Horse-head Wall Reflects the Qing Dynasty

Chapter 98 The mountains are quiet, the smoke from cooking fires wafts through the alleys—where does it come from?

“You are a good girl, and so is Jiao An’er… People can’t choose where they are born, and the choices she made have been the right ones.”

Ling Xiao sat at Cheng Mian's parents' house for a long time. Cheng Mian's mother entertained him with food and drink and had some private conversations with the young lady. After a while, when she saw that Ling Xiao was about to leave, she persuaded him to eat a lot of the food she had just prepared.

Seeing that it was Ling Xiao alone again, Cheng's mother finally couldn't help but say the words above: "As for you, young lady, how can you not be pitiful with both your parents dead?"

"If you don't mind, my husband and I feel a connection with you. When you get married in the future, you can leave from here and consider us as your family."

Ling Xiao is sweet-talking and efficient. Of course, all of this comes with a prerequisite—that someone genuinely cares for her.

"Ling Xiao's family background is not good, how dare he aspire to marry such a person?" Perhaps the two elders still do not know that he is the courtesan from the brothel who caused a sensation in the capital and was to be married by the newly appointed top scholar? Ling Xiao is indeed bothered by this identity.

Even though she had left the music academy, the words of the world could be terrifying. The more genuinely someone cared for her, the less she wanted to cause them trouble.

"What troubles are there? My husband and I had a child late in life, but our own child died young. We just hope to have someone to talk to and to keep us company. That would be a joy."

“Lingxiao’s past is not good, and we dare not tarnish the family’s reputation.”

"Since the bad things you mentioned are in the past, the present is the present, and the future is the future... Look, even the pine trees and clouds on the mountain change their appearance every day, let alone people? Fire refines true gold, and what remains is the most precious existence."

Seeing that Ling Xiao was avoiding the topic, the old woman did not bring it up again. She then asked her husband to fetch some freshly made rice wine and handed it to Ling Xiao, saying, "Alright, we won't force you to do whatever you want. Take this rice wine back with Jiao An'er. It's not easy for two young ladies."

"If you have the time, you should also advise her that from now on, she has to live her own life..."

"In the end, her father only treated her like a servant, summoning her at will and dismissing her at will. Even if there were feelings involved, she should live her own life from now on."

The old woman didn't have many words to say to Guan Yin. Because as people get older, they can tell who can truly comfort them and who is trapped in their past and unable to extricate themselves.

"The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, the stars shift and the constellations turn, and we can see it for decades."

"These mountains in the distance have watched generations of us come and go. If they pitied the brevity of life, they would have collapsed long ago." The old woman was not illiterate; every word she spoke carried the weight of life and contained philosophy. "We should always look forward and grow upward."

"Yes."

The old woman's hand, which had somehow climbed up to Lingxiao, gently stroked her arm, her eyes filled with the kindness and affection of an elder for a younger person. The latter, meanwhile, stood up, wiping the water stains on the table with the fabric of her swimsuit.

"Okay." Ling Xiao agreed to the old woman's worried advice with two consecutive sentences, but still did not give a definite response.

Looking back beyond the courtyard gate, Ling Xiao saw no trumpet vines clinging to the wall in front of the Cheng family's house. Instead, there was a loquat tree that exuded fragrance and looked quite sturdy—unlike trumpet vines, which, having fallen from the wall, had nowhere to climb.

Ultimately, it shouldn't resemble the trumpet vine. Possessing only beauty, it is forced to cling to other things, lacking any means of self-protection. Thus, it has no choice but to drift with the wind and rain, becoming merely a beautiful ornament.

A thought suddenly popped into Ling Xiao's mind, but after a moment, he shook his head and banished the terrible idea.

"No, it shouldn't be like that. He even came to see you, didn't he?" In the end, one sentence after another planted a seed in Ling Xiao's heart.

The brothel, which Ling Xiao had always wanted to leave, has now become the safest and most risk-free place in his heart.
By stepping out and choosing Zhang Shuwen, Ling Xiao had almost cut off his own escape route...

Last night's rain created a misty atmosphere over the distant mountains, but it also made the road ahead slippery and muddy. Ling Xiao frowned and tiptoed across, being extremely careful. However, he landed a little too heavily and left a long mark on the ground.

Having barely regained his footing, Ling Xiao looked back with lingering fear and saw the reflections of pink walls and black tiles, as well as distant green mountains, in the shallow puddles on the ground—a beautiful scene of spring and summer transitioning, yet the heart was filled with unease.

