Chapter 27: The Sleepless Man and Woman

  Lu Haoshan started writing on the letter, with only a few dozen words, but he wrote very slowly. After finishing, he hesitated for a moment, put it aside, and picked up another letter to start again. With the experience from before, this time both the word shape and stroke order were much smoother.

  After finishing writing, Lu Haoshan checked again and found no problem. Only then was he satisfied, gently blowing air to dry the ink marks.

  "Finally done, Shan Ge, getting that letter wasn't easy at all." Liu Jinzhu said with some emotion.

  Lu Haoshan nodded: "Mm, but there will always be a way."

  A clever woman can't cook without rice, and Lu Haoshan is no exception. Although his skills in counterfeiting are top-notch and he's a master at imitating others' handwriting, Cao Hu's handwriting was easy to obtain, but Li Yunniang's writing, hidden deep within the inner chambers, couldn't be found no matter what. In desperation, he had to hold an activity under the name of the county magistrate, hosting a women's calligraphy competition, and fortunately, he got to see Li Yunniang's handwriting. This was also why Lu Haoshan lingered in front of that piece of calligraphy for half a day.

  "Shan Ge, shall we take action now?"

  "Action," Lu Haoshan said without hesitation: "Time is not waiting for me, now we are still smooth sailing, but who knows when we will be exposed. After the New Year, there should be many inspectors coming, and I don't know if we can cover it up then."

  Liu Jinzhu nodded and said: "That's right, Brother Shan, I've always had a package at the bottom of my trunk. If something happens, I'll pick it up and run away immediately."

  "I hope I won't see the day when you have to flee." Lu Haoshan patted Liu Jinzhu's shoulder, his tone somewhat solemn.

  ......

  Cao Hu thought he had been very lucky recently, everything went smoothly. First, he was taken by Lu County Magistrate to patrol the countryside and received a large sum of money. Then his former superior Chen Gui also gave him a generous reward. As the head of the third class of fast yamen, these clerks who were good at making money also did well, and the gifts they presented were much more than in previous years. Now there are many gift boxes placed at home, and he hasn't had time to count them yet.

  Although there were servants at home, and a maid who took care of daily life and food, Cao Hu was very fond of the feeling of opening gifts, liked to do things personally, but no matter how many gifts, they couldn't compare to the importance and weight of the letter in his hand.

  Cao Hu did not expect in his dreams that Li Yun Niang, the one he loved most, would take the initiative to write a letter to him. At the moment he received the letter, he felt as if his brain was messed up and he was struck by lightning: it was simply the best gift from heaven.

  Looking at the elegant handwriting on the envelope, Cao Hu thought of how he and Yun Niang got to know each other. When he was young, his father took two old hens as tuition fees to a private school in the village run by a man named Li Fu Zi. At that time, he discovered a little girl sitting next to him, reading and writing with great concentration. He later found out that her name was Li Yun Niang, and Li Fu Zi was her uncle. She helped with chores like sweeping the floor, grinding ink, and cutting paper in exchange for being allowed to listen to the lessons for free. From then on, Cao Hu paid special attention to this diligent and studious woman, intentionally or unintentionally getting close to her until they eventually reached the stage of discussing marriage.

  These warm memories seem like yesterday, but reality is so far away.

  After a good while, Cao Hu passed the calm down, opened the envelope with some trembling hands, pulled out the letter, and as soon as he saw those familiar characters, Cao Hu felt a warm feeling in his heart. As he read on, he was first excited, but towards the end, he became more and more angry, finally unable to bear it, slamming his hand on the table and saying angrily: "Good Chen Gui, what a beast!"

  Li Yunniang first expressed her longing in the letter, and then told Cao Hu about her experiences in the Chen family, being ignored by Chen Gui, being bullied by his wife, and how miserable her life was. This made Cao Hu's eyes turn red with anger, and he wished he could take an iron ruler and smash Chen Gui's head into pieces. However, this couldn't be done, as Chen Gui was a powerful figure in Jiangyou County, and his influence ran deep. His own future was still in the hands of others.

  However, what made Cao Hu's heart beat faster was that Li Yunniang mentioned in the back of the letter that she would be going to Guanyue Temple outside the city three days later to burn incense.

  Jiangyou women like to burn incense and worship Buddha, going to offer incense is not a strange thing, but secretly telling their own faith that they want to go offer incense, still outside the city to offer incense, isn't this implying that they are going on a date? Cao Hu held the letter, the whole thing was light and airy, as if his bones had also become lighter by several taels.

  "Too good, too good"

  "Yunniang still has me in her heart."

  "Oh no, where am I going to wear this outfit?"

  Cao Hu seemed to have suddenly become more than ten years younger, returning to that impulsive and vigorous youth, holding the letter, pacing back and forth in the room alone, so excited that he couldn't sit still at all.

  This night, Cao Hu was sleepless all night, pacing back and forth in the room alone, muttering to himself from time to time. He didn't even allow Yaru to come forward and attend to him, sending her and the servants off to bed early. He paced around by himself, unable to calm down or fall asleep, completely losing a night's sleep.

  Cao Hu was not alone, for someone accompanied him. On the same night, Li Yunmang, who guarded the cold window alone, was like a frightened rabbit, sitting and lying restlessly all night. The letter hidden in her heart was like a hot iron plate, making her terrified and uneasy. Fortunately, Chen Gui did not come to the fifth house concubine tonight, otherwise, she would have been discovered by him in this state. However, soon Li Yunmang felt some melancholy again. Since Chen Gui took in the fourth and fifth concubines, he had not spent a night in her room for a long time.

  Already married, naturally want to keep the way of a virtuous woman, Li Yunniang is not clear about this principle. Although this marriage was arranged by her parents for Chen Gui's wealth and power, she herself did not agree, but it's too late now that everything has been settled. She had to bury those deep feelings in her heart, never expecting Cao Hu to still remember her fondly, even secretly sending someone to deliver a message saying he wants to see her once more, if Li Yunniang doesn't agree then he will kill himself, leaving Li Yunniang with no choice.

  "Brother Tiger, why must you be like this?" Li Yunniang said with some emotion.

  Although she was in the inner chamber, Chen Gui was the county magistrate, and the news from the government was very well-informed. Li Yunmang knew that Cao Hu had not yet married, and although he had not asked him directly about the reason, Li Yunmang knew that it was likely because of herself. Faced with Cao Hu's appointment, Li Yunmang felt a strong resistance in her heart, but deep down, she also had some expectation.

  Forget it, I'll go anyway. Firstly, the two of them knew each other, and Li Yunniang couldn't bear to see Cao Hu doing stupid things, so she took the opportunity to advise him. Secondly, she believed in Buddhism, and saving a life was better than building a seven-story pagoda, so Li Yunniang used this reason to convince herself.