Chapter 1 Remembering

Do you still remember the veiled young lady that Wang Shixiong, then a *sheren* (official), and the Little Wu Consort saw during the Mid-Autumn Grand Sacrifice in the fifth year of the Jianyan era? Now, it is already the tenth year of the Jianyan era.

"There is a beautiful woman, elegant and graceful. Her beautiful appearance and skillful smile, her heart is harmonious and charming."

He Yixi was not her original name, nor was her surname He. Before the third year of the Jianyan era, her name was Song Wanru.

Song Wanru was from Bianjing.

In the years of peace, prosperity, and abundance, perhaps the biggest worry her mother had was that her father's salary was too meager, and living in the capital was not easy. Song Wanru had seen her mother more than once pull her father, who was engaging in lively discussions with friends, into the kitchen, pointing to the empty rice jar and asking, "Meat and vegetables are also lacking, wine is also scarce, how does my lord intend to entertain guests?"

Her father would then say with a sincere and contrite expression, "I still have to trouble my lady to get some on credit for me."

Her mother's family was from Hangzhou, and even when scolding someone in the elegant Henan accent, it carried a gentle flavor: "Does my lord bear to see me lose face again?"

"My lady can wear a veiled hat," her father sincerely bowed and promised, "Next month, I will definitely not invite so many guests to the house, causing you trouble."

In the end, her mother could only push him away with a smile, "Alright, alright, my lord can go ahead, I will prepare the wine and meat myself, it's not like I'm telling you not to invite people - it's just that could the wine from last night be used today? Is it interesting for my lord to drink alone? Whether there are guests or not, you can always come up with expenses that cost money."

This was true, and her father's promise was forgotten as soon as it was made. Song Wanru often wondered if her mother didn't criticize her father because he didn't just spend money on himself. As soon as his salary arrived, her father would buy the latest style of silk for her mother, sheep's head that her older brother loved to eat, and candied fruits that Song Wanru liked. Of course, he also needed to buy a few *liang* of light wine and a few books. However, in the end, the food was eaten, and the silk was nowhere to be seen, only the books her father bought were always kept safe in the chest.

Song Wanru hoped to have new clothes made, but her mother always wore the same few ordinary garments, so she was too embarrassed to ask. She often wondered where these silks had gone. Later, when her mother taught her to read, she sighed slightly when she heard her recite "He pawns his gold hairpin to buy wine," saying, "Too vulgar."

When she told this to her older brother, he asked her if she knew what it meant, and she nodded. Her brother, who was much older than her, was surprised and said, "My dear girl is actually so clever, could it be that the name was borrowed from some literary flair? - Can *Nannan* guess where the two characters 'Wanru' are taken from?"

"There is a beautiful woman, elegant and graceful. We meet by chance, and together we grow old."

"Didn't Father tell you about the poems and essays of the Three Caos a few days ago? How could it not be from Emperor Wen of Wei's *Shanzai Xing*?"

Song Wanru seriously replied, "Father said, 'The departing bird cries sadly, how can the feeling be endured?'"

Her brother clapped his hands and laughed loudly. He mentioned it to their parents during dinner, and her father smiled at her mother and said, "Even if we are a 'poor and lowly couple', we won't 'grieve over everything' - *Danniang* is like you, she has Yongxu's talent."

Poor and lowly couple grieve over everything? Song Wanru had never thought so. She only felt that although her mother inevitably complained, she had never truly disliked her father's extravagance. Her mother would smile and say "Too expensive" while holding the beautiful and gorgeous silks, and she would tease her inevitably ashamed father with "My lord also eats wild vegetables, surely he has the virtue of Yi and Qi" when serving wild vegetables. Her father would avoid the crowd during banquets, watching his wife racking her brains with the servants in front of the stove to make the simple vegetables look unique and ingenious, and he would rarely silently reflect on his careless spending. Her mother would signal to the hall from afar with a smile, "I want to imitate Lady Shan, I wonder if my lord will allow it?"

Her father sighed worriedly, "My lady is worthy of Lord Shan's wife, but I am not worthy of Shan Juyuan."

Her father indeed failed to become Shan Juyuan. In the third year of Xuanhe, her maternal grandfather's entire family in Hangzhou was slaughtered by Fang La, and their home was burned down in a fire during the retreat. When the news reached Bianjing, her grief-stricken mother fell ill in bed and was plagued by disease ever since.

