Cheng Nuo carried an empty bamboo basket on the way back and met a fellow villager, humming a little tune and greeting him warmly.
The villager had gone into the mountains to try his luck and looked completely dumbfounded when he saw Cheng Siniang coming down from up there.
The beating Zhang San had taken had become the talk of the town. He was still flat on his kang, unable to get out of bed. His two married sisters had rushed back to the village upon hearing the news, heartbroken over their younger brother. To anyone they met, they insisted Cheng Siniang had framed him, claiming her brother was an honest man who would never steal, and even threatened to report the matter to the authorities and have everyone who beat him arrested.
No one took their words seriously. After all, everyone had a hand in the beating yesterday. If they were going to press charges, would they lock up the entire village?
Yet, upon closer thought, everyone felt as if they were being led around by some invisible hand—something felt a bit off.
"Siniang is up really early, coming down from the mountain already?"
Cheng Nuo smiled and said, "Yeah, just came to see if I could gather some wild vegetables to boil for soup."
That really was the sun rising from the west. Cheng Siniang was as lazy as a pig—would she ever wake up early and climb a mountain just to pick wild vegetables?
They had never seen her on the mountain before, let alone in the dead of winter when it was freezing cold and the ground was slick. There wasn't a trace of wild vegetables anywhere.
The man craned his neck to take a look at the basket on Cheng Nuo's back.
It was empty. Not even a single blade of grass.
"Makes sense. It's too freezing, all the leaves have fallen off, and wild vegetables were long eaten up by the beasts in the mountain."
"You're right, Uncle. I'll come back another day and see if I can catch a wild hare or pheasant or something." Cheng Nuo nodded.
The man said, "Right, right, pheasants have plenty of meat, and wild rabbit pelts can even be sold for money."
Even the village's skilled hunters couldn't always catch wild hares and pheasants, let alone Cheng Siniang, who didn't even have the strength to truss a chicken. He was just exchanging polite pleasantries.
Cheng Nuo smiled. "I'll take your kind words for it, Uncle. I'll head back first."
Watching Cheng Siniang's retreating figure, the man froze. Did he just see wrong? The way Cheng Siniang had smiled at him wasn't ugly at all—in fact, it was quite pleasing to the eye.
That's right. In the past, whenever she went out, she either let her hair hang loose to cover half of her disfigured face or piled on thick powder to hide her scars. How was her face so clean and fair today? Uncovered and unshielded, she didn't seem to care about anyone else's gaze at all.
Carrying the empty basket home, Cheng Nuo ran right into Meng Nanzhou and the others just returning from town.
Standing beside Meng Nanzhou was an unfamiliar man, also a scholar wearing a long gown with a refined and scholarly demeanor. The fabric of his clothes looked quite good; he must have been a classmate Meng Nanzhou had made friends with through his studies.
Meng Nanzhou was bowing to him with his hands folded.
The classmate stood with his hands cupped in salute, saying, "Brother Meng, you are too polite. We have been classmates for three years, this tiny favor is not worth mentioning."
"If it weren't for Brother Guan, how could Jishi Hall's chief physician have agreed to let my younger sister cut the line for a consultation? If we had delayed any longer, my sister's hand would have been ruined." Meng Nanzhou still felt a lingering fear at the thought.
The classmate smiled and said, "It was fate between us. Yesterday I happened to be returning home from offering thanks at the temple. An hour or two later, and we truly would have missed each other."
He studied at the same academy as Meng Nanzhou, and he had taken the provincial imperial examination this time as well, though unfortunately he had failed to make the list.
The two had no personal friendship in the past. Meng Nanzhou used to be arrogant and aloof, rarely mingling with the other students. Coupled with his vast erudition, which made all the academy teachers favor him, it had created a rather awkward situation.
While teachers kept telling students to approach Meng Nanzhou for academic advice and experience, the students would privately gossip about how conceited Meng Nanzhou was, and some of the bolder ones had even secretly tripped him up behind his back.
During this provincial examination, Meng Nanzhou had passed as a Juren, bringing great honor to the academy. Even the county magistrate had received him in person, showing he had a boundless future ahead. All the students who had previously looked down on Meng Nanzhou or suffered setbacks at his hands were now panicking, terrified that he would settle scores later.
