Chapter 14: An Old Acquaintance from the Past

Chapter 14: An Old Acquaintance

In the seventh year of Jinghe, a year before Yan Fengan would pass the imperial exam and earn his *xiucai* title, it was the Qingming Festival. It was customary in the Great Zhou Dynasty to observe this holiday with tomb sweeping, ancestor worship, and spring outings. To mark the occasion, the academy students got three days off every year at this time.

When Yan Fengan returned from the county town, he spotted the hillsides in the distance covered in blooming flowers of every color. On a sudden whim, he got off the ox cart and wandered along the mountain path behind the village, hoping to enjoy this rare and beautiful sight.

When he reached Peach Tree Gully, he suddenly saw a half-grown boy darting among the wild fruit trees. The spot was secluded and quiet, so seeing another person there genuinely startled him. He thought it might be some mountain spirit or monster straight out of the books he'd read, but on closer look, it turned out to be just a beggar kid.

The beggar was very thin, and his clothes—who knew where he'd found them—were decent material but didn't fit, hanging off him like empty sacks. He stood under a peach tree, picking at the bark with both hands, and from time to time stuffing something into his mouth.

This wasn't peach season, so the only edible thing on the tree was probably the peach gum it secreted.

Yan Fengan was curious and wanted to go over and talk to him, but he was afraid that suddenly showing up might scare the kid. Just as he was hesitating over whether to approach, the beggar boy heard his footsteps with sharp ears and jerked his head up.

He saw a thin, dirty face with slightly jutting cheekbones and a pointed chin. But his apricot-shaped eyes were bright, full of wariness and vigilance.

Every time Yan Fengan stepped forward, the beggar boy backed away. When Yan Fengan stopped, the boy stopped too. This left Yan Fengan unsure what to do.

The two of them stood there in silence, locked in a standoff for a few breaths, until Yan Fengan finally couldn't take it anymore and pulled two steamed buns out of his cloth bundle.

He'd bought them in town but hadn't had a chance to eat them on the ox cart. Might as well give them to this beggar kid.

Yan Fengan held the buns out and asked, "Want one?"

The beggar boy looked at the buns, swallowed, but didn't move.

Yan Fengan slowly walked closer, stopping only when the buns were within the boy's reach. "Go ahead and eat," he said. "I don't want your money, and I don't want anything back."

The boy looked at the buns, then at him. Seeing that his eyes were clear and his expression gentle, the boy's wariness eased a little. He licked his dry lips, reached out, took one bun, and took a small bite.

Clearly, he knew all too well how it felt to choke. Even though he was starving, he didn't wolf it down. Yan Fengan watched him eat bite by bite, then handed him the second bun when he finished.

Having already eaten one, the boy didn't bother with false modesty over the second. He chewed faster.

After swallowing the last bite, he suddenly knelt in front of Yan Fengan, kowtowed, and said hoarsely, "Thank you."

Yan Fengan helped him up and said, "It was just two steamed buns—hardly worth you kneeling and kowtowing. Don't you know a man's knees are made of gold?"

The boy just looked at him and shook his head.

"It means a real man doesn't kneel before just anyone." Yan Fengan reached out to brush the dust off his knees, then took out a handkerchief to wipe the crumbs from the corner of his mouth, and cleaned his face a little too.

It was only then that he realized this beggar child was a *ge'er*—a male omega.

The red mole on the boy's forehead was faint and not very obvious, but if you looked closely, you could still see it.

Yan Fengan stepped back a little to create some distance and asked, "What's your name? Which village are you from?"

The boy didn't hide anything. He said quietly, "Wen Xi, from Daoxiang Village."

"Huh? You're from Daoxiang Village too? How come I don't remember you at all?" Yan Fengan thought for a moment, then said, "Are you one of Wen Shishan's kids?"

Wen Xi nodded.

"That explains it. I'm Yan Sanlang, Carpenter Yan's son from the west end of the village. Our families live far apart, and when I go to town for school, I don't go past your place. So it's not easy to run into each other."

After he turned ten, Yan Fengan's parents had sent him to the academy in town. Apart from his days off, he rarely walked around the village, and Wen Xi was several years younger, so it wasn't strange they'd never met.

He asked again, "Do you know which *xi* your name uses?"

Wen Xi shook his head.

Seeing that the boy didn't seem to have had any schooling, Yan Fengan picked up a twig, found a patch of ground with few weeds, and wrote out several characters.

Wen Xi couldn't read them and didn't dare ask, looking a bit uneasy.

Yan Fengan explained each one: "This *xi* means 'west,' a direction. This *xi* means 'hope.' And this *xi* is simpler—it means a small stream or ditch."

Wen Xi looked at the character *xi* and said, "My parents always scold me, saying I'm the foul water of a ditch that no one wants wherever it flows. So that's what it looks like."

Yan Fengan scoffed. "Your parents clearly don't have much education. Look at how amazing the stream water in the mountain ravines is—rocks can't block it, mud can't muddy it. Small but alive, gentle but not weak. There's no character with a better meaning than that."

He wrote Wen Xi's full name on the ground, breaking it down stroke by stroke: "The character *wen* is a *men*—a door—with an *er*—an ear—inside. The left side of *xi* has three dots for water, and the right side looks like a claw on top, with a *yao* and a *da* below."

Yan Fengan's words stirred a strange, wonderful feeling in Wen Xi's heart. He stared at those two characters in silence for a long time. After a while, he crouched down, put his finger on the ground, and traced the strokes. When he'd traced them all, his name didn't seem so ugly anymore.

"So I'm not the foul water of a ditch?"

Yan Fengan said, "Of course not. If anyone ever says that to you again, you can use what I just told you to argue back. It's an extremely good character."

