Unknown origin

  Huangshi County was located on a pile of rocks, with a chaotic tomb in front and a mountain behind. The official residence was dilapidated, and the staff were short-handed. In contrast, the county government at least had dozens of people helping to make decisions and run errands, not counting those outside the establishment. In the Huangshi County government, which was at the bottom of the imperial court, there was only one clerk named Min An, who served as the chief officer, secretary, and attendant to Commander Bi Xi, and had been serving him carefully for over two years.

  This month thieves have risen, before dawn, another peasant came to report to the authorities, saying that his own ox had been stolen.

  The county government office was small and shabby, and when it came to following the usual procedures for reporting incidents, there were inevitably some discrepancies. For example, a young jailer who also served as a gatekeeper, nicknamed Little Liu, was dozing off at the entrance with his arms wrapped around a bamboo clapper, but when a peasant woke him up and told him about the case, he hastily wiped his face and rushed into the inner hall without saying a word, loudly reporting the situation to Bi Si.

  Bi Si hastily got up and washed, instructing Xiao Liu to go to the west wing of the government office to wake up Min An and summon him to go out and handle this matter.

  The west side of the official residence is sandwiched between two courtyards, and the earthen gate is so short that Xia Liu doesn't need to push it, and can directly step over the wall to enter. Xia Liu hugs the bamboo clapper and knocks for a while, shouting: "First knock, open the main hall. Second knock, official gets out of bed. Third knock, go to work. Anzi Anzi, did you hear me? I've knocked three times already."

  Min An in the official residence wrapped himself in a coarse linen quilt, grumbling: "It's not dawn yet, Xiao Liu you came too early, let me sleep for a while."

  The little six outside knocked more urgently, forcing out the cook's daughter, Hua Cui. She was wearing a set of emerald green silk shirts and skirts, with a delicate double-silk knot tied around her waist, walking over gently, like a spring breeze supporting a weak willow. As soon as Little Six saw her, his heart also seemed to be blown by the spring breeze, and even his smile softened a lot.

  Hua Cui was completely unfazed by all of this, and she didn't even need to ask a single question to understand what had happened. She directly kicked open Min An's door with considerable force, which often left Xiao Liu bewildered - how could the seemingly delicate and lovely beauty have the bearing of a robust man in both her movements and actions? He had once tried pushing open Min An's door before, but strangely enough, no matter how much strength he used, the door remained intact.

  Little Six didn't know that Hua Cui was originally the young lady of the Chu State General Escort Agency, who had been practicing martial arts since childhood to defend herself. After her family's decline, she was forced to come out and perform to make a living. She had been traveling from county to county in Chu State since she was fifteen years old and wasn't used to showing off in front of people, preferring to hide in the carriage and help with tasks such as making colored ropes and wooden ladders, earning very little pay. Just when she was about to starve to death, Wu Ren performed a ritual at the market to drive away evil spirits and took notice of her skills, paying a large sum of silver to the troupe leader to take her in and bring her along to make a living. Before taking in Hua Cui, Wu Ren had already taken in Min An and traveled extensively throughout the nine states of Huachao with him. When Hua Cui met Min An, he was only thirteen or fourteen years old, with a clear brow and bright eyes, working as a gatekeeper at the county government office in Qishui County. According to Wu Ren, this was already Min An's second stint as a gatekeeper, and he was the eldest grandson of the former Minister of Rites, Min Xiang. His father had been an official of the fourth rank and had been sentenced to death by the previous emperor after being accused of corruption, causing his family to scatter and some members to die. Like Hua Cui, he had been forced to flee and make a living among the common people. Hua Cui was shocked at the time and realized that in order to survive while following Wu Ren, she had to forget her own background and work hard to make a living.

  From then on, Wu Ren, Min An, and Hua Cui formed a trio. Wu Ren sent a letter to Bi Si's family, recommending himself as an undertaker, Min An as a handyman, and Hua Cui as the cook. When Bi Si took office, he needed his own team, but since his household didn't have such a complete set of staff, after examining the abilities of Wu Ren and the others, he immediately agreed to bring them along to Huangshi County. Wu Ren never mentioned his past to anyone else; only when he got drunk would he occasionally reveal a couple of sentences. Hua Cui wasn't concerned about it either, thinking that people who roamed the world, which one didn't have some heart-wrenching past events? As long as it wasn't something she should be concerned about, she wouldn't ask or get involved. She wholeheartedly did her best to cook and mend for the two men; in the blink of an eye, three years passed. She was already eighteen years old, Min An was seventeen, and Wu Ren's age was unknown.

