senses—good Tanhua Lang, he still hadn't said why he actually agreed. Her almond eyes widened, staring at her Yu Lang under the lamplight. Gazing at a beauty by lamplight only made one more entranced; Yu Lang truly was the man Zhang Lihua had chosen as the finest jade-carved gentleman in the world. After a long while, she couldn't muster any anger. She sidled over, wrapped her arms around his neck, pressed against his back, and whispered in his ear, inadvertently breathing warm air that tickled his ear, a veritable lecherous rogue: "What was the first line of that 'Pure Peace Tune' you told me before?"

—A single branch of crimson beauty, dew-coagulated fragrance; clouds and rain at Witch Mountain, vainly breaking hearts.

The heartbroken Yu Sheren had to get up early the next day. Before leaving, with a face as dark as a married couple's shared features, he looked down at his wife, who was hugging the blanket and sleeping soundly, for a while. When he ran into a fellow examination graduate, he was asked: "Why are you also holding your waist belt, learning from the Prince of Yan'an?"

Yu Yunwen thought of the Prince of Yan'an's wife, Liang Hongyu, who could mount a horse and kill enemies while following the army, and inexplicably felt that his previous envy of that unique jade belt had been quite unnecessary.

Every matter must have its beginning. He figured that back then, when his father-in-law had tied him up, Yu Yunwen, it was probably because he was exceptionally tall and imposing among his fellow graduates.

Zhang Lihua, who had slept soundly until the sun was high in the sky, had no idea about her husband's tangled thoughts. With a satisfied expression, she ate a hearty lunch. To be fair, ever since she married, she had indeed slept very soundly. After all, he was a Tanhua Lang. It wouldn't do for Zhang Lihua to remain so illiterate forever. So she looked for books to read. Reading poems like "The goddess's life was originally a dream; the maiden's dwelling had no man" was fine, but if the page said "Zheng Bo conquered Duan at Yan," well, even her habit of an afternoon nap was cultivated. If she read the gazette's "original studies" or "formulas," she called it knockout drops, specially made to knock out someone like her.

Zhang Lihua was worried. She said she took after her father—if she were a son, wouldn't she have to take after her mother? How could that do?! So she gritted her teeth and finished reading the books that Tanhua Yu called "basic." When she read the gazette and notes, she made clippings more detailed than the ever-busy Yu Sheren's. Later, when Yu Yunwen taught their son to read and got so angry he spoke without thinking, he would say: "You're not even as good as your mother!"

Zhang Lihua would often be nearby, glaring at their daughter who was being lazy and refusing to learn needlework, and say angrily: "Your patience is not even as good as your father's!"

Then the couple would look at each other in blank dismay. Finally, Yu Yunwen, helpless yet unable to suppress a smile, would rub his forehead and correct her: "It's patience..."

Patience is patience, so what if it's patience? Only you, Tanhua Yu, hear it so clearly! Zhang Lihua waved her hand to shoo away the noisy children, searched for a while, pulled a pear blossom from a vase, and tossed it over. Yu Yunwen caught it lightly and asked her: "What's the meaning of this?"

Back then, what flower did Tanhua Yu explore? Zhang Lihua remembered clearly—it was the rare, most brilliant and gorgeous crabapple blossom of Bianjing City at that time!

"What meaning? The meaning of 'a single tree of pear blossoms overwhelming the crabapple.'"

But Tanhua Yu was no longer the young man who could still blush. A mischievous look appeared on the handsome face of Tanhua Lang: "You used 'a single tree of pear blossoms overwhelming the crabapple' wrong again."

"I'll use it wrong on purpose. What are you going to do about it?" Zhang Lihua was unreasonable but full of confidence. "Is it not allowed, Tanhua Yu?"

It was allowed. A moment in the spring night is worth a thousand gold; flowers have a pure fragrance, and the moon has its shadows.

This was what her supremely talented Yu Yunwen had explained to his wife!