Chapter Sixteen: The Demon King of the Mortal World

  The aesthetic standards of the Han Dynasty are actually quite similar to those of the 21st century. The requirements for a beauty are mainly three: first, slender; second, fair-skinned; and third, healthy. This young lady in front of us meets these three criteria very well. She has a slim figure, although her winter clothes cover up her skin, but judging from her appearance, she doesn't seem to have any excess flesh, and her facial features are regular, with a clean and white complexion, and a faint blush on her cheeks, not that sickly pale color.

  This girl, if placed in the 21st century, would score at least 80 points out of 100. If she were to wear a swimsuit and show off her well-proportioned limbs, she could add another 10 points. Although I was spoiled by all sorts of natural beauties or transformed beauties in my previous life, since coming to this world, I really haven't seen any woman more beautiful than her.

  In fact, he hadn't seen many young girls in this life, so the standard for measuring beauties was a straight decline. In the poor ditch at first, it's not necessary to mention the old mother of this body, a typical village girl who had been demoted three levels; later, after entering the Shi family's courtyard, Shi Yi's concubine naturally couldn't be seen, and Shi Xun hadn't married yet, so only some rural maids could be seen in front of him; on the main streets of cities like Choson, Nampo, and Huang County, young girls were even fewer, and most didn't have the chance to take a closer look; after entering the Ye family, Yue'er was considered to be in good condition, but unfortunately, she was too young, only thirteen years old, and basically hadn't grown up yet, while other women, including another maid assigned to him by Shi Yi, even if he were extremely depraved, could at most give them a passing grade.

  And those lower-class women, in general, can only meet one of the three beautiful conditions, that is, health. Their skin cannot be fair and delicate, their figure cannot be slender - thinness is not synonymous with slenderness. Only when the parts that should be bulging are bulging, and the parts that should be concave are more concave, can they be truly slender.

  Yi had one wife and two concubines, Zuo had only one wife. The rest of the brothers were still unmarried, and even if they were married, unless it was during New Year's gatherings or sacrificial ceremonies, it would be rare to see them. Although the Han Dynasty's separation between men and women was not as strict as in later generations, in this Confucian scholar's family, women managed the household and did not need to appear in front of strange men - even if they were younger males or uncle brothers.

  So it's been almost half a month since he entered the household, and this is the first time he has had the opportunity to meet the second young lady of the household. He couldn't help but think to himself that even if she was as beautiful as an immortal fairy, he still wouldn't have a chance with her, and who knows if he would be able to marry someone almost as pretty in the future?

  He was still here with a sullen face, thinking wildly, and the other side was counting on his fingers, asking: "Hongfu, you were born in the spring of Xiping's second year, are you almost 19 years old?" Hongfu nodded - actually this body was only 17 years old.

  "Yes, my younger sister Xiao Hong is half a year older than me, and indeed should be treated with brotherly respect."

  Wow, Miss Two is already eighteen years old. In the 21st century, at most, she's just a college freshman, but in the Han Dynasty, even by normal standards, she should have been married and had children. Nowadays, girls are getting married younger and younger, and boys are having their coming-of-age ceremonies earlier too (theoretically, men should have it at twenty, but some people like Shi Xian had theirs at eighteen). At eighteen years old, if she's not yet married, she can barely be considered an old maid - why hasn't she gotten married yet?

  He looked at him with a puzzled expression. He understood what he was thinking, and sighed softly: "It's all because of the promise to others, being an official in Luoyang, last autumn there was a great chaos, unfortunately, he died tragically. Pitiful..."

  Was it autumn? That was probably around the time Dong Zhuo entered the capital. Before that, the Ten Eunuchs plotted to murder He Jin, and the Yuan brothers set fire to the Qingyang Gate, killing all the eunuchs. It's said they also killed many young officials without beards. Wouldn't Second Miss's fiancé have been among those slaughtered by the rebels? Xun couldn't help but touch his own chin - how terrifying war is! He should probably grow a beard sooner rather than later.

  After they finished paying their respects, the young lady turned sideways and walked out of the house, passing by Xun. Xun happened to catch a glimpse of her, and saw that she was still holding a bamboo scroll in her hand. Following his gaze, he explained: "My sister loves to read... Alas, women should focus on needlework, what's the point of reading so many books?"

  Yeah, still a smart girl, I like her——but then immediately thought of slapping myself hard, what's the use of liking her? Same surname can't get married, let alone being uncle and niece, even if there are any more strange encounters or romantic plots, she has nothing to do with him…… unless, she wasn't born by her dad…… Dali Duangongzi is really lucky!

  He withdrew his attention, stepped forward, untied the bamboo slips he had brought with him, and began to ask for guidance. However, he couldn't speak, only move his brush, but he didn't want to write too many words, so it was hard to bring up this question. What's worse is that the answer was more deadly than the question. Is liked reading books, but had a clever face and a foolish belly, and when it came to the meaning of the classics, he was completely clueless. He felt like he had thoroughly asked for guidance from a blind man... Who else could he go ask? Was it possible that he would be willing to seek guidance from that person? Or was it possible that he didn't have time to point him in the right direction?

  It wasn't long before the Lunar New Year's Eve arrived, and Yi and Jun also returned from the capital. Except for Kuan who was still studying abroad, the whole family spent a happy and harmonious reunion year and welcomed the spring of the second year of Chiping.

  It's not quite accurate to say that everything is fine, because although the family is still okay and Beihai is still okay, more than half of the world has already begun to violently shake up, and the situation is getting worse day by day. Last year, the Guandong state and county joined forces to attack Dong Zhuo, but the main force was stuck in Suizhou and didn't advance, eventually dispersing due to lack of food. Only General Yuan Shu lingered in Nanyang and refused to leave, and recently there have been rumors that he has made contact with Sun Jian, the governor of Changsha, and plans to fully support Sun Jian and launch another attack on Luoyang.

