The first time I saw Yin Ling in black clothes, it was very fresh and a little strange, but she looked good in anything. Yin Ling was a very beautiful woman, otherwise my brothers wouldn't have wanted to take advantage of me, but when we were brothers, we never thought that I could have this beauty.
But now I can, so, with excitement I closed my open mouth, spread my arms, and walked forward.
Yinling noticed something was wrong with me, and she was about to move forward, but suddenly she hesitated. Her clear eyes suddenly stopped looking into mine, and started to wander around me.
But I have no reason to hesitate, so I keep moving forward. Although the rising sun is reluctant to give up its light, it has retreated behind the clouds, leaving only a dark gray mist covering the mountain. But my ardent and sincere eyes are all focused on the person closest to me without reservation.
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No matter how cold the mountain top is, it cannot extinguish the passion of the fearless young man in search of his beloved wife; no matter how vast the rooftop is, it cannot stop the fearless young man from embracing his lovely wife.
Yinling began to look uneasy and turned her head left and right meaninglessly. When she found that there was no place to escape, she lifted up the hems of her skirt and was about to turn around and leave. How could the young man give up? He strode forward quickly and finally embraced his wife in his arms at the railing, not letting her leave him again.
“Brother, this action is not good… You are already so old, and I am going to get married soon, you must not break etiquette.” The girl in his arms was uneasy and incoherent, trying to pull her hands out of the boy’s arms, but the boy’s arms were still tightly around her, unable to break free at all.
"Yinling, we are not brother and sister, we are husband and wife." The young man tried his best to tell the beautiful girl in his arms the news, which he thought was the most exciting.
"You really know it." The girl seemed to be talking to herself, but these words made the boy feel a little hurt.
"You knew it a long time ago? Why didn't you tell me? Do you really want to marry Cao Cao instead of staying with me?"
"Things are not as simple as you think. Why can't I marry you? Think about what others will think of us. Everyone in the world knows that we were siblings for 18 years. And this, and..."
The boy interrupted the girl and turned her over to face him.
"Look at Zirui in front of you. He is no longer the ignorant younger brother of the past eighteen years, but a general who can lead a million soldiers into battle. You have been taking care of me for the past eighteen years, and I will take care of you in the days to come. I will protect you and never let you cry or be sad again. If you don't want to stay on the battlefield, I will not let you fight in the battlefield. If you don't want to stay in officialdom, I will resign with you. If you are not by my side, everything will be meaningless to Zirui." The boy's voice was choked with sobs, and the tears on the pretty face over there had already wet the boy's chest.
"I couldn't accept it at first, but when I thought about it, I had thought about marrying a woman as unique as my sister many years ago, but I could never find her. I didn't know that my wife had always been by my side. In fact, I should have thought of it earlier. Everyone thinks that we are not like siblings. I didn't believe it at that time because we have many similar views and opinions. I only understand it now, because you taught me those things, how could they be different..."
Yin Ling interrupted the overly excited boy in front of her, calmed down her restless mood, waved her hand, and asked her question as calmly as possible: "Zi Rui, think about whether you really want to marry me first, and then answer me why you want to marry me."
"Yes, of course. Why? I don't know. I only know that I want to marry you. I don't know how to explain the rest. The most dignified reason I can give is... my parents' order. Since you already know that we are not siblings, you should know that we are engaged. We have been husband and wife for eighteen years."
The girl's face turned pale, and she turned away, sobbing. The tall boy let her do what she wanted this time, but buried her body deeper in his arms, because the wind behind them suddenly became stronger.
"I think God knows that, so he lets you stay on the mountain." The boy's tone was no longer as excited and impulsive as it was at the beginning, but became gentle and graceful.
"Why?" she asked in a low voice.
"I have been married for a long time, but I didn't know it. I always thought that our previous home was not as good as a real home because my wife was not there. But in fact, I was already at home, but I only knew the relationship between the brother and sister on the other side, and didn't know the relationship between husband and wife on the inside. Now it's time to make this clear to the outside world. (Tsukahara)"
"Don't cry, I will report this matter to the court and ask the court to clear your name and make you the wife of Marquis Ping An Feng Yun."
"Don't be so conceited. You've fooled several girls with this tone." There was a hint of joking in the sobbing voice, which made the boy excited.
"No, there will be one in the future, and that person's name is Guo Yinling." The young man found it a little confusing to pronounce, and always felt that the word Yinling did not go well with the girl's surname.
The girl suddenly shook her whole body, turned around slowly, and saw the boy next to her, but he shouted first: "Ah, it's snowing! Zirui, come in first."
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I stood still in the hall and asked my wife to carefully brush away the snow on my hair and back. She placed my cloak on a wooden rack and made a fire to dry it. She then brought a dry cloth to wipe the snow off my head.
"Why are you grinning like an idiot?" Actually, her smile didn't seem very smart when she said this to me.
"Look at the beauty." I approached her in a vulgar and frivolous manner, which made her a little at a loss. I remembered that she had made me at a loss many times in the past.
"Don't be like that... Be honest, take off your clothes and let your sister dry your backside."
"You are not my sister, you are my wife; I am not your brother, I am your husband." I continued to approach her unscrupulously.
"No, no."
"What do you mean no? No. Well, let's get married as soon as possible. We can ask Zhuang Zhou to be the matchmaker. Anyway, we have no father or mother, so we can perform the ceremony of husband and wife here." To be honest, I felt a little regretful after I finished speaking. I felt that I was too frivolous.
