History of Women in the Wei Dynasty

Chapter 84 Du Ling Dies

Master Cheng: "There's still time... to make it to next year's big hunt."

Regardless of the students' thoughts—whether they were filled with anticipation and joy or filled with regret and despair—the exam was imminent. At noon, the rain stopped, and an unusual situation occurred: all the students in the dormitories remained, their rhythmic recitations attracting swallows to perch on the walls, chirping "ji, ji!"

The following afternoon at 1:30 PM, the additional assessment for April began.

At the same time, in a residential area of ​​Hexi Lane, a peddler carrying vegetables walked into the lane and called out his wares. The end of the lane was blocked off. He walked to the last house, looked around and saw no one on the back or the courtyard wall, and then pushed open the door and went in.

After about five or six breaths, the door, which had been closed, reopened a crack. The peddler peered through the crack in the direction the peddler had come from, and seeing no one following him, he felt relieved and bolted the door shut.

When he came out again, ten burly guards stood outside the door, led by a child named Yuan Yu. One guard was enough to pin the peddler down with his face against the wall, while the others rushed in. The courtyard was empty, and in the main room lay Du Ling, who had just been killed.

The peddler was dragged in; his face, weathered by wind and sun, was ordinary and hard to remember.

Yuan Yu said, "I've been following you for several days. Were you a servant of the Du family before?"

"No."

The garrison guards suddenly grabbed the peddler's head and yelled, "If you don't answer properly, I'll make sure you die a miserable death!"

The peddler's face was nearly torn apart, but he forced a smile and replied, "I'm just an ordinary vegetable farmer. Du Fu... Du Ling taught me poetry. He always encouraged me and was so good to me. But it was all a lie! He's going to betray me! I was such a fool, willing to become the villain to help him. I listened to his instigation and did bad things, and what happened? He wants to clear his name, to pin the whole thing on me for harming Master Duan, and he wants to run away..."

Yuan Yu: "I understand. You have always respected him. But these past few days, while you were gathering information around, you heard a rumor that the government's inability to catch Du Ling was a ploy to lure him out. In fact, Du Ling had already surrendered himself and was just pretending to be hiding well, cooperating with the government to lure out the real culprit who tripped up Master Duan."

The peddler trembled all over: "You, how did you know all this?"

Yuan Yu: "Because the rumors you heard were spread to you by someone I had. Anyway, it's not your fault. He taught you to do evil, otherwise you'd be a good person, right?"

"me……"

"Therefore, wicked people cannot be teachers; they will only produce wicked people."

The peddler glanced at Du Ling, whose belly was covered in blood, then back at Yuan Yu, and realized what was going on. "You knew my every move. Were you deliberately waiting for me to meet him, turn against him, and kill one of us before capturing the rest?"

"Otherwise what?" Yuan Yu walked outside and ordered, "This case is well closed! Take the body back and claim your credit."

At 3:30 PM, the joint examination for the Book of Poetry course ended.

Hu Wu was anxious to return to Helai Inn. Her father had visited the Pingcheng magistrate again today, and she had a premonition that she might soon be able to fulfill her wish to go to Cui Academy.

Hu Guozhen had returned before noon, and before her daughter could ask, she smiled and said, "It's done."

"real?!"

“Of course it is true. After the second day, the state academy will receive the news. You just need to say goodbye to the teacher in advance. However, early on the second day, we must first go to Magistrate Xu’s house to pick up Miss Xu, and you will go to Cui Academy together.”

“Can’t she go by herself? She’s taking advantage of this little bit of trouble.” Seeing her father’s anger, Hu Wuwu immediately explained, “I’m just worried about you, Father. You’ve been so worried about me every time you see the Pingcheng magistrate’s family… Father, you’re right. I’m the one who’s useless. I’ve made you and Mother worry about me all the time. Mother isn’t well. After I go to Cui’s school, I won’t be able to see her every day.”

