"My son, you were born timid and know nothing of the dangers in the palace. How could you—how could you agree to this?"
In the rear courtyard, the family of four had gathered in Daji's boudoir. Su Hu paced back and forth, wanting to scold his daughter, but whenever he looked up and saw her pitiful expression, he could not bring himself to be harsh.
"Sigh! Quanzhong!"
"Father!"
"Take two chests of jewels to the courier station. Fei Zhong is greedy, so give him the jewels and make him forget what happened today. Di Xin must be trying to win me over. I will side with Chaoge! But I cannot let your younger sister jump into the fire pit over this matter."
"Understood. I'll go at once!"
Su Quanzhong loved his younger sister dearly as well. Without another word, he turned to leave, but Daji's soft call stopped him.
"Big Brother, wait."
After stopping Su Quanzhong, Daji looked toward her mother. A faint blush suddenly spread across her fair cheeks.
"Father, Mother, Big Brother, actually... actually, I dreamed of Di Xin too..."
"What?"
"What!"
"What!"
Su Mu was astonished, while Su Hu and his son shouted louder than the other.
Seeing their astonished expressions, Daji covered her face with her sleeve, revealing only a pair of limpid, lovely eyes.
"About two months ago, I suddenly had a dream. In it, a woman stood atop the walls of our Jizhou City and watched a majestic man with a giant black bird above his head. He drew his bow and shot down a Colorful Phoenix to the west with a single arrow.
"I did not know that he was the Great King at the time. But that day, when the Colorful Phoenix cried out, that powerful voice reappeared in my heart.
"Only then did I realize that I had already fallen in love with the Great King at first sight.
"Today, I suddenly felt something and went to the front courtyard. When I heard that the Great King had also dreamed of me, I was overjoyed. It seems this marriage was destined by Heaven."
"So that was how it was?"
Su Hu looked at his daughter strangely, studying her carefully from head to toe, but could not find anything amiss.
"Then prepare yourself properly. Your mother, your brother, and I will prepare your dowry first."
After they left the rear courtyard, Su Quanzhong suddenly moved close to Su Hu.
"Father, Daji, she...?"
"Quiet!"
Su Hu glanced at his wife, sighed softly, and walked straight toward the storehouse.
After the three of them left, Daji, who had seemed so delicate, suddenly grinned. With a casual wave of her hand, the doors and windows instantly shut, and the entire room abruptly darkened.
Su Daji turned and sat before the dressing table. One hand greedily caressed her own cheek. Her skin was so delicate that a light touch left a red mark, yet two or three seconds later, it vanished.
"Su Daji, oh, Su Daji, you actually possess a trace of my Tushan bloodline. You are perfectly suited for me to use as a vessel while carrying out Niang Niang's sacred will. This must be the fortune of me, Tushan Qiong. Hahaha!"
"Damn monster, leave my body! You will never get your way!"
"Stop fussing. It took me great effort to restrain myself from devouring you. If you keep struggling, then I'll... hee hee hee."
"Monster, if you have the ability, then devour me completely! Otherwise, otherwise... otherwise I will never let you off."
"If Niang Niang had not forbidden me from wantonly creating slaughter, do you think I would have kept your soul? Be good, or this big sister will become angry."
Tushan Qiong smiled seductively. With a gentle sweep of her right hand across the bronze mirror, the image of "her," tear-streaked and frantic, vanished instantly.
Not create slaughter? What a joke!
If she had not suddenly felt flustered while devouring Su Daji's soul, Su Daji's soul would already have fused completely with hers!
Still, Di Xin had dreamed of Su Daji. Was it a coincidence, or Niang Niang's arrangement?
Three days later, the day arrived.
"Marquis Su, can we set out?"
Fei Zhong rubbed his hands together. Things had gone so smoothly that he had managed to keep his head this time.
Su Hu looked back at the carriage surrounded by three hundred armored cavalrymen. His daughter was inside, hidden behind layer upon layer of curtains. From now on, she would remain behind those layers of curtains.
"Giddy-up!"
"Set out!"
—Clatter, clatter, clatter!
Chaoge
After venting his abundant energy on the training grounds, Di Xin left a clone in the royal palace to deal with his resentful consorts. His true body openly slipped out of the palace with E Lai, who had grown a full circle fatter.
"It's still livelier outside. These steamed buns are pretty good, though it's a pity they're vegetarian. E Lai, want two?"
Di Xin used two Dao coins to buy six wild-vegetable buns, tossed four to E Lai, and began eating his own with relish.
E Lai caught the buns and ate them one after another, baring his teeth as he chewed. With his physique, the mere heat of the buns naturally could not burn his mouth.
"Dao coins are still inconvenient in the end. If only they could be made smaller, given different denominations, and assigned different purchasing powers. E Lai, what do you think? Could that work?"
Di Xin toyed with the Dao coin in his hand. Idle, energetic, and with nothing better to do, he was finally extending his claws toward the common people's money pouches.
"Your Highness, I can fight enemies on the battlefield for you, but governing state affairs is another matter."
E Lai shook his head, then went back and bought twenty more buns. Fighting Di Xin had consumed a great deal of energy, and restoring his body required even more. His stomach had long since been empty.
Although the buns were vegetarian, they were still better than going hungry.
"Speaking of war, don't rush. Once the Grand Tutor returns, I'll hand the army over to you. How about you go and take Western Qi for me?"
Di Xin spoke half jokingly and half seriously.
Western Qi was a thorn in his side, a thorn in his back, and a stone in his shoe! Until Western Qi was destroyed, everything he did would be constrained.
"Western Qi is nothing. I could flatten it with a hundred thousand troops!"
"Hahaha, good! The bird I shot down has already been sent here. While Kong Xuan has not returned, divide it up as soon as possible. As for whether it is cooked properly or not, that will depend on your abilities."
Di Xin laughed heartily. He and E Lai slowly walked to a residence covering roughly two mu of land. When he pushed open the gate, the voices of children poured into his ears.
"When youths are wise, the nation is wise; when youths are wealthy, the nation is wealthy... When youths surpass the peoples of the four directions, the nation surpasses the peoples of the four directions; when youths become strong in the nine provinces, the nation becomes strong in the nine provinces..."
"Hahaha, these little fellows have not been slacking off."
Di Xin stepped inside and stopped outside the room, looking through the window at the five children within:
His eldest son, Yin Hong; his second son, Yin Jiao; his first disciple, Mo Xuan; Huang Feihu's second son, Huang Tianlu; and E Lai's daughter, Fang.
"There are still too few people. If thousands upon thousands of children were sitting here, how powerful would Yin Shang be ten years from now?"
"With the Great King here, Yin Shang will become incomparably powerful in less than ten years!"
Admiration shone in E Lai's eyes. He looked at Di Xin as though he were looking at a god.
"E Lai, time waits for no one!"
Di Xin sighed, then quickly became spirited again.
"But I have not been waiting idly, either. The Grand Tutor has already sent news of victory and will soon return to court. My Star-Gathering Pavilion is finally about to reach out to the stars exposed in the wilderness."
Standing in the courtyard and gazing into the distance, Di Xin saw that a pavilion covering a thousand mu had already begun to reveal its grandeur. Tiny "ants" moved back and forth without pause, carrying what was, in truth, their own hope.
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