Her father never drank again, nor did he invite guests much anymore.

Seeking doctors, consulting physicians, brewing medicine. Her mother couldn't use the meager money in a variety of ways as before, nor could she do spinning and embroidery to supplement the family income. Gradually, her older brother couldn't eat sheep's head anymore, and Song Wanru never tasted candied fruits again. Her father was not a prime minister or an important official with purple ribbons and golden seals, and his salary was not so generous. Soon her father stopped buying books, only insisting on buying cloth to make new clothes for her mother, and he never allowed her to pawn them again.

This was the first time her father had mentioned pawning, but her mother slowly traced the patterns and said to her father, "Take it to buy pens and ink for *Dalang* and *Nannan*, *Dalang* has been using charcoal for a long time. I heard the emperor is good at calligraphy and painting, the characters written like this don't look good... Buy some mutton too, there hasn't been any meat in the house for a long time."

"Father," her older brother, who had been silent, finally couldn't help but speak, "It is said that the palace consumes 10,000 sheep a year, and the Grand Commandant's mansion only takes a bit of the face to make mutton soup, is it true?"

Her father forced a smile and said, "Your father is just a humble official of low rank, how would I know about the matters in the inner palace and the prime minister's mansion?"

Her brother asked angrily, "But it's not fake that mutton is so expensive! *Wengweng* was forced to die in depression by his superiors and the people because of the birthday tribute, and my maternal family lost their entire family because of Fang La. The emperor only knows how to write and paint, and the officials in the court only know how to exploit the people in the name of 'prosperity and abundance'. What's the use of passing the imperial examination? To act as accomplices and carry out harsh policies?!"

Nine-year-old Song Wanru already understood many things. Her father spoke of caring for the people, and also of loyalty to the emperor and love for the country, but she felt that her brother was also right. Could caring for the people and loyalty to the emperor and love for the country be compatible? Song Wanru couldn't find the answer, but she always remembered her mother's gentle and dignified expression:

"Isn't the meaning of teaching you to read the books of sages precisely so that you can say these things? The future is for young people like you to do, if young people like you can think like this, then the world will naturally get better and better."

-- But her mother did not see the world getting better and better, no one did.

Everyone said it was a year of prosperity and abundance, but the situation of light money and heavy goods became more and more prevalent. Her mother's health deteriorated year by year, and after becoming pregnant, she became even more emaciated, only her stomach grew alarmingly large. Song Wanru had seen her father bow and kowtow to the doctor with a worried face countless times, but no one expected that the first to leave was her father.

"Three hundred strings of cash, they call him a Judge; five hundred strings, he goes straight to the Secretarial Pavilion." The children in Tokyo all sang this ballad, and the officials in Tokyo all said it was about right, but the poor father was only enough to buy medicine for his old wife, and he happily taught little Song Wanru, "To fill the ravine, only be free and unrestrained, I laugh at myself as a madman who is even madder in old age." The world was getting worse and worse, not allowing the poor sesame official to walk his own single-plank bridge. His superiors wanted to be promoted and curry favor with the emperor, and also wanted their own reputation to be good. Her father had read the books of sages about loyalty to the emperor and love for the country all his life. He couldn't imitate the thief who killed his wife's family and rebel, nor could he imitate the evil officials who forced his father to exploit the people. The only thing her father could imitate was *wengweng*, who depressedly killed himself.

"Departing birds roost in the evening, on that islet in the middle of the river. Stretching their necks and flapping their wings, they cry sadly seeking each other. Turning to look at them, it fills my heart with sorrow. Alas, you of the past, how do you forget your worries?"

Half of Tokyo was singing and dancing, and the other half was a raging flood. Before his death, the haggard father had a collection of the poems of the Three Caos by his side, but the page was still on the page that Song Wanru had asked about last month. He looked at his wife, daughters, and beloved son, and sighed sadly, "I don't even have a place to stand in the current world, what will happen after I leave?"

