Chapter 61: Snow (Part )

Zhenyi realized one thing from the flames of grief and anger, or rather, she came up with a truth and a way out that applied to her – what can truly fight off depression is not venting, letting go, or the sympathy and comfort of others… but a real “sense of existence” of having something to do and something you want to do, as well as a “sense of accomplishment” after accomplishing these things.

At this moment, Zhenyi wanted to do a lot of things.

This thought condensed into a force in her heart, making her eager to see the truth in order to fight against the endless confusion and dissatisfaction in her heart and prove to this ignorant and turbid world what is right and wrong.

She is like a small boat floating on the foggy sea. This ambition is like an anchor that is deeply rooted, allowing the boat that is about to sink to continue moving forward – moving forward with a new attitude of determination and resoluteness, without any more scruples or hesitations.

Wang Xichen looked at his daughter in the snow, his eyes gradually blurred with tears. In the dimness, he saw his daughter’s figure overlapping with the plum tree covered with snow, giving birth to fearless branches and bones, and the flying snow seemed to have turned into her wings. When she raised her neck to look, she was like an eagle shedding its old feathers during its illness and spreading its wings to achieve nirvana.

The whistling sound of the cold wind blowing through the courtyard turned into a beautiful poem by Li He in Wang Xichen’s mind – Kunshan jade shatters and the phoenix calls, the hibiscus weeps in the dew and the fragrant orchid laughs, cold light melts in front of the twelve gates, and twenty-three threads move the Purple Emperor.

In the snowy courtyard, Wang Xichen’s myriad emotions turned into a long, trembling sigh.

Mr. Yuan Mei’s words “Only Zhenyi is most like her grandfather” seems to have become a verdict. Her grandmother guided Zhenyi on the way to life in the world, and her grandfather taught her how to establish her mind. When these two were finally unable to go hand in hand, Zhenyi finally chose the latter.

At the age of 21, Zhenyi had completely lost her childish look. The chubby flesh on her cheeks disappeared, revealing distinct bones, and the sharp nature in her bones was no longer hidden.

In the spring of the following year, when Qian Yuling once again collected poems for the publication of a collection of women’s poems, Zhenyi not only wrote the preface for his collection, but also sent many of her own poems. Qian Yuling was very happy and praised Zhenyi for “finally coming to her senses”. Therefore, she selected five poems from the collection and regarded them as treasures, but still felt that it was not enough, so she happily wrote a letter to her husband to mention this matter.

In early summer, Qian Yuling returned to her mother’s home in Jinling for a short stay. After repeated discussions with Zhenyi, Qian Yuling formed a Jinling women’s poetry society named Defeng Poetry Society.

This move naturally caused some criticism, but Qian Yuling did not care about those voices. She was as independent as she was when she was a child, and her maternal family supported her as always.

At this time, Qian Yuling already had a son and a daughter, and her husband Kuai Jiazhen had been an official for six years. The Kuai family of Jiaxing was a prestigious family of scholars and had served as officials for generations. However, Qian Yuling privately told Zhenyi that Kuai Jiazhen was fed up with the corrupt officialdom, and the couple were only interested in calligraphy, painting and poetry.

While sorting out the poems with Zhenyi, Qian Yuling smiled and said that her “Mr. Laotie” had already made up his mind. As soon as he reached the age of forty, he would start to resign from his official position. His original words were: “I have studied and served as an official. I can be considered worthy of the ancestors of the Kuai family. When a person comes to this world, he must always leave some time for himself. 】

Zhenyi couldn’t help but admire Mr. Kuai’s free and easy nature, and felt especially fortunate for Sister Jiuying. Sister Jiuying, who had been free and easy since childhood, found another free and clear soul to accompany her. The two of them had such similar interests, which was really a very lucky thing, but… buddy?

Orange, who was lazily lying on a pile of manuscripts, turned his head to look at Qian Yuling, and almost suspected that this “old friend” with a unique style might be his fellow villager or a time traveler.

Facing the puzzled faces of the man and the cat, Qian Yuling smiled and stretched out a hand to rub Juzi’s big round face: “His name is Tieya, and Laotie is the name he made up for himself!”

This was the small courtyard where Qian Yuling lived before she got married. The Qian family had kept it for her. Zhenyi sat in the study room which was furnished as before, listening to her sister Jiuying’s laughter and the cicadas chirping outside the window. She felt in a trance that everything was the same as when she was a child, except that her elder sister who always took care of her gently and carefully was missing.

Qian Yuling also thought of his childhood friend, so he said to Zhenyi, “Calculate the months. Your elder sister will give birth next month. We can’t expect her to go out. Why don’t we go to see her together in the next two days?”

The story of Shuyi’s pregnancy started when the third wife of the Wang family passed away last year.

At that time, Shuyi fainted from grief when she heard that her mother had committed suicide. Zhenyi helped her elder sister to the couch and hurriedly checked her breathing and pulse, and unexpectedly discovered that she was pregnant.

Shuyi was already more than two months pregnant at that time, but she had been married for ten years and had not been able to get pregnant. Her menstrual period was often fluctuating. In addition, Wang Jie was involved in the imperial examination case at that time. She was worried all day long and had no time to pay attention to the changes in her body.

That day, Shuyi looked at her belly, which was not yet pregnant, with tears falling on her clothes. She murmured to her second sister and asked: “Zhen’er, you say… if I had known this earlier and told mother, would mother not have committed suicide?”

When the third wife was alive, she burned incense, chanted Buddhist scriptures, and inquired about various folk remedies, just to help her daughter conceive successfully. Her daughter’s “respect” in her husband’s family has always been one of the third wife’s major concerns.

