History of Women in the Wei Dynasty

Chapter 241 Lu Baozhen's Engagement

Just as the mother and daughter figured out the truth, on the second floor of Peach Blossom Pavilion, the Prince of Jingzhao pushed open the door to the "Qingzhuo Elegant Room," where only his uncle, the Prince of Guangling, was playing the zither.

The music stopped.

Yuan Yu said, "You've been away from the capital for three years, and you've grown taller and stronger. Your uncle almost doesn't recognize you anymore. Open the wooden box on the table; it's a gift I gave you to celebrate your long stay in Luoyang."

Yuan Yu couldn't understand the sarcasm in the other person's words: "Growing tall and strong but not wise, living in Luoyang for a long time without receiving an official position."

He hadn't received any news of his uncle's violent death all morning, and he had a premonition. He used his little finger to pry open the wooden box from the edge, and sure enough, it contained a dead centipede.

Yuan Yu feigned disgust and pushed the wooden box aside, asking, "It's been three years since we last met, and Uncle has become even more stingy. What's the meaning of sending me a dead worm?"

Yuan Yu was too lazy to waste words with the idiot: "Whether you admit to harming me last night or not is irrelevant. I'll allow you to be confused this once because you're young, just this once."

Yuan Yu said with a gloomy face, "I don't understand."

Yuan Yu continued, “I found Lu Yuan this morning. He is a smart man. As soon as he returned to the capital, he resigned from his position as the chief secretary in your household. I offered to recommend him for an official position in exchange for his resignation. I learned that you took a concubine in Xuzhou. Her surname is Yang and her given name is Aofei. Yuan Yu, you took a concubine in violation of the mourning rites, which shows that you are very fond of Yang.”

Yuan Yu gritted her teeth and added "Lu Yuan" to the list of those destined to die!
Yuan Yu: "You plotted against me, so you'll have to pay the price. I'll have someone kill your favorite concubine while you're at our meeting..."

With a loud crash, Yuan Yu burst out of the door before she could finish listening!

The strings were plucked again, and the tune played was "Mulan Fights at the Pass" from last night.

Yuan Yu hurriedly rode back to his residence, where a panicked guard rushed forward, exclaiming, "Your Majesty, something terrible has happened..."

"Get out!" Yuan Yu didn't want to hear it. He ran straight to the backyard, and even before entering, he could hear the maid's cries. "Impossible! He wouldn't dare! How could he dare to attack my royal residence and kill my family?"

"Yuan Yu, you beast! How dare he, how dare he... Ah—"

Yuan Yu held Yang Aofei's already cold body in his arms, wailing and sobbing, tears streaming down his face. "Aofei, Aofei, I... I wanted to marry you, I wanted to marry you—"

South of the city, Baode Temple.

Master Jueding was getting old and took a half-hour nap every day. He dreamed that three strange birds flew across the sky, followed closely by huge, dark, mountain-shaped clouds.

As the strange bird passed overhead, it let out a "screech," opened its sharp beak, and dropped a glittering star, which fell heavily to the ground with the sound of a baby's cry.

Upon waking, Master Jueding seemed to sense something and said, "The Fallen Emperor? A person destined to be an emperor has died young? The reappearance of three strange birds—was it my old thoughts that triggered this dream, or has a strange person come to Luoyang to warn me through these two unusual phenomena?"

the next day.

At the appointed time of Wei Shi (1-3 PM), Wei Yao met with the Lu sisters at Mengsi Pond. They bought three large lotus leaves for shade, then linked arms and asked the painter at Mengsi Pond to paint their portraits.

The painter praised them, which was also a way of praising his own painting skills: "Look at the beauty of these ladies, they are like lotus fairies."

Wei Yao insisted on paying, saying, "Don't argue with me today. I have a salary now, so please allow me to be generous this once."

Lu Baohuan: "But you only get four hundred a month, sigh—"

Lu Baozhen nudged her younger sister, who always talked nonsense. She was overjoyed and unusually shy. She leaned close to Wei Yao's ear and told her, "The Lu family from Fanyang came to my house to propose marriage. His name is Lu Wenfu, and he is a year younger than me. My parents agreed."

Wei Yao exclaimed in surprise, "What an extraordinary family!" At this moment, she should not spoil the mood. She asked if they had inquired about the talents and character of the Lu family's children. Since the matter had been settled, it meant that Lu Baozhen and her parents were very satisfied.

Lu Baozhen smiled and nodded, "He's quite handsome. Our two families have agreed that since we're both young, we'll arrange the engagement first and then get married in two years." Wei Yao thought that the real reason the Lu and Lu families postponed the engagement for two years was probably to wait for His Majesty to assume power, so that both families could be more stable then.

