History of Women in the Wei Dynasty

Chapter 162 A Dog's Heart That Can't Be Hidden

"Um... I still had my arms when I came." Both arms were still a bit scabbed over.

The two officials breathed a sigh of relief. Then, Yuan Zhi criticized them: "Is this how you use the word 'whole'? Alas, it's hard on Chief Erzhu. He can't find a single real scholar in his tribe."

Clerk Gou echoed, "That's why we have to come out and not be satisfied with just the beauty of the mountains and rivers."

Erzhu Maiti pondered the registrar's words all the way back to Cui Academy and wrote them down in a letter to the chieftain.

When Governor Yuan and his entourage arrived at Chiyang Lane, to prevent the neighbors from speculating about Zhao Zhi's family, only Yuan Zhi, the registrar, and the military advisor Huli dismounted and walked through, while the rest of the group, including Erzhu Maiti, remained at the street entrance outside the lane.

Before Huli Canjun could knock on the door, Zhao Zhi, who heard the noise, opened the courtyard gate. A strong smell of burning mugwort filled the air, completely masking the stench of blood.

Zhao Zhi clasped her hands in a gesture of respect, and Erzhu Rong stood behind her and bowed in return.

Yuan Zhi chuckled and patted the mischievous boy's head: "I'll let it go this time. But if I find out you skip class again, I'll pull down your pants and hang you at the school gate."

"I know I was wrong."

Zhao Zhi led everyone to the outhouse, where only Ru Junxia's head was visible from a tattered straw mat lying against the wall.

"The person is inside."

Yuan Zhi: "Ugh." His eyesight was just as good as his two eyes, and blood had soaked through the straw mat!

Huli Canjun felt that once he met Zhao Zhi, he would either have to bury the corpse or transport it. After he unwrapped the mat that wrapped Ru Junxia, ​​Yuan Zhi and Gou Zhubu realized that Erzhu Maiti's "whole jade" was actually "whole arm".

Huli checked Ru Junxia's breathing and then felt his pulse before confirming, "He's still breathing."

Even in this state, you're probably either angry or not.

Erzhu Rong, with his small mouth, recounted how this bandit from Luoyang disguised himself as a mirror polisher to trick his master into revealing information, even attempting to close the courtyard gate to harm his master, only to be captured by his master instead.

Huli searched the bandit's body and found two travel permits. One belonged to Ru Junxia himself, and the other to a mirror polisher from Gaoliu County. Gou, the registrar, had followed Yuan Zhi since he was the magistrate of Luoyang. After examining the permits, he said, "Both the Luoyang travel permit and the Gaoliu County travel permit are genuine. If they were fakes, the wooden plaques and the writing could not be made to look naturally old."

The real mirror polisher from Gaoliu County was very likely killed by this man from Luoyang named Ru Junxia.

Gou, the clerk, took out a silver needle from his cloth bag and inserted it into Ru Junxia's philtrum.

Yuan Zhi asked curiously, "When did you learn medicine?"

"yesterday."

Yuan Zhi then ordered Huli: "Search the rest of his belongings."

As soon as Ru Junxia opened her eyes, she saw a one-eyed man sneaking around, stuffing his money pouch into the poisonous woman's hand!

One eye? With that air of official authority, isn't that Yuan Zhi, the Prefect of Hengzhou?!
"Shameless! Pfft—"

Ru Junxia uttered her last words before dying.

Registrar Gou guiltily put away the silver needles; his first attempt at medicine had ended with a fatal injury. "I need to find a small oxcart to pick up the body directly at the courtyard gate. The people in the alley can't know about this."

Huli volunteered, "I'll go find it!" He quickly hid to clear his eyes. Just now, he saw the governor stuff valuables from the Luoyang bandits into General Zhao's hands. General Zhao refused, but the governor insisted. Oh dear, the registrar's surname is Gou, but the governor is a real dog.

While waiting for the oxcart, Zhao Zhi, Prefect Yuan, and the Registrar sat on a new mat facing the courtyard gate, talking. Erzhu Rong dutifully massaged his master's shoulders, listening attentively and learning. Since the Hu family's destruction, Yuan Zhi had informed Zhao Zhi of everything concerning Sengzhi, so the Registrar had nothing to hide and began to recount what he could think of.

