From the fake emperor to the concubine

The road to the north is straight, a straight path leading to the end, without turning or hesitating. The road to the south is winding and circuitous, sometimes uphill, sometimes downhill, sometimes blocked by a small river that you have to go around, sometimes blocked by a bamboo forest that you have to pass through.

As Chiya rode on Citou, he looked at the increasingly dense bamboo forests on both sides of the road and felt completely uneasy.

"What kind of tree is this? How did it grow like this?"

“Bamboo,” Zheng Yi said.

What is bamboo?

Shen Yuan whispered from behind, "Bamboo is different from trees. Trees are solid, but bamboo is hollow."

Chi Ya reached out to touch the bamboo branch extending from the roadside, but before his hand could touch it, the bamboo branch bounced, startling him so much that he withdrew his hand.

"It moved!"

"It's windy," Zheng Yi said.

Chiya looked warily at the bamboo grove, feeling that something was off about the bamboo.

Why do people in the south plant so much bamboo?

Shen Yuan smiled and said, "Bamboo is useful. It can be used to make chairs, baskets, chopsticks, and even food."

"Can you eat bamboo?"

"Bamboo shoots. You've never had them before?"

Chiya shook his head.

Shen Yuan thought about it and agreed. Chi Ya had been born in the North, where bamboo doesn't grow, so how could he have ever eaten bamboo shoots?

"I'll treat you to a meal when we get to Jiangnan," Shen Yuan said.

Chiya's eyes lit up again.

"Is it tasty?"

"Delicious. Spring bamboo shoots are the most tender, and winter bamboo shoots are the freshest. Now, at this time of year, we should be able to eat winter bamboo shoots."

Chiya started swallowing.

Zheng Yi heard everything clearly from the front, and the corners of his mouth curved slightly, but he quickly withdrew them.

After walking for about an hour, an open space appeared at the end of the bamboo forest. The ground was covered with waist-high thatch grass, which had begun to turn yellow. When the wind blew, the entire meadow undulated like waves, making a rustling sound. Scattered among the thatch grass were a few wild persimmon trees, their branches laden with small, orange-red persimmons, like little lanterns.

Red Fang was captivated by the meadow. He thought there was grass in the North, but the grass there grew close to the ground and never stood this tall. He tied Spiky to a tree, ran into the meadow, rolled around, and was completely submerged in the grass, with only his boots showing.

Shen Yuan watched from the roadside and couldn't help but laugh out loud.

This time she laughed quite a bit, her lips curved into a wide smile, and her eyes also curved like two crescent moons.

Zheng Yi sat on his horse, looking down at the two boots kicking wildly in the grass, then at Shen Yuan's smiling face.

“Doesn’t he look like a dog?” he said.

Shen Yuan laughed even harder, covering her mouth with her hand to avoid laughing too loudly. However, the injury on her ribs hadn't healed yet, and laughing too much aggravated the injury, causing her to hiss in pain, her smile turning into a pained expression.

Zheng Yi dismounted and walked to her side.

Stop laughing.

"I didn't laugh."

You just laughed.

Shen Yuan clutched her ribs and slowly squatted down. Even after the pain subsided, she remained squatting on the ground.

"Young Master Zheng."

"Ah."

Do you never laugh out loud?

Zheng Yi thought for a moment.

I've laughed. Rarely.

Shen Yuan looked up at him. Sunlight shone from behind her, making her face bright, and Zheng Yi's image was reflected in her dark, bright eyes.

"I think you don't not like to laugh, you just save your laughter for later."

Zheng Yi didn't reply, but reached out and pulled her up from the ground.

When Chiya crawled out of the grass, his head was covered in grass clippings, and a withered leaf was stuck to his face. He looked like a hedgehog that had just crawled out of a haystack. He chuckled as he brushed the dirt off himself, looking like a fool.

"Young Master Zheng, this place is so much fun! Can I stay here a little longer?"

"No. We need to keep going."

Chiya's smile faltered, but only for a moment before it perked up again. He brushed the bits of grass off his head, mounted his horse, and muttered, "Jiangnan is definitely more fun than here."

Shen Yuan climbed back onto Hongzao's back and straightened the saddle, which had been tilted by laughter.

"Red Fang".

Chiya turned to look at her.

"Jiangnan is definitely more fun than here."

Chiya laughed again, revealing a row of white teeth.

The sun began to move westward, and the sunlight shone from the side, casting long, long shadows of the three people on the road, like three thin sticks.

Shen Yuan rode on her horse, looking at Zheng Yi's back in front of her. His back was not wide, but it was very steady, like a stone standing there, unmoved by the wind or the rain.

