Mo Sang – CH 302

Chapter 302. Making a Sword

Blind Mi and Hei Ma spent the night together. The next day, after breakfast, Datou picked out a docile packhorse for him from the Shunfeng headquarters. Blind Mi rode it out of town to find Lin Sa and his senior sister, Wang.

The following afternoon, Xiu’er, accompanied by Dazhuang, led the packhorse back to the Shunfeng headquarters.

That evening, Blind Mi, looking very upset, brandished his cane and stormed into the Shunfeng backyard.

Li Sangrou was packing her things, preparing to return to Chaomi Alley. Seeing Blind Mi rush in, she quickly gestured for him to leave.

“The scenery here is beautiful; the water is so clear, the buildings are so tall, and the willows are almost budding! I will grill some meat here and have a good meal. Your Chaomi Alley is too cramped, and that dog is too noisy!”

Blind Mi plopped down in a chair and swung his cane around a few times, looking utterly annoyed.

“A full meal? What, Zhang Mao did not make you any pancakes?” Li Sangrou put the food back, leaned over, and carefully examined Blind Mi’s face.

“Her pancakes get worse and worse the longer she makes them, but she talks more and more nonsense.” Blind Mi shook his chair a few times, making a creaking sound.

Li Sangrou glanced at him sideways, grunted for a moment, then turned and told Mazha to go back and tell Da Chang, and then pick out five or six jin of fish and a black carp from the fish Mazha had caught that day.

Mazha agreed, carried the remaining ten or so fish on a shoulder pole, and headed back to Chaomi Alley.

Li Sangrou brought out a long charcoal brazier, took out glowing red charcoal from the clay stove, spread it out, and then added new charcoal.

After starting the fire, Li Sangrou brought out a cutting board, picked out a fresh leg of lamb, a piece of fresh pork belly, half a cured leg of lamb, and a piece of cured pork.

“Fresh?” Blind Mi craned his neck to look, then poked at the meat with his finger. “Where did this fresh meat come from? Is the meat market open?”

“Live sheep and pigs stored up before the New Year, slaughtered yesterday.”

Li Sangrou answered, rinsing the lamb leg and pork belly again. She picked up a thin, sharp knife and sliced ​​the pork belly and cured meat into slightly thin strips. Then she removed the two pieces of meat from the bluefish, slicing them diagonally—one slice of pork belly and one slice of cured meat—placed a piece of fish on top, folded it up, and put it on a wire mesh.

Blind Mi hurriedly moved closer, chopsticks in hand, staring intently at the slices of pork belly and fish.

Li Sangrou put the fish bones and lamb leg bones into the soup pot and started cooking. She used chopsticks to turn the sizzling pork belly and fish rolls.

After the soup boiled a few times, Li Sangrou removed the fish bones and lamb leg bones, then added the sliced ​​fresh and salted lamb leg pieces.

Blind Mi devoured most of a bluefish and then drank a bowl of soup with fresh and salted lamb leg and white radishes. Patting his stomach, he leaned back in his chair and sighed contentedly, “I am full.”

“That girl Zhang Mao’s pancakes are getting worse and worse, but your roasting skills are still the same.”

“What did Zhang Mao say about you?” Li Sangrou slowly sipped her soup, looking at Blind Mi with understanding.

“That brat dares to say anything to me?” Blind Mi glared at Li Sangrou. “That girl is getting more and more useless, always talking about money; she’s obsessed with it! What does she need so much money for? So useless!”

“Zhang Mao and the others have bought a lot of land in the capital and Yangzhou, and they are going to grow cotton with your Senior Sister Wang,” Li Sangrou looked at Blind Mi with a smile.

“That cotton!” Blind Mi choked up halfway through his sentence, letting out a long sigh. “Even someone like Senior Sister Qi, this year for the New Year, went to that open space at the Daxiangguo Temple, joining a bunch of foolish men and women to burn incense! Sigh!”

“You mountain folk, you do not even have this much surplus grain?” Li Sangrou frowned.

“Do you have surplus grain at home?” Blind Mi asked irritably.

“There’s always enough surplus grain for a year or two. Your mountain sect has been around for so many years; do you not have any savings?” Li Sangrou sized up Blind Mi.

Blind Mi slumped into his chair, letting out a long sigh. “In the mountains, we live within our means; we all live in poverty. Last year, we managed for most of the year, and this year, even tightening our belts, we can manage for most of the year, but what about the second half? Next year? The year after? Even if everything goes smoothly, you still have to plant your cotton year after year and let it grow year after year, right? Sigh!”

“You went to Jianle City; was it for the cotton or for the money?” Li Sangrou sipped her tea.

