Lin Wu followed the path until she reached Yunsan Retreat.
The courtyard was quiet, save for the tender sound of a child reading aloud from inside the house—a voice she knew well. As she listened, her steps unconsciously grew lighter, and she took care not to disturb the people within.
Only when the reading stopped did Yun Jianshan seem to sense her presence. He turned his head toward the doorway, and Lin Jing turned with him.
He froze.
His eyes immediately went wide. The next moment, he scrambled to his feet and rushed around the desk toward the door, his short legs moving so quickly that he nearly tripped over the threshold. He staggered, caught his balance, and plunged straight into her arms.
Lin Wu bent down and gently patted his back.
Yun Jianshan walked out of the room and stood behind the threshold, smiling kindly.
Lin Wu inclined herself slightly. “Master Jianshan, forgive me for coming without notice today. I hope you won’t take offense.”
Yun Jianshan shook his head. “Little Jing has been talking about you every day. He’s finally managed to wait until you came.”
Lin Jing stood beside them, his eyes still slightly red. Hearing that, he scratched the back of his little head in embarrassment.
He lifted his face to Lin Wu and asked softly and slowly, “Can I go home now?”
Lin Wu’s heart softened. “Yes. The sky has cleared, and the roads have dried. I came today to take you home.”
“Mm!” Lin Jing nodded vigorously, and his face immediately broke into a bright smile.
He turned and ran into the house. After two steps, he looked back again, as though making sure Lin Wu was still there.
“Then I’ll go pack my things!”
He skipped and hopped as he spoke, his entire little figure radiating excitement.
Yun Jianshan shook his head with a quiet laugh. “He’s been searching the whole mountain for treasures these past few days. The room is almost too full to hold them all. If he doesn’t go home soon, my Yunsan Retreat will become his storeroom.”
After Lin Jing had run off, Yun Jianshan’s voice turned more serious. “They’ve left?”
Lin Wu answered, “Mm,” then seemed to remember something and added, “Young Master Shen has left as well.”
“That boy Guanting really is a good senior brother. He usually can’t be bothered with anything, but this time, it’s rare to see him work so hard.” Yun Jianshan stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at the pile of branches Lin Jing had gathered in the corner of the courtyard.
“This time, we’ve troubled you as well, Master Jianshan,” Lin Wu said.
Yun Jianshan smiled at that. “You sound exactly like Guanting. You make me seem like a teacher with no sense of human feeling.”
Just then, Lin Jing’s clear voice rang out from inside the house. “Teacher! Are we still having lessons today?”
Without turning his head, Yun Jianshan replied, “Your heart has already flown home. What lessons could we possibly have?”
He paid no further attention to the boy. Instead, he turned back inside, brought out a pot of tea and a teacup, and leisurely made his way to the pavilion in the courtyard.
Lin Wu entered the house and saw Lin Jing sitting at the desk, packing his things. His little bundle lay spread open on the floor, with all sorts of odds and ends scattered around it.
Each time he put something inside, he would hold it up for Lin Wu to see.
“This is the notebook I wrote yesterday. I didn’t get a single character wrong. Teacher said I wrote it very well.”
“This is a little stone I found beneath the peach tree the day before yesterday. I think its shape looks like a peach blossom petal.”
“This one, this one!” He pulled out a slender branch and held it high above his head. “It’s a straight little branch! Laifu will definitely like it!”
Lin Jing tucked the branch along the side of the bundle, then pulled Lin Wu toward a corner. A small bamboo basket sat there, filled with neatly arranged bamboo shoots. They were all similar in size, and the mud on their pointed tips had been wiped completely clean.
“I dug these up yesterday! Teacher said bamboo shoots don’t keep well, so I dig up fresh ones every day. Then I take yesterday’s shoots to the academy kitchen. That way, the ones in the basket are always fresh.”
He spoke with great seriousness, his little chin held high and his young face full of pride.
But Lin Wu understood what he was really saying.
He dug up bamboo shoots every day because he had been hoping to bring them home. But since he had been unable to leave during the past few days, he took the ones he dug up to the kitchen instead, then went out to dig up more.
Every day, he had been waiting.
Lin Wu crouched down and gently stroked his head.
They had arrived with one large bundle of luggage. By the time they left, there were many more things to carry.
With his pack on his back, Lin Jing was still visibly excited as they reached the academy gate. He ran a few steps ahead, then noticed that Lin Wu had not followed and hurried back.
Suddenly, he slapped his forehead. “Tomorrow is our birthday!”
“Did Qi Lang tell you?” Lin Wu asked. She was surprised that he had accepted this “new birthday” so readily.
