7、
Qiangwei still remembered the first time she was deeply impressed by the quiet A-Miao classmate. It was one weekend after freshman military training ended. The six girls in the dorm had gone out singing. While everyone else was passionately belting songs and singing duets, little Anning still sat properly upright like a classical beauty, shy and delicate.
So Qiangwei crawled over intending to say something like, “We’re all classmates, no need to be shy,” and at the time, Beauty Anning lifted her eyelids and said to her in a voice as upright, solemn, and moving as a government official’s: “Come, smile for your lord.”
The moment Qiangwei entered Anning’s dorm, she saw Mao Mao and Chaoyang surrounding her asking about historical facts.
Mao Mao: “I want to write an ancient mythological romance story. It has to be gorgeous.”
Qiangwei: “The new version of Chang’e Flying to the Moon?”
Anning: “The Houyi and Chang’e story happened during the Xia Dynasty. That era… uh… felt a bit like primitive society.”
“Primitive society? No no no! They probably didn’t even have toilet paper!” Mao Mao dragged out her voice. “Next one!”
Chaoyang: “Shang Dynasty.”
Mao Mao: “About how many years was that dynasty?”
The two exchanged a glance and looked expectantly at Anning. The latter sighed softly. “It’s impossible for me to know even this kind of thing by heart, right… I’ll look up a chronology.”
As a result, after googling Xia-Shang-Zhou chronology for a long time, Anning still couldn’t find a clear timeline. “Actually there’s a character you could use: King Zhou of Shang, also known as Di Xin. Mm… his personal name was Yin Shou.”
Mao Mao was horrified. “Shou?!”
Qiangwei burst out laughing. “What a great name!”
Anning laughed too. “I used to wonder how Di Yi could give his son such a tragic name. Mm, poor kid. Speaking of which, Daji was his queen.”
Chaoyang: “I suddenly imagined a scene where Daji calls out affectionately, ‘Great King, Shou-Shou~~’”
Mao Mao: “Which one of those two is the bottom?!”
Anning: “Yin Shou’s grandfather was called Zi Tuo… Zi Tuo’s father was also a very interesting person. He drew a full bow and shot at the sky. Later he got struck to death by lightning.”
Qiangwei: “Probably went out in a thunderstorm to shoot arrows at the sky and ended up becoming a lightning rod.”
Mao Mao: “A-Miao, tell us about Houyi. I’m kind of interested in him. Worst case, I’ll transmigrate him into an era with toilet paper.”
Anning pondered. “Do you want official history or folk history?”
The three: “Which one’s more interesting?”
Anning thought for a moment. “Official history says Houyi was killed by Han Zhuo. Actually his life wasn’t interesting at all. The interesting thing is the only part that can really be verified. His wife truly was the prototype of Chang’e. Mm, she’s a classic example of a wife benefiting from her husband’s fame and even the chickens and dogs ascending to heaven with them. Folk history says he shot down suns, violated heavenly law, and got boiled alive. More or less that.”
Mao Mao: “I think I’d better write something modern instead. By the way, what was Korea called before?”
Chaoyang: “Smecta?” Qiangwei: “Korean cabbage?”
Anning: “Mm, in ancient times it was called Goryeo… I’ve always felt their ancestors were Outer Mongolians who migrated over there… Back when the Mongol Golden Family was wiped out by Zhu Yuanzhang, the so-called Mongolians in Outer Mongolia were actually pure Mongolians’ slaves. In short—”
Chaoyang: “Koreans are descendants of Mongolian slaves?! Damn, that’s awesome.”
Qiangwei laughed. “Then that’s way more tragic than merely being servants of three surnames.”
Anning: “Actually the Golden Family wasn’t completely exterminated. Some escaped to Europe. This is also just a rumor. Supposedly the family split into two branches. The main branch was later destroyed, while the other fled all the way to Eastern Europe and helped push forward European history. Mao Mao, if you’re interested you could write about this. There’s quite a lot of material there.”
Mao Mao: “……I think I’ll just continue reading my NP novels.”
Everyone: “……”
Anning’s phone buzzed once. It was a text message.
“What are you doing?”
“Discussing Chang’e flying to the moon and Korean bloodlines.”
“I’ll come to school later. If you don’t have anything else to do, have dinner with me?”
“Sure.”
Only after sending the reply did Anning belatedly realize the number was unfamiliar… mm… 984932? Who was it?
Qiangwei: “A-Miao, who is it?”
Anning: “Don’t know.”
Everyone black-lined. “You don’t know and you still replied so enthusiastically?”
Anning: “……They sounded pretty friendly.”
Qiangwei pondered. “Sometimes I think you’re pretty evil, but other times you look so innocent?!”
Anning smiled. “That’s what makes people attracted to me.”
Chaoyang clicked her tongue. “I’ve never seen anyone more detached from worldly affairs than you.”
That evening, following the text message saying “See you downstairs at seven,” Anning arrived below the dormitory building. At the time she had two possibilities in mind. One: it was a prank. Two: someone really was friendly enough to invite her to dinner.
So when, at exactly seven o’clock, Anning saw a tall figure walking toward her, she was surprised she hadn’t thought of it sooner… mm, if she’d known, she wouldn’t have come downstairs… no no, she should’ve come downstairs… that’s not right either, but who told her to reply “sure”… besides, she wasn’t familiar with him, right? Really not familiar, right?
When the other person lightly smiled and said, “Sorry to keep you waiting,” she subconsciously replied, “N-No, not waiting long.” Mm… she definitely must have been seduced by looks.