Especially in places she had visited before.
Hua Rongjian’s face immediately darkened. “Mei Shisi, you are… are…”
He couldn’t find the words to describe her!
After they finished the soup and chatted for a while, Wu Lingyuan returned with two jugs of wine.
“Would you like to have some wontons before drinking?” he asked.
The earlier bowl of soup had whetted their appetites. Hua Rongjian said, “Sure.”
Wu Lingyuan washed his hands and began to roll out the wonton wrappers and fill them. Despite his blindness, he worked quickly, wrapping twenty or thirty wontons in no time.
Noticing no one else around, Hua Rongjian couldn’t help asking, “Do you get any business here?”
Wu Lingyuan replied, “Yes, many boats dock here in the morning. I’m busy for about an hour each day.”
“No one causes trouble?” Hua Rongjian asked.
Wu Lingyuan put the wontons into the pot. “People here are simple and kind-hearted. I often teach the children to read. They frequently bring me food. No one would cause trouble.”
The local ruffians didn’t come to this poor area. He prepared a portion for An Jiu every day, and if she didn’t come, he would give it to the neighbors.
Two steaming bowls of wontons were served.
An Jiu took a bite and was surprised to find that Wu Lingyuan’s culinary skills were indeed excellent. The wontons were delicious and flavorful, with smooth and refreshing wrappers and meaty fillings that weren’t greasy but had a good texture.
Hua Rongjian finished one bowl and asked for another. His earlier worries were momentarily forgotten, and even the wine became an after-meal treat.
After eating, Hua Rongjian inquired further about Wu Lingyuan’s background.
It turned out that Wu Lingyuan was from a noble family of the Tang Dynasty. When Tang fell, his family moved south. Wu Lingyuan had come to the capital for the imperial examinations but unfortunately developed an eye disease and didn’t return home. His parents had long since passed away, so he decided to live out his days here.
Hua Rongjian sighed, “I’ll find a doctor to examine you tomorrow.”
Then he turned to ask An Jiu, “What about Doctor Mo?”
“He’s currently troubled by love,” An Jiu said.
Hua Rongjian asked with interest, “Which love affair?”
“Does he have many?” An Jiu raised an eyebrow.
“How would I know? That’s why I’m asking you!” Hua Rongjian scoffed.
Those who didn’t know Mo Sigui thought he was a divine doctor who saved lives. Those who knew him slightly believed he was indifferent and cold in matters of the heart. Only people like An Jiu knew what kind of person Mo Sigui truly was.
“He’s infatuated with a woman who doesn’t like him,” An Jiu said.
Hua Rongjian looked at her with disdain. “How boring.”
However, he believed that stripped of all the exciting details, what An Jiu said must be the truest account.
Having lost interest in this topic, Hua Rongjian dragged Wu Lingyuan off to go fishing.
An Jiu sat on the stool, watching Hua Rongjian’s back. She realized he had grown taller and thinner. Hua Rongjian was usually a very cheerful person, his smile like warm sunshine. Such a person shouldn’t become melancholic.
Thinking this, she suddenly felt some resentment towards Chu Dingjiang’s actions back then, but immediately found this feeling strange. With countless lives on her own hands, what right did she have to criticize Chu Dingjiang?
The two stayed at the wonton stall until sunset, then left along the riverbank carrying two jugs of wine.
“How about we fight?” Hua Rongjian suddenly suggested.
“Heh,” An Jiu squinted at the golden-red horizon. “You’d better stick to drowning your sorrows in wine. If we fought, I reckon tomorrow someone would find the second son of the Hua family’s body dumped in the river.”
“…”
Hua Rongjian sat down by the riverbank, opened a jug, and took a long drink.
An Jiu sat down beside him.
“Lu Danzhi said I’m not twenty-six years old,” Hua Rongjian wiped the wine from the corner of his mouth, resting one hand on the jug’s mouth as he turned to look at her. “I lost my memory as a child, supposedly due to illness. But considering various circumstances, I can’t help but suspect that the real Hua Rongjian died for some reason, and I was brought in as a replacement.”
An Jiu remained silent. The truth was close to his guess, but he would probably never guess that it was the real Hua Rongjian who had arranged it all.
She knew the truth but couldn’t tell Hua Rongjian. Seeing him like this, she couldn’t say anything.
“But I look very much like my elder and younger brothers, and my parents treat me well,” Hua Rongjian said, doubting his mother. She pampered him too much, unlike her strict treatment of his brothers. If he hadn’t been so spoiled from childhood, perhaps he wouldn’t have wasted his days as he did before. “Don’t mothers usually favor their youngest child? Why does Mother pamper me so?”
Lady Hua also doted on Hua Rongjun, but unlike with him, she often restrained Hua Rongjun. Before Lu Danzhi’s words, he had only felt that his mother loved him more than his two brothers, but now it seemed that might not be the case.
“Am I being unfilial for doubting my mother?” Hua Rongjian looked at her, his eyes reflecting the rippling waves, seeming about to overflow with tears.