Wish You All the Best - Chapter 89

Chapter 89

Jiafu did not see Li Yuangui return the jade pendant, and she did not find it appropriate to ask, so she left the palace and returned to the Duke's residence.

Madame Xin and the second branch of the family had long known that she had been taken away by a palace carriage, and they had all been keeping a secret watch. Seeing her return now, maids and servant women from both sides came creeping over, probing the coarse-working maids in the courtyard for information. Soon, everyone in the Duke's residence knew that the Eldest Grandmother was also about to depart, leaving the capital for the North.

Regarding this affair, although everyone was whispering that Pei You'an had offended the Emperor and been exiled beyond the passes, the Ministry of Justice and the Court of Judicial Review had not issued a single official document to that effect. The source of all rumors began with those few figures seen early that morning. Therefore, it was hard to determine if the matter was truly confirmed. After all, given the closeness of the relationship between the Emperor and Pei You'an, for such a thing to happen overnight was truly inconceivable. But now that the news was solidified, the Duke's residence could not avoid another round of internal turbulence. Not long after, Madame Meng from the second branch arrived to verify the news with Jiafu. She showed sympathy and offered a few words of comfort, adding that the Second Master had asked her to convey a message: since the matter had happened, sadness was of no use, so she should set her mind at ease and take care of her health on the road. When the time came, the Emperor’s pardon would surely follow. She stayed for a while and asked when Jiafu would be departing so she could come to see her off. Jiafu expressed her gratitude and saw her out.

Jiafu had previously learned from Li Yuangui that Pei You'an had been sent to Suoye City in Ganzhou. It was such a coincidence that it was the very place he had passed away in her previous life. She had no time for sighs, feeling only an increasing urgency; she wished she could set out that very night. As soon as Madame Meng left, she immediately began packing her luggage.

Pei You'an was not being sent out of the passes to take office, so it was not appropriate to bring along their existing collection of fine furs and silks. After rummaging through boxes and cabinets, she selected some sturdy, everyday winter clothes. Fearing they would not be enough, she immediately set to tailoring new ones using common fabrics, stuffing the linings with the highest quality warm silk cotton. Every maid and servant woman in the courtyard with decent needlework skills came, sitting in a circle—one sewing sleeves, another crafting the front panels. They flew needles and thread through the night. In just one night, several new pieces of cold-weather clothing were finished and packed into trunks one by one.

By the next morning, the preparations were nearly complete. Li Yuangui had not said that the Emperor forbade her from taking servants, so that meant she could take them. Tanxiang and Muxiang were of suitable age and had served Jiafu for many years, so they asked to accompany her. Nanny Liu, who truly loved Jiafu, also wanted to go, but Jiafu persuaded her otherwise, asking her to return to Quanzhou to deliver a letter to her mother and tell her to live out her remaining years in peace there.

Nanny Liu gripped Jiafu's hand, chattering on and on, reminding Tanxiang and Muxiang to serve the Eldest Grandmother well. When she reached the sad parts, her eyes reddened, and none of those present could hold back their tears.

Just as the room was filled with sadness, a servant woman from Madame Xin’s side arrived.

Jiafu wiped her tears and invited the woman in.

The woman entered, glanced at the trunks and bundles on the floor, and put on a fawning smile, bowing slightly: "Eldest Grandmother, when you were away some time ago, the old storehouse in our residence caught fire. Although it was put out in time, the structure was damaged and can no longer be used. The Madame thinks that if we rebuild it, it will be another expense. That large courtyard by the bridge has been empty for so many years; it is a shame to just leave it. The Madame’s thought is that even when the Eldest Master returns, he probably won't be moving back there, so she wants to clear out the old items inside, tidy it up a bit, and convert it into a storehouse to save some money. Taking advantage of the fact that you are still at home, she sent me to let you know. Please tell us which of the old items inside are still useful so they can be moved here, and if they are useless, they will be cleared out altogether."

