In the Eight Diagram Tactics, above a sea of flowers, Zhao Yun and Zhuge Liang sat opposite each other and had a tea talk. The stories about Huang Yueying and Zhuge Kongming made Zhao Yun deeply moved.

That year, Zhuge Liang prepared to choose a spouse. Huang Chengyan, a local celebrity known for upright character and personality, proposed to him. He wanted Zhuge Liang to marry his ugly daughter.

He said that although his daughter was ugly, her talent was certainly worthy of marrying Zhuge Liang. Zhuge Liang didn’t refuse, agreeing to marry her. So Huang Chengyan sent Huang Yueying to him in a cart.

But as a peerless talented woman of the generation, Huang Yueying wanted to test whether Zhuge Liang really had superhuman talents.

One month before the marriage, she asked her father to propose the “three noes” condition to Zhuge Liang. When they got married, she would not ride on a sedan chair, ride on a horse, or ride in a boat.

This “three noes” condition really troubled Zhuge Liang for days. He thought hard and couldn’t sleep at night.

“Not ride on the sedan chair, ride on the horse, or ride in the boat… Make the bride walk?”

It would be such a joke if he let the bride walk, and it would lose the bride’s face as well. How to deal with this matter? It was really a headache.

It was getting closer to the wedding on the eighth day of the 12th lunar month. So restless and anxious, Zhuge Liang was wandering around in the yard and on the hillside. He then ran to a chess mountain and stepped on the stone to meditate.

Suddenly, he heard someone exclaiming at the foot of the mountain, “The buffalo is frightened! The buffalo is frightened!”

Zhuge Liang took a closer look, finding that a buffalo rolling the rice with a stone roller was frightened, and it had broken the pile in the center of the roller.

The buffalo was running on the ground with the roller. Zhuge Liang stared at the roller. Suddenly, he slapped himself in the back of his head, shouting with ecstasy, “I got it!”

Then, he hurried home. It turned out that he came up with an idea to put a shelf on the roller, so that it could carry people. In this way, it was not a sedan chair, nor a horse.

Without hesitation, he and his servant got some local materials. One of them chopped down the trees, and the other cut wood. They had been working hard for three days and three nights.

The eighth day of the 12th lunar month was the wedding day. Huang Chengyan’s courtyard was packed with congratulatory guests.

Of course, there were many on-lookers among them. They wanted to see how Huang Yueying would go to her husband’s house. They wanted to see the idea that Zhuge Liang came up with in order to get his marriage successfully.

At about noon, a colorful shadow appeared at the foot of Huangjia Mountain near Longzhong. From small to large, it got more and more clear.

“Here comes the bridegroom!”

Along with this loud shout, the on-lookers rushed out from the Huang Family’s courtyard. In the procession, Zhuge Liang and his servant sat one by one on a “platform” surrounded by a red cloth.

Under the “platform”, there were two rolling things like the large rollers, and something like a buffalo or a horse was dragging it in front.

It was not a sedan chair, because no one carried it. It was not a horse, because it was not a living thing. It was not a boat, either, because it walked on the ground.

“Hey, what’s this?”

“Amazing!”

“It’s not a horse, nor a sedan chair, not a boat. Zhuge Liang really came up with an idea?!”

Everyone went around to see with curiosity! Some touched here, some touched there, and some patted the thing that looked like a buffalo or a horse.

“Hey, guy, what’s this?”

“Yeah, quickly tell us.”

They asked the little boy in white. But he just wiped his nose happily and answered, “This is the Buffalo and Horse, which was created by my master for the bride!”

“Wooden Ox?”

Everyone was shocked. They had never seen such a magic machine.

At this time, Zhuge Liang got off the Wooden Ox and walked to Huang Chengyan, saying, “Father-in-law, have I met Yueying’s requirements?”

Gratified, Huang Chengyan looked at Huang Yueying, who was wearing a red veil. Seeing her nodding slowly, he smiled and said, “Yueying has already approved. You can take her home.”

When he finished, Zhuge Liang bid farewell to him and left with Huang Yueying. On the wedding night, he slowly removed her red veil.

“Oh!”

Zhuge Liang, who had always been calm, was surprised by the girl in front of him. He thought the reason why Huang Yueying wore such a red veil was to cover up her ugliness. He was ready to comfort her with a few words.

Unexpectedly, the girl in front of him was so beautiful. Her hair was yellow, and her face was not as dark as Huang Chengyan said, but very tender and white.

“Miss, please tell me where Yueying is,” Zhuge Liang immediately said with a holding fist salute.

“Hehe…”

But the beauty’s face turned red at once. She said with a smile, “Husband… I am Yueying.”

“What?!” Zhuge Liang took a step back in shock.