But my wife kept avoiding me, looking around, and was always unwilling to look at me. She didn't seem to hear what I said carefully, and she stammered and didn't finish her words.
"Don't... fool around." This is not my old Yin Ling. The old Yin Ling never lost her mind so quickly and retreated step by step. I think this is what is called having feelings in one's heart and being unable to restrain oneself; having intentions in one's heart and being unable to clear oneself.
"Okay, I won't mess around anymore, I'll just play around." I wasn't going to pass up such a good opportunity to play a word game, so of course I put my face on it too.
Yin Ling was forced to the wall, and then she was forced to the corner with nowhere to hide.
The scene at this time made anyone see that a tall rogue had cornered a weak and quiet girl and was plotting something bad.
※※※
But the girl's expression was so complicated for some reason. She looked blankly at the tall and strong boy in front of her. She seemed to have thousands of words in her heart, but she didn't know where to start.
The young man had only one thought in mind, which was to tease his bewildered wife.
The girl, who had no place to hide anymore, suddenly burst into tears, and the atmosphere in the hall suddenly became a little too much for the young man to bear.
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"Yinling, what's wrong? We are already husband and wife. Are you really unwilling to marry me?"
"But, you know, I'm not your wife."
"I will go and ask Brother Meng De myself. Brother Meng De is open-minded. If he knew about this, he would definitely not take someone else's wife. Yinling, don't cry. I will definitely settle this matter for you." I took a step back and patted my chest to promise.
"Do you know why I'm crying?" I wiped away her tears. This time she didn't back down, but asked me as calmly as she could.
Yin Ling's light makeup was almost washed away by her tears, so I had to wipe it off carefully to avoid leaving stains on my wife's face. As a result, I couldn't think of an answer to her question, so I could only reply casually: "Why, madam?"
※※※
Yinling took my hand away and looked at the ground, thinking about something. Her body was still shaking slightly. Finally, she looked at me calmly: "I really hope I don't grow up, because when you grow up, you will get married, and I will no longer have anything to do with you."
I was about to speak when she stopped me and asked me to sit down. This made me feel some of the same feelings I had before, and I sat down without thinking anything, just looking at her quietly.
"Listen carefully. I think Taoist Zuo Ci told you about your story, but it seems that you didn't listen to what Mr. Shui Jing told you about your wife, because these two people haven't seen each other for eighteen years. We parted in Jiangling on the sixteenth day of the twelfth lunar month. After I returned to Xiangyang, I happened to meet my newly arrived master Mr. Shui Jing at home. Mr. Zuo Ci left with several wise men the day before to visit the mountains and rivers of Jingzhou because he had waited for you for ten days but you didn't come back."
Yinling breathed a sigh of relief. The previous words made her a little tired as she was still sobbing from time to time, but I didn’t understand what the problem was.
"I know my life experience, and I know yours too. Don't talk nonsense, just wait for me to finish. Oh, I'm sorry, Zirui, I'm used to it." She breathed a sigh of relief, as if the secret was a story that was difficult to tell.
"You are Fan Mengbo's son, but I am not Guo Yi's daughter! So we don't have an engagement!"
"How is it possible?" This was like a bolt from the blue. Just when I was about to stand up, I sat back down. My head was buzzing. This time, I couldn't even look at Yin Ling and tried hard to think about the problem.
"Zi Rui, let me ask you, don't you feel that a few things are strange?" Yin Ling sat down slowly, and she seemed to have calmed down: "First, there is no elder in our family. I don't do anything to make a living. How can we have two old servants who take care of us all the time and have enough food and clothing? But you may also think that our family has a very solid foundation, so let's not talk about this for now; the second thing is what happened recently. You must have seen Sima Pei. The clothes you are wearing were made by her. Do you feel that your sister is completely different from her? We have the same elder who decides what we learn, but I have become a rare woman in the world who can lead troops and manage things, while she has everything that a very good wife should have. Her housekeeping skills are not as good as my sister's, and her cooking skills are far behind. As for all kinds of people, she has never read such a complete book, and many of them are unheard of."
I nodded, and some ideas came to my mind. I held out my hand to let Yin Ling stop for a moment. "First, Taoist Zuo Ci was seriously injured at the time. Since then, we have been taken care of by Mr. Shui Jing. He found two honest middle-aged wives who didn't know our origins to take care of us and provided all the money for our upbringing. Second, Zuo Ci was with me eighteen years ago, and I didn't meet Mr. Shui Jing this time, so I don't know what happened after Mr. Shui Jing took Magistrate Guo's daughter out of the city. So..."
My face must have looked very ugly because I saw Yinling's head.
"Sister Pei should be called Guo Pei! She is my wife?"
She nodded again.
"Mr. Shuijing taught her to be a good wife, so that I will never feel bored after getting married. And you are the girl of the same age that he found to replace Guo Pei. Shuijing taught this girl everything she needs to become an official, so that she can slowly teach me in her daily life. You taught me a lot of military books and knowledge of governing the world. Even if the teacher didn't run a school, I can learn everything an official should know from you."
She was already somewhat numb, but still nodded her head gently.
