Wang Su lowered his head and slowly described his physical condition. His meaning was clear: he did not want to go to Yongliang.
Sima Zhao rubbed his nose. He wanted to refuse, but with his wife beside him, he found it difficult to contradict him outright.
Compared with Sima Shi, that cold-blooded political machine, Sima Zhao still had some human warmth.
He was more like a human being. He would protect his trusted aide Jia Chong even at the cost of offending all the ministers, hesitate over which of his two sons to name as heir, feel anger and sorrow, and treat his relatives well.
Sima Shi, however, could kill his own wife or son-in-law to achieve his aims. If Sima Zhao damaged the Sima Family's overall interests, he might even turn his hand against his younger brother.
Sima Yan had even more human warmth.
Historically, when the Jin army took Jianye, Sun Hao surrendered and Zhuge Jing fled. Sima Yan knew that Zhuge Jing's elder sister was the Princess of Langya and that he must have gone to her, so he went looking for him. Zhuge Jing fled into a privy, and Sima Yan stood right outside its door, recounting their childhood friendship and even wanting to apologize to him...
Later, when Sima Yan learned that his maternal uncle was extravagantly wasteful and competed with others in displays of wealth, his first thought was actually to secretly send his uncle things so he would not lose...
When he learned that his father-in-law had planted trusted aides and altered his edicts while he was unconscious, he merely gave him a brief scolding...
When ministers rebuked him to his face, he merely smiled and said nothing...
Though he was not much good at governing a country, there was truly nothing to