Chapter 126: Qujie Zhenqi Qiuqie (Not garbled text)

How deep is the deep courtyard? Willows pile up smoke, curtains are countless.

Wang Yang saw a large house in the style of a thoroughfare, covered on all sides by bead curtains. Bursts of zither music came from inside, rustling and ethereal, clear and distant. The feminine-looking man from before was standing outside the house, bowing.

"Stop, intruder!" A man with thick eyebrows suddenly flashed out from behind a willow tree, drawing his bow and aiming at Wang Yang.

Wang Yang ignored him and walked straight toward the large house.

Whoosh!

A sharp arrow landed precisely in front of Wang Yang's toes.

Wang Yang chuckled: "If you don't have the guts to kill, don't shoot arrows. Is there any point in doing this?"

He bypassed the arrow and walked close to the large house. Through the bead curtains, he could vaguely see a figure sitting in the room.

The man had no other choice but to draw his bow again to intimidate him.

Wang Yang turned a blind eye and reached out to push aside the bead curtains.

At this moment, a cold female voice came from inside the room: "Bai Si, shoot and kill anyone who steps into the room, no need to report to me."

An imperial sister's voice?

"Yes!"

The thick-browed man responded loudly, drawing his bow like a full moon.

Wang Yang naturally withdrew his hand, took a step back, straightened his spine, leaned his upper body slightly, and flicked his sleeves: "So there are female family members here; it was my rudeness."

Since transmigrating, he had learned a lot of ancient etiquette. With this bow, he really had the demeanor of a noble young master. Coupled with his elegant movements, not at all hurried, it made people feel that his stopping was completely unrelated to the fear of being shot, but purely out of courtesy and upbringing.

The woman in the room changed her tone: "Qujie Zhenqi Qiuqie."

Wang Yang:???

This woman wasn't speaking Chinese; could it be the Hu language?!

As soon as the woman spoke, the eight swordsmen following Wang Yang bowed and retreated quickly. Only the man with the bow named "Bai Si" and the feminine man who had brought Wang Yang remained in place.

"Qujie Zhenqi Qiuqie!" The woman repeated it again.

Wang Yang thought of the time he had spoken Hu language to those soldiers and said calmly: "I don't get it."

Silence inside.

Wang Yang waited for a few seconds, seeing no movement inside, and took the opportunity to continue: "Don't play games with me."

This time the woman replied very quickly: "Mi Ou Ke She Ju!"

Wang Yang replied even faster: "How dare you!"

The woman paused for a few seconds, her tone returning to normal Chinese, and asked: "What language were you speaking just now?"

"You wouldn't understand even if I told you."

"So you don't understand Xianbei language at all."

Wang Yang became even more certain that she had spoken Xianbei language just now. It seemed she was indeed testing his knowledge of the Hu language. He remained calm and said: "That's why I said you wouldn't understand. Chinese has the difference between elegant pronunciation and Wu dialect, and Xianbei language also has dialects. What I just spoke was a Xianbei dialect."

The woman asked faintly: "Which Xianbei tribe's dialect?"

"My master told me, but I don't remember."

The woman smiled: "So the Northern spy secret knowledge was also told to you by your master?"

"Confidential matters, not convenient to tell."

The woman said slowly: "The sky-high lie has been broken, yet you can still remain steady, what good courage!"

"Sky-high lie? What sky-high lie? Oh, could it be that you are talking about this?"

Wang Yang shook the three sheets of paper from his sleeve, threw them away carelessly, and chuckled: "I was just joking with a few soldiers; does someone actually take it seriously?"

"If you didn't take it seriously, why come here?" The woman countered.

"Someone is putting on a play, so naturally I have to come and watch."

"Alright, then I'll show you something else. Lian San."

The feminine man stepped forward, holding a letter, and showed it to Wang Yang.

Wang Yang scanned it indifferently.

The letter was written by an official of the Ministry of Personnel to Kong Zhangyu, an attendant in the Prince of Badong's mansion, regarding the investigation results of Wang Yang's identity.

