Daylight streamed in through the door and windows, making the whole room bright. The vitality and radiance on the young woman's face became even more irrepressible. She spoke as if it were a matter of course, "Of course it's a pity. In the several hundred years of the Great Yin Dynasty, how many Wu'an Marquises have there been?"
Fan Changyu counted on her fingers for him. "He was the one who recaptured Jinzhou, the throat of the northern frontier. He also recovered the twelve commanderies of Liaodong, a conflict that had dragged on for decades and cost the lives of countless good officials and famous generals. Although the battle for Jinzhou was highly controversial, when Jinzhou was seized by the Northern Turks back then, weren't the people of the Central Plains in the city brutally massacred as well?"
"Old General Xie died on his feet to preserve his dignity, yet the Northern Turks hung his body from the city wall to expose his corpse. The civil officials condemned the Wu'an Marquis with their words and writings, denouncing him as cold-blooded and cruel, but were the soldiers and common people who died in Jinzhou sixteen years ago not innocent? On what grounds can they, with a mere flap of their lips, so lightly absolve the Northern Turks of their sins on behalf of the dead? Without the Wu'an Marquis, who knows who else could defend this land in the northwest."
Xie Zheng had heard too many self-righteous denunciations of his battle at Jinzhou. This was the first time someone had spoken up for him.
A strange feeling stirred within him, and he couldn't help but re-examine the woman before him. "You're quite daring to say that."
Fan Changyu looked at him, perplexed. "What the officials say is their business. We common folk aren't fools. While the Wu'an Marquis's methods in military and political affairs were certainly brutal, he wasn't as wicked as those scholars claimed. Should we commoners not curse the corrupt officials who fleece us of the people's blood and sweat, but instead curse the Wu'an Marquis for killing the enemy too fiercely? What on earth is wrong with that kind of thinking!"
Xie Zheng: "...Don't people in the common-folk use his name to stop children from crying at night?"
Fan Changyu said, a little embarrassed, "My dad looks too fierce when he's butchering pigs. The people in town often use my dad's name to scare children too."
Xie Zheng: "..."
He raised a hand to press his brow, speechless for a long moment. The hostility and gloom in his heart miraculously dissipated a little at that moment.
...
At lunchtime, Fan Changyu first offered a stick of incense to her parents' memorial tablets. Having heard her mention her father before, Xie Zheng glanced at the tablets enshrined on the altar table against the wall of the main hall.
After seeing the name on one clearly, he suddenly asked, "Is your uncle named Fan Daniu?"
Fan Changyu was a little surprised. "How did you know?"
Xie Zheng said, "Your father's memorial tablet."
Fan Changyu glanced at the three characters "Fan Erniu" on her father's tablet and instantly understood what he meant.
She said, "My dad's given name was Erniu, but he got lost when he was a child and found his way back to his family after he grew up. Later, the people in town gave my dad the nickname Fan Laohu, so everyone just called him by his nickname."
Xie Zheng merely gave a faint nod. His gaze swept over her mother's memorial tablet, only to see that her mother didn't even have a surname. The name on the tablet was just Lihua, which seemed like a name casually given by country folk.
He couldn't help but ask, "Were your and your sister's names chosen by someone you hired?"
This couple didn't seem like the type of people who would choose names like Changyu and Changning.
Fan Changyu brought all the dishes to the table. "No, my mother chose them."
Speaking of her mother, a hint of pride appeared in her eyes. "My mother was amazing. She could read and write, and she also knew how to blend fragrances and make powders. Other butchers would have a strong smell on them after slaughtering a pig, but our family's clothes would always be scented with the fragrances my mother blended after being washed, so they never had any odor."
A trace of surprise appeared in Xie Zheng's cool eyes. "Your maternal grandparents' family was quite wealthy?"
Being literate and knowing how to blend fragrances and make powders—either skill alone would suggest a family of some means. For both to be present in one person, she must have come from a major household with a deep heritage.
Fan Changyu shook her head. "I've never met my maternal grandparents. My mother was someone my dad met in his early years when he was working as an escort. She wasn't a young lady from a prominent family, just a maid in someone's residence."