That South Courtyard by the bridge was the place where Pei You'an had lived in his youth. When they married, the Old Mistress had allocated that small courtyard, which leaned against her own North Chamber, for the young couple to live in. Although they hadn't moved back there, it still housed many books and miscellaneous items Pei You'an had collected since childhood. If they were really to be moved, it would take days to clear it out.

Jiafu remained silent for a moment and said coldly: "Turning it into a storehouse is fine. I will go and take a look. Do not damage the books; move them all over here." She took a few servants to that courtyard. Before they even reached the door, they saw a pile of tables and chairs moved from inside piled on the road. The courtyard gate was open, and the yard itself was filled with tables, chairs, and bookcases cleared from the rooms. A stack of books was scattered on the ground, and maids and servant women were rushing in and out, busy moving things. The woman surnamed Ye from Madame Xin’s side was standing on the steps, loudly directing the women to move a bookcase out. The bookcase was heavy, and because it wasn't lifted properly, it tilted to one side. A whole stack of books that hadn't been removed yet fell to the ground with a clatter.

"It’s dead heavy! Come help support it—"

The woman moving the bookcase shouted loudly, and those nearby swarmed over. Seven or eight pairs of feet stepped on the books scattered on the ground, finally moving the large bookcase into the open space.

Jiafu walked over, squatted down, and picked up a book from the ground that had a black footprint on it.

The book was very old, the pages yellowed, and it contained handwriting familiar to Jiafu, in sentences of varying lengths. These were the notes Pei You'an had left behind during his youth while studying.

Jiafu carefully dusted off the mud, picking up the books one by one.

That woman Ye, seeing this, came over to help pick up the books and smiled: "Eldest Grandmother, you’ve come? Take a look, tell me which of these things you still want, and I will have them packed up and sent to your courtyard."

Jiafu stacked the books she had in her hands and placed them on a nearby table. She straightened up and said coldly: "I want all of them! I even want this courtyard! Move everything back for me, and return them to their proper places. Exactly how they were moved out, that is how you will move them back!"

Everyone stopped and looked at each other.

Woman Ye was startled and said with a fawning smile: "Eldest Grandmother, aren't you making things difficult for me? I am only acting according to the Madame’s wishes."

Jiafu cast a glance around at the surrounding maids and servant women and sneered: "Do you all think that because the Eldest Master has left like this and won't be returning, you can trample all over his things? I tell you, today the Eldest Master has lost his power, but as for the future, no one can see it! I advise you to look at the long term. Don't be like rats stealing oil, following a master who only sees two inches in front of their faces! Life is long! Whoever dares to step on one more thing in this courtyard today, just wait. If you step on it today, in the future, I will let you know that I am no soft-hearted mud person!"

The courtyard fell silent. After a moment, those few women hurried over, scrambling to pick up the books from the ground, saying: "Eldest Grandmother, please do not be offended. We were just careless for a moment."

Jiafu turned to Woman Ye: "Are you moving them or not? If you don't, I will have my own people move them." Saying this, she turned and ordered Nanny Liu to call all the servants in the courtyard. Nanny Liu responded and turned to leave quickly. Jiafu ignored Woman Ye further and continued to tidy up the scattered books.

Woman Ye wore a sheepish smile on her face, retreated quietly to the side, reached the gate, and fled quickly.

Jiafu directed the people to tidy up the books that had already been moved out, wiped the dust off the tables, chairs, and bookcases, and moved them back one by one. While they were busy, Madame Xin, accompanied by Woman Ye and others, walked in. Seeing this, she frowned and said with displeasure: "What is the meaning of this? I saw that this place had been empty for so many years and the Eldest was not using it. Now that the household is not what it used to be, I thought I could save a little where possible, so I ordered it to be cleared out. Didn't I ask for your opinion?"