Wang Yang secretly thought it was bad.

The woman said lazily: "What does the letter say?"

The feminine man bowed and read: "Checking the two warehouses of the Left Household Bureau of the Ministry of Personnel, there are two people named 'Wang Yang' among the living Langya Wang clan members. One is sixty years old, and one is seven years old. Both are registered in the Southern Yanzhou, and there is absolutely no one from Yixing County."

The woman's voice swayed, clear and pleasant, yet hiding murderous intent: "Then may I ask this 'Wang' young master, are you sixty years old, or are you just seven?"

Wang Yang laughed: "I am traveling and studying in other counties, so what's strange about using a pseudonym?"

"Your reaction is not slow. But if it's really a pseudonym, how did you handle the registration?"

Wang Yang frowned, without any sense of guilt: "This is my family's private matter, what does it have to do with you?"

The woman didn't expect, and her two subordinates Lian San and Bai Si didn't expect, that Wang Yang still wouldn't give in!

The woman continued to apply pressure: "Since it has nothing to do with me, I will send those three sheets of paper and this letter to the Prince of Badong for a look."

Wang Yang smiled: "Please do."

"Aren't you afraid?"

"Not afraid. The Prince knows about my affairs. I am quite curious about yours." Wang Yang's eyes burned, staring at the vague, graceful figure behind the bead curtains.

The room fell into silence.

Wang Yang's tough attitude was clearly beyond the woman's expectations.

Wang Yang knew the other party wanted to threaten him when he received the letter. Because if they really wanted to deal with him, they would have handed over the evidence directly. Since they showed it to him, it meant they were holding a handle on him.

Once you admit defeat in this kind of thing, you will be controlled by others from then on.

So Wang Yang went the opposite way, competing at every step from the moment he broke in, just to disrupt the other party's rhythm. Even if he couldn't completely get rid of the situation of being held by his weaknesses, he had to strive for a favorable negotiation posture.

But only after less than three seconds, the woman's voice sounded again: "What a cunning mind, I was almost deceived by you just now. If the Prince of Badong really knew, he wouldn't have sent someone to check your identity."

Wang Yang replied: "Knowing is one thing, verifying is another. If you don't believe it, tell the Prince now. You and I will confront each other in front of the Prince."

The woman sneered: "Still daring to be stubborn? Impersonating a noble clan is a crime that even the Prince of Badong can't protect you from! Do you think the Langya Wang clan is so easy to impersonate? If I hadn't blocked these two things for you, you would have been in prison long ago! You should be curious in the cell right now, will you be beheaded in Jingzhou? Or sent to Jiankang to be executed in the market?"

It seems that the matter of supplementing the household registration in the province has nothing to do with this woman. Otherwise, she wouldn't have only mentioned blocking two things.

Wang Yang thought about how to continue to extract information, so as to know himself and the enemy, and said as if nothing had happened: "Let it be in Jingzhou, the scenery here is good, I quite like it."

The woman's tone was cold: "Resigned to death? Very good. I have no patience. Lian San, take him to the Jiangling government office now and hand the evidence to the official."

The feminine man obeyed and stepped forward. With just that one step, he transformed from a submissive little daughter-in-law into a cold-blooded killer.

Wang Yang was not afraid at all and said loudly: "Since I dared to come, I was prepared to die together."

The woman's tone had a bit of mockery: "You little fish don't have the qualifications to break the net. Actually, your scheming is not bad. You bluffed as soon as you came in, competing step by step, and it really disrupted my arrangements. At least my "Zhaojun Resentment" wasn't finished. I heard you gave instructions to your guard before you came, I suppose that's the backup plan for 'dying together'?"

Wang Yang smiled mysteriously, looking full of confidence.

The woman tapped the table with her fingers, stopped after a few taps, and smiled: "Actually, you have no backup plan at all."