“Yes.” Lin Jing tilted his little head. “Can I invite Tigerhead and Qi Lang to our house tomorrow? And Brother Ting too?”
The smile on Lin Wu’s face faded slightly, but she nodded. “Of course, but—”
“Then I’ll go tell Tigerhead!” Before she could finish speaking, he dashed off toward the children’s school. His small figure quickly vanished around the corner.
A moment later, he came running back, panting hard, and climbed into the mule cart.
“I told them!” He sat down beside Lin Wu. “I told them to come straight to our house after school. That way, it won’t delay business at our shop.”
Hearing how carefully he had arranged everything, Lin Wu couldn’t help laughing. “It’s rare for us to celebrate our birthday. Shouldn’t we take the day off tomorrow?”
Little Jing immediately hesitated. His brows furrowed as he thought for a while. Then he said, “We should still go to the shop. They can come celebrate our birthday there.”
“You’ve been at school for so many days. Don’t you want to rest?”
Little Shopkeeper Lin Jing immediately shook his head, his young face solemn. “Studying and working aren’t the same. Although I’ve been studying for many days, it’s also been many days since I worked.”
“But I want to rest for a day. We’ve been doing business for so many days in a row, and I’m tired.” Lin Wu looked at him and deliberately shook her head as though exhausted.
Little Shopkeeper Lin Jing let out an old-fashioned sigh. Unwilling to make things difficult for anyone, he quickly changed his mind. “All right, then. Teacher says work and rest must be balanced.”
The mule cart rocked along at an unhurried pace, while Lin Jing chattered nonstop the entire way.
First, he told her what he had learned at the academy—how many passages he had memorized and how many notebooks he had written. Then he asked how business at the shop had been, how much money they had made over the past few days, and whether the cashbox was full.
The words tumbled from his little mouth in a seamless stream, switching one moment to the solemn language of the classics and the next to the calculations of copper coins.
“It rained these past few days, so I imagine people didn’t like going out. That must be why fewer people bought our flatcakes.” Lin Wu sat inside the cart, lifting the curtain to look outside.
The sunlight was bright and warm. It slipped through the gaps in the cart and the edge of the curtain, falling across her in shifting patches of light and shadow.
Only then did she realize that she had not ridden in a cart for a long time.
So this was what the world looked like from inside one. With the curtain lifted only a narrow crack, the view seemed framed. She couldn’t see the scenery on either side, only the small strip contained within that frame. As the cart moved forward, everything in that strip flashed past. Before she could make out what anything was, it was already gone.
Nothing remained in her eyes. Everything vanished in an instant.
Little Shopkeeper Lin Jing had been worrying over the shop’s poor business these past few days, but as they passed the entrance to Jizhen Pavilion, he suddenly asked, “Should we get down and tell Brother Ting to come to our house for our birthday tomorrow?”
Lin Wu let the curtain fall, and the entrance to Jizhen Pavilion disappeared from view.
Her voice was calm. “Your Brother Ting isn’t in Huzhou anymore.”
It seemed Tigerhead had forgotten to tell him the news.
“Huh?” Lin Jing froze.
“Then… then where did Brother Ting go?”
“To the capital.”
Lin Jing sat there in a daze, the smile on his little face slowly fading. After a long while, he muttered softly, “What are we going to do? I haven’t practiced martial arts for so many days…”
Well, that settled it. He didn’t need to go to school for the time being, but the shop wouldn’t be opening tomorrow, either, and he wouldn’t be practicing martial arts.
He sighed again and leaned against the side of the carriage. “I only stayed at the academy for a little while, but everything changed by the time I came out.”
Lin Wu found this rather amusing. He sounded almost as if he had been locked up somewhere and had only just been released.
Fortunately, Laifu at home was still exactly the same.
The dog had been lying by the courtyard gate, but the moment it heard the rumble of wheels, its ears sprang up. As soon as it saw Lin Jing push open the gate, it dashed over on its four short legs, circling him excitedly, its tail wagging so fast it was almost impossible to see.
“Laifu still remembers me. What a clever dog!” Lin Jing hugged Laifu and rubbed against it for quite some time. Then, as if he had suddenly noticed something, he held Laifu’s head in both hands and turned it this way and that. A moment later, he hurried over to Lin Wu with the dog in his arms.
“Laifu…” He lifted the dog up, his voice filled with surprise and delight. “Laifu’s ears are standing up!”
At his words, Lin Wu lowered her head for a closer look. Sure enough, the pair of ears that had always drooped limply now stood up, full of spirit.
“Puppies’ ears droop when they’re little,” Lin Wu said, pinching one of the furry, soft ear tips. “When they grow up, their ears stand up. Laifu is a proud little dog now.”
