Cen Yemeng, being faster, arrived at the house on Meteorite Star two days before her husband.
Jiang Ye had expected her to quietly read at home, waiting for the two days to pass.
He never imagined that Cen Yemeng would embark on a grand project.
On the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, Jiang Ye arrived at the Meteorite Star space station.
He drove home himself, without any attendants.
When his car pulled up to the house, Jiang Ye was stunned.
The estate was filled with bundled saplings, hundreds of them, piled on the lawn like lumber from a logging site, stretching out like a small mountain. The only difference was that felled timber from a logging site had no roots, while these saplings all had roots and soil.
It was early spring on Meteorite Star, and the sunlight was warm and pleasant.
Cen Yemeng, dressed in a long, jade-green dress and with her hair styled in an ancient woman's bun, waited at the front door, her smile bright. Her dress was clearly made of a special material; when the wind blew, the hem would briefly turn transparent, revealing her fair legs beneath.
As Jiang Ye got out of the car, she immediately rushed towards him and hugged him.
"Husband!"
"Hus... Husband?" Jiang Ye was taken aback by the address.
"Aren't you my husband?" Cen Yemeng gazed at him playfully.
"Yes, but... didn't you used to call me 'Lao Gong'?"
"I've been watching a historical drama recently and found ancient couples quite romantic. Let's role-play as ancient people this holiday," Cen Yemeng said. "I bought some saplings, and we'll plant them together. There was an episode in the drama where the main characters planted trees together."
"So many saplings, and just the two of us planting them?" Jiang Ye was surprised. "Does that mean we won't have anything else to do for the next few days?"
"What would Husband like to do?" Cen Yemeng tilted her head.
Jiang Ye thought for a moment. "Lie in bed and sleep?"
"Husband, don't be so lazy! Accompany me in planting trees; consider it exercise," she urged.
"Alright," Jiang Ye conceded. "You're the main wife, why do you refer to yourself as 'qie shen'?"
"Husband lacks culture. Read more books; you might achieve fame in the future," Cen Yemeng chuckled.
Jiang Ye smiled, thinking to himself, "What fame? I'm an examiner for the imperial examinations."
Tools, shovels, buckets, and bags of fertilizer were already placed beside the pile of saplings.
The couple soon began their work.
Cen Yemeng, holding a small shovel, dug small holes on the lawn of the estate, determining the planting positions for the saplings. She strode forward, digging every ten paces.
Jiang Ye, carrying a large shovel, enlarged the small holes her wife had dug.
It felt somewhat like the days of mining; the dormant digging memories in his muscles awakened. After a few holes, Jiang Ye's speed noticeably increased. He swung the shovel with vigor. The soil on the estate was soft, and he could quickly dig a large pit.
Then, the couple would lift a sapling together and place it in the pit. Cen Yemeng would hold the tree steady while Jiang Ye filled the hole with soil, grunting with effort. Finally, they would carry buckets of water to irrigate it, and a tree was considered planted.
"Husband is very good at digging holes," Cen Yemeng remarked. "If Husband weren't a general, but an ancient farmer, he'd be skilled at farming too, wouldn't he?"
"I don't know. Farming was difficult in ancient times. You'd work hard all year, praying for wind and rain, only to get a meager harvest. Unlike now, with genetically modified crops that bear fruit rapidly after planting," Jiang Ye said. "Compared to being an ancient farmer, being a general now is much better."
"What I mean is, even if Husband had no power or money, as long as he could farm and feed us, I would still be willing to be your wife," Cen Yemeng said. "In that case, while Husband toiled in the fields, I would cook at home and pack meals in bamboo lunchboxes to bring to Husband in the fields every day."
"If I were a farmer, a beautiful wife like you would certainly be unmarriageable," Jiang Ye chuckled.
"Why?" Cen Yemeng's eyes widened. "I'm willing to be with you."
"Your willingness alone isn't enough. With your beauty that could make flowers and the moon blush, in ancient times, you would inevitably be fought over by powerful men. The more beautiful a woman, the more capable a husband she needs to keep her," Jiang Ye explained. "A beauty that brings disaster, perhaps I'd be killed for marrying you."
"Husband is so pessimistic."
"It's true. Do you know about the great elk? To compete for a female, the males would duel each other, butting their large antlers until one died. That's how the great elk went extinct."
"We... we could find a place no one knows about and live in seclusion."
"Where would such a place be?" Jiang Ye smiled. "Places suitable for farming are already occupied. Uninhabited places are either full of wild animals or incapable of growing anything."
"Moreover," Jiang Ye continued, "even if we were lucky enough to find a place isolated from the world, free of wild animals, and could clear land to farm, life would still be problematic away from human society. For instance, if I fell ill, and there was no medicine, no doctor within a hundred miles, and I couldn't recover, I'd die of a fever. You'd cry and then bury me."
"That's too pessimistic!" Cen Yemeng laughed and playfully hit Jiang Ye.
"Isn't it good now? With advanced technology, even lifespans can be altered," Jiang Ye said. "Why insist on imagining the simple, impoverished life of ancient farming?"
After planting one tree, the couple switched to another sapling and continued their work.
"To be honest, the pressure on me has been immense these past six months," Cen Yemeng confessed. "Sometimes I'd work until one or two in the morning, feeling dizzy from exhaustion. Once I finished, I wouldn't want to sleep immediately because waking up meant another full day of work, with officials from various regions demanding audiences like life-or-death matters. So, I'd just collapse in my chair, doing nothing, quietly spacing out, resting my overheated brain."
Jiang Ye stopped digging and straightened up, looking at his wife intently.
"In those moments, I'd wonder if our lives would be more peaceful and happy if we weren't so high-ranking, but just an ordinary couple, like ancient farmers," Cen Yemeng said. "But then I remember what you said, that ordinary people are often not in control of their own lives, facing the same toil and busyness. Thinking about that, I'd sigh and stop thinking about it. At those times, I'd do one thing."
"What thing?" Jiang Ye asked.
"Send you a message," Cen Yemeng smiled. "Usually, by the time I finish, you haven't slept yet, still busy. A brief chat with you makes me feel warm. Knowing that on another planet, Husband is also quietly working in his office, and perhaps even smiling as he messages me."
"I might have to shatter your beautiful fantasy," Jiang Ye scratched his head. "I'm generally calm during the day, but at one or two in the morning, I'm quite irritable. I often curse while working, saying things like, 'Damn it, who the hell is this, reporting to me at this hour? Didn't they know to report earlier?' or 'Damn it, why hasn't this been done after so long? Useless idiot, making me stay up all night...' At those times, I even kick the sweeping robot when it passes by; I'm extremely agitated."
Cen Yemeng froze for a moment, then burst into laughter.
"But when you message me every night..." Jiang Ye's tone suddenly softened. "I'm truly happy, and my anger dissipates. I stop cursing and quietly finish the remaining work. Every time I think of you, my frustration lessens considerably."