History of Women in the Wei Dynasty

Chapter 27 What if I become even stronger?
The fine drizzle finally began to fall, and thanks to Cui Xueguan's timely response, the servants lit torches of mugwort to fumigate the area, and managed to kill most of the ground bees before nightfall. During this time, doctors were constantly being called in and went in and out of the various courtyards to provide treatment.

What Wei Yao didn't know was that the people who were stung to death in her previous life were the very servants she had met in the Bird Forest. The Bird Forest usually had a tool shed, and in this life, because they paused briefly at the spot where the bird's nest had fallen, they were able to reach the vicinity of the tool shed when the swarm of bees emerged, thus escaping this calamity.

Night fell, rain turned to snow, and the black earth gradually turned white.

In the distance, the closed north gate was opened by cavalry; it was the state army, returning victorious!
The Yuan governor braved the wind and snow to come over. When he saw the twenty-odd corpses of his own men being carried back, he was filled with grief and indignation and ordered that the heads of the Rouran rebels be stuck by the roadside to appease the heroic souls.

At Cui's Academy in West Ward 1, Wei Yao, exhausted from writing, tentatively opened the door slightly. Thankfully, there were no ground bees. The chill in the air refreshed her. Recalling the case Xi Jiao had mentioned about the Disaster Relief Society, she felt even more strongly that she couldn't rely on her rebirth.

Because in her past life, she hadn't heard about this case from Xi Jiao or anyone else. Did it never happen at all? Then why did it happen in this life?

Wei Yao answered in her heart: "Therefore, my own changes can change the surroundings. In the future, if I make even more changes, the things around me will change even more because of me. And what if... I become even stronger?"

It's so cold," she shivered and looked up at the sky.

In another courtyard, which is quite close to this one and separated by two paths, the layout of the houses is largely the same, with a small house against the side wall that does not face south.

Xi Jiao lives in this room. He chose it himself because it's small and he can live alone.

He had just taken a nap and dreamt that he was repairing a bird's nest in the bird forest. Wei Yao did not appear. Soon, dark clouds covered the sky, and a swarm of bees covered the sky as well. The bird's nest fell from the tree in the same way. He and Yuan Heng did not have time to look. They ran away while swatting at the bees. As they ran, the parrot appeared behind them and kept calling out to him for help: "Wait for me, Xi Jiao."

"Wait for me, Xi Jiao—"

"Have you forgotten me?"

"Xi Jiao—"

"Xi Jiao!"

He was woken up by the noise, and in his daze, he felt that the parrot's last sentence had turned into a clear, girlish voice, like... Wei Yao?
Xi Jiao took a deep breath, trying to banish the thought of Miss Wei from his mind, but he couldn't. The scene of his conversation with her at noon flooded his mind, making him lose himself in thought.

Previously, he thought Wei Yao was an oddity among the Xianbei people—coy, shy, and spoiled, possessing all the traits he disliked. Why was she acting so strangely this time? The case he mentioned concerned her safety, yet she listened calmly, neither tense nor angry, and did not abruptly press for details about the Qu family's involvement in the case.

"She's always different from others. Oh well, anyway, those scoundrels are going to be sent to the border town, they won't have a chance to harm her again."

Just then, someone knocked on the door from the outside, their voice sounding strangely muffled, as if trapped inside a jar: "Xi Jiao, it's me, Yuan Heng, open the door."

Startled, Xi Jiao sat up abruptly!
This time he truly woke up; it turned out he had just had a dream within a dream.

As soon as the door opened, Yuan Heng usurped the warm bed and rushed in.

A sudden gust of cold wind dispelled Xi Jiao's drowsiness. She sat down at her desk, lit a candle, and turned around to find that Yuan Heng's nose had become a large, swollen bump. She immediately understood why he had come over.

He asked, "Did some bumblebees get into the house?"

"Ugh." Yuan Heng said angrily, "Someone definitely put them in there, several of them! I checked the window before I went to sleep, it was fine... but now it's broken, how could it be broken so easily? It must have been Yuan Ning who did it, why didn't she sting him to death during the day! Ouch..." It really hurts!

