Xiangying.
Xiang Yu and Luo Xin sat facing each other.
Xiang Yu had captured Empress Lü, Liu Ying, and Liu Le, but because of Luo Xin, he had not made things difficult for them, merely confining them to their quarters. Liu Le in particular was not even confined all that strictly, and her living conditions alone were much better than they had been in Pei County.
Wine goblets stood on the table. The atmosphere between the two men was not tense, but quite relaxed.
With a smile on his face, Xiang Yu said, "Your elder brother, Duke Luo Ling, speaks like a sage from the Book of Odes and sits as upright as a high official prescribed by ritual. His crown is always perfectly straight, his robes never have so much as a wrinkle, and before drinking, he always offers a toast to the Sage King. He is a man out of a book, truly standing apart from the world. He should not exist among mortals.
"I am the Son of Heaven in the mortal world, so I am unwilling to converse much with Duke Luo Ling. Now that you have come to my state, Young Master, I am delighted."
Luo Xin laughed at his words. His elder brother had always bound himself with stringent rules, because once he broke free of those restraints, the destruction he caused would be far too great.
Thinking of how kindly Xiang Yu treated him, and how Lü Zhi and the others had not been mistreated either, Luo Xin wanted to repay him a little.
So he asked in a grave voice, "King Xiang, a hunter in the mountains kills a deer to obtain its meat, not to let other beasts eat it. A farmer harvests grain to fill his belly, not to let