Chapter 32: Peach Leaves
Chen Ping'an carried the water back to Liu Xianyang's courtyard, poured it into the water jar in the kitchen, then ran to the door of the house and shouted, "Liu Xianyang, can I use some of your firewood, oil, and salt to cook some fish soup for Miss Ning to help her recover?"
Liu Xianyang, who had been enjoying a sweet return to sleep, was startled awake and roared, "Chen, you bastard! Are you annoying me or what? I was just dreaming that Zhigui smiled at me! You owe me a Zhigui!"
Chen Ping'an shook his head, recalled something, and said apologetically, "I actually did run into Zhigui at the Iron Lock Well earlier, but Granny Ma interrupted, and I forgot to pass along a message for you. When I go deliver the fish soup to Miss Ning later, I'll be sure to pass it on."
Liu Xianyang did a carp leap, quickly put on his clothes, ran to sit on the threshold outside the main hall, and watched the thin figure busying himself in the kitchen. He snickered, "I'll come with you to deliver the fish soup later. By the way, is Zhigui wearing that big red pomegranate skirt today? Or the light green one? Ah, once I save up another two hundred coins, I'll be able to buy that powdered silver box with a hundred grinding wheels. I know she's wanted it for a long time but can't bear to buy it. It's all that miser Song Jixin's fault—he's so stingy. He dresses himself like some rich kid from Fortune and Prosperity Street, but poor Zhigui hardly gets any new clothes all year round. If I were her young master, I'd buy her whatever she wanted, making her richer than the young ladies of Fortune and Prosperity Street—a true heiress!"
Chen Ping'an ignored Liu Xianyang's wishful thinking. He really couldn't understand why Liu Xianyang was so fixated on Zhigui. It wasn't that he looked down on her for being Song Jixin's maidservant, nor did he think she was unattractive, but he always felt that she and Liu Xianyang just didn't seem like a good match.
Chen Ping'an asked curiously, "Why do you call her Zhigui too? Don't you usually call her Wang Zhu?"
Liu Xianyang grinned, "After I found out that even you didn't know how to write 'Zhigui,' I stopped caring."
Chen Ping'an said helplessly, "What's the point of comparing yourself to me? Compare yourself to Song Jixin. Zhigui isn't my maidservant."
Liu Xianyang scoffed, "That guy isn't better than you in every way. For instance, has he ever called anyone 'Dad' or 'Mom'? No, he hasn't. So he's not as good as you, Chen Ping'an! No wonder Gu Can's mother and those old ladies like Granny Ma have such sharp tongues. That Song Jixin isn't exactly from a clean family anyway. Otherwise, why wouldn't he live in that official supervisor's mansion properly? Why would he come to your Mud Bottle Alley to live a poor life? And he dares to look down on others—he deserves to have mud slung at him and be called a bastard."
Chen Ping'an stood up and walked to the kitchen doorway, "Liu Xianyang, even though Song Jixin and I are hardly friends, saying that about him..."
Liu Xianyang quickly raised both hands, adamantly refusing to let Chen Ping'an continue his nagging. He said cunningly, "I won't say anymore, okay? Chen Ping'an, this stubborn temper of yours to always insist on being right—who did you get that from? My grandpa said your parents were both easygoing, especially your mother. She spoke softly and liked to smile, with a temper so good it was beyond words. My grandpa also said that in the old days, Granny Ma scolded almost everyone in the nearby alleys, but when she saw your mother, she not only didn't pick on her but even managed a smile."
Chen Ping'an laughed heartily.
Liu Xianyang waved him off, "Go on, make soup for your little wife."
Chen Ping'an rolled his eyes, "Say that to Miss Ning's face if you've got the guts."
Liu Xianyang laughed, "You're stupid, but I'm not stupid."
Soon after, Chen Ping'an carried out a small clay pot. The two locked the house and courtyard gate and walked toward Mud Bottle Alley together. When they reached the entrance to Chen Ping'an's yard and saw him foolishly knocking on the door, Liu Xianyang realized that this guy had left all his house keys with the girl in black. He thought this guy really was beyond saving.
When the girl in black was home, she didn't wear her veil. When she opened the door, her clean, fresh face was revealed. Liu Xianyang was a bit scared of this unsmiling girl, and the tall young man didn't even know why. If it was about a cold personality, Zhigui next door was even more aloof, yet Liu Xianyang still had the nerve to be shameless around her. If it was because the girl in black wore a sword, that wasn't it either. When facing the spoiled brats of Fortune and Prosperity Street, even if they chased and ambushed him several times, making him flee like a stray dog, Liu Xianyang had never been truly scared deep down.
But somehow, he was a bit afraid of this strange girl named Ning Yao.
The girl in black sat at the table, opened the pot, and smelled the aroma. She squinted those narrow eyes slightly and nodded softly, "Thanks."
