Chapter 130

Chapter 130: Family Reunion

Chun Zhi looked at Huo Zheng and did not speak for a moment.

Since the night of the storm when Huo Zheng stayed at Song Manor, he had not wanted to go back to Prince’s Manor to sleep alone under a cold quilt. He wanted to sleep every night beside Chun Zhi and the child.

Huo Zheng waited a long time without hearing her answer, then said softly: “I will leave before dawn, and I will not let Song An Lan know.”

Chun Zhi shook her head and said: “That is still not proper. You come to Song Manor every day and my elder brother says nothing, but if you stay the night, it will not look good.” The Song Clan still had unmarried daughters.

Huo Zheng, understanding what she left unsaid, drew her into his arms. After a long moment, he let go reluctantly and said with feeling: “I want to bring you home as soon as possible.”

Chun Zhi smiled and said: “The wedding is set for June, and it is already late March.”

Before, she had worried that the Emperor would treat her as the daughter of a disgraced official and cancel their marriage. But today the Emperor sent an imperial edict to summon Mu Qing Shan back to the Capital, which meant Mu Qing Shan would soon be restored to office. She would no longer be a criminal’s daughter, and her wedding with Huo Zheng would go on as planned.

Huo Zheng gazed at her and said: “I cannot wait even a single day.”

Chun Zhi lowered her head and smiled.

She and Huo Zheng had already married back in Linshui Town, so the imperial marriage was only another wedding feast, a grander one. But seeing how much Huo Zheng looked forward to it, Chun Zhi also began to long for that day even more.

Days passed one by one. Blossoms in the garden slowly fell, and in a blink it was late April.

Answering the imperial summons, Mu Qing Shan came back to the Capital with his family. That day, Huo Zheng went early to Song Manor to pick up Chun Zhi and took her to the city gate to welcome the Mus.

The Prince of Chang’an Manor’s carriage stood outside the gate, very eye-catching. Chun Zhi and Huo Zheng stood in front of it, watching the traffic on the official road.

From afternoon until dusk, countless carriages entered the city, but none belonged to the Mu family. Chun Zhi stared until her eyes ached with longing.

Huo Zheng told her to rest in the carriage, but she would not go. In a small voice she said: “I want to see them as soon as possible.”

Knowing how she missed her family, Huo Zheng waited with her.

As the sun was setting, a plain blue-cloth carriage came slowly down the road. A woman in a blue robe sitting inside lifted the curtain to look out. Chun Zhi met her eyes, and with one glance, she recognized her own blood.

Tears rose at once.

The blue-cloth carriage pulled up and stopped before them. Without waiting for the coachman to place the step stool, the woman lifted the curtain and got down, walked straight toward Chun Zhi, and called in a trembling voice: “Zhi’er?” Before the words were finished, her tears had already fallen.

“Mother,” Chun Zhi cried as she threw herself into the woman’s arms like a young swallow returning to its nest.

There was no need for any proof. The moment she saw her, she knew this was her mother.

Madam Mu held Chun Zhi tight and wept without stopping as she said: “Good Zhi’er, you have suffered so much these years.”

Although Mu Qing Shan and his wife had been far away at the Northern Frontier and did not know what had changed in the Capital, they had heard on the road about Prince Chang’an and Chun Zhi. Madam Mu ached for her daughter so much that she could hardly speak.

Chun Zhi looked at her mother, worn by wind and frost, and her heart hurt. Madam Mu had once been a famed beauty of the Capital; now, at just over forty, strands of white already filled her hair. It showed how hard life must have been in that bitter, freezing place.

Mother and daughter held each other and cried.

A handsome young man of about twenty-four or twenty-five helped Mu Qing Shan, whose temples had turned white, down from the carriage and brought him over. The Capital bloomed with splendor, while the Mu family’s clothes were plain, out of place with their surroundings.

“Quickly,” Madam Mu said as she wiped Chun Zhi’s tears and guided her forward: “Greet your father.”

Chun Zhi looked up at the man who had once dazzled the Capital as a third-ranked scholar, now dusty-faced with frost at his temples, and she called through tears: “Father.”

“Zhi’er, my Zhi’er has grown so much,” Mu Qing Shan said, eyes hot with tears, as he raised a hand to gently touch her head.

The handsome young man looked at Chun Zhi with bright hope and said: “My name is Mu Kai Ji. I am your brother.”

Chun Zhi turned her gaze to him and called softly: “Brother.”

“Good Zhi’er,” Mu Kai Ji said as he half reached to hug her, then remembered that Zhi’er was a young lady soon to be married, and his hand stalled in the air.

“Brother,” Chun Zhi called again as she fell into Mu Kai Ji’s arms. Mu Kai Ji froze for a second, then quickly hugged her.

When the family’s greetings were done, Huo Zheng stepped forward and said respectfully: “Greetings, Father-in-law, Mother-in-law, and Big Brother.”

“You are… Prince Chang’an,” Mu Qing Shan said, and he quickly led his wife and son to bow. Huo Zheng caught Mu Qing Shan with one hand and Madam Mu with the other and said: “Father-in-law and Mother-in-law, please do not be so formal. This is not the place to talk. Come into the city with me and rest first.”

Chun Zhi lifted her sleeve to wipe her tears and said: “Yes. Father, Mother, and Brother have had a hard journey. Let us go back and talk.”

Mu Qing Shan said gravely: “Then we must trouble Prince Chang’an.”

Huo Zheng answered with a smile: “We are all family. There is no need to be polite.”

He invited the three Mus into the Prince of Chang’an Manor’s carriage. It was large enough for the whole family to sit together, just right for talking on the way.

Mu Kai Ji helped his parents into the carriage. When he reached out to help Chun Zhi, he saw Prince Chang’an himself steadying her as she stepped in. Mu Kai Ji thought: [This brother-in-law is not bad.]

Once they were seated, Chun Zhi and Madam Mu sat close together. Madam Mu held her daughter and said in a low voice: “When the Mu estate was confiscated, your father and I feared you would not survive at the Northern Frontier, so we had your wet nurse take you away first. But the road was long and the skies were high, and later there was no news at all.”

They had wanted the wet nurse to hide Chun Zhi in the countryside for a while. But after the couple was exiled to the Northern Frontier, distance and hardship made it impossible to learn anything about their daughter.

“Zhi’er, how have you lived these years?” Madam Mu asked.

Chun Zhi explained that at nine years old she had drifted to Linshui Town, fallen ill with a high fever, and forgotten everything from before she was nine. She had lived with the Lu Clan for ten years and later met Huo Zheng. She told her mother everything one by one.

She spoke only of the good parts of those eleven years and did not mention her hardships. Even so, Madam Mu wept.

Her Zhi’er had once been a noble young lady, yet she had fallen to the countryside, become a child bride for ten years, made tofu to sell for a living, and been let down by others.

“Madam, now that we have finally found Zhi’er, we should be happy,” Mu Qing Shan said as he gently wiped his wife’s tears and tried to comfort her.

“Yes, Mother,” Mu Kai Ji added. “You have spoken of Zhi’er every day for years. Now that you can see her, you should be glad.”

“I should, I should be glad,” Madam Mu replied, though she could not help herself.

Huo Zheng said nothing and quietly passed a brocade handkerchief to Chun Zhi.