"Where is Haiyeren?"

Yuan Heng and the other party lived in the same room.

"I don't know, I caught a bee and stuffed it in his bed, I don't know if he's awake yet. What are you doing? It's so late and you're still grinding ink?" "I can't sleep, so I'm practicing my calligraphy."

Yuan Heng sat up abruptly, his nose and cheeks throbbing with pain, but the pain couldn't dampen his excitement: "I almost forgot something important. I was planning to talk to you about it tomorrow. Didn't you tell me to chase that parrot away?"

He paused deliberately.

Xi Jiao understood, and feigned curiosity, asking, "And then what did you discover?"

"I've discovered something big! That parrot has a name, 'Youlai,' and its owner is Master Liu from the Guofeng Academy. When I tracked it down there, Master Liu was talking to Master Guo from your Xunyi Academy in the inner room, and I clearly heard the eight words, 'I already know the questions for next month's joint examination!'"

Xi Jiao: "You mean... the person who sets the exam questions for next month is very likely Master Liu?"

"Yes! This is truly incredible luck, a gift from heaven! If I had gotten the exam questions beforehand, hehehe..."

"Don't do anything reckless. Leaking exam questions is not the same as skipping school." Since they weren't very close, Xi Jiao gave him a brief piece of advice and then went back to practicing her calligraphy.

The next morning, dark clouds filled the sky, and snow piled up like mud.

Wei Yao put a spare pair of cloth shoes into her bamboo book box, slung the box over her shoulder, put on a black rabbit fur hat, tied a felt scarf around her face, and finally put on gloves before heading out. The road was really slippery, and the students walked with their heads down, not recognizing each other when they met. Wei Yao and another female student entered the school building one after the other, and only when the other girl took off her red gauze hat did she realize that it was Guo Yun.

Before anyone else arrived, the two little girls quickly changed their shoes and together brushed the mud off their wet boots at the threshold.

Wei Yao first asked the other party if they had been stung by bees.

Guo Yun pouted and said, "What bad luck! We left the bamboo forest late yesterday, and when we discovered the earth bees, Guan Nu protected us, and several of my fellow disciples shielded me in the middle. I'm fine, but they all got stung. What about you?"

Wei Yao shook her head: "I'll be back at my lodgings in time."

At this moment, two other students arrived, dressed in Xianbei customs. The one wearing a round-topped gray fox fur hat was Xi Jiao, and the one wearing a white thatched hat was Cui Shang.

Cui Shang had a bump on his face and the back of his left hand. Seeing Guo Yun looking apologetic at him, he comforted her instead: "I applied medicine yesterday, and it doesn't hurt anymore."

He and Xi Jiao walked into the house, and he asked each other cheerfully, "Fellow disciple Xi, I heard that Yuan Zizhi and the others got into a fight with a lot of meritorious officials and scholars outside the prefectural government yesterday?"

"Ah."

"Oh dear, I wonder if Wei Mao participated? Fellow disciple Wei, did Wei Mao rank in the top three of your academy in this joint examination?"

"He went to the Zheng Clan Academy after being in the top three." After saying that, Wei Yao walked to the back of the classroom where the students were observing the proceedings. Great, she and Xi Jiao each had their own desks and didn't need to sit next to each other anymore.

While she was pondering the nature of Cui Shang and Wei Mao's relationship, the other students arrived one after another.

Amidst the cacophony of idle chatter, Xi Jiao's abrupt narration was only clearly audible to Wei Yao: "Your fellow student Wei Mao's aunt and the mother of a student named Zheng Zun from the Zheng Clan Elementary School are close friends. Zheng Zun's mother is the aunt of Cui Shang, who is also a fellow student."

Wei Yao was astonished, not because Wei Mao had such a connection with Zheng Zun and Cui Shang, but because in her previous life, Zheng Zun had helped her by lending her the notebook for almost a year, during which time Zheng Zun had never mentioned Wei Mao. This was illogical; normally, it should have been like Cui Shang's situation.

(End of this chapter)