History of Women in the Wei Dynasty

Chapter 117 The Mysterious Confucian Scholar Who Writes Little Flower Stories

He whispered a few words to the Yuan governor, then hurriedly left, returning a moment later. "Miss Wei, look at these characters. Do they resemble the handwriting on the wooden tablet?"

The letter unearthed from the Crown Prince's former residence was copied by the registrar Gou without altering his handwriting. The original letter had already been hidden back under the water vat by Zhou Xi. Now, he picked out the words in the letter that overlapped with the content of the wooden tablet and copied them onto a piece of paper for Wei Yao to identify.

Whether the handwriting is similar or not is obvious at a glance.

Wei Yao's face turned ugly: "The same." She was already certain that those four sets of wooden slips were not written by any unfortunate palace maid!
At this moment, Wei Yao was extremely grateful for her excessive caution when leaving the note, but she was in the wrong and dared not directly explain to the two officers.

A mother is always her daughter's support. Wei Yao whispered to her mother, "The words I wrote on the wooden slip are all imitations of Zhang Wenzhi's handwriting. Should we tell the governor?"

“Don’t worry, Mother told the two officials. Governor and Registrar, my Yao’er is meticulous in her work. The characters she wrote on the wooden tablet are in Zhang Wenzhi’s handwriting.”

Yuan Zhi slammed his hand on the desk: "Alright! This matter has nothing to do with Wei Yao anymore. Take her back and prepare well for the joint entrance examination the day after tomorrow. Leave Xue Yongshi's matter to me."

Clerk Gou thought to himself: Ha, you're supposed to handle this? Why don't you do all the work of a clerk too? The governor's office shouldn't be conscripting subordinate officials; you're doing it all by yourself.

After the mother and daughter returned home, Wei Yao rushed into her mother's arms and asked fearfully, "Have I caused a great disaster?" Otherwise, why would the governor of a prefecture have questioned her?

Zhao Zhi gently stroked her daughter's back and comforted her, "When I was your age, I caused even more trouble. Come on, wash your face first."

The traveling party hurried back to the city, Wei Yao covered in dust from head to toe. "Mother, have you repaired the kitchen?"

“Some bad guys have set fire to our alley. I’ll tell you about it later.” Zhao Zhi watched her daughter wash her face and dry her hair so gently, her every move as cute as a newborn animal, which touched her heart and made her exclaim with joy.

When Wei Yao saw her mother laughing, she laughed along with her.

"Yao'er, do you know that your mother used to be a soldier?"

"Yes, I know. Mother is so strong, she can ride a horse, and she's an accurate archer. She must have earned military merit, right?" Having been away from home for too long, Wei Yao washed away the dust and then took her mother's arm again, snuggling close and unwilling to let go.

“I once beheaded the Rouran commander. When Nagai became Khan, the main force of the Rouran army broke away with the Gaoche tribe and was no longer able to attack our Great Wei. It was the third year after His Majesty assumed power. The court rewarded the soldiers who had previously attacked the Rouran for their merits and summoned them to the newly built Mingtang. At that time, my mother was the only female soldier.”

Wei Yao was extremely excited. Because her mother had the skill to catch bears and had appeared as a soldier during the great hunt, scaring away and killing several soldiers from Wuchuan Town, she had tried to imagine and guess how powerful her mother was more than once. Now it seemed that she had underestimated her.

“You hadn’t learned to run yet back then.” As she recounted the story, Zhao Zhi recalled little A Yao, who walked with a waddling gait.

"and after?"

Later... Zhao Zhi didn't want to fight anymore, but His Majesty summoned her to the Imperial Hall and offered her the title of "Strong Crossbow General". She still refused, which angered His Majesty so much that he told her to stand outside and think it over.

"Let's not dwell on the past. Your mother is telling you this so that you won't be afraid. Even if the sky were to fall, your father and I would be willing and able to stand up for you!"

Wei Yao nodded emphatically, "Yes, I understand." She was willing to listen to what her mother wanted to say, and she would never pry out of curiosity about what her mother didn't want to talk about. Wei Yao nestled tightly in her mother's arms, thinking before falling asleep, "Even if my mother is content with a simple life, she must still have moments of unfulfilled joy."