  Slowly, life became more stable. However, there were two things that required Mu Qing to worry about, namely Min An's clothing and daily life. Upon further investigation, it was found to be related to Min An's origins.

  According to Wu Ren, Min An's past was complicated and more difficult than Hua Cui's. When the Min family suffered a disaster, Min An was only six years old and lost her mother and servants. She was carried on her older brother Min Cong's back as he went out to find food. Her brother saw that she was hungry and stole some late-night snacks from a teahouse, but they were caught by a group of thugs who had lost money gambling. The thugs beat them up, and her brother protected her with his body until he died. Min An also suffered many blows and was hit on the head, causing her to faint.

  After Wu Ren saved Min An, she became mentally confused and kept talking nonsense, thinking that her brother was still alive and that she was actually him. Whenever there was a thunderstorm, she would scream and shout "Sister, run!" as if she were protecting her sister. Wu Ren, who was originally an imperial physician, couldn't cure this delusional disorder and could only slowly coax her back to reality by speaking in accordance with her wishes.

  However, Min An's condition didn't improve and instead worsened over time, eventually leading her to attempt suicide by cutting her throat with scissors. Wu Ren thought for a long time before performing surgery on her, repairing her throat and creating a fake Adam's apple. He told her that she was actually living for two people, and that he had transplanted her brother's heart into her chest cavity, merging the two of them into one person.

  Min An saw the faint scar on her chest and believed it to be true, calming down from then on and thinking of herself as her brother. Wu Ren took her traveling around the country, forcing her to study laws and regulations from various dynasties, familiarize herself with penal codes, and prepare for a future career in officialdom, all in order to clear the Min family's name.

  Min An followed her master's arrangements and entered the county government as a gatekeeper, where she stayed for five years. The officials at the yamen were initially unwilling to accept her due to her youth, but Wu Ren used his connections to persuade a fellow townsman who was an official to take her in, pretending that she was a boy.

  According to custom, gatekeepers were selected from among the local population by the chief official, who chose boys with good looks and demeanor. The chief official saw that Min An had a superior appearance and was humble and obedient, so he reluctantly accepted her. From then on, Min An increasingly thought of herself as a boy, binding up her hair and wearing a hat, dressing in men's clothing, and imagining what her brother would look like when he grew up.

  She became a shadow of her brother, doing things for him. Once she got into the habit, it became a powerful force driving her to live this way without hesitation.

  Hua Cui sighed after listening to Min An's past, but didn't say anything and certainly wouldn't talk about breaking Min An's illusions. The laws of the Hua Dynasty had been revised forty years ago, allowing women to hold official positions, but successful women who had entered the official circles and exercised effective political decision-making power were extremely rare, and even now there was only one, Xiao Zhiqing, the prefect of Changping Prefecture in Chu State.

  It's clear that women want to be officials, but it's extremely difficult for them to become officials who can easily look up old cases.

  After that, Hua Cui even followed Min An's intention and arranged her daily life to make her recognized as a man both at home and abroad.

  Min An disliked being disturbed while sleeping, so he specially reinforced the door latch. Hua Cui had mastered the technique of kicking open doors and tried it several times without success, using her toes to shake open the latch and enter his bedroom with ease. This morning, after Xia Liu knocked on the doorframe, Hua Cui saw that Min An was still fast asleep, so she walked over, lifted up his quilt, grabbed his collar, and tossed him off the cool bed.

  Min An rolled on the ground, and before he could mutter anything, he was kicked awake by Hua Cui. She pulled him to the water basin for a wash, reminding him to put on his leather armor and took out his usual attire from the wardrobe for going out on official business.

  Hua Chao dressed him up, making him look quite different from before. Generally, he wore a long shirt with a Confucian collar and black boots with square mouths. Hua Chao was skilled with her hands and had learned needlework, so she personally helped Min'an get dressed, letting him walk out looking radiant. Min'an wore a white robe made of fine fabric, with small orchids embroidered on the lapels and sleeves, and over it he wore a cloud-patterned gauze shirt to keep off the dust, which matched his elegant features and slender figure perfectly, making him look like a refined Confucian scholar as soon as he walked out.

