Just as Mengde was pounding on the door with enthusiasm, the nearby gatekeeper watched the scene cautiously.
After observing for a while, he couldn’t help but comment, “Miss Mengde, I could actually go inside and announce your arrival for you…”
Mengde shook her head and declined.
“Announce me? That just wouldn’t feel the same. I’m visiting my teacher’s house—why would I need someone else to announce me? Naturally, I come and go as I please.”
“Come and go as you please? You’re knocking so loud it’s like you’re trying to break the door down! What is this, your own house?”
A magnetic and pleasant-sounding voice rang out from inside the door, though the tone was clearly irritable.
The next moment, the door to the Cai residence opened, revealing a man who looked to be in his forties.
This was none other than Mengde’s teacher—Cai Yong, the famously renowned musician of the Han dynasty.
Mengde grinned and said cheekily, “Aiya, now that’s a misunderstanding, Teacher. I was only knocking so urgently because I couldn’t wait to see you!”
“You couldn’t wait to see me? More like you couldn’t wait for me to drop dead so you can inherit my fortune!” Cai Yong rolled his eyes.
In the Han dynasty, a teacher was considered half a father to their student.
As Mengde’s mentor, Cai Yong was essentially her second father.
With only one daughter in the family, if anything were to happen to him now, Mengde and his daughter would end up jointly inheriting his estate.
“So, what did you come here for?”
“Ah, well, it’s like this,” Mengde gestured to the group behind her.
“My friends here have all heard tales of your unmatched musical talent. So today, they’ve specially come hoping to hear you play. As your devoted student, I was wondering if I could humbly ask you to perform for us?”
“Play the qin? That’s no big deal. I spend a good portion of my day practicing anyway. Letting you all listen is nothing.”
Cai Yong glanced over at the rowdy group of friends behind Mengde and stepped aside to let them in.
“Come in, all of you.”
“Got it!”
Mengde skipped through the door with a bounce in her step.
Cai Yong watched his mischievous student for a moment, then shook his head with a smile he couldn’t suppress.
‘This girl…’
***
After Mengde ran off toward the inner rooms, Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, and Liu Bei also entered the Cai residence.
As Cai Yong led the group toward the inner quarters, he instructed the house steward to prepare a banquet.
The steward immediately dashed off to make arrangements.
Once they reached the inner room, a little girl, around two or three years old, came running over.
“Father, who’s here?”
“It’s your dear sister Mengde!”
“Sister Mengde?”
Hearing that familiar voice, the delicate and adorable little girl lit up with joy.
She ran straight into Mengde’s arms, snuggled against her, and then asked, “Why did you suddenly come over, Sister Mengde?”
“Of course I came to visit Teacher—your father!” Mengde gently patted the girl, whose name was Cai Yan, and who would one day become one of the Four Great Talented Women of China.
“See how filial I am? You should be filial to your father just like your big sister here.”
“Mhm!”
As little Cai Yan nodded firmly, she caught sight of Cai Yong walking over behind them and heard him grumble gruffly.
“Cai Yan, as filial as you? Then I probably don’t have much time left to live!”
“Don’t say that, Teacher! Just looking at your face, I’d say you’ve got at least another twenty years—probably sixty in total!”
Mengde turned her head and smiled sweetly at Cai Yong.
And it was true.
In actual history, Cai Yong lived precisely to the age of sixty.
That was even after being deliberately driven to his death by Wang Yun.
If he’d been allowed to grow old peacefully, he might’ve lived to seventy with no problem.
Looking at Cai Yong, then at the little girl clinging to her waist—his daughter Cai Yan—Mengde couldn’t help thinking about their tragic fates in the original timeline.
A quiet resolve rose in her heart: this time, she would change that ending for them.
***
Time passed quickly amidst casual conversation.
The banquet was soon fully prepared under the butler’s urging.
There were a little over twenty guests present, each seated on cushions in front of individual small desks.
On each desk sat various dishes—after all, personal dining was still the norm in the Han dynasty.
Since Cai Yan was only a little over two years old and couldn’t eat hard food yet, Mengde had the butler prepare a selection of soft foods and placed them on her own desk.
She held the girl in her lap, patiently feeding her.
As everyone chatted, drank, and enjoyed their meal, Cai Yong was tuning his qin.
A moment later, gentle and flowing music began to drift from his fingertips.
On either side of the banquet hall, musicians played zithers and flutes, accompanying the melody from Cai Yong’s qin.
As the top musical figure of the Han court, the ensemble trained by Cai Yong was naturally among the finest in the land.
In the midst of the music, the guests were completely enthralled.
Some were even moved to sing along, caught up in the atmosphere.
People in this era, once happy, could be downright uninhibited—bursting into song and dance was entirely normal.
It was no wonder that Five-Stone Powder, a drug known for inducing euphoria and manic freedom, would become popular not long after.
Mengde was already used to scenes like this.
As she watched her teacher playing the qin, Mengde suddenly thought of a legendary instrument associated with him—the Scorched-Tail Qin.
According to legend, when Cai Yong was once in hiding in Wu, he heard a piece of paulownia wood crackling in the fire and recognized its potential.
He pulled it from the flames and crafted it into a qin.
The tone was exquisite, but the tail of the instrument was still scorched from the fire—thus, it was named the Scorched-Tail Qin.
This story had even been immortalized in countless Three Kingdoms video games, and now Mengde found herself resting her chin in her palm, eyes gleaming with thought.
In the original timeline, her teacher had gone into hiding in Wu due to political strife with powerful ministers.
But now, under her protection, that kind of exile probably wouldn’t happen anymore.
‘Did that mean the legendary Scorched-Tail Qin would never come to be?’
Mengde couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed at the thought.
But the next moment, a mischievous idea flickered through her mind.
‘Maybe I could arrange for Teacher to be sent to Wu as a governor for a few years?’
Just as the thought formed, Cai Yong noticed her distracted expression and gently asked, “Mengde, what are you thinking about?”
Mengde paused for a moment, then gave a smooth and thoughtful reply.
“I was just thinking about an opportunity—a stroke of good fortune that concerns you, Teacher.”
“Oh? Fortune? What kind of fortune?”
“I once cast a divination for you, using the I Ching. The reading indicated that if you were to travel to the southeastern lands of Wu and stay there for a while, you might come across something incredibly valuable.”
“A treasure? Since when did you learn to divine the future?”
“I just dabbled a little, nothing serious. Please don’t take it too literally, Teacher…”
Mengde replied modestly, smiling.
Cai Yong chuckled and nodded.
“Well, since you say so, I suppose I’ll go have a look at Wu sometime. I do have a few old friends down there, after all.”
“Then I’ll congratulate you in advance, Teacher.”
Mengde cupped her hands in a respectful gesture.
Everyone in the Han dynasty believed deeply in chenwei—the study of omens and prophecy.
Later, Dong Zhuo would move the capital from Luoyang to Chang’an based on a cryptic prophecy: “A Han in the west, a Han in the east. When the deer enters the city of long peace, the calamities shall cease.”
Yuan Shu, too, once interpreted the line “He who replaces Han shall be exalted” as evidence that he would become emperor, prompting him to defy public opinion and declare himself ruler.
So Cai Yong taking Mengde’s cryptic “omen” as motivation to visit the southern lands in search of a treasure? Entirely reasonable behavior for the time.