Cherry Blossoms Upon a Wintry Sword

The Fu Family Village and Gusu City were on two different levels. In Gusu City, they celebrate peace with songs and dances[1]. It was a prosperous scene. On the other hand, the people in the Fu Family Village did not have enough to eat, even the most basic food and clothing were difficult to maintain. During Lin Rufei’s journey, he hardly saw the villagers and the only few people he saw were in rags. Their bodies were very thin, as if this place just suffered a great disaster. What made Lin Rufei feel very strange was that both sides of the field were planted with large rice crops. It wasn’t harvest time yet, but from the growth of rice, this year should be a good year. The farmers lived off by the weather. With these rice, no matter what, they shouldn’t be living this way. 

The child Lin Rufei brought into the carriage was sitting as he wolfed down the dry food given to him by Fu Hua. Although small, this child’s appetite was very amazing and he ate until his small belly became round. Lin Rufei was afraid that he would feel bloated and hurriedly asked Fu Hua to put away the rest of the dry food. When the child saw that the dry food was out of his reach, his eyes were immediately filled with tears. However, he didn’t make a fuss. He just looked at Fu Hua with sad eyes. Fu Hua really couldn’t stand this look and she cast a look of help towards Lin Rufei.

Lin Rufei also had quite a headache. He rarely dealt with children. Giving him food, he feared that he would get a stomachache. If he didn’t give him food, he also couldn’t handle his aggrieved look.  

After thinking for a moment, Lin Rufei had an idea. He pulled out a piece of malt candy he bought in Gusu City from his sleeve. The malt candy sells very well. It was golden and transparent and shaped like amber. It was soft and dense, but not too sweet and was a good snack. Gu Xuandu liked it so Lin Rufei bought extras. He had them in his pocket, planning to slowly enjoy it later. 

The child saw the candy and his tears immediately stopped. However, he did not dare reach out to ask for it, instead, he stared anxiously at Lin Rufei. 

Lin Rufei stuffed the candy into his mouth and said, “You can’t eat any more dry food, it will spoil your stomach.”

When he got the candy, the child showed a joyful look and said thank you vaguely. Although he looked wretched, thin, and weak, he was more polite than the group of children seen before. At least he did not reach out to grab the candy and even after eating he also didn’t forget to say thank you.

Lin Rufei asked the child a few more questions and learned that his name was Mo Mo[2]. He lived in the Fu Family Village, however, the rest of his questions were all without replies. But even if he was able to ask for some information, the child also answered vaguely. Most of it Lin Rufei guessed himself. 

Lin Rufei originally thought that the intersection wouldn’t be far from the Fu Family Village, but he didn’t expect the sky to turn dark and still not seeing a shadow of the house. Helpless, they could only plan to rest in the carriage for the night. The child ate enough so he shrunk into a ball to sleep, but his sleep wasn’t stable. From time to time, he would open his eyes and observe the situation around him, it seemed to be a habit developed from before.

Lin Rufei was a bit tired after sitting in the carriage all day, so he took advantage of his rest time to leave the carriage and go to the side of the road to stretch his body.

On both sides of the road, various kinds of foods were planted. In addition to the cascading wheat fields, there were also cornfields that grew taller than a person. Lin Rufei looked at this dense cornfield and wondered, “So much grain, why are they still living like this?”

Gu Xuandu said, “It’s not strange, right?”

Lin Rufei said, “Not strange?”

Gu Xuandu said, “Have you seen the people working in the field?”

Lin Rufei showed a hesitant look, then shook his head. All the way here, he really did not see anyone farming in the field, but there were many people sitting by the road. Looking at their appearances, they also didn’t look quite like farmers working in the fields. Although farmers worked hard, they were not as battered and exhausted like they were. 

“All things in this world have cause and effect.” Gu Xuandu said, “There is always a reason for them to live like this.”

Lin Rufei agreed. He then casually talked about the child on the carriage again. However, after a few words, he found Gu Xuandu’s expression to be a bit strange.

“Senior doesn’t like children?” Lin Rufei could only come up with this possibility.

Gu Xuandu said, “You like children a lot, right?”

Lin Rufei smiled, “Yes, I do.”

Gu Xuandu said, “I don’t really like them.” He sighed, “Especially a child like him ……” Although he said so, there was not much disgust in his tone. Rather, there was a slight lament that Lin Rufei could not understand.

Lin Rufei said, “Why don’t you like them?”

