When Shen Tang heard that the soldiers had nothing to do with her, the tension in her nerves eased. She raised a hand and lowered her sun-shading bamboo hat. Sitting in the corner, she pretended to drink tea and tried to make herself as inconspicuous as possible. "Geng Country's soldiers... Why would they be here?"
At those words, Qi Shan nearly choked on his tea.
This Young Master Shen really never disappointed him. Every question she asked was beyond his expectations.
"Where else would Geng Country's soldiers be?"
Shen Tang: "..."
Her instincts told her she seemed to have asked a stupid question.
Shen Tang tried to salvage the situation.
"But shouldn't this be Chong Tai—no, Xin Country? How could Geng Country's soldiers..."
As she spoke, she stopped herself, then covered one eye with a hand, her expression indescribable. She didn't want to see the way Qi Shan was looking at her like she was an idiot. She remembered Qi Shan had told her that Chong Tai—that is, Xin Country—had been destroyed, and that the National Seal was suspected to have been hidden by the Gong Clan. At the time, she'd been focused entirely on the National Seal and the Gong Clan, and hadn't even considered who had destroyed Xin Country.
Looking at it now, there was a nine-in-ten chance it had been Geng Country.
That question had thoroughly exposed her "naivety and ignorance." Fortunately, Qi Shan was already used to Young Master Shen's "unexpected" questions and didn't press her on it.
Shen Tang said awkwardly, "I... don't know much about these things..."
"It's not too late to learn now." Qi Shan smiled faintly and tapped the table three times with a bent finger. He silently recited the Word Spirit "Secret Transmission," and a faint wisp of literary energy surged up before vanishing without a trace. "Young Master Shen looks every bit the pampered noble scholar, raised in luxury. I can understand. You're still better than most. Other spoiled young masters might be even more ignorant and reckless. They know only how to ride at Zhangtai, lean on beauties, live carefree and romantic lives, and amuse themselves in the world. How could they know anything of national enmity or the people's hardships?"
Shen Tang: "..."
As long as she didn't take it personally, Qi Shan wasn't talking about her.
Shen Tang shamelessly replied, "Mister Qi is right."
Qi Shan found no amusement in it. He'd only been carried away by his emotions just now and hadn't been able to control himself—
The fact that Geng Country had destroyed Xin Country was common knowledge, known even to three-year-old children and farmers in the fields. Yet this Young Master Shen, who had such a close connection to the Gong Clan, had actually said she didn't know.
He didn't know whether he should be angry or laugh.
Shen Tang lowered her head guiltily and drank her tea.
"Still, Xin Country and Geng Country were cut from the same cloth. It makes little difference whether one is destroyed or not. To the common people, it's merely a change in the mountain weighing on their heads—from a foolish king to a tyrant..."
Shen Tang was surprised by what she heard.
She glanced out of the teahouse at the Geng Country soldiers. Seeing that they weren't paying attention to them, she relaxed. "From what you're saying, Mister Qi, you have a very low opinion of the Xin Country that was destroyed. But earlier, you said..."
When they'd first met, Qi Shan had harbored ill will toward her because she was a "Gong Clan descendant." He'd hinted repeatedly that the Gong Clan had been involved in Xin Country's destruction and had hidden the National Seal. Shen Tang had thought Qi Shan loved his homeland deeply, but now it seemed that wasn't what he meant.
Qi Shan lazily raised his eyelids.
"The two things don't contradict each other."
Seeing he had no intention of elaborating, Shen Tang could only change the subject, asking obliquely in an attempt to learn more about this world. She pointed overhead. "That man from Geng Country... Mister, you think so poorly of him?"
Xin Country had been destroyed, and its feudal lord's foolishness had certainly contributed to its downfall. Calling him a "foolish king" wasn't unfair. But Geng Country was powerful, and its feudal lord had expanded its borders during his reign. How could Qi Shan describe him as a "tyrant"?
Qi Shan sneered. "If he doesn't count as a tyrant, which feudal lord couldn't be called a 'benevolent ruler'? Just watch. If the tyrant Zheng Qiao isn't dead within five years, Geng Country will bring about its own destruction."
Shen Tang's curiosity was piqued.
"What makes him so 'tyrannical'?"
Qi Shan was just about to explain when a string of shrill curses rang out from the prisoner carts outside the teahouse. Before long, all that remained were the sounds of whipping and pitiful screams. Shen Tang peered through a gap in the teahouse's bamboo blinds, where she could just make out blood dripping from one corner of a prisoner cart.
Another prisoner cursed, "Even if you beat this old man to death, I'll say it! Zheng Qiao, you silver-tongued favorite, you bastard! You want this old man to dress in mourning and bear a coffin? Dream on, you ancestor of mine! I'll bang gongs and drums to send you, you good-for-nothing, to your grave!"
