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imperceptibility · 5 years

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清和 (Qinghe) -- by 来自远方 (Lai Zi Yuan Fang) -- ch. 2

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Translated by me

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⯇ Chapter 1

Meng Qinghe considered himself to be a kindhearted person, despite most of those who had experience dealing with him holding an opposing opinion.

Although he had never committed any monstrous acts and was far from being a person steeped in evil, every single individual who was familiar with him would involuntarily shiver upon seeing his signature action of putting his finger on the frame of his glasses.

Meng Qinghe was against violence. Moreover, he would never speak maliciously towards another person.

Physical appearance aside, his scholarly aura often caused others to err in their judgement of him.

He liked to calmly deliberate, though 90% of the time, the subjects of his ‘deliberation’ would meet quite the tragic fate.

Meng Guangxiao did not know that Qinghe was no longer the same person inside, and so he gleefully waited to cheaply acquire the big house and the farmland that Meng Guangzhi had left behind.

So what if Meng Guangzhi had a reputation for his generosity? So what if he had been able to amass so much property? The world was full of hypocrisy. After he had kicked the bucket, who came forward to speak out for his family? Ultimately, the house and the farmland he had had in life wound up in Meng Guangxiao’s hands, did they not?

Meng Guangzhi had become the squad leader over him. But while he was leading the squad on its way to answering the mandatory call of labor, they had run into the Tatars[1] and he and his two sons died together in the northern borderland. Just by recalling this made Meng Guangxiao feel somehow vindicated.

Served him just right!

Meng-Liu-shi came out of the kitchen with warmed wine and two small side dishes. As soon as she pushed open the door, she saw Meng Guangxiao sitting on the chair with his legs crossed, drumming his fingers on the table and shaking his head. His muttering was too low to make out.

“Dangjiade[2],” Meng-Liu-shi placed the wine and food on the table, wiping her hands on her apron. Her expression was somewhat hesitant, but she still spoke: “Why not forget about the matter with shi’erlang? I have tried persuading you not to back when they first sold plots of their farmland. We are all relatives, so doing this is not a good idea. Once things are out in the open, how will we face one another? Plus, you are the head of the clan, so it would not do for others to gossip about you for your actions. Besides, they really are having a hard time...”

Bang!

Smashing the wine cup down upon the table, Meng Guangxiao’s expression was thunderous. Meng-Liu-shi did not dare to say more. Even if she said more, Meng Guangxiao was not going to change his mind. All it would achieve would be getting herself in trouble as well. In the end, she could only sigh. Their family hardly needed that house or those few mu of land. And yet it was as if her husband was stubbornly stuck on this matter, unwilling to listen to any advice to the contrary. They were all members of the Meng clan. Back during the time of liutangdi[3] Meng Guangzhi and his sons’ funeral, there was already gossip floating around, causing Meng-Liu-shi to want to crawl into some fissure in the ground with shame. And now this. If shi’erlang’s family was actually pushed off the cliff, would hers really have gained something?

This sort of thing could be done by Meng Guangshun or Meng Guangming, just not her husband! If nothing else, her oldest son was still in school. What would happen if news got out that his elders were acrimonious towards their relatives?

She was brimming with anxiety. With Meng Guangxiao refusing to listen, all she could do was fret in secret.

Meng Guangxiao did not know of his wife’s thoughts. Sitting next to the table, he picked up some peanuts and tossed them into his mouth between sips of wine, fully content.

As the sun grew closer to the horizon, the wine pot on the table became empty. Meng Guangxiao burped, his entire face flushed red.

Meng Qinghai returned home from school. After brushing the snow from his body, he greeted Meng Guangxiao and Meng-Liu-shi.

“Father, mother, I am back.”

Meng Guangxiao looked up. Upon seeing his eldest son dressed in a rushan, wearing a sifangpingdingjin[4], Meng Guangxiao became a little more clear-headed.

“You are back.”

Meng-Liu-shi gave Meng Qinghai a look. When Meng Guangxiao was in a temper, only their oldest son could perhaps convince him otherwise.