Gu Xuandu cast a deep meaningful glance at Lin Rufei: “You think children don’t understand anything, but in fact, they understand very well.”

Lin Rufei felt a little puzzled.

Gu Xuandu waved his hand and quickly skipped this topic. He then talked to Lin Rufei about this strange Fu Family Village. He was asking who this invitation was actually going to.

As the name implies, the place was called Fu Family Village and most of the people there were naturally people with the surname Fu. The invitation Lin Rufei wanted to send out was written with two wild cursive words of Fu Yu.

Fu Yu was also considered as someone who achieved fame when he was in his youth. However, it was different compared to an aristocratic family like Liu Rugong’s. His sword skills were not something inherited from his family, but a sword that went off the rails[3]. It was said that when he was out on a trip, he inadvertently fell off a cliff and received guidance from a senior below the cliff, after which his sword skills soared. He defeated a number of experts and finally made a name for himself in Jianghu. Before this, no one knew the name of the Fu Family Village, until a Fu Yu came from there and it gradually got famous.

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But looking at the situation of the Fu Family Village at first glance, it was clear that the people here have not improved their lives because of Fu Yu’s fame. They still maintain the miserable situation of not being able to feed and clothe themselves.

Before Lin Rufei, no one in Kunlun had ever been to the Fu Family Village, so to speak, Lin Rufei was still the first one.

So when he saw this kind of scene, he was a little surprised.

Gu Xuandu listened to Lin Rufei. He was not too interested in this Fu Yu. He lazily yawned and asked if Lin Rufei was sleepy.

Lin Rufei said, “Indeed, I’m a little sleepy, so let’s go back and rest.”

After walking around outside and stretching his body, Lin Rufei simply washed up and then lay down in the carriage to fall into a deep sleep.

This night was very quiet. Lin Rufei opened his eyes in a daze under the morning birdsong that ushered in the sunrise. His eyes met with the little child Mo Mo who sat opposite him and was shrunk in a corner. Mo Mo….. was a cute name. Lin Rufei’s brain suddenly had a thought in his head. 

When Fu Hua noticed that Lin Rufei was awake, she brought him hot water to wash up and asked him what he wanted to eat for breakfast.

Lin Rufei said, “How about steamed buns?”

Fu Hua laughed, “Why does young master suddenly want to eat steamed buns?”

Lin Rufei pointed to the child, “Isn’t his name Mo Mo?”

When the child heard this, he froze for two seconds. Then he revealed a frightened expression and cried vaguely, “No …… don’t eat Mo Mo…… no, doesn’t taste good……”

He obviously misunderstood Lin Rufei’s meaning and thought that Lin Rufei wanted to make a move on him.

Lin Rufei was amused by his appearance. He reached out and gently pinched his skinny face, “I haven’t even eaten it yet, how do I know it’s not good?”

When Mo Mo heard this, his round black eyes widened. He started whimpering and crying: “No …… not delicious, wuwuwu[4] ……” Although he said this, he didn’t dare struggle. This scared look of his was like a poor little rabbit that was terrified.

Lin Rufei couldn’t help but laugh.

When Fu Hua saw her family’s gongzi teasing the little doll to the point of crying, she quickly called out a “young master,” and said that children were timid and weak and should not be scared.

When Lin Rufei heard this, he finally let go. He first helped Mo Mo soothe his cheeks and then pulled out a malt candy to cajole the child. Of course, the biggest credit still had to fall upon the candies. Once the candy entered his mouth, the child immediately stopped crying. He didn’t forget to say thank you as he sobbed and sniffled with tears in his eyes.

Lin Rufei also felt a bit guilty since he bullied the child into this appearance. He let out a dry cough and said: “Then we won’t eat Mo Mo. Just make some easy-to-digest porridge.” The child ate so much last night, if he had another big meal in the morning he would certainly be bloated.

Fu Hua said yes, and together with Yu Rui, left the carriage to make porridge.

The child happily chewed on the corn candy. When he saw Fu Hua and Yu Rui getting ready to make a fire, he also slowly got off the carriage. He turned and walked into the small woods beside them and when he came back out, he was already holding a small bundle of firewood. He walked wobbly towards Fu Hua and Yu Rui’s side. After putting them down, he timidly shouted out a “sister.”