Patting his chest, Ling Xiao continued his journey towards the courtyard. Fortunately, when he reached the gate, the food in his hands was still intact, and the steaming rice wine was still rising.

Lingxiao's clothes were stained with faint mud. After straightening his clothes, Lingxiao's gaze inevitably fell on the trumpet creeper on the wall. The rain was heavy and the delicate flowers were covered with fallen petals. He wondered if they could be like the poem, "Fallen petals are not heartless things, they turn into spring mud to protect the flowers."

Or perhaps it's like the lyrics of the song my mother sang: "Do you know, do you know, it should be green leaves and faded flowers." The delicate blossoms nourish the green leaves in vain; when they bloom again next year, they won't be the same flowers, and the person admiring them will no longer be me...

Perhaps, as Madam Cheng said, prolonged loneliness inevitably leads to melancholy. Ling Xiao had someone by his side, and Madam Cheng and Master Cheng were inseparable, yet there were too many unspeakable things, ultimately causing him distress.

"Lingxiao, come inside as soon as you get back. It just rained outside, so don't catch a cold." Apart from being a man of few words, Liu Jiao'an's words of comfort and warmth remained unchanged.

It was as if the Liu family's crime had been judged on the spot, without affecting Liu Jiao'an in the slightest—in fact, the dowry belonging to Liu Jiao'an's mother was left to Liu Jiao'an.

"Alright, here it comes." But Ling Xiao could tell that things weren't as they seemed on the surface.

Just as others perceive her as shy, hesitant, and impatient, she actually harbors unspeakable sorrows—has anyone ever asked the trumpet creeper in front of the door how it feels?

The light drizzle is lulling people to sleep again.

As the day at the private school drew to a close, Cheng Heng, feeling bored, naturally couldn't resist bothering Guan Yin.

The two remained tacitly in sync. As Cheng Heng said, in this era, their social status and relationship prevented their feelings from progressing further.

If they were to truly have the chance to return to the present world where he was a theater director and she was a middle school teacher, how their feelings for each other would be resolved would only be left to time and the unknown.

"I miss my phone, and I also miss those junk foods."

The candidates for the imperial examination this year are not particularly outstanding. The emperor has not yet remembered that there is such a third-ranked scholar, nor has he decided on a position for Cheng Heng. So Cheng Heng simply took this opportunity to relax.

"How can I go back... I think I can smell dried tea leaves." Cheng Heng's thoughts were jumping around.

As a director, one needs to be logically sound, but also imaginative. Compared to Guan Yin, Cheng Heng himself seems more like a child who hasn't grown up.

Having shed the facade imposed upon them by this era, the two young people, who have had little contact with society, actually possess their own naivety and weaknesses.

She tries to teach like a teacher, and puts on a show out of passion... but she is forced to show a mature side.

With a stable income, Guan Yin was fortunate enough to turn down the script project—Cheng Heng's writing inevitably became filled with "socialist core values" at some point. The saying "the less you do, the less you make mistakes; the less you say, the less you make mistakes" is absolutely true.

Especially in a situation where there are wolves in front and tigers behind, if you want to survive, you must first conceal your sharpness. The other party was obviously not surprised. The previous script was enough to play for a while. Moreover, according to Cheng Heng, the play was "always fresh and new." The two sides parted amicably, without causing as much tension as between Cheng Heng and the unscrupulous boss.

"Want some dried tofu?"

When people have nothing to do, they always feel like they have no taste in their mouths. Of course, Guan Yin also knows that his generation simply wants to have some snacks to chew on when they are free, and they also hope to have some snacks to eat when they are not free.

I can't eat much of the very sweet candy, but dried tofu is a good snack.

"Then let's go out for a walk." There are no long holidays like winter and summer vacations. Even during the Dragon Boat Festival and Qingming Festival, we haven't had a chance to rest before we have to continue teaching.

Guan Yin had been staying in the courtyard of the private school for too long and wanted to go out for a walk.

Originally, Guan Yin thought that without cell phones here, he would be bored and just enjoy the scenery. However, he never expected that being a teacher would be more arduous than being a student. Thanks to Cheng Heng's idea, Guan Yin, who originally only wanted to leave, also found a goal.

Not far away, an old woman stood inside a house, a stall was set up at the door, and an old man was hawking dried tofu. For a moment, Cheng Heng felt a little dazed.

In his childhood hometown, there was also a husband-and-wife shop like this. The dried tofu he never tired of was bought from this century-old shop... So, in one world after another, what Cheng Heng liked was not just dried tofu, but clearly the flavor that had been preserved there.