She suddenly realized that the road from north to south wasn't as scary as she had thought.

At least it wasn't just one person.

The further south you go, the softer the sky becomes.

It wasn't the kind of sudden, gentle warmth that came in all at once; it seeped in slowly—the wind wasn't so harsh anymore. It didn't feel like a knife against my face, but rather like a piece of cool silk gently brushing against me, conveying the message without causing harm. The trees on both sides of the road had changed too. The poplars and locust trees of the north were gradually disappearing, replaced by trees that Shen Yuan could name but Zheng Yi couldn't—some still had leaves, a dark, almost black green; others had already shed most of their branches, leaving only a few yellow leaves hanging from the tips, swirling in the wind like butterflies reluctant to leave.

Red Fang wasn't interested in the trees; he was more interested in the roadside pond.

There is water in the North, but it is river, stream, flowing water that cannot be retained. The water in the South lies in puddles, quietly squatting by the roadside, motionless, like pieces of gray-blue silk discarded on the ground. Withered leaves float on the surface, and occasionally a withered branch peeks out, with a bright blue kingfisher perched atop it.

"Young Master Zheng, what kind of bird is that?" Chi Ya asked, pointing to the kingfisher.

"kingfisher."

What kind of bird is a kingfisher?

Zheng Yi thought for a moment and realized that he couldn't explain it clearly either, so he turned to look at Shen Yuan.

Shen Yuan, perched on the red date, was lost in thought, her head bowed. Sensing Zheng Yi's gaze, she looked up. "Kingfishers eat fish," she said. "Their beaks are long and sharp; they can dart down from the sky and snatch fish from the water."

Chiya listened intently, glancing at the kingfisher a couple more times. The kingfisher probably sensed his gaze, flapped its wings, and flew away skimming the water's surface, leaving a trail of blue afterimages that lingered in Chiya's eyes for a while.

“It looks really good,” said Red Fang.

Shen Yuan looked in the direction where the kingfisher had disappeared and suddenly sighed softly.

“When I used to live at home, there was a kingfisher in my backyard. It would come every spring and build its nest in the willow tree by the pond. My younger brother loved it the most, and the first thing he would do every morning was to go to the backyard to see if it had come.”

She paused for a moment.

"It didn't come this spring."

Chiya opened his mouth, wanting to say something comforting, but after a long pause, he could only manage to say, "They were probably delayed on the way."

Shen Yuan glanced at him, her lips twitched slightly, but she didn't say anything.

Zheng Yi slowed down his horse and waited for Shen Yuan to catch up and walk alongside him.

How far is it from your home?

Shen Yuan looked up at the position of the sun, and then looked at the terrain on both sides of the road.

"At this rate, we should reach Huzhou in four more days." She paused, "but I don't know what to do once we get there."

We'll talk about it when we get there.

Shen Yuan turned her head and glanced at Zheng Yi.

"Have you always been like this? Taking things one step at a time?"

"Taking one step at a time is less strenuous than taking one step and looking ten steps ahead," Zheng Yi said. "Because you can never accurately see what lies ten steps away."

Shen Yuan thought about it and felt that what he said seemed to make sense, but it also seemed not to make sense, but she didn't ask any more questions.

On the fourth day, they entered the territory of Huzhou.

Shen Yuan's voice trembled when she said those words.

It wasn't the obvious, easily audible tremor, but a very subtle tremor suppressed beneath her throat. After she finished saying "Huzhou territory," her lips closed, forming a thin line, her chin slightly raised, and her eyes staring straight ahead.

The road has been widened.

It wasn't the wide kind of official road, but the kind that naturally widens from being walked on and trodden by countless vehicles. Mulberry groves began to appear on both sides of the road; the leaves had mostly fallen, and the bare branches swayed gently in the wind, like rows of dozing old men. Behind the mulberry groves were paddy fields; the rice had long been harvested, leaving only neat rows of stubble standing in the shallow water, a thin layer of green algae floating on the surface.

Chiya looked at the paddy fields and found them strange.

Why is the ground all flooded?

“They grow rice,” Zheng Yi said.

What is rice?

"It's rice. The rice you eat is peeled from rice plants."

Chiya stared wide-eyed at the paddy fields, then thought about the rice he had eaten, and couldn't reconcile that bowl of white food with the muddy ground in front of him.

Shen Yuan did not participate in their conversation. Her gaze kept sweeping across the scenery on both sides of the road, as if she were looking for something, or as if she were confirming that something was no longer there.

