The Azure Mountain

Chapter 91: Red Apricot Tree

The Prince Heir and Bai Li took people to gather the porters.

Only Chen Ji and Chen Wenzong were left standing shoulder to shoulder at the entrance of the kiln factory. One was covered in dirt and dust; casually shaking his head would cause some dust to fall, like a dirt dog.

The other wore white clothes like snow, resembling the main character in all stories.

Chen Wenzong frowned at the cheerfully smiling Chen Ji, not knowing what this brother of his born of a concubine was actually happy about: "Chen Ji, I see you arrange things methodically and have a clear train of thought. You are actually a very smart person, how can you be willing to associate with this mud?"

While patting the dust off his body, Chen Ji responded with an uncaring smile: "I am very happy today. You guys look down on this dilapidated kiln factory, and you look down on this dirty and dusty living, but the more I look at it, the more I like it."

Because this was the first time in this world that Chen Ji could possess a little something of his own.

"Do you want to earn some money?" Chen Wenzong misunderstood his meaning: "Although a son born of a concubine cannot inherit the family business, when the family property is divided, as your brother, I will definitely allocate some businesses to you. As long as you know to return after losing your way and are willing to study properly and participate in the imperial examinations, how could I just sit back and watch you endure hunger?"

Chen Ji patted Chen Wenzong's shoulder happily, leaving a black handprint on the other party's white long shirt, and teased: "Brother, you are actually a good person, but I'm truly not cut out for reading the classics. I'm more suited for down-to-earth work like farming and firing kilns."

Chen Wenzong took a step back to the left, but ultimately still failed to dodge the pitch-black handprint. He frowned and said: "The Master said: If one acts like this, then the commoners from all directions will carry their children on their backs to come to you; what need is there for farming?"

Chen Ji froze for a moment: "What does that mean?"Chen Wenzong explained: "The Ultimate Sage and First Teacher said that if those in high positions uphold ritual propriety and integrity, the commoners will naturally carry their children to seek refuge; what need is there to farm yourself? Doing farming and manual labor yourself is a lower strategy. For us scholars, we should naturally become role models for the world, and followers will naturally gather like clouds."

Chen Ji looked silently at Chen Wenzong. He didn't know much about Confucian culture, so he didn't know how to use the classics to refute this older brother's thoughts.

At this moment, Bai Li's voice came from afar: "Chen Ji, I found someone who can modify the kiln. They said all the firing kilns in the entire Liu Family Village were built by them, they can help us."

Trailing behind Bai Li was a hunchbacked old man with a long tobacco pipe tucked at his waist, his tobacco pouch dangling on his waist like a purse.

Behind the old man were seven sturdy men.

Getting closer, the hunchbacked old man stopped at the entrance of the kiln factory. While pressing shredded tobacco into his tobacco pipe, he looked at Chen Ji: "Are you the one in charge here?"

Chen Ji said calmly: "Mm, I am."

The hunchbacked old man said unhurriedly: "All the firing kilns in the entire Liu Family Village were built by our Liu family. If you want to build a kiln, no problem. First give two hundred taels of silver. During the kiln building period, four catties of white flour, one catty of meat, plus two catties of good wine every day."

"What?" The Prince Heir's eyes widened.

The hunchbacked old man looked up at him, saying expressionlessly: "This is the rule for doing business in Liu Family Village. Besides our Liu family, no one else has the skill to stack half-downdraft kilns, nor would they dare to stack a kiln for you."

Chen Ji asked in confusion: "People from Grand Secretary Liu's Liu family?"

Behind the hunchbacked old man, a sturdy man smiled: "You have some knowledge."

Chen Ji pondered for a moment: "Sirs, please return. We truly don't have that much money on us; taking over this kiln factory has already almost spent all our savings."

Without another word, the hunchbacked old man turned and left: "When you've thought it through, you can come find me any time."

Chen Ji watched his departing figure: "No wonder Old Zhou was in such a hurry to sell this kiln factory, and no wonder there was only a crude updraft kiln in his dilapidated kiln factory. Doing a little business in this day and age, the local snake (local bullies) skins you a layer, and the government office skins you a layer."

Bai Li said in a dilemma: "Then what should we do? Sorry, I didn't know they were local snakes who raised prices on the spot, I shouldn't have brought them over."

Chen Ji said calmly: "Let's do it ourselves. Without them, we can stack the kiln ourselves too. He knows how to stack a half-downdraft kiln; then I will stack a full downdraft kiln."

Give them a tiny bit of shock.

A few of them walked towards the kiln mouth. He suddenly turned his head to look at Chen Wenzong: "Brother, we don't have enough manpower, want to come help lend a hand?"