“The people Yuan Chuntuo sent are probably all in the city. They must be doing the same thing as Ru Junxia, ​​stealing the travel permits of the people of Hengzhou and disguising themselves as merchants going from street to street.”

"If I'm not mistaken, we'll soon receive reports of murders and missing persons from various county offices. These unrelated major cases will tie up all the government offices, leaving us with not enough manpower to search for the Luoyang bandits in the city."

"General Zhao, you must be careful from now on. Once these people meet up, they will guess that Ru Junxia is in trouble. It would be fine if they came to your door one by one, but if they all come together under the cover of darkness, or if they ambush Master Wei on the way, General Zhao will be in a passive position."

Yuan Zhi: "Strengthen patrols in the vicinity..." He shook his head before the clerk could reply. No, Yuan Chun Tuo wouldn't send an idiot. If the other party noticed the increased patrols, they would be even more certain that Ru Junxia had an accident in Chi Yang Lane!
Zhao Zhi clasped her hands in a fist and pleaded, "I would like to ask my husband to temporarily suspend his teaching and stay in the prefectural capital."

Yuan Zhi waved his hand and said, "That's easy. What I'm worried about is you, General. Even a brave warrior can't withstand a hail of arrows. You must not underestimate the enemy!"

To conceal his superior's increasingly obvious thoughts, Chief Clerk Gou could only cautiously remind Zhao Zhi: "When I was in Luoyang, I heard that there was a subordinate of the Prince of Rencheng nicknamed 'Ghost Arrow,' whose archery skills were wicked and ruthless. If the Prince of Rencheng also gave this subordinate to Yuan Chuntuo, then this person is very likely to come to Pingcheng as well."

Erzhu Rong became frightened and stopped massaging his master's shoulders.

Zhao Zhi placed her hand on her disciple's small hand and replied, "Okay, I will be careful." She never underestimated her opponent, and she would never do so again, because Ru Junxia had made the fatal mistake of underestimating his opponent, which was why he had no guard up and turned his back to her.

She guessed that Ru Junxia had been regretting his foolish act of underestimating his opponent ever since she crippled him, which was why he coughed up blood before he died.

Huli, the military advisor, drove over in a small oxcart. The body was moved directly from the yard into the cart, covered with a blanket, and sprinkled with mugwort ash to temporarily mask the smell of blood.

Erzhu Rong reluctantly bid farewell to his master, and once again promised that he and Senior Sister Wei Yao would stay obediently in the academy.

Yuan Zhi gave Zhao Zhi the best bow and all the arrows from his subordinates, and waved goodbye with great reluctance...

"Snapped!"

Unable to bear it any longer, Clerk Gou slapped the official's hand to stop this inappropriate behavior.

When Yuan Zhi and his companions passed by Wei Yin's school, they showed him the letter Zhao Zhi had drawn. Without further ado, Wei Yin immediately asked the school director for leave and packed a number of necessary items to take with him.

On the way, Yuan Zhi remembered that Wei Mao had said "the island barbarians have no roots" was about Director Wei, so he tentatively asked Wei Yin, "Does Wei Zhenyuan usually write articles?"

“He writes frequently, and Director Wei’s knowledge is far more extensive than that of ordinary scholars like us.”

"Haha, what scriptures does he understand?"

“The five classic texts can be easily explained after reading them.”

Yuan Zhi and the registrar exchanged a glance. They hadn't expected that Director Wei had read so many books. So, it seemed that little brat Wei Mao might not have been lying after all. Although the strange tales written by "Island Barbarians Without Roots" were all about romantic affairs, no one could deny that his writing was rich and varied.

Clerk Gou jokingly asked his superior, "I also want to write articles from time to time. Could the governor please increase the salary for paper and ink for us civil officials?"

He then asked Wei Yin, "Your Director Wei certainly doesn't need to worry about this. Even if he's practicing calligraphy, he must be using top-quality pine soot ink, right?"

"I think so?" Wei Yin replied uncertainly, then changed his tone and said, "When the officer asked about this, I remembered that this morning my daughter's fellow student, Wei Mao, came to the Confucius Academy to see the curator, and he was carrying a common ink-holding lacquer box."

Go check it out, you won't be disappointed.

(End of this chapter)