The Young City Inspector and the Merchant Girl: A Love Story About Their Parents

There was a disease in Chang'an City called Cold Lung Consumption.

Those who suffered from it couldn't be exposed to the cold, or an attack might leave them coughing through spring and summer.

It couldn't be cured, but it wasn't contagious either. Still, people who didn't understand it would instinctively feel disgusted.

The merchant girl had this disease. She had no family to speak of, so she thought she would sell some lanterns to buy medicine.

But she hadn't expected it to rain that night, and she started coughing.

The young city inspector took her home and asked if she would be selling lanterns again the next evening. He could help her find a good spot.

The merchant girl shook her head, smiling brightly, with no sign of reluctance.

She said she wouldn't have to sell lanterns anymore.

She was going to the palace to take part in a prince's marriage-selection contest. It was her family's arrangement.

If all went well, she thought she could outshine the other talented young women and marry the prince she had never even met. She just didn't know what he looked like.

The imperial family was rich. Maybe they could cure her illness.

The young city inspector stood there, stunned, because he seemed to remember his old man saying he was going to arrange a marriage-selection ceremony for him.

Could there really be... such a coincidence?

Later, just as she had said, she won.

The girl from the merchant family really was talented. She even outshone Grand Secretary Du's only daughter, and the other girl accepted her defeat wholeheartedly.

In the great hall of the imperial palace, she met the young prince who was rumored to be so arrogant that he had trampled five kingdoms beneath his horse's hooves.

He looked pretty good, and he looked exactly like that young city inspector whose brains weren't much good.

Taizu of Tang sat on the Dragon Throne and secretly turned to ask his son if he was satisfied.

The young city inspector sat with a rigid expression and said nothing, nodding nonstop.

"But my mother changed her mind and even started cursing. She chased my father around until he fled with his head in his hands, and the two of them nearly started fighting in the Golden Throne Hall."

Their Great Ancestor locked them in the Northward Roaming Pavilion beside Taisheng Lake, and only let them out after three days and three nights.

Whether his mother was willing or not, the two of them were still engaged.

To apologize, the young city inspector promised to grant the merchant girl one wish.

The girl thought for a moment, then pointed to a tall mountain outside Chang'an City and said she wanted to go there.

He stared at the mountaintop for a moment and asked why.

She said there was a rumor in Chang'an City that an old immortal lived on that mountain, and that a bonfire blazed before his door.

Anyone who crossed the bonfire could drive away illness and live a long, healthy life.

The young city inspector had never heard the story, but he didn't doubt her. He packed his things and set out with the girl.

The mountain outside Chang'an City really was very tall, and mist coiled around it, the air heavy with dampness.

The girl had to stop and rest after every stretch of climbing. Sometimes the mist even made her cough nonstop, her little face turning red.

The young city inspector furrowed his brows. To keep her from having such a hard time, he was always trying to distract her by one means or another.

Halfway up the mountain, she started coughing again, looking very weak.

The young man asked her about her childhood.

She fell silent for a long time, then shook her head and said that her mother had died when she was very young, and that she had started living alone when she was little. She couldn't remember much from before.

But what she remembered most clearly was that once, her mother had cried terribly, holding her hand and repeating the same words over and over.

"Once your mother is gone, you'll be all alone, little girl. You're so sweet and sensible. What if someone bullies you in the future? What will you do..."

She was quiet for a while, then pursed her lips and said she didn't want anyone to bully her.

The young man fell silent. After hesitating for a while, he replied, "In my family, if someone bullies you, you just take a sword and chop him."

The girl blinked and asked softly, "But Mother said I'm a girl."

The young man scratched his head, thought for a moment, then said with complete seriousness, "Then I'll give you a pink sword. It's suitable for a girl to chop people with."

Beneath the bright moon and sparse stars, the two young people on the mountain suddenly burst into giggles at the same time.

By the time they were close to the mountaintop, the mist had grown very thick.

The merchant girl had no strength left-not even enough to cough.

She lay on the young city inspector's back, drifting into sleep, deep but restless.

When she woke, they were only a dozen or so steps from the summit.

But the young city inspector had stopped. He turned and looked at her several times.

The merchant girl didn't understand. She furrowed her little face, which felt a bit sticky.

He asked, "Were you dreaming?"

"Mm. I kept coughing."

He said no more and continued carrying her forward.

But the girl lowered her head and spoke softly. "The people in my dream wouldn't let me cough. They carried me to a cliff and kept shouting at me to jump."

The young city inspector pressed his lips together, unable to find anything to say to comfort her.

Cold Lung Consumption was a very strange disease. It couldn't spread to other people, but everyone avoided it as if it were a plague.

He didn't know what her life had been like before, but he imagined it couldn't have been very comfortable.

"If I can get better, I want to go see Luoyang."

"Why?"

"I heard the willow catkins in Luoyang City are beautiful, but I have lung disease. I might never get to see them."

"I see."

The sky began to brighten, and at last the young man reached the mountaintop.

He set the girl down, then suddenly grinned and shook his head, laughing.

She tilted her head. "What are you laughing at?"

"I just had a dream, too." He answered seriously.

The merchant girl knew he had carried her all the way and couldn't possibly have fallen asleep on the road, but she still asked, her eyes smiling.

"Was it a nightmare, too?"

"No. It was the best dream I've ever had."

"What did you dream about?"

The morning sun rose over the mountain's edge, lighting the young man's gentle features.

"I caught you."

My father and mother never did meet any old immortal, but there really was an old man in a long blue robe on the mountaintop, sleeves rolled up as he warmed himself by a fire.

The two people who had just climbed to the top saw the old man's face, blinked, exchanged a glance, and fell into a strange silence.

The old man crouching on the ground to warm himself by the fire was Du Qing, Grand Secretary Du.

Literary Dao Leader, the most learned man in the world.

In those days, Grand Secretary Du had been forced to observe a fast with Great Ancestor, and every meal had been vegetarian.

He had secretly gone up the mountain to cook meat over the bonfire.

The two young people who had struggled all the way up the mountain stumbled upon what he was doing, and the old fellow flew into a rage and beat the young man.

He also cured the girl's lung disease.

Later, the young city inspector took the merchant girl to Luoyang. They bought a very large plot of land, built a manor, and spent their days tending their fields.

Whenever the willow catkins began to drift through the air, people in Luoyang City were always happy.

If the story ended here, it would have been a very happy ending.

"But not long after, Li Shiyi was born."