She blinkedand blinked again, suddenly bursting into laughter, she held his head tightly,the two people relying on each other for support, intertwined, slowly twobecame one.
That night,w.a.n.g Yun Feng unexpectedly appeared weak and suffering like the night bloomingcactus shows once, with daybreak it could not be seen again.
Earlymorning, when it was still not time for w.a.n.g Yun Feng to go to court, thehousekeeper hurriedly ran over, saying: “Last night faint footsteps outside themain entrance was heard, the gatekeeper opened the door to see if there wasanyone. Xiao Bai sent people to guard the main entrance, afterwards this waspicked up.”
Strong maleservants were sent to carry in several baskets, inside were an a.s.sortment ofquilts, there were old clothes, there were even more medicinal ingredients,furthermore herbal medicines with mud attached.
Dew stillclinging onto Xiao Bai’s clothes, he reported along with the old housekeeper:“Last night people came one after the other, some of the clothes were frommerchants, many were from young servants, there were even inhabitants of thecity, old and young, they placed the things at the door then left.”
w.a.n.g YunFeng was eating breakfast, Xia Ling Mei was ladling congee for him by his side.It was autumn, the weather was gradually turning colder, if he didn’t eatbreakfast and went to court, w.a.n.g Yun Feng would get dizzy on the way both coldand hungry. Before the old housekeeper had to patiently persuade him to eat,after Xia Ling Mei came to the w.a.n.g residence, she took the initiative toreplace the old housekeeper, every day she stared at w.a.n.g Yun Feng having ameal, he couldn’t have a meal less.
If therewas an emergency in the evening, the old housekeeper would still come to reportat this time of the day, to give w.a.n.g Yun Feng an overview.
The twophysicians from the Xia family also woke early, perhaps from hearing thevarious conversations of the servants, they came out to take a look, then cameto see w.a.n.g Yun Feng, in one of the physicians hands he was also holding herbalmedicine, in great delight he said: “These herbal medicines are hard to comeby, it can prevent dysentery, fever and other pressing illnesses, it’s best todry them in the sun and bring to the stricken region. Can Lord w.a.n.g possiblysend a few strong men from the residence, to come with this old man to themountains to pick medicine?”
w.a.n.g YunFeng asked them: “Could it be these medicinal herbs are not available at theshops?”
The oldhousekeeper urgently said: “There is, but the court is organising the disasterrelief, the majority of them have been acquired by the court these past fewdays, the common people cannot buy much.”
The doctoralso said: “Precisely, there are many medicines to treat illnesses and blights,but it cannot withstand the unrestrained purchases by the court every few days,the usual big pharmacies basically sell to the court, the small pharmaciescannot prepare much. Beiding city is surrounded by mountains on three sides,apart from the imperial horse enclosure, the influential families’ villas,there are still many mountainous forests ordinary people can go to pickmedicinal herbs. There are always not much of this sort of medicinal herbs,it’s best if we privately prepare some to bring with us.”
w.a.n.g YunFeng looked at those baskets of medicinal ingredients and clothing, only sayingquite a while later: “Medicinal ingredients are necessary, housekeeper youchoose some strong robust men to go pick herbs together with the physicians inthe mountains. And in addition send some young servants to the p.a.w.n shops andready-made clothes stores to buy some old clothing and bedding and otherthings, bundle them together, ask the armed escorts to send those to thestricken region in advance.”
The oldhousekeeper immediately complied, Xia Ling Mei once again took money from theaccountant to give to people, thinking about it, she herself went out with afurther several hundred silvers, making the old housekeeper go with her to arrangeto buy things for the disaster relief.
At firstshe thought this was a matter only for the w.a.n.g family, who knew by morning,the
Xia family again sent people to deliver several carts of medicinalingredients, quilts and clothing. This was still not enough, the physicians whothey originally couldn’t get to come, unexpectedly several more appeared at theXia residence, there were even young physicians with their bundle who set outimmediately.
