Liu Bei: My younger brother is a deity.

Chapter 59 Liu Quan Pursues a Girl

In Liu Quan's mind, Cai Wan was the most suitable candidate for his wife.

The Cai family is not a top-tier aristocratic family, and Cai Yong's current official position is not high.

However, the Cai family has a long history of studying the classics and has a good reputation since Cai Yong's sixth-generation ancestor, Cai Xun. They are one of the few families with an excellent reputation and family tradition, and there have been almost no unworthy descendants in the family.

Cai Yong's father, Cai Leng, was a man of integrity and virtue who died at the age of fifty-three. He was posthumously honored as "Duke Zhending".

His mother, née Yuan, came from the prestigious Yuan clan of Chenjun, a powerful family during the Eastern Han Dynasty.

The Yuan clan of Chenjun and the Yuan clan of Runan share the same lineage, both descended from Yuan Liang of the Western Han Dynasty. They later split into two branches due to their different places of residence.

These two families together constituted two prominent branches of the Yuan surname during the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Furthermore, Liu Quan learned through Pangu that Cai Yong's brother-in-law, Yuan Pang, would be appointed as Minister of Works next year.

Therefore, although Cai Yong's family was not prominent and his official position was not high, his network of connections was extremely extensive.

In addition, Liu Quan also liked Cai Yong's personality. He was upright but not pedantic, learned but not stubborn, kind to others, witty in speech, and had the demeanor of an elder.

It can be said that such a wife's family and such a father-in-law are exactly what Liu Quan needs. They will not control his family too much, and they can help him expand his network of contacts. They are simply perfect.

Liu Quan could hardly believe that Cai Yong, in the end, was forced to his death in prison by Wang Yun.

He had met Wang Yun and spoken with him several times.

Although this person has a strong personality, they are not stubborn to the point of being obstinate, and they can humbly accept the correct opinions of others.

Based on clues in historical records, Liu Quan speculated that Wang Yun was probably too arrogant because of his killing of Dong Zhuo, and coupled with the enormous external pressure, his mentality became distorted.

So Cai Yong, that unfortunate fellow, actually died because of Wang Yun's emotional outburst.

In fact, Wang Yun immediately regretted his actions after Cai Yong's death, but it was too late.

This led to Wang Yun being abandoned by his followers, ultimately resulting in his entire family being killed by Li Jue.

But now that I'm here and going to marry his daughter, I can't let my father-in-law die so unjustly.

Ever since that day of conversation at Cai's residence, Liu Quan has been writing letters to Cai Wan.

His method of delivering the letter was also quite unique; he used a hummingbird drone to deliver it directly to Cai Wan's boudoir.

When Cai Wan first saw a bird fly into her room, she was really startled.

Then she was surprised to discover.

Instead of darting around in its room, the bird dropped a piece of paper and stayed still on the dressing table.

Cai Wan mustered her courage, walked over, picked up the letter, and opened it.

The first thing you see is rows and rows of extremely pleasing calligraphy.

Liu Quan used small regular script.

At this time, this variant of Han clerical script had not yet appeared, which caught Cai Wan's eye.

Then she looked at the signature: Liu Quan?!

His eyes lit up again.

Finally, read the contents of the letter.

Xianyun is clever, Feixing spreads hatred, and Yinhan looms dark. When Jinfeng Yulu met, it won over countless people on earth.

This is half a poem.

The literary form of "ci" with sentences of varying lengths had not yet appeared in the Han Dynasty.

In Cai Wan's eyes, Liu Quan's love poem to her was somewhat like a combination of "poetry" and "fu" (a type of classical Chinese prose).

But the words are truly beautiful. The key point is that Liu Quan (Pangu) also set the lyrics to music, using the five notes of the pentatonic scale.

Cai Wan hummed the song a few times and fell in love with it!

No, I should say I absolutely love it!

She felt that this literary style, specially created by Liu Quan for her, was absolutely wonderful, but...

It seems like there's still a sense of unfinished business?

(Pangu: "This is called leaving a hook! Host, have you learned it?")

Driven by surging emotions and curiosity, Cai Wan wrote a reply to Liu Quan, also using expensive Cai Hou paper.

In the letter, the girl shyly and subtly expressed her admiration for Yu Langjun, shared her feelings about the half-finished poem, and inquired about the unfamiliar handwriting.

After she finished writing, she folded the letter and tried to hand it to the strange bird that had been motionless since it landed.

With a whoosh, the bird flapped its wings, hooked its feet around the letter, and flew away to Cai Wan's astonishment.

"How amazing!" Cai Wan exclaimed.

In the following days, Cai Wan would leave a small crack, about the width of a palm, in the window whenever she was sleeping.

On the third day, the birds arrived, and the reply finally came.

Cai Wan and the others were anxious and couldn't wait to pick up the letter and read it.

Little did they know, they did it on purpose.

It's still that beautiful calligraphy style.

In his letter, Liu Quan revealed the name of this script: "This is the regular script I created. Because its characters are square and its strokes are straight, it can serve as a model for calligraphy."

"Regular script? A model in books? What a great name!"

Cai Wan continued reading, a thought suddenly striking her: "So this literary form was also created by young Master Liu, called 'ci'!"

Further on, beautiful sentences come into view.

She couldn't help but softly hum: "Tender as water, a beautiful time like a dream..."

"I see, so these two sections together make a complete poem!"

"The wispy clouds weave patterns, the shooting stars convey sorrow, and the Milky Way stretches far and wide in the dark. A single meeting in the golden autumn breeze and jade dew surpasses countless encounters in the mortal world."

Tender feelings flow like water, a beautiful time like a dream; how can I bear to look back on the road to the Magpie Bridge? If our love is destined to last, why should we be together every day and night?

"So beautiful! Young Master Liu is so talented!"

Cai Wan was infatuated.

After that, the two communicated frequently in this secretive way.

Originally, Liu Quan planned to wait until the time was right before asking his teacher to come and propose marriage.

Unexpectedly, due to Cai Wan's negligence, the hummingbird was caught by Cai Wan when she barged in while delivering the message.

Although the girl was young, she was extremely clever and very curious. After some probing questions, Cai Wan let slip the secret.

"Oh dear, sister, you've been secretly messaging a man! I'm going to tell father."

"Alright, tell me, what are your conditions?"

Cai Wan knew her younger sister all too well; she could tell what kind of wicked scheme the girl was plotting the moment she rolled her eyes.

"Hehe, I want you to teach me to read, sister. You can't complain about me this time."

"Okay, I agree."

"I also want that guy named Liu Quan to write to me. I want to know what fun things there are to do outside."

"Okay, that's fine. But you can't call him by his name, it's impolite. You should call him Brother Liu or Young Master Liu."

"I, I want to play with his bird again."

"Pfft, cough cough cough!" Cai Wan choked on her saliva. "A young lady like you shouldn't talk nonsense, and you're not allowed to play with birds."

"I want to play."

"No."

"I...I'll tell my father."

"Hmph, fine, tell me then. All the conditions my sister agreed to before are null and void."

"Well, if you don't want to tell me, then don't. But you have to keep the two promises your older sister made to me."

"Yes, sister, you mean what you say."

"Hmph, my sister only wants to play with Liu Quan's bird and won't let me play with it, so I'll just call him Liu Quan and won't use honorifics."

"You! Fine, Liu Quan it is."

"Liu Quan, Liu Quan, Liu Quan..."

"Shut up right now, don't let others hear!"

Cai Wan was extremely anxious.

Liu Quan watched the whole scene from the perspective of a drone, and he was both amused and exasperated.

It's quite a contrast that Cai Wenji, this future great talent, could be so mischievous!