Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Why Are You Crying?

Stopped by the people in her way, Chun Zhi did not panic and said in a clear voice: “This is a pharmacy. Anyone can come and go. Why do you have people block me like this?”

Before Ji Ru Zhen could speak, the maid beside her snapped: “How dare you!”

The maid said: “My lady is the chancellor’s legitimate daughter and the top scholar’s wife. Forget only blocking you. Even if we hit you, you would have to take it!”

The two maids were spiteful and mean.

The servants holding Chun Zhi back looked fierce.

The shopkeeper stepped in to mediate and said: “With the top scholar’s wife gracing my small pharmacy, I am truly honored. If you have any orders, just tell me. She is only a customer buying medicine. Please, for my sake, let her pass.”

Ji Ru Zhen did not speak, and the servants did not move.

Ji Ru Zhen looked Chun Zhi over. After Chun Zhi was driven out of the Lu Clan, she had not hidden to cry or fallen apart. She still set out her tofu stall as usual, and now she even showed up at the pharmacy.

Ji Ru Zhen herself had come out because Old Madam was ill. She wanted to earn a name for being filial and to quash the rumor that the chancellor’s daughter had stolen someone’s husband, so she personally invited every physician in Linshui Town back to the Lu Clan. She suspected that Chun Zhi knew Old Madam Lu was sick and had purposely come to buy medicine, hoping to use this chance to return to the Lu Clan.

She would never allow that.

Ji Ru Zhen said: “Yesterday you angered Mother until she fell ill, took the silver, and ran off. You even spread rumors everywhere that Jing Yun abandoned his child bride. You are only a maidservant Jing Yun picked up. Without a matchmaker or a betrothal, how dare you call yourself his child bride?”

Chun Zhi said: “I did not spread any rumors.”

She had nothing more to say to Ji Ru Zhen. For ten years, she and Lu Jing Yun had relied on each other. There had been no matchmaker or betrothal, but everyone in Linshui Town knew they were a pair.

They had never held a formal wedding, but they had vowed before Heaven and Earth to stay together for life and never fail each other.

Now it was Lu Jing Yun who broke the vow first. By not clinging or taking revenge, Chun Zhi had already left the last bit of kindness between them.

Yet Ji Ru Zhen refused to let her be.

Ji Ru Zhen said: “If you did not spread rumors, then why is everyone in Linshui Town criticizing me and Jing Yun?”

Chun Zhi said: “Then you should ask yourself.”

The maid shouted: “Impudent! How dare a lowly commoner talk to my lady like that?”

The maid rushed up and raised her hand to slap Chun Zhi.

Chun Zhi grabbed the maid’s wrist, then turned her hand and slapped the maid back.

With a crisp smack, a five-finger mark bloomed on the maid’s face.

Chun Zhi made and ground tofu every day. She looked gentle, but her strength was much greater than that of a typical young lady.

The maid stared in shock and said: “You, you dare hit me?” She covered her face, ran to her lady, and cried: “Miss, she… she hit me.”

Relying on her status as the chancellor’s daughter, Ji Ru Zhen had always been pampered in the capital. She had never seen someone like Chun Zhi, who ignored rank and fought back without a word.

Ji Ru Zhen said: “Useless thing, stand down,” then stepped forward herself. The servants reached out to seize Chun Zhi.

Seeing things turn bad, Chun Zhi kicked one servant hard between the legs. As he doubled over in pain, she rushed out of the pharmacy.

Outside, the street was crowded. Many street vendors knew Chun Zhi. Not knowing what happened, they joked: “Chun Zhi, why are you running? Is a tiger chasing you?”

Chun Zhi ran to Uncle Zhang’s stall where he sold kitchen knives, grabbed a cleaver, and turned to face the servants. No one expected her to come back with a knife. The servants panicked and stepped back.

Ji Ru Zhen also walked out. Seeing Chun Zhi coming at her with the cleaver, her face turned pale as she asked: “W-what are you doing?”

