History of Women in the Wei Dynasty

Chapter 176 Eunuch Liu Teng
In the past, no matter how naughty the child was, Lu Luo could make Wei Mao restrain his bad temper and admit his mistakes by pretending to cry or be sick. But today it didn't work. Lu Luo almost bit her tongue because she was trembling. Seeing that her son was still wary of her, she had no choice but to irritably shove the maids away and chase them all out.

"Oh, Mao'er, don't you miss your mother at all? I won't scold you anymore. Come here, let me take a good look at you. You've changed so much. Come here."

Wei Mao then went inside.

Lu Luo was both amused and annoyed: "Why are you always carrying a basin? Don't worry, you're all grown up now, your mother won't hit you."

Wei Mao explained in a low voice: "On the day Mother left home, she washed her face in this basin. She may have forgotten. That morning, I stood next to you, and the reflections of my face and Mother's face were both in the basin. After you all got into the carriage and left, I didn't let the servants empty the basin. I stood guard over the basin for two days. Every time I stirred the water, my heart swayed painfully like the water."

This time, Lu Luo truly shed tears, reaching out her arms to her young son. "Mother remembers, how could she not remember?"

Wei Mao also shed tears, kneeling forward. He held up the gleaming copper basin to reflect the light on himself and his mother. "Mother hasn't changed, but I have. This basin is too small to hold me anymore."

I'm sorry, Mom. From now on, I only want to wash my face and look in the copper basin with Yaoyao.

At this moment, Lu Luo had no idea that her son was thinking this way. She didn't even think about the strangeness in his words and hugged her child tightly!
“My son! You silly child, you’re not allowed to talk like that again. Do you want to break your mother’s heart? Don’t worry, Mao’er, your mother came back this time to take you with her. From now on, our family will live in Luoyang and never be separated again.”

"What about my godfather?"

"Your godfather... what godfather?!" Lu Luo almost didn't react. She glanced at the strange tales on the desk, quickly wiped away her tears, grabbed Wei Mao's shoulders and asked, "Tell your mother the truth. What you said in your letter to your brother, did you really have the vengeful thought of disowning your parents? Or were you just saying nonsense out of spite, resenting us for leaving you in Pingcheng, to deliberately anger us?"

Wei Mao shook his head: "Neither."

Lu Luo urged anxiously, "What is that? Tell me!"

“A few months ago, a bandit who was skilled in archery kidnapped me and tortured me…”

"What?!" Lu Luo stared in disbelief, then flew into a rage.

"To save me, Governor Yuan even threw away his weapon in front of the bandits, taking himself as a hostage. When I went to thank him afterwards, his eye injury was flaring up, and he had no one to take care of him. Son... son really pity him."

Lu Luo: "Doesn't he have two cousins?"

"After all, he is a nephew. Governor Yuan only wants to fulfill his duty of raising his sons and does not want to burden them with his illness. If this is the case now, Governor Yuan's life will be even more lonely after Yuan Heng and Yuan Yu get married."

Lu Luo felt uncomfortable after being told this, but as much as she sympathized and was grateful, she couldn't repay the favor with her son. "Nonsense, he's not seventy or eighty years old. He can remarry and have more concubines later, and have his own children."

Wei Mao: "I won't marry him. Actually, Governor Yuan once liked a woman surnamed Lu. That woman even gave birth to a son, who took her surname and was named Lu Jimo."

"Oh my god! What happened next? What happened next?" Lu Luo loved hearing about the secret affairs of the imperial family and meritorious officials.

"Later, in order to avoid the Yuan governor, they went to Xiao Qi, and later I heard that they all died in the war."

"Oh dear, this... is a bit terrible."

"I asked Clerk Gou in the governor's mansion to tell me about this. Mother, please don't tell anyone."

"It definitely won't be told to anyone. Good heavens, Lu is starving, poor thing, it doesn't sound like he's had a good life."

Governor's Mansion.

Yuan Zhi sneezed several times in a row, his voice nasal as he mumbled, "What's going on? Is someone talking bad about me?"

The clerk, Gou, who was recording the documents on the other side, replied, "It's definitely not me."

Yuan Zhi continued with the main topic: "This year's winter salaries will be paid ahead of schedule. Although Zhao Zhi resigned from her position as Chief Secretary, her salary should still be counted." "The prefectural government, county governments, and township governments must assist the people in repairing cellars and houses to prepare for the cold winter. Have all the elderly and sick people without close relatives or major relatives reported by the counties and townships last month been verified?"

