Chapter Sixteen: Ah Qing, the Girl from Yue

“Father.”
“What is it?”
Xie Lingjiang hesitated for a moment.
Xie Xun was sitting at his desk, leaning over a sheet of paper. The loose cloth tied at the back of his head draped onto the table. Without looking up, he said,
“Grind some ink for me.”
“All right.”
Xie Xun picked up a small wolf-hair brush, pondered briefly with his eyes lowered, then began dipping it in ink and writing. It was a letter.
Xie Lingjiang, who was grinding the ink nearby, watched his focused father for a while before turning to close the window—the sky outside threatened rain.
“Don’t close the window,” Xie Xun paused. “Rain is a good thing.”
Xie Lingjiang stopped in her tracks and said straightforwardly, “Father, Ouyang Lianghan is not what I imagined.”
“What did you expect?”
“I thought he would be a kindred spirit, someone I could converse happily with.”
“And what is he really like?”
“Actually... he’s a little odd. There’s something proper and yet improper about him, quite unlike what you described before.”
“Oh?”
Xie Xun stopped writing. “People change. Especially someone so young who’s experienced such great ups and downs.”
Xie Lingjiang hesitated, then recounted the “misunderstanding” that happened at Sanhui Temple this afternoon, concluding,
“He even lied, though it was just flattery. But I don’t like these social niceties.”
Finishing her words, she frowned and looked back, only to find her father watching her with keen interest, his brush paused.
“At first, I thought it wouldn’t work—how can two upright gentlemen live together? All rigid and respectful? But now that you say so, I think it might just suit you well.”
Xie Xun chuckled softly.
“What do you mean by ‘live together’ and ‘suit me well’? What are you talking about, Father?”
“Nothing. I’ll tell you when I return tonight.”
Xie Xun put down his brush, placed the letter by the window to dry, then turned and grabbed a pale blue-gray paper umbrella.
“Come, I’ll take you down the mountain to meet an old family friend.”
“An old family friend? Our Xie family has a prestigious lineage spanning six generations. In this small Longcheng County, even in Jiangzhou City, is there really a family who can be our old friend?”
Xie Xun nodded calmly. “If it weren’t for meeting this family, why would I have established a Buddhist pagoda in this county and temple?”
Xie Lingjiang was stunned.
...
“First of all, I haven’t offended anyone.”
Ouyang Rong spoke seriously, trying to reason.
“Second, I never supported the arranged marriage forced by my aunt. Even in the unlikely event that my junior sister got infatuated and accepted me because of my looks, I would still politely refuse tomorrow. I want to go home and not delay a talented woman.”
“Third, about that ‘child bride’ my aunt said used needles on me... I think her name is Embroiderer. I didn’t mean any ill will; I just stated a possible medical condition based on facts.”
...
In the misty Merit Hall, Ouyang Rong paused, then softly coaxed the small wooden fish-shaped prayer box in front of him,
“Can you return my merit points, please?”
After a brief pause, he added with a hint of threat,
“If you keep deducting points unjustly, aren’t you afraid the Buddha will revoke your license? So please give them back, or add fifty more points. Let’s just pretend nothing happened, alright?”
After applying both soft and hard tactics to plead his case, Ouyang Rong waited expectantly for a long time, but the Merit Tower remained silent. The turquoise-gold characters above the wooden fish did not move at all:
[Merit: Ninety]
“Damn!”
Ouyang Rong threw off his sleeves and left.
He strode away from the ruthless Merit Tower with a stern face.
His mood was terrible. Adult breakdowns often happen in an instant.
He hadn’t even started earning merit points, and they had deducted so many without supporting appeals for mistaken deductions... life was unbearable.
Near dusk, Ouyang Rong visited Liu Ashan’s home again.
Once more, it was the same dim, enclosed room, with a standing, a lying down, and two kneeling figures present. The atmosphere was heavy and oppressive without him speaking.
This time, Ouyang Rong didn’t waste words. He carefully examined Liu Ashan’s condition and felt a slight relief: Liu Ashan’s wound infection with tetanus was likely still in its early stage. Intervention at this point might offer some hope, though purification would take time. His fate was uncertain.
He had no guarantee.
Suddenly, thunder rumbled—after a day of brooding clouds, rain poured down like a waterfall.
Ouyang Rong couldn’t leave immediately; he went to the incense kitchen to fetch some items and planned to wait for the rain to subside.
Liu’s elderly mother came over and invited him to stay for dinner. Ouyang Rong didn’t refuse much and agreed after a polite decline.
The guest rooms provided by Donglin Temple for pilgrims were quite decent. Liu’s family stayed in a spacious courtyard room.
The dining area was a semi-open pavilion facing the courtyard, somewhat like a living room without floor-to-ceiling windows from a past life. Everyone knelt on mats, eating on the floor.
