章 137: According to Plan

"Your Majesty, the hour grows late, if you do not rest, Imperial Concubine Yue will worry."

Liu Yao looked up from where he'd been staring blankly at the script the state preceptor had sent to him just earlier in the day. His network of eyes and ears had found the mysterious man wandering the northwestern forests in search of rare herbs. They returned to the imperial city with a message that had consumed Liu Yao's mind ever since receiving it earlier in the day.

"What time is it?" he asked, his voice tinged with fatigue as he leaned back into his seat and rubbed at his temples. The cushioned backrest that Yan Yun had insisted he used to support his lower spine made the red sandalwood chair far more comfortable but it still felt good to stretch and loosen up some of the muscles that had stiffened over from sitting down for most of the day.

クリエイターの想い
Queeniecat

(1) Second gong: This is in relation to the geng-dian system of keeping time traditionally, used to keep time after nightfall. The time signal would be given by drum or gong, usually by a drum tower in the cities or night watchmen on their rotations. The second gong corresponds approximately to 9:30 pm and lasts till 12 am.

(2) Heatiness: A traditional Chinese medicine concept that refers to a state where the body is harbouring too much heat due to an imbalance of yin and yang in the system. Heatiness results in a particular set of symptoms like sore throat, mouth ulcers, etc. Even in modern times, this is still a concept used in Chinese households and I grew up with a very rudimentary understanding that some foods like durian and popcorn made one ‘heaty’. The opposite is being too ‘cold’.

(3) At thirty years of age a man should be capable of establishing himself independently (in ancient times might be more referring to being able to break away from the main branch of his family both financially, politically, socially etc). A part of Confucian ideology based on Confucius’ own experiences where he started to establish his brand of philosophy at thirty although it was only at forty that he had full confidence in his beliefs, fifty where he understood the rules of the way the world works, sixty where he learnt to accept differing opinions, and finally, at seventy, where he learnt to follow his heart but not let it guide him to go against the morality of society.

A/N: Thank you very much for reading! <3 I apologise sincerely for going MIA for so many weeks. My family has recently lost a close relative and I flew back home to be with my parents. I didn't bring my computer and honestly would not have been in the mood to write either. I am back now and will resume updates as best as I can, thank you for your patience and kind understanding, it was a difficult period of time.