What to do, Song Wanru didn't know, the mother about to give birth and the brother who had not yet reached adulthood didn't know either. The father passed away at the end of the year, and the brother went to copy books, do odd jobs, and sell his labor every day, only to exchange it for a thin shroud and a simple coffin for a hasty burial. The mother was even more directly bedridden. A new emperor had changed in the inner palace, but even the New Year could not be properly celebrated for years. The brother first said with a serious face that the Jin soldiers were crossing the river and the capital was under martial law, and then it was rumored that the Jin people wanted money, silk, gold, and silver.

The emperor and the ministers agreed.

The home without a father was completely reduced to an object of extortion, with bare walls and no grain in the jar. On the second day of the second month, the dragon raised its head. Song Wanru didn't know if the dragon raised its head or not, she only knew that she lowered her head again that day, lying on the couch where her father used to rest and wailing loudly - her mother gave birth to a little brother, and her mother finally couldn't hold on and went to find her father.

The white banners and mourning clothes that had not yet been changed had to be worn again. Candles and lamps were extravagant luxuries, they couldn't even afford funerary objects, Song Wanru and her brother could only guard the spirit in the endless darkness. She didn't know what was happening, why she had suddenly lost her father and then her mother, she didn't know who she should blame. Her father was not killed, and her mother was not killed either, Song Wanru watched helplessly as her parents fell ill like a mountain, hating her own incompetence.

The cold spring nights in February were filled with cold winds, and the darkness was like a man-eating monster grinning silently. She looked at her mother's coffin with teary eyes, but could only hear her own heart-rending cries, and the weak cries of her brother holding her baby brother like a cat. Song Wanru didn't want to hear these, she wanted to hear her father tell her "The moon is dark and the wild geese fly high, the *shanyu* flees at night", wanted to throw herself into her mother's arms, but they were all gone, and her younger brother was still a baby less than a month old, she only had her older brother.

The Southern Mountains are fierce, the wind is blowing wildly, she only has her older brother.

- Father, Mother, I finally understand *Liaoe*, but I miss you.

Father and mother could no longer answer her, and the only things that answered her were the wailing wind and the howling weak brother. Song Wanru had become an older sister. Song Wanru had always been a spoiled little sister, but now she felt heavy holding her cat-like younger brother in her arms. She had always been obedient, but now that she was an older sister, she had to be sensible.

The court is full of officials, all of whom are scholars. Song Wanru wiped away her tears, put up her hair, exchanged her powder, rouge, and hairpins for money, dressed like a boy in short clothes, and stood on tiptoe to start a fire, chop wood, cook, sew, and coax her younger brother. She stopped her brother from working after work and insisted that he read. Didn't her father say that her brother was the best reader in generations? If he read, he could pass the imperial examination, and if he passed the imperial examination, he could become an official and have a salary. If he became an official, no one would bully them for their declining family and seize their family property. If he had a salary, he could buy paper and ink for his younger brother in the future and eat the sheep's head and candied fruits they had tasted before.

One month to sprout, three months to ripen, after seven or eight months, Song Wanru was already as easy as a servant who often did chores. Summer passed and autumn came, the frost was heavy and the dew was cold, but her brother only brought back a little firewood, and told her in a hoarse voice that the Jin people were coming again.

They had thought about leaving Tokyo. But this was Tokyo, the capital of a country. If the capital was broken, where would the emperor go, and where would the country exist? They had never dared to imagine that the country would be destroyed, and they didn't dare to imagine that the story of the monarchs and ministers of the Western Jin Dynasty would be repeated on them - they didn't believe that the capital, where all the scholars and commoners wanted to fight, would be captured! Yes, their family was poor and destitute, but which dynasty didn't have poor and humble homes? There was more than one wealthy family with jade utensils, gold, and pearls, and there were also grandsons of princes and emperors who sang and danced all night long, not just in the inner palace. Wasn't this a scene of peace? The emperor had been on the throne for decades, how could he have abdicated the throne and the soldiers came, collapsing like a building?

Song Wanru couldn't figure it out, and Song Wanru didn't have time to think. In November, the Jin people crossed the river and the capital was under martial law; on the *YiYou* day, Woli Bu's army arrived at the city; on the *GuiSi* day, the capital was bitterly cold, and Nikan's army arrived at the city; on the *Jiawu* day, when it was raining and snowing, the emperor ascended the city in armor, and the Jin people attacked Tongjin Gate.

