Fish Meat – Chapter 258

The Fifth Year of Guangxing

Unofficial Histories (1)​¹

In the summer of the fifth year of Guangxing, which was also the fourth year of Baokang​² in Changge, the Weishui Canal​³ was completed.

            

The canal was ten zhang​⁴ high and six zhang wide, spanning the entire Weishui River. It could irrigate below and allow passage for horses and carriages above, a truly magnificent sight.

A giant horse-drawn carriage passed over it, driven by a woman.

The woman wore a conical bamboo hat to shield her from the sun, a whip in her hand. As she crossed the Weishui Canal, she saw many pedestrians stopped on both sides of the road, leaning on wooden railings that reached their shoulders, letting out cries of surprise from time to time.

            

Curious, the woman pulled the carriage to the side, dismounted, and walked into the crowd to look down. She saw a vast expanse of green terraced fields, like a monumental landscape painting, spread out before her. Water cascaded down, occasionally kicking up refreshing spray that invigorated the spirit.

Ah Qin had traveled to many places over the years. From remote cliffs and secluded valleys to fields stretching as far as the eye could see, from the Central Plains to foreign lands​⁵, she had left the footprints of Qingyuan. Indeed, she had encountered many spectacular places that had truly opened her eyes. She hadn’t expected this giant canal, standing between Da Cang and the Changge Kingdom, to still leave her marveling in awe.

The location chosen for the Weishui Canal was quite ingenious, right between the two countries.

            

The endlessly rushing Weishui River flowed beneath it. With the canal as the boundary, the south belonged to Da Cang and the north to Changge. Both banks were endlessly irrigated, and pedestrians, horses, and carriages frequently passed by. Checkpoints were set up at both ends on the southern side, and commoners entered using household registration talismans or passage documents.

Besides the border citizens of the two countries who often came here for leisure and sightseeing, a dedicated corridor was also opened for the caravans of the Path of Ten Thousand Direction to pass through. Whenever a caravan passed, the cloth curtains of the carriages would be rolled up, and the people inside would eagerly poke their heads out to look, exclaiming in amazement.

“Ah Qin, don’t stand so close to the edge, it’s too dangerous.”

            

Ah Zheng stood on the carriage, calling to Ah Qin like an old mother hen. Only then did Ah Qin reluctantly return.

“I’d long heard how impressive the Weishui Canal was. Seeing its majestic and grand state today, it seems even more imposing than the Nanguai Dam​⁶ in Fandi​⁷.” Ah Qin’s face was still alight with excitement when she returned to the Qingyuan carriage. Ah Zheng used a handkerchief to wipe the beads of water from her forehead.

“Look at you, still like a little maiden.”

            

“She is, she is!” Ah He chimed in from the side. “I used to think she was pretty formidable, that little glare of hers could eat someone alive!”

Ah Qin asked her, “And now?”

“Now?” Ah He squinted and hummed twice. “Do I even need to say more? Just confess honestly, did you sneakily eat the rainbow candy I bought in Changge?”

            

“I did not!”

“It was you! Who else loves candy as much as you do? Never without candy in your mouth all day, aren’t you afraid of ruining your teeth!”

Just then, someone confessed.

            

“It was me! I ate it!” Ah Liao sat on a tiger-skin rug, holding a little divine dragon in her left arm, her right hand raised straight up, craning her neck.

“Aiya, Ah Liao, don’t move!” two young women sitting behind her warned, holding her hair.

“Oh…”

            

“Just like that, sit still, or your hair will get pulled later.” One young woman said to the other, “Look, it’s like this, divide the hair into three strands, overlap these two strands here, and wrap the other strand over the top, yes, yes, yes, a little looser, we’ll need to tie another knot later.”

Seeing her sitting upright and still, listening obediently and earnestly, Ah He found her quite adorable and couldn’t resist coming over to pinch her cheek. “So it was you, you little glutton, who sneakily ate it.”

Ah Liao, keeping her head still, only moved her eyes, looking both clever and mischievous. “How is our Ah He-jiejie so smart, wouldn’t you say? There are thousands of kinds of candy in that candy shop, yet Jiejie bought none other than the most delicious one. How could anyone resist that? I resisted for several shichen but really couldn’t hold back anymore, so I ate it all. Is Jiejie going to blame me for it?”

            

Ah He was actually two years younger than Ah Liao, but this string of “Jiejie” calls melted Ah He’s heart. How could she truly blame her?

“Tonight…” Ah He tapped Ah Liao’s head and whispered in her ear, “you serve Jiejie well.”