I punched the ground, somewhat angrily: "Why didn't Mr. Shuijing see me all the time? Why didn't he come to see me during the time I was in Xiangyang? Why did he let a girl like you spend eighteen years just to take care of me, teach me, and accompany me? Isn't Shuijing too inconsiderate of other people's feelings? He thinks he is a famous person in the world and can destroy the happiness of a person's life like this."
“Pa…” Yinling slapped me hard in the face. I watched her slap me and instead of dodging, I sat up straighter.
"Although he has done me a great favor, he may have ruined your life! I would rather remain unknown than ruin your life! You have this ability, and if you were a man, you could do great things, but as a woman, how many people in the world would dare to marry you, and how many people would be able to make you happy!"
Yinling raised her hand again, but this time she couldn't hit him anymore. But she was angry, "Don't insult my father."
"What!" This name and the following words made me wish she had slapped me ten times harder.
"I am the daughter of Sima Dechao. I was only three years old at that time, but I looked like Guo Pei when she was four, and I was about the same height. At the time of the incident, our whole family was in Runan. My father didn't know how many dangers there would be in getting out of Runan, so he used me to pretend to be Guo Pei. He just wanted to take care of Guo Pei, so he changed our clothes. My mother took Guo Pei out of the east gate dressed in Yue people's clothes without being stopped. My father was a layman, and it was the first time he did such a thing. People soon found out the flaws. Before he left the city for ten miles, he was captured by the soldiers and the suicide note of County Magistrate Guo was found. My father was originally Thinking that his life was in danger, he planned to die with me and my father for justice. However, he did not expect that the captain who arrested us was a righteous man. He had heard that County Magistrate Guo was upright and honest, and he could not bear to see his loyalty and integrity go without descendants. So he secretly released my father during dinner, gave us a horse, and let my father and I ride away on horseback, and led his soldiers to chase in the opposite direction. Later, he was blamed by his superiors, so he abandoned his official position to chase my father, intending to protect you and me who had replaced Guo Pei. Later, this man died while protecting us, and even his body cannot be found until now. "
"It turns out that your experience is the same as mine." I was a little distraught, and thought to myself: I should have the surname Xie.
"Father immediately replaced Guo Pei with me and lived with you. Father is a lazy man who never asks for anything in return. Therefore, he never saw you from beginning to end, just to make it easier for you to marry Guo Pei and I to leave. You will never know the secret. When you see father in the future, you will just miss him in a hurry and don't know who Sima is and who Sima is. Now you know what to do?"
"Do you blame your father?" I had an idea. I knew that this was the time for me to make important decisions.
"Don't blame me, my father did the right thing." Although Yinling was very firm, I concluded that what Yinling said was not entirely true. At least she must have blamed me at the beginning. Otherwise, she would not have come to Shanghe, the father bestowed by the emperor, and would have returned to her father's home long ago. Now she is alone in this Zhongling Mountain, and she is like this when she sees me, but now after this, she has indeed confirmed her thoughts.
"I want to marry Guo Pei." I lowered my head: "I must marry her."
"That's right." She said something incoherent and her voice was trembling.
"But I want to marry Sima Yinling too." I stood up, my facial expression returned to normal, and a fake smile appeared on the corner of my mouth: "I want to marry both of them. Come, Madam, help me dry the clothes."
"You are so beautiful." Yinling was amused by me, but she just stood there motionless, just covering her mouth.
"No? You like me too, right? I'm so young and promising, and I definitely don't care that my wife is better than me now. Anyway, I will surpass you in the future."
"The more you do, the more indecent you become." Yin Ling seemed to be moved, but she turned her face away. She didn't seem to have thought of this solution, and now she was obviously deciding on her next move. Suddenly she turned around, which scared me.
"What do you want to do?" She was very surprised to see me frozen in front of her. In fact, I was about to hug her with my teeth and claws.
"Nothing?" I immediately stretched and pretended nothing happened.
"Didn't you say that you would only marry one person in the past and in the future?"
"What's wrong? But I think about the world, with such a low ratio of men to women, I have to make some sacrifices for the marriage of women in the world." I acted as if I was willing to die for the first time in the world.
"You're so conceited, I won't marry you."
"You don't want to marry, okay?"
"What about Cao Cao?"
"I'll take care of that matter. You don't need to worry about it."
"I want to suffer by marrying a stinky, ignorant woman like you, am I that stupid?..."
I hugged her and just looked at her.
"Yes." Two people came out at the same time, but the man's voice was loud and clear, echoing throughout the hall; the woman's voice was a little shy, and it seemed that she just slipped out of the red chún lightly.
But that was enough, we both laughed, and from then on there was nothing that could stand between her and me. At that time I just thought sweetly that my happiness had finally arrived.
※※※
It snowed all day, and we each took a bath that day. I didn't need to take a bath, but the loser of a battle was ordered by the winner to wait in the water until the winner allowed him to. In the end, I had nothing to do but take a bath. This was the first unequal treaty signed between me and my wife.
The thing is, Yinling originally planned to take a bath today, change into new clothes and go down the mountain to Shanghe, so that she wouldn't have to wear the black clothes she didn't like to miss me. But now a dangerous lustful person appeared in the temple, so the whole plan began to change.
I was assigned to boil water, but I looked at the size of the bathtub first. So, I thought it was about time, so I moved to another place before Yinling sent me away. I had done this kind of thing before, and now I did it effortlessly. Of course, I used going to the bathroom as an excuse to prevent her from finding other reasons to frame me.
