Li Ling sat by the boat’s edge, casting the fishing line into the lake, truly focused on fishing.
Jing Xiu moved a stool next to him and sat down, looking at the glittering surface of the lake, she asked, “Do you often fish, my husband?”
Li Ling shook his head and said, “I used to catch fish in the river as a child, but now that I have official duties, I hardly have such leisure time.”
Jing Xiu looked at the man beside her.
Compared to his peers, he bore much heavier responsibilities.
With discord between his parents, his father bedridden for years, his mother disengaged from worldly affairs, his grandmother aged, and his younger siblings still young,
he had the duty to uphold the honor of the Marquis’ household above, and the responsibility to care for and educate his younger siblings below.
At just over twenty years of age, he had been tempered into a maturity and resilience far beyond his years.
The relaxed and contented manner he now displayed in front of her was something Jing Xiu had never seen in her two lifetimes.
She wanted to treat him well.
To share the burdens with him.
“When I have free time in the future, I will often accompany you to fish,” Jing Xiu murmured, leaning her head on his shoulder.
Li Ling wrapped his arm around her shoulder, smiling, and said, “It’s a promise.”
As they were speaking, the fishing rod suddenly dipped. Li Ling quickly reeled in the line, exclaiming, “Look, it’s hooked, ha, it’s a big fish.”
With that, a lively, wriggling big fish was dragged up. Li Ling skillfully unhooked it from the fish hook by holding its gills, but unexpectedly, the fish thrashed its tail and managed to break free from his grasp, landing hard on the deck.
The fish, unwilling to be captured without a fight, thrashed its large body back and forth on the deck, even out of water, causing Jing Xiu to scream in fright and continuously hide behind Li Ling.
Li Ling bent down and quickly subdued it, lifting the big fish and said to his panicked young wife, “Don’t be afraid, I’ll take care of it now, and you can look forward to a fresh treat.”
Saying this, Li Ling pressed the fish against the boat’s gunwale, took the dagger from his waist, and swiftly cleaned and killed the fish.
Jing Xiu, seeing his adept movements, teased, “I didn’t expect my husband to be skilled at handling fish.”
While killing the fish, Li Ling replied, “There are times during military campaigns when we run out of provisions, and the soldiers have to forage for food in the wilderness. Naturally, I’m not unfamiliar with killing fish and slaughtering animals.”
As they spoke, Li Ling had already sliced the fish into thin pieces as delicate as cicada wings. He said to Jing Xiu, “Go to the kitchen and get a pot.”
Jing Xiu agreed and went into the cabin.
The cabin was fully equipped with bedrooms, a study, a bathroom, and had seven or eight rooms in total. Jing Xiu found the kitchen, fetched a pot, and brought it up to the deck.
Just as Li Ling had finished slicing all the fish, he washed the slices clean with water, placed the meat in the pot, then went to the kitchen to fetch some firewood, and set up the pot on the deck to cook the fish right there.
“Wait for it, it’ll be ready soon,” Li Ling said, busy at work but looking up at Jing Xiu.
It sounded as if she was particularly eager to eat, and Jing Xiu, feeling a bit embarrassed, said, “I’ll go get the bowls first, we’ll need them to serve the fish.”
Jing Xiu went back to the kitchen, and Li Ling followed, saying, “Let’s see if there’s any wine here.”
“Do we need to drink wine too?”
“With good fish, of course, we need wine to go with it,” Li Ling replied.
Jing Xiu teased, “We don’t even know if the fish you’re cooking will be edible.”
Li Ling chuckled, “Whether it’s edible or not, you’ll find out soon enough.” After rummaging through the cupboard for a while, he indeed found a jar of wine. He took off the seal, sniffed it, and said, “This wine is not bad.”
“Get two more wine cups,” he added.
Jing Xiu agreed, took the bowls, chopsticks, and cups, and followed Li Ling out of the cabin.
By now, white steam was wafting from the pot, and the delicious aroma was gradually spreading through the air.
