Annual Ceremony

Chapter 49 Autumnal Equinox (Part )

When talking among family members, Mrs. Dong never beats around the bush.

"...your cousin Shen is used to being noisy and seems to be a bit unreasonable, but she is not a bad person...if they get along for a long time and know each other well, and they are relatives, there won't be any messy conflicts."

The old lady also said frankly: "But it is inevitable to get used to each other... Originally, they were just like strangers, but suddenly they have to become family members who are together day and night. Naturally, it is not that easy. There are some tricks involved, and I will explain them to you in detail later."

"It's indeed not a perfect marriage..." Old Mrs. Dong sighed softly, looking at her smart and lively granddaughter, she stretched out a hand to stroke her granddaughter's hair, her old eyes full of love and pity: "If you really want to see, whether it's Dong Xiu or others, there are very few men in this world who can understand and match our Lord De..."

"But the current situation at home has hindered your marriage..."

Zhenyi raised her hand, held her grandmother's hand, shook her head gently, and leaned against her grandmother's shoulder.

Juzi saw that there was thought and confusion in Zhenyi's dark eyes, and she seemed a little uneasy.

The old lady seemed to be able to sense the girl's mood, and her tone became softer, but what she said was an unavoidable reality:
"It's hard to find something completely satisfying in this world, but life has to go on... We women are born with a mountain pressing down on us, and we can only survive by moving around under it. The more you want to stand up, the more you want to look into the distance, the more the mountain will suffocate you. If you really force yourself to stand up straight, you'll be crushed to pieces in the next moment..."

"Grandmother certainly wants our Zhen'er to live a free life more than anyone else, but Grandmother's words don't count. Only the world's words count."

"My eldest mother was also a teenager. She was much stronger than others since she was young. When my father was alive, he often said that I was no worse than my brothers. But what can I do about it? I still have to live under that mountain."

When the old woman said this, she looked at the black hair of the girl in front of her, tears welled up in her eyes, and her voice was still filled with a loving smile: "When I first saw Zhen'er, who was still in her cradle, I looked at her grape-like eyes and felt both fondness and pity for her... When you grew up a little, I saw that you were more intelligent and tenacious than other children, so I didn't want to let you suffer too much, so I decided to keep you by my side... But grandma is old, and can't always take care of our Zhen'er..."

"Grandmother, how could you not know that you prefer the great ways that your grandfather taught you... but it is so difficult. Your grandfather doesn't even know what this means to a woman. He has become a saint, but we, Zhen'er, still have to live in this world... Grandmother is not nobler than these saints. She just wants us, Zhen'er, to live a less difficult life."

"It's too hard to marry into a rich family. Even if they don't have much wealth, marrying into a poor Confucian family will still be very strict. The Dong family has a lot of experience, and they have dabbled in a little bit of everything, but they don't know much about anything. Although the family is not rich, it's good that you won't starve to death, and no one around you will use those complicated rules to pressure you... If you get used to it slowly, your life will not be too bad."

Zhenyi listened quietly to her grandmother's words as she carefully planned her future.

Juzi could tell that the old lady had done her best to arrange the rest of Zhenyi's life. The old lady was really lovely and respectable, but the world was really shameless and terrible. Seventeen years old was obviously the age for learning and making progress.

That night, Zhenyi listened to a lot from her grandmother.

As she grew older, Zhenyi gradually understood in the past two years that compared to her grandfather, her grandmother was the hardest-working and most laborious person in the family.

Her grandfather taught her to establish her mind, and her grandmother helped her to establish her world, but these two often lead to completely opposite directions... Who is more right, and who is more wrong? Zhenyi had no answer at this time.

As for how to live a good life, the seventeen-year-old Zhenyi has no answer of her own, but Zhenyi knows that her grandmother is the one who understands her the most, loves her the most and hopes for her "well".

Zhenyi was also vaguely certain that as long as she listened to her grandmother's words, life would not be too bad.

Thinking of this "not-too-bad" future, Zhenyi felt a little nameless resentment in her heart, but it was quickly covered up by a surge of reluctance.

Zhenyi hugged her grandmother and finally said something willful while choking with sobs: "Grandmother, I can't bear to leave you... I can't bear to leave my father, mother, elder brother, elder sister, and Jingyi and the others..."

"Silly child, there is still some time to go. They want to keep my daughter here, but I, as her mother, don't agree." The old lady smiled and hugged her granddaughter, patting her like she did when she was young: "Getting married is a big deal, and your mother must give her the nod... The three letters and six ceremonies are necessary. The two families are far apart, and it will take at least one or two years to get it done."

He added: "And I have some other plans..."

"Although a married woman is still far from home, Shuzhong is indeed a bit far..." The old lady held her granddaughter and said slowly: "I will take you around later to see the places where I stayed and the trees I climbed when I was young... If you miss home in the future, you can go to those places and think about how I lived here for a long time. Maybe you will feel better. What do you think of this idea?"

Zhenyi's eyes were warm and bitter. She raised her head and asked her grandmother, "Did you climb trees when you were a child?"

"How could she not have crawled before? And she was a good climber, your uncle and the others couldn't catch up...but she scratched a lot of her skirts. In summer, she wore thin clothes, and sometimes even her belly was scratched. She didn't dare to tell the adults!"

Orange, who was sitting upright, felt a burning pain in his belly. He raised one of his front paws and looked down at his furry, bulging belly.

Zhenyi, with red eyes, laughed along with her grandmother and hugged her tighter.

Zhenyi then lived with her eldest mother in the Dong family for more than a month.