Lihua did indeed sound like a maid's name.
If she had been a maid from a prestigious family, it wouldn't be strange for her to know such things.
Fan Changyu said, "It's a pity I'm slow. I tried to learn to read from my mother, but I'd get a headache as soon as I looked at a book. I didn't learn how to blend fragrances and make powders well either. Otherwise, I'd have another way to earn money now."
Xie Zheng recalled the scene of her beating people with a staff and said with an ambiguous tone, "Perhaps you are more talented in other areas."
Fan Changyu nodded in agreement. "I think so too. If I hadn't learned how to butcher pigs from my dad, my house and land would have probably been repossessed by now, and I'd be living on the streets with Ning Niang."
Xiao Changning was trying hard to pick up a meatball. Hearing this, her moist, grape-like eyes widened. "Ning Niang doesn't want to live on the street."
Fan Changyu helped her younger sister, placing the meatball she had been struggling with into her bowl. "We won't live on the street. In the future, we're going to buy a big mansion in the county town."
Only then was Changning reassured. She continued her battle of wits with the meatball in her bowl, chattering with Fan Changyu from time to time.
In contrast to the two sisters' lively chatter during the meal, Xie Zheng barely spoke after picking up his chopsticks, truly embodying "eat without talking, sleep without speaking."
His table manners were also very refined. Fan Changyu's were not.
Butchering pigs was physical labor. She expended a lot of energy on a daily basis, so she naturally ate more than an ordinary woman.
She directly picked up a large bowl and shoveled rice into her mouth. Changning followed her example, almost burying her entire face in her rice bowl.
The movements of the big one and the little one were surprisingly identical.
After finishing and putting down their bowls, they let out a satisfied sigh, as if it made the meal taste even more delicious.
It was the first time in his life that Xie Zheng had seen a woman eat like this. His expression was quite peculiar.
In the afternoon, Fan Changyu found Zhao Mu Jiang to help repair the broken main gate of her house, while she herself tucked the silver away and went to the market to buy a pig.
To deal with Fan Da for the wedding, her newly opened butcher shop had been closed for another three days. If she didn't reopen soon, the reputation she had built with the braised offal would have been for nothing.
Before she left, Xie Zheng suddenly asked her, "Your mother was literate. Does your family have paper, ink, brushes, and an inkstone?"
Fan Changyu said, "We do. You need them?"
Xie Zheng nodded. "I'd like to borrow them."
Fan Changyu went and found the Four Treasures of the Study that her mother had bought long ago. Because they had been stored for a long time, the paper had turned somewhat yellow, the inkstone had a large chip in it, and the goat-hair brush had fanned out like a broom.
When Xie Zheng saw the Four Treasures of the Study placed before him, he fell silent for a second before thanking her.
In any case, it was better than writing on cloth with charcoal.
Fan Changyu didn't ask what he needed the paper and brush for, figuring that since he was literate, he was probably just bored from being cooped up at home with his leg injury and wanted to practice calligraphy or something.
After Fan Changyu left, Xie Zheng began to grind ink and write in his room. The quality of the ink was poor; when ground, it barely dissolved evenly in the water.
He suppressed the urge to throw the cockscomb-like brush and the inkstick out the window, and patiently wrote an eight-legged essay before Zhao Mu Jiang finished repairing the gate.
He asked Zhao Mu Jiang to help take the essay to a nearby bookstore to sell. "The Spring Examination is imminent. Eight-legged essays should be selling like hotcakes in all the major bookstores. I'll have to trouble you to make a trip to a bookstore for me and see if they'll accept this kind of essay."
Zhao Mu Jiang was illiterate, but he could see that Xie Zheng's calligraphy was excellent. He said in surprise, "Little brother, you're a scholar too?"
Xie Zheng only said, "I studied for a few years when I was young and gained some experience traveling all over as an escort. Now that I'm injured and have no money, I thought I'd try writing an eight-legged essay to earn some silver."