As she crossed a stone bridge, she suddenly reined in her horse.

The bridge was small, a single arch, built of bluestone, its railings covered in dark green moss. The water beneath the bridge was shallow, revealing pebbles and withered branches on the riverbed. At the bridgehead stood a stone tablet, its inscriptions blurred by wind and rain, with only the characters "Huzhou" clearly visible.

Shen Yuan lingered on the bridge for a long time.

Chi Ya didn't understand why she wasn't leaving and wanted to ask, but Zheng Yi stopped him with a look.

The three of them stood on the bridge, the wind blowing through the bare branches of the mulberry tree, making a soft whistling sound, like crying or laughing at the same time.

"Let's go," Shen Yuan suddenly said, gently squeezing the horse's flanks with her legs. Hongzao took off, its hooves making a crisp clattering sound as they stepped on the stone bridge.

South of the city.

When Shen Yuan said those two words, her voice was a little more steady than before.

Zheng Yi followed behind her, passing through one narrow alley after another. The walls on both sides of the alleys were very high, made of gray bricks, with foxtail grass growing on top. The grass spikes were already withered and yellow, swaying this way and that in the wind. Some walls were plastered with whitewash, but most of the whitewash had peeled off, revealing the gray-black bricks underneath, like a face covered with spots.

There weren't many people on the road. A peddler carrying a load of needles, thread, cosmetics, and children's toys came from the opposite direction. With each step, he shook a rattle drum, the thumping sound echoing through the alley. He glanced at Shen Yuan, then at Zheng Yi, his gaze lingering on them for a moment before he lowered his head and continued on his way.

Shen Yuan stopped in front of a black lacquered door.

The door was small, with two doors that opened outwards. The black paint on the doors was peeling off, revealing the dark brown wood underneath. Above the lintel was a plaque, but the characters on it had been scraped off with something, leaving only a few blurry strokes. It looked as if someone had forcibly dug out some characters from the middle, leaving several deep and shallow dents.

There are two osmanthus trees planted at the entrance.

The tree is still there.

Shen Yuan looked at the two osmanthus trees, and her eyes suddenly reddened.

The tree was very tall, towering above the lintel, its branches stretching haphazardly towards the sky, as if it hadn't been pruned in a long time. The ground beneath it was covered with fallen leaves and dried osmanthus blossoms; the fragrance of the osmanthus had long since dissipated, leaving only the withered petals that rustled underfoot.

“When the osmanthus blossoms, the whole alley is filled with fragrance,” Shen Yuan said, her voice so low it seemed as if she was afraid of disturbing something. “My father said that these two trees were planted when he moved here. They were only waist-high when they were planted.”

She reached out and touched the tree trunk closest to her. The bark was rough, with deep and shallow lines that looked like invisible words carved into it.

Zheng Yi stood behind her without saying a word.

Red Fang, leading three horses, stood at the alley entrance, hesitant to approach. He didn't know what had happened, but he knew it wasn't the right time to go over.

Shen Yuan touched the tree trunk for a long time before finally withdrawing her hand.

“The door is locked,” she said.

Zheng Yi went over and took a look. The lock on the door was rusted shut, the keyhole was full of rust and dust, and the key couldn't be inserted to open it. Looking through the crack in the door, it was pitch black inside, and he couldn't see anything.

"Climb over the wall," Zheng Yi said.

Shen Yuan glanced at him.

"Go ahead and turn over. My ribs aren't healed yet."

Zheng Yi said nothing, took two steps back, leaped up, grabbed the top of the wall with both hands, and flipped himself up, landing steadily on the top. He looked down at the courtyard—it was overgrown. Grass grew rampant in the cracks between the blue bricks paving the ground; the grass was withered and lay sprawled on the ground. Two windows of the main house were broken, the paper torn to shreds by the wind, and a few scraps of paper hung from the wooden window frames, fluttering in the wind. Half a couplet remained on the pillar under the eaves, the red paper faded to a pinkish-white, and the words on it were illegible.

Zheng Yi pulled the latch from the inside and opened the door.

Shen Yuan stood at the door, looking at the scene in the courtyard, without moving.

Her lips trembled, her chin trembled, her whole body trembled. But she didn't cry; not a single tear fell from beginning to end. She just stood there, like something brought back from a faraway place, placed where it was supposed to be, only to find that the place was no longer the same as when it left.

She stepped over the threshold and into the courtyard.

The withered grass crunched under her feet, the sound carrying far through the empty courtyard. She walked to the front door of the main house and pushed it open. The hinges creaked shrilly, like something screaming. (End of Chapter)