History of Women in the Wei Dynasty

Chapter 240 Changes in the Imperial Academy
The third day of July.

As dawn broke, the area outside the Changhe City Gate was already crowded with people and vehicles, and the aroma of firewood from food stalls filled the air. Wei Yao got off the oxcart, took a deep breath, and immediately shook off her drowsiness.

She bought a flatbread and a bowl of clear soup with little meat from her usual mutton soup stall. Today, the pickled vegetables were different: pickled leeks with diced tofu and shredded rabbit meat with pepper.

Those are unscrupulous merchants! The food is delicious, but they're all charging you for it.

When the Seventh Prince Yuanheng's entourage came over, he stopped next to the food stall. Wei Yao immediately understood, quickly drank the last drop of soup from the bottom of her bowl, and went to the horse to pay her respects.

“I haven’t seen Miss Wei for a few days.” Yuan Ru explained the reason for looking for her: “Last time you cured Yuan Shixian’s bad habit of being sleepy, another elder of my fellow disciples asked me to ask you if you could help think of a way to cure his son’s hyperactivity problem.”

Yuan Ruo carefully described the restless nature of the other party: "His name is Yuan Yongping, and he is also at the Imperial Academy. When the teacher is lecturing, it's not that Yongping doesn't want to listen, but he can't help scratching his ears and cheeks, looking around, or drawing monkeys and turtles on paper. Miss Wei, is there any way to cure Yuan Yongping's bad habits?"

Wei Yao pondered for three breaths and said, "There is a way, but we must first talk to the teachers at the Imperial Academy...find some lazy bums from the streets...and then...do this..."

Yuan Yu listened with increasing delight, nodding repeatedly with his eyes narrowed.

Palace Academy.

Starting today, eunuchs like Liu Teng will no longer be on duty in shifts, and three female officials will be transferred from Changqiu Temple to fill the vacant positions in the palace academy. Xu Jiti will serve as the head of the department; she is over sixty years old and holds the third-rank position of "scribe" in the palace.

The women assigned to the Erya and miscellaneous books archives were Hong Shu Nu, a third-rank official, and Rui Cai Ren, a fourth-rank official.

Hong was in her thirties. Her arrival blocked the path to promotion for all the fourth-rank female officials in the palace school! Even a fool would know that once Hong became familiar with the palace school, she would replace the elderly Secretary Xu.

When Xu Jiti first arrived, she changed many rules. First, the lecturers who regularly recited texts no longer had to submit their lecture schedules for the month at the beginning of the month; instead, they had to submit them every five days.

During the five-day lecture period, students may request leave in case of an emergency. If a student requests only one day of "emergency leave" in a month, and all the students in the school pass the monthly exam, the "emergency leave" can be offset.

Take Wei Yao as an example. She originally needed to teach for 28 days a month to receive the salary for the previous grade. If she encountered an emergency and only taught for 27 days, she didn't need to feel bad. She could still receive 400 coins based on the fact that all her students passed the monthly exam.

Xu Shushi also changed the rules for guarding the library. The nine female officials in charge of the library would rotate every month, and it was absolutely forbidden for the same person to guard the miscellaneous books library for two consecutive months!

In addition, the supply of writing materials for the nine female librarians was doubled.

Various changes have brought joy to some and sorrow to others.

The happiest people were all the palace students, because Xu Shushi and Zhen, the head of the labor service area, reached an agreement that the palace students would no longer participate in heavy and rough work, and the palace school area would be expanded to the north to build student dormitories. Once completed, the students' food and lodging would be completely separated from those of ordinary palace slaves.

At noon, the children swarmed into the kitchen like bees; such liveliness and joy should belong to them.

Wei Yao watched with delight as her students walked away in pairs, and then saw Xu Shushi walking towards the office from another direction. She bowed to him, and Xu Shushi politely returned the bow.

Xie Yi and Pei Shen brought the food back and told, "Lecturer, the head cook has changed. His surname is Zhang, and he is a third-rank Imperial Food Supervisor. Please try it, this rice cake is Supervisor Zhang's specialty. Is it delicious?"

Wei Yao took a bite, her eyes widening. "It has filling! It's delicious."