Chen Wenzong stood rooted to the spot in silence for a long time. He looked at the group of dirt-covered people in front of him, then looked at the earth kiln behind them. He immediately took out a silver ingot from his sleeve and handed it to Chen Ji: "Sorry, the Autumn Examination is the day after tomorrow, I cannot delay here for too long. I came out in a hurry and didn't bring much money, I can only give this to you for emergencies first. If it's not enough, I will send a young servant to deliver some more tomorrow."

Chen Ji stuffed the silver ingot back into Chen Wenzong's hand, took a step back, and cupped his hands: "Then I wish Brother success in capturing the championship in one fell swoop, and taking the top position as Jieyuan!"

After saying that, without looking back, he led the Prince Heir and Commandery Princess to demolish the firing kiln together.

Chen Wenzong looked down at the silver ingot in his hand, wanting to say something for a moment but not knowing what to say.

Remaining silent for a long time, he tucked the silver ingot back into his sleeve, turned around, exited the courtyard, and mounted his horse. The apology he wanted to say when he came, he ultimately didn't say out loud.

Amidst the shattering sounds of demolishing the firing kiln, the white horse departed.

...

...

Liang Mao'er exerted a great deal of effort, but he was seen swinging the hammer without taking much effort to easily smash the old kiln like rotten wood. While clearing out the construction waste, Chen Ji praised: "Big Brother Mao'er's large appetite didn't grow for nothing!"

Liang Mao'er was somewhat bashful: "Maintain an army for a thousand days to use it for a single moment, I can finally exert some strength."

Chen Ji looked at the Prince Heir and Commandery Princess: "I'm actually quite curious, why are the Prince Heir and Commandery Princess willing to do this dirty and tiring work? You see, my older brother is unwilling to touch these things."

The Prince Heir laughed happily: "Doing it occasionally is fine. If you really made me do this every day, I would run away too!"

Chen Ji sighed with emotion: "I've always felt Prince Jing is very different from other officials and nobles, he seems..."

Commandery Princess Bai Li thought for a moment and said: "Mother said Father endured hardships since childhood, naturally he is somewhat different from other regional princes."

"Oh?"

"I've heard Mother mention that not long after Father was born, he and his birth mother were chased to Yueci Nunnery in the suburbs of the capital."

Chen Ji froze: "Normally within the Inner Palaces, even if a mother commits a crime and is expelled from the palace gates, they would only keep the child and send the mother away; they wouldn't chase both mother and son out of the palace together."

Bai Li explained: "The Late Emperor had seventy-nine sons, the struggle for succession was extremely fierce. I don't know exactly what happened, I only know that many princes and their birth mothers were chased out of the inner palace and successively died outside the palace. Father's birth mother also bizarrely died in Yueci Nunnery the second year after they arrived there. Father was only a little over one year old at the time. It is said that thanks to a grand eunuch from the Inner Court Bureaus taking care of him in secret, he barely managed to survive."

"Later, Father grew up in a yamen of the Directorate of Ceremonial in the suburbs of the capital, working alongside the young eunuchs every day, chopping wood, burning charcoal, and washing clothes, until he was eight years old when the current Empress Dowager brought him back to the palace to live together with His Majesty. Father is three years older than His Majesty; the two lived together in the palace for six years, as close as full brothers."

"Later on, His Majesty ascended the throne at eleven, and Father was sent out as a regional prince at fourteen. The young regional prince made horizontal and vertical alliances with the Chen family, Hu family, and Qi family of the Northern Region. He took six years to secretly cooperate with pure stream civil officials like the investigating censors to purge the imperial relatives by marriage, assisting His Majesty in ruling directly... Of course, I heard all this from my mother, it might not necessarily be accurate."

"Father demanded from a young age that we do many things ourselves. I heard Prince Fu had people feed him and dress him since he was young, we don't have any of those things. Occasionally when Father has free time, we also have to go with him to the rural estates to chop wood and burn charcoal."

Chen Ji listened silently for a moment, only feeling that within this short story, there seemed to be much important information hidden. Madam Liu was the imperial relative by marriage the Commandery Princess mentioned, but since Prince Jing purged the imperial relatives in his youth, why did he later marry a woman from the Liu family, an imperial relative, taking her as Consort Jing?

Was it a political compromise, or did he have other intentions?

...

...

At night, the moon was bright and the stars were sparse.

Originally Chen Ji planned to sleep at the kiln factory, but this kiln factory didn't even have a place to sleep, so they had to pack up and return home.

The ox cart swayed as it traveled on the road back to the city. Everyone on the cart had exhausted expressions, so sleepy that they almost couldn't open their eyes. Having worked for a day, everyone had sore waists, aching backs, and blisters on their hands.

