Spring Returns to Me

Across from her stood a young man, fairly tall, dressed in indigo silk. When he smiled, his eyes curved.

He must have been Young Master Chen.

Standing outside the flower hall, Shen Xingyi heard their conversation through a half-open window.

“Little Sister Yuning.”

Chen Hui’s voice was bright and cheerful.

“We parted when we were children. I never imagined you’d grown up so much.”

“Did you know the Marchioness praised you for half an hour just now? My mother was the same. When she got the news, she was so happy she could hardly wait to send me here to marry you at once.”

Du Yuning tilted her head slightly, the corners of her lips lifting.

“Young Master Chen is too kind. The Marchioness is simply generous and said a few nice things about me.”

Chen Hui stepped half a pace closer and smiled.

“When we were children, you climbed a tree to pick mulberries and fell. You cried until your face was all dirty. A few days ago, my mother brought it up again, wondering what had become of that little girl.”

“And just a few days after she mentioned it, your father came to discuss a marriage match. Tell me, isn’t that a coincidence?”

Du Yuning was briefly taken aback, then laughed softly.

“Young Master Chen still remembers that?”

“How could I forget? I had to pick two whole baskets of mulberries to get you to stop crying. And then that little girl turned around and sold all the mulberries I’d worked so hard to gather!”

“She made twenty copper coins and hid it from me.”

“Little Sister Yuning, don’t you think she was awful? Come on, you be the judge!”

Du Yuning laughed so hard her shoulders trembled, radiant as flowers blooming across the spring day.

Shen Xingyi stood outside the window, almost dazed.

It had been so long since he had seen her smile like that.

All the years she had lived in the Marquis’s residence, Du Yuning had always been cautious in every word and action. It seemed she had never once been so carefree and happy.

Thinking back… this was surely a good match.

Green grass spread across the courtyard, and spring returned in silence.

Shen Xingyi withdrew his gaze, turned around, and left, returning to the lonely spring of his own.

12

Yangzhou was a beautiful place.

The Chen family residence lay in the eastern part of the city, with three courtyards in a row.

An ancient locust tree grew in the courtyard. In summer, its shade covered half the space.

Chen Hui had a swing set up beneath it and would tug at me to come play whenever he had free time.

My father-in-law, Master Chen, spent the year traveling for business and was away from home for half of it.

My mother-in-law, Madam Chen, was gentle and soft-spoken. She spoke slowly and never raised her voice.

The first time I paid my respects to her, she took my hand and examined it for a long time, saying the calluses on my palm proved I had suffered a great deal.

“You won’t have to suffer anymore.” She patted the back of my hand. “Our family may not have anything else, but we have plenty of money. If you want something to eat or wear, just tell A Hui.”

During the first month after I married into the Chen family, Chen Hui handed me all the account books, keys, and shop deeds.

“My mother was right.” Chen Hui squatted in the courtyard, pruning flower branches without even looking up. “You’re sharper than I am. From now on, you can run all the shops.”

I cut a rose branch crookedly and glared at him.

“You’re just good at shirking work!”

He looked up and answered solemnly, “That’s called knowing your strengths and putting people in the right place.”

I jabbed him with the handle of my shears.

Chen Hui cried out, clutched his arm, and fell into the flowerbed, loudly demanding that his wife comfort him or he absolutely wouldn’t get up.

Later, I heard that Shen Xingyi did indeed marry Princess Pei Yunzhao.

Half a year after that, I heard that she had given birth to a daughter, and both mother and child were safe.

Later still, I heard that Shen Xingyi’s health had greatly improved. The previous year, he had even sat for the imperial examinations and earned the title of juren.

He hadn’t placed among the top candidates, but he had passed.

Chen Hui and I had a son and a daughter, and our family’s shops were thriving.

On New Year’s Eve, I took our two children to the temple to burn incense.

But when we reached the foot of the mountain, we heard that a noble visitor from the capital was at the temple today, so it could not receive other guests.

I looked up and seemed to meet someone’s gaze.

Before I could see clearly, my son tugged gently at my sleeve.

My daughter clutched a piece of osmanthus cake and insisted on going home, fussing that she couldn’t wait any longer and wanted to eat the New Year’s Eve dinner her father had prepared himself.

I smiled and pinched her little cheek, then turned the carriage back toward home.

Both children had fallen asleep in the carriage on the way back.

I leaned against the side and watched the streets pass by through the curtain.

Shop after shop stood close together. People came and went, and the streets were full of life.

I suddenly remembered how my mother had once pinned an azalea in my hair when I was little.

She had said,

“Du Yuning, you must climb higher.”

But I had climbed in such misery, stumbling again and again, until I was covered in wounds.

I lowered my head to look at my sleeping children and pulled the blanket up over them.

Three days earlier, Chen Hui had boldly announced that he would show off all his skills at the New Year’s Eve family banquet and amaze me.

Thinking of that, I began to look forward to going home.

Outside the window, the streets of Yangzhou slowly slipped away behind us. Shopkeepers were hanging up brilliant lanterns.

Red lanterns shone like trees of fire, and bridges were lit with a blue radiance like starlight.

Tomorrow would begin a new year. Spring would return to me.

From now on, I would slowly rebuild my happiness and never let those good days slip away again.

THE END

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