During this period, Juzi looked at Dong Xiu from all angles and only half liked him. In terms of appearance and personality, Dong Xiu was quite acceptable. He was also very enthusiastic and positive towards Zhenyi. It was obvious that he really liked her. However, 80% of this liking was for Zhenyi's poems. Juzi had followed Dong Xiu and found that he always brought Zhenyi's poems to his friends and classmates for them to read. This was considered a taboo in Jinling. Fortunately, the local customs were not so strict. Zhenyi, who advocated writing biographies for women, was not averse to passing on her poems. Dong Xiu's friends also praised Zhenyi's poems. Dong Xiu always felt very proud and became more enthusiastic towards Zhenyi.

However, he could not understand the mathematics that Zhenyi was better at, and thought that poetry was more radiant and elegant. Mathematics that was too deep was boring and useless, and others would not understand it.

As for stargazing, Dong Xiu was even more surprised. There were also peepholes, which were all foreign things. The court did not encourage or promote these things, so what was the use of learning them?
On this point, Zhenyi disagreed with him. She believed that academic knowledge should not be divided into the East and the West, but should be integrated. Who said that stargazing was a Western thing? The ancestors of the Chinese people had long been looking up at the stars above their heads. It was just that they had indeed stopped making progress in recent dynasties, so they should catch up.

The two sides had different opinions, but Dong Xiu just smiled and didn't care.

When Ju Ziguan and his partner get along, he always feels like something is missing. They often have a feeling of talking to each other and just stopping at the superficial level.

Juzi only half-liked Dong Xiu, while Dong Xiu's mother Shen gradually began to half-like Zhenyi from someone she completely disliked. One day, she heard Zhenyi call her "Auntie" again, and she inexplicably felt that this Jiangnan accent was quite pleasant... After all, people were not as delicate, picky and difficult to serve as she had imagined.

Moreover, everyone in the Dong family was in favor of this marriage, so Shen secretly made an excuse for herself, saying "I don't want to be the only bad person", and gave Zhenyi a dowry bracelet as a token of trust.

After the token was sent out, Shen suggested that the marriage be arranged as soon as possible. It was not that she liked Zhenyi so quickly, but because she asked a Feng Shui master to tell her fortune. The master said that her son must get married before he turned 21, that is, within two years, otherwise he would encounter ten years of bad luck, and maybe even a major disaster... Shen believed it without a doubt, so the marriage had to be arranged as soon as possible and preparations had to be made early.

In early November, the Wang family set out and left Shuzhong.

This year is coming to an end. According to the general arrangement of the two families, the marriage will be arranged in the spring of the year after next. The letter has been sent back to Jinling. There is plenty of time to spend the Spring Festival in Shu before leaving. However, Mrs. Dong has other plans.

The old lady did not want to go back to Jinling directly, but planned to take another step forward, heading north from Shuzhong and then east to Jilin.

Orange was very worried about the old lady's health. She ate less and less, and even the fresh, fragrant and spicy homeland of Shu could not awaken her appetite. Instead, she took more and more medicine.

Perhaps this is the reason why the old lady insisted on continuing her journey, wanting to walk all the possible roads for her family so as to have no regrets.

Heading northeast, you will first pass Xi'an Prefecture and then Taiyuan Prefecture.

Still on the road, still with her family - for Yu Zhenyi, this is the best 18th birthday gift.

Of course, Juzi still caught a bird and gave it to Zhenyi to roast and eat, but it was not a house sparrow, but a colorful bird that Zhenyi could not even call out.

Zhenyi touched Juzi's head to thank him, but saw that the bird was still alive.

This time, Zhenyi did not roast the bird for eating, but kept it. After about seven or eight days, when the bird's injuries were almost healed, Zhenyi let the bird fly away after obtaining Juzi's consent.

Although Juzi respected Zhenyi's decision, she was a little confused. Did Zhenyi not like to eat this kind of bird? Was it not suitable to be roasted?
But seeing Zhenyi standing there, looking up at the bird flying away for a long time, Juzi seemed to understand something vaguely.

Although it was the beginning of spring, snow was still falling in Taiyuan Prefecture. The girl looked up at the sky, and the cloak she was wearing fluttered in the wind and snow, like a beautiful feather that could not be waved.

On that day, at the end of Zhenyi's "notebook", she drew a colorful bird flying far away.

After the last snowfall, the icy air finally begins to melt, and everything begins to sprout. With every step forward, there is more vitality under your feet.

Zhenyi cherished every step, going east from Taiyuan, passing through the prosperous and bustling Beijing, passing Huludao, climbing up the Jieshi Mountain, looking at the Bohai Sea where "the sun and the moon seem to be coming out of it, and the stars seem to be coming out of it", and then seeing the endless Changbai Mountains -

There were more and more manuscript papers in Zhenyi's bookcase, and every page was filled with handwriting. In addition to mathematics, it also covered a wide range of topics such as astrology, topography, and phenological and meteorological records.

Along the way, he continued to visit old friends and practice medicine. When spring passed and autumn came, Zhenyi finally compiled the "Medical Prescriptions" for his father, which totaled three volumes. The medical theory of "preventing disease before it occurs" alone took up a whole volume - Juzi called this the health-preserving chapter.

When Zhenyi turned the yellowed "Collected Explanations of the 72 Seasonal Changes" to the page of "Autumnal Equinox" again, the end of this journey of thousands of miles, Mishan Prefecture in Jilin, had finally arrived.

The border at the time of the Autumnal Equinox has become desolate with a mixture of green and yellow. This was once the place where King Fu was exiled, and it was also the old place where Zhenyi’s many memories and thoughts were hidden.

When revisiting an old place, it is natural to go see the old friends you miss. Zhenyi first went to Chen's house with her grandmother and father.

　At this point, the long autumnal equinox spanning several years ended, and Zhenyi's journey of thousands of miles also ended.

　
(End of this chapter)