Chapter 21 Part 3

 

“I remember now. That family’s surname was Wei. At that time, I remember that the little princess of Prince Ding Mansion often came to the Wei family…”

The old woman suddenly lowered her voice and a mysterious expression appeared on her face.

“Young Master, you are from another place, right? Let me tell you, Prince Ding is the current emperor! I heard from some old customers that the little princess was lost during the chaos back then, and the emperor couldn’t find her no matter how hard he tried.

“Oh, right, at that time, the little princess loved to eat my cakes the most! Really, I didn’t lie to you, it’s true!”

When she said this, the old woman’s skinny body seemed to be filled with an endless stream of living water. She instantly became energetic, and her eyes radiated a strange brilliance.

“It’s true!” She emphasized to Xuyu again.

“The little princess often comes to visit the young lady of the Wei family. Every time she comes, she wants to eat my cakes. The young lady of the Wei family will also come to buy them by herself and ask me to sprinkle more sesame seeds. Every time this happens, I know she’s going to visit the little princess. I always tell her to let the little princess come and eat it herself. The ones fresh out of the oven are the best.

“Alas……”

The old woman pulled herself out of her past memories, let out a long sigh, and the brief light in her eyes disappeared.

“Do you know where the Wei family has gone now?” Xuyu asked softly.

“I came back from outside the second year after the official army recaptured Chang’an. I heard that the Wei family participated in the rebellion of Crown Prince Jingsheng. All the male members of the family were beheaded, and the rest died or dispersed. The house also changed owners.”

Xuyu froze for a moment.

“Then what about the young lady of the Wei family? The young lady you mentioned who is often with the little princess?”

“She… naturally, was changed to a slave and sent to the music bureau. As for where she is now, who knows? Maybe she has already died, maybe she has moved to some alley in Pingkang Lane, or maybe she is already grown up and was bought by a businessman to be a concubine… Who knows…”

The old woman muttered to herself, stood up and hobbled to the stove, using tongs to gather the charcoal ash to suppress the fire so that the remaining charcoal could burn longer.

The remaining half of the cake in her hand gradually cooled, becoming hard and dry. After Xuyu finished eating, she set aside the money needed for the return fare from what little she had, and placed the remaining ten or so coins on the small stool beside the old yellow dog. Then, she quietly left.”

Starting from the next day, from morning to night, she kept shuttling back and forth in Pingkang Lane.

In this city located between the East Market and the Imperial City, there were many mansions of high-ranking officials and nobles, and there were also a large number of romantic places where men in the world linger. The later were concentrated in the area of Sanqu near the East Gate of the North Wall.

There, there were magnificent pavilions and tall buildings with their doors leading to the cross street, as well as lowly prostitutes clinging to the north wall, looked down upon even by others in the same trade.

Xuyu asked from building to building, from the humble residence in Beiqu to the spacious brothel.

If it was true as the old woman said, Wei Yinniang was now in this place, but her appearance should not have changed much from the past.

In Xuyu’s memory, she had a face like a silver plate, a pair of phoenix eyes, and when she smiled, there was a dimple on one side of her lip, which was a very distinctive feature. However, after searching for several days in a row and visiting more than a dozen places, there was no progress in finding her.

It was almost evening, and Xuyu had to end her futile running around today and return to where she lived.

As usual, she went back to the West Market to catch a ride. While thinking about her worries, she crossed the shortcut and walked along the riverbank within the lane, which was called the Fangsheng Pond.

The Fansheng Pond connected to the canal that runs between the western and southern parts of the city, and the river was constantly busy with boats transporting various goods. The shops along the riverbank were densely packed, offering a wide array of merchandise. Everyday necessities like rice, coal, and cloth, or borneol crystal favored by noblewomen, fragrant agarwood from Jiaozhi, rare pearls from the South Seas, and even the Kunlun slaves and Silla maids highly sought after by the wealthy families of Chang’an—all could be found here, as long as one has enough money. At this moment, a nearby bridge was particularly crowded, with people and carts creating a cacophony of noise.

Suddenly, she heard someone calling “Young Master”. At first, she thought it was for not her, but then she heard another voice, a voice with a hint of joy that sounded familiar. She turned around and found it was the old man from Xishan whom she had met and taken a ride with in the western suburbs when she first arrived a few days ago.

Nearby was a water shop that collected mountain spring water. There was a mule cart parked outside the door, and coolies were unloading water buckets. It seemed that he just happened to come here to deliver water.

She immediately went over to greet him and explained that she didn’t hear clearly just now.

The old man hurriedly said that it was fine, and bowed, “I didn’t expect to meet you here again today! What a coincidence! Have you settled down? Is everything going well?”

Xuyu smiled and said everything was fine, and asked him how he was. The old man said that the mule cart had been repaired a long time ago, and he had rested at home for a few days, once his heart was settled down, he came to deliver water again today. After exchanging a few pleasantries, he pulled out a shy child who was hiding behind the mule cart and peeked, and asked him to greet Xuyu. He said that it was his grandson, named Chou’er. His grandson was sick last time, and there was no one to take care of him at home except him, so he came out late. But his grandson’s illness had recovered in the past few days, so he brought bring him with him when he entered the city today.