With this scent around, everything feels like a dream, and whether or not we can go back, at least we know we're alive.

"Want to buy it?"

"Let's buy some." Once she understood, the dried tofu in front of her wasn't so tempting anymore.

The imperial banquet was filled with delicacies from land and sea, and the modern world has never lacked food from all over the country. This dried tofu becomes more fragrant the more you chew it, but its underlying color is a faint bitter and salty taste, much like a person trapped in time and worrying.

"Okay." Seeing Cheng Heng's hesitation, Guan Yin didn't buy too much.

But as his gaze swept over the somewhat dark and gloomy house, noticing the mottled colors of the steam on the walls, Guan Yin found another excuse to give the old couple an extra half string of cash.

The elderly couple refused to accept it no matter what they said. Guan Yin and Cheng Heng tried to refuse several times, but in the end, they gave in to the former's insistence.

"This kind of life is quite good, peaceful and content, and I enjoy it."

The couple obviously didn't have the same worries as the second-rank official in the capital.

By now, Cheng Heng and Guan Yin have long since deduced the profit chain behind the brothels.

Originally, it was a story about a courtesan falling in love with a scholar preparing for the imperial examinations, but now the courtesan has retired from the scene and stayed in Huizhou.

The feelings between the two gradually faded into a flat imprint in their memories. They could never forget it, but it had already changed.

Using the extensive network of information channels within the music academy, the madam relayed news from her hometown to the official in the capital, helping him lay the foundation for a meteoric rise in his career.

On the other hand, under the guise of old feelings, they became the backing for this brothel—which allowed so many girls to entertain customers without having to sell themselves, relying solely on their skills.

This allowed Guan Tongtong, the original owner of the body, to hide among them for so many years, while Liu's father, Liu Qingxian, was unaware of the true identity of "Yin Yunshanren".

Therefore, it becomes even more obvious who is related to the person who requested the script. They are merely pawns in a game of chess; when they are useful, life is easier.

"Guan Yin, have you thought about what we'll do if we really can't go back?"

He had thought about it, but dared not think about it further. This was the answer in Guan Yin's heart, but also the answer he dared not say aloud.

"Avoid the prophecy." Guan Yin murmured to himself, without revealing his answer to Cheng Heng.

Guan Yin himself was not superstitious, but when it came to this kind of matter, he had to be extremely cautious.

"You said if we died, could we go back?"

The other side of the answer is even more terrifying. What if you can't go back even after you're dead?

When reading novels, who hasn't imagined that they might one day travel back in time and become the male or female protagonist? When Cheng Heng reads novels featuring plagiarists, he wants to travel back in time and first write about the characters created by Tang Xianzu, Bai Pu, Li Yuyu, and others.

They could even revise it, removing all the parts that later generations found unbearable, making the classic approach so-called perfection.

Guan Yin had also thought that after he traveled through time, he could become a great strategist by relying on his judgment of history—but when he calmed down, he felt that the course of history could never be changed by one person.

"I dare not die," Guan Yin said.

"The green hills stand tall despite the wind and rain; we cannot speak of life and death so easily..."

After another long silence, the two of them finally attributed their current melancholy to the "pitter-patter" of the rain outside the window, which was so oppressive that it made it hard to breathe!
"Actually, the relationship between teachers and students here is quite good."

Well, the teacher-student relationship in the capital is quite strange!
"Actually, I might be able to make history by writing a screenplay. The previous writers have written so comprehensively that when we want to innovate, we can never break out of the original mold."

Is that possible? Artistic works that predate this era are often the classics that are sung by later generations, but in the present day, one must at least have enough to eat to avoid starving to death—so as not to end up like Tang Xianzu, who wrote a dream and was punished by feudal ethics in the underworld.

The two of them said things they themselves didn't believe, but they told each other, which at least served as a form of encouragement...

The rain outside the window veiled the distant mountains, and the mountains were shrouded in swirling mist. It was hard to tell whether it was smoke from chimneys or incense rising into the clouds, but it all carried a kind of surreal beauty.

"I suddenly want to go to Huangshan. I've seen it so many times in my dreams that I can't distinguish between dreams and reality. I'm a little afraid of what is reality."

After staying here for a long time, besides the longing in your heart, can you still distinguish which era you belong to?

Cheng Heng's words were pointed, and Guan Yin seemed to understand as well. He looked up at the courtyard, where there was a mountain in an uncertain direction, and nodded.