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Chapter 53: Plucking the Osmanthus

Mi Yang stood there, not daring to move. He looked at the flower pot, thinking that was what Mi Hong was concerned about, and quickly explained, “Grandpa, I was just trying to get home quickly. I didn’t mean to bump into it.”

Mi Hong’s face was ugly. He strode over, picked Mi Yang up in his arms, and hurriedly carried him out. As he walked, he said sternly, “You’re not allowed to walk here in the future, you hear?”

Mi Yang said, “But…”

Mi Hong raised his voice. “No buts!”

Mi Yang fell silent. He was half-carried, half-tucked under Mi Hong’s arm, and brought all the way to the small courtyard of their house. Mi Hong didn’t put him down. He had him sit on a small stool by the stone water basin outside, personally took off his little shoes, and used a ladle to pour some water on his feet a few times, frowning. “Sit here and don’t move. I’ll have your dad carry you back to the room in a bit.” He then walked away with the shoes Mi Yang had just been wearing.

Mi Yang sat and waited for a while. Hearing footsteps, he thought it was Mi Zehai coming back and quickly looked up, but it was Mi Hong, who had returned. The old man walked over and gave Mi Yang a grass-woven katydid cage. “Play with this. Don’t go down the small path in the future.”

Mi Yang was taken aback when he took it. Something was moving inside. Mi Yang was startled, thinking there was a real bug inside. He lifted it and saw that it was a grass-woven katydid, green and verdant, with long antennae, looking exactly like a real one. When Mi Yang looked up again, Mi Hong had already put on his coat and silently returned to the main hall.

Mi Yang looked down at the katydid cage. He was afraid of bugs. He had originally thought that only his parents knew, but he hadn’t expected his grandfather to know too, and to have remembered it all this time.

Mi Yang played with the katydid cage and waited very obediently for Mi Zehai to come and get him. Not long after, Mi Zehai came over. He had already found out what had happened from Mi Hong. He came over, ruffled his son’s hair to comfort him, and said to him, “Yangyang, you can’t go down the small path with the flower pots behind our house in the future, you know?”

Mi Yang didn’t quite understand. “But Grandpa went there too. I saw him. He usually takes that small path.”

Mi Zehai said, “Mm, only he can walk there in the family.”

Mi Yang looked up at Mi Zehai, his little brow slightly furrowed.

Mi Zehai said, “Your grandpa doesn’t want you to go to that place for your own good, because there are medicinal dregs buried on that path. The older generation has a saying that if you step on the medicinal dregs left over from a sick person’s drink, you’ll catch their sickness, and the illness will be transferred from the original person to the person who stepped on the dregs.”

“Then Grandpa still…” Mi Yang’s voice trailed off. He looked up at the main hall with a complicated expression, suddenly understanding that the strange-tempered old man was doing it on purpose, and deliberately stepping on them alone, wishing he could transfer all of the old lady’s sickness to himself, to supplement her life with his own.

Mi Zehai stroked his head and also sighed. “But that’s not accurate either. Your grandpa has been stepping on them for so many years, ever since I can remember.”

Mi Yang picked at the katydid cage with his hand, feeling a little uneasy. “Grandpa took my shoes.”

Mi Zehai sat down and held him. “Yes, that was also for your own good. You’ll know after you’ve been with him for a while. Actually, your grandpa is a very good person, and your grandma is also a good person. They are both good people.” He coaxed his son. Perhaps these words were too sentimental. To distract him, Mi Zehai looked down at the katydid cage in his hand and asked, “Did your grandpa give you this? I used to play with this a lot when I was a child.”

Mi Yang said, “Did Grandpa make it for you too?”

Mi Zehai said, “Yes. There was one every summer. When I took it out to play, they had no idea how much they envied me. Your grandpa is very skilled with his hands. In this regard, you’re the most like him in the whole family. By the way, don’t you want to learn to restore books? You can ask your grandpa in the future. He knows a lot of things, a little of everything. He can definitely help you.”

Mi Yang found it very novel.

