Joy of Life

Fan Xian sat and thought about the news Teng Zijing had just told him at the Palace door. He felt very hurried. If he had known that his sister had returned to Jingdou, he wouldn’t have meddled in the business of the Great Prince taking on a Secondary fei. And, there would have been no thunder in the royal study. He would already be heading toward Danbo Bookstore.

Three months ago, he had received a letter from Ruoruo from Northern Qi. He knew that she had finally left Qing Mountain and was returning home. Fan Xian had been happy. Following his sister’s request in the letter, Wan’er carefully picked out a medical shop in a good location in Jingdou.

Unexpectedly, Wan’er had looked around and finally chose a location not far from the Imperial College and across from Danbo Bookstore. Fan Xian thought that this wasn’t bad. At least the three siblings could be said to have been neighbors once on the same street. He had not expected that Ruoruo would arrive before her letter said. Furthermore, according to Teng Zijing, she had actually stayed a little in the manor before excitedly rushing to the medical shop.

During these two years, Fan Ruoruo had managed all the miscellaneous matters on Qing Mountain through her status as Master Ku He’s last disciple. As a Qing person, and also as Fan Xian’s sister, it was difficult for her, even though she had the implicit consent of the Northern Qi royal family and Brother Disciple Lang Tiao’s support

Other than managing the sect, Fan Ruoruo would often go down the mountain and provide medical care to the poor Northern Qi people. Her fees were very low, and her skills were very high. She was also very well-known. Before long, the entire Northern Qi knew that there was another kind-hearted and benevolent female doctor from the Tianyi Dao Sect.

The talented girl had finally found her life goal. Once she found it, she became very dedicated. Otherwise, she would not have rushed right to the medical shop after returning to Jingdou and briefly stopping home to keep an eye on the proceedings.

Fan Xian rubbed between his brows and wondered whether his sister had become Bianque or magnificent? This was what he had been the most worried about.

…

…

People gathered in Dongchuan Street. The clamor was incredible. It was not a holiday, yet there were countless people surging in to see what was going on. Those who didn’t know probably thought there was a vaudeville troupe performing inside. Dongchuan Street was close to the Imperial College, so most of the people gathered around were young students. They stopped on tip-toes and stretched out their necks in hopes of seeing what the famous young lady of the Fan family looked like.

There were talents born in each generation. Four to five years ago, one of the talents was He Zongwei, who had since then entered the court as an official and was very popular. The other was Hou Jichang, who was far away in Jiaozhou and almost forgotten. As for the most famous girls in Jingdou, Ye Ling’er was far away in Qingzhou, and Lin Wan’er had become a wife and would never again be a topic of conversation at tea tables. Presently, the uncivilized young lady of the Wang family, the timid young lady of the He family, and the arrogance of a few of the royal family’s distant relatives were the hot topics within gossip circles.

To use a comment that Fan Xian once plagiarized to describe it: each generation was truly not as good as the last.

Fan Ruoruo was an exception. Back in the day, she had become famous in Jingdou as a talented poet. She was then greatly favored by the Imperial Academy of Medicine, accepted into Ku He’s sect, and obtained a very good reputation. How could the people of her home forget? At noon, she had shown her face in the medical shop and was recognized by a lecturer from the Imperial College. The news spread like wildfire and became the most sensational topic of the day.

Fan Xian lifted the curtain from his carriage window and furrowed his brows, looking angrily at the young scholars blockaded outside his bookstore and the yet unopened medical shop. He thought the people were being a bit too impetuous. His expression became unhappy.

Seeing his expression, Mu Feng’er said in a low and cold voice, “I will immediately have these people leave.”

Fan Xian did not comment. Teng Zijing quietly said, “I will go clear them out.” Only then did Fan Xian nod.

He had worked hard these years to maintain his clean status in the hearts of these scholars and had successfully washed away a lot of the Overwatch Council’s darkness. How could he allow Mu Feng’er to destroy this? No one knows what Teng Zijing said after getting off the carriage, but the pedestrians and scholars blocking Dongchuan Street immediately dissipated and emptied out a large area at the head of the street. The scholars all respectfully bowed toward the black carriage when they passed it before retreating silently.

