Chapter 22: The Goddess

Fei Qian was unaware that his scrap of paper containing mathematical calculations was currently being held and scrutinized by a pair of delicate, slender hands.

Cai Yan’s solution to Cai Yong’s refusal to eat was simple: she struck at the root of the problem by removing the source of his distress. Although Cai Yong was somewhat reluctant, he could do nothing against his beloved daughter and had to settle for a compromise, insisting that she must tell him once she figured it out.

Cai Yan rarely saw outside guests these days, so she did not bother with cosmetics, and she often went without her usual jade ornaments. Stripped of these external adornments, her natural beauty shone through all the more. Her eyebrows were not excessively thin but possessed a perfectly elegant arch, with the tips curving upward in a playful touch. As she was in the prime of her youth, her skin was delicate and fine, and her cheeks held the natural, pinkish glow of peach blossoms. Her soft, raven-black hair was simply pinned up, with a few stray wisps falling loose. In the soft glow of the candlelight, she appeared both graceful and deeply moving.

Cai Yan was carefully studying Fei Qian’s draft. Unlike her father, Cai Yong, who preferred to deduce things from the top down, she reworked the problems herself and then cross-referenced them from the final answers, using them to decipher the meaning of each step Fei Qian had taken.

Influenced by her father, Cai Yan had a deep fondness for all kinds of bamboo slips. She remembered that throughout her childhood, the only gifts she received from her father were books. As for silk, jade, or other such offerings, they were almost always gifts from his friends. She could not recall exactly when she started reading, only that as a small child, she would often sit alone in the garden pavilion, cradling heavy bundles of bamboo slips, basking in the warmth of the sun while slowly deciphering the characters.

Others might categorize books as useful or useless, or classify them by the Classics, poetry, history, or literature, but to her, there were only two kinds: those she had read and those she had not.

Looking at Fei Qian’s symbols, she felt a vague sense of familiarity. After a moment of thought, she rose, took up a lamp, and headed toward the family’s library.

The Cai family had once possessed a vast collection of books—perhaps the largest in Luoyang at the time. An ordinary study could not hold them, so a dedicated library building had been constructed to house the collection. Now, however, under the light of the lamp Cai Yan carried, many of the shelves stood empty. The mountains of bamboo slips and scrolls were gone, leaving the library feeling hauntingly spacious.

Cai Yan knew that the original collection had been given away. When she married, her dowry included not only wealth but, more importantly, priceless books and scrolls. Those items were left behind at the Wei estate. Another portion had been given to the Wang family; because a son of the Wang family had also sought her hand, and her father—the honest Cai Yong—felt guilty for choosing the Wei family, he had gifted them a share of his library.

One could not blame anyone for this; at the time, Cai Yong believed his daughter’s future was secure and saw no point in taking so many books to his grave, thinking it better to give them to those who needed them.

The intentions were noble, but reality was cruel. The Wei family had no need for Cai Yan’s intellect; they only wanted her womb. Because she and her husband, Wei Ning (Wei Zhongdao), were unable to conceive, the rumors and the veiled insults became unbearable. In a fit of indignation, she had left a letter and returned to the Cai household.

Subsequently, the Wei family shamelessly spread word that Cai Yan was infertile and a jinx who had brought death to her husband, claiming she was arrogant, disrespectful to her in-laws, and unloving toward her relatives. They then sent a letter of divorce to the Cai house. As for the wealth and the three thousand books and scrolls she had brought as a dowry, the Wei family chose to conveniently forget them.

Cai Yan remembered that when her father received that letter, he said nothing to her, but she saw him age significantly in the span of a few days. She felt she had not failed the Wei family; she had only failed her father.

Now, Cai Yan spent most of her days in her chambers and the library. Her memory was excellent, and she remembered most of the books she had once read. She was determined to rewrite every scroll and volume that had been given away, hoping that within her father’s lifetime, the library would once again be filled with the fragrance of books.

Cai Yan stopped before a large chest in the library, carefully set down the lamp, and opened the lid. She pulled out several sheepskin scrolls, spread them on the floor, and began to examine them one by one.

"Strange... this bears a resemblance to the script of the Indus region..."

Cai Yan finally found a scroll with symbols similar to those of Fei Qian. A faint smile touched her lips, a sight so radiant it seemed to light up the entire library.

***

The night was deep. Cao Cao emerged quietly from the back gate of Situ Wang Yun’s residence. A servant held a lamp for him, casting flickering light that made Cao Cao’s face appear and disappear in the shadows.

After his negotiations with that old fox, Wang Yun, Cao Cao was uncertain if he could call the meeting a success. His bargaining power had plummeted following the death of General He Jin and the massacre of the eunuchs in the palaces. All he had left were the remnants of his forces as a Colonel of the Garrison and some properties in Luoyang. Although some of the Cao family’s people remained within the palace, he felt it was not yet the time to reveal or deploy them, so he kept this from Wang Yun.

Cao Cao keenly sensed that his time as a Colonel of the Garrison would not last long. Considering the distribution of the Eight Colonels of the Western Garden established by Emperor Ling of Han, it was clear that the eunuchs, the imperial relatives, and the scholar-gentry had been in a delicate balance. Now that the balance was shattered, the situation would soon be reshuffled, and interests would be reallocated.

Things had gone quite well for him initially. Coming from a family with eunuch ties, he had gained their favor, yet he had also aligned himself with the imperial relative General He Jin, gaining influence among the relatives as well. Most crucially, he had shrewdly exploited the rivalries among the eunuchs, using a fatal mistake by Jian Shuo’s uncle to secure his own reputation among the "pure" faction. By carefully choosing to study under Cai Yong, a bookish scholar of that same faction, he had managed to gain significant advantages among the elite.

Playing all sides and leveraging their powers against each other had been a game at which Cao Cao excelled. But now, the factions he relied upon had either fallen or perished. With his support base drastically shrunken, he would naturally be excluded from the next distribution of power.

To preserve his position and perhaps advance further, he had to form an alliance or temporarily pledge his loyalty to a new faction. Dong Zhuo was backed by the Guanzhong gentry, so he could not turn there; otherwise, he would lose his final support and be ostracized by the entire Guandong gentry. Thus, he had to choose from within the Guandong faction.

He had originally planned to use the influence of the Yuan family—the illustrious "Four Generations and Three Dukes" with their vast number of followers—but he now had friction with both Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu. He could not bring himself to humble himself before them, so he had settled for the Wang family.

The Wangs were a prominent family in Shanxi, with members holding important positions in the capital and provinces for generations. Wang Yun himself had served since the age of nineteen, rising through the ranks despite numerous setbacks to reach the rank of Situ; his methods and capabilities were evident. How could such an old fox of the bureaucracy open his heart to a young fox like Cao Cao?

As Cao Cao walked away from the Wang estate, he recalled the conversation. Upon careful reflection, he realized that while the old fox had sounded agreeable and appeared to consent to everything, he had actually given no concrete answer.

Cao Cao hated being toyed with, but he had to endure it, feeling a stifling headache. He raised a hand to massage his temple and suddenly realized he was standing before a familiar estate. It was Cai Yong’s residence. He realized he hadn't visited in some time.

Cao Cao narrowed his eyes. The night was too late; he would send his calling card tomorrow. Cai’s residence... Cai Yong... Cai Yan... perhaps the turning point lay here.