The city will not be broken, the brother firmly said to Song Wanru, the emperor has ordered the kings to come to the rescue from all over the country. Even if the people of the Song Dynasty resent the imperial court, their hearts will not be turned to the Jin, who slaughter cities and act like beasts. The brother even stopped resenting the government that had plundered the people's wealth before. If they could destroy their families to relieve the country's difficulties, if they could use gold and silk to save the country, what would it matter?

But would those Jin soldiers and iron horses who roamed thousands of miles outside the city be satisfied?

The sky in Tokyo was getting colder day by day, and firewood and charcoal were no longer enough for the people of the capital to use, and the torrential rain and snow showed no sign of stopping. The stagnant air spread coldly, drilling into the bone marrow with a suffocating chill. The once soft and fragrant Tokyo was desolate, and the shops on the eight streets and nine alleys were closing down one after another. The hungry and cold people could not find firewood and rice, and countless *fangzhai* (residential complexes) were left with only stone walls and mud tiles, and the wooden doors and fences had long been taken away to start fires for warmth. Corpses were piled up on the streets, and no one cared about the stench and maggots.

It would be good to drive away the Jin soldiers, everyone said so. This year, there were no major disasters or riots in other regions, as long as the Jin people retreated, the endless stream of rice and grain would be transported to the capital, and everyone would be able to eat. If this continued, it was expected that the emperor and the ministers would not be able to hold on, right? This was the capital!

The emperor indeed couldn't hold on. So on the thirtieth day of the intercalary November, the emperor led his ministers out of the city to the Jin camp.

Three days later, the emperor returned to the city, weeping with his officials and people at Nanxun Gate, and then returned to the inner palace, trembling with fear and offering horses and wealth according to the Jin people's demands.

The eastern neighbor couldn't bear the hunger and died from illness after eating the people who had died at the door; the western neighbor had always been poor, and starved to death after the Jin soldiers besieged the city for a few days; the southern neighbor's uncle was an official in the court, and burned his house to the ground after returning from the Jin camp because he didn't want to see the city broken and the country lost; the northern neighbor only had an old woman, and hanged herself after hearing that her son had died in battle.

The scenery of Tokyo from the end of the first year of Jingkang to the beginning of the second year, recorded in the history books, didn't even have the eight characters "the people lost their savings, nine out of ten houses were empty". Compared to the lengthy and outrageous acts of the emperor and his ministers, it only briefly mentioned the great search for gold and silk.

The brother was becoming more and more accustomed to silently looking at his brother with weak breath for a long time, and Song Wanru knew what her brother was thinking. Tokyo was full of white bones and wailing, and it could no longer accommodate a young baby. But they had no choice, the day her brother was born was the day her mother passed away, and her mother had endured so much for the sake of her brother. Her father had once bowed and kowtowed, staring at her mother's bulging belly with hope and worry, and told him that he would be filial to his mother and love his older siblings in the future -

The voices and appearances of her parents were still in front of her, but her parents' belongings had been copied and taken away by the government. Her brother was the only thought they could keep!

Mourning sounds were used as music, plain white clothes were used as new clothes, armor was shaken to make firecrackers. The emperor was forced to go to the Jin camp again, and the people of Bianjing spent the New Year's Eve and endured the Lantern Festival. The Jin people wanted to exchange gold, silver, and women for the emperor. The Grand Heavenly Official became the Jin people's maternal grandfather, and together with the parents and officials of Kaifeng Prefecture, they searched for women from house to house. Song Wanru was so hungry that she lost her shape. She smeared ash on her face and lay on the ground pretending to be dead. Through the small slits in her eyes, she saw her brother drive away the soldiers like bandits with the only blunt knife in the house, and then welcomed the Jin army into the city.

- Her brother finally exchanged his life for a life, it was the first and last time he, a scholar and teenager, killed someone.

Song Wanru did not cry. She was afraid that her voice would make her brother cry and attract the Jin soldiers, and she was also afraid that she would be too tired to have energy if she cried. She lay beside the corpse, just stroking her brother to keep him from making a sound, until it was dark before she stood up, put her brother in the vegetable basket that had not been used for who knows how long, and then found her brother by the moonlight.

She wanted to find a place to bury her brother.

