People in Xiangyang City have been in a panic recently. Although we don't have any of the Yellow Turban Army here, the nearest Yellow Turban Army is only about 100 miles away from us. The Yellow Turban Army has been strong recently, and there are news of the government army's defeat everywhere. The local gentry can't sit still, and many have moved to the barbarian land in the south to take shelter temporarily. Ordinary people like us are not that nervous. Listen, after the Yellow Turban Army captured a place, they opened the warehouse to release grain. Sister, this is more beneficial to our family, and then look at me.
I knew she thought I was a good-for-nothing again, so I ignored her smiling face.
Because of the opening of spring, there was a disaster last year. Xiangyang was the most unstable at this time. The government refused to open the warehouse to release grain. The grain on the market became more and more expensive, less and less, and worse and worse. I seldom saw my sister smile recently. I think she must be very upset, so I have started to have a bad appetite recently.
The only good thing was that the roosters crowed less and less every day, and we often saw them on our dining table at noon.
I think it's not bad if the Yellow Turban Army comes. Although there will be chaos, the people including my family will live a better life.
Suddenly I had an idea. Go to the Yellow Turban Army to get food and bring it back. Although it is dangerous, I, a 16-year-old, didn't think about these things, because General He Jin was leading various armies to suppress the Yellow Turban Army. Although I heard that the government army was losing ground, Jizhou had completely fallen into the hands of the Yellow Turbans, and most of Youzhou had also fallen, but because the front line was too long, the Yellow Turban Army was temporarily unable to advance westward. I couldn't wait for them to come here to distribute food to us. Now it was chaotic outside, with retreating soldiers everywhere, and ownerless horses strolling outside the city from time to time. I could return soon after 100 miles.
But I still have to tell my sister that I am going out, I am afraid that she will worry. Usually when I come back an hour late, I have to ask someone to tell my sister a message. I don’t know when I will be back this time, I have to tell her, but no matter how I make up a reason, I can’t go out if I tell the truth. What a trouble!
But I am not just getting the reputation for nothing. I call myself the best sage in Xiangyang. It is not just because I am thick-skinned, but I am also quite good at it. When I saw my sister, I said calmly, "Sister, my son has a rash and cannot go out. His father has gone out to look for food. He is alone at home. I think he is very lonely. Can I go and take care of him for a few days?"
I feel really sorry for Zishe. I always curse him. In the past, I always used him as an excuse to go out. He broke his legs and arms, got burned, and almost drowned... I think in my sister's heart, Zishe must be a super unlucky guy. But Zishe is really a brother. Every time I went to ask about him, he lied to me and said nothing happened. This time I told him that I was going out to do something. Zishe didn't ask me what I was doing, but asked me directly: "What's wrong with me now?" "Rash."
My sister looked at me calmly: "Okay, ... what do you want to do?"
"Well, sister, what do you mean by this?"
"Zishe is your best friend. When your good friend is sick, you are not anxious or even worried."
"That's it?"
"That's the first reason. Second, I just saw Zishe on the street. Third, why do your eyes always wander around me? Do you know that you are guilty when you lie?"
"Sister... I... but..."
"truth!"
"The battle with the Yellow Turbans is getting intense, Xiangyang is recruiting soldiers to go to the front line. I'm afraid I won't see you again, so I want to go out and hide..."
"Why not earlier?" Sister walked back and forth in the hall, and suddenly went into the inner room. When Sister came out a moment later, she had a package in her hands. She put it on the table, opened it and told me that this was some clothes to change into, and that was some jewelry and other valuables...
To be honest, looking at my lovely sister, my only relative, I almost behaved. I set up a series of tricks, and my sister thought that if she exposed my first lie, I would have to tell the whole story when I was "at a loss". In fact, it would be bad if she didn't expose it. I couldn't really let Zishe stay at home and help me cover up the lie, right? Zishe would go crazy.
All I could do was hug my sister and whisper in her ear, "I'm sorry, sister. I'll be back as soon as possible."
This sentence is the truth from the heart, and my eyes are wet.
But my sister was already crying uncontrollably. It was the first time she had cried like that. If she continued like this, I would have collapsed. I hardened my heart, let go of her hand, and turned away.
"Wait... put on the bag." My sister sobbed and carefully tied the bag around me. I couldn't look her in the eye. I turned my head away until my eyes were almost completely wet with tears.
I kept walking without looking back. I knew if I looked back, I would never be able to leave Xiangyang again.
However, I didn't realize that I thought everything was too simple. I always thought that the great way was the simplest and easiest. After I left Xiangyang City, I found that I had forgotten to calculate many things. It seems that what I did was definitely not the great way.
The two most important ones were: I forgot to bring a torch, and the lights in every household in the city made me never expect it to be so dark outside. I went home at the sound of the evening drum every day and basically wandered around the city at night, so I never thought about the trouble of going out.
Also, I don’t know where the Yellow Turban Army is. I actually forgot to consider this.
As a result, I didn't know where to go, nor did I know where the road was. After half an hour of bumping and banging, I decided to go to bed first. I should have talked to my sister in the morning. I missed my bed.
In the morning, I was awakened by the noise. I got up and saw that I had been walking for so long, but I was still wandering around the city. The city gates had not yet opened, and the noise was coming from inside the city. I planned to wait until the city gates opened to see what was going on before making a decision.
On the city gate, there was a new flag flying, and the words on it surprised me: Wei. There was only one reason for my surprise, in the entire Xiangyang city, there was only one person with the surname Wei, and he was my husband.
The surname Wei is recorded in the Book of Surnames as follows: "They are descendants of Zhuanxu Dapeng, who was granted the title of Shuwei in the Xia Dynasty. Their descendants took the country as their surname and settled in Pengcheng."
According to the Records of the Western Regions in the Book of Han, people in the Shule Kingdom, a large country in the Western Regions, also took "Wei" as their surname. The Wei surname developed into a prominent family in Jingzhao County, known as the Jingzhao Wang.
—Author’s note.