So, a few moments after leaving the kitchen, I lay down on the beam with a peaceful mind, tucked my clothes together, and felt the heat from below slowly rising up and lingering around me.
Next is the girl who is waiting to come in, cautious as if she is guarding against a thief.
"Zi Rui?" An obvious tentative voice sounded from below, "The water is not enough, go boil some more."
The sound of the door slamming shut immediately afterwards. She obviously had a serious distrust of me, which was of course completely correct.
As my clothes were being taken off, the silver bell in my mind had turned into a lotus emerging from water, and I was the kind that had just emerged from water.
The sound of water has already begun, and the scene below is what I want to see, so I smiled down and said, "It seems that there is enough water."
"Ah!" My hearing has always been bad, so her scream almost made me fall. Fortunately, my arms were protected, and I floated down from the beam gracefully, looking at the eyes of Yinling emerging from the water. She also pulled her clothes into the water. This is not good, it loses the meaning of clear water.
So, I felt the need to save the clothes from the water. But when I just hugged the clothes with both hands and started to pull hard, she actually jumped out of the water by herself, still wearing a soaked black coat. She held something in her hand and hit me on the head.
But I did it on purpose. I knew she was worried and wanted to wait for me to take the bait, but I was sure she wouldn't hit me hard, so I hit her hard and then fell into the water as if I had fainted, looking for any sights to see. But I only saw two vague white feet in the dim darkness under the black tube, and then she seemed to come out of the water, with countless bubbles coming out of her feet and tube.
Then someone pulled my waist hard, and a very low voice with a changed tone came from the water: "Zi Rui, are you okay?"
Of course I continued to play dead, and then I saw the pair of feet go back into the tub, and then someone came to hold my head. Looking at her legs, I calculated where her face was, and suddenly used my waist to get up, trying to scare her. But I didn't expect that I would get hit hard on the head as soon as I got out of the water, and I really fainted in the tub.
When I woke up, I was sitting in the bathtub with my wife in front of me.
I covered my head and said, "You hit me really hard this time."
"Does it still hurt? I was so scared that I lost control of my hand... Who told you to be so lustful?" Although she had a fierce look on her face, the touch of her hand on my head and the tears in the corners of her eyes let me know that she was worried about me. This made me very happy and I didn't feel any pain in my head anymore.
But I am sure that Yinling knew that I was not knocked unconscious the first time, so she supported me with one hand and held the wooden thing with the other hand. I was a little hot-headed at the time and didn't think about this. As a result, I was ambushed. I couldn't help but feel that I was too hasty.
"What are you afraid of? I've only peeked at you once before... Hey, I've just been injured. If you hit me again, someone might get killed and you'll be a widow." I saw the guy in Yinling's hand raised again, and I hurriedly tried to persuade her with the same indecent words.
"I'd rather marry you than a bathtub."
"Okay, from today on, I will change my name to Bathtub."
I finally made her laugh, but my clothes were all wet, and I only had one set of clothes, so I was ordered to soak in the tub while she washed and dried my clothes.
When we were leaving, she turned her back and knocked on the bucket. I asked her what was wrong. She was a little angry and embarrassed, so she asked me to take off all my clothes and let her wash them.
Of course, this is how I understood her meaning, she just didn't dare to say the whole thing.
I sat in the tub for an hour before being let out. During this time, there was really nothing to do, so I had to take a few baths until the water became cold and the skin on my body was almost washed off.
※※※
Of course, after putting on clothes, I still had to carry water for the lady who had not yet taken a bath. Apparently, my credibility was doubted. She followed me from beginning to end, watching me pour bucket after bucket of hot water into the bath tub. Even so, she still didn't trust me. In the end, I was locked in her room, and then I heard a sound of panicked escape outside.
I opened the window and saw that the snow outside was getting heavier and heavier. If so, the mountain would be completely blocked by snow. Great! All kinds of bad thoughts surged in my mind.
A little while passed and Yinling still hadn't come back. I lay down on Yinling's couch with my clothes on, stretched my body comfortably, and felt much calmer.
Somehow, I finally felt sleepy and fell asleep. I dreamed that my father scolded me for being frivolous and said he was ashamed of me.
※※※
"Bathtub, get up. You'll catch a cold if you sleep with clothes on. Why don't you take them off before sleeping?" Yinling smiled at me in confusion.
I woke up in shock, sweat all over my head.
"Yinling, Yinling, I'm sorry, I was a little too rude today." I was a little flustered, put my hands on her shoulders, and tried my best to calm myself down and said to her.
"It's okay, it's okay." Yin Ling fell to help me get rid of it. "I'm afraid we can't go back today. Where do you live?"
"Just find a room to stay in." I took a deep breath, "I'll clean it myself. Do you have bedding?"
"Such a gentleman?" Yinling seemed a little uncomfortable with my change. She always felt something was wrong. It seemed that she already had a prejudice against me.
So, I put on a very gentlemanly image and told her that I was the Marquis of Ping'an Fengyun of the Han Dynasty and that I was not the kind of frivolous person. I felt my face getting hot during the process.
"Stop being so hypocritical. You were acting like a child just now, and now you're pretending to be mature. You can't be trusted." Yinling couldn't trust me anymore.
"I have promised my wife in front of heaven and earth that from now until the wedding day, I will never step out of the boudoir or neglect etiquette. If I break this oath, I will..." But my mouth was quickly blocked by her hand.