The servants in the yard stopped their work. Jiafu walked over and said indifferently: "I was just about to report to Mother. Regarding this courtyard, even if my husband doesn't use it when he returns in the future, we must first ask for his opinion. Inside are his collected books accumulated over many years, along with many miscellaneous items; moving them back and forth might cause damage. If Mother wants to open a storehouse, there is no lack of empty rooms in the house; I beg Mother to look for another suitable place."

Madame Xin stared at Jiafu: "Do you still have respect for me as your mother-in-law? Even if You'an were here, it is only clearing out an empty courtyard. I suspect he wouldn't speak to me like you have!"

"Since Mother remembers my husband's worth, now that he is not at home, please Mother, do not touch his belongings. If Mother is dissatisfied with me, in the future, when he returns, just tell him to divorce me!"

After saying this, Jiafu turned and ordered Nanny Liu to lead the people she had brought to continue moving things. Nanny Liu responded loudly, cast a glare at Madame Xin, and directed the people to continue. The courtyard became busy again.

Madame Xin was so angry she couldn't speak for a moment, her face turning red and white, but she was helpless.

Jiafu watched this woman coldly, and suddenly a sense of satisfaction, like the time she fought with people in the Mengmu Tribe, surged within her. The pent-up anger in her heart seemed to have been relieved a little, so she ignored her further and continued sorting through the books. While she was busy, a maid ran in quickly, shouting: "Someone has come from the palace! His Majesty has bestowed rewards!"

Madame Xin was surprised and, unable to care about the matters here anymore, hurriedly turned to ask who the rewards were for. The maid shook her head in confusion.

Thinking it over, it should only be for her son. Madame Xin glared at Jiafu, left the scene, and hurried away.

Jiafu heard that it was for rewards, which naturally had nothing to do with her. Anyway, she had already burned her bridges with the Emperor, and she was leaving tomorrow, so she didn't go to kneel and welcome the guests, remaining instead to continue sorting through the miscellaneous items. Unexpectedly, a moment later, the maid ran back quickly, shouting: "Eldest Grandmother, the rewards are for you! Eldest Grandmother, hurry!"

Nanny Liu and the others were pleasantly surprised, looking at Jiafu one after another.

Jiafu hurried to the front hall and saw that it was still Cui Yinshui, along with several small eunuchs carrying a line of gold-traced lacquer boxes covered with yellow silk. Madame Xin and that Woman Ye were also there, their expressions completely different from just moments ago.

Cui Yinshui drew out his tone: "Madame Zhen, receive the reward."

Jiafu knelt down, and the others knelt with her to listen to the reward.

 

The Emperor had bestowed upon Jiafu five hundred taels of silver, and various amounts of ramie silk, gauze, and brocade. Cui Yinshui finished reading the list, then took a box from a small eunuch, presented it forward, and said with a smile: "Madame Zhen, this is a box of top-quality jade-tree cordyceps that has just been offered as tribute from Qinghai this year. Only this much could be collected in a year, and His Majesty has bestowed it upon you as well. Offer your thanks."

Jiafu expressed her gratitude, accepted the rewards, and sent the eunuchs away. When she returned, Madame Xin had already excused herself due to feeling unwell and was nowhere to be seen. Every woman and maid she encountered greeted Jiafu with respect, competing to call out "Eldest Grandmother," as if they had returned to the past.

The warmth and coldness of human relationships and the fickleness of the world were上演ed as a good drama in this Duke’s residence in less than half a day. Jiafu had no time to ponder it. Returning to that courtyard, she saw many servants had already arrived, all competing to do work, and even people from the second branch had come. Once everything was restored to its original state, Jiafu looked around, personally closed the doors and windows, locked them, turned, and left.

Passing in front of the large tree where it was said someone had hanged themselves in the past, Jiafu paused and turned to instruct: "Cut the tree down, and dig it up by the roots!"

...

The next day, Jiafu followed a baggage train of nearly a hundred people heading outside the passes, sitting in a carriage, leaving the capital and stepping onto the road to the North.

Yang Yun also protected her on the journey.