The child was very obedient and came over to pay his respects immediately. At this time, the water cart was moved and the empty buckets were replaced. Xuyu knew that the pair of grandfather and grandchild had to hurry back as the journey back was not short. She was afraid of delaying them, so she said that she had something to do and had to leave. The old man asked her to wait, and hurried to the mule cart and handed over a bag of mountain goods that he had brought from the mountains to sell here.

Xuyu quickly refused.

“Young Master, please don’t despise it. It’s not a valuable thing. If you hadn’t helped pull the cart last time, I might have been hit. I’m really sorry for leaving you behind halfway. This is just a small token of my appreciation. Please accept it!”

The old man insisted on handing it over. Xuyu had no choice but to take it. While he was going to harness the carriage, she quickly took out the twenty or thirty coins she had on her and stuffed them all into Chou’er’s clothes. Then she turned around and went into a crowded place and left quickly.

Chou’er looked down at his clothes, ran to the old man, tugged at his sleeve, and took out the money from his clothes. The old man hurried to chase the person, but when he looked up, he could no longer see her. He didn’t know where she lived, so he sighed and had to carry Chou’er to the cart and drove away on the mule cart.

At this time, a man who looked like a servant rushed out of a clothing store on the other side of the river and ran over the bridge. For some reason, he was wearing a new shoe on one foot and the other foot was bare. He was so anxious that he almost bumped into someone. People who were pushed away by him cursed at his back, but he didn’t care. He rushed to the water shop under the bridge, stood on tiptoe and looked around. In front of him, there were only crowds of people. Where was the shadow that he had just glimpsed across the river and thought was a familiar figure?

Then he remembered that there seemed to be an old man delivering water. He wanted to ask a few questions. He turned around and saw that the mule cart had also left. He hurriedly ran after it, but unexpectedly the owner of the clothing store had also arrived. He grabbed his collar and shouted that he would send him to see the official.

This young man was Qingtou.

Three days ago, it was another court meeting day.

All officials gathered in the waiting courtyard outside Danfeng Gate before the fifth watch as usual. When the eunuchs from the Palace Office arrived, everyone thought that the emperor would not come out like the previous court meetings, and they were all ready to leave, but they did not expect the eunuchs to announce the emperor to court.

The emperor, who had been in seclusion for many days, personally summoned a young man who had just arrived in Chang’an a few days ago at the court meeting that day, appointed him as the Lieutenant General of the Jinwu Guard, and announced that the Jinwu Guard would set up a new Luwu Division, and the young man would be the head of the division.

When Pei Xiaoyuan walked into the hall under the gaze of hundreds of pairs of eyes and kowtowed to thank the imperial favor, the hall was silent. All the officials present, including the ministers, advisors, and censors, had different expressions, but there was one thing that everyone shared in common.

That was surprise.

In fact, after the Jinwu Guard’s announcement was finalized, many people had slowly come to their senses and speculated that this matter might have been tacitly approved by the emperor, or even most likely instructed by him.

But no matter how bold their imagination was, no one would have thought that the emperor would make such an appointment after the arrival of this son of the Pei family.

The Lieutenant General was indeed a real position, and his rank was not low, but in the capital, it was not special. Among the young talents who arrived at about the same time as Pei’s son, several of them were also given equivalent official positions.

This position was usually granted to the sons of nobles. Rather than being an important position, it was more like a favor bestowed by the emperor, and it had a stronger attribute of honor.

But the official position of Luwu Division’s head was different.

This division was unprecedented. Although it sounded like just a temporary government office set up by the emperor for the longevity celebration, but just from its name, one could get a glimpse of its differences.

Luwu, a deity of Kunlun, governs the nine divisions of heaven and the capital under the emperor.

The emperor named it this way, so it was clear what the purpose of this office was.

Not to mention, the emperor, who had not appeared for a long time, went to court today just to summon one person, which was a great honor.

A few days had passed, and Qingtou didn’t know what those big shots in the capital were thinking. Anyway, for him, the biggest difference was suddenly becoming very busy, handling various invitation cards that came for his master and turning away the endless stream of visitors. Today, feeling fed up, he remembered the expensive gift he had purchased earlier but never delivered. Feeling the sting of wasted money, he wandered over to the Western Market to see how much he could get if he returned it. When he heard it was less than half of what he paid, he left in a huff. Just now, he passed by the shop across the bridge and saw boots for sale. Thinking that the shoes on his feet were almost worn out, he went in. While trying them on, he accidentally raised his head and caught a glimpse of a young man on the other side talking to someone. At first glance, the figure reminded him of Miss Ye, and after looking again, he looked more like Miss Ye.

He didn’t have time to think about anything at that time, he stood up and went to the other side. Unfortunately, the bridge was narrow and crowded, and when he finally squeezed to the other side, the person had disappeared. Now he was grabbed by the shop owner again. When he got rid of the shop owner and chased after people, even the old man’s mule cart had disappeared.

Qingtou suspected that he had seen the wrong person, but he was unwilling to give up and continued to walk around the West Market looking for her, hoping to meet her again and see it clearly. He kept looking until the sun set and the market was about to close, and still there was no trace of her. He could only suppress his doubts and hurried back home.

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