“Sister Qiao is really worried about the cotton, so he sent me to keep an eye on it,” Blind Mi sighed wearily.

“Ye Anping must have gone to Yangzhou, right? How many pills did he pick?” Li Sangrou asked, glancing at Blind Mi.

“He did. He only picked two kinds. He kept saying this was a big deal, that we had to be extra careful, and that we could not rush things. A whole bunch of this and that, all nonsense. He only picked two things.” Blind Mi paused, scratching his forehead twice, looking extremely troubled.

“One is for the initial stage of a cold, with abdominal distension and diarrhea. It only treats very mild symptoms and is only useful when the illness is half-awake. It cannot really be considered medicine!

The other one is for external injuries. The powder you used is quite good.”

“The Ye family lives up to its reputation,” Li Sangrou said, listening intently.

Blind Mi glanced at her, wanting to retort, but the words caught in his throat. “Really? You did not make a mistake? Can it make money?”

“Yes, these two medicines should be enough to cover your daily expenses in the mountains.” Li Sangrou nodded.

Blind Mi paused for a moment, then leaned back abruptly in his chair. “According to you, this and that are practically mountains of silver and seas of gold, but where’s the money? Where is it?”

“On the way to your mountains,” Li Sangrou answered earnestly.

Blind Mi glanced at Li Sangrou, then snorted.

“That Fu girl, where did you pick her up from? She’s a troublemaker!”

Taking a sip of tea, Blind Mi glanced at Li Sangrou.

“She told you everything? What’s her plan? Starting with the fathers and sons?” Li Sangrou refilled Blind Mi’s teacup.

“Of course, ‘father and son’ comes first. If she wants to talk about ‘father and son,’ she will first need to be able to use that bag of witness testimonies. Forget ‘father and son,’ just that bag of testimonies alone—just that one point! That’s enough to cause a huge disaster!

Why do you keep provoking people like this?” Blind Mi frowned.

Li Sangrou looked at Blind Mi, smiling, but did not speak.

“I know you disapprove of this and that, but no matter how much you disapprove, that’s how the world works. You cannot think too much!”

The last sentence from Blind Mi carried a strong sense of warning.

“I did not think about it. You know me, but you do not pretend not to.” Li Sangrou sighed. “Before, it was because my knife was not sharp enough that I was powerless, so I had to act that way. Now, my knife is sharp enough, too sharp. Countless people fear me, are wary of me, and are watching me every moment.

Including there.” Li Sangrou looked up at the towering corner tower.

“Good that you know!” Blind Mi looked at Li Sangrou from the corner tower, slamming his hand on the armrest of his chair, his eyes filled with worry.

“I know I am sharp enough. I can express some attitude, even if it is just a little. Is that not enough?

I want to stand behind Lady Fu and watch the show. She and they, whoever defeats whom is fine, but they have to let her speak and have her stand up and confront them.” Li Sangrou stretched out her legs, looking quite at ease.

“Do not worry, I will protect myself well. Once the world is unified, I will travel around; whether I go to sea or not, I will aimlessly wander.

As long as I live, as long as I am alive, they have to let Lady Fu, or others, stand up, stand there, and let them speak. Otherwise, my sword is very sharp, is it not? ” Li Sangrou smiled.

“You are human; you will die!” Blind Mi sighed.

“I’ve thought it through. If I die, I will bury myself wherever I die, keeping it a secret. Even after I am gone, I can still scare them for years, decades, maybe even longer,” Li Sangrou laughed.

Blind Mi glanced at her sideways, then snorted.

………………………………

Unless it was an extremely unusual or extraordinary case, trials at the yamen usually did not end until after the first month of the lunar calendar.

That night, Blind Mi and Li Sangrou sat in the backyard of Shunfeng, first drinking tea, then wine, chatting until late into the night. The next day, Blind Mi slept until nearly noon, then, carrying his gleaming blind cane, headed to Zhang Mao’s house in Shima Lane.

When Lady Fu arrived at Zhang Mao’s house, Zhang Mao and her children practically dragged her away, insisting she stay until after the first month of the lunar calendar.

Li Sangrou spent her days traveling between Chaomi Alley and the backyard of Shunfeng’s main store, leisurely reading military reports, tabloids, and account books; discussing business; and occasionally reading light reading, waiting for the first month to end.

Just after the first month, on the first day, Li Sangrou heard no news of excitement from the yamen. Wei Fu and Yan-niang entered the backyard of Shunfeng’s main store one after the other.

Li Sangrou put down the military report in her hand, looking at Wei Fu, who walked ahead with his head down and shoulders slumped, and Yan-niang, who followed behind him, her face pale.

