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“But I can’t stay upright,” Yuan Shao complained.
“This is a very poor time indeed to be intoxicated,” Zhang Miao scolded.
“I doubt that any of you are in any danger… I doubt that I am either… but we
should be cautious.”
“Bah…! Look, we never did nothing,”
Cao Cao insisted half-heartedly.
“Neither did most of the people that they’re arresting,” Zhang Miao retorted.
“You need to get home and sober up… and stay
sober from now on, as much as it pains you to do so. No more sneaking peeks
at women either: you can’t afford to have any dirty secrets for them to dig
up.”
“Too late for that,” Cao Cao sniggered, and Wei Zi echoed his laughter.
“I don’t understand,” Yuan Shao admitted. “What did I miss…? Why are
they arresting everyone…?”
“Yeah, they even arrested old Horse-face,
an’ he’s been a tutor for about a hundred years now, by the look of ‘im,” Cao
Cao joked. “Is bein’ an old windbag finally being labelled a crime…? …About
time, I say.”
“Hush,” Yuan Shao said with seriousness. “Mengzhuo…? Mengzhuo, they just
arrested Yang… I saw them, just now!”
Zhang Miao nodded silently.
“Yang did nothing wrong… he couldn’t have… why arrest him…?” Cao Cao
wondered as he finally started to analyse the situation.
“This is to do with Commander-in-Chief Dou and Grand Tutor Chen; it… it has to be,” Yuan Shao supposed. “Father
said they’re ‘both cold bones’… something about a plot.”
“…The eunuchs are behind this; they’ve had all the intellectuals that
were labelled as ‘factionists’ arrested again,” Zhang Miao explained
reluctantly. “Any students that they could label as ‘associates’, they’ve done
it… the list is hundreds long, longer than it was before.”
“I… need to be sober,” Cao Cao said suddenly. “This is bad, I can see
that.”
“Get home, keep your heads down,” Zhang Miao suggested. “We’re all safe,
but that isn’t enough for me.”
“Damned eunuchs…!” Yuan Shao growled. “They’re a pestilence…!”
Cao Cao frowned silently; his family had benefitted from the connection
to the eunuch Cao Teng, so Yuan Shao’s conclusion was not one that he could
ever reach.
Cao Cao returned to his home: he was still a little drunk, but he did
his best to hide it as he walked into the living quarters where his father,
Director of Retainers Cao Song, was waiting for him. Two of his younger
brothers loitered in a doorway and watched the promising encounter with morbid
interest.
“A’ Man,” Cao Song said with disappointment.
“Father,” Cao Cao replied numbly.
“…Why are you eavesdropping???”
Cao Song barked at his younger sons.
Cao Cao turned, smiled at his brothers and said, “Hoping to see me
suffer…?”
The two children cowered and retreated.
“Father, I have to say something,”
Cao Cao said. “Father, the-”
“Where have you been…?” Cao Song asked angrily.
“School… something strange was going on, so I looked to see what was
going on, and they’re arresting everyone again, Father,” Cao Cao explained. “I…
I think they arrested my classics teacher, again,
and I just saw Yang, who’s maybe three years older than me, being taken away by
soldiers… and everyone’s blaming eunuchs again, Father, even Yuan Shao.”