It seemed these people knew who was in the carriage. They did not dawdle, particularly the scholars, who already saw Fan Xian as an idol. Fan Xian also held the position of professor in the Imperial College, so they did not dare hang around. To have the scholars lower their eyes and bend their backs when doing things proved Fan Xian was not just a powerful noble.

Dongchuan Street became silent. Fan Xian climbed down from the carriage. Pushing down the excitement in his heart, he walked with a slight smile into the medical shop across from the bookstore. He didn’t bother to see how well Wan’er had tidied the place up. His eyes focused straight ahead. Unexpectedly, he didn’t see Ruoruo’s face. He only saw a seemingly thin coat and a thin body.

Fan Ruoruo had not noticed the change outside the medical shop. She had come back to her senses and was crouching in the inner room tidying up the medical supplies. She had brought back some precious medicines from Qing Mountain that were rarely seen in the Qing Kingdom and was thinking about how they should be stored.

Hearing footsteps behind her, Fan Ruoruo didn’t rise and directly said, “We are not yet open. If it is not urgent, please come back in a few days.”

Hearing her voice, Fan Xian felt happy. Additionally, the heart of a doctor contained in those words made him involuntarily smile with satisfaction. Standing behind her, he said, “If I was truly sick, how could I wait for you to come back to cure me? Perhaps my own medical skills are bad?”

Hearing this familiar and also unfamiliar voice, Fan Ruoruo’s body trembled slightly. She immediately recovered her calm and rose. Standing with her back to Fan Xian, she tidied her clothing and slowly turned around. Leisurely greeting him, she said, “You are here.”

Although she was forcefully suppressing her emotions, her brows, eyes, and the arc of her lips all expressed the joy in her heart.

Seeing the joy on his sister’s face, Fan Xian’s heart twisted with a strange and unexpected grief. He looked dazedly at his sister, at the familiar face he had not seen in a few years and the familiar iciness between her brows that became the light warmth of three springs in front of him and sighed gently.

He took a step forward and gently stroked his sister’s head.

Ruoruo slightly lowered her head and habitually turned from side to side.

It was just like the spring of the fourth year of the Qing calendar, when Fan Xian had come to Jingdou for the first time and entered Count Sinan’s manor. The long-separated brother and sister only needed a few words and a small movement to brush away the unfamiliarity lost time had created. They once again returned to the situation of the lively monkey and sickly little monkey from many years ago, and sparse words sent across the world by way of wild geese.

Fan Xian found a chest and sat down. Looking at his still busy sister, he asked, “How come you arrived so early?”

“Didn’t you get back early?” Fan Ruoruo smiled and replied. Raising her arm, she pressed back the hair on her temples that had fanned out because of the sweat. “There were no delays on the road, so I got back a few days earlier.”

“You’ve come thousands of li down south, you should rest at home for a few days. The matters of the medical shop will be managed by your sister-in-law. You just have to worry about seeing patients. There is no need to worry about this.”

Fan Xian glanced at her with disapproval and found that although his sister was still very skinny, she seemed much more energetic. Perhaps it was because she often performed medical duties in rural and desolate places, her skin was darker. Even the layer of iciness often seen between her brows had gradually disappeared.

Although they often exchanged letters, he couldn’t look after her as well as if she had been by his side. Fan Xian blamed himself. He had single-handedly arranged her escape and leaving of the country. Looking at his sister, he sighed and didn’t know if she had lived well these past two years.

“The serving girls in the manor have changed a few times. I didn’t know a single person, so there wasn’t even someone to talk to. I sat doing nothing in the Flower Hall for a while. I decided to come have a look at the bookstore. Who would have thought that the place sister-in-law picked was right across.” Very naturally, Fan Ruoruo pulled her brother up so that he wouldn’t damage her chest with the medicine. “If this medicine gets sat on by your butt, how will other people use it?”

“Do you know who I am? I am the immortal poet. If it gets out, people will probably come just for this chest of medicine.” Fan Xian joked. He then said with surprise. “Where is your sister-in-law? Where’s Sisi?”

