Historical Stories

"You got it wrong. Yuan Shao's army had just been defeated when someone received the news and told Tian Feng. Tian Feng said, 'If the army wins, I will surely be able to preserve my life. Now that the army has been defeated, I fear I am about to die'... Later, he really did die. As soon as Yuan Shao returned, he ordered Tian Feng dragged out and executed."

"How could that be?!" Hermione froze for several seconds before letting out an incredulous cry. A few seconds later, she said, "I understand. That Yuan Shao must have been an especially foolish and incompetent ruler. He felt humiliated, so he killed a talented minister just to save face."

"Let me tell you another story. It is also a story from ancient China," Li Mu said. Only when he saw Hermione temporarily set aside her doubts and focus on him again did he continue, "It was from an era even before the Three Kingdoms, which Chinese people called the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period."

"Oh, the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period. I've heard of it," Hermione replied.

Li Mu was rather astonished. He had not expected her to know even that... Was this what it meant to be Hermione?

"Then do you know the story of sleeping on brushwood and tasting gall?"

Hermione continued nodding, her chin raised proudly.

Li Mu gave her a thumbs-up. "The Wu Kingdom I want to talk about is the one from that story. Before the Wu Kingdom was destroyed by the three thousand Yue soldiers, King Fuchai of Wu wanted to attack the Qi Kingdom. The famous minister Wu Zixu strongly advised him that Yue was the true great threat. The King of Wu did not listen and still sent troops against Qi, returning in triumph."

"That sounds good. I remember the Qi Kingdom was a very powerful state," Hermione said. "And since the King of Wu won the battle, he must have been in a good mood. He wouldn't kill Wu Zixu, would he?"

"He did not kill him right away... Four years later, the King of Wu wanted to send troops against Qi again. Wu Zixu again strongly advised him, 'I beg Your Majesty to resolve the problem of Yue first, or else regret will come too late.' Guess what happened to Wu Zixu?"

Hermione's face went pale. She could guess.

"This time, he really did die."

"Correct!" Li Mu said approvingly. "Not only was he ordered to commit suicide by the King of Wu, but even his corpse was sunk into the Qiantang River. It was deeply humiliating. Since you guessed he would be killed, do you know why?"

"..."

"Self-esteem. Everyone has self-esteem. Everyone needs recognition from others and needs to feel that their existence has value. Face, vanity, and the right to speak are the most superficial, yet most basic forms of self-esteem."

"This..."

Hermione's eyes shifted, and she looked thoughtful. Li Mu continued, "Regarding Wu Zixu's death, Bo Pi, the prime minister of the Wu Kingdom at the time, put it well when he told the King of Wu—'When Your Majesty wished to attack Qi in the past, Wu Zixu firmly insisted that it could not be done. Yet Your Majesty won a great victory in the end, and Wu Zixu was extremely upset because his strategy had not been adopted. Now that Your Majesty wishes to attack Qi again, Wu Zixu is blocking you once more and sabotaging the entire plan. He only hopes that we will be defeated, so that he can prove his foresight.'—Bo Pi was a treacherous minister in history, and his words were meant to sow discord, but he understood human nature thoroughly. He knew that was exactly what the King of Wu thought."

Seeing Hermione listen so intently, as though she were in class, Li Mu nearly laughed. He pressed his lips together to hold it back and finally steered the conversation back to the main point.

"This is why Ron, and even Harry and the others, are impatient with you. Many times, you mean well. You say the right things and do the right things, but you choose the wrong time, place, and method." As expected, Hermione's face showed alarm and uncertainty.

"How could that be?!" Hermione shrieked again. So young, she felt an unsettling sense of unease before Li Mu and struggled to argue, "Ron and the others aren't..."

"They are not monarchs, much less your leaders, right?" Unfortunately, Li Mu had already guessed what she wanted to say. He cut in before she could argue. "I just said that everyone has self-esteem. If Ron and the others..."

Before he could finish, a string of shrieks mixed with the sound of splashing water interrupted their conversation. Both Li Mu and Hermione could not help covering their ears as they instinctively looked toward the sound. In this very washroom, in the third stall with its door wide open, a milky-white figure rose from the toilet. At some point, the toilet had filled to the brim. As the figure burst out, water flowed all over the floor—the source of that splashing sound.

"Oh no... it's her." Hermione groaned, her face turning even paler. "Moaning Myrtle."

Of course it could only be her. Moaning Myrtle was the ghost in the second-floor washroom at Hogwarts. Unlike the other ghosts who could not touch physical objects, Moaning Myrtle could physically interact with water. She was always crying in a shrill voice and splashing water everywhere, leaving the students miserable and helpless. Over time, almost no one came to this washroom, and it had nearly fallen into disuse.

Now, this infamous ghost drifted toward them, sending a spray of water at them. Hermione screamed, and Li Mu lifted his house robe to block the splashing water. Faced with this sudden watery attack, they did not even have time to cast a defensive spell.

Fortunately, Hogwarts school robes were cape-style, with long hems and fairly good water resistance. Li Mu's block left him soaked and looking somewhat bedraggled, but Hermione escaped unharmed.

"Th-thank you," Hermione said, but her little face went pale again. "She's coming again!"

Moaning Myrtle would not let up. She floated over with a scream, her face taut. "Does someone think it is fun to make a racket and scream loudly while others are resting? Right in front of a lonely, miserable Moaning Myrtle who has been dead for so long..."

As she drifted through the air, waves of water slid back and forth beneath her feet like little snakes with minds of their own. Li Mu and Hermione had no doubt that, if Moaning Myrtle wished it, they would immediately be baptized by another downpour. And right now, the female ghost was clearly in a bad mood.

"Don't be angry, Moaning Myrtle. We are also lonely, miserable people abandoned by our friends." Li Mu's eyes flickered as he put on a pitiful expression.

He knew Moaning Myrtle must have been eavesdropping nearby for quite some time. Otherwise, she would have suspiciously looked Li Mu over several times and said, "This is the girls' washroom, and you are not a girl."—In history, that was how she had treated Harry and Ron. Though ghosts had lost their bodies, their emotions still largely followed how they had been in life. And was not the distinction between men and women what Moaning Myrtle had cared about most when she was alive? Even her death was inseparable from it.

Now, Moaning Myrtle had stopped eavesdropping and come out to clear them away only because she was clearly uninterested in another country's historical stories.

Then he would switch to a topic that interested her.

End of Chapter

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