“Yellow Sky”: Crisis for the Han Dynasty sample (Act I) -- T. P. M. Thorne
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“Bah… of course not!” Cao Cao said as he gestured to his servants.
“They’re off to fetch us some right now. I’m getting married soon as well, I
imagine… the woman my father’s found for me is fine enough to look at, I
suppose, if a little… boring.”
Zhang Miao shook his head disappointedly.
“I see my attitude toward my future wife vexes you, Mengzhuo,” Cao Cao
chuckled.
“Not at all, Captain,” Zhang
Miao replied as a poor attempt at deflective humour.
“You’re clear as water, I can see right through you,” Cao Cao said with
amusement. “I’m sorry that I have little time for untalented people… men or
women. Lady Liu is uninteresting to me, simple as that. She does not value
poetry, she is uninterested in song, we have nothing in common; alas, Father
thinks that’s all an irrelevance. Still, I’m sure that I will have other women
as my fortunes improve enough for me to afford them… and there’s always the
brothel if I get really bored.”
Wei Zi started to laugh involuntarily.
“You’re the District Captain!” Zhang Miao protested.
“And don’t I know it, ‘Mister Zhang’, so you just watch yourself, and
don’t be getting yourself into any trouble, you hear…?” Cao Cao said with
mischief. “If I so much as hear a rumour that you’re out after curfew, or
getting drunk and making obscene gestures in front of people’s houses-”
“You were the one that did
that!” Zhang Miao whined as Yuan Shao covered his face with his sleeve to hide
his smile.
“I don’t know what you mean,” Cao Cao said with feigned innocence. “Are
you accusing a public enforcer of the law of being morally corrupt?”
Yuan Shao started to laugh involuntarily; Wei Zi had never really
stopped.
“…Ayah! Stop teasing me,
Mengde!” Zhang Miao pleaded.
“And lo, this day, a man of law, doth Cao Mengde now be!” Cao Cao
chuckled. “I wonder now, my dear old friends, what the future holds for me! A
judge perhaps, or colonel, gone northward with a sword? Mind you, who’d want to
try a man, or face a Xiongnu horde? I’m happy right here, thanks, dear Fate, so
leave poor Mengde be; for each greatness that a man must bear… the less he’s
truly free.”
“Are you drunk?” Yuan Shao barked. “You speak of greatness as a burden;
what fool words are they???”
“He’s right, though,” Zhang Miao sighed. “I’m feeling trapped already,
and I’m a petty official right now.”
“It is precisely because you are not
important that you feel trapped!” Yuan Shao suggested. “You won’t feel that
way when you have real power!”
“…Like what?” Cao Cao scoffed.
“I’m District Captain… but who can I dispense justice upon? A few drunks, a few
petty officials like Mengzhuo… can I do something about the eunuchs?”
“District Captain is a start,
Mengde,” Yuan Shao suggested. “Do it properly, and-”
“Doing it ‘properly’ means what in this corrupt capital of ours?” Cao
Cao interrupted. “Like I said, I cannot touch the real criminals; I must
content myself with trivial matters while the eunuchs and their relatives flout
the law and abuse their status… even now, I feel sick thinking about it, and I
have yet to start the job.”