Minister Fan and Lady Liu had returned to Danzhou for their retirement and had taken away half the serving girls and servants in the manor. Added to the fact that the country estate needed helpers and serving girls married out after they grew up, in just a few years, the entire Fan manor had become rather foreign to Fan Ruoruo.

Fan Xian felt this acutely. He thought to himself that even Si Qi, that sleep-loving serving girl, had become the wife of a county magistrate. In just a few years, Jingdou had changed a lot. He hoped Ruoruo wouldn’t feel too uncomfortable.

“Sister-in-law and Sisi took the Teng family to the country estate.” Fan Ruoruo glanced at him curiously, as if not understanding why he was asking such a stupid question. “I had only just come into the capital with Teng Zijing today. Of course, I haven’t run into them.”

All large families and clans had their own country estates and woods outside of Jingdou, especially a large clan like the Fans. In the past, Fan Xian often played in these country estates. He had not remembered they were entering winter. It was time to prepare for the end of the year. The present manager of the Fan family property, Lin Wan’er and her helper, Sisi, had to feel rushed off their feet.

He rubbed his head between his brows painfully and said, “You coming back is a major event. No matter how busy you are, you should have waited in the manor.”

Fan Ruoruo glanced at him and said without good humor, “You and I both got back three days early, who can calculate it that well?”

Fan Xian dusted off his bottom and rose. Smiling widely, he said, “I can at least calculate that you’re probably hungry.”

…

…

The front and back residences of the Fan manor had been connected, the garden had changed its appearance, and even the people living in it were not the same.

Fan Xian was still used to living in the new residence with Wan’er and Sisi, so the old residence his father had lived in was not empty. Servants had long cleaned and tidied Ruoruo’s old room so it looked just the way it had before. Fan Ruoruo followed Fan Xian through the door, remembering the dozen years she had spent in Jingdou. Her eyes grew red.

Fan Xian was one who could not bear to see women cry, other than his already dead mother-in-law. He quickly took Ruoruo to the Flower Hall. There was no one in the manor. The brother and sister sat across from each other, cheering each other with wine. They ate with relish. They talked about their lives after they parted ways. It was delightful. When they spoke of the Jingdou rebellion, Ruoruo became worried. When speaking of the loneliness and the gazes of the Northern Qi people on Qing Mountain, Fan Xian’s eyes became angry.

“How is brother doing over there?” Fan Xian put down his wine cup and asked. Fan Sizhe was still handling the Northern properties. Although the two brothers constantly exchanged letters and communicated through secret reports, he still habitually asked. Only from his sister’s words did Fan Xian learn that Fan Sizhe’s life had also been a bit difficult in the North. Although the Northern Qi royal family had not openly meddled, they had used some unremarkably little tricks in secret.

Fan Xian thought deeply for a moment then said, “A jade needs to be cut to be of use. The Northern Qi Emperor will not turn hostile for now. Let him stay there.”

During these two years, Fan Sizhe had returned to Jingdou twice. The spring festival in the ninth year of the Qing calendar had been spent in Danzhou. The Fan family was forcibly separated by the world, so it was difficult to get together. Each time he thought this, Fan Xian became unhappy.

The Emperor would not allow him to quit his post at such a tense time. His father also should not continue staying in Jingdou. It was better for him to stay in Danzhou to look after grandmother than be constantly worried about ending up in an unfortunate situation.

Fan Ruoruo nodded. There was not a trace of doubt in her heart toward her brother’s words. Regardless of whether it was younger brother or herself, it was only under their elder brother’s arrangements that they were able to have a life completely different from that of normal nobility. A life that was rich and substantial.

“Rest for today. We can talk properly tomorrow. Now that Lao Wang is not here, there are many things I have no one to speak to.” Fan Xian muttered these words indistinctly and vented some of his rare gloominess. Other than Lin Da Bao and Wang Qinian, the only suitable conversation partners he had in the world were Uncle Wu Zhu and his sister, who had been majorly influenced by him.

