"W-we owed a whole country?"
Zhao Family Young Lady almost thought she'd misheard.
The young Literary Scholar said lightly, "That's right."
Then he turned to Qi Shan and asked for confirmation. "Isn't that so?"
Qi Shan: "..."
Zhao Family Young Lady didn't know Qi Shan's background, so she couldn't connect it to any national feud. The boy, however, knew a little. He'd heard that Jiang Sheng and Xun Zhen had old scores to settle with Qi Shan. The three of them usually couldn't even be bothered to glance at one another, and they all found one another insufferable.
He boldly guessed that this young Literary Scholar, who claimed to be a distant relative of Clerk Qi, was the same sort as the two gentlemen, Jiang Sheng and Xun Zhen.
"Could it be that Clerk Qi destroyed your homeland?" The boy didn't know what to call the young Literary Scholar, and he couldn't tell whether the man was friend or foe.
The young Literary Scholar replied, "Yes and no."
His calm manner gave the boy the courage to keep asking. "Yes and no? So was it 'yes' or 'no'?"
What kind of answer was that?
The young Literary Scholar asked him in return, "Little Gentleman, have you heard of the three stratagems 'Qi Silk Lu Gauze,' 'Buy Deer to Subdue Chu,' and 'Buy Foxes to Subdue Dai'?"
A flush of awkward embarrassment rose on the boy's cheeks.
He shook his head. "This boy's learning is shallow. I've never heard of them."
The young Literary Scholar didn't deliberately put him on the spot.
"According to the records of the Calamity Star Word Spirit, all three came from the same man: Guan Zhong. He truly managed to 'subdue an enemy's soldiers without fighting.' Take 'Qi Silk Lu Gauze' as an example. It's said