History of Women in the Wei Dynasty

Chapter 66 Poems, First-Class Lady Yu Yao
Snapped.

A pebble struck Du Tongding in the back, shattering his dream of hiding.

Xi Jiao was sitting on the wall, still wearing his student robes that had been torn during the fight. With a gesture from him, more than twenty servants crawled out of the grass and surrounded Du Tongding.

"I was wrong." Du Tongding knelt down decisively, terrified of his surroundings. If he died here, he'd be devoured by wild dogs...

He seized the last glimmer of hope and shouted, "I know a secret! An old teacher at Weishi Elementary School died recently. He was murdered! Xi Jiao, I know that Wei Mao tricked you and Zhou Tai. You can use this secret to get revenge!"

Hexi Street.

This neighborhood has maintained the layout and planning of Pingcheng since its early days, where "entertainers, butchers, and wine sellers each had their own place." The entertainment venues, such as those for entertaining musicians and dancers, were concentrated on a small section of street opposite each other on the riverbank, with no residential houses or alleys nearby, making it convenient for the government to conduct searches at any time.

After walking back and forth twice, Wei Yao and her three companions had finished looking at the layout of the pavilions.

A wooden boat drifted by on the river, and the boy rowing it sang loudly towards them: "Guan Guan cry the ospreys, on the river's islet; a fair maiden, a gentleman's ideal..."

Wei Jing loved to joke around, and he sang the third chapter of the poem in the tune of the other person: "I cannot get what I want, I long for it day and night, I am restless and tossing and turning."

The boy called out to Wei Yao, "I saw you yesterday. Don't come here again. This is not a place for you."

Everyone loves the color of flowers, and if you happen to see a flower twice, that's enough to make you happy! The boy hummed the popular song "Guan Ju" as he rowed away, the water plants swaying in front of and behind the boat, the water sparkling.

Wei Yao: "I remember now, he was skipping stones on the other side of the river yesterday. Mao Tongmen, when you pass by here tomorrow morning, keep an eye out for him to come out and row his boat early. If you see him, ask him if he comes out every morning."

Clever! Not only did Wei Zhen and Wei Jing admire her quick thinking, but Wei Mao hadn't even considered that possibility. He said, "That's enough for today. I'll send you a letter once I find out anything." This last sentence was directed at Wei Yao, because she would be studying poetry at Cui Academy starting tomorrow.

The four parted ways.

After packing her things at home, Wei Yao was carried by her mother, and the two hurriedly headed to the west city. It was evening, just after the spring examinations had ended, and the sound of reading could be heard everywhere in Cui Academy.

She entered the courtyard, where Yuan Jingrong and her companion Yuan Langxi were walking out. Wei Yao bowed and stepped aside to let them pass.

Despite their vastly different social statuses, the two imperial daughters chatted and laughed as they walked, seemingly oblivious to everyone else.

Wei Yao arrived at the room where she was staying, looked up and saw that the branches on the roof were even more lush, and began to droop down from the eaves. Who would want to live in a courtyard shaped like a pavilion, especially one with such a prominent roof?

March fifteenth.

"Following the Great Road, I think of the virtuous man; Duke Zhuang lost his way, and the virtuous man left..."

The recitation of poems filled the air. Two days later, the results of the monthly joint examination for the study of the Book of Poetry were released, and Wei Yao still had the only perfect score in Pingcheng. At the same time, the results of the spring examination were also released.

Leaving aside those who were punished by being sent to organize the state archives, let's just talk about the students who achieved the top nine in the Spring Examination of the Book of Poetry. Ranked from first to last, they were Wei Yao, Cui Zhi, Kong Mi, Cui Yuan, Guo Yun, Liu Zhenzhu, Zheng Xiangdao, Wang Bin, and Cui Shang.

Of these nine students, six were from the Cui Academy's Training Hall, making seven if Wei Yao is included. They all achieved full marks; the criteria for judging who was superior were neat handwriting and the time taken to submit their papers in each round of quizzes. So, in retrospect, if Wei Yao had answered the questions normally as Du Ling instructed, without resorting to trickery in the second round of quizzes, she might not have won first place.