The emperorallowed w.a.n.g Yun Feng to have complete responsibility for the disaster relief,the things w.a.n.g Yun Feng was to take with him were naturally the court’s goods,with no connection to the w.a.n.g family. The influential families sent things tothe w.a.n.g residence, only to do their bit to help the court’s disaster relief,not involving the influential families’ reputations. w.a.n.g Yun Feng only madeJuan Shu make a record of everything, before setting out he presented it all tothe emperor, whatever rewards were up to the emperor, unrelated to the w.a.n.gfamily. Juan Shu’s table had just been moved to the hall, the influentialfamilies acting at once on hearing the news, one after another sent theirservants to buy medicines and other such things, if they were unable to buy itthey also overturned trunks and boxes from their storerooms to bring out quitea lot, everything being sent to the w.a.n.g residence.
This wastoo different from the completely deserted scene from yesterday, in a moment itdeeply moved Xia Ling Mei. Apart from the influential families and officials,what was even more moving was the compa.s.sion of the ordinary people. The w.a.n.gresidence’s man entrance was immediately blocked by the influential families,the side entrance and rear entrance were mainly things given by the ordinarypeople. There were husbands and wives donating in the spirit of cooperation,there were sons supporting the old leaning on walking sticks to deliver goods,even young children holding sugar-coated fruits on a stick came, saying it wasfor the children of stricken region to eat. Each and every one with an ordinaryappearance, each a single trifle thing, each one a piece kindness unasked for,shocking those who walked by, and moved the people. On the second day, peoplefrom the outskirt of the city also entered the city, directly to the w.a.n.gresidence, some brought money other brought silver, even more brought medicineand rations and so on.
The palacehalved the disaster relief’s expenses, the imperial concubines also one by one soldtheir ornaments and other such things in exchange for money for the cause,Bailu academy encouraged its students to voluntarily contribute, directlysending it to the stricken region. The doorway of the Ministry of Revenue, moreor less every day there were officials coming to donate money.
After threedays, w.a.n.g Yun Feng set out on his journey carrying the compa.s.sion of numerouspeople inside and outside of Beiding city, one after the other the goods thecourt prepared also set off, at the same time countless ordinary peopleaccompanied them on its route, they also wanted to use their own strength tohelp the victims of disaster.
Xia LingMei stood at the entrance, watching w.a.n.g Yun Feng leave without even turninghis head, the north wind blew, his back looked lonely and desolate.
Turning tolook at the absolutely empty residence, if felt like the hustle and bustle ofthe last three days never existed. The w.a.n.g residence, was forever proud andaloof, cold and desolate, with the departure of its master it became even moregloomy.
Shesoullessly watched the servants sweep up the dust acc.u.mulated over the threedays, from the front hall to the rear court, every servant showed a lonelyexpression, reflecting the appearance of the dead autumn leaves, noiselesslyspeaking of the end of its glory.
Bai Yan cameout of the side hall, seeing her he wanted to say something but hesitated.
Xia Ling Mei was puzzled: “Whydidn’t you go with the master?”
Bai Yanpaid his respects, lowly saying: “The master repeatedly urged me to stay hereto keep watch.”
“What aboutXiao Bai?”
“Naturallyhe’s gone with the master.”
Xia LingMei smiled gently, it simply didn’t reach her eyes: “Hei Zi ought to have saidhe was bored.”
Bai Yan wassilent, as if he was thinking of something. Xia Ling Mei didn’t ask again, shehad wanted to go to the palace to see Xia Fen. The empress had sent someone tosay, the crown prince had gone out travelling with Xia Fen.
The way theempress taught the crown prince was extremely strange, apart from letting thecrown prince study at Bailu academy, every few days he would send him to visitthe cla.s.s of an ordinary school, once in a while out of the city to find ahighly skilled in martial arts hermit to learn from and compare militaryskills. These aside, the emperor and empress stipulated he must take a look ateach of his imperial uncle’s annexed territory every year, on route with onlythe restricted imperial guards secretly following, on appearance apart from hiscompanion and three imperial bodyguards there were no one else. No matter whatdifficulties he faced on the road he must resolve it himself, he wasn’t allowedto find an official, and must not reveal his ident.i.ty.
The crownprince was seven years old, this was the second time he went somewhere far awaythis year.
Xia LingMei did not think the empress would allow Xia Fen to go with him, thinkingabout it, it was planned in advance, that’s why Xia Fen was taken into thepalace these past few days.
Thinking ofXia Fen’s fearless character, Xia Ling Mei was even more worried, sendingpeople to the Xia residence for news of Kong Xian and Wu Sheng, the two of themhad actually left a few days ago to the border station to carry out theirmission.