Meng Qinghai nodded towards his mother and carefully chose his words: “Father, about shi’erlang...”

Before he could finish, Meng Guangxiao shook his head. “Just focus on your studies. Do not worry about anything else.”

“But father...”

“Enough. Do not say more.” Meng Guangxiao was inebriated and he impatiently cut Meng Qinghai off. “That boy is but a fool. No need to waste more energy on thoughts of him.”

Seeing his father’s displeasure, Meng Qinghai could only stop. Steering the conversation away and choosing things that would please his father to say, he finally managed to lighten Meng Guangxiao’s expression.

Ultimately, his multiple efforts to persuade his father were for his own sake, not out of some brotherly affection for Meng Qinghe. If Qinghe really were as his father described him, then there was nothing to worry about. Moreover, his father was the head of the Meng clan while his father-in-law was the village chief[5]. Once he passed the exam and entered the county school, to him, Qinghe would be merely an ant that he could crush at will.

With that thought, his last trace of worry vanished.

Only Meng-Liu-shi’s expression continued to carry some degree of concern. She wanted to speak but had no way of getting the words out.

Like this father and son pair, Meng Qinghe and Meng-Wang-shi also had a long conversation.

When the talk took place, Meng-Xu-shi and Meng-Zhang-shi were not present. It was not that he did not trust his sisters-in-law; rather, he just wanted to prevent side issues from arising. Meng-Wang-shi was capable of unconditionally believing in and supporting him, but that was not necessarily true for Meng-Xu-shi and Meng-Zhang-shi. After all, what he wanted to do would not be affecting just himself.

Reality proved that his apprehension was not, in fact, unwarranted. After telling Meng-Wang-shi of his plans, she was stunned for an entire ten minutes.

Her thought: could it be that shi’erlang has really turned into a fool?

He wanted to throw away his perfectly good occupation as a farmer[6] and enlist in the army? Once he became a soldier, how could he take the imperial examination? Were all these years of study going to waste? If her husband were to find out, would he be rolling in his grave?

And once she passed on, what face would she have to go see the Meng clan ancestors?

“Mother, I have not become a fool. Neither am I momentarily confused.” Qinghe slowed his speaking as much as he could. He knew what sort of an effect his words would have on Meng-Wang-shi, but he would never go back on something that he had decided upon.

Joining the army was for himself, for the family of “Meng Qinghe”, and for the sake of conveniently tricking Meng Guangxiao.

If he had not wound up in the body of this boy, he could not be sure he would not have become a lonely soul drifting six hundred years in the past. If he could drift his way back to the present, then all would be well. If not, then death would only be a matter of time.

When living was an option, nobody would want to die.

Seeing as he was ‘benefiting’ off the original Meng Qinghe, then he must shoulder the responsibilities that came with this ‘benefit’, regardless of whether he had asked for it for not.

Although through his planned action, Meng Guangxiao would not be the only one falling into the hole that he dug. There was no escape for the entire Meng Village[7].

In retrospect, the only thing that could be said was that Qinghe’s hole-digging technique had reached new heights

“Son, are you really set on this?”

“Mother, please put your faith in me this once.”

Gritting his teeth, Qinghe fell to his knees in front of Meng-Wang-shi. From this moment forward, he was no longer the Meng Qinghe of the 21st century but rather the boy living during the early years of the Ming Dynasty who had just lost his father.

“Mother, I was chased out of the school. I am afraid that from now on, nothing will come of my test-taking. Father and my brothers are gone. There is absolutely no way for us to keep possession of our farmland. Meng Village is also not a place to permanently call home. The only way forward is to enlist.”

The corners of her mouth trembling, Meng-Wang-shi lifted her hand, as if wanting to caress Qinghe’s head. But she aborted the action part of the way, setting her hand back down.

“Son, as your mother, it is I who is useless, dragging you down like this.” Meng-Wang-shi’s eyes reddened with tears, but alas, none fell. Ever since her husband and two of her sons had died, her tears had flown so much that they were now nearly dried up.