There was only one rice cake in the food box, indicating that it was only for the lecturers. She broke off half of it and said to Xie Yi, "I have never eaten such delicious rice cake outside. You divide it into seventeen small pieces, and when they come back in a while, everyone can have a taste."

"Hehe, thank you, lecturer!"

"You naughty boy. Why are you crying?"

One child had red eyes, while the other blinked and sniffled. Pei Shen said embarrassedly, "The lecturer is only three years older than me, but he always reminds me of my mother."

Since being abducted to the Xi government office, she dared not even mention the word "mother," let alone recall it. Pei Shen did not want to spoil the lecturer's mood at such a happy time, so her lower lip trembled violently as she tried her best not to cry. Xie Yi's lower lip drooped two miles beyond her upper lip.

Wei Yao stopped staring at the two children; if she did, she would laugh. She said, "Don't do that. Even if you two shed a bowl of tears, I won't give you the other half of this rice cake."

"puff."

"lecturer--"

Xie Yi and Pei Shen both burst into laughter after their tears.

After finishing her lunch, Wei Yao left the palace, only to be surprised to find her mother waiting for her outside the Qianqiu Gate.

At this moment, Wei Yao pouted and twisted her face, a far cry from the composed demeanor she displayed while lecturing at the palace school. "Does Mother know that Yao'er misses you? Does she? Does she?"

One downside of children getting older is that you can't hold them in your arms all the time. Zhao Zhi reached out and put her arm around her daughter's shoulder instead, responding to each word with, "Yes, yes, yes."

"Has Mother eaten yet?"

"No."

"What a coincidence! I didn't eat enough earlier. What would you like to eat today, Mother? I'll treat you with my salary."

"Want some flatbread?"

"Ok!"

The mother and daughter talked as they walked.

Zhao Zhi first recounted the two near-death experiences of the Prince of Guangling last night, and then instructed: "Recently, there have been constant acts of violence and rebellion. I have asked the Prince of Rencheng to assign guards to your father and you. From now on, when I am not at home, you must have guards accompanying you when you go out."

Wei Yao nodded understandingly: "Then will we take care of the guards' food and lodging?"

"No need. Guards are just doing hard, risky work. They get whatever reward they put in from the Prince's mansion."

"I understand. Don't worry, Mother. I will only go between the palace and the school during this time, and I won't run around."

"Hmm." Zhao Zhi looked at her daughter, feeling both heartache and relief. She felt that she must have accumulated good fortune for several lifetimes to give birth to such a smart and clever child.

It was so hot eating at the open-air food stalls at noon that it was impossible to sit for long. The mother and daughter took their pancakes and found a shady spot to stand. With no one around, Wei Yao whispered, "Who wants to harm the Prince of Guangling?"

"I didn't ask."

Wei Yao analyzed, "Based on what Mother said about the King of Guangling's character, his enemies seem to be the husbands of those women who meet in secret. However, using such a strange method as centipedes doesn't seem to be the case for such enemies. Instead, it seems like a kind of witchcraft. Using such an obvious and insidious method to harm people is not clever."

"Oh, I think so too." Zhao Zhi said "Oh" guiltily, because her daughter's analysis was the exact opposite of what she thought.

Wei Yao: "Actually, we could have set a trap for the Prince of Guangling, caught him during a secret rendezvous, and then given him a good beating—it would have been justifiable to beat him to death. But the other party was too clever for his own good, choosing to use a treacherous poisonous insect to harm the Prince of Guangling, which inadvertently revealed their weakness. I think... the person who orchestrated this scheme must be of a similar status to the Prince of Guangling, otherwise, where would they have gotten the audacity? What's the point of harming him if it succeeds?"

She continued, "The contradiction is, how could someone of the same status and power not know that the Court of Justice has been investigating witchcraft and sorcery? Using one centipede is one thing, but using three! Isn't that just inviting trouble? So, the murderer... is a prince who just arrived in Luoyang? And someone who is brave but not very resourceful?"

Wei Yao further deduced: "They even... entered the city just yesterday!" If they had come for two days, they would have been able to find out about the matter that the Court of Justice was investigating.

Zhao Zhi blurted out, "The Prince of Jingzhao!"

(End of this chapter)