Fan Xian could even say greatly treasonous things to these four people. The problem was that Da Bao was too simple and could not comment afterward, Wang Qinian had run off, Uncle Wu Zhu had escaped, and his sister was not present. But, she had finally come back.

This kind of feeling was good. Fan Xian found it difficult to suppress his joy. No one knows how much alcohol he had drank. He would not take the sobering pill. Taking advantage of the alcohol, he sprawled across the table and entered his dreams.

Fan Ruoruo looked at her intoxicated brother and shook her head helplessly. She ordered the servants to carry him back to his room and personally tucked him in. She tidied his jet black hair and carefully pulled out the few silver needles in his hair, just like when he had gotten injured during his grand wedding a few years ago.

Returning to her room, Fan Ruoruo looked at the slender needles reflecting in various colors in her hand and couldn’t help but smile slightly. She thought to herself that her sister-in-law should know of these poisonous needles. Were they not afraid of something going wrong when they were being intimate? Did they have to remove them each night?

She immediately realized that she shouldn’t have been thinking about this problem and quickly put the thin needles away in a box as she secret blushed red. They were Fan Xian’s final line of defense. It had been the two of them who had personally made them in the back residence of the manor, so she knew how to deal with them.

The room was old. The blankets were new. The person was old, and the thoughts were old. Fan Ruoruo sat quietly by the table and looked out at the garden through the window. She thought about her brother’s earlier intoxicated joy and became lost in thought. From their conversation, she knew that although things had been going smoothly in Jingdou, there was always an indescribable and inexplicable pressure that made it difficult for him to open up.

She sighed and threw on a jacket. She then walked out of the room to stroll under the moonlight of former times in the garden. In the room behind her, the almost extinguished candlelight sought out the shadows to recount how bright its dreams were. The moonlight on her body was the same as in the past, but why was it making her feel increasingly panicked as she looked at it?

Fan Ruoruo knew that all of this was a fabrication. Putting aside whether or not her thoughts would be tolerated in this world, most importantly, from many years ago, her brother had become used to looking after her like a child. A benevolent character at heart, she had never had such thoughts.

She involuntarily gave a tart and helpless smile and thought quietly to herself that she should quickly start up the medical shop. There were still so many pitiful people that needed her help in the world. Why should she bother thinking about her childish thoughts that were difficult to speak of in this early winter scene?

Once her thoughts were focused on business affairs, even the moonlight spilling on her delicate appearance appeared more at peace. Years of living in the North had changed her aura greatly. There was no longer a kind of indifference in her peacefulness. Instead, there was a calmness ready to take what comes.

…

…

Lin Wan’er and everyone else, who had received the message, hurried back from the country estate. The meeting between the aunt and sister-in-law was another wave of warmth. Particularly after seeing her niece and nephew, Fan Ruoruo was overjoyed.

This joyous and harmonious family was already an oddity among the large families in Jingdou. However, this kind of atmosphere could not last for long. Fan Ruoruo was anxious to open the medical shop, and the Palace wanted Fan Xian to bring Ruoruo in to see the Emperor.

Naturally, there was someone to take care of the affairs of the medical shop. Seeing the Emperor only took a day. However, the second generation of the Fan manor did not have a spare moment. Fan Ruoruo had gone to study in Qing Mountain for many years. It was her first time back to the capital, so there were many elders and relatives she had to visit.

The first stop was, without question, King Jing’s manor. In the past, such visits were common. However, Fan Ruoruo had almost became King Jing’s daughter-in-law and later been sent by Fan Xian to Northern Qi Ku He’s sect. These few years, King Jing had not forgotten the matter and sighed long and loud when he saw Fan Xian. The situation between the two families was slightly awkward. When Fan Ruoruo knew she had to go the manor, she couldn’t help but feel slightly uneasy.

“What is there to be uneasy about?” Fan Xian looked at his sister’s expression. He thought of Hongcheng’s self-exile to Dingzhou. His heart jumped slightly. He wasn’t sure if he had done the right or wrong thing back then. He managed to force a smile and said, “When it’s New Year, Hongcheng is also coming back to the capital. Are you going to hide from him for a lifetime?”