Early in the morning, Mu Fulan and Xie Changgeng got up, washed and dressed in sacrificial robes, left the governor's mansion together, and led their officials and wives out of the city to the Nong Temple in the western suburbs.
After Xie Changgeng arrived here as the Jiedushi, he knew how to appoint people to the right positions, and he kept the government simple and the punishments fair. He not only managed the local government diligently and obediently, but also achieved remarkable political achievements. He also won great results in the border operations against the northerners, sweeping away the passive situation of the border town that was often robbed in the past. The local people supported him very much. When the two arrived there, they saw a huge crowd of people. People from all directions had gathered early. When they saw the Jiedushi and his wife coming from afar, they knelt on the roadside to greet them.
The two men separated and each presided over the sacrificial ceremony.
In the Silkworm Temple, a silkworm altar has been laid out, on which is placed an ox for sacrifice. The incense altar is filled with smoke, and the scene is grand.
Mu Fulan entered the temple with the wives of her subordinates behind her, knelt down devoutly, burned incense and prayed, then took the silkworms from the altar and distributed them personally.
Everyone saw that the Jiedushi's wife was not only beautiful, but also dressed elegantly, with noble demeanor in every move. They also heard that she was not only the princess of Changsha State, but also proficient in medicine and could bring people back to life. In just over a month since she came here, she had already helped cure many illnesses of people who came to seek medical treatment. Everyone respected her very much, and when she finished the sacrifice and walked out of the temple, she distributed silkworms with her own hands, everyone scrambled to get them, and regarded them as a lucky item.
Mu Fulan was busy when she suddenly heard a voice shouting, "Madam! We are here too! Please give us some too!"
Mu Fulan looked up and saw a large group of women dressed as natives rushing in. One woman was holding a seven or eight-year-old child in her hand. She came in front of him and knelt down to kowtow to him.
This child was the one who was sent to the clinic that day, and the woman was the child's mother. She recognized some of the other faces, as they were residents of the village, but some were strangers whom she had not seen last time.
The woman who could speak Chinese stepped forward and bowed respectfully to Mu Fulan, then smiled and said, "I heard that Madam came here in person today to preside over the sacrifice. Not only us, but also some people from other places came. Everyone said that Madam is a goddess who came to earth, and they wanted to borrow Madam's blessing to pray for a good harvest."
The natives had never had any dealings with outsiders in the past and were hostile to each other. Today, they suddenly appeared here in large numbers. The women who had originally gathered around avoided them as if they had seen a plague, and stood far away, staring at them with wary eyes and whispering to each other.
Mu Fulan helped the mother and child who were kneeling before her to stand up, and asked the mother about the child's health. She learned that the child had recovered and was now alive and well, and that the other patients in the village had also recovered, which made her feel relieved. She distributed the silkworms as requested.
The women took it, carefully put it in their pockets, and said with a smile on their faces, "The men brought us here, and they are still waiting. We have paid our respects to the lady, asked for the things, and now we are leaving to avoid causing trouble for her."
Everyone thanked Mu Fulan again before turning around and leaving.
After those people left, the crowd that had just retreated slowly gathered back and the atmosphere became lively again.
Several wives of subordinate officials stepped forward to persuade Mu Fulan: "Princess, it would be better not to have too much contact with these natives in the future. They are all fierce and unreasonable. They will draw their swords at the slightest disagreement. There are many of them, and their villages are connected. When there is trouble, they will stick together. I remember a few years ago, the previous governor had some trouble with them, and in the end even the governor was almost injured by them. The governor didn't dare to do anything to them later, and the matter was left unresolved. Princess, you are precious. Don't look at them as if they are friendly on the surface now. Who knows what they are up to? You'd better be careful."
Mu Fulan smiled and thanked them, and asked the ladies to help distribute it. After a busy while, they finally finished.
After the sacrifice, the temple fair followed. Mu Fulan had no intention of going any further, and without waiting to see Xie Changgeng, she took a car and returned to the governor's mansion first.
