Chapter 7: After-the-Fact Wisdom

  It's hard to be a Zhuge Liang before the event, but it's easy to be one after the event. Once the mystery is revealed, all the previous details and hidden secrets can be thoroughly connected.

  How could it be that the poem "Cai Cai Rong Mu" was copied in front of Kong Rong, with only Kong Rong and Shi Yi present, yet it spread to Cao's daughter's boudoir in Xuzhou within a short year? One possible route is that Kong Rong leaked it out, but Shi Yi stayed in Beihai for more than half a year without hearing any mention of his poem among the scholars. Even when Zheng Yi and Wang Zhong occasionally mentioned it during their daily interactions, they only brought up "Where to go after death, entrust the body to Mountain Ah", how could there be such a principle that flowers bloom inside the wall but fragrance spreads outside, with poems copied in Qingzhou being known in Xuzhou?

  So there is only one other possibility, that this matter was told by Yishuo to Zhe and Yu, then the two brothers told Kuan, and through Kuan told the Cao family...

  What a coincidence! As soon as it snows, you drag yourself to the garden without saying a word. Fine, let's just go to the garden then. And then we run into the young lady from the master's house, and instead of avoiding each other, we strike up a conversation together. And before two sentences are exchanged, it all gets dragged back to me... Apart from the snow being coincidental, everything else was planned out by you guys beforehand, right? Was this some script that you, the great director, came up with overnight?!

  What a misfortune! How could I have fallen into this trap? But thinking again, even if I had foreseen all of this, I would still have to fall in - after all, brother, do you want to drag me along to the garden to admire the snow, and can I really refuse to go with a tantrum? What if I ran into Miss Cao head-on, could I pretend to be a fool and make her completely give up on me?

  Even if there was no such play, since Master Is had made up his mind to marry Miss Cao, and he wrote a letter to inform Is, Is would have a 90% chance of agreeing immediately. He is not only his nominal uncle but also the head of the family, does he have the right to refuse? Not to mention marrying Miss Cao, even if the head of the household asked him to marry Shen Yuan's daughter, he could only hold his nose and agree, couldn't he?

  Great Grandfather once said in the "Hunan Peasant Movement Investigation Report": "These four powers - political power, clan power, divine power, and husband's power, represent all feudal patriarchal ideology and institutions, are the four biggest ropes that bind the Chinese people, especially peasants." Today, I have personally experienced the harm of clan power, deeply feeling the shackles and oppression of feudal clan power on myself. However, there is no way out; in this era, if you want to live a good life, there is no such thing as personal freedom.

  He gritted his teeth, exerted all his strength, and wanted to continue struggling: "Why not marry the Cao family's daughter to my eighth brother?" Is Jun also didn't say anything about engagement, he is your own brother, why drag me into this for no reason?

  Shi shook his head: "Zigao is incompetent, how can he bear such a great responsibility?" As he spoke, he habitually patted Shi Xiong's shoulder: "Hongfu, don't always consider yourself an outsider. You and I are brothers of the same ancestor, and our uncle has passed away, you have no one to rely on, so just treat my father as your biological father and me as your biological brother. Whether our family can stand firm in Xuzhou and whether we can expand our door hinges depends entirely on you and me, and also Wen Tong. Even big brother is not reliable."

  It's all been said, and there's no more room for excuses. Afterwards, he comforted himself: "Life is like being raped, if it's destined that you can't resist, then you might as well close your eyes and quietly enjoy it." Cao Qiao isn't bad-looking anyway, after all, this life is destined to follow the orders of his parents and the words of the matchmaker to marry a strange woman, rather than blindly stumbling upon some other woman, he might as well just take Cao Qiao. Although Cao Pi may be just a minor character in history, in reality, he's one of the top two powerful families in Xuzhou, so you can bask in his glory as much as possible, don't you still have delusions of marrying Cao Cao's daughter?

  But then I thought again, this is not good, just like Miss Cao's brief conversation, she seems to be a literary girl who likes poetry. Once married, seeing each other day and night, wouldn't that expose everything? Patting my forehead, I think again, don't worry, I have the "husband's authority" in hand, would she dare to reveal her husband's true face?

  He was in a daze for the whole morning, and in the afternoon, Cao Jiao sent someone to find Shi brothers, saying "The messenger has summoned you". He didn't know if it was psychological or not, but suddenly he felt that Cao Jiao's attitude towards him had become much more enthusiastic. Could it be that his daughter had already gone back to report, saying that she had seen the seventh son of the Shi family and thought he was a good person? Or maybe Kuan had already spoken with him and said that his seventh brother "had agreed" to the marriage, and now they were just waiting for the father's consent? But Shi Yun was preoccupied with official business and didn't dare look directly at Cao Jiao.

  Cao Jiao took the Shi brothers to visit Tao Qian. Upon seeing this famous and renowned governor of Xuzhou, his face was full of wrinkles, his hair was all white, and indeed he looked like he was already in his twilight years, with not many days left to jump around. It seemed that Tao Qian was quite familiar with Shi Kui, and after exchanging pleasantries, he asked: "Have you considered what we previously discussed, Uncle Shi?"

  He replied with a bow: "I am deeply grateful for your kindness, but I must first ensure the well-being of my family before I can respond to your summons."

  "That's natural, that's natural," Tao Qian said, shifting his gaze to Xun, "I've heard that your younger brother is also a talented young man. Would you like to come to the prefecture as an assistant? I'm really short of talent here."

  He hadn't made up his mind yet whether to board Cao's pirate ship - if he really became related to the Cao family, he estimated that he wouldn't be able to escape. However, for now, he could still avoid it, so he hurriedly declined, saying: "This young man is still young and inexperienced, and his learning is not yet thorough, fearing that he would disappoint your expectations."