Ah Liao stiffened for a moment, then nodded obediently. She had been on guard for so long, but finally, she hadn’t managed to fend it off. With that nod, her hair was tugged, and tears of pain welled up in her eyes.

            

Qingyuan had once been severely imbalanced, and Ah Liao understood it was all her own fault. But she couldn’t bear to part with any of her confidantes, and the young women in Qingyuan were all deeply in love; she didn’t want to let anyone down. Especially, the death of Ah Xu served as a constant warning bell in her heart: she must not make the same mistake again.

However, anyone can be negligent at times, especially in polyamorous relationships.

Was there truly a way to make the young women of Qingyuan more harmonious?

            

Ah Liao had agonized over it and wrote a letter to the Son of Heaven of Da Cang, who was also her childhood sweetheart​⁸, hoping this genius​⁹ could point her to a path.

The Son of Heaven, truly worthy of the title, pointed out a soul-stirring path.

This emperor who had shattered a chaotic era with her sword, offered a “bright path” in the letter. Ah Liao spread the letter open, finished reading it in one glance, and her face turned blacker than charcoal.

            

Ah Zheng was beside her, reading it with her. After they finished, they looked at each other. Ah Zheng gazed at Ah Liao’s beautiful face, her throat bobbing secretly.

“Ah Zheng, you…”

“I, I’ll go out first.”

            

Ah Zheng silently closed the door and went to the Qingyuan main hall. Ah Liao sat in the “Elegant Bamboo Mountain Spring”​¹⁰, with a clear stream flowing by her feet and lush green bamboo around her, while she felt like a rigid stone amidst the clear spring and green bamboo.

What kind of rotten idea had Tingxu come up with? Even just thinking about that scene made Ah Liao’s inner thighs ache.

Terrifying!

            

But…

“Ah Zheng-jiejie, why is your face so red?” Ah Xi was helping her sisters sew winter hand warmers. Seeing Ah Zheng walk out of the room with flushed cheeks, she thought she was ill and asked.

Ah Zheng helped her tidy up the needle and thread, her eyes flickering as she stammered about Ah Liao’s predicament and what Wei Tingxu had said in the letter.

            

“Offering flowers? Offering what flowers? To whom are flowers being offered?” Ah Xi didn’t understand what Wei Tingxu’s “offering flowers” meant at first and blurted it out shamelessly. Ah Zheng quickly made a “shh” gesture.

Several young women passing by glanced at them curiously.

Ah Xi suddenly understood, quickly covering her reddened face. She pondered for a moment, her face like a peach blossom, eyes full of anticipation, and let out a low “Wow,” saying, “Really? I’ve been wanting this for a long time!”

            

Ah Zheng: “…Young Master​¹¹ hasn’t decided yet.”

“But how will Ah Liao manage? Won’t her body be overwhelmed?”

“Ah Xi, Young Master hasn’t dec…”

            

“I know.” Ah Xi wasn’t listening to Ah Zheng at all, already earnestly planning her own part. “Before, Ah Liao was responsible for ‘gathering nectar​¹²,’ so of course, she couldn’t manage. But if she’s ‘offering flowers’ now, having several people play together at once, it wouldn’t be a problem.”

Ah Zheng: “…What am I hearing!”

It was well known in Qingyuan that Ah Xi was mischievous and unconventional. No one expected her independent streak to be so broad as to forge a new path so boldly in matters of the bedchamber​¹³.

            

Ah He and Ah Xi were the closest. Wei Tingxu’s method quickly reached Ah He’s ears. Ah He immediately became impassioned, wishing she could tie Ah Liao up and implement it swiftly. Ah Liao hadn’t expected that the young women of Qingyuan, who all seemed so well-read and refined, pure and innocent, would, upon hearing those two words from Wei Tingxu, transform all of Qingyuan into a pack of wolves and tigers, tinged with an ambiguous peach-pink hue.

Ah Liao was tormented for several days. Her waist wasn’t a waist, her arms weren’t arms; she was dizzy and felt that everyone she saw had a look of ill intent in their eyes, either pondering new positions or thinking about the sisters’ order of precedence. There were even two eighteen-year-old maidens, newly joined to Qingyuan, whose boundless energy nearly dismantled Ah Liao.

How had she, the Dongchun Flower-Appreciating Virtuoso​¹⁴, fallen to such a state?

            

It was all Wei Tingxu’s fault.

On the way back to Boling, Ah Liao had already decided: when she saw Wei Tingxu, she absolutely had to have a good, long talk with her about how she came up with such a rotten idea.

Ah Liao was scared, truly scared. Now, if Ah He even smiled at her, she wanted to curl up and shrink into a corner.