When Fu Hua and Yu Rui saw this scene, their motherly feelings erupted. They took the little guy into their arms and gave him a few fierce kisses. Mo Mo was at a loss for words as he was being kissed, in fact, he was even a little afraid. He stuttered and said that he was dirty and thin and that he was not delicious.

Lin Rufei watched and laughed out loud.

Only, after he finished laughing and turned around, he saw Gu Xuandu staring at the child with a gloomy expression. When he noticed him looking over, the gloomy look dissipated instantly and he returned to his usual languid look. It was as if the expression Lin Rufei just saw on his face was just an illusion.

Lin Rufei whispered, “Senior ……”

Gu Xuandu softly hummed an agreement. 

Lin Rufei said, “…… This child, is there something wrong with him?” Those that could make Gu Xuandu stare at them with such eyes have identities that seemed to be suspicious. Even those things encountered in the Xie residence before did not make Gu Xuandu show such a look.

Who knew that when Gu Xuandu listened to his question, he would shake his head, “No, he’s normal …… a good child.” When he said the three words “a good child,” he deliberately aggravated his tone.

Lin Rufei’s heart trembled at the three words “a good child” and said, “There’s really nothing wrong with him?”

“Not at the moment. He’s just a normal child.” Gu Xuandu said, “What, you think something is wrong with him?”

Lin Rufei was speechless as he realized that Gu Xuandu seemed to be completely unaware of the hostility he was showing towards the child.

When Gu Xuandu noticed Lin Rufei’s silence, he probably also sensed something and said lightly, “But looking at him reminds me of something from the past.”

Lin Rufei: “Something from the past?”  

“Mnn.” Gu Xuandu said, “It’s not very pleasant, but it has nothing to do with this little guy.”

Only then did Lin Rufei let out a sigh of relief. In his heart, he thought: Could it be that Gu Xuandu has encountered difficult children before and that’s why he is hostile towards this child in front of him? But Gu Xuandu was not willing to say so he could only guess and could not get an affirmative answer.

On their side, Fu Hua and Yu Rui finished boiling the porridge. They brought it over to Lin Rufei first then prepared some small side dishes for him. The rest were eaten with Mo Mo. The porridge was not thick. There were also some adlay barley, red dates, and other tonics included. Lin Rufei drank with very little interest, but Mo Mo was very fond of it. Most of the leftovers were finished off by him. 

After eating, the carriage set off again. It followed the official road all the way forward.

At this point, they were getting closer and closer to the Fu Family Village. The buildings and people on both sides of the road were gradually growing. However, the buildings were either straw houses or mud houses, and a brick house couldn’t even be seen. As for the people they saw, it was even more terrible. They weren’t doing anything as they just sat on the roadside. They silently gazed at the carriage speeding by, their gazes weren’t numb but it was definitely strange enough. 

Originally Yu Rui was outside driving the carriage, however, she got scared by the scene so Fu Hua called her in as she replaced her and sat outside.  

“This Fu Family Village is too strange.” Yu Rui trembled and said, “Are these people villagers? They’re not doing anything so what are they doing sitting on the street?”

Lin Rufei shook his head to indicate that he couldn’t guess either.

The carriage continued on and finally reached the entrance of the Fu Family Village, which was surrounded by a tall wall with guards at the entrance. These guards looked out of place with the villagers next to them. They were dressed magnificently and each holding a long sword.

“Where are you going? Do you have the paperwork to go in?” The guards stopped the carriage but saw that it was lavishly decorated, so their attitude was quite respectful.

“No. We are from the Kunlun Lin family here to deliver an invitation to Fu Yu of the Fu family.” Fu Hua replied.

When the guard heard this, he immediately got nervous and instructed the person next to him to go to the Fu family to ask about the situation and told them to wait for a moment. It didn’t take long for the person who went to ask about the situation to come back panting. While running, he gave the guard a meaningful glance. 

When the guard saw this scene, he immediately changed his attitude. He smiled very eagerly and said, “Please come in, please come in.”

Fu Hua cracked the whip and the carriage drove into the Fu Family Village at a gallop. When they passed the tall enclosure, the view inside made Fu Hua reveal a stunned look, “How is this……”

Lin Rufei, who was in the carriage, had a similar reaction to Fu Hua. Both of them were stunned. 

They only saw that beyond the high walls, the houses were all tall, gorgeous, and exquisite. There were even a variety of wall paintings on the exterior walls. Just from the outside, one could feel a strong sense of luxury. The two sides of the avenue leading to the Fu Family Village were filled with a variety of stores and most of these stores were beautifully decorated. Lin Rufei gave a general look and felt that the things sold inside were not cheap. 

