Chapter 196: Chapter 92 Folding Dan Gui_1
The night deepened.
At the southern part of Qinghe Street in Changwu County, luxurious chariots vied with each other for supremacy, and the sound of flutes and stringed instruments played ceaselessly through the night from the red buildings in the markets. On the Mid-Autumn Festival, every household and thousands of doors celebrated with a nightly feast. Above and below Luoyue Bridge, two full moons shone—one in the sky and the other reflected in the water—illuminating Shengjing City with radiant flowers and moonlight, vying in brilliance.
In the midst of the city’s revelry and wine, a certain courtyard within Prince Wen’s Mansion was exceptionally quiet and chilled.
Inside the room, the silver lamps cast a hazy glow. The bed had been changed with fresh beddings, and the cloud-patterned gauze canopy that had been slashed by the blade was replaced with a clean gauze drapery. The gentle fabric enveloped the person and her breath on the bed, wrapping them both in softness.
Pei Yunshu was very weak after giving birth and had fallen asleep from exhaustion. The newborn baby girl had been fed a little milk by the wet nurse and, with her tiny wrinkled face resembling that of a fragile, newborn monkey, she cuddled in her swaddling clothes, clinging tightly to her mother.
The poison of "Children’s Sorrow" she had contracted was not yet fully cured. However, by inducing labor before the poison had completely spread, they had managed to snatch back a sliver of vitality for the little girl. Lady Yun said there was no cure for Children’s Sorrow, but it was the deep-seated Children’s Sorrow that was incurable. Luckily, it was not too late.
But she was still too young to be given strong medicine. She could only be well-cared for, slowly getting rid of the remaining poison from her body.
Pei Yunshu and her daughter were temporarily out of danger. The servants of the Prince’s Mansion hastily tidied up the room’s disarray. Lu Tong sat at a corner table, her head down as she pondered over a prescription for the antidote.
The room was quiet, occasionally a maid would ask Lu Tong in a low voice about the taboos while preparing the medicine. Yin Zheng had already returned to the medical hall, accompanied by Pei Yunmeng’s men. The incident had occurred suddenly today, and no one had informed Du Changqing about what had happened. If he couldn’t wrap his head around it and cling to the high-priced banquet set at Renhe Restaurant, waiting there until deep into the night could lead to something unfortunate.
In the dim light, Lu Tong picked up her brush and wrote a few characters on the paper, then slightly furrowed her brows and crossed out what she had just written. Her already messy handwriting blurred further with the smear, slowly spreading into indistinct ink marks, like the messy stars in the night outside the window.
It suddenly dawned on her that tonight was Mid-Autumn Festival.
The ink characters before her eyes grew even more blurred, as if they suddenly came to life, emitting sounds of laughter and clamor. These voices swirled and whispered in her ears, slowly sketching out the dark path in Changwu County.
The random stones at the entrance of the small path had been cleared and replaced with flat stones. Green moss filled the cracks between them, and a dim yellow light shone from the wooden windows at the end of the path, casting its light on her, reflecting a long old shadow onto the bluestone ground.
She stopped in front of the house door, from where the sound of family laughter seeped through. Lu Tong hesitated for a moment, then pushed the door open and walked in.
Her mother was preparing incense for the moon ceremony at the entrance. The voices of Lu Rou and Lu Qian could be heard from the courtyard. She followed the veranda and saw a rough cloth spread on the stone table in the courtyard, laden with syrup-glazed goodies and soft threads from the night market. Lu Rou was placing fresh fruits on the stone table, and Lu Qian was arranging large porcelain plates filled with different kinds of mooncakes.
"Milk pastry with pine nut filling, milk pastry with date filling, sesame oil seed filling, milk pastry with puréed bean filling..." Lu Qian sighed, looking up, "They are all so sweet; mother needn’t make the mooncakes entirely to the taste of the youngest."
Lu Rou pressed her lips together with a smile, "You could just eat the crust and leave the filling for Tong Tong."
"Even spoon-feeding her the filling," the young man rolled his eyes, "She’d better not eat any more sugar, or she won’t fit into her newly made skirts."
Their father walked out from the house, stretching out his sleeves and stroking his beard, "Tonight is the fifteenth; I’ve obtained a picture titled ’Moonlit Autumn’ from the academy. It’s the perfect time to challenge you all. The three of you will each compose a poem. After the moon ceremony, write them down. Those who can’t produce a poem will be punished."
No sooner had he spoken than a voice of dissent arose, "Father, why do we still have to write poems on the fifteenth? I won’t do it; I want to go to the temple fair to see the river lanterns!"
The voice was clear, petulant, and still carried a trace of childishness, causing Lu Tong to pause in surprise.
A little girl about five or six years old ran out of the house, wearing a half-new onion yellow lightweight jacket with a plain skirt beneath. Each of her twin hair buns was adorned with a paper-cut, ebony-colored butterfly. She herself resembled a vivid butterfly, fluttering into the courtyard in the blink of an eye. A round, mooncake-like face flushed with anger made the yellow butterflies at her temples flutter unsteadily.
"Lu San!" Their father’s face flushed with anger, "What kind of behavior is this for a girl, always running around wildly!"
"It’s the fifteenth today; I don’t care," the little girl spun around, dashing behind her mother, "I want to go to the temple fair to see the river lanterns."
"No!"
The little girl stamped her foot, "I insist!"
Lu Tong gazed for a long time at the fearless girl hiding behind her mother. The smile on that tender little face was so lively and vivid that it left her momentarily dazed.