History of Women in the Wei Dynasty

Liu Teng couldn't help but recall the late winter of the year before last, when his enemy Su Xingshou accused him, causing him to be punished by the magistrate Wang Zhi to clear snow from a remote area. The snow and mud there were frozen together, and to clear it clean, one had to damage the ground. Su Xingshou was vicious and transferred all of Liu Teng's eunuchs to other places, leaving him with no one to help him. He had to clear the snow and level the ground by himself until the female official Liang Xuantong appeared.

Liang Xuantong had no broom or anything in his hand, and his gaze was fixed on something very strange. Liu Teng became alert and was about to leave when he heard Liang Xuantong singing behind him: "Pouring water onto level ground, each flows east, west, north, and south..."

She sang only two lines, then called out to him, "Liu Teng, weren't you asking about me? Why are you leaving now that I'm here?"

Liu Teng turned around: "It seems that my punishment here today was a scheme between Su Xingshou and you."

Liang Xuantong's sigh was drawn out, adding to the eeriness of the high walls and narrow alley: "Alas, my sister and I came into this world and never enjoyed any happiness, only suffering. My sister died unjustly, and I never thought... I would suffer even more. Liu Teng, don't blame me, it's because you're so scheming that you were targeted. Remember, it wasn't me who harmed you, it was you who harmed me!"

"Water poured onto flat ground flows east, west, north, and south... Liu Teng, someone asked me to tell you that when this song begins, it's a matter of life and death. When someone finishes singing it, either you die, or you and your adopted children die."

After she finished speaking, she banged her head against the wall!
Liu Teng wasn't afraid of the dead, but he was afraid of being implicated in the other person's death. Just as he was about to wipe the ashes off his face and leave, the imperial guards on night patrol arrived.

Fortunately, they were complacent and did not intend to enter the secluded palace alleys.

However, how could those who plotted against him let him go!

The night was dark, but the traps were clear.

A Tiger Warrior called out to him, "Stop! You dropped your sachet."

"It's not mine."

"is yours."

That was the first sachet that Liu Teng was forced to admit to. Inside was a picture of a woman's corpse with a bloodied head, and the first step in ordering him to obey was written: sever ties with his eldest son, Liu Shun.

After that, the Tiger Warriors who gave him the sachet changed time and time again. Their appearance and physique were unremarkable. If you drew them to find them, you could only find many similar ones.

Liu Teng lacked talent and learning. For the past two years, he had been trying to hum the ballad and secretly inquire about it. He only learned that it was a poem called "Imitation of the Difficulty of Traveling," and the melody varied depending on the musician.

I've heard it again now.

Heard it again!

“When someone finishes singing, either I die, or my children and I die.” Liu Teng murmured the words Liang Xuantong left before his death. He knew this was not meant to scare him.

He was a eunuch and never valued his adopted children more than himself. However, from the moment he was plotted against, he was trapped in a deadly situation. The difference was that either he would die, or all his adopted children would be buried with him.

"Liang Xuantong, oh Liang Xuantong, I, Liu Teng, finally understand the pent-up frustration you felt when you died. Who really harmed me?"

The midnight watchman's call was drowned out by the bells of the inner and outer temples of the palace, just like life itself, unnoticed in birth and unregretted in death. Liu Teng chose the same way as Liang Xuantong to die; after his death, he was rolled up in a stinking straw mat and left aside, to be reported to Shaoqing Wei Yao at dawn.

At a temporary granary area along the Luo River, the Grand Minister of Agriculture, Cheng Lingqiu, inspected the granaries according to the prescribed schedule. The bell of Baode Temple rang out, echoing his softly sung ballad: "Water poured onto level ground, flows east, west, north, and south..."

Ji Province, southeast of Kyoto.

Unlike other monks, Bhikkhu Faqing did not recite Buddhist scriptures. Instead, he secretly practiced a kind of illusion every night. Of course, it was not a real illusion, but rather a practice of how to hide deception methods and create illusionary appearances.