Guan Changhong felt immensely grateful that he hadn't kicked a man while he was down. Today, he had even basked in the reflected glory of his maternal uncle—who was a physician at Jishi Hall—and made Scholar Meng owe him a huge favor.
As it turned out, praying to the Bodhisattva frequently in ordinary times was indeed useful.
"Brother Guan, wait a moment, I will return the consultation fee to you," Meng Nanzhou said, turning to go back inside to get the money.
Guan Changhong refused. His family possessed considerable wealth and he didn't care about these few copper coins; he simply wanted Meng Nanzhou to owe him a favor—the bigger, the better.
No matter what, Meng Nanzhou insisted on paying him back. Jishi Hall's reputation was far-reaching, and the chief physician alone charged five taels of silver just for a house call, not to mention the medicines prescribed for Meng Sijing this time were all top-grade herbs. He did not want to accept such a heavy favor; wouldn't he have to pay all of this back later?
In the end, neither would budge, so they each took a step back.
With a roll of his eyes, Guan Changhong thought of a good idea.
He untied an exquisite pouch from his waist and poured out a finely carved seal. "An ancient saying goes: 'You throw a papaya to me, I repay with a beautiful jade. Not as a mere return gift, but to last forever as a bond of friendship!' Today, I imitate the ancients by using this seal to forge a friendship with Brother Meng, and I hope Brother Meng will not disdain it."
Meng Nanzhou furrowed his brows. How could he not understand what Guan Changhong meant? This was about exchanging tokens of friendship and becoming sworn companions.
Yet this fellow was rather dull in his studies; he would probably never pass the imperial examination or become an official in this lifetime. Fortunately, his family was wealthy, so if there ever came a time when he needed money, he could serve as a backup.
Making a friend was better than making an enemy.
"Brother Guan is too kind. To gain a soulmate like Brother Guan is my good fortune."
With that, Meng Nanzhou led Guan Changhong into the house and went to his study to retrieve his own seal.
Taking advantage of the moment, Cheng Nuo slipped into the house and pressed close to the window, observing the movement inside the adjoining study.
Before long, Meng Nanzhou came out stooping, his face full of apology.
"Brother Guan, please don't blame me. A thief must have broken into the house—my seal is gone."
Guan Changhong was startled at first, thinking Meng Nanzhou was just reluctant to give him the seal, which he had heard was a gift from the academy director.
He took a step back. "Since the seal is not here, Brother Meng's paintings or your Four Treasures of the Study will do just as well."
The paintings in the study were all portraits of Feng Zhiyi. Everyone at the academy knew he was a married man, so those could absolutely not be given away.
As for the Four Treasures of the Study that werepresentable, Meng Nanzhou had just checked, and they had been stolen too. Could the person who broke into his house possibly be a thief who loved reading?
Meng Nanzhou stammered, "T-This... this won't do either."
Guan Changhong's face darkened like the bottom of a wok. "This won't do, and that won't do either. Could it be that Brother Meng doesn't truly regard me as a friend?"
"N-No, no, that's not what I meant." Even in the dead of winter, cold sweat began to bead on Meng Nanzhou's forehead. "I still have a few hand-copied volumes of the *Analects* and *Mencius* on my bookshelf, if Brother Guan doesn't mind..."
By the end, he couldn't even bring himself to finish the sentence.
Guan Changhong felt as though he had been played. Who didn't know that Scholar Meng's family was poor and he often copied books to send to the bookstore in exchange for study funds?
The bookstore sold copies of books he had transcribed for just a few dozen cash, yet he had the nerve to suggest that!
Or did he think that now that his status was different, he could just hand out any random scraps and expect others to be eternally grateful?
"It's my own lack of self-awareness, thinking I could climb high to befriend Scholar Meng. Scholar Meng, stay where you are, we shall meet again!"
Guan Changhong snatched back the personal seal he had meant to give Meng Nanzhou, flicked his sleeves, and left in a huff.
"It's a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding! Brother Guan, listen to me..."
All that was left for Meng Nanzhou as he apologized repeatedly from behind was a carriage speeding away and a sky full of kicked-up dust and sand.
Now they had done it. Having offended his classmate, Jishi Hall's chief physician would probably never be willing to treat Meng Sijing again.
Cheng Nuo laughed so hard she rolled around on the mattress.
Beside her, Xiao Pan'er wore a look of utter bewilderment on her tiny face.