The Foolish Emperor

"Sigh..."

Zhao Zheng said calmly, "What are you sighing for?"

"They're all old friends I've worked with for years... Can't you help me talk them around?" Zhang Wenyuan asked helplessly.

"Fine words cannot persuade a ghost bent on dying. You know I've never liked wasting time on this sort of thing." Zhao Zheng brewed two cups of tea native to Earth Star.

"You tried persuading them? How did it go?"

Zhang Wenyuan sighed again. Naturally, the result had not been good...

Many people had taken Zhao Zheng's stance as a signal of compromise.

"Who knows? Maybe they even think Great Qin's vast territory today is entirely their achievement."

"...Surely not."

"How not?" Zhao Zheng sneered. "Things have gone too smoothly for people like them. They think the universe is nothing special, that Great Qin has already become a transcendent power...

"I said long ago that a war with a way out cannot temper anything worthwhile;

"Send them straight to the frontline battlefield of the human race. Those who survive will naturally become the backbone of the race!"

"Chu Yuan and Chen Xiao have stayed out of affairs for too long. That's why those latecomers think they're merely symbols, statues of gods...

"A statue only needs to sit there obediently for others to look at. It has no need to interfere in any concrete matters..."

"But you and I both know that Chu Yuan has never been soft-hearted!

"Do you know what Wei Huang taught him back then?"

"It was, 'If I have no power, then I have no obligations'..."

"If Chen Xiao is a 'tyrant,' then Chu Yuan is more like a 'foolish ruler'..."

Zhang Wenyuan forced a smile. "Does Chu Yuan know you describe him that way?"

"..."

Zhao Zheng's description was actually quite apt. Looking at their respective