With the imperial family's power waning and the northwest in turmoil, the circulation of these few essays of his would once again stir up a huge wave of condemnation against the Wei clan among the scholars of the realm. This would keep that father and son busy, and they would naturally have no time to spare for searching for him.
Some information could also be passed covertly to his old subordinates through the essays.
A Gyrfalcon appearing in a town was, after all, too conspicuous. If it were tracked down by someone with ill intentions, it would surely lead to trouble.
Hearing him say this, Zhao Mu Jiang's eyes couldn't help but grow hot with emotion. "You're a good child. That girl Changyu has had a hard life. For her to be able to save you when you were injured in the wilderness, it must be fate between you two. Seeing you care for her like this, her aunt and I can rest easy..."
Xie Zheng knew the old man had misunderstood his desire to earn money as him caring for the butcher girl. He wanted to explain, but he couldn't find a better explanation at the moment, so he could only remain silent.
In Zhao Mu Jiang's eyes, however, this was a tacit admission.
The strange feeling in his heart grew stronger. Fearing that Fan Changyu might also misunderstand, he made a point of acting even colder after she returned home. Unfortunately, his face rarely showed any extra expression on a normal day, and Fan Changyu was rather thick-skinned, so she didn't notice anything unusual about him at all.
That night.
After making the bed in the north room and putting her younger sister to sleep, Fan Changyu went to the kitchen to braise the pork for the next day's sale. Thinking that Yan Zheng was injured and would likely feel cold at night, she put the leftover red embers from the stove into a brazier and brought it to him.
She still hadn't broken the habit of walking straight into the room she had lived in for over a decade. The moment she entered, she discovered that he was once again half-undressed and applying medicine.
This time, however, Fan Changyu had no time for embarrassment, because the man's entire back was stained with blood, and his snow-white inner shirt was also spattered with it.
During the day, she had wanted to help him apply the medicine, but he had refused. She had thought his wounds hadn't split open much, but she never expected them to be this severe.
Xie Zheng's handsome brows furrowed the moment she pushed the door open. He was about to put his clothes back on when a pair of warm, strong hands pressed down on his shoulders.
The shiver that ran through him at the instant of skin-on-skin contact made his brows furrow even tighter. He subconsciously tried to push away the hand on his shoulder, but she held him fast, pinning him in place, unable to move.
Xie Zheng's breath caught. A hint of bewilderment appeared in his beautiful eyes, unsure if he was stunned by the woman's strength or by her sheer audacity. "You..."
"You what? Do you not want to live? Is asking someone to help you apply medicine so difficult?"
Seeing the split-open wounds on his back, Fan Changyu didn't give him a pleasant look. She didn't know what this man was being so stubborn about. With his wounds reopening again and again, how much silver would it cost to treat them!
As she picked up the medicine bottle on the table and sprinkled the powder onto the bloody gashes on his back, she couldn't help but mutter, "A grown man, what are you being so fussy for!"
A vein throbbed violently at Xie Zheng's temple. The woman's hand on his shoulder had not moved, and half his shoulder felt as if it had been seared by a branding iron. He knitted his brows tightly. "Men and women should not touch."
Fan Changyu said, "I was the one who carried you back from the wilderness! Touch or not, we've already been intimate!"
The moment the words left her mouth, the entire room fell into silence.
Fan Changyu also realized she had misspoken. She hated studying more than anything, yet this man insisted on speaking to her in such a literary manner. She scratched her hair in frustration. "I didn't mean I've been intimate with you... Ai..."
Xie Zheng's eyelids also began to twitch. He cut her off before she could say something even more shocking. "I know what you mean."
Fan Changyu nodded quickly. "As long as you know."
Afraid he would misunderstand that she had designs on him, she gritted her teeth and told a white lie. "Don't worry, I have no designs on you. I... I'm still not over my ex-fiancé! We were childhood sweethearts, after all. He's so handsome and so smart, the only one in the entire county to pass the provincial examination. How could I just get over him like that."
After saying this, Fan Changyu's skin crawled with goosebumps.
The man before her had an inscrutable expression. He only said, "My condolences."
Fan Changyu: ?
Song Yan wasn't dead yet
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