Who knew whose stomach suddenly growled first, and immediately following that, everyone's stomachs all started gurgling.

The crowd looked at one another, then burst into hearty laughter: "Who knows if there are any noodle stalls still open in the city?"

"Definitely not anymore!"

Liang Mao'er said: "Once we return to the clinic, I will roll out some noodles for everyone to eat. Are garlic juice noodles okay?"

"Anything is fine, I'm so hungry I could eat a whole cow right now!"

"I could eat two cows!"

Liang Mao'er said bashfully: "I could eat three cows."

"I feel like Big Brother Mao'er is not joking."

"Hahahaha."

Back in front of the Taiping Medical Clinic.

With a creak, the Prince Heir quietly pushed open the main door, leading everyone as they hunched forward and snuck towards the backyard: "Everyone keep your voices down, absolutely do not disturb Physician Yao. Waking him up at this hour, I'm afraid his poison-quenched mouth will reprimand us until we cry."

"Oh? Is that so?"

The crowd was startled, looking up into the darkness of the clinic's main hall, only to see Old Yao lying on the bamboo chair, holding a little black cat in his arms.

He slowly got up, asking unhurriedly: "Prince Heir, why don't you come tell this old man, how is my mouth quenched with poison?"

The Prince Heir's smile was uglier than crying: "You definitely misheard, Liu Quxing was the one who said it just now!"

Old Yao didn't stoop to his level, only turning to walk towards the backyard: "There are already rolled-out noodles on the chopping board of the kitchen stove. If you want to eat, cook it yourselves."

The Prince Heir gulped: "Physician Yao, Your Revered Elder is truly a living Bodhisattva!"

A moment later, a pack of dirt dogs squatted in a row in the backyard, each holding a large sea bowl, slurping down noodles, their chopsticks continuously shoveling food into their mouths.

When the Prince Heir looked up, he saw Physician Yao standing beside the bare apricot tree, looking at them with a face full of disgust.

The cat in Physician Yao's arms was also looking at them with a face full of disgust.

The Prince Heir hesitated: "Physician Yao, it seems to look down on us a bit?"

Physician Yao sneered coldly: "With the way you guys eat, I allow it to look down on you."

The Prince Heir: "..."

Chen Ji: "..."

Physician Yao looked at them with pity: "Eight people went out in the morning, and eight dirt dogs returned at night. Those who know know you went to make novel gadgets; those who don't know would think a demon-revealing mirror forced you back into your original forms."

He held Wu Yun and turned back to his room: "I'm going to sleep, once you finish eating, remember to clean the kitchen up well."

After finishing his noodles, the Prince Heir slumped on the ground and sighed with emotion: "Chen Ji, can we rest for a day?"

Bai Li hurriedly said: "No, he signed a military pledge with Father. If he really can't accomplish it, Father truly will exile him to Lingnan."

The Prince Heir was left speechless, ultimately muttering softly: "You're even more enthusiastic than him."

At this moment, Bai Li stood in front of the apricot tree in the courtyard, not knowing what she was thinking about.

Chen Ji held his bowl and sat on the ground, looking up and asking curiously: "What's wrong?"

Bai Li suddenly said: "The apricot tree's leaves have all fallen off, it doesn't look good... Wait for me a bit."

After saying that, she actually hurriedly climbed the ladder and flipped over the wall into the Prince's Estate. Not a moment later, she flipped back over tugging a segment of red cloth.

Commandery Princess Bai Li cut the red cloth into long, slender strips, wrote 'Peace', 'Joy', 'Smooth Sailing', and 'Without Worries' on them, and tied them to the branches.

She also wrote an individual red cloth strip, brought over the ladder, and wanted to hang it at the very top of the apricot tree.

Seeing her clumsy appearance carrying the ladder, Chen Ji kindly offered: "Commandery Princess, should I help you hang it?"

Bai Li said anxiously: "No, I'll hang it myself!"

Not only that, she even wrapped the cloth strip around the branch a few more times, making it absolutely impossible to see clearly what was written when standing under the tree.

Bai Li slowly climbed down the ladder, smiling and calling out to everyone: "You guys come write a little something too."

The crowd looked at one another: "Write what?"

Bai Li smiled so happily her eyes curved: "Just write your respective wishes!"

Liu Quxing said: "I know what to write!"

He was seen taking a brush, dipping it in ink, and writing 'May Master enjoy health and longevity' on the red cloth. She Dengke angrily cursed him as a bootlicker, then wrote 'May Master have a boundless life'.

Liang Gou'er wrote 'Have wine to drink every day', and Liang Mao'er wrote 'Purchase a few mu of fertile farmland'.

