Nightfall

The snow had not melted completely and the wind was still chilly. Although spring had not yet arrived, its fragrant smell had begun to spread throughout the streets of Chang’an. More than 10 girls, who were as beautiful as flowers, giggling and pointing at the street scene, had attracted numerous passersby.

Those girls all wore light-colored cardigan skirts, with broad, long, and gorgeous belts tied above their waists. Because of its unique style, the well-informed Chang’an residents quickly figured out they were from the Great River Kingdom.

The Tang Empire and the Great River Kingdom had a good relationship for generations, so the people from those two countries naturally felt intimate toward each other. However, because of the long distance between the two countries, chances for Chang’an people to see anyone from the Great River Kingdom became increasingly rare. Today, when they unexpectedly saw so many delicate-looking girls from the Great River Kingdom and the style of their skirts, some elders could not help sighing.

They recalled the queen of the Great River Kingdom, who concealed her identity when studying in Chang’an during the years of the Kaihua era. They began to tell the youngsters about that bitter love between the queen and the emperor of the Tang.

But those youngsters of the Tang were even more excited. They stood under the eaves along the street, waving at those girls from the Great River Kingdom earnestly, shouting, “Welcome to Chang’an.” Those who were braver even caught up with the group, running beside the girls and asking for their names and addresses.

Although the Great River Kingdom admired the Tang, girls from the country were well-known for their gentleness and virtuousness. Previously, when they entered the city, they were giggling about Osmanthus Cake and the Wildgoose Temple. But later, they calmed down, thus feeling ashamed, blushing because of their loss of composure. Now, when being chased by those youngsters of the Tang who constantly asked for their names, they felt even shyer and all lowered their heads.

Cat Girl looked at a young master, who was running beside her horse while gasping, and the undisguised joy and excitement in his eyes. She felt rather shy and buried her little face into the furry collar, thinking to herself, “I’m so young, what are you rushing for?”

Seeing that they were so warmly welcomed by the people of Chang’an, Mo Shanshan, who had formerly felt uneasy, now smiled. She put the curtain down and began to refresh her spirit by closing her eyes. Her sparse and long eyelashes slightly fluttered, as if her uneasiness had vanished. But why she was so anxious?

Ning Que moved to her side, lifted up the curtain, and looked out.

Most of the students of the Academy that had been practicing at the frontier fortress had come back to Chang’an with him. The rapid march over the previous days was really too harsh for them, especially Zhong Da Jun, who was at the end of the pack with a pale face and was much thinner than before. He was in such a trance and looked as if he would probably fall off the horse at any time.

Ning Que was quite clear about why he was in such a state. Back then, before he pretended to be Zhong Da Jun and went with the team of Mo Shanshan to the depths of the Wilderness, he had enjoined others to imprison Zhong Da Jun. Later, when his real identity was unveiled in the palace, that matter had totally escaped from his memory. So Zhong Da Jun was not released until he had left Tuyang City. It could be predicted that he had suffered a lot during the past six months.

Definitely, Ning Que was far from being upright, but he had the least sense of guilt toward Zhong Da Jun, who was absolutely vicious. So he did not want to bother with him and whistled toward the front.

Hearing that whistle, Situ Yilan rode up to the side of the horse carriage. During the past six months, she had led her classmates, fought wisely, bravely, and severely with grassland barbarians and the allied forces at Blue Water Battalion, and won a stellar reputation among the army. But her flower-like face had withered because of the hardship that she had experienced, and she was covered with dirt all over because of the thousands of miles that they had traveled. So, she could not help looking a little disheveled.

Ning Que looked at her and said, “Come to my house later, I’ll treat you to noodles.”

“When did you become generous?” Situ Yilan replied angrily, and then she pointed at her dirty face, saying, “When I was on the battlefield, I didn’t care about these things. But now that I’m back in Chang’an, don’t you think you should give me some time to freshen myself up first? Don’t forget, I’m a girl!”

Ning Que pretended to be surprised, “I thought that a female general couldn’t be called a girl.”

Situ Yilan assumed a posture to punch him, so he hurriedly put down the curtain and hid behind Mo Shanshan.

Mo Shanshan opened her eyes and smiled at him, saying nothing.

Those who had returned after finishing the practice of the Academy were, of course, solemnly welcomed by the Imperial Court. Moreover, there were girls from Black Ink Garden of the Great River Kingdom that arrived together with them, so some officials of the Ministry of Rites were also present. Naturally, Ning Que had no patience to sit through this whole procedure, so he asked for the agreement of the Eldest Brother and Mo Shanshan, and then departed from them on Vermilion Bird Avenue. His carriage went directly to Eastern City.

After a short while, Lin 47th Street was before his eyes. Ning Que jumped down from the horse carriage, looking at the familiar sight of the street and the gray wall, as well as the tree propping out of the courtyard of the previous warehouse of the Ministry of Revenue. He took a deep breath, feeling extremely satisfied. During the past six months, he had missed his armchair, the fragrance of ink, the well water, the chicken soup, the noodle soup, the noodles with fried eggs, and the banknotes under the bed very much. Today, he could finally embrace all that again. How wonderful it was!

Suddenly, he saw a black horse carriage parked beside the shop. He kept silent for a while when he saw the complicated lines on the carriage. He nodded at the horse carriage, and then walked on the stone steps and pushed open the door of the Old Brush Pen Shop.

…

…

Inside the shop, Chen Pipi and Sangsang had finished playing three rounds of chess and were having noodles.