"Ah Yao, I consider you a friend, so I had to tell you about such an important matter as our engagement. Hehe—"

The two shook hands and laughed. Seeing how satisfied and happy the other was, Wei Yao secretly wished that Bao Zhen would be free from troubles and disasters for the rest of his life, just like now.

Mengsi Pond is a great place to escape the summer heat. They walked along the pond's edge, talking about their first meeting and mutual friends, and then they mentioned Wei Zhen.

Lu Baozhen: "I wonder if Azhen has returned to Pingcheng? I heard something and I'm really worried about her. Recently, there have been floods in many places, and some people are starving, so they resort to robbery. I hope Azhen and her group don't encounter any bandits."

Wei Yao comforted her, "She will be safe. I also know about the flood. I've calculated that according to the time Zhen and her fellow disciples set off, she has already passed through those counties. Besides, the warriors in her family must have travel experience and will ask about the road conditions as they go."

"Now that you say that, I'm relieved. Wei Yao, I understand now why Wei Mao likes you so much."

Wei Yao blushed and whispered angrily, "You're so annoying, don't say that."

Lu Baozhen insisted, "He likes that you are well-read, reasonable, and most importantly, that you make people feel at ease and comfortable when you speak."

Lu Baohuan: "Sister, why don't you ask Sister Wei why she likes Wei Mao?"

"Eat lotus seeds." Lu Baozhen stuffed a lotus seed, skin and all, into her little sister's mouth.

When the two sisters said goodbye to Wei Yao, Lu Baohuan was already stuffed from eating lotus seeds. "Sister, don't make me eat anymore. I'm not stupid. I won't tell Sister Wei that you think Wei Mao is ugly."

“I didn’t think Wei Mao was ugly! I said those things so that my mother wouldn’t misunderstand that I had taken a liking to Wei Mao.”

It turned out that Lu Baozhen was afraid that her mother would play matchmaker, so she said that Wei Mao was not good-looking. At the time, her mother did not care and said: "The most important thing is whether a son is capable. What's wrong with being ugly? Besides, if you look closely, Wei Mao is not ugly. At most, he is just not likable."

"What if Wei Mao and I have a daughter who looks like him?"

"Ah? Well, never mind then."

The two sisters couldn't help but laugh when they recalled their mother's reaction. After laughing, Lu Baozhen lectured her younger sister: "Keep this to yourselves. Don't tell Wei Mao and Wei Yao about it as a joke! No matter how good the relationship is between friends, you can't treat teasing as a joke, understand?"

As for Wei Yao, after waving goodbye to Bao Zhen and the other woman, she mounted her horse and rode home along the road outside the city. The two female guards following behind her were both surnamed Han and were wives of retainers from the Prince of Rencheng's household. These retainers came from families with hereditary privileges, serving their masters generation after generation, and were both loyal and possessed combat skills comparable to soldiers.

Having lived through a lifetime, Wei Yao naturally saw things more clearly than Lu Baozhen. She knew that Changsun Wuzhuo liked Baozhen, and since they were not destined to be together, she hoped that Changsun Wuzhuo would stay in Pingzhou forever and never come to Luoyang.

But she clearly remembered that in her previous life, it was Diao Nu Fei Ming who mentioned that Changsun Wuzhuo had run back from Pingzhou.

Why would someone from so far away come all this way?

The current Wei Yao doesn't consider emotions in everything.

“Pingzhou, Pingzhou…” She tried her best to recall the cases that Zong Yin had mentioned, whether any of them involved Pingzhou or people from Pingzhou.

Yuan Baoju, the third son of Consort Yang and Yuan Yu, was the founding emperor of the Western Wei Dynasty. The events in the novel are purely fictional and should not be taken literally.

I've seen many readers mention that the characters in the novel fall in love at a very young age. Let me explain: marriage was early in the Northern Wei Dynasty, so the age of courtship was certainly even younger. This is history, and I can't push back the marriage age of that period just because people find it hard to accept now. For example, when Emperor Xiaowen was born, his father, Tuoba Hong, was only fourteen years old (by the traditional Chinese age reckoning). Another example is Mu Shao, a nobleman from the Xianbei region, who entered officialdom at nine and married Princess Langya (by the traditional Chinese age reckoning) at eleven.

In addition, Yuan Yu was a prince who became the governor of Xuzhou at the age of ten and returned to Luoyang at the age of twelve. He had already taken a concubine before returning to Luoyang, which is not something I made up.

(End of this chapter)