Wei Yao slept until almost evening when her mother woke her up: "The day after tomorrow is the joint examination of the Book of Poetry. Your father will not be able to come home tonight and tomorrow night. He misses you very much. You and your mother will go to deliver food together."

Wei Yao immediately came to her senses, but then worried, "Will the school allow us to see our father?"

“If we go there, your father will be able to come up with a plan.” “Heh, that’s right.”

Upon arriving at the academy, before even reaching the gate, Wei Yao saw Wei Mao standing outside. "Mother, that's my fellow student Wei Mao, do you remember him?"

Zhao Zhi spat out the word "Remember" through gritted teeth, rarely instructing Wei Yao so sternly: "Don't pay any attention to him, pretend you didn't see him!"

"Oh," Wei Yao replied, and Wei Mao ran towards her.

"Master's wife, you are a fellow disciple."

Wei Yao avoided Wei Mao's gaze: "Mother, don't you feel the weather is getting cooler?"

"Ah."

Wei Yao waved her hands behind her back, signaling Wei Mao not to follow them. She then gestured "seven" and "one," meaning she would come to class tomorrow and they could talk when they met.

Wei Mao came over hoping to catch a glimpse of the situation. He knew that Master Wei couldn't go home and that Wei Yao had returned to Pingcheng. What if Wei Yao was looking forward to seeing her father and came over under the pretext of delivering food?

As he wished, he had achieved his goal simply by seeing her. She even gestured to him repeatedly, which pleased Wei Mao greatly. He obediently stopped where he was. "Fellow disciple Yao, you're back," he said to the evening breeze, treating her as he spoke. Then he exhaled deeply and left, no longer wanting to cause her any more trouble.

Guan Nu went to the Master's courtyard to tell Wei Yin that a family member had brought food. Wei Yin immediately knew that his daughter had come. In order to avoid suspicion, he asked Master Xue to come and get the food together.

According to regulations, the servants were not allowed to open the door. Zhao Zhi had a solution: she lifted Wei Yao high and passed the food box over the wall. Wei Yao finally saw her father and caught a faint scent of pine soot and ink. She smiled at her father with her eyes crinkled, while Wei Yin gave his daughter an apologetic "shh." Both father and daughter were shrewd and, to avoid gossip, they didn't exchange a single word.

Let's talk about Wei Mao.

He hadn't been to Yingju Bookstore for several days, and when he came in, he was surprised to see so many people reading. "Have you got any new books?" he asked the shopkeeper.

"Yes...yes." The shopkeeper hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.

"What book is it? Let me see it."

“Young master is too young to read this… I’ll go get it right away.” The shopkeeper, glared at by Wei Mao, quickly brought the new book. He gestured for Wei Mao to stand where there were fewer people and whispered, “There’s a scholar named ‘Island Barbarian Without Roots’ who has written several of these strange tales. The contents…”

Wei Mao saw it! He slammed the scroll shut, but no, he wanted to see more. He reopened it, and every sentence was erotic, every word unspoken. Who cared about the story's content now! "Does this scholar live in the east of the city?"

"He was very mysterious, and I didn't know where he lived. At first, he would leave the written text in one place and hire a little beggar to come to our bookstore. I went to get it, and there was only one page at the time. When I saw what he had written, I thought he would make a fortune! A day later, he hired another beggar to deliver the rest of the text, and the price was two pine soot ink sticks. I figured this was a long-term business, so I didn't let my servants follow the beggar."

"That's right. What about the other bookstores?"

Knowing what the young master was concerned about, the shopkeeper immediately replied, "He only contacted our Yingju Bookstore. I copied each story into multiple copies in sections, and now we can sell them by section; they're in high demand."

Wei Mao read the scroll absentmindedly, his heart pounding with excitement. He tucked it into his waistband and headed upstairs, then stopped and instructed, "We must keep this deal going. If he raises the price, let him have it as long as it's not too outrageous. Wait, I'm going to sell it in Luoyang!"

(End of this chapter)