Xia LingMei couldn’t stay still, simply running to her parents’ home, looking for herfather for information. Learning that there were also Xia family’s shadowguards by the crown prince’s side, then did she relax a little.
Those dayswithout husband or child, some of the other branches of the w.a.n.g familygradually came to visit, the strangest thing was that Wu Shi’s son w.a.n.g Yuncoming to the residence was extremely baffling.
That Wu Shiwas also a very strange woman, after causing a disturbance for w.a.n.g Yun Feng’smain residence for half a month, was sent to the second branch by that calamityXia Ling Mei. Who knew, after one month had pa.s.sed, although Wu Shi did notprove her ident.i.ty, but had gain a part of the second master’s property, buyinga house in the city, although it wasn’t big, it was just right to live in withher son, and hiring a gatekeeper, a cook, a maid to wait upon them, their liveswere comfortable.
The secondmaster of the w.a.n.g family was not like w.a.n.g Yun Feng’s father. The oldest w.a.n.gmaster was naturally a ruthless minor government official, when he was alive,he was most strict with w.a.n.g Yun Feng’s teaching, every word and action weremeasured and calculated, and brought about w.a.n.g Yun Feng’s gentle temper. Suchintense parents, the son could only obey and endure, not daring to take a stepwrong, and because of the eldest master’s excessive honesty, he offended a lotof people, w.a.n.g Yun Feng did not have good relations with people at Bailuacademy, often bullied by people in secret. At that time Xia Ling Mei was trulya lioness, sticking up for him, teaching the other children a lesson for him,the more Xia Ling Mei helped him, the further away he got. The second master onthe other hand, because he wasn’t of the main branch, was jealous of w.a.n.g YunFeng’s father from a young age, envious by nature abandoning all restraint,taking countless wives and concubines, Wu Shi hooked on to the weak spot of thesecond branch, stubbornly turning something non-existence into the truth,anyway the second master was also old, how was he to remember the son born of amistress from his youth. The old mistress of the second branch in order to keepthe peace, sent Wu Shi packing with some money.
That w.a.n.gYun then simply admitted his surname was w.a.n.g, with a supporter, hestraightened his spine and caused trouble in the city. But did not take thingstoo far, only eating the young maid his mother had bought, that young maid wasonly thirteen years old, after being a.s.saulted by w.a.n.g Yun she also did notdare to tell anyone. Every day w.a.n.g Yun went to his mother for money to go toamuse himself with prost.i.tutes, not long after he gained a licentiousreputation. However he wasn’t afraid, he pulled out his father’s cheapreputation, able to deceive one or two stupid people.
Ever sincew.a.n.g Yun Feng left, that w.a.n.g Yun on a certain day on hearing the Lady w.a.n.g’sname it again set off some thoughts in his head. That day, he sneakily lookedup hopefully to fulfil w.a.n.g Yun’s ideal dream, as he was rushing headlong intothat young maid’s body he couldn’t help think of Xia Ling Mei’s beautiful body,he truly couldn’t help it and every few days would go to the w.a.n.g residence totry to gain her friendship.
Xia LingMei did not like him, every time he would be stopped by the gatekeeper. On acertain night, that w.a.n.g Yun actually climbed up the wall, just by chance metby Bai Yan, he was immediately kicked, crippling w.a.n.g Yun’s ability to haveoffspring. Again worried the other person would ruin Xia Ling Mei’s reputation,he immediately gave some money to the government office, throwing him into jailon the crimes of theft, locking him up.
Luckilythat w.a.n.g Yun only secretly thought of Xia Ling Mei, he didn’t dare to sayanything, so while Wu Shi was searching the city, she did not think it hadanything to do with Xia Ling Mei.
Xia LingMei stayed at the residence by herself, nothing really major happened,occasionally she would go out and meet with the other women of the influentialfamilies, pulling chrysanthemums, taste a few cups of teas, gossip for a bitthen have nothing more to do. Because w.a.n.g Yun Feng’s been demoted, some wivesof officials did not like her even more. She didn’t get angry, only a.s.sociatingherself with the usual wives, most of the time she only went when she heardthere was a sister from the Xia family there.
Little bylittle, for the most part she actually a.s.sociated with the Xia family.
Every timeshe returned home, she would see Bai Yan standing in the front hall, staring ather trembling with a pale face.
“I thoughtthe mistress will do the same as seven years before, again leave and not comeback.”