Two spirit tablets still sat between them, making Tian Yao’s position in the embrace rather awkward. He maintained a contorted posture for a while before finally just lowering himself to sit on the ground, wrapping both arms around Yu Nian’s waist.
After a long while, Yu Nian finally released him.
Tian Yao could see his red-rimmed eyes. He cupped Yu Nian’s face in both hands. “Once spring comes, we can also build a cenotaph for your parents.”
Saying this, he lifted his eyes again. “Or we could make a trip to your hometown…”
“Thank you, Tian Yao.”
Tian Yao hurriedly shook his head. “Why say thanks? We’re one family. Your parents are my parents too.”
Yu Nian pulled him up from the ground and then slowly began to speak. “My home is in Yuancang Prefecture. My family were wealthy merchants of Yuancang Prefecture. Our business was very large: silk, tea, and many goods from the Western Regions—all things my father’s trade caravans brought back from the Western Regions, the Southern Borderlands, and many faraway places.”
“It was just that when business grows large, there are bound to be envious eyes. But Father always conducted his affairs with extreme caution and meticulousness, so there was never a single mistake. Yet at the beginning of this year, a batch of silk brought back from the Western Regions by the caravan was suddenly spot-checked by the Yamen. Father had a clear conscience. But the Yamen officials, within the silk my father’s caravan had brought back, discovered tribute-grade Ice Silk.”
“At the time, an Imperial Envoy was stationed in Yuancang. Father was charged with stealing national tribute. The Imperial Envoy directly threw Father into prison, and then the household was raided. Mother was also arrested along with him, but they singled me out and let me go. I appealed everywhere I could but found no recourse. I could only watch helplessly as my parents were executed.”
“I originally wanted to go to Wangjing, but on the way, I encountered my family’s enemy. Perhaps ‘enemy’ isn’t the right word. He hated me to the extreme. And so, I ended up here.”
Just a few sentences, and Tian Yao could already imagine the bitterness of his experiences at that time. A life of happiness, suddenly turned upside down in an instant.
“Yu Nian, come next year, let’s make a trip to Yuancang Prefecture and bring your parents’ remains back here?”
Yu Nian merely stroked his hair gently, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. He simply changed the subject. “Help me grind ink?”
Tian Yao knew he wanted to complete the inscriptions on the spirit tablets. He went to the room and retrieved the brush and ink. The brush he took was the wolf-hair one. Usually, when Yu Nian wrote, he used the pig-bristle brushes. But for writing the spirit tablets for his parents, if they could use good quality, naturally they would.
Over the past few days, under Yu Nian’s guidance, Tian Yao had learned how to grind ink. This time, he ground it with exceptional reverence.
Yu Nian dipped the brush tip in the ink, yet hesitated for a long time, not daring to set it down. Tian Yao simply watched him, not urging him on.
Only after a long while did Yu Nian write the first characters: Loving Father Yu Zhenghong, Loving Mother Han Ying.
On the brown pine wood, the color of the thick ink was somewhat hard to make out. Tian Yao said to him, “On New Year’s Day, let’s go to the temple and find a master to trace the characters in gold?”
“Alright.”
Tian Yao placed the inscribed spirit tablets on Yu Nian’s lap and then pushed him over to where he kept the spirit tablets of his own father and Little Dad. He dusted off the altar and then placed the two newly written spirit tablets up there as well.
He lit two sticks of incense, keeping one for himself and handing the other to Yu Nian.
Seated in his wheelchair, Yu Nian bowed three times towards the spirit tablets. Then he had Tian Yao place the incense sticks into the incense burner.
Just as Tian Yao was about to leave the room, Yu Nian asked Tian Yao to lift him from the wheelchair. Tian Yao laid a meditation cushion on the ground. Barely able, Yu Nian knelt.
Tian Yao left the room and gave the time to Yu Nian alone. He and his parents surely had many things to say to each other as well.
Back in the main room, Tian Yao returned to looking through the things Little Dad had left him. Yu Nian had once again reorganized those little booklets, placing them on one side of the chest. The other side held the sheets of calligraphy by Yu Nian that Tian Yao had collected.
The little pouch of seeds was also inside. Tian Yao rifled through again. In a corner, he discovered another small pouch. At the time, he’d thought it was also seeds and hadn’t opened it. Today, on a whim, he opened this pouch. Inside wasn’t seeds, but small, red, finger-length things. Tian Yao thought for a long time but couldn’t remember what they were.
Yu Nian stayed in the room for a very long time. Afraid his leg would hurt from kneeling too long, Tian Yao went in and brought him out. Yu Nian still seemed caught in the emotions from earlier, sitting in his wheelchair in silence for a long time, until Tian Yao spoke to him.
“Yu Nian, do you know what this is?”
Yu Nian took it from his hand, examined it carefully for a good while, and truly couldn’t identify it either. He split one open from the middle; inside were tiny yellow seeds.
He was just about to taste it when Tian Yao grabbed his hand. “You don’t even know what it is; how can you eat it so casually?”
“This is your Little Dad’s belonging. Are you still afraid it’s poison?” Yu Nian’s mood finally returned to normal at this moment, a smile gradually appearing on his face.
Tian Yao humphed, and then, deciding to taste it himself, he put a bit in his mouth. The instant he swallowed it, though, his whole face turned alarmingly red. He kept swallowing saliva. Then, under Yu Nian’s worried gaze, he ran to the water vat and drank several mouthfuls of water before finally recovering.
