History of Women in the Wei Dynasty

Chapter 214 The bird is gone and the bow is hidden
“If I tell you, you’ll definitely come. Once you come, I won’t be able to concentrate on talking.”

Upon hearing this, Wei Mao was overjoyed, especially touched by the two "come"s, which sounded so pleasant. He whispered, "I copied some more official documents and put them all in that long box from earlier."

Wei Yao whispered back, "Don't worry, I'll burn it after I finish reading it."

The imperial decrees are revised, added, and reduced every year. Some relate to military affairs, some to agriculture, and some are regulations for officials. If Wei Yao knows nothing about these things, she will be in greater danger in the palace.

Wei Mao: "My father found me some books on criminal law. I'll copy them and give them to you."

"How should I thank my fellow disciple Xie Mao?" Wei Yao tilted her head and smiled charmingly.

Wei Mao suddenly became serious and focused, his eyes fixed straight ahead. There was nothing he could do; his teacher and his wife, always the spoilsport, would glance in his direction when Yao Yao was smiling so beautifully.

Wei Yao pouted at her parents. Wei Yin and his wife looked at each other helplessly. Well, the new house is quite far from Yinianli, so they won't make things difficult for their children.

Next, Wei Yao and Wei Mao laughed continuously, but their laughter stopped when they arrived at their new residence in Quanxue Lane. A tall, handsome young man emerged from the neighboring courtyard—Xi Jiao!

Wei Yao: "Are you from the same school?"

Wei Mao: "When did you return to Luoyang? What are you doing here?"

Xi Jiao first bowed to Wei Yin and his wife: "I am Xi Jiao, a fellow student of Wei Yao when we were in Pingcheng. I just moved to Quanxue Lane yesterday."

He returned the greeting to Wei Yao, saying, "It's been a long time. Master Kong has been thinking of you."

Then Xi Jiao gave Wei Mao a letter: "This is what your godfather asked me to give you."

Wei Mao playfully punched Xi Jiao, feigning delight: "Great! We've been apart for so long! From now on, your house is my house. Don't complain about me coming over so often." He finally didn't need to rely on Lu Baozhen and her sister for cover, because that day his mother had actually asked him if he liked Lu Baozhen!
Xi Jiao poked back with her middle finger, her knuckles sticking out: "It's been more than half a year since I last saw you, and you haven't grown much."

Wei Mao teased the other person again: "Don't you ever twist your ankle when you walk? Your shoes have such thick soles."

"It's specifically for stepping on petty people."

The two boys stopped their bickering and helped Wei Yao's family unload their boxes. During the busy process, Xi Jiao told Wei Yao about Cui Xueguan's travels and estimated that they were about to leave Bingzhou. He also reminded Wei Mao that Confucius was lecturing in Luoyang either at the ruins of the Imperial Academy or the Imperial College. Both places were adjacent to Quanxue Lane, and this matter would soon be known to many Confucian scholars as the traveling group entered Luoyang.

After returning home, Wei Mao told his mother about the Cui clan's plan to build a school in Luoyang. The powerful and wealthy in the court considered it an honor to reside in the western part of the inner and outer cities, prime locations coveted by the southern elites. Lu Luo then said, "From now on, you can discuss such trivial matters with your elder brother and sister-in-law. Mao'er, come here. Your godfather will be arriving in the capital soon. I ask you, if he uses your past favors as leverage, will you truly accept him as your father and abandon your own parents?"

"I live in both places, both in Luoyang... Oh dear, oh!"

Lu Luo smacked the little brat on the head with a cloth pad, yelling, "Why didn't you live in both places when I was pregnant with you? If you had been as ambitious back then as you are now, I would have been miserable for at most a year or two!"

Wei Mao dared not run, but covered his head and shouted, "If my godfather hadn't risked his life to save me twice, if I had died at the hands of bandits or under the paws of bears, would Mother have only been sad for a year or two?"

Lu Luo stopped, tears streaming down her face. "What nonsense are you talking about!" Yes, if Yuan the widower hadn't risked his life to save Mao'er, if Mao'er... she would probably be praying now that Mao'er would change his surname to Yuan rather than have Mao'er gone.

"Get out, get out, I don't want to see you." South of the city.