Hu Wuwu choked up more and more as she spoke. Hu Guozhen comforted her, "You're our only daughter, of course we'll think of you with all our hearts. Don't worry, just focus on your studies. Once you get to Luoyang, you don't need to worry about anything else, your aunt will take care of everything. Why are you still crying?"

"I... I was thinking, if I could participate in the Great Hunt first, then..."

"Shut up!!"

The results of this joint examination were reviewed overnight by all the schools and posted on the morning of the 28th. Although Wei Yao took the exam at Cui School, her ranking was sent to Wei School.

The top three in Weixueguan have changed this time, with Chen Yu from Dormitory 5 being surpassed by Wei Puti from Dormitory 1.

Wei Yao won a spot in the grand hunt, but poor Jing Tong's performance didn't even reach the average level, wasting half a month of training in horseback archery. Wei Jing had nowhere to vent his anger, so he yelled at Wei Mao, "I'm never talking to you again!" Then he ran to the hidden wall behind the school building and bumped into Wei Puti, who was squatting there secretly crying.

Like Xi Jiao, his results were sent back to the Eighth Branch Academy. The new and old academies were ranked separately. The top student in the old academy was surnamed Feng, a local from Pingcheng. The top two students in the new academy, Xi Jiao and Yuan Gong, were both among the hunters, so the reward was awarded to Yuan Tianmu, who came in third.

Cui Zhi still holds the top spot at Cui Academy. It is well known that he is physically weak. Cui Academy requests that the award be given to Guo Yun, the female disciple who came in third place, since Kong Xi, who came in second, was already on the hunting list.

The above and other descriptions pertain to students studying the Book of Poetry; other subjects will not be discussed further.

With two days left before departure, Confucius told Wei Yao to go home and pack her bags. The day after tomorrow, she was to go to Wei Academy to collect the horses needed for the trip. After collecting the horses, she was to bring her bags and come directly to Cui Academy to meet up. On the first day of the new year, she was to join the hunting party with him, Kong Yi, and Guo Yun.

Wei Yao memorized everything and wished she could grow wings and fly home. However, she needed to go back to Tingxing Courtyard first to pack all her notes from the past few days. If she could meet her fellow student Mao at Wei Academy the day after tomorrow, she would give him his notes.

Upon entering the courtyard, they saw Yuan Langxi and Hu Ertiao playing with pebbles. Yuan Langxi, who had never spoken to Wei Yao before, stopped playing and asked, "Miss Wei, are you packing your things to go home?"

Hu Ertiao pretended to urge Yuan Langxi: "Hurry up, it's your turn."

Wei Yao bowed to them and said, "I have nothing to pack. I just came to see if you ladies are here so I can say goodbye."

She turned and left.

"Huh?" Hu Ertiao kicked the pebble away angrily: "I told you she was too shrewd to be fooled."

The two imperial princesses hadn't done well on their exams and couldn't go hunting. Returning to Tingxing Courtyard, they felt even more stifled seeing Wei Yao's room. So, they hung a small ceramic basin filled with muddy water above Wei Yao's door. Yuan and Hu tried many times to splash the muddy water on Wei Yao, but it was all in vain.

Since Wei Yao wasn't carrying anything, she walked quickly and returned to Chiyang Lane before noon.

While Zhao Zhi was delighted that her daughter could go on a hunting trip and broaden her horizons, she was also well aware of how dangerous long-distance hunting could be. She did not show her worries, and after Wei Yin returned in the evening, the couple discussed it and decided to go to see Governor Yuan again, this time with Zhao Zhi accompanying her daughter.

Wei Yin instructed, "Protect Yao'er while protecting yourself."

On the morning of the 29th, in the backyard of the prefectural government office.

The registrar strode along, calling out as he went: "Prefect? ​​Prefect? ​​Prefect Yuan, Prefect..."

Yuan Zhi was trimming his sideburns in front of a mirror in the wooden pavilion when he slammed the mirror down in annoyance and said, "Alright, alright, don't you know you have an accent? One minute you're talking about eating shit, the next you're talking about wanting to eat shit, hurry up and say it! What is it?"

(End of this chapter)