Lin Jing was still fascinated. He held Laifu’s head and examined it for a long while. Laifu did not struggle, simply letting him turn its head this way and that. Its tail continued to wag, and every now and then it licked Lin Jing’s wrist.
Once he had had his fill of looking, Lin Jing set Laifu down and pulled out the straight wooden stick he had brought back from the academy. He waved it in front of Laifu.
Laifu opened its mouth and immediately clamped down on it, tossing its head back and forth as it tried to wrestle the stick away.
Lin Jing looked extremely pleased with himself. “I knew Laifu would like this!”
Laifu loved all the ordinary little things Lin Jing picked up by the roadside or in the woods. It showed far less interest in the exquisite ornaments Shen Guanting gave it.
After taking Laifu around the courtyard, Lin Jing ran over to the little vegetable patch and crouched down to inspect it carefully.
He counted the scallions that remained, then compared them with the little seedlings newly poking their heads out beside them. Tilting his head back, he called, “We’re almost out of scallions! We need to plant some more!”
Lin Wu was carrying things into the house. Hearing him, she called back, “Will you plant them tomorrow?”
“Okay!” Lin Jing crouched back down and pulled up several weeds from the vegetable patch, tossing them aside.
Lin Wu carried the small basket of bamboo shoots over to the well, drew up a bucket of water, and began washing them. After making a tour of the courtyard, Lin Jing carried over a little stool and sat beside her, reaching out to help peel the shoots.
He had peeled two when his little face suddenly scrunched up.
“There were so many bamboo shoots in the bamboo grove behind the academy. We ate bamboo shoots in the kitchen for so many days. There were bamboo shoots at every meal.”
“Luckily, I don’t eat very much. Thank you for bringing me a gift from the academy,” Lin Wu said with a laugh. She couldn’t help feeling that this Little Shopkeeper Lin Jing was truly remarkable—he had gone to stay at the academy and managed to study and bring things home at the same time.
After peeling two more shoots, he spoke again. “When I was sleeping at night, I could hear sounds coming from the bamboo grove—‘crack, crack.’ The teacher said that was the bamboo growing taller. Bamboo grows so quickly! I wish I could grow that fast too. Then I could sleep once and wake up a whole lot taller.”
Lin Wu placed the washed bamboo shoots into the basket, then stood and shook the water from her hands.
“Come here.” She took Lin Jing by the hand and led him to the kitchen doorway. “Stand up straight.”
Lin Jing obediently stood with his back against the doorframe, looking up at her with his little head tilted back.
Lin Wu compared his height with a faint, old ink mark on the frame. She had drawn it when they had first rented the courtyard. Now, the top of Lin Jing’s head was a good hand and a half above it.
“A Jing has grown taller too.” She pointed to the mark.
“Really?” Lin Jing rose onto his toes and leaned closer for a careful look.
Lin Wu took a short piece of charcoal from inside the house and gently drew a new mark at the height of the top of his head.
“Eat your meals properly from now on, and you’ll keep growing taller.”
Lin Jing stared at the two marks on the doorframe for a long while. “Do you think I’ll grow as tall as Brother Ting?”
Among everyone he knew, Shen Guanting was the tallest, so naturally Lin Jing had taken him as his goal.
“You should be able to.” Lin Wu actually thought it over seriously.
His Highness and Her Highness were both tall, so Lin Jing would likely not end up short.
Satisfied with this answer, Lin Jing sat down beside the stove and began starting the fire.
He arranged several thin branches over the kindling and bent his head to blow on them. Slowly, the flames began to leap up.
The firelight flickered across his face.
“Why did Brother Ting have to go to the capital?”
His voice was very soft. The final two words, “the capital,” nearly melted into the crackling of the dry branches.
The mention of Shen Guanting had reminded him of where he had gone.
“Perhaps he went there to do business,” Lin Wu said vaguely. In truth, she could vaguely guess at the reason. He had most likely made the trip himself in order to draw the attention of the people who had come from the capital elsewhere. But these past few days, she had never managed to run into him, and all her guesses remained just that—guesses.
Lin Jing suddenly lowered his voice and leaned toward her conspiratorially. “Tigerhead said Brother Ting lost money doing business in South Cliff and got scolded by his family.”
Lin Wu thought that losing money and being scolded was probably unlikely. The objects he casually displayed in his own courtyard and at Jizhen Pavilion were each worth a fortune; he likely didn’t even know what it meant to lose money.
Yet something indescribable suddenly stirred in her heart.
That was the place she had worked so hard to escape from with Lin Jing.
And now, he was going to step into it himself, facing the storm head-on.
