Chapter 10 Did you drink it?
Asking Yu Dan to memorize 800 characters in one night is a bit too much to ask of him.
A full hour had passed, and Yu Mingshu had finished studying the passages by himself according to the annotations, memorizing about 70-80% of the two sections. When he turned his head, he saw Yu Dan's head bobbing up and down on the table like a chicken pecking at rice.
"stand up."
Yu Dan received a slap on the back and jumped to his feet. Meeting his sister's stern gaze, his courage collapsed instantly, and he pleaded repeatedly, "I've already memorized the first part of 'Meng Chun' tonight, sister, please let me go, I really can't take it anymore."
“If even I can memorize it, why can’t you?” Yu Mingshu remained unmoved.
That makes no sense. Who says that if the older sister can memorize it, the younger brother can too?
Yu Dan, suppressing his anger, turned to face the wall and complained, "Sister, why don't you read this book for me? You're more suited to taking the exam than I am."
"You think I don't want to?" Yu Mingshu sneered, grabbing his hair and turning him upright.
The sound of the night watchman's gong came from outside the back wall of the house. Yu Mingshu sat motionless at the table. Only then did Yu Dan realize the reality: his sister seemed to be heartless. He really wouldn't be able to sleep tonight if he couldn't memorize two sections.
When the candle had burned down to the tip of a finger, Yu Mingshu was quite surprised to discover that Yu Dan was actually quite intelligent.
He could memorize the entire section on mid-spring, plus the section on early spring that he had struggled to memorize before, in half an hour. The reason he couldn't memorize it before was mostly because he wasn't willing to put in the effort.
Yu Dan numbly uttered the last word, as if he had exhausted all his strength, and slammed the book shut in Yu Mingshu's hands, asking in a drawn-out voice, "Sister, can I go to sleep now?"
"You should have studied this hard earlier." Yu Mingshu got up and stretched his stiff shoulders and neck, pushed open the door, and patted the half-asleep Xia Man awake. "Get up, turn off the light and go back to your room to sleep."
…
The next day, by the wild river outside the city, the He family servants found a flat grassy area and set up a sunshade shed with their backs against Lishan Mountain.
Jinghong, an attendant, filled a jug with water from the upper reaches of the wild river and placed it on the charcoal stove. He then rummaged through his bag and found some tea leaves, preparing to brew a pot of tea to accompany pastries.
"Didn't we bring fruit wine? Why brew tea? Take it away." He Zheng waved his sleeve to brush him aside, then looked up and saw Yu Dan hurrying towards them on horseback. He immediately waved to the distance, "Yu Sanlang, look here!"
Looking across the entire foothills, there was no more conspicuous place than He Zheng's sunshade. How could Yu Dan not see it? He rode his horse, bumping along, until he arrived in front of it. The brown horse circled halfway around the sunshade before stopping.
"I'm so sorry I'm late."
He Zheng didn't care much. He watched him dismount and was quite interested in the dull-colored, sluggish brown horse. "Where did you rent this inferior horse from? It matches your dejected and tired appearance."
Upon hearing this, Yu Dan subconsciously rubbed the bruise under his eye and said with a wry smile, "I would like to rent a good horse, Brother He, could you pay for it for me?"
He Zheng said cheerfully, "If you had said so earlier, I would have simply given you a precious steed from beyond the Great Wall."
Yu Dan waved his hands repeatedly: "Just kidding, if I really dared to bring back such a precious horse, my mother would beat me up."
He Zheng chuckled, picked up a pear from the table and tossed it to him. "You still haven't told me why you're late today? And what's with those dark circles under your eyes? Are you so excited about going hunting with me today that you can't sleep?"
"It's all because of my sister. She forced me to memorize the first two sections of the 'Monthly Ordinances' before letting me go to sleep. He Erlang, you have no idea, last night I dreamt of 'It is the moon' all night long..."
Yu Dan stopped abruptly after pouring out his heart, then looked annoyed and said to He Zheng in a low voice, "By the way, I bought a copy of 'Strange Cases of Ancient and Modern Times' at a bookstall a couple of days ago. My sister found out last night and said that you lent it to me. You have to help me cover this up."
He Zheng shook his head and said, "You're really something. You're about to be expelled from the academy, and you still have the leisure to read these miscellaneous books. No wonder my sister makes me keep an eye on you to memorize the texts."
"Why are you talking like my sister now?" Yu Dan rolled her eyes at him with displeasure, then sighed softly, "I'm just not cut out for studying classics; staying at the academy would only be a waste of my youth."
“Great minds think alike.” He Zheng suddenly clasped his hands together, his tone rising. “Why don’t you come with me to join the army? If Chang’an Academy won’t keep you, the world is vast, and there are plenty of places for us to make a name for ourselves!”
Yu Dan's expression froze, then he was horrified: "Join the army? I can't do that. I could search through the Yu family genealogy and not find a single soldier. If I went to the battlefield, I probably wouldn't survive a day! My mother only has me as her son, I can't die."
"How can you be so cowardly, when we're both men?" He Zheng clicked his tongue in disdain twice, then asked, "If you really don't like those scriptures, why don't you inform Lord Yang and ask him to transfer to the Ministry of Law?"
