Xu Fu

I had come to Chen Shen's academy to hijack young talent. Instead, I ran into someone I never expected.

The Xu Shu everyone knows was originally named Xu Fu. As a boy, the stories go, she was a street tough who loved blades and running with a gang. Then she killed a man avenging a friend, got arrested, and after a dramatic rescue cast aside the sword and took up books.

Her hometown was Yingchuan, but later she would study under Sima Hui alongside Zhuge Liang. I never knew she'd stayed at Chen Shen's academy before heading to Jing Province.

Still, perhaps because this was before she met Shuijing—Sima Hui—her stats felt only half unlocked. It's a phenomenon you sometimes see in Three Kingdoms games. Events like Oh-a-mong or Looking Anew that boost Lü Meng and Zhang Qin, or Zhang Fei opening his eyes after entering Shu and raising his Intelligence. Sima Yi, still underage, was nerfed by about −10 from his original stats too.

"Is there something on my face?"

Xu Shu asked, clearly uncomfortable under the full force of my staring. I shook my head.

"Nothing. Though I'm surprised there aren't more students around. How many people actually study here?"

"Six, counting me. Seven if you include Master Ho as an auditor..."

"Huh? This is Chen Shen's academy and that's all you've got? I figured you'd be teaching hundreds."

"It's hard to get in—that's the point. Elite few. Not that I'd call myself elite..."

She trailed off, embarrassed at having used the word on herself. Fair enough. With Intelligence and Politics stuck in the fifties, she really didn't fit the atmosphere here.

"Classes run across two double-hours—the Chen hour, seven to nine in the morning, and the Wei hour, one to three in the afternoon. That's only when the master teaches in person. The students themselves review and debate what they've learned during the Si hour, nine to eleven, and the Shen hour, three to five."

"So the hour in between is lunch? Does everyone fend for themselves?"

"Anyone whose home is in Xu County can go eat there if they want, but most of us use the academy dining hall. Chen Zhangwen and Chen Xiaoxian eat next door at the master's house, though."

"Wait—did you just say Chen Qun? I heard her father went off to serve as Chancellor of Pingyuan."

"She decided her own studies were still lacking, so she stayed."

"Who else is enrolled?"

"There's a friend who arrived a few months before me—Shi Guangyuan, Shi Tao. And a young master named Zhongli Su. He's the only male student here."

Chen Qun, Chen Chong—Chen Shen's own daughter—and even Shi Tao, who would later study under Sima Hui alongside Xu Shu. A whole crop of brilliant talent, just as expected.

Zhongli Su, though—I'd never heard of him. I couldn't claim to know every person in this world, but never having heard the name once basically meant he was a complete nobody.

"You said six including Wonjik. I've only counted five."

"I forgot Fengxiao. She skips so often I blanked on her without thinking."

"Fengxiao? You mean Guo Fengxiao—Guo Jia?"

"You... know her?"

Xu Shu looked a little startled. Chen Qun, daughter of one of the Three Talents, she could understand—but Guo Jia too?

Of course I knew her. Even people who'd never cracked open a Three Kingdoms book had heard of Guo Jia.

Yang Xi was right: this place was a rake for scraping up talent. Just the names Xu Shu had listed would be enough to click through an entire tech tree on their own.

"So... is Master Ho's home nearby?"

"My hometown's elsewhere, but if I had to name where I live, it'd be Hanei. Why?"

"Because the boarding students mostly stay ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in the dormitory. The problem is, it's all girls. What do we do about that..."

So Chen Shen hadn't mentioned the most important detail. Xu Shu was fretting over where to put me for the night.

"As long as I stay out of the dew, I can sleep anywhere. Stable or storeroom—doesn't matter."

"Are you sure that's all right?"

Come to think of it, how many nights since arriving in this world had I actually slept under a proper roof? First a stable, then under a bridge. Even after leaving Yawang it had been tents or the open road. Nothing to worry about.

Ding... ding... ding...

Then it came—the sound of a pipa, drifting from somewhere and filling the empty hall with a soft, luminous tone.

"Someone's playing the pipa?"

"That'll be Zhangwen. She always plays after class to settle her breathing."

Not just brilliant, then—accomplished at the arts too. I wanted to go meet her right away, but that would probably be pushing it.

"Wonjik? Who's that?"

A short young woman came running up from a distance and stopped in front of us. Bright, light on her feet, short bob, a scatter of freckles—genuinely cute.

"This is Master Ho Ji. He'll be auditing with us for a while. And this is Shi Guangyuan, the one I mentioned."

A bit behind the other students here—but for Liu Bei's army, starving for even a single capable person, she was someone you'd bow and accept with both hands. Shi Tao seemed thoroughly excited about a new arrival.

