During the JiaNian period of the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a scholar named Ye Qing in the south who was admitted as a jinshi. At that time, the northern border areas were often harassed by Liao and Jin, and they urgently needed talent to unify the army. He resolutely joined the army and became a guard of the frontier fortress.
The desert outside the Great Wall was desolate and lonely, which made him often fall into unspeakable melancholy. At the end of spring this year, two swallows suddenly flew from the south and built their nests on the beam of Ye Qing's room. The local people had never seen swallows from the south, so they thought it was unlucky and asked Ye Qing to get rid of them. Ye Qing told the people that they were a kind of good bird, and the swallows survived.
After the swallows stayed, Ye Qing took care of them as if they were guests. When the swallows left early in the morning and returned late at night, he opened the door to pick them up, and when they had time, he fed them water and teased them. The two sides got along very harmoniously. One day, the pair of swallows woke up early in the morning and kept dancing in front of him, chirping "as if they were saying something to him.
The weather was getting colder and colder, so it was time for the swallows to return to the south, and they were saying goodbye to him. Ye Qing was very sentimental, and immediately thought that after the swallows returned to the south, they might still be living in people's houses or under the eaves. Since the swallows were so reluctant to part with him and were so affectionate and righteous, why didn't he write a letter and ask the family there to continue to take care of them?
Ye Qing took the pen and paper and wrote down the words he was about to say on the paper. He made a wax pill after imitating the way carrier pigeons passed information, tied it to the soles of swallows, and sent them away.
In the blink of an eye, spring came again, and the pair of swallows flew back, still tied with wax balls on the soles of their feet, but it was no longer the one Ye Qing tied on. He hurriedly opened it and saw that the handwriting on the paper was beautiful, and at a glance he could tell it was from the hands of a young woman.
The note was a response to Ye Qing's letter, expressing his willingness to take care of the swallow. Ye Qing has been busy with fame these years, and the marriage has not yet been settled. Seeing this letter, he couldn't help but be heartbroken.
After thinking about it day and night, when Swallow finally returned to the south, Ye Qing used wax pills to let Swallow take what he wanted to say.
When Yanzi turned around the next year, he learned that the other party was also unmarried, and he was immediately elated.
Since then, every year after the swallow flew away with a letter of affection, Ye Qing's heart seemed to be taken away. When the weather changed, the swallow returned a few days later than expected, so Ye Qing didn't eat well and couldn't sleep well. It wasn't until he saw the swallow who had left that he turned his worries into joy.
Just like that, three years passed, and although it was just a few words, the feelings between the two sides deepened day by day. This spring, the swallow came back, but to Ye Qing's disappointment, the swallow's foot pole was empty.
Only then did he realize that due to the limited information they could convey, they had made a huge mistake. They didn't even know each other's address. Now that he had lost contact with his sweetheart, he hated that he couldn't grow wings and fly over to find it. But the south is so big, where can he find this swallow to be the sweetheart brought by the matchmaker?
Just when he was in a hurry to get angry, someone told him that this year's Spring Swallows were somewhat abnormal, and I don't know what the omen were. Due to people's kind treatment, more and more swallows migrate here year by year.
Ye Qing hurriedly went out to check, it was really different than before, many swallows had wax pills tied to their feet. Take it down and take a look, the contents of the paper wrapped in wax pills are the same, all written with the same address in Hangzhou.
Ye Qing was like a treasure, seeing that border defense was not a big deal for the time being, so he took leave for his boss and rushed to Hangzhou. After all, one north and one south were thousands of miles apart, and when he arrived, the other party was no longer there, but the landlord took out a letter left to him by the woman.
It turned out that half a year ago, the woman's family urged her to get married, and she told her parents about her love affair with Ye Qing. Of course, in order not to implicate Yanzi, she said that they had known each other before Ye Qing left the fortress, and later passed on their thoughts through the post station. Ye Qing was from Shaoxing, and the two families were not far apart.
Parents didn't know what was wrong with their daughter, and they didn't believe it at all.
Being forced to do nothing, the woman had no choice but to take the maid to escape and come to the countryside. Seeing that it was late spring again, the swallows flew north and wanted to go home to find the pair of passing swallows. The parents watched closely and were afraid of being caught, so they had to pay someone to catch the nearby swallows and let these swallows send a message to Ye Qing. Worried that the information would not be delivered, they could catch as many as they could, and when they arrived at Ye Qing, the previous scene appeared.
