Liu Chang'an and An Nuan went to eat bitter melon stewed with fish, a rare local specialty. Even in Junsha, where it originated, only a few restaurants served it.
The fish was sturgeon, simmered in a soup. It was tender and silky, cooked in a pot over a flame. Sliced bitter melon went in fresh. They ate the fish first, then drank the broth, which was especially light and delicious, leaving a lingering aftertaste.
An Nuan used asking for the Wi-Fi password as an excuse to pay the bill first.
"I won a free meal on the app, so we don't have to pay." An Nuan returned to her seat, smiling with smug delight. "I'm unbelievably lucky."
"I'll believe anything you tell me," Liu Chang'an said with a smile.
An Nuan's cheeks flushed. She knew Liu Chang'an's circumstances were pretty ordinary, and she couldn't help feeling for him. She wasn't the sort of girl who liked taking advantage of people. A meal of bitter melon stewed with fish cost close to two hundred yuan. That was nothing to her, but Liu Chang'an might have to skip a day of classes and work hard to earn that much.
An Nuan didn't want Liu Chang'an to know what she was thinking, either. After all, she was a girl and had her pride. Nor did she want him to feel anything that might wound his self-esteem. Though he usually seemed carefree, as if nothing in the world could trouble him, what boy his age didn't have a little vanity and pride?
"I had no idea you were so good at basketball." An Nuan tried to change the subject. She picked up a slice of fish and held it between her lips, blowing on it gently.
The fish was tender, and An Nuan's lips were soft and rosy. There was a little mark on her nose, but it did nothing to mar her appearance.
Liu Chang'an pulled his gaze away from her lips and shook his head. "I only made one basket. How can you tell I'm good at basketball?"
"That was impressive, too." An Nuan's eyes were calm, though when she thought about it, she still found it hard to believe. He could serve a volleyball like that and shoot a basketball like that, yet if Liu Chang'an said he didn't know how to play either sport, she would believe him. In the three years she'd known him, she had never seen him play. The most she could say was that he'd done reasonably well on the basic volleyball and basketball tests in PE.
"After the college entrance exams... I'll help you practice volleyball. I'm sure I can do that," Liu Chang'an said after a moment's hesitation. He knew An Nuan's dream was to win the volleyball league championship for the Affiliated High School. The school team was nothing special in Liu Chang'an's eyes, but among the teams in this league, they were one of the strongest. If An Nuan, as a key player, performed well, she might just get her wish.
"All right."
An Nuan's lips curved slightly, showing her pearly white teeth. Her smile spread from the corners of her mouth, soft and sweet, with a hint of anticipation and delight in her eyes.
In the three years they'd known each other, Liu Chang'an had rarely offered to do something for anyone.
"I'm a practice partner worth one meal of bitter melon stewed with fish," Liu Chang'an said.
So that was it... It was just a repayment. An Nuan kept smiling and nodded lightly. That was just the kind of person Liu Chang'an was. She must have read too much into it earlier.
After finishing their meal, they went their separate ways. An Nuan lived in the faculty housing at Xiangnan University. Liu Chang'an had to walk a while to Junjiang Bridge, cross on foot, then walk another fifteen minutes... At his leisurely pace, with frequent stops along the way, half an hour was perfectly normal.
The busy streets and passing crowds of unfamiliar faces made for the bustle of the city center. Faces—cold, strained, or smiling—passed by. Liu Chang'an stopped and looked up at the outdoor screen, where a TV program was being broadcast.
Song in the Clouds.
Yang Ying played Yun Ge, a fictional character, while Mao Xiaotong played the youngest Empress Xiaozhao in history. She later became Empress Dowager Xiaozhao and then Grand Empress Dowager Xiaozhao... This legendary woman became Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty's empress at the age of six. She was only fifteen when she became empress dowager, yet she managed to depose Liu He, who had only just become emperor.
According to unofficial histories, Grand Empress Dowager Xiaozhao remained a virgin throughout her life.
The characters portrayed in the drama ultimately lacked the bearing of someone who ruled the realm. Even at the time when power was at its greatest, it was her grandfather, Grand Sima Huo Guang, who held the power to choose and depose emperors. Xiaozhao's authority could not compare with Empress Lü's.
But an empress dowager in the Han Dynasty could call herself "朕" and depose an emperor. Even the edict deposing Liu He had to come from her.
At fifteen, Xiaozhao already possessed a bearing that the shallow actresses of the day could never master.
That was probably the mark Xiaozhao had left in the history books.
Liu Chang'an smiled again. That had happened 2,100 years ago.
He remembered a line of poetry from that time:
O Heaven above, I would be with my love, and never part for all eternity.
It was something very hard to achieve. A brief life made it impossible to speak recklessly of forever. Even Liu Chang'an couldn't promise eternity. Two thousand years had passed since the poem was written, but the young woman whose feelings it expressed couldn't make the mountains lose their peaks, the rivers run dry, thunder rumble in winter, snow fall in summer, and heaven and earth unite, before she would part from her love.
