Chapter 66 The Lantern Festival
2103 Words
It was January 15th of the lunar calendar when the aid convoy arrived at Fengyuan County.
The convoy received a warm welcome as they entered the city.
As everyone expected, they had food!
Finally, they could have hot buns and thick porridge. They would also have firewood to warm themselves and enough timber to set tents and mend their houses.
The civilians were wild with joy. They gathered around the wagons, looking at soldiers with excitement and hope.
Prefect Guo came to greet them on his own.
When they were unloading goods, Xiao Xiaoshen led Prefect Guo aside, pointing at Gu Yunxi who was busy with unloading not far away from them, and put on an act,
"Do you see her? That is our Master's Wife. She's here to escort imperial harem's donation to Jiangan and relieve the victims. You and your family must treat her well!"
"She...?"
Prefect Guo looked at the direction Xiao Xiaoshen pointed for a long time and rubbed his eyes to search again.
There was a slender young man standing beside a wagon, who was about fifteen or sixteen, younger than his daughter.
"Yes, that's her. Haven't you seen any girls dressed in men's clothes when they go out?"
Xiao Xiaoshen frowned at the prefect's confused look, displeased.
"Oh, sorry, sorry. I'm to blame." Prefect Guo saluted hurriedly.
"I'll arrange Madam's residence right now."
Prefect Guo was puzzled.
As powerful as the Commander-in-chief of the Eastern Depot, it was easy for him, although he was a eunuch, to marry a beautiful woman. However, the girl he saw was much younger than Master Leng!
Master Leng was such a handsome man that he deserved a beautiful matching. How come he had taken fancy to an immature girl?
Xiao Xiaoshen looked around, but he didn't see the Master. He asked the Prefect Guo,
"Where is the Master?"
"Master Leng went to the west alley to inspect the mending of collapsed houses. Lord, the Prefect's Mansion is filled with victims now. Would you mind if Madam lives in my Guo's Mansion and let my family take care of her? At night, I will escort Master Leng to my mansion to meet Madam."
Xiao Xiaoshen agreed. After all, it was better for Yunxi to be taken care of by women.
Prefect Guo arranged a sedan for Gu Yunxi and sent her to Guo's Mansion on his own.
Xiao Xiaoshen, the tenth captain, and Qinger followed.
On the other hand, Prefect Guo sent a guard to the west alley to tell Leng Qingtang that his wife had arrived Fengyuan and was resting in Guo's Mansion now.
...
At Guo's Mansion, Gu Yunxi met Prefect Guo's wife, Mrs. Yin Guo, and their son and daughter.
Mrs. Yin Guo was in her early 30s. She was in a dark purple front-opening coat and a bluish-white shirt embroidered with bamboos. Her hair was coiled into a peony-style, decorated with a few simple hairpins.
Her whole dress was simple but elegant. Together with her beautiful appearance, she looked graceful and poised.
Their daughter, whose name was Guo Feiyi, hadn't reached her 20s. She was a beautiful young woman who got married last year. She came home to visit her parents during the early spring but encountered a snow disaster here.
She saw her father was busy outside to raise food for disaster relief and her mother cooked soup and porridge with servants, so she stayed here to help with the management of Guo's Mansion.
Prefect Guo's only son was ten years old now. He was healthy and was very much loved by his parents.
Prefect Guo's mother was living in the mansion as well. She was too old to entertain guests, so Gu Yunxi didn't see her.
Mrs. Yin Guo was an enthusiastic woman. She prepared lunch for Gu Yunxi and others and asked servants to heat water for them to take a bath as she saw Gu Yunxi and Qinger got dusty on the journey. She also provided them with clean clothes, which was her daughter's nearly-new clothes.
After taking a bath, Gu Yunxi and Qinger dressed in women's clothes.
It came to Gu Yunxi that today was lunar January, the 15th. If it had not been for the snow disaster, people would have celebrated the Lantern Festival.
When Gu Yunxi found Mrs. Yin Guo, she was making sweet dumplings with all the servants. These sweet dumplings would be taken to the porridge sheds and be distributed to the victims together with coarse cereal porridge as a little gift of the Lantern Festival.
Gu Yunxi's eyes turned bright. She was good at cooking, so she volunteered to join them to help.
Guo's Mansion had a variety of fillings, including black sesame, hawthorn, chestnut paste roasted with sugar, milky peanut, and five-kernel fillings.
Sweet fillings wrapped with soft, sticky glutinous rice flour were rubbed into lovable balls.
Mrs. Yin Guo kept the share of the Guo's Family and the guests and distributed the rest to servants and the victims in proportion.
Gu Yunxi added water to the large pot on the stove and then poured in soft, bloated red beans that had soaked all night. She brought them to a boil and stirred them into bean paste. Finally, she added water, poured sweet dumplings in, and cooked them. The traditional food of the Lantern Festival was done!
...
Towards evening, accompanied by Prefect Guo, Leng Qingtang hurried to the Guo's Mansion and was led to the north chamber. Before he entered the room, he heard the laughter inside.
The laughter was quite familiar.
This clear and sweet laughter warmed Leng Qingtang's heart. He paused at the door.
Prefect Guo went up the steps and lifted the door curtain to let the Master in.
The sweet smell permeated the whole room. Old and young, people were gathering around the table, concentrating on the bowls filled with sweet dumplings in their hands.
Mrs. Yin Guo had met Leng Qingtang in the porridge sheds. She saw him in and stood up with her daughter to bow to him respectfully,
"Best wishes to you, Master."