Chen Ping'an was observant and knew that this was probably her way of being in a good mood.
He first helped her cook a pot of congee, telling her to mind the heat, then said to Liu Xianyang, "Are you going to wait here for Zhigui to come out? I need to deliver the letters."
Liu Xianyang was sitting on the threshold, straining his ears to listen for any commotion from next door, terrified he might hear sounds of a fight between gods and immortals. The tall young man, already in a bad mood, said impatiently, "Go do your thing!"
Chen Ping'an left the yard. Just as he was about to reach the entrance of Mud Bottle Alley, he suddenly noticed the light in front of him dim. He looked up and saw a tall man in a snow-white robe. One hand behind his back, the other resting on a white jade belt at his abdomen, he was gazing into the distance.
Seeming to realize that he was blocking the narrow alley, the man smiled slightly and stepped aside to let Chen Ping'an pass.
Full of confusion, Chen Ping'an quickened his pace and left Mud Bottle Alley. He glanced back and saw the man slowly walking into the alley.
Even from that brief glance, Chen Ping'an noticed that on the spotless white robe, both the chest and back were embroidered with faint golden threads, vaguely forming two patterns. It looked like living creatures moving through a sea of clouds and misty mountains, very wondrous. Chen Ping'an didn't dwell on it. He just assumed it was some outsider like Fu Nanhua coming to Mud Bottle Alley to seek fortune. Ever since he had walked with Teacher Qi under the old locust tree that day, the straw-sandal boy had stopped worrying too much. He always felt that as long as Teacher Qi was in town, even in the worst-case scenario, he could at least seek justice.
As Chen Ping'an jogged past Apricot Flower Lane, he saw the girl in green from last night still sitting at a wonton shop there. She had a chopstick in each hand, standing them upright on the table and tapping them lightly. Her slightly chubby, youthful face was full of excitement, and her eyes were fixed on the wontons boiling in the pot. She didn't even notice Chen Ping'an, who was only five or six steps away.
For the girl in green, when food was before her, even if the sky fell, she would finish eating before running away!
Chen Ping'an sincerely admired this unfamiliar girl. Without disturbing her, he smiled and continued running toward the eastern part of town.
Some people and things, even if just part of the scenery along the road, could still make one feel good just by glancing at them.
When Chen Ping'an reached the eastern wooden gate, the slovenly man was standing on a tree stump, on tiptoe, gazing eastward as if waiting for an important person.
Chen Ping'an had heard old folks chatting under the old locust tree before, saying that when the current Supervisor of Construction first entered the town, there was a huge commotion. The elders of the ancestral halls from the Four Surnames and Ten Clans had almost all turned out to "receive" him at the East City Gate. But after waiting in the scorching sun for several hours, an official from the office finally rushed to the east gate in a panic, saying that the Supervisor had just woken from his afternoon nap in the backyard of the office and that everyone should go directly there to meet him. That infuriated those rich old men no end—one Buddha was born, the second Buddha ascended to heaven—but afterward, when they entered the office, no one dared to let out so much as a fart. Every one of them smiled like obedient grandchildren.
Chen Ping'an had always found it strange how those old folks spoke as if they had seen it all firsthand. Whenever they talked about gossip from Fortune and Prosperity Street or Peach Leaf Lane, they were more convincing than the truth itself. For instance, when telling the story of how the second concubine of the Lu family became the lover of the guard captain, and how someone broke down the door, they recounted even the details of how the concubine, in her panic, covered her ample chest with her clothes—no detail was left out. The storyteller might as well have been the guard captain himself.
Liu Xianyang would always swallow his saliva when listening. Song Jixin would sometimes go too, without Zhigui, and he would smile more reservedly than Liu Xianyang, but when joining the crowd in teasing, he was especially enthusiastic, shouting louder than when he recited the sages' books morning and evening.
Chen Ping'an crouched beside the tree stump, waiting patiently for the town's gatekeeper.
The man cursed under his breath, jumped off the tree stump, and caught sight of the straw-sandal boy. Without a word, he went into the yellow mud hut and brought out a stack of letters. Six family letters, but he only gave out five copper coins worth one cash each.
Chen Ping'an roughly glanced at the addresses on the letters but said nothing, because two of the letters were for the neighbors next to Fortune and Prosperity Street. He wasn't willing to take such an advantage. Of course, if the man had a rare moment of generosity and given him six coins from the start, Chen Ping'an definitely wouldn't push the money away.
After planning the order for delivering the letters, Chen Ping'an asked casually, "Waiting for someone?"
The man glanced at the wide road to the east and said angrily, "Waiting for some big shot!"
Chen Ping'an didn't want to stay and be a punching bag, so he quickly ran off.
The man laughed bitterly, "Oh ho, you've got some sense."
He looked at the sky. The rolling thunder had long since stopped, and the low-hanging clouds that had seemed almost to press against the eaves were gradually dispersing.