Wang Yang's heart jumped violently, but his smile remained unchanged.

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Note: "Qujie Zhenqi Qiuqie" and "Mi Ou Ke She Ju" mentioned by the mysterious woman in this chapter are both transliterations of Xianbei language. Although Xianbei language has been extinct for thousands of years, one can still catch a glimpse of it from historical materials. The grammatical structure of the first sentence is "Qujie\Zhen\Qi Qiuqie."

"Wei Shu: Tiefu Liu Hu Zhuan" says: "Wei Chen's third son Qujie, originally named Bobo, Taizong changed his name to Qujie. 'Qujie' means 'humble'."

In "Wei Shu: Zhangsun Song Zhuan," it is written as "Qugai."

The reason for the difference is that the Xianbei language in "Wei Shu" is all Chinese transliteration. Although "Gai" and "Jie" sound very different now, they were not so in the Middle Ages. The medieval pronunciation of "Gai" is in the departing tone, fourteenth rhyme, and the fanqie is "Gu Tai Qie." The medieval pronunciation of "Jie" is in the departing tone, sixteenth rhyme, and the fanqie is "Gu Bai Qie."

Therefore, the pronunciation of these two characters is the same, only the ending is different. If we push it to the ancient pronunciation, both characters are in the Ji department, which are double-sound and overlapping-rhyme characters. According to the principle of double-sound and overlapping-rhyme in philology, the two characters are not only phonetically connected but also semantically connected.

"Shuowen": "Jie, no right arm." "Guangya": "Gai, to seek." No arm means seeking, which is also evidence of their connection. Therefore, writing "Qujie" in one place and "Qugai" in another in "Wei Shu" is perfectly fine in terms of both sound and meaning.

"Nan Qi Shu: Wei Lu Zhuan": "In the country, the inner left and right are called Zhizhen... those who carry weapons are called Huluozhen, interpreters are called Qiwanzhen, gatekeepers are called Kebaozhen... those who kill are called Qihaizhen... nobles of the three dukes are called Yangzhen..." A total of more than ten transliterations are listed, each ending with "Zhen." Therefore, the character "Zhen" is likely a noun suffix, translated as "person who..."

"Qi Qiuqie" comes from "Bei Qi Shu: Xu Zhicai Zhuan": "Zhifan went out to tell Zhicai... the nursery rhyme says: Zhou Li Qi Qiuqie... Zhicai says: Qi Qiuqie, Hu language for 'gone'."

In summary, the meaning of "Qujie Zhenqi Qiuqie" is "the humble one, go away."

Of course, this restoration of mine is based on the common order of verb-predicate sentences. If the habit of Xianbei language is to invert or add auxiliary words when saying this sentence, then the sentence I formed might sound strange to a real Xianbei person, but it should be understandable.

"Mi Ou Ke She Ju" comes from "Wei Shu: Ruru Zhuan": "Puluomen was pushed to be the master, titled Mi Ou Ke She Ju Khan, Wei language for 'peaceful'." Ruru is Rouran, and Wei language refers to the Sinicized Northern Wei language, which is Chinese. The woman said this sentence, meaning to let Wang Yang be quiet.

The academic community has not yet reached a conclusion on whether Rouran language is Xianbei language. Some scholars prefer to use more cautious terms such as "high degree of similarity" (Zhu Xiaolue "History of Ancient Chinese Diplomacy") or "a part of Rouran language is very close to Xianbei language" (Zhang Jinlong "Political History of Northern Wei").

But no matter which opinion, Rouran originated from the Donghu Tuoba Xianbei, and in terms of language family, it belongs to the Altaic Mongolian language family, which is the same family as Xianbei language, this is undoubtedly true. And since the Rouran ancestor Mugulu was abducted as a slave by Xianbei nobles from a young age, it is normal for Xianbei language to be used in Rouran. Therefore, the woman's words to let Wang Yang be quiet might be pure Xianbei language, but it might not be authentic. ===== CHAPTER 127 =====