Mi Zehai smiled. “Not just that. Your grandpa also took me to roast things to eat. The roasted corn back then was not as clean as it is now, but I liked to eat the tender corn that had just come down. It would be roasted black, and after a few bites, my mouth would be full of ash. Your grandma wouldn’t let me, saying that it was easy to get sick. So, the two of us would hide and eat it secretly.” Mi Zehai looked at the small katydid cage with great nostalgia, and his words were much more than usual.

Mi Yang had never heard of these things before and was about to ask again when he suddenly heard the sound of a three-stringed lute. He looked back and asked with some curiosity, “Who is playing the lute?”

Mi Zehai said, “Your grandpa, I guess.”

Mi Yang was even more surprised. “Grandpa can play the lute too? I thought the lute in our house was just for decoration.”

Mi Zehai smiled. “Of course he can. Your grandma used to sing in the opera, and many people would have to line up and wait to pay to listen. Your grandpa would play the lute for her on the side. As long as your grandma opened her mouth to sing, he could play any instrument he got his hands on. The best was this three-stringed lute. When I was a child, I could still hear your grandma sing. She sang very beautifully.” Mi Zehai said, then shook his head and sighed. “It’s a pity she got sick later and hasn’t sung for many years.”

The sound of the three-stringed lute came from the small courtyard. Mi Zehai held his son and spoke in a low voice, then looked back at the courtyard he had been most familiar with as a child, his eyes full of nostalgia.

In the room, Mi Hong was playing the three-stringed lute with a serious expression, but he would also habitually look up at his old wife.

The old lady smiled. “You’re wrong again. This part is too high. It’s so hard for me to sing up to it every time. You should play it a little lower next time.”

Mi Hong also chuckled and nodded. “Okay.”

Mi Hong played the lute to make the old lady happy. When the old lady was in a good mood, she would also hum a couple of lines. But she would soon start to cough, and Mi Hong wouldn’t let her sing anymore. He would just play the three-stringed lute for her and then hum himself.

Unexpectedly, he sang quite well.

“In an instant, all seven emotions were lost, and having understood the bitterness, tears stained my clothes.” Mi Hong looked down and plucked the strings. His fierce face was not so angular in the dim light. The way he looked down, with his eyes lowered, had a hint of vicissitude. He continued to sing, “I thought that iron-clad wealth was destined for a lifetime, but who knew that life’s fate is decided in an instant. I remember that I too was once spoiled and willful, but today, even if I don’t believe in the past! This is also a lesson from heaven. It taught me to let go of my regrets, to stop being spoiled, to start anew, to change my temperament, to not long for the past, to turn back from the sea of bitterness, and to realize the cause of orchids early.”

The string snapped against his hand with a “twang.” Mi Hong’s heart was bitter, and he forced a smile. “Let’s not sing ‘The Unicorn Purse’ anymore. It’s not good.”

The old lady nodded and said casually, “Okay.”

Mi Hong’s tune slowed down, and he soon changed to other lyrics, “That ice wheel leaves the sea island, and the universe is exceptionally bright. The bright moon is in the sky, just like Chang’e leaving the moon palace. The vast cold is so clear, I want to pluck the osmanthus…”

The old lady glanced at him and smiled. “What nonsense are you singing? There’s no such line.”

Mi Hong stopped playing the lute and looked at her. “The best you ever sang were ‘The Unicorn Purse’ and ‘The Drunken Concubine.’ I was so engrossed in listening on the side that I just stared at you, completely mesmerized. It was someone next to me who woke me up. That person gave me a riddle. He asked me if I knew what ‘plucking the osmanthus branch in the moon palace’ meant. I thought about it for a long time after I went back, and only then did I realize that he was mocking me. The moon palace and the golden osmanthus were both impossibly high to reach. He was telling me in a roundabout way that the little Osmanthus in the theater was an ‘unreachable’ star. But who could have known that in the end, it was I who plucked the osmanthus in the moon palace…”

He hummed a couple more lines, wrinkles appearing at the corners of his eyes from his smile. He stopped plucking the strings and slowly covered his old wife’s hand, calling her name in a low voice, “Guizhi, if you stay with me a little longer, I’ll enjoy a few more days of blessings, okay?”

The old lady leaned against the wooden bed and smiled, whispering, “Okay, I hear you.”