She left the capital in the first ten days of November. By this day, nearly a month had passed since Pei You'an left the capital.

This army was transporting a batch of urgently needed medicinal herbs to the border town of Ganzhou, and their speed was not slow. According to the plan, they would arrive before mid-December. At first, the journey was relatively smooth. After struggling for a month, Jiafu reached Suzhou with the army. The leading centurion told her that after Suzhou, by traveling several hundred miles to the northwest and crossing a section of the Tianshan Mountains—about ten days' journey—she would be able to arrive at Suoye City in Ganzhou.

This journey was undeniably difficult. Jiafu’s feet had developed chilblains from being trapped in the carriage for so long and the biting cold weather, but she did not feel bitter at all. Knowing she would arrive soon, she was filled with anticipation. Unexpectedly, just then, the weather suddenly turned bad. While passing through the Tianshan mountain pass, a heavy snow covered the sky and the earth. In just two days, it buried the ancient road that had been trodden slowly by soldiers and horses for thousands of years, and also engulfed the plateaus and gullies among the high mountains. Unable to find the road, one careless step meant falling into a cliff abyss. The team was forced to stop in a wind-sheltered mountain hollow. After stopping for seven or eight days, the heavy snow finally ceased. The vanguard soldiers explored the road, walking and stopping, and it took them many more days in total before they finally walked out of this ancient mountain road. When they finally arrived at Suoye City, it was already the end of the year. Heavy snow was falling from the sky, the wild winds roared, and it was the New Year's Eve just a few days later.

Suoye was an ancient land of a thousand years, but previously it was only a stop on the trade route in the Western Regions. Because its position was crucial and there were beautiful water, grass, and lakes formed by the water flowing down from the Tianshan springs nearby, later, starting from an unknown dynasty, the imperial court built earth into a city, and a large population gradually gathered here. Today, it had become one of the important cities for the Ganzhou garrison to resist the Hu people, with a military and civilian population reaching over a hundred thousand. In the city, there was a Governor’s Office governing the military and civilians. The Governor, Hu Liangcai, after learning that Jiafu had arrived from the capital, did not see her, nor did he send anyone to receive her. Jiafu stood in the snow outside the Governor’s Office, her hands and feet numb from the cold. After waiting for a long time, she finally got news from an old guard at the Governor’s Office who couldn't bear to see it: Pei You'an had been here for nearly two months, but he was not in the city; he had gone to the fodder yard outside the city.

The old guard said he had been here for decades, which is why he knew a few things. The father of this Hu Liangcai had once been a subordinate of the Duke of Wei in his early years. Because he violated military discipline, he received military punishment, and Hu Liangcai bore a grudge. Now that he had become the Governor of Suoye, and Pei You'an had been sent here as a criminal, he appeared very polite on the surface but had sent him to the fodder yard to act as a supervisor.

This position seemed idle, but in reality, it was a bitter chore. The place was far from the city, and the surroundings were desolate and deserted. At the fodder yard, besides managing the fodder supply for the entire army here, they also received weak and sick warhorses that were sent over. He only had a few old and weak soldiers under his command, and the work was heavy. Not to mention that if he encountered a superior who deliberately made things difficult, he could be held accountable and attacked at any time on the grounds of the horses being thin, weak, or dying of illness.

Jiafu thanked the old guard, returned, and asked Yang Yun to find the centurion who had traveled with them all the way, asking him to send someone to lead the way to send her to the horse farm outside the city. Unexpectedly, that centurion thought she had already been received by Hu Liangcai and had gone to hand over the medicinal herbs, and would not return until evening.

In other words, if she waited for that centurion to return, the earliest she could set out would be tomorrow.

Jiafu felt that she couldn't wait even for a moment; she wished she could immediately grow wings and fly over. She rushed back to find the old guard again, asking him to lead the way for her, and she wanted to go immediately. That old guard had just finished his shift and agreed. Yang Yun drove the carriage, the old guard sat by his side, and Jiafu and the two maids, carrying their luggage, sat in the carriage compartment. Several people in a carriage, in the sky-filling heavy snow outside this lonely city in the Northwest, traveled slowly toward the deep wilderness.