Registrar Gou replied, "It has all been verified."

Upon hearing the tone of the other party's voice, Yuan Zhi knew there was some false reporting involved. Such things were difficult to prevent. He was annoyed for a moment and then continued to issue orders: "Provide the poor with food and clothing, and arrange separate accommodations for the sick. Before the twelfth month, send village doctors to various government offices to collect medicines for the sick. In particular, the wounded and dead soldiers who went to Rouxuan with the army this time must be given generous compensation before the eleventh month!"

"By the way, coordinate with the county offices to transfer all the veterans of the Wuluolan clan who fought alongside Chief Secretary Zhao to the granary office of the prefecture."

"We'll discuss with the abbots and chant leaders of Yongning Temple and Huangjiu Temple to determine the relief days and distribution locations for grain in the twelfth lunar month. Speaking of which, I just remembered that we must verify the household registrations in the villages before the new year. We can't completely stop those who falsely claim to be monks, but we need to keep an eye out for them!"

Registrar Gou: "I have already instructed the clerks to check the household registration. Zhao Zhi's household registration has been checked. According to the clerk who accepted the bribe, it was the late Mr. Cui from the Cui Academy who paid him to check it. That clerk was really poor. I didn't dismiss him, but transferred him to another warehouse."

“Alright.” Yuan Zhi continued, “Elementary school starts on the 20th of this month, and the annual exams are scheduled for the end of this month. Don’t let it interfere with the winter hunting. The border town’s unrest won’t end before the new year, so the hunting grounds should not be outside Hengzhou. They should be in the four areas of Baideng Mountain, Qingniu Mountain, Bailangdui, and Qijie Mountain.”

“I almost forgot something. The people are in the winter off-season, and I see strong young men selling their labor everywhere on the streets. You should immediately draft a proclamation to have the state government provide grain to hire these people to dig the river and clear the silt.”

Clerk Gou suggested, "Since there are no trials in winter, should we have the prisoners in jail also dig river channels?"

"can."

Kyoto.

The dungeon of Luoyang County Government Office.

The prison here is still the same as when Yuan Zhi was the magistrate of Luoyang, without any expansion or digging. The current magistrate of Luoyang is named Jia Zhen, and his ancestor was Jia Yi, a famous minister in the early Han Dynasty.

Following Jia Zhen were three eunuchs. The eunuch in the lead was nearly forty years old, with phoenix eyes and a fair complexion. He was Liu Teng, a eunuch who had just been promoted to the position of Vice Minister of the Imperial Secretariat.

The other two are eunuchs.

The dungeon reeked of earth, and Liu Teng frowned as he choked on it. When they reached the very back of the dungeon, Jia Zhen pointed to the torture chambers a few empty earthen cells away from where they had come from and said, "Minister, please ask the questions without worry. I'll go to the torture chambers to attend to my duties."

Liu Teng speaks slowly and modestly, which makes him very likable: "Thank you for your trouble."

He watched Jia Zhen enter the torture chamber, without letting the eunuch move. He himself continued walking into the darkness ahead, making sure this was the last chamber with no further paths or forks in the road, before returning to let the eunuch open the moldy and smelly wooden door.

Two eunuchs each carried a candle, instantly illuminating the narrow cell.

Monk Zhi, in a meditative posture, slowly opened his eyes to adjust to the light. "A distinguished guest has arrived. This place is unsightly, so I will not invite you to sit."

Looking at the densely written characters on the wall, drawn with fingernails, Liu Teng, who knew very few characters and was too lazy to get closer, asked, "Is it a Buddhist scripture?"

Monk Zhi: "No, it's the names of everyone in my Hu family that I can remember. The Buddhist scriptures are already in my heart. I have no other wish but to live one more day so that I can perform one more day of prayer for these people."

"Qiqin" refers to relatives who are in mourning for one year, such as brothers, sisters, nephews, and grandsons.

"Greater relatives" refers to relatives whose mourning period is nine months, such as cousins ​​and married sisters.

Liu Teng: A notorious eunuch!
冗从仆射 (rǒnɡ cónɡ pú yè): The official title of a eunuch.

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(End of this chapter)