Zhenyi could not answer her elder sister’s question. She only knew that this hard-won child would make her elder sister suffer. Shuyi suffered the pain of losing her mother and was forced to stay in bed and take medicine to take care of the pregnancy. She vomited for more than five months and became so thin that she looked like a human. Only recently did her limbs, which were as thin as firewood, finally grow some flesh.

The next day, Zhenyi went to Jiang’s house with Qian Yuling.

Qian Yuling talked to Shuyi about the “Defeng Poetry Society” and asked her to join the poetry society. With her talent, she might become a famous female talent in Jiangnan. When Shuyi heard this, she smiled and said, “You are still like this. Two out of three sentences you say are always teasing me.”

Qian Yuling also turned around and scolded her: “You are still like this. It is clearly the truth, but you always treat it as a joke! Let Deqing talk about it!”

Shuyi then looked at her second sister who was smiling at the side. Thinking of this, she became really worried. Her second sister is already 22 years old, but still has no marriage. Now she is following Jiuying to form a poetry club and publish a poetry collection. What should she do in the future?
Shuyi, who was already extremely worried at this time, could never have imagined that this was just the beginning.

This year, Qian Yuling was busy with the affairs of the poetry club and stayed in Jinling until the light snow in winter. The Qian family had taken great pains to cultivate this daughter since she was young and regarded her as someone who could inherit the mantle of her grandmother Chen Shu. Therefore, whether Qian Yuling published a book or formed a poetry club, the Qian family was very happy to see it happen.

As for the Kuai family, when they first arranged the marriage with the Qian family, they were attracted by Qian Yuling’s talent in calligraphy and painting. Naturally, there was no reason to overly restrict her with those dogmas – what’s more, Kuai Tieya was a rebellious person and could not be easily interfered with. He would often threaten to resign from his official position to the clan… Let the couple deal with these trivial matters.

Qian Yuling was famous for his talent when he was young, and he and the Jiaxing talented man Kuai Jiazhen were also known as a good story. With the support of the scholarly family of the Qian and Kuai families, as several of his good poems spread in the south of the Yangtze River, the reputation of the Defeng Poetry Society gradually became known, and within half a year there were 20 to 30 women in the society.

Xu Yanzhen, a talented woman from Hefei, whom Zhenyi met by chance in Jiaying Prefecture many years ago, also joined the society because of Zhenyi. Her poems and lyrics written in response to Zhenyi’s were once cited as a beautiful story, and many scholars in the south of the Yangtze River praised her.

Zhenyi also wrote to Shandong, inviting Chen Ningtian to join the poetry society.

Chen Ningtian wrote back a letter to decline the offer. The general idea between the lines was that the Kong family had many rules and regulations. Although she yearned for it, it was inconvenient for her to show up in public like this. She also laughed and ridiculed herself that her poems were not worthy of being accepted in a high-class place, so she should not ruin the reputation of the poetry club.

At the end of the letter, she told Zhenyi that although she could not join the society, she would have the opportunity to pass by Jinling next year, and she would find a way to persuade her family to stay for two more days.

Zhenyi couldn’t help but look forward to that day coming sooner.

When Juzi heard the good news from Zhenyi, he tried hard to recall Chen Ningtian’s appearance, but it was a little fuzzy. It was obvious that his memory had always been very good.

Orange wanted to firmly grasp and vigorously exercise his unruly memory, so he began to count the days intentionally.

During the year of waiting for Wanyu to come to Jinling, many things happened to Zhenyi, and Juzi counted them one by one. In Juzi’s opinion, every one of them was a good thing.

First of all, the best thing is of course that Shuyi and her daughter are safe. Shuyi’s birth was very dangerous, but fortunately, both mother and daughter are alive and well. Juzi breathed a sigh of relief, but still asked the nearby cats to help her watch over Shuyi and her daughter and remember to report if there is any situation;

Then, Zhenyi’s reputation became more and more famous. This conclusion, which sounds simple, is the result of Juzi’s rigorous research. The research scope is a hundred miles, and the research tool is the cats in the hundred miles.

In addition, under the encouragement of Zhenyi, Wang Xichen finally embarked on his professional path as Juzi wished and opened a medical clinic to make a living – but because he always advocated prevention before illness, cautious use of medicine, and slow results, his business was just average. But Wang Xichen did not want to lose his original intention, and even more did not want to ruin the family tradition, so he insisted on his own way of practicing medicine, Zhenyi agreed with this, and Juzi was also quite sure;

After a year of mourning for his wife, Wang Xipu left Jinling, saying that he was looking for a way out. On the day he left home, Juzi squatted on the courtyard wall and watched him. He saw that his back looked a bit depressed and old.
The eldest house was the most prosperous and complete. Wang Yuan had one more son and one more daughter. Juzi admired Zhu Shuangjing very much. It was so difficult to have children, but she actually gave birth to two at once. Compared with the twin boy and girl, Juzi felt from the bottom of her heart that their mother Zhu Shuangjing was the real dragon and phoenix among people. She was really amazing.
By now, Wang Yuan was already the father of three children, but this did not prevent Wang Xirui from hitting him on the head a few times after drinking two glasses of wine one day. Juzi thought this was a good thing. Wang Yuan was already over 30 years old, and he could still be beaten by his father. Isn’t that good? – Whether it was out of kindness or evil, in Juzi’s opinion, it was a good thing.

There are endless things to say, but days always have an end. Winter has come, and another Xiaoxue solar term is approaching. Just when Juzi almost thought that Chen Ningtian was going to break the promise, she finally arrived in Jinling late in the icy temperature that had been dropping since the beginning of winter.

Good evening everyone~ The story comes to the 60th chapter, and the Xiaoxue solar term in the book ends.

This book is purely for love, I’m grateful that you don’t blame me for not updating well, and there’s no need to vote or reward me. When I start a new book on the 15th of this month to make a living, I will shamelessly ask for monthly votes from you all~