The old lady was in good spirits, her expression gentle. As Mi Hong played and sang, she listened intently, occasionally humming a line in accompaniment. Most of the time, she would look at her old husband with a faint smile on her lips.

She would always tell Mi Hong that she was better, but her body, which had been dragging on for so many years, was like a candle in the wind. The wind would blow, and it would flicker a few times. The bean-sized flame would hold on again and again. She was living with all her might, with great difficulty.

But no matter what, she was still inevitably weakening.

Mi Hong was anxious in his heart and took on the task of decocting the medicine himself. But he was also old. One time, when he was decocting the medicine, he accidentally fell asleep. When he woke up, he found that the medicinal soup in the pot was almost dry, with a pungent, strange smell. Mi Hong frantically took it down and managed to pour out half a small bowl. It was dark and mushy and could no longer be drunk.

His own eyes reddened. He wiped his tears in the kitchen, poured out the medicine, and decocted it again.

It was unlucky for Chinese medicine to be decocted dry. Mi Hong seemed to have a premonition and took care of her even more carefully, not willing to leave the small courtyard and the old lady’s side for a single step.

During this time, the old lady was always smiling. On the contrary, Mi Hong was often scared. Sometimes, he would even choke up a few times while decocting the medicine in the kitchen. Mi Yang saw it once. He had come in to get something. After seeing it, he saw that Mi Hong was not hiding, so he gathered a little courage and went forward to comfort him, “Grandpa, are you worried about the medicine being decocted dry? That’s fine. The bad things don’t work, but the good things do. This is the one that’s accurate.”

Mi Hong shook his head, his voice hoarse. “No, I just feel sorry for the hard life she’s had.”

He then watched over his gurgling medicine pot, personally decocted the medicine, and took it to the old lady.

But this bowl of medicine, the old lady did not drink.

She had been drinking medicine for more than half her life, but she had never had a day where her complexion was so good. Her face was rosy, and she looked much younger, full of spirit. She sat there by herself, already changed into a set of new clothes. When she saw Mi Hong come in with the medicine, she smiled at him. “Put the medicine down. I’m not drinking it anymore. You sit down. I want to talk to you.”

Mi Hong’s tears were already rolling down. He shook his head, unwilling. “Guizhi, let’s drink the medicine first. I’m begging you, I’m begging you…”

The old lady said to him, “I’m leaving. Please help me look after the children.”

Her voice was soft and beautiful, with a hint of a sigh as she spoke. There was a reluctance in her eyes as she looked at her old husband. “You adopted a child into our family for my sake back then. How could I not have done the same?”

“You, you’ve been as stubborn as an ox all your life, not listening to anyone. If it weren’t for me back then… alright, alright, it’s all in the past. Let’s not talk about it. My health has never been good, and I couldn’t even give you a child. I was just thinking, when the day comes that I have to leave, how can I keep you? There has to be a ‘home,’ where generations of children and grandchildren grow up and then leave to branch out, blossom, and bear fruit in other places. I won’t be able to see it, so you’ll have to watch for me.”

“A burden? Such a good son, such a well-behaved grandson. How can they be a burden?”

“I don’t care. Mi Hong, you promise me.”

“Promise me, you’ll live.”

“Otherwise, when I get to the other side, I won’t wait for you…”

…

The old lady said a lot to him. Her eyes were too pleading. Mi Hong had only ever been soft-hearted towards her in his life and had never refused her anything. She sat there, holding his hand, begging him to live—no matter how unwilling he was, he still forced out a single word from his throat, “Okay.”

After getting his promise, the old lady’s expression immediately relaxed. She smiled. “I’m a little tired. I want to sleep for a while.”

Mi Hong helped her lie down, half-knelt by the bed, and held her hand tightly, calling her name in a low voice, one after another, from small to loud, from urgent to slow. But the warmth in his hand still faded bit by bit.

Mi Hong knelt there, tears streaming down his old face. He coughed up a mouthful of blood, his eyes red and his voice hoarse. “Guizhi—ah—”

In the past, he had plucked the golden osmanthus in the moon palace.

The golden osmanthus has faded.

Never to be pursued again.