Sangsang did not like playing chess nor gambling. But now that someone forcibly sent her silver, she could only bite the bullet to play chess with him under his insistence. When those newly printed notes with the fragrance of ink fell into her hands, she gradually forgot about the sorrow and loneliness that the death of those two old men had brought her and the disappointment the Grand Secretary couple had given her. She felt much better now, so she broke the rules and made two bowls of vegetable noodles for Chen Pipi and herself.

Just at this moment, the door was pushed open with a creak. Sangsang was holding the bowl with her head lowered, sucking the noodles into her mouth. She silently thought, “Perhaps there is something wrong with the bottom of the pivot, I’ll have to find some time to repair it.”

But suddenly, she felt that something was strange because the steps were so familiar, so she could not help raising her head.

How could Sangsang continue eating noodles after seeing that guy? With white noodles still dangling from her lips, she grinned as her willow-like eyes narrowed, foolishly smiling with a mouth full of food. She spoke with a lisp, “Ning Que…”

Ning Que smiled at her with his eyes scrunched up, which looked like crescent moons that did not exist in this world.

Suddenly, Sangsang found there were others behind Ning Que—one being a scholar, and the other, a girl wearing a white skirt. The girl was beautiful, with a particularly lovely round face.

Sangsang immediately realized that her mouth was filled with noodles, so her face must have looked plump and definitely not as beautiful as the girl’s. Somehow, she was flustered.

She hurriedly put down the bowl, and quickly sucked the noodles hanging from her lips into her mouth. But she nearly choked herself on the noodles. While coughing, she said softly, “Young master, you are back!”

Then she lowered her head to look at the tip of her shoes, not saying anything else.

Mo Shanshan silently stood beside Ning Que, but withdrew a little bit.

She was somewhat happy, eager, and uneasy when invited by the Eldest Brother of the Academy to visit Chang’an. But one could not find such emotions on her peaceful and indifferent face. She knew why she was uneasy. Sometimes, she even wondered if her expectation of being in Chang’an was actually her expectation about Ning Que, or his little handmaiden.

Following Ning Que, she entered the Old Brush Pen Shop and saw the little handmaiden eating noodles on the wooden bench. The first time that she saw her, she knew that this was the person she had wanted to see. That little handmaiden was Sangsang.

The Sangsang that appeared at the very beginning of the Chicken Soup Calligraphy.

The Sangsang that Ning Que always mentioned.

During the summer nights, Mo Shanshan had scanned over the Chicken Soup Calligraphy beside the Ink Lake numerous times, so she was clearer than others, even Ning Que, about what absolute trust and intimacy were hidden in those disordered strokes of that handmaiden’s name. So, she had been wondering what kind of handmaiden Sangsang was.

In the grassland palace, she said that she liked the Big Black Horse of Ning Que. In the Snow Fields, she said that she liked the calligraphy of Ning Que. And finally, when she was almost dying at the Front Gate of the Devil’s Doctrine, she calmly said what she liked was not only the horse and the calligraphy, but also Ning Que.

At that time, she thought that she would die, so she just followed her heart to say so. Yet, she did not die in the end, and what she had said could not be withdrawn now. So, she was convinced that she really liked Ning Que, and was even more eager to see Sangsang.

But she felt a bit surprised when she actually saw Sangsang today. Because the girl was not the usual beautiful handmaiden that one would often see on the streets, but just a darkish, thin, and ordinary girl. She had not totally grown up because of her young age. In addition, when she held onto the big bowl and smiled with noodles hanging from her mouth, no one could have any other feeling than pity for her.

Facing such a little handmaiden, Mo Shanshan felt that her previous assumption and even her uneasiness before arriving in Chang’an had gone to extremes. So, she felt a bit ashamed and silently lowered her head after blankly looking at Sangsang for some time. She was now looking at the tip of her shoes and did not say anything else.

It looked a bit ridiculous seeing both Sangsang and Shanshan looking at the tip of their shoes, and the Old Brush Pen Shop was shrouded in a strange atmosphere.

Ning Que was immersed in the happiness of seeing Sangsang again, so he did not even notice it. As for the Eldest Brother, although he appeared to look up and down at the displays in the shop and seemed to have noticed nothing at all, he actually slightly sighed in his heart.

Sangsang suddenly emerged from her daze with an “Ah!” and said in a flurry, “I will pour tea for the guests.”

She bowed to the others, took her bowl from the table, snatched the other one from Chen Pipi, who was also in a state of shock, and hurriedly went into the backyard.

Ning Que was surprised when seeing her little figure vanish behind the curtain.“Although she is as busy as before, after such a long time of not seeing each other, why didn’t she come to hug me?”

…

…

Whether he had noodles in his mouth or not, Chen Pipi always appeared to be chubby, with a face that was even more round than Mo Shanshan’s.

He did not realize what was happening until Sangsang snatched his bowl as quickly as a whirlwind. Seeing the scholar, who was holding his hands behind his back, he quickly sucked the noodles into his tummy, dashed behind him, and made a deep bow, saying respectfully, “Greetings, Eldest Brother!”

The Eldest Brother turned back, and could not help smiling at his serious posture. He shook his head and slowly said, “Pipi, you are not the Youngest Brother of the back of the mountain anymore, you should behave…”

Hardly had he finished his words when Chen Pipi open his arms and hugged him. He said joyously and sadly, “Senior Brother, finally you are back! No one knows where the Headmaster has gone off to have fun now, and then nobody could control Second Brother. He was so dominant and forced us to study ancient etiquette. The Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters were angry, but didn’t dare to go against him. Eleventh Senior Brother was almost driven crazy and inserted cotton into his mouth as long as he could find any. So, you should take charge of the situation!”