After Xie Changgeng finished presiding over the sacrifice and just walked out of the temple, an official came running in and reported that a large group of natives had come to the open space outside the temple fair, with knives on their waists, gathering there, and no one knew what they wanted to do. Although they had not yet broken into the temple fair, he was afraid that they might take advantage of today to cause trouble, so he had just dispatched some soldiers and quietly deployed them around. Now he came to ask him for the decision.
After Xie Changgeng took office, he knew that the local natives were a big problem left over from a long time ago. He had tried to send people to communicate with them several times, but they were turned away every time. Fortunately, apart from being xenophobic and unwilling to interact with the government, they had not caused any major trouble in the past two years, so he let it go for the time being.
He followed the official, and just as they arrived, they saw a large group of native women coming from the direction of the Silkworm Temple, talking and laughing. The man greeted the women, said a few words, and then they all left together.
Those people clearly saw me, but acted as if they didn't see me. They didn't stay and soon disappeared.
The official was surprised and embarrassed to see his superior lose face. He pretended not to see them at first. After the natives had gone far away, he pretended to be angry and said, "These people are too arrogant! They don't even kneel down to you! I will send someone to teach them a lesson!"
Xie Changgeng pretended not to hear anything, and watched the natives walk away. He told them to leave, and turned to go to the silkworm temple. When he got there, he didn't see Mu Fulan, and was told that she left after the sacrifice.
Xie Changgeng paused for a moment and asked about the native woman. His subordinate said, "I was also shocked at first. It was the first time I saw so many people coming. They heard that the princess was hosting a sacrifice today, so they came to thank her and pray for blessings. They left after praying, and there was nothing else."
Xie Changgeng pondered for a moment, then turned and left.
He returned to the Jiedushi Mansion and asked the steward who came out to greet him. He learned that Mu Fulan had been back for some time and had gone in early. He glanced in the direction of the back yamen and turned to go to the front yamen to handle matters.
After becoming a Jiedushi, he had to deal with a lot of government affairs besides military affairs, but whenever he had time, he would handle them personally. Fortunately, he had been a quick learner since he was young, and he could handle official documents in one go without leaving any problems unsolved.
It was getting dark and the maid came in to light the lamp.
When he saw the child named Mu Fulan during the day, he thought of Xier again. He couldn't help but take out the fur hat he bought when he first came here, stroked the soft fur on his head, and imagined how Xier would look like when wearing it. As he gradually became absent-minded, he suddenly heard the door being pushed open and footsteps. He turned around and saw that it was Xie Changgeng who came back, so he immediately put away the hat.
He had sharp eyes and had seen it. He took a quick glance and asked what it was.
"It's just a hat I bought at the market."
Mu Fulan said, put it away.
Xie Changgeng didn't care. He asked her a few questions about her meeting with the native women during the day, then went to take a bath. When he came out after changing his clothes, Mother Mu and her maid had brought dinner and placed it on a table in the outer room.
The two sat opposite each other and began to eat.
Mu's mother was a good cook. For dinner, she cooked shrimp balls in lotus sauce, bamboo shoots, ham and pigeon slices, and noodles stewed in duck sauce. All of them were delicious. In terms of the exquisiteness of the dishes, the original chef could not compare.
Xie Changgeng, however, had no appetite.
She had just come out of the bath. The candlelight was dim and red, covering her face. Her face was plain, like condensed fragrant snow.
At this time of year, in the south of Dongting Lake, there was already thunder and rain, and spring was coming, but the snow here had not melted yet. Xie Changgeng knew that she was afraid of the cold, so he asked someone to burn the fire dragon.
Maybe it was because the room was a little hot, and after eating a few bites of food, two thin blushes appeared on her cheeks. In the candlelight, her cheeks were very bright, even more charming than if she had put on rouge.
He looked at it, as if he were looking at a famous flower. After eating a few mouthfuls of food, he became absent-minded.
Because of today's sacrifice, he hadn't touched the woman sitting opposite him for three nights.
She seemed to be eating attentively, with her head down, and never raised her eyes to look at him who was sitting opposite her.
There was a bowl of corn soup on the table, which was sweet and sticky. She seemed to like it more than the food.