The rain falling from the eaves formed a curtain of water, separating inside from outside.
Ouyang Rong was led here by Mrs. Liu and sat alone for a while, waiting for the meal.
Perhaps to save resources, there were no lights inside. He turned to stare at the curtain of rain and the dark mountains in the distance, lost in thought.
In this era of material scarcity, nights were dull—once darkness fell, the outside world vanished into blackness, with many insects and mosquitoes buzzing.
Interestingly, Ouyang Rong realized he no longer felt so homesick at night, perhaps because he had grown somewhat accustomed.
The door creaked open quietly.
Someone carefully pushed it ajar. Ouyang Rong turned and saw a young girl named A-Qing carrying a tray and a small lamp, squeezing inside the room. Unable to free her hands, she pushed the door with her slender shoulder.
Ouyang Rong stepped forward to help her open the door fully.
“Thank you, sir.”
A-Qing lowered her head and whispered before placing the lamp on the small tea table and kneeling on the mat. She skillfully arranged the bowls, chopsticks, and dishes before him.
Ouyang Rong noticed her jet-black hair was damp and stuck together—he wasn’t sure if she had just come in from the rain.
“Is your mother not coming to eat?”
A-Qing lowered her head as she handed over the rice and gently shook her head without speaking.
Ouyang Rong thought for a moment and guessed Mrs. Liu was probably helping Ashan eat. He realized he had asked a foolish question.
He cleared his throat, took some rice, and ate a bite, but found A-Qing simply sitting still beside him without eating.
“Um, aren’t you eating? Have some too; let’s not be polite.”
After hesitating, A-Qing finally scooped some rice under the young magistrate’s concerned gaze.
The room was very dark, so the oil lamp on the small table shone brightly but only barely illuminated the two kneeling figures.
Only then did Ouyang Rong clearly see the girl before him by the lamp’s light.
Like her brother, she bore a branded tattoo on her face—called the Ink Punishment. In the Great Zhou Dynasty, it was a mark of slavery, characters inked onto the face or body to signify the master’s authority. Even if freed, the stain could never be erased.
A-Qing had a small character “Yue” on her forehead. Yet it did little to mar her delicate, pretty face—in fact, it made her look more pitiful.
She was very thin. Though in her early teens, technically marriageable in the Great Zhou, her poor nutrition left her frail and underdeveloped. Her slender arms and legs looked like sections of sugarcane sticks pieced together. Wearing a loose coarse cloth skirt, she appeared somewhat awkward.
Yet A-Qing had a pair of soulful, large eyes. The contrast between the dark iris and the whites was as clear as black and white Go stones.
But those jet-black eyes had carried a veil of sorrow ever since Ouyang Rong first met her.
“Your brother will get better.”
A-Qing seemed lost in some sad thought, biting her chopsticks as she stared at the floor. Ouyang Rong couldn’t help but offer some comfort.
“Thank you, sir,” she repeated with her face lowered.
After finishing his meal, Ouyang Rong set down his bowl and chopsticks and began pondering how to explain his “treatment plan” to A-Qing and Mrs. Liu. Many principles he took for granted they could hardly understand and would have to trust blindly.
As he was thinking about how to persuade them, he didn’t notice the girl nearby.
When he realized, he was shocked to find that A-Qing hadn’t cleared away the dishes but had moved them aside to make space between them. Then, lowering her head, she stood before him, lifted a wooden hairpin from her wet, jet-black hair, letting it fall freely.
With her other hand, while Ouyang Rong was about to speak, she untied her slender belt and tossed it aside. Shrugging her narrow shoulders, her skirt slipped off completely—she stood utterly naked, as slender and pale as a peeled sugarcane stalk, too thin to hold up clothing.
“!!!”
Though his reaction was a moment late, his eyes widened in shock. Quick as a flash, Ouyang Rong stuffed the lamp under the low table.
The light was hidden, plunging the room into near darkness, while the sound of the rain grew louder outside.
The faint orange glow under the table barely lit a pair of bare young ankles and a long hand pressed to the floor in fright.
“A-Qing, what are you doing?” he whispered, incredulous.
In the dimness, A-Qing didn’t stop. She called softly, “Sir,” then moved closer to Ouyang Rong.
Startled, he jumped up and stepped back, pulling off his outer robe and spreading it out to catch her. He wrapped her tightly, leaving only a small, innocent head exposed.
Pressing down on that small head, Ouyang Rong took a deep breath and finally asked,
“Why are you undressing like this?”
“Is someone forcing you?” The young magistrate’s anger began to surface.
“No one’s forcing me,” A-Qing said blankly. “We’re poor and have nothing to offer the sir. My mother and brother sent me, and I came willingly... as long as sir enjoys himself.”
Ouyang Rong fell silent.
Because the one who had been pressuring A-Qing and her family all along...
It was him.