"I believe it, I believe it, don't make those vicious oaths, I believe it just like this. Besides, who said I would marry you?" Yinling became naughty again, but I kissed her slender hand, which made her blush all of a sudden. She covered the hand that I had wronged her and pretended to be angry.
I spread out my left hand, smiling, because I suddenly had a brilliant idea: "The diviner Guan Lu once read my palm for me. He said that if the lines on my palm were broken, everything would no longer match my destiny. It just so happened that this scar covered my marriage lines. He said that if we only look at the lines that have been tampered with now, it can be calculated that I have two wives. The first one died in a false way, and the second one has been with me for many years before she became my wife and saw me off to the end. The one who died in a false way might be Huang Xin. Although she and I were not actually married, I was recognized as her son-in-law by her father and enjoyed the title of husband and wife. But she died in Yizhou before I met her. Isn't it a false death? And the one who has been with me for many years, who else is there except you? This line was given by you, which means that you secretly promised yourself to me. In this case, do you still want to deny it?"
"Is it true?" She still didn't quite trust me.
"Yinling, you and I have been together for eighteen years. You should know that none of my daily jokes are true, but when it comes to important matters, none of them are false." I was a little anxious.
"Okay, okay, I believe it." The word "okay" was said quickly, obviously knowing that I had a quick temper, but the word "I believe" was very soothing and coy. It was very pleasant to hear, but after living with this sister for 18 years, I, who had just calmed down, felt a little goosebumps and a little weak in the bones.
However, she suddenly became shocked: "What about Sister Guo?"
"Sister Guo, you should call her Miss Guo, right? Oh, you two should swap your ages, right? Then you are only three years older than me. Ah, I have heard that: A woman three years older than a man can hold a golden brick, build a golden house, and go inside..." I finally stopped and looked at my hands again, "Guo Pei is not shown in my palm? Does that mean I am not destined to be with her?"
"No, you must marry her. You'd rather let her wait for many years before you marry her than not marry her." Yinling was being unreasonable, but at this time I would agree with her in everything.
"Since I have a broken palm, then everything..." I have to give up, so I will overturn the excuse I made with Yinling. However, I immediately have an idea: "Where is my flute?"
"Your things are lost again?" Yinling immediately showed dissatisfaction with me.
"You put it away for me."
"Here, what do you want the flute for?"
He did not answer Yin Ling's words at that time. He was silent for a moment, sorted out the cause and effect, and then said: "Since I have a broken palm, my fate in this life is unpredictable. Perhaps because of this, I missed Mr. Sima, but on the last day of the year of fire last year, I happened to wait for Taoist Zuo and learned the other half of the story. If I listened to Mr. Guan Lu and closed the door and did not see anyone that day, I would probably have to wait a year to know about this. At that time, you were still my sister and had married into the Cao family. Guo was virtuous and accompanied me for a year. I think I would fall in love with her. After knowing the reason a year later, I naturally married Guo. But when I think of you again, I will feel regretful. Although I kept my promise and was loyal to my father's orders, I can get a reputation for filial piety, but I ended my life in the bitter longing for you. However, you had planted this seed of love to save me that day. Although you left you to me, it is very likely that you washed away Guo Pei. But since I can change once, I can change it again."
After saying this, he did not hesitate any longer. He pulled out the thorn from the flute and cut the wound again. Amid the exclamation of the woman next to him, he laughed loudly and said, "God can see that you want to take my wife. Zi Rui will not let you succeed. One of these two women is loyal to the old covenant, and the other is my true love. Zi Rui cannot abandon either of them. From now on, Zi Rui will not believe in fate. I don't want to go against God, but from now on, please don't interfere with Zi Rui's affairs."
I watched her lower her head to bandage my wound without saying a word, then I threw the thorn to the ground, held her in my arms, and didn't let go for a long time.
※※※
The next day, the snow was still falling, but I still decided to go down the mountain. I had to go to Gaoling as soon as possible, and Yinling naturally went down the mountain with me.
Although the road was slippery and difficult to walk on, we supported each other and made it through without encountering any danger. Instead, we laughed and sang along the way, feeling very happy.
That night, I returned to Shanghe and announced to all the family members that the memorial service was over. I needed to clarify some things with them. First, I had to clarify that Yinling was not my sister, but my first wife. When I said this, everyone was shocked. But they really didn't look like siblings. After I made up a few reasons, they finally began to believe it and started to talk about it.
But this time I realized that Yinling's skin color was indeed darker than that of my sisters. It was not surprising when I thought that Sima Hui's wife was from Shanyue.
Of course, I didn't reveal my and her true identities. I only said that she was a descendant of the Shanyue people, and I was a descendant of the Qiang people who surrendered to the Han Dynasty from the northwest. When I said this, Yinling grabbed my thigh. In fact, I had discussed it with her on the way, and I don't know why she is still like this now.
I lied, but my expression was still like the truth. Although I felt sorry in my heart, after all, he was a good father, but when I thought about how Uncle Zuo and I almost died because of this man's stubbornness, and my benefactor also died because of it, if he still insisted on sending me to the capital, it would be a big problem, so I didn't hesitate.