Although she and her maid tried their best to hide, it was inevitable that their whereabouts would be exposed after a long time. They were eventually found and arrested by their parents. Fortunately, she was prepared in advance and left a letter to Ye Qing in advance.
Ye Qing's sweetheart is called Qianqian, surnamed Mu, and the Mu family is a wealthy family that can be counted in Hangzhou. Ye Qing wants to think that he has never met Qianqian, and he doesn't recognize her personal maid, how can he get in touch with her?
The next day, Ye Qing asked the kite shop to tie a few swallow-shaped kites for him, found a group of children, and directed them to fly near Mu's mansion.
The sky was clear and clear, and the kite began to fly very high and elegant. After a while, the kite string snapped and broke, and the kite in the sky suddenly became like a drunk man, swaying and falling down, and fell into the courtyard of Mu Mansion. Of course, all this was controlled by Ye Qing secretly.
Ye Qing looked eagerly at the door of Mu's mansion with the golden lion head, and his eyes were sore. Finally, a maid came out with a kite and returned it to the child waiting by the door pier. The child took the broken kite to Ye Qing for inspection, and he found a small note in the gap between the bamboo bone and the sticker. On the note was her familiar handwriting, asking him to meet at Guangji Temple in the west of the city tomorrow afternoon.
The next day, Ye Qing arrived at Guangji Temple early, and at the appointed time, a group of female relatives arrived. As he passed by, one of the charming young ladies glanced at him, and the moment their eyes collided, Ye Qing's heart seemed to jump out of his chest at any time, and a red cloud rose on the woman's face.
The female family returned the same way after serving the incense, and a maid fell behind and stopped him. She told Ye Qing that the person who had just seen him was her lady, and the lady told him to find someone to propose marriage as soon as possible.
Ye Qing returned to his hometown in Shaoxing and told his parents about his love for Miss Mu Mansion. The parents were overjoyed and immediately arranged to handle it. A few days later, the matchmaker entered Mu Mansion, but Qianqian's parents felt that the process of their daughter and Ye Qing's acquaintance and love was too incredible, and there were several other son-in-law candidates who were right for each other, so they didn't agree at all. After Ye Qing personally came to see him, although they felt that Ye Qing was talented and had a good impression of him, after all, they still didn't agree with the marriage, so Ye Qing had to run to Mu Mansion every day to try to convince the second old man.
On this day, Ye Qing unexpectedly met the father of another candidate son-in-law in the Mu Mansion. Just when Ye Qing thought there would be a conflict between them, things took a dramatic turn. This person worked in the Hangzhou Mansion and knew Ye Qing's feat of joining the army. He admired Ye Qing at the time. He praised Ye Qing and expressed his willingness to persuade his son to quit in order to become an adult.
After what he said, Qianqian's parents were impressed by Ye Qing and finally agreed to marry the two families.
Ye Qing got her wish and met Qianqian. Under her guidance, she met their matchmaker for the first time. The home of the pair of swallows in the south was built on the corridor of the courtyard where Qianqian lived.
In order to wait for this special matchmaker, the two parties agreed to get married at the end of autumn. On the day of the wedding ceremony, the door of Mu's mansion opened wide, and the two swallows seemed to have a feeling, only playing in the courtyard, as if waiting for that beautiful moment like the guests.
The bride and groom were about to worship, and they flew over to join in the fun, one on each side, pecking here, bumping there, and constantly pulling the bride's red veil with their small claws, as if they knew the groom's mind and couldn't wait to take it off for him.
The guests who attended the wedding heard about the relationship between the bride and the groom, and they all said that they were a pair of immortals. After Ye Qing and Qianqian got married, they lived a happy life. After a few years, the two swallows died one after another in the nest of Mu's mansion, and they built a bird nest for them in the back garden. Every Qingming Festival, the first day of the tenth lunar month, and the thirtieth day of the new year, they would worship like they treated their deceased relatives.
The descendants of the two swallows also built nests in Mu's mansion and Ye Qing's northern residence. They got along very well with the children of Ye Qing and Qianqian and multiplied and grew up together with their descendants. The two families became increasingly prosperous and continued for many years.