  Hua Cui chased away Xiao Liu, who was peeking around the courtyard, and helped Min An smooth out her clothes. Then she took out a pair of deerskin boots with dense needlework and asked Min An to put them on. As Min An was putting on the boots, Hua Cui said: "This morning I saw the clothes that Fei Yi had changed out of, and I felt the fabric. The material is from Chu State's Changping Prefecture, nowhere else has it. To make it, they have to unravel the silk from Fuzhou, select only the finest threads, add the unique skills of old craftsmen, weave it into a five-foot-long satin with unbroken threads. Then, seamstresses have to hand-weave and cut it, attach it to cloud-patterned brocade, use needles on both sides to make one sleeve, and even then they have to cut open the leftover fabric so that no needle marks are visible. Think about it, just one of Fei Yi's sleeves is enough for a fifth-rank official to live off for a year. His background can't be as simple as being a rich nobleman's son."

  Min An yawned: "I know he has money."

  Hua Cui gritted her teeth and pulled his ear, saying: "He's not only rich, but might also be from an official family! Think about it, would ordinary wealthy families dare to wear specially supplied fabrics all over the streets?"

  Min An grabbed Huā Cuì's wrist, hurting her so much that she stomped her foot: "No matter if he is the son of Heaven or a noble scion, now that he has fallen into my Yellow Stone Garrison, he is my subordinate!"

  Hua Cui slapped Ming An's back of the head with her palm and pushed him out the door: "All talk and no action, when it comes to the actual person, you become a bear, humming and hawing without saying a word for half a day!"

  Min An rubbed his head and said with a wronged tone: "I'm not Ah Hua, why do I have to hum anything." Turning around to see Hua Cui about to lock the door, he rushed over again and said: "Good Cuihua, I'm hungry, at least give me a bun or half a big pancake or something, let me fill my stomach a bit."

  Hua Cui didn't even give him a glance, swaying her hips as she walked away: "All you do is eat and don't use your brain, yet you still say it's not Ah Hua."

  Min An slipped into the small courtyard of Fei Yi's residence and took a look. The door to Master's room was still locked, and through the window, he saw that it was quiet and empty inside. Fei Yi was standing in front of the wooden frame, drying flowers and grasses, wearing a plain white robe, his black hair hanging straight down like ink, making his eyes seem cold and clear as well.

  Min An stood at the gate of the courtyard and said: "Niyi, come with me for a trip outside. There are villagers who have been robbed by bandits on their way to report to the officials."

  Not even a thread of clothing was disturbed, nor did he move.

  Min An scratched his head, touched the hat strap, thought that he couldn't mess up his clothes, and put his hand down again. He knew what "non-clothing" meant, and said to himself: "That place is quite far away, you probably don't want to go because it's dirty, so let's do this, tonight when I come back, take my shift and guard the night, consider it repayment for this time's official business."

  Bi Shi waited anxiously in the front hall, but after half a day, Min An still hadn't come to sign. He simply went to the backyard instead. Fei Yi was holding a wild mountain herb, carefully identifying it, with his back to the morning sun, as if he hadn't heard anything Min An had said from start to finish. Min An quietly approached, stretching out his head to take a look at the fabric of his sleeve, wanting to see if it was as expensive as Hua Cui had said.

  Bi Zu coughed and said: "Young master, take my token of authority and go to the scene to investigate, hurry up and come back quickly."

  Min saw himself being caught by the master, his face turned red with shame, and he quickly grabbed the sign and walked out. Bi Si laughed behind him and said: "Hurry up and run the horse! When you see the head of the village, ask questions first, then blush, and it's still possible to visit Mr. Fei when you come back!"

  Min An's ears turned red as he hastily ran far away. After accompanying the peasant to his farmhouse, Min An examined the scene and the lost cow's traces, and was certain that a group of people had stolen the plowing cow, with quite familiar methods. He asked for the village head's statement, took out his own salary and handed it over to the peasant, and comforted the peasant's family who were in a state of panic.

  Bao Chang asked: "Has Xiao Xianggong made up his mind?" Xiao Xianggong is a respectful title for a clerk in the southern region, everyone sees Min An as tall and slender, young and gentle, so they are happy to call him that.

  Min nodded: "This time we'll definitely catch Mao Thirteen, Uncle can rest assured."

  Thank you to the two landmines from Zhu Er Duo, Xuan Yuan's landmine with frost, Yi Yi's landmine, Min Xiao Gong Zi's two landmines, old friend emit0's sister's landmine and Ya Ya's landmine O(∩_∩)O It's great to see so many familiar faces returning O(∩_∩)O Wishing all the ladies who are reading a happy Dragon Boat Festival O(∩_∩)O

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