I told him that my Tianlang was passed down from my father, which made him agree with it. He also added that Tianlang was fiercely contested among the tribes in the northwest. The reason why I took the surname Xie was because my ancestors were all horsemen who shot arrows. When registering as a Han citizen, they needed to have a Han surname, so I took Xie. In addition, my name Zhi also has the character "Shi". Later, because my parents died and my tribe was dwindling, I was settled in Xiangyang to avoid losing my life in the frequent tribal feuds on the grassland. At this point, my father nodded again, saying that people would be jealous of Tianlang. Because we have been living with a Shanyue family, we used to call each other brother and sister. Now that we have entered the officialdom, the elders in the tribe want us to get married, but we are both famous, so this is quite difficult.
The father laughed loudly after hearing this and said, "From now on, are you two my son and daughter-in-law, or my daughter and son-in-law?"
This time it was Yin Ling who took the initiative to speak: "You have two daughters, so you can have me as well, but you have no son, so it's better to let Zirui be your son."
"Wait, since you are Qiang, what is your original surname?" For some reason, the mother seemed a little unconvinced.
Since I had thought about it on the way, nothing would go wrong now.
"Jesuro."
"Oh, I've heard of that tribe. But it's said that after the entire tribe surrendered to the Han Dynasty, they have scattered all over the world. Now there seems to be no surname called Xie Se Luo among the Qiang people. Most of their surviving members use Xie and Jie as their surnames. I originally thought that using Xie as a surname was a homonym, but it turns out that it is to commemorate their ancestors who hunted." My father repeated what I was going to prove, and muttered to himself that the reason I made up was the correct explanation for the surname change.
My father didn't dislike us at all, and the family members were still chatting and laughing with us. They also decided to keep it a secret for us. Because we were so frank with them and we were already a family, we were the only ones in the family.
Yinling and I seemed to be right. We agreed on the way that he would not care about these things, so we decided to make up these words. Because when we talked to him, we found that his view on foreigners was that if they entered our Han nationality, they would become Han people, and it was the same everywhere. There were many residences of the former Southern Xiongnu nobles in Shanghe, and he treated them the same as Han people without any bias. Therefore, we all began to doubt those rumors that he was stubborn and stubborn. He was indeed very open-minded.
In fact, we both regretted it afterwards. Compared to their generosity, we seemed a little too tolerant. We deliberately made it up so that if it was leaked, we could find someone to prove that it was fake and then put the blame of lying on them. But later on, I thought there was really no other good way. The key point was that I wanted to marry Yinling, and Yinling also wanted to marry me. It was best to use the name of my parents to justify myself, otherwise people would only suspect that I had immoral behavior.
That night, he drafted the document for us. We were not siblings, and we each had our own ancestral temples to worship. It was only because we had little reliance on each other that we called each other siblings. He had already done a blood test to confirm our relationship, and asked the emperor to rectify the names and allow us to get married. He showed it to us and asked us how we were. He did not write anything about our ethnicity, which made us feel relieved. We were all fine, but it was up to our father to decide. However, this made me feel even more sorry for him, and I thought I would come to apologize in person after the marriage.
Of course, I must show my filial piety here, which I have never done before, especially to the Shen Gong family. My biological father will definitely be very happy when he knows about this.
My father even took me to a room and gave me a pre-marriage theory class with a strange look on his face. I listened obediently because I felt guilty. This re-education by a pioneer who had first-hand information only made me, a good-looking and knowledgeable person, blush and get angry. My father also said that I was an honest and good child, and omitted many overly blunt words at important points.
Unexpectedly, my mother heard some words outside, broke into the house, and took my father away. My mother turned around and told me, "My child, listen to your mother. After you get married, you will experience this kind of thing yourself. Don't listen to your father's dirty words."
I said goodbye to my parents obediently and then went to harass my wife.
As soon as we met, I made my intention to harass her clear, and she immediately refused, saying that I shouldn't use such nonsense words, but I still succeeded in the end.
Because I was quick to come up with an elegant explanation for sāo: "sāo means to sāo in Qu's "Li sāo"; high quality means rich in literary talent, and rao means to pacify and bring order to the people as in "Zhou Li Dazai".
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The next morning, the snow had stopped and I set out for Gaoling, preparing to leave the next day. My sister was angry again because I couldn't accompany her to play. Instead, my current sister scolded me and told her not to interfere with my great plans.
The next day was the sixth day of the first lunar month in the third year of Zhongping. Just as I was about to leave, my father asked me to stay with a stern look on his face. This was because General Zhang, who had gone to Luoyang to deliver the annual tribute, had returned with some unusual news.
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My father and I went to a quiet secluded room in the mansion, where a general with extraordinary bearing was waiting for us. As soon as he saw us, he asked who I was. After I told him my identity, he greeted me. I quickly returned the greeting and asked the name of this extraordinary general. I thought to myself that the people under my father's command were all quite extraordinary.
"I am Zhang Liao, also known by my cursive name Wenyuan."
"General Wenyuan is truly a hero. I heard that the people in the county all praise the general for his bravery, and Zirui admires him very much. From now on, there is no need for us to call each other "the prince is older" and "the general is younger". We can just call each other brothers. What do you think, brother Wenyuan?" It should be the right thing to do to get along well with his father's men. Moreover, this general is nine feet tall, with a broad back and a strong figure. The armor he wears makes him look majestic. The most wonderful thing is that his three long beards reveal a hint of elegance, which makes people like him at first sight.
General Zhang wanted to refuse, but his father spoke first, "Wenyuan, Zirui is not a pretentious person. He is really a man of his own. You don't need to refuse. However, please don't mind me taking advantage of your uncle."