“Mother, this is what I have decided.” Qinghe looked at Meng-Wang-shi, his eyes resolute, his words impassioned. “Father and my brothers were killed by the Tatars. Even if I cannot kill their murderers with my own hands, I must kill a few of the Tatars to console their souls!

With tears hanging in the corners of her eyes, Meng-Wang-shi suddenly thought of something. “Kill the Tatars?”

“Indeed!”

“To avenge your father and brothers?”

“Indeed!”

“But son,” she paused, her tone doubtful, “can you lift our family’s hatchet?”

“......” It would appear that he could not.

For a moment, mother and son looked at one another, simultaneously silent.

At the start of the Ming Dynasty, soldiers were fierce and courageous. All the Princes stationed to defend the northern borderland had amiable meetings with their prairie friends every few days or so. Those prairie friends also liked to come to the border of the Ming Empire to display the qualities of a good neighbor. Both sides often came and went in the midst of swords and spears, extremely ‘intimate’ in their relationship.

With Qinghe’s current small and lean frame, he barely had any flesh for a sword to slice off. Unable to even lift a hatchet, on the battlefield, the others would not even deign to use him as cannon fodder.

Qinghe wanting to join the military was not hard.

Him wanting to make contributions after joining was very hard.

Three meals a day, a standalone house, no worries over food or clothing — he was still quite a distance away from those goals.

Pinching his own thin arms, Qinghe lowered his head, squatted down, and drew circles on the ground in silence.

He missed his eight-head height in the 21st century, his six-pack.

With just the right timing, the old cat outside gave a meow, contentedly licking its paw and washing its face, clearly having just ate a full meal.

Qinghe turned his head and bared his teeth in the direction of the door. While the cat bristled, he clenched his fists: effort was what mattered. A six-pack, so what? Sooner or later, he was going to achieve an eight-pack!

Although...the difficulty was a bit high.

After their conversation, Meng-Wang-shi no longer made any effort to stop Qinghe’s actions. When her daughters-in-law found the chance to inquire about them, she would dismiss them with a “shi’erlang has his plans”.

Seeing that their mother-in-law’s expressions betrayed no lie, Meng-Xu-shi and Meng-Zhang-shi had no choice but to drop the subject. In their family, the decision-makers were their mother-in-law and their xiaoshu. Since they had no desire to remarry, surely no great wrong could come of listening more and speaking less for each and every matter.

Besides, ever since datangbo had came over, they could feel that their xiaoshu had changed a great deal, as if he had grown up over night. He was no longer a teenager but one hundred percent a man.

Chapter 3 ▶

T/N

[1] It’s a bit complicated. Tatars = the direct translation but I’m not sure it correctly conveys the actual people this refers to. Historically at this time, 鞑靼 were northern neighbors to the Han Chinese. Although I’m not clear on the relationship between the Mongols, the Tatars, and the Turkic peoples (other Turkic people? since the Tatars were Turkic? but had come under Mongolian rule? or were allied with the Mongols? but were absorbed into the Mongols? anyway...), it is perhaps important to point out that what preceded the Ming Dynasty was the Yuan Dynasty, a time of Mongolian rule.

[2] Dangjiade is literally “head of the house”. Wives sometimes referred to their husbands by their role: head of the house, father of the kids, etc.

[3] Di is younger brother. Tangdi is a younger male paternal cousin. Liutangdi is the sixth oldest male in that generation.

[4] Rushan is a type of garment. Sifangpingdingjin is a type of square-shaped soft hat (literally “brought-peace-to-all-the-land head-covering”), worn by Ming Dynasty Confucianist scholars.

[5] Lizhang was a local official who oversaw the people within his jurisdiction and their obligatory labor.

[6] Farming was a well-respected occupation...abuse by some members of the gentry aside. As such, it was desirable to have your identity registered under the classification of “farmer”.

[7] Meng Jia Tun is literally Meng family village. Back in the days, some small and/or remote villages were populated by mostly people of the same clan/surname.

#Qinghe #Lai Zi Yuan Fang #novel #translation

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