As the setting sun cast its glow on the banks of the Luo River, fishermen gradually returned to their homes. Zhao Zhi and her daughter led their horses along the riverbank, watching the fishing boats moored one after another, bow to stern.

This brown horse is named "Wild Stable," meaning a stable in the wilderness. It was a gift from the Prince of Rencheng and had been through the battles of Zheyang and Xinye two years ago. Every time her mother brought Wild Stable home, Wei Yao cherished it dearly, feeding it clean hay and even breaking up bean cakes and holding them in her hands to feed it.

"Mother, we've finally settled down in Luoyang. It's wonderful. I still feel like I'm dreaming."

Zhao Zhi said regretfully, "Those assassins were useless. If they had been assassinating Prince Rencheng every day, we could have bought a bigger mansion."

"Hehe." Wei Yao grinned and quickly covered Ye Jiu's ears, instructing her, "You're not allowed to tell on me. Oh, Mother, look, did you see it rolling its eyes at me?"

Of course, the wild stable couldn't understand human speech; its ears were itchy from being covered by Wei Yao.

Nearby on the shore, fishermen had moored their boats and were carrying fish basins. Their sun-darkened faces showed a sigh when they saw some of the fish had died. They asked Zhao Zhi, "Want to buy some fish? Twenty copper coins will do. They're actually quite fresh. If you buy two, the price will be even cheaper, thirty-nine coins. How about that?"

Zhao Zhi: "Okay, tie the two together with a straw rope."

While tying up the fish, Wei Yao inquired, "Can we fish on the Luo River as long as we have a boat at home?"

The fisherman replied, “It’s possible to fish in distant places, but the waterways nearby are all controlled by the government. We can only moor our boats along the banks and can’t fish in the waterway. You guys can’t endure this kind of hardship. Fishing requires going out early and returning late. It’s not enough to just be good at catching fish; you also need luck and the weather. The farther the place, the fewer fishermen there are, but when they come back, the fish are scarce, especially in summer. The fishmongers are the most cunning; they drive down the price drastically.”

As the mother and daughter returned home, Wei Yao was filled with emotion: "The people of Luoyang seek only food and clothing, while the people in the war zone seek only a home. Mother, you are so capable, what did you ask for before you gave birth to me?"

Zhao Zhi never gave her daughter a perfunctory answer. She thought about it very seriously: "I begged you to kill all the Rouran bandits. Later, your father told me the story of 'the bow is put away after the birds are all gone,' so I left the army on the grounds of being wounded."

"Isn't Mother afraid that the King of Rencheng will also do the same thing—discard the bow after the birds are all gone?"

"Don't worry. The birds won't run out!" My husband said. If there's any sign that the birds are going to die out, we'll attract and raise more birds!
Wei Yao's house was located in the southern part of Quanxue Lane, and it did not share a courtyard wall with its neighbors; they were all separated by a road wide enough for an oxcart to pass. She and her mother entered the courtyard, while Xi Jiao came out.

He walked along every path in the "Exhortation to Learning" area until dark, caught a cicada, and returned to the empty house with it in his hand, muttering to himself, "I try not to think about anything, but I still pass by her house the most."

He asked the cicada, "She doesn't blush when she sees me anymore. Does that mean I'm just a fellow disciple? Should I just put away my inappropriate thoughts?"

Xi Jiao bought a house in Quanxue Lane for the convenience of traveling to and from Cui Academy. The next day, he returned to Yinian Lane to study the Book of Changes with his father. If nothing unexpected happens, he will start his career in the Ministry of Divinity, and he must understand the Book of Changes.

Today was Wei Yao's first time going to the palace from Quanxue Lane. She didn't let her mother see her off. Before dawn, she left through the nearest south gate and boarded a two-ox wooden covered cart to Changhe City Gate for the price of a small bag of grain. The cart quickly filled with four people, and the driver cracked his whip and set off, taking the official road outside the city westward and then southward.

Car rental dealers are well-traveled and knowledgeable; their willingness to accept grain suggests that other businesses, both inside and outside Luoyang, are also secretly trading grain for money.

When more and more people in Luoyang distrust the money produced by the imperial court, it is the beginning of man-made disaster!
(End of this chapter)