  Luoyang is fine, Nanyang is also okay, they are all thousands of miles away, let's not discuss them for now. However, in Qingzhou, last autumn's poor harvest led to the remnants of the Yellow Turbans coercing the common people and causing a huge disturbance again. They first broke through Jining, then headed south to Yanzhou and Taishan, and invaded Xuzhou and Langya to the east. There are rumors that they seem to be heading north towards Qiguo as well. Jining and Qiguo are right next to the North Sea, how can these scholar-officials not be shocked three times a day? It is said that tens of thousands of people from Qingzhou and Xuzhou fled across the sea to Liaodong to avoid disaster.

  According to Ji Zhi's revelation, he had recently received orders from the Grand General of the Northern Sea, Kong Rong, to recruit and buy horses in the capital city, preparing to resist the invasion of the Yellow Turbans.

  He was thinking hard with his head down - he remembered that Beihai should have been surrounded by the Yellow Turbans, fortunately, Taishi Ci ran to Pingyuan to invite Liu Bei, and the city was not breached. But which city did the Yellow Turbans surround? In what year did this happen? He couldn't remember no matter how hard he tried. Thinking again, forget it, since Yizhen survived this turmoil and later went to Eastern Wu to become a high-ranking official, as long as he followed Yizhen closely, theoretically, there shouldn't be any major problems.

  So should I follow them to the country too? It seems hard to find a suitable excuse, and it's not exactly the right timing either...

  Because he was busy recruiting soldiers and buying horses, he had no time to take care of his son. So, soon after the New Year, Jia Rui sent Jia Jun back home. This completely messed things up. Jia Jun either teased the female slaves at home or went out to bully people on the streets, or went out with a group of friends to drink and gamble extravagantly - he was indeed a "demon king" like Xue Ping! As a result, he was often scolded by his two older brothers, sometimes even punished at home, and frequently locked in his room without being allowed to see anyone.

  Of course, all this didn't hinder him from being a busybody. On the contrary, the more chaotic the household was, the more gossip there was, and the more he would secretly listen with relish. He had developed good living habits: in the morning, he would go to the courtyard for a walk, do some squats and push-ups, occasionally run a few laps, then return home to read books until breakfast; before and after noon, continue reading, take a short nap on the table - not daring to sleep properly, as "daytime napping" was considered the most undesirable and lazy habit at that time; in the afternoon, he would often use the excuse of asking about his studies or going to practice archery to sneak around the house, searching for sources of gossip, then return home to read books until dinner; finally, read books until 10 pm before going to bed. Sometimes, he would also ask Moon from the kitchen to secretly bring out some snacks, good for a midnight snack - this two meals a day was really not enough for someone growing up like him.

  Winter gradually passed, and the warm spring days arrived. One day in the afternoon, Isuke was practicing archery in the courtyard - he thought that Taishi's guidance was really reasonable, and his archery skills had made great progress - suddenly a figure flashed at the gate of the courtyard. This time it wasn't Zhe who came back, but Jun.

  Although Ji Yun and Ji Xun didn't meet often, he seemed to have a decent attitude towards this elder cousin. After all, this older brother wouldn't scold him in front of others, let alone hit him. As for Ji Xun, he would smile at everyone, including most of the servants, not saying anything, but silently cursing or complaining in his heart, and no one could hear it. So when Ji Yun came in, Ji Xun put down his hands, lowered his head, smiled and nodded in greeting.

  He casually made a bow, turned his head to look around, and saw that Xun was more than thirty steps away from the target. There were already four or five arrows inserted on the target, and two more had fallen to the ground - usually, out of ten arrows, Xun would only take two seriously, and the others were just for show; he didn't want to draw too much attention to himself.

  "It seems that Seventh Brother's archery skills are not bad," Jun said with a flattering tone, then suddenly had an idea, "I was just thinking of going on an outing with a few friends in two days to enjoy the greenery and do some hunting, would Seventh Brother like to join us?"

  Xun Xin said, autumn and winter are the best seasons for hunting, what's the point of hunting in early spring? If you want to go for a spring outing, why bother adding hunting to it? But this was too complicated to gesture, and he didn't have a pen by his side at the moment, nor did he feel like writing even if he had one.

  So he could only smile slightly and perfunctorily pass it off. But unexpectedly, Jun took it seriously and came to talk to Shi Xun a few days later: "Tomorrow we will go out of the city for spring outing and hunting, I have already prepared a good horse for Seventh Brother, Seventh Brother please come with me to take a look."

  He was reading a book until his brain hurt, when Xun Sheng dragged him to the East Wing's stable: "Which one is it? This one has a gentle temperament. Seventh Brother, get familiar with the horse's nature first, don't fall off its back tomorrow, haha!"

  He didn't go to see the horse, but first glanced at Jun sideways. Looking at this kid's expression, it didn't seem to have any malice, nor was he mocking himself, nor did he want to see him make a fool of himself, he was just ordinary mouthy. Going back to look at that horse, it was just ordinary anyway.

  Horses in this era were generally short, not as tall as the mediocre horses that occasionally appeared outside the six rings of the previous dynasty. Although Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty had introduced a large number of tall horses from the Western Regions, also known as the "Sweat Blood Horse", to improve horse breeds, good horses were mostly used in the military, and those used by civilians could not be of high quality.

  He walked forward, patted the horse's neck, pressed the horse's back, and tried his best to pretend to be very knowledgeable. But in his heart, he couldn't help but think of Xia Jiujiu - "Don't fall off the horseback tomorrow"... This was indeed a life-and-death problem!