Chapter 010: Inquiring About the Regent's Birthday part 1
"What is Yan Zhen?" Hearing the system's words, Wei Wanlan tilted his head.
[Commonly known as sticking a voodoo doll.]
"Oh, I understand."
He lowered his head, examining the ugly yet somewhat comical voodoo doll in his hand, and the doll with its cinnabar-drawn blood-red features was also staring at him, its eerie smile making his scalp tingle.
Wei Wanlan flipped the doll over the area where the paper slip was attached.
[Write the name and information of the person you need to kill on it, and you can achieve killing without a trace, taking their life from afar.]
But somehow it didn't sound quite right?
Those things about sticking dolls, drawing circles to curse... they didn't seem very righteous, Wei Wanlan asked back, "Are you really a proper system?"
[I am.]
"But shouldn't you be aboveboard?"
[To control the power of the realm, the virtuous monarch must discern the trends of the situation, utilize the resources at hand, and also resort to unscrupulous means.] The system promptly cited examples, reminding Wei Wanlan of the Xuanwu Gate Incident and the wine-cup abdication.
These two incidents were not very upright, but who would dare say the Tang, Song, and Zhao ancestors were not virtuous monarchs?
Wei Wanlan of course did not express an opinion, the Tang, Song, and Zhao ancestors were not something he could really comment on.
"Specifically, how should I do it?"
[You need to obtain the Regent's full name and birthday.]
The system slowed down its speech, as if waiting for the slow-witted Wei Wanlan to keep up.
[His surname, at the celebration banquet in the Linzhi Palace, Cui Minghai uttered it before his death.]
"Su... Yan?" The faint voice trailed off.
[His style name is Jingzhi.]
Yan means tranquil, Jing means peace and calm.
Whether the name or style name, they conveyed the fervent hope of the prominent Su family for their descendant to guard the rivers and mountains in safety. These were explanations that had appeared in the original book "The Great Wei Regent".
Listening to the system's background information, Wei Wanlan pressed the Regent's name against his tongue, silently repeating it a few times:
"Su Yan, Su Jingzhi."
***
"—Do you all know when the Regent's birthday is?"
In the morning, Wei Wanlan poked his head out from behind the palace door.
The two Golden Armored Guards at the door were first stunned, then completely bewildered, finally ending with the two of them bowing in unison: "This subordinate does not know, please punish us."
Wei Wanlan retreated back into the palace. A bit frustrated: "Failed."
[You're not supposed to be this blunt.] The system said with impatience, [The ancients attached great importance to birthdays and did not easily reveal them, if you directly ask the Regent's birthdate, let alone the fact that the Golden Armored Guards don't know, aren't you afraid others will guess your intention?]
Wei Wanlan was scolded by the system, lowering his eyelids as his eyes rolled, the long lashes casting two little raven-blue shadows at the bottom of his eyes. He tried to follow the system's logic, but found his brain went blank for a moment, simplify the way of speaking, just keep it simple.
As if not speaking in roundabout ways, he wouldn't be qualified to be a character in your political intrigue novels.
Zap!
Wei Wanlan shuddered, several tousled hairs standing on end, his voice carrying a whimper: "I know I was wrong, don't shock me QAQ"
But the system was unmoved by the beautiful man's tactics, impartially pushing the progress: [Knowing you're wrong, find a way to fix it.]
"Okay."
Wei Wanlan ultimately decided to adopt the decomposition method.
The eight characters are divided into year, month, day, and hour.
Since he couldn't gather all of the Regent's information at once, he would break it down item by item, inquiring, the Regent must have some aspect that is known to others, right?
In the end, he would piece together the information he obtained to get the Regent's birthday.
Wei Wanlan told the system his idea. Surprisingly, the system was quite satisfied this time, and as befitting a system, it had a flowery evaluation ready: [—Simplifying the complex, breaking the whole into parts, proceeding step-by-step, excellent, excellent!]
Don't ask Wei Wanlan what he thought of at that moment.
He thought of an old monk chanting sutras in his ear.
And don't ask where this brilliant decomposition tactic came from.
Have you done math problems? When you can't solve a proof problem, you still have to at least write a solution mark and do a step or two, right?
With the strategy set, he started by asking about the Regent's age, as the Emperor, he was concerned about his ministers, inquiring about the Regent's age was nothing unusual, and no one could directly associate this tiny clue with voodoo nightmare control, right?
Wei Wanlan launched a covert investigation around the palace.
The ancients used the Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch calendrical system, so by pushing the current year's number forward the Regent's age, one could get the Stem-Branch of the year the Regent was born. But the specific calculation method was still unclear to him, so he left that to the system to figure out.
Regarding the Regent's age, the reactions of the people were varied.
A middle-aged eunuch sighed: "He's around twenty-seven, the Regent is already not so young."
An elderly matron answered: "Thirty years old?" then couldn't help but add a bit wistfully, "At that age, in an ordinary household he would have already married and had children, how come he doesn't even have a wife?"
"The Su family has no successor, the Seventh Generation General is worrying, Your Majesty should hurry up!"
Wei Wanlan: Why are they asking about marriage all of a sudden? What use is it for me to be anxious? Grant him a consort?
There was also a weird Regent fan in the palace, pinching a lotus flower gesture and saying: "I think the Prince is forever eighteen."
Wei Wanlan: Rational fan culture, civilized you, me, and them.
In the evening, after consolidating the information gathered, the majority in the palace said the Regent was twenty-seven years old.
So in line with the principle of listening to good advice, from today onwards, Regent Su Jingzhi would be twenty-seven years old in Wei Wanlan's heart.
The system silently recorded the calculated Stem-Branch.
In Wei Wanlan's mind, the image of Su Jingzhi appeared, twenty-seven years old, almost ten years older than himself. It was the best age for a man to shed his immaturity and gradually mature.
Just from an aesthetic perspective: Su Jingzhi's appearance was handsome and imposing, his physique tall and upright, broad shoulders, strong and powerful limbs, a slender and smooth waistline, the muscles tight but not exaggerated, faintly visible under the noble attire.
Wherever he was, his presence was unmistakable. He had grown into the ideal image every man hoped to become.
Wei Wanlan's ears flushed hot. Maybe it was because he had inquired in so many places today, it was cold outside but hot in the bedchamber, making him unable to adapt.
The age was solved, the next difficult problem emerged, which month was the Regent born in?
Wei Wanlan decided to further divide the twelve months into the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter, for example, if someone could reveal the Regent was born in spring, the birth month could be narrowed down to around the first to third lunar month.
Nicely done!
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