General Zhang was also a generous man. He praised me several times and started to call me Zirui.
"Wenyuan, please tell me what happened in the capital."
"My lord, listen to me. When I escorted the tribute into Luoyang this time, I felt that the atmosphere was tense and the streets were deserted. There was no bustle and atmosphere of the New Year in the Eastern Capital in previous years. I met Cao Gong, the Marquis of Gaoling, who was a hero. When he heard that I was the general of a county marquis, no, a county king, he praised my noble character and expressed his willingness to be friends with me as a brother. He also wanted to meet you. I saw that this man was quite generous and forthright, so I asked him why. He pulled me to a secluded place and said that He Jin had killed another one of the Ten Eunuchs and executed the whole family of this eunuch. Because this eunuch somehow pleased the emperor and was actually made a marquis, and his whole family was promoted. This fellow was a little too proud of himself, and when he saw The eunuch, who was on the same side as the king, did not perform the two bows according to He Jin's rules, but just sang a "no", as if greeting each other. He Jin was furious and killed him with a sword. He was lawless and did not know the difference between the superiors and the inferiors, so he killed his entire family. The eunuch deserved to die, but it was inappropriate to kill people like this on New Year's Day. The news was blocked and strict precautions were taken everywhere to prevent the eunuchs from causing trouble. Tongguan and Hulaoguan are now open to the public, but when I left Luoyang, Cao Gong accompanied me and told me that there was no more news in the palace. He was still afraid that such behavior would cause trouble. I said goodbye to him and immediately rushed back to inform the prince. "
"The general is too reckless to start a killing at the beginning of the new year." In fact, He Jin could not read many words and was just a rough man. His behavior was nothing surprising. My father then said something that made me suddenly realize: "However, the eunuch party is now isolated. It is a good opportunity to destroy the eunuch party. Otherwise, if only one of them is executed without eliminating the others, the eunuch party will be worried and will cause trouble before we enter the court to see the emperor."
This sentence was a little vague, but I understood it immediately. He Jin was a little cruel, but not too cruel. In fact, if he could capture the eunuch party, although it would be a bit auspicious, it would be a good thing to eliminate the eunuch party. But now, the eunuch party must be afraid that He Jin would suddenly accuse them of their crimes during the court meeting and then kill them all. In this way, they will find a way to get rid of He Jin, and once He Jin dies, the world will be in chaos again.
"Zi Rui, what do you think?"
"If you want to rob the whole world, you will definitely achieve nothing. Since you have killed one of them, why not collect the heads of the other eunuchs? Things in the capital are changing every day. We don't know when the riot will happen. We need to be prepared."
"What are you preparing for?"
"Please forgive Zirui for talking too much. If it is not the case, He Jin has no plan to kill the remaining eight people of the Ten Constant Shih now. Therefore, relatively speaking, He Jin's situation may be more dangerous. If he is in other places, the eunuchs may not be able to touch him, but if he enters the palace, he cannot bring so many guards, then he will be in danger. He probably thinks that the Ten Constant Shih are afraid of him, because he killed one in the Golden Palace last year, and now he is killing another. The Ten Constant Shih certainly do not have the courage to disobey him. In fact, everyone in the Ten Constant Shih is in danger. In order to protect themselves, they must have bribed soldiers and horses from various places. Within ten days, something will happen." To be honest, I suddenly became worried about Zishe and Zisheng in Luoyang.
"Zi Rui should be more careful with his words."
"Father, please forgive me. Zirui will remember this."
"However, the reputation of Marquis Ping'an Fengyun is well-deserved. What should we do now?" Zhang Liao thought that his father blamed me, so he spoke well of me. In fact, when I looked at my father's eyes, I knew that he was more approving of me and just thought I was too direct.
"We have to prepare to go to the capital to protect the emperor, father. Let me ask you. The eunuchs and relatives of the emperor are fighting for power, and the emperor will surely be in danger. If we can protect the emperor in time and eliminate the followers of both sides, then our Han Dynasty may be able to revive."
"Now that the East and West Gates are locked, how can we rescue the emperor?"
"Luoshui flows out from the upper gate, right?"
"Oh, yes, Zhang Liao, go and order people to gather boats. For other places that are insufficient, cut down more trees to make rafts." Zhang Liao took the order and went out. The northerners really did not attach importance to boat transportation. After living here for so many years, they actually forgot that there was a river on their land that went straight down to Luoyang.
"However, my son Zirui, we are ready, but we are not sure when to take action. If our army goes there and nothing happens over there, it will not be a good thing." Only then did I look directly into the light in my father's eyes, and suddenly I felt strange, it seemed that my dad was leading me to think for him, while he seemed to have made up his mind long ago, but seemed to be training me and asking me everything.
"Did Father have an idea?"
"I'm asking you, tell the story to your father." He always uses my father's name to pressure me in this kind of situation. It seems that he is really thinking of handing over the throne to me, and now he is just trying to see if I have the ability to do so.
"We will send people down to Gaoling from Luoshui. This place is 400 miles away from Luoyang. It takes several days to travel by water, but it only takes one day to go to Gaoling and back. Meng De is a genius of the time and will act according to the situation. Once they set off, we will follow them. Whether they win or lose, we can quickly appear in Henan Yinli with them."
"We may not be strong enough, and we may lose our lives in vain. What should we do?" Father's words sounded fake, and his intentions were too obvious.