Xie Changgeng watched her scoop it up, bring it to her mouth with the spoon, open her mouth and take a few bites. Her lips were soaked with juice, wet and shiny. She stretched out her tongue and licked the juice.
Xie Changgeng suddenly felt a surge of anger in his stomach. He put down his chopsticks, stood up, walked behind her, and without saying a word, took the spoon from her hand, picked it up, and walked away.
After that, Mu Fulan lay on the pillow, motionless, as if she had fallen asleep.
Xie Changgeng still held her, stroking her bare back as it slid towards him. After stroking for a while, he couldn't help but move his mouth to gently bite her delicate and beautiful butterfly bone.
She seemed displeased, shrank her shoulders, pushed away his hands on her, and pulled the quilt to cover her body.
Xie Changgeng knew that her skin was delicate and thin, and if he used a little force, or bit and licked her a few times, there would be marks on her body. He smiled and didn't bother with her actions. Although he was still not satisfied, he knew that she must be tired, so he let her go and closed his eyes to rest. He heard a voice in his ear saying, "When can I go back?"
Xie Changgeng didn't open his eyes, and still kept them closed. He replied nonchalantly, "I told you before. I brought you out to the Queen Mother's place in the name of husband and wife. It's only been a few days? You can't go back yet. Lest the Queen Mother find out, if she gets suspicious, it will be bad for both you and me."
The woman beside him didn't speak or move anymore. After a moment, she suddenly sat up, pushed the quilt aside, put on her clothes, and climbed off the bed.
"Where are you going again?"
Xie Changgeng opened his eyes, looked at her back and asked.
"Go out and do as you please."
Mu Fulan spoke in a cold tone, tied up her long hair in front of the mirror, put on a coat, and walked out.
Xie Changgeng was ignored and felt unhappy. Thinking back to the past few days, every time she slept with him, even in the middle of the night, she would go out for a while and come back after a while, he couldn't help but feel suspicious.
He got out of bed, quickly put on his clothes, walked past the table where the half-eaten food was already cold, opened the door and went out.
She had disappeared. He asked a maid outside, "Where is the princess?"
"He went to the tea room. He didn't allow us to go with him."
Xie Changgeng asked the maid to clean up the leftovers in the room and went to the tea room.
The tea room was next to the kitchen, and inside it was a large tiger stove with several large soup pots on top, which were used to boil water for the entire Jiedushi Mansion. Throughout the winter, the stove was kept on day and night to ensure that hot water was always available. Opposite was a small stove, which was used to boil tea for daily drinking.
The stove was burning with coal, so coal needed to be constantly added to keep the fire burning. There was a special maid who was guarding the stove. At this moment, she was outside and saw Xie Changgeng coming, so she hurried over to greet him.
Xie Changgeng asked the princess, and the maid bowed and said, "The princess is taking medicine inside. She said she has been feeling unwell recently, and asked me to prepare the medicine she gave me every day and wait for her to drink it."
"What's the illness?"
"I don't know about that." The maid shook her head.
Xie Changgeng stopped at the door and saw a figure standing in front of a small stove, holding a bowl in his hand and drinking medicine.
He pushed the door open and walked in.
Mu Fulan turned her head and glanced at him, without any reaction. She continued to drink the medicine and finished it in a few gulps.
"Where do you feel unwell? Since you're taking medicine, why don't you ask someone to bring it over? Why do you come here by yourself in such a cold weather?"
Xie Changgeng looked at the bowl in her hand with only a little black medicine residue left in it and asked her.
Mu Fulan said, "What are you doing here? It's so cold, go and rest early."
She put down the bowl, left him and turned away.
Xie Changgeng looked a little unhappy. He watched her disappearing figure, turned around, looked at the medicine residue at the bottom of the bowl, and gradually became suspicious. He asked the maid to fetch the uncooked medicine, took a packet, and left the Jiedushi Mansion.
The author has something to say: Today’s update is new.
No updates tomorrow, resume on the second day of the Lunar New Year.
I wish you all a happy new year and all the best!