“Yu Nian! I know what this is!” Even drinking the unboiled water, he didn’t feel cold at all. Now his face was full of excitement. “I know what this is.”
Yu Nian looked at those small, red things, then at Tian Yao’s flushed cheeks, and asked, “What is it?”
“My Little Dad called this ‘chili pepper.'” Tian Yao sank into his own memories. “In the past, when we ate hot pot, Little Dad would add this!”
Yu Nian tilted his head. “Why didn’t you remember just now?”
“When I was little, they didn’t let me eat this. When I was old enough to eat it, Little Dad said there were no more chili peppers left. I don’t know when he hid this pouch away; maybe he even forgot about it himself.”
Tian Yao rested his chin on his hand, thinking. “Little Dad’s little booklet definitely has a method for preparing it. Shall we try it today, on New Year’s Eve?”
Yu Nian, however, asked him, “If we… use these chili peppers, won’t there be no more afterward?”
Tian Yao looked down at the few tiny yellow seeds he still clutched in his hand, uncertain. “Are these chili pepper seeds? Why don’t we try planting them and see if they’ll grow?”
Yu Nian didn’t dampen his enthusiasm and nodded.
Tian Yao put the chili peppers down and went to look for the little booklets Little Dad had drawn before he passed. Yu Nian joined him, but he truly couldn’t quite understand this father-son method of communication.
After looking for a while and still not understanding, he could only go aside to practice calligraphy and let Tian Yao figure it out on his own.
As he looked, Tian Yao said, “Yu Nian, so many of the things drawn in Little Dad’s booklet—I’ve never seen or heard of them. How do you think he knew so many things?”
Yu Nian recalled what Tian Yao had mentioned: that his father had fled disaster to Huailing Village many years ago, settled there, and became a hunter. His Little Dad had also fled disaster and come here, later marrying his father.
“I also don’t know where he came from. Even Father didn’t know.” Now, thinking back, Tian Yao felt his Little Dad was truly a very mysterious person. He clearly seemed so learned, yet appeared illiterate. He was clearly so gentle, speaking softly and kindly to everyone, but on the day Father passed away, Tian Yao had seen the viciousness in his eyes.
“Thinking about it now, Little Dad was an especially mysterious person. He seemed to have his own set of language and script, completely out of place with ours.”
Yu Nian took the handwritten notes from him. “Actually, not entirely. Look—some characters he wrote are the same as the ones we know.”
“Is it possible that Little Dad, he…”
“What?”
“Was an immortal? And after finishing his tribulation, he just went back?”
Having said it, Tian Yao laughed himself. “That would be good too. Little Dad, returning to where he should be living—he’d surely be able to live very well.”
Yu Nian watched the smile on his face and felt a constriction in his chest. “If it were true, don’t you resent him?”
“He is my Little Dad. How could I resent him? Before he left, he kept trying to find ways for me to live well. How could he not love me?” Tian Yao patted his hand. “Besides, what immortals are there in this world? If there were, everyone would just go pray to gods. Just see who’s the most devout.”
Brushing this topic aside, Tian Yao finally found, among that pile of handwritten notes, the page concerning chili peppers. Little Dad had very skillful hands; the chili pepper drawn looked extremely close to the one he held.
Although he couldn’t read the characters Little Dad had written, he could understand Little Dad’s drawings. Many novel dishes were drawn on them. When he got to the hot pot page, he discovered Little Dad had even written a method for making fishballs on it.
Coincidentally, he heard a fishmonger calling out in the village. Tian Yao pushed Yu Nian along to buy a fish and bring it back. Households in Huailing Village didn’t really eat fish, because no matter how it was prepared, it always had a fishy smell. But Tian Yao liked it very much.
Because once, when he was little and sick, Little Dad had made him fishball soup. That was the first time he had ever tasted something so fresh and delicious. Afterward, whenever he got sick, Little Dad would send Father to catch fish and make fishball soup for him.
They had agreed to eat hot pot on New Year’s Eve, but Tian Yao still prepared some other dishes, because every past year, villagers would each send a dish over to him, and he had to reciprocate.
The first year after Father and Little Dad passed, he spent the New Year at Aunt Shun’s house. At that time, Tian Yusheng wasn’t married yet. Spending the New Year at home, they could only really have the New Year’s Eve dinner together, so he and Aunt Shun kept each other company.
The second year, Tian Yusheng got married. Their whole family invited Tian Yao to come to their home for the New Year, but Tian Yao didn’t go anymore.
Aunt Shun understood his feelings. So in the years after, during the New Year, she would always send dishes over to him.
Early on the morning of New Year’s Eve, Tian Yao was already bustling about. Even Yu Nian followed beside him, acting as a kitchen helper.
That fish, Tian Yao had already killed beforehand. Now, he cut off the head, sliced the fish open down the middle into two halves, and removed the bones. His knife skills were excellent; almost with swift, sure cuts, the bones separated from the flesh.
Watching his practiced technique, Yu Nian thought that even before his legs were crippled, he probably couldn’t have wielded a knife this skillfully.
“Did your father teach you how to use a knife?”
“No. Little Dad taught me.” Tian Yao shook his head. Only after he finished speaking did it hit him. “Wait, no. Little Dad was so gentle. How could he know how to use a knife?”
Watching Tian Yao’s reaction, Yu Nian found the whole thing increasingly peculiar.
“Forget it, don’t think about it anymore. Let’s just enjoy the New Year.”
