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Around the buildings of Tianji Hall, there were gardens; beyond the gardens were pastures, beyond the pastures were orchards, beyond the orchards were woods. Beyond the woods were bamboo forests, beyond the bamboo forests were streams and ponds, and only beyond the wetlands, you would find the imperial road that led to the capital.
In one specific orchard, if you knew the way, by a stream that ran all the way from the waterfall near the mountaintop down to the wetlands by the road, you could sometimes find the Lotus Lodge, when Fang Duobing brought his sworn brothers and their dog to Tianji Hall for a bit.
When they were here, they would mostly sleep in Fang Duobing's old room with the beautiful old painted scroll depicting a tiger in pride of place; but during the day, they would often do work around their moving home, making sure that it was in good repair and well stocked when they went on the road again.
Today, He Xiaofeng was walking through the gardens and pastures with her hamper, enjoying the contrast of the beautiful blue sky and the golden leaves of the orchard beyond her path. Most of the fruit had already been collected, but there were still apprentices shaking the trees for the last, late apples and pears.
From the beauty of the pear blossom in early spring would come the bounty of fruit in autumn, she was musing as she stepped under the canopy of the trees. It was only apt that pear blossoms were associated with love — love brought bounty as well, even if it wasn't the kind of physical bounty that she was currently carrying on her back.
Beyond the pear trees, the Lotus Lodge was hiding, welcoming only those that knew where to find it. Even after several years, its inhabintants were still superficially pretending to not exist. In almost all things, the princess held her protective hands over them; and for the rest, the emperor seemed content to ignore them as long as they kept a low profile and didn't meddle in the interests of the court.
But to those that knew how to find it, the Lotus Lodge was very welcoming indeed in its warm domesticity. He Xiaofeng loved finding reasons to go there during the few weeks each year in which it made camp here. Just now, there was washing hung on lines criss-crossing between the trees and the deserted yokes where the horses usually stood that now had gone to pasture; the dog came racing towards her with its entire rear end wagging in welcome, and there was a delicious smell of stewing fruit emanating from the kitchen window as she walked up the few steps to the porch, and the open doors with their lotus ornaments freshly repainted.
"Hello, Xiao-yi," Fang Duobing said cheerfully from where he was tending to the medicine cabinet, applying oil to the runners that kept the drawers moving smoothly and noiselessly, and to the hooks that kept them firmly shut while the house was in transit.
"I brought the screws you've been asking for," she said, "and your cousin for a visit, and a little gift for your house."
She put her hamper on a free bench by the kitchen table, which was covered in medicine drawers. Li Lianhua looked up from the ledger in which he was checking his stock against the inventory he had kept. Three eager little helpers were busy counting and weighing the ingredients from the drawers, another one was holding the oil can for Xiaobao. While her nephew had shed his outer layers and bound up his sleeves for his work, Li Lianhua had covered his shoulders with a warm woollen wrap from Yunnan that had been a gift from Yun Biqiu, of all people. He had business for Baichuan Court all over the place, and liked to send thoughtful gifts for Li Lianhua.
"Occasionally, he needs to remind everybody how sorry he still is," Li Lianhua had said when unwrapping the most recent package. Gifts from all over the empire still kept arriving two or three times a year, as Tianji Hall was the one place that Yun Biqiu could be sure the Lotus Lodge would return to regularly. This time, it had been a rare osmanthus tea from some island in the East Sea; to judge from the scent, Li Lianhua was actually drinking it right now, the teapot and some cups perched precariously on the ledge of his book case.
He Xiaofeng took the basket off her back, and the warmly wrapped baby out of the basket. The little one was still rather new, and her Hundred Days Celebration was the reason which had brought Fang Duobing and his sworn brothers to Tianji Manor this time.
"A-Liu, can you keep oiling the runners by yourself for a bit?" Fang Duobing said, and his little helper nodded eagerly. That was Di Yangliu, one of the apprentices that had originally come from the same horrid mountain fortress that Di Feisheng had hailed from. All the apprentices squeezed into the Lotus Lodge today were surnamed Di; they had inofficial disciple rights here and were taught special skills by their Da-Shixiong and his sworn brothers, whom they actually called er-ge and san-ge, to everybody's secret amusement.
Three more of them were kneeling by the wooden bed platform, now devoid of bedding (which was swaying in the wind outside) and covered in swords and knives. Di Feisheng was perched on the low railing around the bed, sharpening his huge dao with a succession of whetstones while his three apprentices did the same to a number of rather large kitchen knives, very carefully copying his movements.
Xiaobao took the baby from He Xiaofeng's arms and cheerfully bounced her around, telling her in a silly voice what a cute little critter she was.
"Give me the baby," Li Lianhua said, "and pour your aunt a cup of that lovely tea; Yun Biqiu was very generous in his ongoing apology this time."
Fang Duobing complied, cleared his tools off a stool, and handed his aunt a cup of the lovely, fragant tea which was truly beyond excellent. Li Lianhua, in the meanwhile, settled the baby in the crook of his left arm, half-covering her with the end of his Yunnan wrap, dangling the colourful tassle in front of her face so she would giggle at the soft tickle, and try to grab it.