  "It's great that your brother has excellent knowledge. Since you brothers are together, why not ask him for advice more often?" It seems that Tao Qian just wanted to save face and casually invited Shi Yun, without really intending to recruit him. However, his casual remark inspired Shi Yun: "Ah, from now on I'll follow Shi Kuan to learn about Confucian classics and tell myself to focus on studying with a single mind. As for poetry and minor arts, I can temporarily put them aside. Wouldn't that be a way to escape the great difficulties?"

  Then Tao Qian asked again: "What about that other thing..."

  She smiled slightly: "Cao Shu Yuan has already agreed, and is waiting for Father to send someone to present the betrothal gifts, so that he can be properly engaged to my seventh brother. As for the other side..."

  "Excellent, excellent. You can rest assured that as long as your father agrees, I will personally go to discuss the marriage with Zizhong, and he will certainly not refuse. If the two families' marriages can be settled on the same day, it would truly be a wonderful story, and my Xuzhou will naturally be at peace."

  Wow, it turns out that the chief director is Tao Qian! I reckon this matter has been settled since Cao Pi returned from Jingzhou and came to pay respects to Tao Qian. However, at that time, Cao Pi might not have known about his own existence yet. Who did he originally intend for the Cao family daughter? Was it Jun...

  Xun couldn't help but start a long chain of reasoning and deduction in his mind: If he was indeed a time-traveler from the future, then what would have happened to this little butterfly if he hadn't interfered? Would Cao and Mi's plan to become relatives through marriage have succeeded or not? It was possible that Miss Cao would have married Cao Shuang, but as for her becoming Lü Bu's concubine, it was probably just a fictional construct. But what about Mei Zhi's sister - wasn't she supposed to have married Liu Bei in history...

  Thinking again, this year is not about being faithful to one person. Even if Mi Lady was not a widow, as long as her husband was gone, she could still remarry Liu Bei. In the end, Mi Zhu gave his sister to Liu Bei because of political necessity, to secure his position in the Liu Bei group, and Liu Bei married Mi Zhu's sister also for the sake of gaining wealth from his brother-in-law. It is said that apart from Liu Bei's first wife who was later taken by Lü Bu, there is no record of any other wives with a name, from Mi Lady to Sun Lady, and then Wu Lady after entering Shu, all were products of political marriages...

  It's possible that Lady Mi was indeed a second wife, so she wasn't particularly favored by Liu Bei. Otherwise, why did Liu Bei, after becoming emperor, posthumously promote his concubine Lady Gan to empress? Not to mention Lady Sun, who had escaped back to her natal family, and Lady Mi, whose fate is unknown, didn't even get the title of empress.

  Not good, got distracted, overthought... bring it back to consider the most important issue, Liu Bei was able to enter Xuzhou, that is to say although the marriage alliance between Cao and Mi families was formed, the conflict between them did not ease up, what happened in between or was it bound to be so?

  After returning from the provincial capital, Shi brothers devoted themselves to the busy work of buying land and building houses. Shi Kuan had already written letters and sent them to Cao's other courtyard in various counties, asking the eldest and fourth brothers to bring their families and protect their property, and hurry to come to Tancheng County. With the help of Cao Bao, he quickly bought more than ten mu of irrigated land and a small villa in the south of Tancheng City. Unfortunately, Xuzhou was still relatively safe in those years, and many refugees from the north poured in, so the number of idle fields near the central city was limited. Even with Cao Bao's help, it was difficult to buy a large piece of good land - all the good land was controlled by the wealthy families, let alone Cao Bao, even Tao Kui didn't need to offend them for Shi's family.

  It is said that the south side of Guangling County was originally full of marshes, and some areas had decent terrain. As long as the water was drained, rice could be planted. Due to the small number of households, this type of land could still be purchased. Therefore, Kuang Lu left behind his meritorious deeds and set out for Guangling to manage the newly purchased estate.

  Xīn was busy running around in the Zhuāng Yuàn for half a month before Xīn's awaited person finally arrived. Xīn didn't mind, but he truly missed Xīn, so he handed over all the estate's affairs to this fourth brother and hastily went with his eldest brother to "study".

  December, is the ritual from Beihai sent people to send letters over, not out of his expectation, he completely agreed to the plan of Kuang, and asked Wang Rong, the head of the royal family in Linqu, to help with the marriage proposal to the Cao family, and asked Tao Qian to help with the marriage proposal to the Mei family. He also said that there was no need to wait for himself to preside over it, but by virtue of his temporary assumption of paternal duties, he would quickly help the three brothers (including Shi Yu and Wang Jia) complete all the preparations before the wedding. Shi Xun was completely unable to think of anything, so he pretended to have "pre-wedding syndrome" and stayed in his room reading books every day, entrusting everything to Shi Zhe (actually it was Shi Yu who was busy).

  Just before the New Year's Eve, Kuang finally returned from Guangling. This trip not only bought a house and several hectares of land but also brought back a person, claiming to be "a good match for my little sister". Xun didn't like this guy at first sight, seeing that he was nearly thirty years old, with a white face and long beard, looking quite handsome, but his neck was always stiff, his chin was always raised, his mouth was always pursed, and his eyes were always gazing up at the sky at a 45-degree angle - who are you? Where did you learn this arrogant attitude?

  But as soon as he introduced himself, he immediately knelt down - I relied on the original being this great god, and it's indeed famous for its madness, mad personality, and mad enough to make the world's top heroes raise their thumbs!