"Once the rebellion breaks out... Henan Yin and his cities will surely wait and see, and will not make things difficult for us. Moreover, the four generals under He Jin must have heard the news early. They all have capable and decisive men under their command. I'm afraid most of them are now organizing their troops and preparing to attack Hulao Pass, Bingzhou, and Yuzhou. Forgive me for saying this, I'm afraid most of them will take a defensive stance against Bingzhou and Yuzhou, which are controlled by the eunuchs, and send troops directly to Hulao Pass. In the west, as long as Ding Yuan and Han Sui are in Luoyang, they are probably also preparing to rush to Tongguan at this moment."
"Zi Rui, let me ask you one more question. If you are not a local, I am afraid no one would know that this river leads to Luoyang. How did you know? You should know that although it is Luo River, what is recorded in the court and known to the people of the world is Luo River?" Then he wrote the two words Luo and Luo on the desk.
"I once saw a map with a clear mark on it, so I knew it." I didn't know, that's how it was marked, but as for the Luo River, to be honest, I didn't know anything about it.
"I see. Let me ask you one last question. What will your teacher do?"
"Teacher will definitely take the whole country as the most important thing. I think he will also send troops to protect you." I knew that my previous words had made the generals of other states too selfish. He thought that I must have been instigated by the teacher to be so practical, and then began to suspect that the teacher was also very selfish.
I trust the teacher, but what do I trust in the teacher? What kind of person is the teacher? What does that picture mean? The teacher always puts the people first in his teachings, but he ignores loyalty to the emperor and seems unwilling to mention it. For such a mess, I will go to Henan with my father and Cao Cao first, but I really don't understand what the teacher will do.
I started out thinking very logically, but when I thought about the various unique qualities of my beloved teacher, I admit that I began to lose my mind.
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"Yinling!" I called my future wife with a heavy face, "Come with me."
I finished explaining everything to her, and then I said reluctantly, "At this time, I have no choice but to ask you to go back. I am here to deal with the following emergencies, so my Yinling will have to work hard for this. Please help me thank my wife Guo when you go back, because I will go back to marry her."
"I'll help you pass on this message, but you have to go by yourself in the end." She smiled faintly, hugged me gently, and said goodbye to each other.
That evening, Yinling left Shanghe. When my father found out, he didn't mind. My elder sister and younger sister thought it was a pity that Yinling left so soon, but my younger sister thought I looked very cool when I was thinking.
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Sister Qi has also been wearing military uniforms these days, which surprised me. Father, when I was born, he had planned to let my sister inherit the throne, and then the land of the Shen Gong clan would belong to his family. As a member of the Shen Gong clan, of course, they require their leader to be able to go into battle in person.
Later, Jin heard that and immediately said that she could do it, but after being persuaded by everyone, she still couldn't do it now. She started to act out, but her parents were not around, and no one could control her.
I immediately made a decision. I rolled up my sleeves, sat down, placed my right arm on the table, and held out two fingers. "Beat it and I'll take you there."
That night, I changed to eating with my left hand, but no one noticed. She was angry. Everyone tried to persuade her, but she was reasonable and finally stopped playing tricks. I thought to myself that few of my brothers had such great strength. The base of my right index and middle fingers was very painful. What does my sister usually do? Fortunately, she is left-handed, otherwise eating would be a problem. I think she was not only angry, but also admired my strength. However, when I eat with my left hand, I always think of Yinling, because every time I pick up the chopsticks, I see the handkerchief wrapped in her hand.
The palace has become busy these days, we are waiting for news from Gao Ling. The whole palace has become a little nervous, many people have learned from nowhere that there may be a conspiracy in the capital, and people are talking about it everywhere in the streets and alleys. That night, I heard that Jin was scolded by her parents, but when I saw her that night, she didn't cry.
These days, we are all in full armor. My father has been wearing a suit of golden armor these days, which is very majestic and magnificent. I heard that it was given to the Shen Gong clan by the late emperor. He pointed to the glittering golden armor scales on his body and said that I will wear it from now on.
I still wore the rhino leather armor that my attentive wife had put in my bag. It was only inferior to my original one. However, I also found an iron spear in the weapon rack, with a beautiful leopard tail hanging from it as a tassel. But I just felt that the weight was not bad, so I took it on horseback to patrol the city. Because I had just arrived in Shanghe and was the prince, there were many things that were inconvenient for me to do. After I helped to set various major plans, I could only do these things within my ability.
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Suddenly one morning, when we were getting ready to discuss matters in the hall, a messenger came running in and said only one sentence: "He Jin was killed by Shi Changshi yesterday, and Gao Linghou sent troops to protect the emperor." Then he fell back to the ground without any hesitation, just gasping for breath, and said nothing else.
I stood up, quelled the whispers of the crowd below, bowed to my father and said, "Father, let me lead the troops."
My father nodded with a smile, and I turned to his generals and shouted, "Send out the troops!"
On the morning of the eleventh day of the first lunar month in the third year of Zhongping, I led the army of Shanghe County and went straight to Luoyang by water. On the raft, I had no idea what the situation was like in Henan Yin, nor what was happening in Luoyang. I was very worried about my two brothers in Luoyang who I hadn't seen for a long time.
That year, I was eighteen years old, Yinling was twenty-one years old, and Guo Pei was twenty-two years old.