The man plopped down on the tree stump and sighed, "Gods and immortals fight, and mortals suffer."
---
Among the six letters, there was one each for the four great clans—Lu, Li, Zhao, and Song—on Fortune and Prosperity Street, and two for Peach Leaf Lane. One of those happened to be the family letter of that kind old man from before. And by coincidence, the person who opened the door was the old man himself. When he saw it was Chen Ping'an, he recognized the straw-sandal boy and joked, "Kid, won't you really come in for a drink of water?"
Chen Ping'an smiled shyly and shook his head.
The old man wasn't surprised. He just took a handful of copper coins from his sleeve and handed them to Chen Ping'an, explaining with a chuckle, "There's some good fortune in our house today. This is a little happiness money for everyone who sees it. Just for good luck. It's not much—only a dozen or so coins—so feel free to take it."
Chen Ping'an accepted the coins and said with a smile, "Thank you, Grandpa Wei!"
The old man nodded and then suddenly said, "Kid, lately, when you have nothing to do, you can often sit under the locust tree. If you see any locust leaves or branches on the ground, take them home and keep them. They can keep away ants, insects, and centipedes. It's a good thing, and it won't cost you a penny."
Chen Ping'an bowed to the old man in gratitude from the bottom of the steps.
The old man smiled kindly. "Go on, go on. A year's plan starts in spring. It's good for a young person to move around and stretch their limbs."
The boy ran off, leaving the bluestone-paved Peach Leaf Lane.
The old man stood at his doorstep for a long time, looking at the peach trees on both sides. A graceful young maidservant came to his side and said softly, "Ancestor, what are you looking at? It's cold outside. Don't catch a chill."
The maidservant had served the old man for many years and knew that the ancestor had a heart of compassion. The girl was respectful without being afraid, so she smiled playfully and asked, "Ancestor, could it be that you're thinking of a girl you met in your youth? Was that girl standing under a peach tree then?"
The white-haired old man laughed. "Tao Ya, you are also a 'person with a heart,' just like that letter-delivering boy."
Having received praise, the maidservant smiled innocently.
Then the old man said suddenly, "A distant relative is coming to visit in the next couple of days. When that happens, Tao Ya, you will follow the other children of the household and leave the town."
The maidservant was stunned. Her eyes turned red instantly, and she said with a sob, "Ancestor, I don't want to leave this place."
The old man, who was always easygoing, waved his hand. "Let me look at the alley scenery a little longer. You go back first. Tao Ya, be obedient, or I'll get angry."
The maidservant had no choice but to leave reluctantly, looking back every few steps.
The peach leaves of Peach Leaf Lane were lush, but there were no peach blossoms yet.
The old man exhaled a stale breath, stepped over the threshold, walked down the steps, and went to the nearest peach tree. Standing under it, he said sadly, "The peach tree is young and elegant, brilliant and flourishing. Truly, I will never see it again."
He looked back at his own house and murmured, "This town's unique advantages were never in line with the Great Dao. When the saints forcibly changed heaven and earth back then, it enjoyed three thousand years of immense fortune. Throughout the ages, those who left the town have spread their branches and leaves across the entire East Floating Bottle Continent. But the Old Man in Heaven is too shrewd. It's time to settle accounts and collect payment from us. You children, if you don't leave quickly now, are you going to follow us, these already shattered old pieces of porcelain, and wait to die together? You must know that there are big deaths and small deaths. For the thousands of people in this town, this death is a great death—even the next life will be lost."
"So now, while the Old Man in Heaven still has one eye open and one eye closed, let as many leave as possible."
He extended a withered hand and touched a peach branch. "A person with a heart, a person with a heart—may Heaven not let them down."
Unbeknownst to him, Zhao Yao's grandmother, the old woman leaning on her cane, had already approached. "An old man about to enter the grave, still so naive. It's like an old woman putting on rouge—utterly repulsive. Do you think this disaster can be changed in the slightest by your kind heart?"
The old man's gaze grew distant as he looked at the equally white-haired old woman and said inexplicably, "So you've come."
The old woman was startled at first, then flew into a rage. She struck him with her cane. "Shameless old lecher! At your age, you still dare to talk sweet?!"
The cane rained down on him, and the old man had no choice but to flee, but he laughed heartily.
The old woman stood under the peach tree, still fuming. She regretted being softhearted and somehow walking all the way to Peach Leaf Lane.
Finally, she looked up at the peach leaves sprouting tender buds.
Step by step, she walked back to Fortune and Prosperity Street, her cane striking the bluestone slabs again and again.
A peaceful town that had flourished for a thousand years—who would have thought that in the end, they would all be pitiful souls without a next life?
Was there truly not even a sliver of hope?
---
The stream grew shallower, the well water grew colder, the old locust grew older, the iron lock rusted, and the dark clouds hung low.
This year, the peach leaves would not see any peach blossoms.