Jiafu imagined the scene of seeing Pei You'an and slamming that letter onto his face. Even though her hands and feet were already stiff, she didn't feel it was unbearable at all. They traveled like this for half a day until evening, when suddenly the carriage jolted, the horses neighed, and it stopped.

Jiafu poked her head out and discovered that the carriage was tilted, and the horses' front hooves were deeply stuck in a snow nest. Yang Yun went down, checked it, and said the horses' hooves had stepped into a pit buried deep in the snow. The front hooves were injured, and they could not go on.

The old guard said it was getting dark, so they could only go back, as there was a place to stay nearby to settle down first.

Jiafu asked about the distance to the horse farm. The old guard said there were still eight or nine li left.

Jiafu looked at the vast whiteness of the heavy snow ahead and said: "It’s only this far, let’s walk there!"

Yang Yun couldn't persuade her. Helpless, he could only lead the injured horse and carriage to the side of the road. Jiafu and the two maids took their light luggage and, under the guidance of the old guard, stepped one deep and one shallow into the snow that didn't reach their calves, braving the wind and snow, walking forward step by step.

When Jiafu finally stood in front of that fence gate of the fodder yard, it was already late night, the Hour of the Bo.

The sky was pitch black, and heavy snow was flying. On this journey, she didn't know how many times she had slipped and fallen; her whole body was covered in ice and snow.

An old guard yawned and opened the big gate. Learning that it was actually Pei You'an's wife who had come, he stared at Jiafu, who looked like a snowman, with his mouth wide open. After a long while, he finally reacted, picked up a horse lamp, and hurriedly led her in, passing through rows of storehouses used as granaries, finally stopping and pointing to the end of a row of rooms, saying: "Lord Pei lives there."

It was a row of dilapidated rooms, pitch black. Only in the direction pointed by the old guard did a dim, yellowish lamplight faintly emanate from the window.

"Lord Pei is truly good to the horses. Since he came, the sick horses here have all improved a lot. It’s just that he himself has fallen ill. These past few days, his coughing has become increasingly severe."

The old guard murmured from the side.

Jiafu was shivering all over. She steadied her mind, turned her head, and told Yang Yun to find a place to first settle down Tanxiang and Muxiang, whose faces were already blue from the cold. She herself walked quickly toward the direction of that point of lamplight.

She stepped on the snow on the ground and walked quickly, walking faster and faster, getting closer and closer.

As she was about to walk to that door, she slowed down and finally stopped her steps.

The heavy snow drifted and scattered, falling silently from the depths of the endless night sky. The surroundings were pitch black; only inside that door and window in front of her were a few points of dim, yellowish lamplight still reflected.

The door and window were very old, and between the cracks in the wood, there were cracks everywhere. Jiafu held her breath, suppressed her heart that was about to leap out of her throat, and slowly came to the front of that dilapidated window. Through the cracks in the wood, she looked inside.

In the corner of the room, there was a bed, a table, a stool, and a stove. Besides that, there was nothing else. The fire in the stove was dim and powerless, looking as if it was about to go out.

Having not seen him for only half a year, he had actually become much thinner. His complexion was pale, and he was draped in an old robe, sitting at the table, leaning under the dim bean-oil lamp at the corner of the table, his head lowered as if he was copying the stack of account books in his hand.

He wrote for a moment, then suddenly began to cough. A trace of slight pain appeared on his face. He stopped writing, stood up, bent over to lift the water pot, seemingly wanting to pour water.

Suddenly, as if perceiving something, he stopped his movements, slowly straightened his body, turned his head, and cast his two gazes in the direction of the window where Jiafu was.

"Who is outside?"

He asked, his voice slightly hoarse, but extremely calm.