Yu Fuling was surprised that her father knew what she and her second brother were planning to do. She gave a soft reply and hurried to finish her meal.
“Lehuan, take your time eating. Come to my room afterward, I have something to tell you.”
Yu Fuling set down her bowl and chopsticks after finishing and winked at her sister.
Yu Lehuan had no idea what her fourth sister wanted to say, but her instincts told her it must be something good.
“Father, Mother, I’m done too, I’ll go back to my room first.”
“Go ahead.”
The moment the two children left, Zhang Qiaofeng shot her husband a displeased glance. “You, always indulging the children.”
“With Fuling around, what are you worried about?” Yu Qingshan chuckled, putting a bit of food in his wife’s bowl. “I bought the preserved fruit you like at the market, want to try some once we’re back in our room?”
“Save it for the children.” Zhang Qiaofeng took a mouthful of rice, and told her husband about what her daughter had said to her during the day, adding at the end, “I resent them for raising my daughter into some perfect object, but I can’t deny that Fuling learned things growing up in that kind of environment that neither of us could ever learn in this lifetime, but I still can’t swallow this bitterness.”
“Everything has its pros and cons. Fuling wanting to send Madam Xie some pastries is also her way of settling the old ties between them. When Leyi left in such a hurry before, it’s not that her things weren’t taken with her, once the third-day ceremony is over, find time to sort them out, and when you go to deliver the pastries, I’ll send those along too.”
“She’s already living a good life now, isn’t everything she eats, wears, and uses already the very best?” Zhang Qiaofeng didn’t understand her husband’s reasoning.
“Precisely because she’s the Marquis’ daughter, if it were ever discovered in the future that her old belongings were still sitting in our house, which do you think would suffer more for it, her, or our family?” Yu Qingshan knew his wife didn’t understand these things, but he never scolded her for lacking education, always explaining things patiently instead. “In a household of power and privilege, even a single handkerchief can be turned into a whole scandal.”
“Right, right, that makes sense. If they went and found some random excuse to make trouble for our family, we wouldn’t have a single leg to stand on in our defense.” Zhang Qiaofeng hurriedly finished the last two mouthfuls of her rice. “I’ll go sort it out right now. You remember to clean up the kitchen.”
“Got it, go on. Wrap it in a clean cloth, don’t be stingy about it.”
“All right.”
Only once his wife had disappeared from view did Yu Qingshan return to the rice in his bowl, now long since gone cold, chewing slowly, his eyes deep in thought.
“Fuling, check what else we’re missing, and I’ll bring it all.”
Yu Zhuo brought a hoe, a sickle, and even a shovel from the storage room, all tools for fieldwork.
“Second Brother, we’re going to pick matsutake, not dig a hole. Bringing the sickle to cut through the vegetation is enough.” Yu Fuling looked at her second brother, torn between laughter and tears.
“We can leave the hoe, but let’s bring the shovel anyway, if we really run into a beast, it could help us defend ourselves.” Yu Zhuo, thinking of something else, lifted the hem of his robe and pulled out a dagger tucked at his waist. “This dagger, I bought it at the market a while back. It doesn’t look like much, but it’s especially sharp. Fuling, you take it, it’ll make clearing the path easier.”
“All right.”
Yu Fuling drew the dagger and gave it a few practice swings side to side. “Not bad, quite light. The dagger I used before was made by a blacksmith at the Marquis’ estate, so I didn’t bring it back with me, I was actually thinking of bringing a kitchen knife instead. What good timing that Second Brother has a dagger.”
“Even a single dagger, they had to be so calculating about, the Marquis’ household really is petty.” Yu Zhuo pursed his lips, glancing outside at the sky. “Once Father and Mother are asleep, we’ll set out.”
“Lehuan, we’re going into the grove late at night, do you want to come along?”
Yu Lehuan had been confused the moment she walked in, unable to understand what her second brother and fourth sister were talking about, now she finally understood. “Of course I want to go!”
“Yu Lehuan, you’re usually timid as a mouse, and now you say yes without even thinking twice?” Yu Zhuo asked, curious.
“With Fourth Sister there, what do I have to be afraid of?” Yu Lehuan hooked her arm through Yu Fuling’s, her face showing no fear at all, only excitement.
“All right.”
Deep in the quiet night, once Yu Zhuo saw the candlelight in his parents’ room go out, he shouldered a woven basket and quietly led his two sisters out of the house.
The midsummer moonlight shone down on the country path, a gentle breeze brushing past, cool and pleasant. The three of them walked one after another, slowly making their way up toward the mountain.
“This is the spot.”
After about the time it takes an incense stick to burn, the three of them reached the small hillside. Yu Zhuo pointed ahead. “Keep going forward and you can climb to the top of the hill, then head down the west slope and there’s a small path leading straight into the forbidden grove.”
Yu Fuling followed the direction her second brother pointed and looked around, then understood at once. “The forbidden grove connects every which way, even if there were plenty of people, Village Head Liu couldn’t possibly seal off every path. And if he tried to post a guard at each one every single day, the cost would be too high, he couldn’t afford it.”
“That makes sense. Once we’re in the grove, let’s look for a more convenient little path.”
Yu Zhuo used his sickle to cleanly hack through the waist-high vegetation, while Yu Fuling held her sister’s hand, moving slowly forward, bending down now and then to cut away vines that caught at their feet with the dagger.
“We’re here.”
Working together, the three of them soon reached the entrance of the forbidden grove.
Yu Fuling stepped forward, stood still, and closed her eyes to sense the air coming from within the grove. “No danger for now. Let’s go in carefully.”
The forbidden grove at night carried an even greater air of mystery. It was very quiet all around, the only sound the rustle of the three of them stepping over rotting leaves.
“Where did you two find the matsutake last time?” Yu Zhuo raised the fire striker he’d prepared, shining it ahead, but its light only reached a small area.
“Last time it was near the entrance, but now that we’ve come from a different direction, we’ve probably reached deep into the grove already.” As Yu Fuling spoke, she suddenly heard something and stopped in her tracks. “Second Brother, Lehuan, did you two hear something?”
“What sound?”
Yu Zhuo turned and listened carefully, then looked at his sister nervously. “What sound, don’t scare me like that.”
“Fourth Sister, I didn’t hear anything either.” Yu Lehuan swallowed hard, clinging tightly to Yu Fuling’s arm.
“It’s the sound of wild boars foraging.”
“Wild boars?”
The moment Yu Zhuo shouted it out, he suddenly clapped his hands over his own mouth, looking around anxiously. “How could there be wild boars in here? Fuling, how did you figure that out?”
“Because I’ve seen wild boars in other forests before. Wild boars like to come out foraging at night, and they travel in groups, or a mother sow leading several piglets.” Yu Fuling had excellent hearing, and standing still, she listened carefully, then pointed toward a dark patch to the left. “The sound’s coming from that direction, the boars must be in there.”
“Yu Fuling, don’t tell me you want to hunt a wild boar?”
“Since we’re already here, what if we get lucky and manage to hunt a wild boar?”
“No way!”
Yu Zhuo refused flatly. “Word was there were wild boars up in the mountains before, and Village Head Liu brought three or four experienced hunters into the mountains, and they didn’t even catch a single piglet. Now, with just the three of us bumbling amateurs, unless a wild boar decides to run headfirst into a tree stump and kill itself, this day next year will be our death anniversary!”