Every time it thundered, her father would hold Song Wanru. She was not really afraid of thunder, but her father would tell many stories, so she didn't say that she was not afraid. What Song Wanru was afraid of was the darkness. She didn't like chaos, she didn't like the unknown, she always suspected that something was watching her in the dark. The pitch-black darkness was a desperate situation, she couldn't see the light, and what she was afraid of was never those ethereal demons and monsters.

But compared to the tragic daytime, the night now only gave Song Wanru endless peace.

Song Wanru dragged her brother, who was not heavy, as the people of Tokyo had all been starved out of shape. The Jin people had used rice and grain to exchange for the people's gold and silver outside the city, but only a few luxurious households had the spare strength to exchange it, but they were only lingering on. When the nest was overturned, there were no intact eggs, and high-ranking families and low-ranking households were unprecedentedly equal in the demise of the capital.

The Jin people's guards were not strict, whether it was disdain or something else. Song Wanru cautiously left the city, but did not see any interception along the way. The suburbs were originally a good place for the ladies of the capital to go for outings, but now they exuded a foul stench. Song Wanru couldn't smell it, she had been immersed in this stench for many days. The rough branch for digging soil was not handy, but she didn't want to use the white jade hairpin hidden in her clothes. It was her grandmother's dowry, and her father had personally inserted it into her mother's hair, and had said that he would give it to the sister-in-law that her brother would marry in the future. Song Wanru had pawned a lot of things, and had also been robbed of a lot of things by the government. Even the last blunt knife had been taken away by the Jin people. This was the only thing she had protected and left behind. When people were alive, the hairpin was there, and when people died, the hairpin died. The sharp hairpin was the blade of a knife she had prepared to drag people to be buried with her before she died.

In a sudden troubled world, how could the only blade of a knife for an orphaned girl and a weak brother bear to be dulled?

The Jin people came and went, and Tokyo had almost become an empty ghost town. Song Wanru had nowhere to go, the capital had been broken, was there any place that could be peaceful? In a troubled world where wars were connected and bandits were rampant, what was the difference between her and her brother traveling long distances and staying in the dilapidated capital? Song Wanru was just living in a daze, digging grass, stealing, and even picking up corpses, she had done everything, and she was quite surprised to find that she was quite good at picking up leaks, picking up the leaks buried under the mansions of the former princes and nobles that were not worth picking up, and exchanging them for a bite to eat to barely feed herself and her brother. She was even somewhat indifferent in hoping that the Jin people would come again, so that she would have a reason to die.

The Jin people did not come, Commander Zong came.

Commander Zong came, the thieves gradually subsided, and Song Wanru didn't have to wander in the suburbs all night, she moved back to her own house. Tokyo was big, and all the good houses were abandoned and no one stayed there, and the dilapidated places could no longer be seen as the warm and unique home in her memory. Song Wanru had never heard her father and brother talk about this commander, but it was probably that the people she had heard of had gone to the north to hunt with the Jin people. Hunting, ha! Who didn't know what hunting was all about?!

It was said that another emperor had been changed, and the one who ascended the throne was the Prince of Kang, who had been praised by her brother for his mission to the Jin people. The second year of Jingkang suddenly became the first year of Jianyan. But it didn't matter, Song Wanru leaned indifferently against the wall to listen to people talking, and the purpose of her listening to these was just to make it easier for her to figure out how to live. She couldn't do those things anymore, Song Wanru heard that Commander Zong was very strict, and her younger brother was still there, she couldn't die.

Finding vegetables outside the city could only fill her stomach, and the ragged clothes on her and her brother could no longer be worn. She lived like a lonely ghost, and she knew what she could meet if she met people. It was already difficult for the twelve-year-old to dress as a boy, and even if he was a boy, what could he do? In this world, the lives of men and women were all weeds that could be trampled on, who could be more noble than whom?

Song Wanru touched her younger brother's forehead, which was burning hot from the cold wind, emptied her clothes, carefully put up her hair, wiped her face clean, and showed her beautiful and bright face for the first time in more than a year. The twelve-year-old girl looked weak and young like an eight or nine-year-old because of years of hunger.