The people walking along the roadside were even dressed in fancy clothes. One would not expect that they were from the same village as the wretched people outside the high walls.

“This Fu Family Village, how could it be like this.” Lin Rufei sighed, “It’s true that there is nothing strange in the greatness of Jianghu.”

Gu Xuandu said, “Indeed it is surprising, I have never seen it before either.”

According to the guard at the entrance, the ancestral home of the Fu family was the highest one in the village. Lin Rufei quickly found the Fu family’s ancestral home and he had to say, this ancestral home was really too imposing. The wall of the courtyard was made of marble with beautiful patterns and the main house inside was tall and lofty. It blocked out most of the sun in the village. The eaves were carved into the shape of living birds. The tiles were a beautiful vermilion color and there was not a single moss to be seen.

Such a building stands here, no matter how one looked, it made them feel out of place.

Fu Hua also froze. She said that this house was even more exaggerated than many of the buildings on Kunlun, how could it still be called a village?  

Lin Rufei shook his head to indicate that he also didn’t know how to explain.

“So are we just going in?” Fu Hua asked tentatively.

Lin Rufei thought for a moment: “Let’s go to the inn first. Unless you want to stay with the Fu family?”

“No, no.” Fu Hua hastily shook her head, “This place looks too exaggerated, if I live in it, my heart will be unbearable.”

To speak of grandeur, no matter if it was Meng Lanruo’s or Liu Rugong’s, both their houses were very grandiose. However, that grandeur and this grandeur in front of them gave off two completely different feelings. Meng Lanruo’s house was full of flowers with architecture and gardens that were carefully designed making it elegant and chic. Liu Rugong’s family was even more famous. The various sceneries in the courtyard were complementary and not too pompous. And this building in front of him would only give off a sense of unspeakable incongruity, as if ……

“It’s like a person who suddenly has money and doesn’t know how to spend it.” Gu Xuandu hit the nail on the head.

Lin Rufei felt it deeply.

So a group of people planned to go to the inn to rest temporarily. They wanted to inquire about the situation before making plans.

Who knew that just as they turned around to head to the inn, they were stopped by a few people. These people claimed to be servants of the Fu family and enthusiastically said that the family head has now set up a banquet waiting for them.

Lin Rufei didn’t want to bicker with them, but after a few words of excuses, he saw that these people were stubborn, so he finally agreed. The carriage turned around and drove towards the exaggerated ancestral house.

After the carriage entered the house, Mo Mo, who had been shrinking in the corner and not talking much, suddenly reacted. His expression became a little frightened and his mouth started to chant something. He shrunk into a ball like a scared little cat.

Lin Rufei saw this and called out his name: “Mo Mo?”

Lin Rufei was afraid that he would hurt himself, so he reached out and pulled him out from under the blanket before he carefully took him into his arms.

Mo Mo whimpered and pushed Lin Rufei. When Lin Rufei saw the situation, he thought for a moment then told Yu Rui to bring a blanket. He wrapped Mo Mo entirely up with the blanket leaving only a pair of dark eyes.

Mo Mo was originally born thin. Now that he had shrunk into a ball wrapped into the blanket, he was small like a rag doll. The good thing was that his emotions finally calmed down. He sobbed and sniffled, wanting to cover his own face with the blanket.

Lin Rufei let him do as he pleased.

“What’s wrong with Mo Mo?” Fu Hua wondered, “Why did he have such a big reaction ……”

“I don’t know. It probably has something to do with this Fu family?” Lin Rufei hesitated for a moment. He felt that it was a bit reckless bringing Mo Mo into the Fu Family Village. One, he didn’t know the relation Mo Mo had with the Fu family. If by chance, it was an enemy, then they would just be getting into trouble. Two, Mo Mo’s mental state doesn’t seem to be good, if it was stimulated wouldn’t it become more serious? ……

Fu Hua obviously also thought of this and whispered that it was better not to tell the Fu family of Mo Mo’s existence for the time being and to wait until everything was cleared up.  

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Lin Rufei nodded, thinking that that approach felt more appropriate.

When Mo Mo was sick, Gu Xuandu leaned on the side and watched without a word. His look was very calm and even showed a few moments of strange indifference like in resistance to something. Lin Rufei’s attention was on Mo Mo and he didn’t notice Gu Xuandu’s strange look for a while.