Di Feisheng looked up from his mighty sabre, a very soft expression in his beautiful eyes. It was very obvious he liked seeing Li Lianhua so warm and domestic; happy, free of pain, and gentle with a small creature in his arms.
It had been years since he had wanted to fight the erstwhile Li Xiangyi, years since He Xiaofeng herself had briefly carried a torch for the enigmatic miracle doctor; she was happy with Zhan Yunfei and their little daughter, and he was happy with her nephew Xiaobao and that scary, scary man with the beautiful eyes only the two of them dared call A-Fei.
Fang Duobing opened the hamper and took out the screws she had brought, weighing them in his hand with approval. Then, he took out the scroll from the bottom of the hamper.
"May I have a look?"
"Absolutely," she said. "I'm nowhere near as good a draughtswoman as my er-jie used to be, but I saw that yesterday, and I just had to put it on paper. It's a little gift for all of you."
Fang Duobing unrolled the scroll; it was already mounted on gold-flecked paper with a subtle pattern of maple leaves.
"Oooh!" he breathed. "Look, it's us when we came back from foraging yesterday!"
It was indeed — an ink drawing of the three of them and their dog, emerging from the trees of the woods beyond the orchard, Di Feisheng carrying a load of firewood on his back, Fang Duobing carrying a basket of fruit and late berries in his hand, and Huli-Jing carrying a single stick in her mouth, cheerfully running ahead.
Li Lianhua was drifting in the middle between his sworn brothers, wearing the fur-collared coat that had been a gift from Xiaobao when they had first known each other.
She would not admit that most of the time spent on the drawing had gone into properly rendering its fluffiness.
"I liked how proud you all were of your autumnal bounty," she said, over-explaining herself to dispel the awkwardness she felt, "each of you carrying something home from the woods, except Li Lianhua, who was carrying the responsibility, I guess."
Li Lianhua giggled and allowed the baby to catch the tassel of the Yunnan wrap; Di Feisheng smirked, and Xiaobao gave a little groan.
Only Di Yangliu, of all people, frowned at her from where they were looking up from the oiling can.
"Excuse you, Third Lady He," they said, polite but decisive, "if my er-ge only carried the responsibility, then what is this?"
They stood, and from underneath the kitchen counter, they pulled out a woven basket of the kind that farmers used to bring their harvest to market, or carry their shopping home, large and slightly rectangular so it wouldn't wobble when carried on the back with two straps.
It was full of mushrooms.
"With all respect, Third Lady He," they went on, eyes downcast in the sort of humility used when speaking unpleasantness to authority, "I was minding the braziers because er-ge had some decoctions still going that couldn't be left unwatched, so I saw him bring in the basket. That is far more than just responsibility; if they wanted to sell all of it at market, these would fetch by far the most money!"
He Xiaofeng felt mortified — by trying not to be weird about the way she had drawn the fur collar, she had overstepped in the other direction and actually offended the man, inferring that he was weak and lazy, and left the actual work to his two sworn brothers.
"I am so sorry!" she blurted out. "I did not mean — I was too far away, picking out the pears for the preserve, and didn't see the basket. It was on your back! I am still sorry that I…"
"Not a problem," Li Lianhua said, smiling up at her. "You could even say that I carried the responsibility — the responsibility of making sure that all the mushrooms are edible, and keeping the medicinal ones separate."
"We have been eating his mushrooms every autumn since we found him," Di Feisheng said, "and never so much as a belly gripe. His cooking can still use some improvement at times, but Li Lianhua's knowledge of mushrooms is flawless."
"My er-ge is really good at plants," Di Yangliu said; they seemed to feel encouraged by the comment of their Da-Shixiong nad looked He Xiaofeng right in the eye again.
"What are you going to do with all these mushrooms?" she asked. "These are too many to use all at once, even if you contribute a mushroom dish to the celebration."
"Dry them, of course," Li Lianhua said, "then use them in soups and stews all winter long. That reminds me."
He smiled sweetly at her, settling the baby against his chest and picking up his writing brush again.
"If you are really sorry for your words, maybe you could help us slice and thread them? They need to have all earth and moss cleaned off with a small paring knife, cut into thin slices, and strung up with thread. Xiaobao, find your aunt a knife and a needle, and do keep the tea coming for all of us."
"Thank you," He Xiaofeng said, holding out her cup to her nephew. "I am really sorry, and very glad to help."
"Can I help with the mushrooms?" one of the Di orphans on medicine weighing duty asked, and Li Lianhua permitted it with a regal nod.
Di Feisheng brought his attention back to his own work. "Now, after we finished with the finest grit…" he started explaining to his little friends who were once more giving him their full attention.
There were so many potentially worse ways of spending an afternoon in autumn, she mused as she started slicing mushrooms for the little Di apprentice to thread, than in the warm and easy domesticity of the Lotus Lodge, some of her attention always on her new little daughter, sleeping warm and happy in Li Lianhua's arm, wrapped in the end of his Yunnan poncho.
This, in turn, would merit yet another drawing.