“My mother and elder sister will not agree,” Yu Dan said helplessly, then abruptly changed the subject, craning his neck to look into the distance. “Let’s not talk about this anymore. We’re not here to hunt, are we? Hurry up and ride your good horse so I can see it!”
Jinghong, with his keen insight, led over horses, handed over a bow and quiver, and instructed, "Erlang, you can hunt on the outskirts. Do not venture into the deep forest, as there may be ferocious beasts inside."
"I know, I know, you're talking more and more now, almost as much as your elder brother." He Zheng impatiently slung his bow and arrows over his shoulder, leaped onto his horse, gestured with his chin toward Yu Dan, and then spurred his horse toward the dense forest.
Yu Dan was very thirsty. He glanced at the freshly boiled water, swallowed hard, and decided to eat a couple of bites of pear to tide him over.
He Zheng had run far away when Yu Dan looked back and saw that he was still in the same place. He called out urgently, swallowed the pear whole, sucked out the juice, threw away the pit, and spurred his horse to chase after him.
Today was a sunny day, and it was also a day off once every ten days. There were many young men and women out and about around Lishan Mountain, either enjoying the spring scenery at the foot of the mountain or going to the temples on the mountain to burn incense and worship Buddha. He Zheng did not like socializing, so he deliberately kept his distance from them.
Yu Dan wasn't actually that fond of riding and archery. He just felt that He Erlang was straightforward and not as hypocritical as other sons of officials. He felt comfortable whenever he went out with He Erlang.
He Zheng searched in the forest for most of the hour and soon caught four wild rabbits and a red fox hanging from the trees. The north wind blew through the forest, rustling the bushes. He Zheng, with his sharp eyes, spotted a deer darting through the woods.
"They've headed west," Yu Dan reminded him.
He Zheng drew his bow, pulled it to its full extent, and narrowed his eyes, his gaze fixed on the figure leaping through the bushes. Suddenly, he opened his eyes and put away his bow and arrow.
Yu Dan rode closer and asked, puzzled, "What's wrong?"
He Zheng blew a breath to remove the straw from the tip of the bow before saying, "It seems to be a pregnant doe. Never mind."
…
Several screams from a woman in the southeast broke the silence of the forest. Birds fluttered their wings and fled, and even the horses tied to the stakes stamped their feet.
He Zheng and Yu Dan looked up almost simultaneously, dropped the rabbit meat in their hands, and peered toward the source of the sound.
"What's going on?" Yu Dan asked, bewildered.
He Zheng stood up decisively. "Jinghong, turn off the engine. Let's go take a look."
The sound came from the bank downstream of the wild river. Originally, three elegantly dressed young girls were brewing tea around a stove with their maids on the bank. Now, these beautiful girls were all restless, their faces as white as paper. They sat slumped behind the boulder, not in the mood to drink tea, nor daring to move.
Before the horse had even stopped, He Zheng had already leaped down and quickly caught up to the group, standing three steps away. Upon seeing the situation, he frowned and asked, "I didn't mean to disturb you ladies. I just heard a scream over there, like a cry for help. May I ask what happened?"
The three young ladies were too frightened to speak. One of their maids mustered her courage and pointed to the back of the boulder, but dared not turn her head even slightly.
“A person has died. You’ll know as soon as you see him, sir.”
When Yu Dan arrived, he heard this sentence and was stunned for a moment. Then he rushed to the back of the boulder. He Zheng followed and both of them froze when they saw the situation.
On the riverbank behind the boulder lay a woman's corpse, barely recognizable as human. The body, having been washed and soaked in the river for an unknown period, had swollen to three times its normal size and emitted an extremely foul odor.
If it weren't for the clear design of her dress and the striking pattern of the silver hairpin in her hair, it would be impossible to tell whether she was a man or a woman.
Yu Dan suppressed the nausea churning in his stomach, took a step forward, leaned closer, and carefully examined the huge object on the ground from head to toe.
He Zheng grabbed his collar and pulled him back. "What did you see?"
Yu Dan leaned close to his ear and said, "It seems that her wrist bone is dislocated."
He Zheng looked at the river in the distance and said, "She must have been swept down from upstream, so it's normal that she broke her arms and legs."
“And her earring, one is missing.” Yu Dan had just finished speaking when he saw He Zheng about to speak. He was quick-witted and guessed what the other was going to say, so he simply answered, “But she was swept downstream from upstream, so it’s normal for her to lose an earring.”
Behind the boulder, a woman trembled as she asked, "Is the water we use to brew tea taken from this river?"
After a moment of silence, I heard a series of retching sounds behind me.
He Zheng and Yu Dan exchanged a glance, remembering the water that had been boiling on the stove before the hunt.
Fortunately, they were so focused on drinking while eating meat that they didn't drink a single drop of the boiled river water...
Jinghong hurriedly caught up and was also stunned by the scene before him.
He Zheng turned around and saw him, asking with concern, "You didn't drink the water you boiled at noon, did you?"
Jinghong looked at the giant object on the riverbank, then at the river water, and finally at He Zheng. Suddenly he understood, his face turned pale, and he turned away and began to retch.
He Zheng patted him on the shoulder, but his words were somewhat cold.
"Stop vomiting. Look at her clothes, they should be the style that's fashionable in Chang'an. Go back to the city immediately and report to the authorities."
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