The Prince Heir hesitated for a moment, then actually imitated Bai Li and secretly wrote a strip, wrapping it at the very top of the apricot tree where no one could see.

He climbed down from the ladder and looked at the bald head to the side: "Little Monk, what is your wish?"

The Little Monk was slightly embarrassed: "I cannot make wishes casually. Making a great vow requires fulfilling it, this matter is closely related to cultivation."

"Alright then, you don't have to write!"

Red cloth strips hung all over the branches of the apricot tree, like blooming red flowers.

A trace of gentle elegance suddenly appeared in a courtyard where a bunch of grown men lived.

With her hands behind her back, Bai Li stood in front of the apricot tree, lifting her head to admire her masterpiece with a beaming smile.

She turned to look at Chen Ji: "Chen Ji, what do you plan to write? You haven't written yet."

Chen Ji pondered deeply for a moment before picking up the brush. Bai Li leaned her head over to peek, only to see the youth write four simple words: 'Family Reunion' (Tuan Tuan Yuan Yuan).

Bai Li muttered softly: "I thought you would write words like 'Ten Thousand Taels of Gold'. Are you looking forward to reuniting with your family very much? But those family members of yours..."

Chen Ji smiled and didn't explain. The reunion he wrote did not refer to his family.

Bai Li looked at the red cloth strips praying for blessings on the branches, her expression peaceful: "Sometimes I also envy the lives of the commoners. I know this is somewhat like taking one's good fortune for granted, but I still wish the family could be a bit warmer, with more days of reunion."

Hearing this, Chen Ji suddenly probed: "I see Madam Consort Yun gives the Commandery Princess a lot of monthly allowance every month; not even the Prince Heir lives as well as the Commandery Princess. Why do you say this?"

Bai Li also smiled: "For girls, in our parents' eyes, as long as we grow up properly, we don't need to be so good at studying. As long as we can marry according to their ideas, it's fine. My parents don't have such strict demands of me, so naturally they will be a bit more tolerant and indulging. Mother has always wanted to have another younger brother; look at how my Father finally returned to the estate with great difficulty, she immediately ordered people to sweep the entire Anxi Street and even distributed Yanmen Dates to all the neighbors."

Chen Ji froze. So distributing Yanmen Dates (Zao) had a hidden meaning (Zao sheng gui zi - bear a son early). Because she couldn't make it too obvious, she didn't distribute peanuts, longans, and lotus seeds to the neighbors...

He suddenly asked: "Commandery Princess, that persimmon tree in Flying Cloud Courtyard..."

Bai Li smiled and answered: "Mother initially wanted to chop it down and replace it with a pomegranate tree, but I stopped her. I felt persimmons looked slightly better than pomegranates."

"Then why aren't the persimmons hanging on the branches picked?"

"I have to leave some food for the over-wintering magpies."

"So it was the Commandery Princess's kindness..."

Chen Ji only felt a freezing chill trail down his spine to his neck. Yanmen Dates symbolizing 'bearing a son early', pomegranate trees symbolizing 'many sons and many blessings', Consort Yun's desire to have a son was almost laid completely bare.

But if she had a son, could he inherit Prince Jing's title of nobility? No, there was still an older brother, the Prince Heir, born of the main wife ahead of him. Unless the Prince Heir died in the Inner Prison!

It wasn't until this moment that Chen Ji's deductions had a logical and reasonable chain. Consort Yun hoped the Prince Heir would die in the Inner Prison. As for whether Bai Li would be implicated, she didn't care at all...

Or perhaps, Consort Yun's original intention was to also send Bai Li into the Inner Prison. This way, no one would suspect her anymore.

Chen Ji looked at Bai Li with a complex expression, wanting to remind her, but didn't know where to start.

First there was Liu Mingxian who personally slaughtered his grandfather, and then there was the vicious Consort Yun who devoured her own child. Compared to these two, Chen Ji suddenly felt that his father from the Chen Estate merely sending him to Taiping Medical Clinic as an apprentice seemed somewhat benevolent.

This era.

Chen Ji called out softly: "Commandery Princess."

"Mm?"

"Your kindness will have its good rewards."

"Really? I think so too! Let's go, we still have to wash the dirt off when we return, see you tomorrow morning!"

"See you tomorrow morning, tomorrow we'll call some helpers from the city to go modify the kiln together."

Chen Ji looked up as Bai Li flipped over the courtyard wall and disappeared into the night. He turned his head and looked at that gentle and elegant red apricot tree, remaining silent for a long time.

At a certain moment, he genuinely wanted to untie the red cloth strip at the highest place to see what wishes the Prince Heir and Bai Li had written down, but then felt that prying into other people's privacy like this wasn't good, so he only smiled and gave up the idea.

(End of Chapter)