Chapter 111: Chapter 68 Rabbit Corpse_1
Days passed as calmly as flowing water, and the small incident at the entrance of the dical hall didn’t weigh on Lu Tong’s mind.
Before long, it was the start of autumn.
Lu Tong was still very busy every day. As autumn arrived, fewer people ca to buy "Xianxian," but more ca for "dicine of Successful Candidates."
"dicine of Successful Candidates" was a new dicinal tea created by Lu Tong.
It wouldn’t be long before the first day of August, which was the autumn examination of the Liang Dynasty. Scholars facing the exam were inevitably nervous, and so would go to the dical hall to buy dicinal tea that was beneficial for concentration and sharpness of mind. Taking advantage of this, Lu Tong made a new dicinal tea called "dicine of Successful Candidates," inspired by the auspicious on of "plucking laurels in the palace of the moon."
Although the new dicinal tea was not as stunning as "Chun Shui Sheng" and "Xianxian," the na alone attracted many scholars to purchase it—around this ti of year, Wan’en Temple’s halls of learning were nearly bursting at the seams. When big events approached, people who believed in auspicious signs far outnumbered the skeptics.
Lu Tong handed two packages wrapped in red paper to Yin Zheng. "Deliver these to Wu Youcai’s house in the Fresh Fish Lane."
Wu Youcai from Fresh Fish Lane had failed the exams ti after ti, and Lu Tong guessed he would be taking this year’s autumn exams as well, so he specifically set aside a few packages for him.
Yin Zheng agreed and took the dicinal tea to leave when Ah Cheng caught up and stopped her, "Miss Yinzhen, wait a mont."
"What’s wrong?"
"It’s not a good ti to go see Brother Wu now."
Lu Tong paused and looked at Ah Cheng. "Has sothing happened?"
The young boy scratched his head, "Don’t you know? Brother Wu’s mother... passed away the night before last."
...
The night air had beco much cooler.
After the start of autumn, there were frequent light rains, and at night, cool breezes would occasionally blow, feeling cold against the skin, as if the weather had turned chilly overnight.
The courtyard was serene as water, and the dim light from the lanterns under the eaves scattered, casting a glow upon the faces of those in the yard.
A young woman sat at a stone table, pounding diligently at the silver container before her. The autumn breeze caught her hair, making her face appear exceptionally soft and radiant.
Yin Zheng sat on a stool, folding silk handkerchiefs while gazing dreamily at Lu Tong, who was busy making dicine.
Earlier that day, when Ah Cheng ntioned the news of Scholar Wu’s mother’s death, Yin Zheng thought that Lu Tong would go to see Scholar Wu. After all, in recent days, Lu Tong had sent Yin Zheng to deliver nourishing dicinal materials for Scholar Wu’s mother, seeming genuinely concerned about her illness.
Yin Zheng didn’t understand why Lu Tong showed special care towards a poor scholar, but it was clear to her that Lu Tong truly cared about Scholar Wu’s family situation. However, up to now, Lu Tong hadn’t ntioned visiting Scholar Wu, nor had she sent any condolences—even Du Changqing had sent two pieces of silk fabric.
That wouldn’t make sense, was there another plan in the works?
Lost in such wandering thoughts, Yin Zheng’s movents gradually slowed, and she didn’t even notice when a silk scarf fell to the ground.
Lu Tong, however, glanced at her and asked, "What’s the matter?"
Yin Zheng snapped back to reality, quickly picking up the scarf from the floor. The words "Scholar Wu" that were on the tip of her tongue were swallowed back. After a mont’s thought, she pointed towards a cluster of fireflies under the eaves, "I was just thinking, the fireflies in the Capital City are truly beautiful."
Lu Tong glanced at the eaves, where clusters of verdant light flickered in the darkness.
These were fireflies caught by Ah Cheng.
The boy, mischievous, had begged Yin Zheng to stitch a bag with fine gauze, adorning each corner with tiny wind chis. He placed all the captured fireflies inside and hung it at the corner of the eaves, so that at night, they shimred with life, much like the phrase "in sumr months, fireflies gather like snow" from the "Book of Jin."
It’s a pity there were no scholars here.
Yin Zheng, with a smile, asked Lu Tong, "Do your hotowns have fireflies?"
Lu Tong shook her head.
Changwu County was poor and remote, and she had only seen fireflies in books as a child.
However, there were many fireflies on Luoi Peak.
Perhaps because it was on a mountain, with high and cool terrain, once the Dog Days passed, decayed vegetation beca fireflies, and the whole peak was aglow with green light.
When she was searching for bodies of executed prisoners to test dicines in the burial mounds for Lady Yun, she often saw large clusters of ghostly cold lights amidst the wild grass, as if there were spirits setting lights in their tombs.
Back then, she didn’t feel any sense of poetic romance, feeling only eeriness and wishing she could close her eyes and flee at once.
Unexpectedly, seeing these firefly pouches hanging under the eaves now gave her a sense of being worlds apart from those days.
Yin Zheng neatly folded the last silk handkerchief, didn’t get up, and instead propped up her chin to watch Lu Tong making dicine. The sound of Lu Tong’s small dicine Hamr tapping the silver container rang out "ding ding dang dang," exceptionally clear in the quiet night.
Lu Tong had two dicine containers, often using the wooden one, less so the silver one. Today, she was using the silver container, which was engraved with intricate patterns. When the moonlight fell upon it, the silver container sparkled, exuding a magnificent treasure-like radiance.
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