Li Sangrou put the report back in her brocade bag, stood up, picked up a bamboo chair, and placed it next to hers. She bowed slightly to Yan-niang, greeted her, and smiled. “Sit down.”

Wei Fu, head bowed, picked up a chair himself and sat a little farther away.

Yan-niang, her face pale, sat down in the chair Li Sangrou had indicated.

Li Sangrou brewed another pot of tea, poured a cup, and pushed it towards Yan-niang.

Yan-niang sat upright, her eyelids slightly lowered, watching the wisps of steam rising from the rim of the teacup. After a moment, she looked up at Wei Fu.

“He and I,” Yan-niang turned to look at Li Sangrou, “we grew up together since we were little.

Weizhuang is a big village, more than a li from our Wujia Gou. His aunt and I were neighbors, and he would come over every day to see her and play with me.

The first time he got into a fight, he was bleeding from his head because of me. After that, he would get up before dawn and stay up until midnight to gather firewood, enough for his own family, and he would pile it up all over Master Wei’s courtyard at the edge of their village, just so Master Wei could teach him to read. He said it was all for me.

Later, he learned martial arts from his aunt’s husband, and then he went to serve in the army. He said it was all for me.”

Yan-niang looked at Wei Fu, and Li Sangrou followed her gaze to Wei Fu, who was resting his elbows on his legs, his hands clasped behind his head.

“Later, we got married. He said he would make sure I was honored as a wife, that I had many children and grandchildren, that I was the luckiest daughter-in-law in the county, and that when I was old, everyone in the surrounding villages would respectfully call me ‘Old Lady.’

He told me to wait for him.” Yan-niang paused, tears welling in her eyes. After a moment of hesitation, she continued, “He was gone for half a year, and then the government sent word of his death.

I lived, enduring each day, not to wait for him. I thought he was dead.

I endured each day because when I thought of him, when I thought of him, I did not feel bitter. When I thought of him, I felt that he was still alive. If I died, no one would think of him, as if he were truly dead.”

Yan-niang spoke slowly, each word distinct.

Li Sangrou listened silently, watching Yan-niang, who was gazing up at the corner tower. “One day, I was thinking about him when he suddenly stood before me. Although he looked somewhat different from the image I had always imagined, he was still the same.

In a daze, I always felt that it was because I thought about him every day that I brought him to life.”

Yan-niang paused, looking down at the cup of tea in front of her. After a moment, she reached out, picked up the cup, and held it in her hands.

“The other day he said he would send me back, buy me land and shops, help me adopt a child, hire many servants to take care of me, and even get me an official title so I could become a respected old lady in the entire prefecture.”

Yan-niang looked up, directly at Li Sangrou. “Back then, when he went to eat military rations, it was not for me. When he was promoted to squad leader, he was so excited; it was not for me either. He learned martial arts, he learned to read, not for me. He did it all for himself.”

“Hmm,” Li Sangrou met Yan-niang’s gaze and gave a firm “hmm.”

“Sigh.” Yan-niang sighed deeply. “Last year, at the beginning of the twelfth lunar month, he came back. He told me about following you, how he disguised himself as a rich man, how beautiful the fireworks were, and how thrilling the trials were. He shouted for General Sang to return to camp, his eyes shining, gesturing wildly.

He suddenly became young again, as young as the day he married me. Back then, he was like that too, his eyes shining. He told me that he would earn me an official title, he would bear me at least three sons, he would let me wear silk clothes every day, and he would make sure that wherever I went, everyone looked up at me and everyone exclaimed with envy, ‘Look, that’s Third Master Wei’s wife!'”

Li Sangrou listened silently, Wei Fu holding his head in his hands, motionless.

Yan-niang paused, looking down at the cup in her hand. After a moment, she gently placed the cup on the table, looking directly at Li Sangrou. “People like you do not deserve to start a family, do not deserve to be parents. None of you deserves it!”

“Yes,” Li Sangrou said, bowing slightly. “He did everything for himself; even that first fight where he was bleeding, it was for himself. You should do it for yourself, too.”

“I should do it for myself. I’ve lived this long not for him. He does not deserve it, none of you do.” Yan-niang stood up, looking at Li Sangrou, who had also stood up. “That fight, he did it for me.”

Yan-niang turned and walked out. Wei Fu glanced at Li Sangrou, lowered his head, and followed Yan-niang into the stable courtyard.

Li Sangrou watched the two of them enter and leave the courtyard, one after the other. She stood there for a moment, then sighed deeply.

She and they did not deserve to start a family and did not deserve to be parents. She had known all along that those were things she had long ago abandoned.