Chun Zhi stood before Ji Ru Zhen with the cleaver, though her hand shook. Ji Ru Zhen had many servants and maids, while she was alone. Holding a knife at someone in broad daylight could get her thrown into jail. But she had no other way right now.

Chun Zhi forced herself to calm down and said coldly: “Didn’t you ask me how I, without a matchmaker or betrothal, could call myself Lu Jing Yun’s child bride?”

Ji Ru Zhen’s face was white as paper, and she did not dare to answer. As the chancellor’s daughter, she had been raised in comfort. Even when she had conflicts with other official daughters, they only used inner-courtyard tricks, like drugging someone’s tea or having someone push the other into water from behind. She had never faced an opponent who spoke while holding a cleaver. With so many people around, the servants did not dare act on their own.

Chun Zhi said: “We did not marry because Lu Jing Yun said that once he placed first in the imperial exams, he would marry me in a grand sedan chair with eight bearers. But he broke his word.”

Resolute, she cut Lu Jing Yun from her heart bit by bit. The pain was hard to describe, but she did not hesitate.

Chun Zhi said to Ji Ru Zhen: “It is Lu Jing Yun’s fault for failing me. I blame only him, not you. But that is no reason for you to show off in front of me.”

She stood in the middle of the crowd, and passersby stopped to watch. After the rain, the sun had come out, and soft golden light fell on her. Chun Zhi said: “So what if you are the chancellor’s legitimate daughter and the top scholar’s wife? If you took him by force, then you took him by force. Why twist right and wrong and throw all the filth on someone else?”

Ji Ru Zhen opened her mouth and said: “His Majesty the Emperor bestowed my marriage with Jing Yun. How can you say I stole him? You have no parents and no kin. Maybe you are an ominous lone star!”

As soon as she said this, the street vendors who were friendly with Chun Zhi exploded, shouting: “What nonsense!”, “Everyone in Linshui Town can testify that Chun Zhi used to be Lu Jing Yun’s child bride!”, and “Chancellor’s daughter? I say she could not get married and had to steal another woman’s husband!”

These working people from the bottom stepped forward and stood in front of Chun Zhi. Brother Zhao, the butcher from the next stall, came over with his butcher’s knife and said: “Don’t be afraid, Chun Zhi. With us here, no one can bully you!”

Uncle Zhang, who sold kitchen knives, ran over, took the cleaver from her hand, and coaxed her like a child: “Chun Zhi, be good, let’s not play with knives.”

Chun Zhi’s eyes turned red at once. So many people were standing in front of her. Even without Lu Jing Yun, many still cared about her.

Ji Ru Zhen screamed: “Ah!” When she saw the butcher’s knife still dripping blood, she hid behind her maids, forgetting any noble-lady grace, and shrieked: “Are you all dead? Stop her, stop them!”

Ji Ru Zhen did not feel that she had stolen Chun Zhi’s husband. Chun Zhi’s loneliness was her fate. But Ji Ru Zhen was different. She was born the chancellor’s daughter. She could have whatever she wanted. If she wanted the top scholar as her husband, His Majesty the Emperor would grant it. The best of everything should belong to her. Whoever tried to take anything from her deserved to die.

Brother Zhao raised the butcher’s knife a little higher. The servants and maids shielded Ji Ru Zhen as they fled in panic.

The street vendors crowded around Chun Zhi, comforting her with many voices. The vegetable seller stuffed a basket of vegetables into her hands. The cloth seller gave her two bolts of cloth. Brother Zhao even chopped off a large piece of meat for her. Uncle Zhang thought for a moment, wrapped up the cleaver she had used, and handed it to her, saying: “Chun Zhi, keep this cleaver for protection.”

Moved to tears, Chun Zhi could not stop crying and carried a big armful of things home.

Huo Zheng was turning his wheelchair in the yard. When he heard the door, he looked up and saw Chun Zhi walk in with a big pile of things, her eyes red like she had just cried. He did not speak right away. When she passed by him, he asked: “Why are you crying?”