Tonight, having mastered his skills, Fa Qing imagined the magnificent scene of using illusions to gather disciples who would worship him as a god—how delightful! He then took out his secretly hidden wine, took a sip, and began to recite a poem: "Pouring water onto level ground… I pour wine to console myself, raising my cup to sever the difficult road ahead…"

He paused at this point in his song, the candlelight casting a somewhat sinister shadow on his smile. He exhaled, reeking of alcohol, and muttered to himself, "Difficult? Not at all. I will surely triumph over fate."

It's late at night, and it seems that all the stars in the sky are asleep.

In the livestock groves east of Luoyang, for some reason, the dog owners started to have a restless night. Fortunately, the barking was short, and the residents who were awakened just blinked and went back to sleep.

Butcher Liu, however, sensed something amiss with the barking. He habitually kept his cleaver under his pillow while sleeping, so he immediately grabbed the knife, quietly opened the door a crack, and peered into the yard and over the wall by the light of the stars and moon.

There really was a thief!

When the thief jumped down from his yard wall, he clearly twisted his ankle. Liu the butcher was relieved and stopped gripping his cleaver so tightly. His eyes, however, remained filled with murderous intent. Remembering that he was short of money again, he decided to let the clumsy thief into the house so he could take the meat to the cellar and make it into meat sauce to sell.

His sinister grin made his face, ravaged by a strange disease, even more terrifying.

"Hoo...hum..." He made a snoring sound.

However, the trap and the hare soon turned upside down!
Because the "stupid thief" is Kou Meng.

Kou Meng crouched low, making his way towards the main house, his movements no different from those of an ordinary petty thief. He knew that if this butcher named Liu Caidao was another Xue Zhixiao, he would surely be awake by now, hiding inside and observing. Feigning ignorance was the most likely way to enter the house, capture the other man in one fell swoop, and not make a sound in the dead of night.

"Hoo... Hmph..."

Squeak—

Kou Meng pushed open the door amidst the snoring, and before he could even step inside, a cleaver flashed and slashed at him.

He met the attack with a palm strike, a quick twist and a pincer movement! He precisely gripped the opponent's tiger's mouth.

The kitchen knife fell to the ground.

In that split second, Liu the Butcher knew he was outmatched. Just as he was about to shout "Help!", Kou Meng pulled out a handkerchief and covered his mouth.

"Well, well..."

"Bullshit!" Kou Meng slammed the door shut.

The dogs' ears, near and far, are so sensitive; they bark again to alert their owners.

At this time, the neighborhood officials would definitely be patrolling. Kou Meng was in no hurry to leave. He dislocated Liu the butcher's jawbone, then struck the tendons in the butcher's elbows hard before tying him up and dragging him around to search the house.

The cellar was actually under the floor mat.

Rolling up the thick straw mat at the bottom, before even lifting the wooden plank at the top of the cellar, Kou Meng smelled a stench. Upon opening it, he saw that the cellar was indeed very deep, high enough for a person to stand on. Shining the lamp downwards, he could see several large urns placed along the side, with a short hoe standing upright between the urns and the wall. Opposite, leaning against the wall, stood a small table, clearly used for dismembering and chopping meat. The surface of the table was soaked with blood, covered with dense and deep knife marks, the kind that could not have been made by an ordinary pig-slaughtering knife.

Kou Meng was very cautious. He first kicked down the wooden planks covering the cellar, shoved Liu the butcher into the cellar, stared at him for a few moments, and then jumped down himself. The soil beneath his feet was not firm, and Kou Meng had a guess in mind. He used his short-handled iron hoe to dig, and after only one dig, a skull was exposed.

"Ugh!" Liu the Butcher knew that if he didn't fight back now, it would be all over, so he rammed into Kou Meng with all his might.

Kou Meng dodged to the side and smashed the man's right knee with a hoe.

Liu the butcher's eyes were bloodshot from the pain.

Kou Meng exclaimed "Yo!" and praised, "You're quite patient!" Then, with another hoe strike, he shattered the opponent's left knee.

Butcher Liu rolled around and howled in pain. After rolling several times, he finally fainted from the pain.

The cellar smelled terrible, so Kou Meng quickly continued digging...

This tiny cellar is practically hell! But the household registration only shows three people in Liu Caidao's family. Whose are the extra skeletons? How did they end up dying here? (End of Chapter)