Liu Chang'an headed home. Passing the market, he saw all kinds of ingredients on display, though by this hour few were still fresh. Vegetables were much cheaper than in the morning. Big bundles of cabbage, scallions, and peppers were packed up and sold for a few yuan each. Stepping over a floor whose colors had long since become indistinguishable, Liu Chang'an picked out some scallions and bought a piece of pork belly. Even with a small packet of pepper, the total came to only six yuan.
That evening he ate homemade meat pancakes and a bowl of lamb offal soup sprinkled with peppercorns. Then he went to the mahjong parlor as usual and played all night, winning twelve yuan. Old Ma said that, at Liu Chang'an's level, he could enter the community mahjong tournament and take first place.
Some people immediately agreed, others objected, and a few thought the odds were fifty-fifty. After discussing it for ages, they finally remembered that the community mahjong tournament was for seniors, and only those over fifty-five could compete. Since Liu Chang'an always played mahjong with them at such a leisurely pace, they'd momentarily forgotten that he wasn't one of the elderly.
Liu Chang'an said he was deeply disappointed.
Early the next morning, while the sky was still dim, Liu Chang'an woke to the sound of the Huangmei opera The Heavenly Match playing on a radio outside his door, growing fainter and then louder again as it passed by. As usual, he washed up and got ready to go for a run.
Today he could take the route toward the train station, run to the station square, then loop back. That way, he wouldn't have to pass Baolong Center and run into the idle Zhu Juntang.
The city was huge, with a vast population. Junsha had nearly eight million residents. Even within the city center alone, running into someone again was unlikely. Liu Chang'an didn't care if Zhu Juntang found something out, but he believed it was better to avoid unnecessary trouble. He had neither the enthusiasm nor the interest to indulge a young girl's curiosity.
As soon as he opened the door, Liu Chang'an saw a box truck parked beneath the large parasol tree. Its bulletproof tires, black exterior, heavy doors, and firing ports made it clear that it was no ordinary civilian truck.
A few elderly men and women were pointing at it with interest. Old people got up early, and one new thing was enough to keep them talking for days.
Hearing one man, a veteran who'd been out of the army for decades, say he'd seen one in Vietnam, Liu Chang'an smiled. Then he saw a side door on the truck open. A set of steps unfolded section by section, and a woman in a black pantsuit descended.
The woman was tall, her long legs wrapped in black trousers that outlined their straight, well-proportioned curves. Her jacket was unbuttoned, and her pleated-collar blouse looked rather snug, as if it could barely contain her full, generous bust. Two simple diamond earrings hung from her soft earlobes. Her long hair was loosely tied back, yet she still exuded competence and elegance.
Liu Chang'an could see figures inside the truck. Their footsteps were steady and powerful, and they gave off a concealed yet fiery presence.
"Mr. Liu Chang'an, hello. It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Qin Peng's great-granddaughter, Qin Yanan." The woman came down the steps and looked at Liu Chang'an with a reserved, appraising gaze, though her words were perfectly polite.
"Ya in grace, Nan in harmony; the reed pipes play without discord." Liu Chang'an nodded, then came back to himself and looked Qin Yanan over. He thought of a woman who had once smiled tenderly while holding a baby, and of a line from "Drums," in the "Valley Winds" section of the Book of Songs.
"You're well-read, sir." Qin Yanan's lips curved up slightly. Very few young people in this day and age still read the Book of Songs. And for a poor, down-on-his-luck young man to know the origin of her name offhand... Qin Yanan didn't believe she had simply happened to meet a talented scholar. More likely, he had known she was coming and done his homework.
"I just happened to know the person who named you, so I know where your name comes from," Liu Chang'an said with a faint smile. Qin Peng's great-granddaughter looked remarkably like Qin Peng's wife, Ye Sijin, who had been dead for many years.
Ye Sijin hadn't been as tall or as well-proportioned as Qin Yanan. She'd been more delicate and pitiable, unlike Qin Yanan, who was sharp and cool... Aside from those differences, they could have been twin sisters.
Though Qin Yanan chose her words carefully, Liu Chang'an could still sense the faint chill in her manner. It didn't matter.
"My great-grandfather asked a friend to choose my name. You knew my great-grandfather?" Qin Yanan's smile deepened, but her slightly drawn brows concealed a trace of impatience. She hadn't wanted to come and put on an act with a young man who was plainly a little calculating.
But it was her great-grandfather's instruction, and Qin Yanan had no choice. She truly didn't understand why he'd made such an arrangement.
How could this young man, whom she addressed as "sir," possibly know her great-grandfather? Aside from returning to his hometown for his birthday celebration this time, her great-grandfather Qin Peng hadn't left the Capital in many years. Ordinary people had no chance of meeting him, let alone hearing him explain the origin of Qin Yanan's name.
"We've been old friends for many years," Liu Chang'an said, speaking for himself, his voice touched by a faint sigh. The boy who had once been in the prime of his youth, full of ambition and ready to bend the world to his will, was old now.
The Xiang River flowed north; at the head of Orange Isle.
With countless companions, we once roamed there; I remember those stirring years.
We were young students, in the prime of life, full of youthful ardor, daring to direct the course of the world.
It was a brutal era, and an age of great historical upheaval, a cycle coming round again. It was a time of passionate resolve, forged in blood.
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