After the steward brought them into the Fu family manor, they led them to the guest room where they would be staying. Lin Rufei handed Mo Mo to Fu Hua and Yu Rui and asked them to take care of him first while he went to visit the Fu family first.

When they saw the Fu family’s ancestral home from the outside, it had been exaggerated enough. When they entered it, they found out that it was just a hair from nine oxens[5]. The decorations in the house could not be described by the word pompous. Almost every corner was full of all kinds of decorations. It was either gemstones or sculptures or porcelain vases, in short, it was like an owner’s expanded treasures exhibition room where they were itching to showcase all the objects for guests to enjoy.

But such decorations, in the eyes of those who knew the business, could only be called vulgar even with some ridiculous implications.

The good thing was that Lin Rufei doesn’t care about these things, he just thinks that the aesthetics of this Fu family was really difficult to grasp.

On their way to the main hall, Lin Rufei heard exaggerated laughter coming from the room from afar. The laughter contained both males and females. It sounded like flirting and not only with one person…….  

Lin Rufei paused in his steps, but still crossed into the main hall. Once inside, he saw a man dressed in purple holding two hot beauties in his arms as they were feeding each other grapes.

The same grape feeding, on Liu Rugong’s side, had a kind of prodigal son’s suave flavor, while the man in front of him made Lin Rufei frown.

This man’s appearance was actually pretty good, but all over his body was a greasy[6] feeling as he was soaked in rouge powder. When he saw Lin Rufei, who walked to the door, his eyes lit up, and said: “Yo, who found this beauty, this appearance is pretty good …… heavily rewarded!”

When the steward heard this, his face showed embarrassment and he hurriedly said: “Young master, the beauty you want is not here yet, this is the guest from the Lin family!”

The young master of the Fu family said suspiciously: “Guests from the Lin family? How come I didn’t know of this? When did he come, did he bring any gifts?” The steward hurriedly said: “Young master, this is Da Gongzi’s guest!”

(t/n: Refresher, Da refers to the eldest. So the eldest gongzi/eldest son)

The young master of the Fu family immediately curtailed his smile. He hmphed, but in the end, he did not say anything else.

The steward smiled apologetically at Lin Rufei, saying that Lin gongzi must not take it to heart, this is his young master and he was always like this……

Lin Rufei said, “Fu Yu is your eldest young master?”

The steward said, “Yes.”

Lin Rufei said, “How come I haven’t seen him?”

The steward said, “The young master doesn’t like the atmosphere of the house and often travels outside, but we have sent a letter out so he will probably come back soon.”

Lin Rufei let out an “oh.”

The steward led Lin Rufei through the main hall to the backyard where the banquet was held. The Fu family was already seated and when they saw Lin Rufei coming, they all rose and greeted him eagerly.

Lin Rufei simply returned the greeting and sat down beside the Fu family head.

The Fu family head was an old man with white hair and beard, however, he seemed to be in good spirits. When he saw Lin Rufei sitting down, he greeted him warmly. The Fu family seemed to have never cultivated and no one at the table was carrying sword Qi making them like ordinary people.

“Lin gongzi, you are an honored guest of our family.” The Fu family head smiled warmly, “I have prepared several wonderfully good dishes for you, you must try them!”

Lin Rufei had just answered when he saw an extremely beautiful black horse being led out from the side and next to that horse was a pot of hot soup that was being boiled.

********

The author has something to say:

Lin Rufei: Are you unhappy?

Gu Xuandu: No

Lin Rufei: Really?

Gu Xuandu: No

Lin Rufei: Really, really?

Gu Xuandu: No

Lin Rufei: Since you aren’t then can you put Mo Mo[2] down…..

Gu Xuandu: Who am I provoking by eating a steam bun?

Lin Rufei: ………

Mo Mo: Wuwuwuwuwuwuwu, I don’t taste good, don’t eat me……

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[1] Idiom: make a show of happiness and prosperity. 

[2] His name literally means steam bun. 

[3] Idiom: to break the normal procedure and find a new or different solution in order to be unexpected and novelty. 

[4] Crying sounds. 

[5] Idiom: a drop in the ocean, kinda like a drop of water in a bucket. 

[6] Kind of hard to explain, but the word here is 油腻 which means greasy but it’s suppose to refer to people who aren’t decent? Cringey? Basically kind of when you have too much greasy food and you can’t stand it anymore.