Miss and the Scholar

The rain outside the inn window had eased considerably by morning.

A fine drizzle drifted through the woods and over the official road, cool and peaceful, without hindering travelers on their way.

Gu Baishui had risen early. Leaning by the window, he enthusiastically greeted the guards downstairs.

"They say we'll reach the outskirts of Luoyang City before dusk today."

Gu Baishui turned around and glanced at the lazy girl still lounging in bed. He asked in puzzlement, "You don't seem worried at all."

"What's there to worry about?"

Still curled up under the covers, the girl yawned listlessly. "I'm just visiting relatives, not seeking revenge. What's there to be anxious about?"

Gu Baishui thought for a moment, then asked, "Have you never met your family in Luoyang?"

The girl tilted her head, then shrugged and smiled. "Never met them is putting it too absolutely. I must have seen them at least once when I was born."

The girl's answer was rather shameless. When it came to finding her family in Luoyang, she hadn't seemed nervous about it at any point.

Gu Baishui grew even more curious. "Your surname is Luo, so your father's surname is Luo too?"

Unexpectedly, the girl shook her head. "His surname isn't Luo. It's Ye. I took Grandma's surname, and I don't plan to change it."

Gu Baishui was taken aback, not quite understanding. "Why is that?"

"Because he never raised me. My mother didn't want me to take either of their surnames, either. She said it would be too unlucky and too hard."

Luo Ziwei's eyelids twitched, and she smiled helplessly. "Mother has always envied Grandma. She often says that if a woman could live her whole life like Grandma, that would truly be carefree and enviable."

The room fell quiet for a moment. The Green-Robed Youth silently rubbed his chest.

Hidden against his chest was an ancient Bronze Mirror, brought out of the Great Emperor's Forbidden Zone. Now, for some reason... it was growing hotter and hotter.

The Bronze Mirror seemed to be warning him, and cautioning its master about some unknown danger.

Thinking of the dream he'd had last night and the furry figure in it, Gu Baishui vaguely guessed that this danger and warning might have something to do with the old city of Luoyang.

But he hadn't heard the whole story, so after remaining silent for quite a while, he pressed the slightly raised spot on his chest and ignored the Bronze Mirror's warning.

By then, Luo Ziwei had folded her quilt and sat down at the wooden table, pouring herself a cup of cool tea.

After a brief moment of thought, she said to the youth by the window, "Actually, neither my father nor my mother was from Luoyang. They both used to live in a Small City."

The Small City was called Qingting.

Qingting was a very long way from both Luoyang and Chang'an. It took a long time to reach those prosperous old cities.

In the Small City, there was a girl and a scholar. They were childhood sweethearts, innocent and inseparable, and had grown up together from a young age.

The girl's family was well-off by the standards of the Small City, and she was a carefree young lady.

The scholar, on the other hand, came from a poor family and had grown up in a dilapidated schoolhouse.

At the schoolhouse in the Small City, the scholar had a father who was old-fashioned and stubborn: an Old Scholar who had never earned any notable honors in his life.

The Old Scholar had spent his whole life poring over the Books of the Sages. When he was young, he took the Imperial Examinations more than a dozen times without accomplishing anything. In the end, with no money to support him, he simply couldn't hold out any longer in that prosperous old city. He gave up the examinations and returned to Qingting, disheartened.

The Old Scholar had never found success in his life, so he placed his hopes in his son.

He wanted his son to fulfill his dream, go to that prosperous old city, and earn great honors. Then he could return home in glory and wash away the obsession that had clung to him all his life.

So the Old Scholar became ever more strict, beating and scolding his son even when he was still a little child.

People said girls matured early, and even then the young Miss felt sorry for the scholar, who was always being beaten and scolded.

The two children often escaped their homes and the schoolhouse late at night. Beneath an old tree, they gazed at the moon and talked about the lives they wanted.

The scholar said he was determined to make something of himself. He would read many books, then go to Luoyang and Chang'an to earn honors in the examinations. He would prove that he was no worse than anyone else, and when his name appeared on the golden list, his father would be proud of him.

The scholar's ambitions were lofty, but the girl thought for a long time and couldn't come up with anything.

She felt she was probably just an ordinary person without much ambition. It would be enough to live a steady, peaceful life.

"If I can, I want to go somewhere else with the person I love, try delicious food, and see beautiful scenery."

The scholar promised they would. The two of them would both make their wishes come true.

The girl blinked curiously. "Why?"

The scholar said, "The moon is beautiful tonight, and we still have a long time ahead of us."

When he said "we," the girl smiled.

Later, the scholar and the girl became engaged.

When he was nineteen, the scholar left the Small City, carrying a thick bundle and setting out on the road full of ambition.

He was going to a vast, prosperous city. He would earn great honors, then return in glory.

The girl remained in the Small City and watched the scholar set off. She only smiled and said nothing.

That day, the Old Scholar walked out of the schoolhouse and watched his son set out on that long, distant road.

For some reason, the Old Scholar suddenly remembered the day he had left Chang'an.

The rain outside Chang'an had poured down, and the rainwater had been cold.

Listening to the clamor within the city, the Old Scholar had shouldered his bundle and left in silence, like an old dog caught in the rain.

That was the moment he remembered most vividly in his life, and also the one he regretted and suffered over most. It was then that the Old Scholar suddenly understood what the books meant by "the two tragedies of life."

One tragedy was having all hope utterly destroyed. What was the other one again?

The Old Scholar suddenly couldn't remember.

He only narrowed his eyes and watched the young scholar's back as he left the Small City, full of ambition.

After that, he never came back...

The Old Scholar had taken the examinations for more than a decade, and the hardworking scholar was always bound to do better than him.

In his first year taking the Imperial Examinations in Chang'an, the scholar passed the Juren examination, taking half a step onto the path to officialdom.

He sent a letter back to the Small City, then stayed in Chang'an to prepare for the examinations the following year.

But in the second year, he only passed the Scholar examination, a lower level than Juren.

Third year, Scholar.

Fourth year, failed.

Fifth year, still failed...

The young scholar wrote home less and less, though the letters he received never stopped.

But... they weren't all good news.

In the sixth year after the scholar left home, the Old Scholar passed away. The schoolhouse fell into disrepair, floodwaters spread, and that distant Small City endured a very difficult year.

The girl in the Small City, however, was doing just fine. The scholar needn't worry himself on her account.

The scholar in Chang'an seemed to have become possessed. He poured his heart and blood into earning honors, living frugally and enduring year after year.

He seemed to have forgotten the distant Small City behind him, and the girl waiting for him there.

But it was more likely that he felt too ashamed to face it and didn't dare think back.

Later, Chang'an received one final letter and some travel money.

The girl in the Small City wasn't waiting for him anymore. She had married into a family of comparable standing.

She hoped he would take good care of himself in Chang'an.

After receiving the letter, the scholar shut himself away in his dim little study. He remained silent for a very, very long time and didn't come out.

Two years later, a scholar left Chang'an and headed for Luoyang.

A year after that, the scholar married into a merchant family in Luoyang City. From then on, he never returned to that Small City.