She carefully dressed herself up as if she was going to get married, and then walked towards the commander's mansion along the path she had walked at night. She knew that she would probably be stopped before she could reach it, but it didn't matter, Song Wanru didn't know what she would meet, she just had to find a way and a destination in the chaos, right? She had a hairpin in her hair, and she only knew that there were only two endings waiting for her, either she would get the rice and cloth that could fill her and her brother's stomachs and keep them warm, or she and her brother would happily reunite with her parents and brother, and it would be even better if she could drag a Jin soldier to accompany her.

She was indeed stopped, and the person who stopped her had dark skin, was tall and strong, and looked like a strong man like a bear, carrying a knife and wearing armor. He asked in a rough voice, "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to the commander's mansion to find my father," Song Wanru raised her head and pretended to be innocent and said, "My brother is starving to death."

"Who is your father? What's his name?"

Song Wanru clearly said her father's name, and also raised her father's rank by half a grade. The strong man stared at her for a long time before saying expressionlessly, "Your father ran away with the emperor and the ministers, right?"

Before Song Wanru could have any thoughts, the draft in her throat rolled, and she already said sadly, "My brother was killed by the Jin people, how could my father surrender!"

"So even a little yellow-haired girl knows that the emperor surrendered? And knows that he can't surrender?" The strong man thought for a while, suddenly grinned and asked her, "Take me to see your brother."

Her brother was dead, his forehead was still warm, and he died when his sister saw that she could bring him clothes and food.

- Song Wanru finally left with the strong man.

She didn't understand what he meant until she saw the strong man's tall son. The strong man wanted her to be his daughter-in-law. Song Wanru obediently called *gege* (older brother), called *bobobo* (uncle). The new "brother's" name was very common, the kind that would make many vendors turn their heads when shouted in Bianjing, and he didn't have a style name either. He was fifteen years old and as burly as his father, and Song Wanru had to look up to see him.

He rubbed his hands and said blankly with a smile, "Father said that when you grow up and get stronger, he will make you my *hun jia* (wife). My sister's face is as fair as yours."

So Song Wanru asked where the sister he was talking about was, but unexpectedly, his big hand rubbed his dark and rough face hard, and said with red eyes, "That dog-day Jin people's maternal grandfather snatched her away and sent her to the Jin people!"

How sad, why grieve over the death of my brother, no need to weep for marriage.

Song Wanru quietly buried her brother, and then married herself off. There was no three letters and six rituals, and no guests and relatives. In her eyes, it was more like she had sold herself, for a bite of food and a place to live. Washing, cooking, sewing, she made that uncle feel that it was worth it, and even vaguely developed some rare feelings when he learned that she could read and write. Song Wanru was very grateful, she felt that she was extremely lucky, and it would be good to live like this, she felt very at ease. She had never felt this sense of ease since her parents passed away - Song Wanru knew that they were all soldiers who were used to killing people.

She thought that her invisible contract of indenture was for a lifetime, but she didn't expect a lifetime to be so short, only a little over a year, and she never saw them again.

Their comrades saw her, stunned for a moment, and laughed, "I didn't expect that the young bride that Liu Da snatched for his son would be so beautiful, what a good eye!" Before he could finish speaking, he choked up and couldn't say anything.

Song Wanru didn't cry, she just used the rice and grain they had left over to spend the New Year in a daze. In the third year of Jianyan, she came of age this year.

Someone set off firecrackers on New Year's Day, crackling and crackling. She chopped firewood expressionlessly, and her hand shook from the sound of the firecrackers, and blood flowed straight from her fingers. She sucked her fingers, and the cold wind of New Year's Day whipped her face like a whip.

This opening red hurt a bit, Song Wanru regretted it a bit. She was the only one, what was she doing chopping so much firewood for?

I was originally a person from Bianjing, and now I am a visitor to Bianjing. Living in Bianjing, I have no acquaintances.

There was another emperor in Bianjing City. It was said that the emperor wrote good lyrics as soon as he entered the city, but these lyrics happened to be written to the commander who had just entered the city and left.

Song Wanru heard this song from a sworn sister she knew. The emperor came to Tokyo, and the city obviously became more prosperous day by day. But this prosperity had little to do with Song Wanru. She had to dress and fill her stomach, and she had to live first.

What can a helpless young woman do to live? Bai Letian's two lines of poetry summarized it perfectly: one said that the young men of Wuling competed for headbands, and countless red silks were played; the other said that the saddles and horses in front of the door were sparse, and the old woman married a merchant.