The fellow had white hair and a body packed with hard-earned muscle. His voice was as loud as thunder, each word brimming with vigor.
Shen Tang was witnessing the art of swearing in another world for the first time.
Damn, that was good!
Naturally, Geng Country's soldiers wouldn't let him keep cursing.
They immediately swung their whips at him. Every casual lash left a streak of blood. Yet the fellow stubbornly clenched his teeth, not letting out a single scream or plea for mercy. The harder they beat him, the more furiously he cursed.
They whipped him until he was on the verge of death. The soldier panted, then spat at the prisoner in the cart. "You rotten old thing!"
"You asked just now, Young Master Shen, 'What makes him a tyrant?' Now you've seen it for yourself, haven't you?" Qi Shan gestured toward the teahouse's exterior. Worried Shen Tang wouldn't understand, he started from the beginning. "Zheng Qiao is the current Geng Country Lord. When he was five, he entered Xin Country's inner palace with his birth mother as a hostage. They say he was clever and studious from a young age, and stunningly beautiful, too. By the time he was fifteen, he was famous throughout the royal capital. The Xin Country Lord was delighted and bestowed on him the name 'Nü Jiao.'"
"Was the Xin Country Lord seriously ill or something?"
Qi Shan replied, "He certainly was ill—foolish, incompetent, and lustful. He happened to set his eyes on a woman in another country's inner palace, Zheng Qiao's birth mother. He seized her by force and took Zheng Qiao along as an added bonus."
"Zheng Qiao had it rough, too..."
Qi Shan scoffed at her naivety and asked, "Are you assuming Zheng Qiao was forced by those in power and had no choice?"
"Wasn't he?"
The natural assumption was that the foolish king had seized them by force, wasn't it?
Qi Shan shook his head regretfully. "If that were the case, Zheng Qiao would indeed be pitiable. Unfortunately, it wasn't. He was extremely adept at making others do his dirty work. Over the years, he had many loyal ministers killed and eliminated his opponents. Anyone who offended him and called him a favored courtier would soon be framed and thrown into prison. Whether or not they were innocent, they'd be put through the Dantian Destruction Punishment."
What was the Dantian Destruction Punishment?
It was the cruel practice of destroying someone's Dantian. Once a person's Literary Heart or Martial Gall was destroyed, it couldn't be restored. Even if they were exonerated afterward, nothing could undo the damage. Zheng Qiao also bullied the weak and feared the strong, targeting only people from poor families or those without solid backing.
He had destroyed who knew how many promising scholars and martial practitioners.
In its early years, Xin Country had been relatively stable and its national strength was not weak. Even with a foolish king who failed to attend court on all 365 days of the year, spent his time circling the inner palace and plowing the fields between women's legs, and secretly sent people everywhere to search for beauties, the common people could still get by.
But after Zheng Qiao appeared, the country fell into greater chaos by the day.
Later, when the Geng Country royal family fell into internal strife, someone remembered that Zheng Qiao was still in another country as a hostage. Zheng Qiao had ambitions of his own and was unwilling to accept his situation, so he used money and promises of advancement to win over Xin Country's court officials. After a series of maneuvers, he successfully persuaded the Xin Country Lord to let him return home.
In just five years, Geng Country took advantage of Xin Country's consecutive years of drought and depleted military strength to launch a surprise attack. Its army swept forward like a broken bamboo, charging straight for the royal capital. At every place they conquered, the soldiers were allowed to burn, kill, loot, and abduct women, while Zheng Qiao subjected Xin Country's former officials to every kind of humiliation.
"Speaking of which, Zheng Qiao and the Gong Clan have a connection, too."
Shen Tang's scalp went numb as soon as she heard this.
She really hadn't known that.
And Qi Shan had gone ahead and said it with a smile.
"Back then, the Gong Clan was one of the main forces supporting Zheng Qiao's return to Geng Country. The amusing part is—after the Gong Clan was raided and exterminated, its men were exiled to the frontier as forced labor, and its women were sent to Xiaocheng's Entertainment Quarter. That was the very first order Zheng Qiao gave after capturing Xin Country's royal capital."
Xin Country—renamed Chong Tai after its destruction—was also the country Shen Tang and Qi Shan belonged to. Of course, it had already been annexed by Geng Country. Its hold on the territory was simply still unstable.
The world was in utter chaos, with the vassal states fighting brutal wars against one another.
Tang Mei was only eleven or twelve and still learning about the outside world. She'd need more time to grow before truly embarking on the path of seeking a vassal lord to serve—and she'd also need an opportunity to raise her banner and claim a kingdom.
"Secret Transmission" was a Word Spirit for keeping a conversation private by muffling sound. Its counterpart was "Walls Have Ears," which let someone eavesdrop on others.
Mourning Attire and Coffin: A ritual of surrender in ancient times for scholars and officials. More or less, it meant wearing mourning clothes... probably...
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