Li Ling lifted the lid of the pot, looked at the rolling white slices of fish in the broth, and said, “The fish meat shouldn’t be cooked too long, or it will become tough.”
Jing Xiu leaned over to look into the pot and asked, “Can it be done in such a short time?”
“Get a spoon and try it,” Li Ling said.
Jing Xiu handed him a spoon, and Li Ling scooped up a spoonful, gently sipped it, and praised, “Hmm, very fresh.”
Then, he scooped up another piece of fish, blew on it, and brought it to Jing Xiu’s mouth, saying, “You try it.”
Jing Xiu tasted a bite and indeed found it incomparably fresh.
She nodded and smiled radiantly at him.
“So it does please madam’s palate,” Li Ling said with a proud look, smiling teasingly at her.
Not wanting to let him get too smug, Jing Xiu stopped smiling and deliberately pouted, saying, “It’s passable.”
Li Ling picked up a bowl filled with fish meat and handed it to Jing Xiu, saying, “If it pleases madam’s palate, then I haven’t been busy for nothing.”
Jing Xiu set up a small table, and the two sat opposite each other, savoring the fish and drinking wine.
The boat drifted with the current on the crystal-clear lake, and Li Ling pointed ahead, saying, “If I remember correctly, there should be a large patch of lotus flowers ahead.”
Sure enough, after a short while, they were greeted by lotus leaves that seemed to touch the sky, and the boat wove through the lotus flowers, startling the waterbirds that took flight in pairs and threes.
Jing Xiu casually plucked a lotus flower and played with it. Having drunk wine and being in such a paradisiacal scene, she was moved to recite spontaneously:
“Often I recall the pavilion by the stream at dusk, so drunk I knew not the way home, joy spent, the late-returning boat, mistakenly enters the depths of lotus flowers, vying to cross, startling a shoal of gulls and egrets.”①
With flushed cheeks from the wine, the young woman lay on the ground holding the lotus, her delicate figure wrapped in a greenish-blue silk dress, her apricot eyes hazy with intoxication, indescribably charming and alluring.
Li Ling had not expected his young wife to be not only beautiful but also so talented, and he couldn’t help but praise her, “I had heard of madam’s reputation for talent in her boudoir, but today I have truly witnessed it.”
Jing Xiu, embarrassed by his praise, smiled and said, “I merely spoke without thinking, and now I’ve made a fool of myself in front of my husband.”
“My wife spontaneously creates such fine verses, wonderful indeed,” Li Ling said. Then he went into the cabin to fetch ink and paper and sat down to write, recording the verse Jing Xiu had just composed.
Li Ling’s calligraphy was strong and vigorous, deeply imbued with the essence of Yan Zhenqing’s style.
Jing Xiu watched Li Ling write and smiled, saying, “My verse is gentle and weak, hardly a match for the boldness of my husband’s writing.”
“How can you say they do not match? We complement each other by combining our strengths,” Li Ling said. Then he swept her up in his arms and carried her toward the cabin.
Li Ling was about to lie down beside his young wife on the bed when Jing Xiu pushed him away, chiding, “You still smell of fish, go wash first.”
Li Ling sniffed his sleeve and said, “It must be the smell from when I was cleaning the fish.”
Jing Xiu urged, “Hurry up and take it off.”
Li Ling laughed and replied, “You enjoyed the fish so much just now, and now you’re put off by me.”
“Oh, just take off your clothes, I really dislike strange smells.”
Knowing her preference for cleanliness, Li Ling reluctantly stood up, first removing his outer robe, then turned and went to the bathroom.
After washing up, he returned to the bed, crawled under the covers, and embraced Jing Xiu, saying, “This should be fine now, right?”
Jing Xiu gave him a light kiss on his forehead as if to reward him.
That one kiss completely ignited the blazing fire within Li Ling.
① Borrowing from the Song Dynasty lyricist Li Qingzhao’s “Like a Dream”
(End of this chapter)