"Call me Guangyuan! A male student—so rare... and this handsome, heehee!"

Charm maxed at 100 was doing its work; the goodwill came out immediately. Charm wasn't the same as looks, of course. No matter what number you set, the face stayed the same. It just raised first-impression favorability and charisma the way D&D did. Stack the Handsome Man specialty on top of that and you got something close to male-Liu-Bei-tier halo effect.

"Guangyuan? Master will have words if he hears you talking like that to a man you just met."

"I can't even say a handsome man is handsome? You're greedy, Wonjik. You've already got Young Master Zhongli—you can leave Master Ho to me."

"G-Guangyuan? Young Master Zhongli and I are not like that."

So that was the sole male student she'd mentioned. The way Xu Shu panicked the second Shi Tao brought up his name suggested their relationship was anything but ordinary.

"Who is it?"

Another figure appeared. A girl in green silk, walking toward us with an air of absolute self-possession. About the same age as Xu Shu and Shi Tao—just past coming of age. A clean, high forehead and eyes opened wide: the textbook image of a fierce young woman. Whatever her past, she was the polar opposite of model-student Xu Shu.

"This is Master Ho Ji. Our teacher has granted him a month of auditing. And this is the master's daughter, Chen Chong—Xiaoxian."

Chen blood didn't lie—her raw stats were excellent. She even had a once-in-a-generation broken ability that cut the Politics needed for tech research by more than Sima Lang and Shanglin combined. Her skill was a self-vampiric buff: drain your own Intelligence and Charm to jack up Politics. I'd never seen her in the games, probably because she'd never taken office in her life.

"Hello! I'm Ho Ji—"

"Courtesy name?"

"Huh? I don't have one yet. Sort of missed the window for getting one? If you'd like, you could—"

"Ancestral seat?"

"A-ancestral seat? I don't have a family register or anything, so I wouldn't know..."

"Hah... Then what do your parents do?"

"Family? My parents died a long time ago. I've been on my own for a while."

"Never mind, then."

"...?"

She spun on her heel.

Chen Chong ran a quick background check and decided there was nothing more to see. What was this? I'd dumped everything into Charm and stacked the abilities thick, and the first impression was still that bad? No—more like she'd lost interest the moment she saw what ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I was working with.

"Shi Tao? Did I somehow mess up—"

"She's always like that, Master Ho. Don't mind her. So damn full of herself... Thinks being the master's daughter makes her special?"

Judging by the scowl Shi Tao put on the second ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Chen Chong turned her back, the girl had always been high-handed. Even Xu Shu, who usually reined in Shi Tao's mouth, only managed a bitter smile and said nothing.

Then the soft pipa soundtrack cut off cold.

Shi Tao jumped, pressed a finger to her lips, and hissed:

"Master Ho made so much noise Zhangwen got angry! She hates being interrupted when she plays!"

"If we're ranking noise, that was more you than—"

"Shh! Shh! Be quiet!"

And so the three of us—me, Shi Tao, and Xu Shu—all jammed fingers to our mouths and policed each other's silence. At the same time, a young woman slid out through the door that opened onto the garden, moving as if she barely touched the ground.

"...?"

A girl about Chen Chong's height. Where Chen Chong's wide eyes gave her a fierce cast, this one's lines were soft—easy on the nerves. Long hair gathered high and full, then drawn back down again: the classic noble-daughter look, not unlike Sima Lang. But where Sima Lang had a bride-like, modest elegance, this one was aristocratic and refined in the purest sense.

When your eyes meet someone's, you're supposed to ask who they are, aren't you? She only stared with a look full of questions and said nothing, so Shi Tao, feeling guilty for no good reason, started waving both hands.

"S-sorry, Zhangwen! We weren't trying to interrupt—"

"Who?"

"Huh? This is Master Ho Ji. He just joined as an auditor."

"Master... took on an auditor...?"

Calling her own uncle "Master" that stiffly? Chen Qun tilted her head as if she'd never heard of such a thing. Then, without a single word of greeting to the end, she glided off toward the house again. Chen Shen might have been a genius at placing people in careers, but his home education left something to be desired.

"Zhangwen doesn't seem very interested in Master Ho."

"Does she have to be?"

"But she's a woman too—doesn't she have eyes? Anyway, you're new, so we should, you know... throw a welcome party! Welcome party! And Master Ho's buying, right?"

"..."

Just like that, I was on the hook for a round. Fine. These were people I needed to get close to anyway—I could cover that much.

And with that, I'd met everyone except Guo Jia and Zhongli Su. When the day came to leave this place—who among them would walk out with me?