What was wrong with that? Could it be worse than the starving bones on the road in Bianjing in the past? Could it be worse than the women who were offered to the Jin people's maternal grandfather? Instead of being cheated and sold by someone someday, she might as well sell herself and get a good price.

The sworn sister was also from Kaifeng, and her father and her father were old acquaintances in the yamen. Her family had lived through Jingkang tremblingly, but after the emperor ascended the throne in the first year of Jianyan, she was forcibly "searched" to become a "laundry girl". Maybe the emperor was frightened by the Jin people and had no interest, so she was given to a guard in front of the imperial court in Mingdao Palace. On the fifteenth day of the first month, the emperor returned to the capital, and the next day Song Wanru met her who was personally going to the street to buy things.

According to the law, all prostitutes should be registered by the government. Song Wanru was going to register.

The sister gave the lyrics to Song Wanru and asked her with a complicated expression, "Can you sing it?"

Of course, she could. There were no longer as many women in Tokyo City as there used to be who could sing, dance, and have beautiful faces, and it was even rarer to find someone who could appreciate lyrics and poems. Song Wanru's hands were full of scars and calluses, and she hadn't recovered from the wind and frost, so she picked up the bamboo flute that her sister had lent her again.

"Knowing the sound and recognizing the music, good at composing music. The sad strings are subtle, and the clear air contains fragrance. Flowing Zheng and激Chu, measuring the Gong and Shang. Touching the heart and moving the ears, beautiful and unforgettable."

Several literati who were originally indifferent in the newly opened Zhengdian restaurant in the east of the city looked over in a daze, and the leader asked her name.

Name ah. The Liu Da father and son, who had no corpses, only knew that her surname was Song and that she was the eldest in her family, and the sworn sister had long forgotten her name and only remembered her surname. Song Wanru didn't expect that she would be politely asked "fragrant name" again in such a situation. Her lips moved, but she couldn't say the word "Song" no matter what.

"He Yixi." She said.

Dew on the Allium, He Yixi. The dew will disappear tomorrow, and when will the dead return?

But she did not become famous because of this. She was unwilling, she couldn't let go, she was afraid of seeing the old people returning to the capital, and loudly calling out "Madam Song". Fortunately, the Zhengdian she relied on did not force her - why force her? Even the shopkeeper didn't know how many days he could open. In the third year of Jianyan, how long was it from the Jingkang Disaster? When would the Jin people go south? Would Tokyo be besieged again? No one knew, and everyone Song Wanru met seemed to be subconsciously avoiding this matter in a panic.

It was unavoidable. Half a year later, after the Mid-Autumn Festival in the third year of Jianyan, the capital province advised the common women and children that if they had a place to rely on in the south, they might as well leave the capital, but the young and strong military dependents had to have a Kaifeng government approval to leave at will; the Privy Council announced the city's industry, which was to be included in military control within a day. If there were military needs, such as demolishing houses and requisitioning them, no one was allowed to disobey, and the city's young and strong were registered for use.

Song Wanru had nowhere to go, and no place to rely on. The words of the emperor in the talent show had long been spread - a full-scale war between Song and Jin. It was an extraordinary period, and no one paid attention to the few registered prostitutes. But she didn't want to find a place to rely on casually either. Who could she rely on? In the end, who knew if she would be sold back and forth to seek food or to curry favor with the Jin people? What she had was just a little bit of freedom that seemed to be able to decide for herself.

However, maybe there were too many women leaving the capital, so Song Wanru was searched and taken to be a cook, and the emperor's Madame Wu led some palace maids to boil water and cook for people on the river embankment.

Song Wanru remembered that when the Jin people besieged the city a few years ago, the emperor who had gone north to hunt had also put on armor and helmets to inspect the city, and had given the food made by the imperial kitchen for the emperor to the soldiers to eat. The styles were almost the same, but she watched as the river became wider and wider and the city wall became thicker and thicker. She thought blankly that this time, even if the emperor wanted to leave the capital, it would probably be a few days later, right? After all, it was said that this emperor had also won against the Jin people.

But she didn't wait for the Jin people. In November, the Tokyo government still said that it was semi-open, but the scholars and people in the city suddenly became