314: Late Night Visit to the Artist

Late Night Visit to the Artist

Though they planned to drink together soon, both Yujia and Zixu got caught up with life. Zixu, especially, had new responsibilities added on by his father, involving talking and trading with other merchants himself, without any guidance or supervision. He also began to keep track of some of the records of business transactions. 1

Yujia knew that Zixu would not have much difficulty doing these things. She had full faith in his abilities. However, due to the sheer amount of work, he didn't have as much time to frequent Lingxin like he did for the past few weeks. 

When a week had passed since they promised to have a drink, Yujia put that thought to the back of her mind. 

It was one evening, on a night with a full moon, when Zixu paid a visit. 

His appearance was completely outside of Yujia's expectations. She had been sitting in the courtyard with Yufeng, enjoying the summer breeze and admiring the round moon. The weather had been getting steadily warmer, so on evenings like these, when the temperatures finally began to drop, she enjoyed spending some time outside. 

Then, while Yujia was observing the moon, she suddenly noticed a shadow against the backdrop, on top of the side of the courtyard walls connected with the outside. She squinted, recognizing it as oddly familiar. 

It was… Zixu?

Her mouth flew open.

He had one arm propped up on the wall, the other one grabbing onto a tree that had grown close to the wall. Yujia stood up, completely shocked, watching as he swung over to be sitting on top of the courtyard walls.

"Zixu, what are you—" Before she could even finish her words, Xie Yufeng rose up, her posture tense. Yujia glanced over at Yufeng, putting a hand on the other young woman's arm. "I know him." 

She could totally see how Yufeng seemed so defensive, though. A shadow over the walls was far too suspicious. Zixu seemed like a thief.

Yufeng, hearing that, relaxed. She glanced at Zixu again, then at Yujia, and pieced two and two together. Bowing, she let out a small breath of air and said, "I'll be leaving then." 

Without even waiting for a response from Yujia, she walked out of the courtyard speedily.

Now that Yufeng was gone, Yujia, whose ankle was actually, for the most part healed, moved to stand by the walls. She looked up at Zixu, almost laughing at how ridiculous his choice of time to pay a visit and method of entering Lingxin was.

"What are you doing?" she asked him, finally getting to finish her words.

Zixu patted the large jar of wine he had in his other arm, gesturing his head at the moon. "I saw there was a full moon, so I wanted to view the moon with you. We did make that promise too, didn't we? Father's been keeping a tight eye on me lately, so I haven't had a chance to escape and fulfill our promise. He doesn't know that I'm here." 

"Skies," was all Yujia could mutter.

Zixu leaned forward. If not for the fact that he seemed like he knew what he was doing, Yujia would be afraid that he would fall off. He lowered the jar of wine, which Yujia accepted with outstretched hands. 

"Besides, " he continued, now moving to the edge. In one, swift motion, he jumped from the edge, landing on the grass with barely a stumble. He then turned to her, finishing his sentence with a smile, "I missed you."

Hearing this, all of the shock and wariness vanished from Yujia. She sighed and smiled faintly. "I missed you too."

…

The two opened the jar of wine soon enough.

Now sitting on the porch, with two cups by the side for holding the wine, Yujia poured both of them a full cup. She raised it up, saying, "Cheers."

"Cheers," he replied.

With that said, Yujia lifted the cup to her lips and drank the orange-toned wine. It was leaning towards the sweeter side of wine, made with glutinous rice and wheat. The subtle fragrance was something truly satisfying to experience, light and mellow. With just a tinge of sour to balance out the sweetness, the complexity behind the flavor made Yujia realize why she had fallen in love with drinking in the first place. The skill of the brewer behind the wine was evident, as it had been aged long enough for the flavor to shine wonderfully. This was a type of wine that would improve as it aged, and the brewer had been patient enough to age it just enough.

"Good wine," Yujia stated.

Zixu agreed, refilling both of their empty cups. "This is exactly what I was missing when traveling."

Looking at the cloth, which had stuffed the opening of the jar, laying by the side, Yujia blinked. "I can't believe you didn't open it until now."

"Since we promised to drink it together, I didn't want to ruin things by getting to try ahead of time," Zixu responded, "and even if I wanted to drink, Father would not let me."

"He's been too strict with you. Everyone needs some breathing space."

"I guess." Zixu finished his wine, pouring himself another cup. "Although it's important to say, he's always been like this. It's only that recently, he's been slightly stricter."

Yujia bit her lip. "I see."

She couldn't tell Zixu, but her current impression of his father wasn't the greatest. They had never met, but from everything that was going to happen, including her marriage to him, she didn't think all too positively about him.

Zixu seemed to read the unspoken words behind her gaze though, adding on, "He's not a bad person."

"I know," Yujia glanced down and replied, "but don't tell me you'll be like him, with all of those concubines and wives?"

"Is that what you're worried about?" Zixu let out a small laugh. "Don't worry. I'm not that kind of person. And to tell you the truth about my father: he only married those women for show." 

"For show?" Yujia looked up now. She raised her eyebrows. "What does that mean?"

"He doesn't touch any of those concubines. Many of them are to improve his connection with a few families. A few others are to help them out from their past predicaments. They are treated well in the family."

"Really? That's rare to see, isn't it?" Yujia thought about it some more. Taking a couple of concubines like the Yu Family's Old Master was the most common of practices. Yet she had never heard of a case of a man marrying many women yet only doing it for outside appearances. "Your family's backstory is much more complex than it seems on the outside," she admitted.

At those words, the air around them seemed to stiffen.

Zixu looked down. "Indeed."

Yujia froze, recognizing the fault in her words. Even though Zixu had been opening up to her, he had always been avoiding going in-depth about his family's past. She shouldn't have brought that up.

"I'm sorry—" she blurted out.

Zixu shook his head, setting down the cup of wine that touched his lips. "Don't be. I think it's about time that I talked about it. You deserve to know, and I can't keep avoiding it forever."

Yujia scanned his eyes, listening to his next words attentively.

He began, slowly, "My mother was mentally ill. They called her insane."

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