            

After entering Boling, Qingyuan galloped along the main thoroughfare.

Both sides of the avenue were lined with taverns and butcher shops, bustling with voices and excitement. Foreign merchants​¹⁵ and missionaries from other lands brushed past each other. Pretty young women riding horses for leisure, handsome young men in tight, narrow skirts, and many commoners attending flower fairs​¹⁶… Ah Liao observed that the liveliness of Boling was no less than that of Yudu City’s Runing before the famine. However, unlike Runing, Boling possessed a unique charm: no matter what kind of person you were, you could find your own place in this prosperous city. Even when she was in foreign lands, she had heard the Hu people’s​¹⁷ evaluation of Boling; they called Boling “Tusitan”​¹⁸, meaning “Splendid and Free.”

Soon, they entered Shuyuan. An Inner Army Commandant personally came to receive Ah Liao, settling Qingyuan into the palace, to wait for the Son of Heaven in Haishu Courtyard​¹⁹.

            

Today happened to be the morning court session, and all the officials were gathered in Chonghua Hall, discussing state affairs.

Ah Liao had long heard that the Son of Heaven of Da Cang was pragmatic and diligent in governance. Although she didn’t hold morning court every day, the assembly held once every five days was sure to last from sunrise to sunset. Coincidentally, there was a spacious pool in Haishu Courtyard, so Ah Liao let the Qingyuan young women have a good swim while waiting for the Son of Heaven’s summons.

As the evening sun melted into the horizon, Wei Tingxu arrived herself.

            

The announcement “The Son of Heaven arrives!” had barely faded when Wei Tingxu, changed into casual attire, walked like a gust of wind between two rows of armored guards to stand before Ah Liao.

“Greetings, Your Majesty!” Ah Liao and the others knelt to perform the salutation. Wei Tingxu bade them dispense with the formalities. The guards stood watch in the courtyard, while she and Ah Liao went inside for a private talk.

It had been five years since Ah Liao left Boling with her young women in the first year of Guangxing. During these five years, she had written many letters to Wei Tingxu and sent back quite a few local specialties and gifts, but she hadn’t had the chance to actually return for a visit. Now that the close friends were reunited, their eyes reddened a little as they looked at each other.

            

“Let me have a good look at Your Majesty.” Ah Liao sighed. “Your Majesty hasn’t changed at all. Your Majesty, oh Your Majesty, did you secretly eat some immortal pill[ef? Why don’t you age?”

Reunited with an old friend, the first thing was a round of heartfelt praise. Wei Tingxu’s lips couldn’t help but curve upwards as she carefully sized up Ah Liao. “Young Master Liao hasn’t changed much either. However, with these rosy cheeks and clear, bright eyes, it looks like there’s some great joyous occasion.”

How could Ah Liao not hear the teasing in those words? If she hadn’t mentioned it, Ah Liao would have almost forgotten. She pointed at Wei Tingxu and shook her head. “I was just about to settle accounts with Your Majesty!”

            

“Oh? What has Zhen done?” Wei Tingxu gently lifted the hem of her long skirt, settled comfortably onto a soft couch, and squinted with a smile, waiting for Ah Liao to slowly pour out her grievances.

Ah Liao recounted everything that had happened after her “offering flowers” strategy. Between close confidantes​²⁰, nothing was left unsaid; all the private and embarrassing details were laid bare for her to savor and reflect upon properly. Wei Tingxu couldn’t help but cover her face and laugh, completely unable to stop.

“Your Majesty is still laughing! Do you know how much I’ve suffered these days! Even when my Ah Mu forced me to practice martial arts as a child, I never endured such torment!”

            

“But Ah Liao, do you truly find it bitter?” Wei Tingxu asked seriously.

Ah Liao pondered, then savored the thought. Who knows what came to her mind, but she grinned mischievously. “Finding joy in bitterness.”

Wei Tingxu clicked her tongue, shaking her head. Ah Liao suddenly leaned forward, her voice mysterious. “Your Majesty is truly possessed of divine foresight.”

            

“Divine foresight?”

“There really is a joyous occasion.” Saying this, Ah Liao took out a small white porcelain bottle from her sleeve, dangled it in front of Wei Tingxu, her expression even more mischievous. “Can Your Majesty guess why I specifically returned to Boling this time? And what is contained in this bottle?”

Ah Liao smiled, excited and mysterious. Wei Tingxu thought for a moment. “Could it be…”

            

“That’s right!” Ah Liao declared with full confidence. “It’s exactly that thingamajig you’re thinking of! Where is Wenjun-meimei? Quickly have her show herself and try it!”

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