Furthermore, Cui Xueguan's Xunyi Academy has since firmly established itself as the premier school of the Book of Poetry in Pingcheng. Powerful and wealthy families have used their connections to send their descendants to audit lectures by renowned teachers, making Wei Yao, who came from an ordinary background, even more the object of envy and jealousy.

Let's leave aside the future and focus on the present.

As the top poet, Wei Yao received not only a paper and pen reward, but also a special reward from the prefectural government: three days of free time to copy texts in the old palace library after the festival.

The last major relocation of palace staff after the Great Wei Dynasty moved its capital was in the spring of the year before last. Many duplicate and not particularly valuable books were still locked in the old palace's storeroom. Three days wasn't a long time, but if she stayed up day and night, she could copy a lot of them.

Following the good news of the reward, Wei Mao also wrote down the information he had found about the Changyi Pavilion in a letter and sent it to his servant Yan Qi. The letter stated that there was a morning market every day on the street in front of the Music Pavilion, where vegetable farmers would often transport large quantities of fresh vegetables to sell to the Music Pavilion, and the rest would be sold to the people on the other side of the river at the morning market.

The boatman's surname was Pan. Nine out of ten days he would get up early to sell the fish he caught the previous day to two regular brothels, one of which was the Open-Clothes Brothel.

In his letter, Wei Mao also said that he planned to get to know Pan Xiaolang better and try to get information out of him. He would not go to Hexi Street for the next few days, as going there often would attract attention.

Wei Yao's reply was concise: "Thank you for your hard work, fellow student Mao. Do not neglect your studies."

After receiving the reply, Wei Mao crossed out the words "fellow student" and then rubbed the character "Mao" back and forth. However, he received more than one message today; after class, he received a letter sent by Xi Jiao.

This is very strange. Upon opening it, Wei Mao's expression turned grave!

Xi Jiao: I am saddened by the passing of Master Duan. Now I have heard the news that he may have been murdered. Today, on my day off, I will have a meal at a restaurant.

When Wei Mao looked up again, his eyes were brimming with tears, filled with both sorrow and hatred. Xi Jiao was indeed annoying, but the other party wouldn't joke about something like this. Xi Jiao must have evidence, or a witness!
This is enough to show that Master Duan's sudden death was indeed a setup.

When Wei Mao sent a second letter to Wei Yao, Du Tongding knelt down before Xi Jiao for the second time.

"I... I told half a lie a couple of days ago. I didn't know such a small thing was worth reporting to the state government! I actually exaggerated the matter so that you wouldn't hit me anymore."

Xi Jiao loathed this person to the extreme and refused to exchange a single word with him.

The soldiers were brought by Yuan Yu. He was not yet of school age and did not like to play. He preferred to stay in the prison and watch the jailers conduct trials.

After Du Tongding recounted how an old teacher at the Weixue Academy had been murdered by some underhanded means, Xi Jiao didn't entirely believe this despicable story. He sent a message to Yuan Yu, and when Yuan Yu arrived with the state troops, Du Tongding indeed changed his tune.

Boasting and filing a false police report are two different things!
This time, Du Tongding became completely honest and recounted the whole story. Someone had stopped him on his way home from school, given him a string of pearls, and asked him to deliver them to a dancer named Hu Niuba at the Changyi Pavilion on Hexi Street. Hu Niuba was instructed to do something early in the morning at the end of February: whenever she saw Master Duan and his son from Weishi Academy passing by the pavilion, she should go out, unbutton half of her robe, and reveal the pearl necklace.

The man who stopped Du Tongding told him that if Hu Niuba did as he was told, he would give Du Tongding an even larger string of pearls as a reward. Du Tongding already liked Hu Niuba, so he took a few pearls from the string he had already received and gave them to the man. That way, he wouldn't lose out even if he didn't get a second string, and he would also win the heart of the beauty.

That morning, Du Tong was in Hu Niu Ba's room in the Changyi Pavilion. He only watched Hu Niu Ba leave and didn't see Master Duan fall. But...

(End of this chapter)