Huang Yueying raised her head, smiling. “Actually, I’ve long admired you. People all say that you have good knowledge and personality, so I admire you very much. Therefore, I asked my father to take the initiative to propose to you.

“I specifically asked my father to tell you that I’m ugly to see if you are a mortal man who judges people by appearance. Sure enough, you didn’t let me down.”

“I see…” Zhuge Liang nodded.

Hearing those words of Huang Yueying, he figured out the ins and outs. Huang Chengyan, his father-in-law, was a celebrity, whose wisdom was not inferior to that of Zhuge Liang.

His family was much richer than that of Zhuge Liang. Gorgeous and beautiful, his daughter was a true pearl in his palm. She had to marry someone who deserved her.

Zhuge Liang was known as Mr. Reclining Dragon, whose talent was well known. And since Huang Chengyan’s daughter admired him, he was willing to cooperate with her to test Zhuge Liang.

He deliberately described his precious daughter as an ugly woman to confuse him. It was also a test to see whether Zhuge Liang only paid attention to appearance, as ordinary people did.

Besides, Zhuge Liang agreed to the marriage so quickly. Huang Chengyan would naturally wonder whether Zhuge Liang would really like to accept his “ugly daughter”.

After this test, Huang Yueying could also judge whether Zhuge Liang was sincere. If he thought the girl was not Yueying, but still accepted her, then he would absolutely be an unfaithful man.

After thinking about it, Zhuge Liang felt himself a little stupid. When Huang Chengyan told him that his daughter was ugly, Mrs. Huang was there too, and she didn’t look happy at that time.

Now it seemed that she was dissatisfied with Huang Chengyan. Her daughter was gorgeous, but was regarded as an ugly girl. She must have been furious at that time.

“Wife, since I’m determined to marry you, why would I care about appearance, which ordinary people pay attention to? I never choose people by appearance. Even if you’re really ugly, you’re still my wife!”

Zhuge Liang spoke resolutely and his eyes were sincere, which made Huang Yueying feel a little guilty as she thought, “How could I doubt such a person?”

She then smiled and said, “I got it, husband. In this life, I will never leave you.”

After that, she seemed to remember something. She took out a feather fan and handed it to Zhuge Liang.

“What’s this?” Zhuge Liang took the fan and looked at it carefully.

Huang Yueying told him the origin of this feather fan. It turned out that she was not only unparalleled in talent, but also outstanding in martial arts. She had studied under a famous teacher.

When she finished her studies and went down the mountain, the master gave her a goose-hair fan that said “Ming” and “Liang”. Between the two words, there were also strategies to seize cities and to run the country.

Her master told her that her husband would be named after the two words Ming and Liang. It was precisely this feather fan that made Huang Chengyan notice Zhuge Liang.

He got to inquire about Zhuge Liang with a skeptical attitude, but didn’t expect that his daughter also knew him and had been admiring him for a long time. It so happened that this feather fan had such a mystery, so he took the initiative to test Zhuge Liang.

“Is there such a saying? It seems that your teacher is also a powerful cultivator.” Zhuge Liang laughed.

“I’ve always believed that you’re not a common man. Eight chi (190 cm) tall, with a jade-like face, a silk scarf on your head, a crane cloak on your body, beautiful eyebrows gathering the spirit of rivers and mountains, and a heart to contain heaven and earth, you look really like an immortal.

“And according to your words today, it turns out that there are really cultivators in this world, just as I thought.”

Huang Yueying laughed. She held more and more admiration for her husband.

“Thank you for your gift, my wife. I will never let this feather fan leave my hand. No matter where I am in the future, I’ll think of you when I see it.” Zhuge Liang also laughed.

He kept his promise and cherished the feather fan as a pearl in his palm. No matter how desperate he was, even when he finally died, he was inseparable from it.

That not only expressed his sincere love for his wife, but also enabled him to use the strategies on the fan more skillfully. So no matter in spring, summer, autumn, or winter, he always kept the fan in his hand.

After the story spread to the people, they made it into a long story, the Feather Fan Story.

Huang Yueying was good at manufacturing machinery. After seeing Zhuge Liang’s Wooden Ox, she also made a lot of wooden instruments to work at home.

There were also a wooden dog and wooden tiger in their home. All of them could operate on their own, just like modern robots.

The Wooden Ox, Zhuge Crossbow, etc., that Zhuge Liang later used in war all drew on the experience of a series of inventions of Huang Yueying.

It could be said that without her, there would be no such inventions that had surprised the world. Huang Yueying was the founder of the robots in the world.

Zhuge Liang learned a lot from Huang Yueying. Leaving a good name for posterity, their love story was indeed a masterpiece through the ages.