Wen Xi often felt like a weed trampled underfoot—lowly and worthless, destined to crawl at others' feet for the rest of his life. Even his name was something people didn't like.

But now that name had a different meaning. Not bad, not foul—but good.

A smile appeared on his face, but the corners of his eyes grew wet.

Though he looked small and thin, he was actually already twelve or thirteen—only about three years younger than Yan Fengan.

A young man and a *ge'er* spending time alone together in the deep woods could easily cause gossip and trouble. Yan Fengan tossed the twig aside, stood up, brushed the dirt off his hands, and gave the boy the last two buns from his bundle.

"It's getting late. I need to go. It's not safe for a *ge'er* like you to stay in the woods—you should get home soon."

Wen Xi held the buns and looked at him quietly, then said thank you again.

Yan Fengan nodded at him and headed back to the village along the same path.

After watching him leave, Wen Xi picked up the twig and copied the characters left on the ground, successfully writing his own name.

Afraid someone might pass by and see, he didn't linger to enjoy the moment. Once he'd learned the characters, he scuffed them out with his foot and pulled up some grass to cover the traces of their meeting.

No one but Yan Fengan and himself would ever know they'd met here briefly.

As the memory came back to him, Yan Fengan said, "I only taught you once, and you remembered such complicated characters. Truly clever. I thought you'd forgotten long ago."

If he could help it, Wen Xi would rather not remember any of his past with Yan Fengan. But now that Yan Fengan had brought it up, he couldn't help but think about those things again.

All of a sudden, his drowsiness vanished. In a tone carrying a hint of resentment he hadn't noticed himself, he said, "You're the one who forgot."

Otherwise, how could the person who said his name was wonderful have joined Wen Liu in calling him the foul water of a ditch?

Yan Fengan heard the disappointment in his voice. He opened his mouth, wanting to explain, but didn't know where to start. A thousand words condensed into one phrase: "I'm sorry."

What Wen Xi wanted wasn't an apology. But he wasn't sure what he wanted to hear Yan Fengan say.

A strange little emotion stirred in his heart, bothering him. He turned over to face away from Yan Fengan, making a show of being upset.

The wrongs weren't his doing, yet he had to take the blame. Yan Fengan felt frustrated, with no idea who to complain to.

Both of them, lost in their own thoughts, didn't fall asleep until late into the night. The next morning, they went about their day as if nothing had happened.

The weather grew colder, and there was less and less work in the fields. Wen Xi, with nothing to do all day, followed his mother-in-law and sisters-in-law to learn how to make clothes.

Li Wan asked him, "Have you done this kind of work at home?"

Wen Xi shook his head and said no, that the cloth at home wasn't something he'd be allowed to waste. Let alone making clothes, Li Qiaozhen was afraid he might learn the craft secretly, so she wouldn't even let him look.

"But I'm pretty good with a needle and thread. When clothes at home tore, I was the one who sewed them."

At first, he only mended his own clothes. Later, when Li Qiaozhen saw that his stitching was neat, she handed him all the torn clothes in the house to mend.

Since she knew he wasn't one to brag, Li Wan picked up a cut sleeve and said, "Then you can do the edge stitching." Worried Wen Xi might not get it, she picked up a needle and explained while demonstrating, "Just stitch along the raw edge to keep it from fraying."

Wen Xi never took on anything he wasn't confident about. After a quick look, once he was sure he wouldn't botch it, he started sewing with the needle.

Li Wan bent over to cut cloth, occasionally glancing up at him. After watching for a while, she said to He Jin beside her, "Xiao Xi's pretty fast."

He Jin also looked up at him: "The stitches are fine and tight, with even spacing. If you hadn't told me, I'd think he was a seasoned hand."

With Wen Xi's help, they finished the clothes faster. The family made sure his and Yan Fengan's clothes were done first, and soon a coarse hemp short tunic and two blue robes were done.

The blue robes were a little plain, so He Jin thought of adding some patterns to the collars and cuffs. Yan Fengan favored green bamboo and osmanthus, which fit the blue and yellow fabrics perfectly.

Wen Xi had no particular preferences. When Yan Fengan embroidered green bamboo, Wen Xi did the same.

He Jin rummaged through the thread basket and asked him, "Which colors do you think would work best?"

Wen Xi didn't realize He Jin was testing him. He matched the thread colors to the clothes and picked out a few he thought worked.

He Jin chose the same colors as him and smiled, "Not bad, you've got a better eye for color than the eldest sister-in-law. How about you embroider the patterns on Third Brother's clothes?"

Wen Xi waved his hands repeatedly: "I really can't do that."

He Jin didn't force him: "Then watch me first, and you can try it yourself later."

No wonder Chen Lanfang and Li Wan both praised He Jin's embroidery skills. Before stitching these patterns, he didn't even need to draw a design. He made it look effortless, but when he finished, the layers and color transitions were perfect, truly impressive.

Once the green bamboo was embroidered, the two garments were completely finished. He Jin coaxed Wen Xi, "Hurry inside and change into them, then come out and let us see."

Li Wan leaned against He Jin, grinning, "Bring Third Brother's along too."

Having new clothes to wear, Wen Xi felt a bit of anticipation. When he returned to the room, Yan Fengan was sitting at the desk reading. He stepped forward and said, "Sister-in-law wants us to try on the new clothes."

"Alright." They had slept together for so long that changing outer garments was no big deal, but that was at night. In broad daylight, and with Wen Xi being shy, Yan Fengan turned his back to spare his embarrassment. After changing into the new clothes without a stray thought, he heard Wen Xi say softly, "I'm done changing."