Chapter 10 chapter eight

Embarrassed by the increasing number of summons, Du Ya was in charge of receiving the Prime Minister, the Minister of Finance, two provincial governors, and a clerk of historical materials when her husband was away to inspect the defense line of the northeast border.Many urgent matters must be dealt with on the spot, lest they lead to disaster. Seti became more and more busy with the continuous riots instigated by the Hittites in small countries in Asia, especially Syria and Palestine. Usually, a formal diplomatic visit by a pharaoh was enough to appease the kings of these small countries who lacked communication.

As the daughter of the cavalry captain, Du Ya is not a relative of the royal family or a descendant of the nobility, but she soon won the respect of the palace courtiers and the people of the whole country by virtue of her own merits.She was naturally graceful and slender, with large almond-shaped eyes and a small, well-proportioned nose that gave her a dignified look.Like her husband, she cares about conformity and has no tolerance for loose behavior.She is mainly responsible for maintaining the prestige of the Egyptian royal family, and she acts in accordance with the principle of ensuring the integrity of the country and the well-being of the people.

At the thought of meeting Ramses, her most beloved son, Duya's feeling of fatigue disappeared immediately.Although she chose the court garden as the meeting place, she wore her linen gown trimmed with gold, a short pleated shawl over her shoulders, a necklace of six rings of amethyst and a cape covering her ears and neck. spiral braid wig.She loved to walk among the acacias, willows, and pomegranates, at the roots of which grew cornflowers, daisies, and delphiniums, and there was nothing like a garden where the flowers and plants were in perennial praise to the glory of God. — more beautiful divine works.Every morning, Du Ya would dream for a few minutes in the paradise-like garden before going to court to deal with political affairs.

The queen was startled when Ramses walked towards her.Within a few months, he was a handsome man.There was authority in his eyes.Sure, there are still some teenage streaks in his demeanor, but the carefree childhood is a thing of the past. Ramses bowed to his mother. "Etiquette forbids you to hug me?" He hugged her and felt that she had become so fragile! "Remember that fig tree you planted when you were three years old? Come and see, it's growing very well." Du Ya immediately understood that she could not appease the sullenness in her son's heart. This garden that he had spent a lot of time taking care of had become unfamiliar to him.

"You were cruelly tested?" "Bison or last summer's confinement? Either way, courage is useless in the face of injustice." "Do you have anything to complain about?" "My friend Amenes was falsely accused of disobedience and insult to a magistrate, and because of my brother's intervention, he was thrown out of the clerk's office where he worked, and toiled in the stables. He had not the strength to live, This undeserved punishment would have cost him his life." "On these serious charges? You know I don't believe gossip."

"Yamenes won't lie to me. He's an upright and simple man. Should he be killed just because he's my friend and I hate him?" "You hate your brother?" "He was adamant that I get out of Memphis as soon as possible." "You didn't mention to him that you were Esther's lover?" Ramses couldn't hide his surprised expression. "You already know?" "Isn't this my job?" "Am I being watched all the time?" "Because on the one hand, you are the emperor's son, and on the other hand, Esther talks a lot."

"Why is she showing off her virginity to a loser?" "I'm not sure. Do you love her, Ramesses?" The young man hesitated. "I like her body and I hope to see her again, but..." "Do you want to marry her?" "Marry her?" "Esther is a very stubborn person. Since she has chosen you, she will not give up immediately." "Isn't my brother a good companion?" "Choosing him doesn't seem to be her intention." "Unless she decides to seduce us both!" "Do you think a young girl could be that crafty?"

"Can I trust anyone after seeing Amene suffer?" "I'm no longer your most trusted person?" Ramses held his mother's right hand. "I know you will never betray me." "There is a good solution to the problem of the Armenians." "what way?" "You go to be the clerk of the palace, and you can choose the secretary yourself." Although forced to do a lot of hard labor, Yamenes persisted. The grooms found out the identity of his friend Seti's son, and feared that Ramses would interfere again, they dared not persecute him any more.The load in the Amene basket is thus lightened.One of the grooms continued to lend a helping hand to the frail boy, but Amene's health continued to grow weaker and weaker.

When Ramses took the royal clerk exam, he was not well prepared.The exam was held near the prime minister's office, and carpenters installed small wooden columns and hung strips of cloth to protect the candidates from the sun. Ramesses did not take advantage of the privilege, and neither father nor mother could help him in order not to violate the rules of Mayat.Sooner or later Amene had to take such an exam.Ramesses did not have the learning and talent of the former, but he fought for himself. ① The highest standard of ancient Egyptian society. An old clerk, leaning on a cane, lectured the fifty or so candidates vying for the only two clerk positions at the central level.

"You study to get a job that will allow you to exercise power, but do you know how to be human? Keep your clothes clean, your shoes spotless, love your papyrus scrolls, and overcome laziness! May your hand write Don't hesitate, what you say is fair, keep reading and reading again, obey the orders of your superiors, and have only one ideal: perform your work correctly and serve others. Don't break discipline, monkeys can understand people's words, lions But tamed, there is no fooler than the undisciplined clerk. There is but one antidote for idleness: the stick! Whipped by it, the victim hears better and sees better. Now, The exam begins."

Someone gave each candidate a fig board coated with a layer of hard lime, and there was a hole in the center of the examination room, which contained reed grass for writing.Everyone diluted the red and black ink sticks with a little water, and everyone prayed to Anhotep the Great Wise, the head of the clerks, to inject a few drops of "spiritual water" into their brains. In just a few hours, candidates had to copy inscriptions, answer questions on grammar and vocabulary, solve math and geometry problems, draft several letters, and then copy ancient books.A few candidates gave up, and many could not concentrate.Finally, there is the riddle quiz. When answering the fourth question, Ramses encountered a difficulty: How can the clerk be brought back to life?He couldn't imagine any scholar with this ability!He couldn't think of a satisfactory answer.This question was left unanswered, plus a few unavoidable small mistakes, the examiner almost eliminated him from the competition.No matter how hard he racked his brains, it was useless, he just couldn't think of an answer. Even if he fails, he will not give up on Amene.He will take his friends to the desert to find Sai Dawu and the snake swarm of the snake wizard.It is better to escape from death than to live. A baboon suddenly climbed down from the palm tree and climbed into the examination room. Before the invigilator had time to stop it, it jumped onto Ramses' shoulder and sat there securely.The monkey whispered a few words in the young man's ear, and then disappeared in a flash, like the wind that came and went without a trace. For a moment, the Emperor's Son and the sacred pet that belonged to the god Thoth, the inventor of writing, merged into one. Their thoughts communicated with each other, and the mind of one guided the hand of the other. Ramesses wrote the sentence it read to him: The clerk may, with a thin sandstone scraper, scrape off a layer of lime on which he has written, to replace it with a new layer, thus bringing the tablet back to life and renewing it. Used, like new. Amene suffered so much that he could no longer hold the basket, his bones were nearly broken, and his collar and neck were weaker than dead branches.Even if he hit him, he didn't have the strength to move.Fate is cruel!Reading, writing, copying hieroglyphics, listening to wise men's advice, copying articles about creating civilization... What a bright future he had originally imagined!He tried one last time to move the manure basket. Suddenly a strong hand helped. "Rameses!" "What do you think of this thing?" The prince showed his friend a long cylindrical pencil case of blond wood, at the bottom of which was a cone-shaped lily with which to polish the inscription. "beautiful!" "If you can decipher the inscription, it's yours." "'...May Thoth's baboons protect the royal clerk...' That's not hard at all!" "I, Ramses, as the royal clerk, hired you as my confidential secretary."