The rest of the people stood up to salute as well. Xiao Xiaoshen and other Eastern Depot's members were particularly excited. They hadn't seen Leng Qingtang for many days, and now they called him "Master", looking at him with delight.
Leng Qingtang smiled and nodded to them, politely responding to their joyful greetings. Finally, he focused all his attention on Gu Yunxi.
She sat at the table, not knowing what to do. Her hair was coiled into a cloud-style with a unique lotus hairpin made of white jade. She wore a light yellow coat inlaid with velvet plum blossoms and a rosiness pleated skirt.
The bright color of her clothes made her face pink. Her almond-shaped eyes, shinning like rippled lakes, met Leng Qingtang's long eyes and hurriedly dodged away.
Leng Qingtang's eyes lighted up. He was amazed by the refined and delicate girl standing in the front. They had only been apart for a few days, but it seemed to him that a few years had passed.
She was thinner than before and was a little out of spirits.
The room fell into silence immediately. Nobody spoke. They gazed at the standing Leng Qingtang and the sitting Gu Yunxi.
Mrs. Yin Guo looked at Leng Qingtang and Gu Yunxi. She thought they were missing each other after days of separation and were delighted to meet here, but they were shy in front of so many people, so they just looked at each other and said nothing.
Mrs. Yin Guo smiled and asked Leng Qingtang,
"Please sit down, Master Leng. Today is the Lantern Festival, so we are eating the sweet dumplings made by Madam Leng. These sweet dumplings are indeed delicious. Please have a bowl of sweet dumplings to warm yourself and enjoy this festival for the reunion."
As she was speaking, she held a clean bowl to the little copper pot opposite, but her complexion changed as she saw the inside of the pot.
The red bean paste in the pot was almost at the bottom. It could barely fill half of the bowl, and there were only two sweet dumplings left.
Leng Qingtang noticed Mrs. Yin Guo's embarrassment and smiled,
"No need to be worried about it, Mrs. Guo. I'll take this bowl's."
Leng Qingtang held the bowl of Gu Yunxi. There were much red bean paste left, and three small white sweet dumplings were floating on the smooth paste, which looked very delicious.
He scooped up some red bean paste with a spoon and ate naturally.
The room fell into deeper silence.
Mrs. Yin Guo's daughter blushed with admiration and shyness that she covered her smile with a piece of wide sleeve.
The Master did that under every body's noses. Shyness flushed Gu Yunxi's face. She was surprised but also secretly pleased.
No matter what had happened before, the Master still cared about her, or he wouldn't have behaved intimately in public.
Feeling the awkward atmosphere, Mrs. Yin Guo said quickly,
"As Master Leng has come back, please stay here tonight. I'll have the servants prepare for you."
Then she signed the others to leave and left room for the affectionate couple.
"Haha, Master..."
Xiao Xiaoshen stopped when he passed by Leng Qingtang. He laughed, patting the back of his head,
"I bring Sister Yunxi to you safely, Master. You've been out so long that we all miss you."
Leng Qingtang cast him a look with a little anger.
Days ago, the snow eagle sent him a message from Cheng Wanli. The message was to let him pay attention to whether Xiao Xiaoshen and Gu Yunxi had arrived at Fengyuan with the aid convoy or not.
"Does your master know that you are here?" Leng Qingtang asked, straight-faced.
Xiao Xiaoshen dared not to hide it from him. He lowered his head and replied in a muffled voice,
"Master, I went out... without my master's permission."
"You're so wayward... Go ahead. Have a good rest!" Leng Qingtang didn't blame Xiao Xiaoshen.
On the way back, he had known from Prefect Guo that the aid convoy encountered bandits in the mountain. Xiao Xiaoshen indeed did a good job of bringing Yunxi here safely.
Now, Leng Qingtang and Gu Yunxi were the only two people in the room.
She sat at the table, slender and graceful. He stood in her front, handsome and straight.
They both kept quiet as if they were waiting for each other to speak first.
Gu Yunxi's heart beat fast. It made a series of muffled sounds which could be easily captured in the silent room.
Gu Yunxi could feel Leng Qingtang's gaze fixing on her, but his silence made her nervous.
After a while, she got up in haste and decided to run away.
Leng Qingtang opened his arms to intercept her and dragged her to him. He finally had her in his arms.
Gu Yunxi bumped into him in the chest, blushed. She would like to break away but dared not to do so.
"Master..." She called him timidly.
"Why do you come here in such cold weather?" He asked in an even voice.
"I... I'm here to see you. My heart... my heart is empty because you are away..."
Gu Yunxi looked down, speaking softly. Retrospecting the bad condition of this journey and the encounter with the bandits, she went unconsciously on the verge of tears.
Leng Qingtang held her hands to look carefully. There were a few frostbites on her hands, and the swollen knuckles were purplish red.
Slightly frowned, he looked distressed by her pain. He opened his mouth to say something, but it was like a fishbone getting stuck in the throat and plugged up all his words.
"Let go of each other."
His heart seemed to have sunk into the ice water every time he thought of these words.
"Now you don't have to worry about me. The snow is melting. I'll let Xiaoshen escort you back to the capital tomorrow morning." He whispered with worry that unable to resolve.
Gu Yunxi was surprised that she lifted her face suddenly. Tears held in her eyes flowed out in two crystal lines because of this sudden lift. Looking at her delicate face, Leng Qingtang felt his heart trembled.
At this moment, her emotions were all elicited by the tears. Her cry burst out with increasing grievance in front of Leng Qingtang and couldn't be held back. She sobbed like a missing child who had just found her long-lost parents, venting all her sadness and dissatisfaction.
- Writer
