Qin Wuyang's expression suddenly changed, and he gripped one end of the map tightly with one hand. Jing Ke glanced at him, silently removed Qin Wuyang's hand, and remained calm.
At Ying Pangzi's shout, two groups of warriors rushed into the hall. The leader was General Wang, who clasped his hands in a commanding gesture and said, "Your Majesty!"
Fatty Ying shouted with a grim face, "Take the assassin away!"
With a thud, Qin Wuyang, pale-faced, stumbled and fell, trembling like a leaf.
General Wang looked around blankly and asked, "Your Majesty, who is this assassin you are talking about?"
Suddenly, the fat man pointed his chubby finger at me and shouted angrily, "Are you blind? Seize this man right now!"
When the courtiers saw the king pointing at me and calling me an assassin, they didn't seem surprised at all; they all looked at us with amused smiles. They knew that the king enjoyed playing such jokes on the King of Qi, and that the King of Qi was the only one in the entire country to receive this "favor."
General Wang glanced at me, then at Qin Shi Huang, his expression extremely unnatural, a mixture of amusement and bewilderment. Yesterday, within half an hour, he had received over a dozen different imperial edicts, some ordering executions and others granting pardons. Of course, he wouldn't dare do anything to me now, but the king had already given his orders in court, and disobeying them would be wrong. Finally, General Wang could only helplessly instruct his subordinates, "Go, first invite the King of Qi down."
I've been trying to coax and plead with Fatty for ages, but he just won't eat or drink. It's not his fault, though. Before he ate the temptation herb, we only met briefly. Whether he even remembers me is another matter. Having a complete stranger standing next to him in the royal court, relaying orders, is naturally something Fatty is very unhappy about. According to his logic, he'd kill him first and worry about the consequences later.
General Wang's two men, who had also participated in yesterday's operation, knew that the King might change his mind at any time. They suppressed their laughter and pretended to walk towards me, deliberately slowing their pace. I, however, was nearly frantic. The effects of the drug on Fatty and the others were unpredictable; who knew how long this lapse in concentration would last?
Two guards slowly walked up, one on each side, and one of them gently said, "King Qi, come out with us first, and come back up when the King calls you."
I was waving my arms and legs around in their arms, shouting back, "Your Majesty, Brother Ying, Fatty, wake up!"
Everyone shuddered...
Qin Shi Huang rolled his eyes and suddenly waved to his two guards: "Get out of the way."
The two guards exchanged a smile, stood at the bottom of the steps, and said crisply, "Yes!" They even winked at me in unison. They were also child soldiers the same age as Li Jingshui and Wei Tiezhu, still with childlike hearts.
I wiped the sweat from my forehead and let out a long sigh, saying, "Brother Ying..."
The fat man whispered, "We're starving. Hurry up and get that skinny guy to the palace."
I asked worriedly, "Are you sure you can handle this?"
The fat man confidently declared, "No problem at all." Even after saying this, he continued muttering to himself, like an old woman chanting Buddhist mantras. I listened closely and couldn't help but chuckle. It turned out the fat man was silently reciting the Contra cheat code for summoning 30 people. "Up, up, haha (down, down), left, right, left, right..."
After waiting a little while longer, the fat man seemed to have really stabilized.
After all that commotion, Qin Wuyang's fragile nerves finally snapped. Feeling guilty, he turned ashen-faced at the mere mention of the fat man's name, and nearly collapsed when the guards approached. Even after the guards retreated, one of Qin Wuyang's legs was still trembling, and his lips were pale. I seized the opportunity and quickly asked, "Envoy Jing, what happened to your companion?"
Jing Ke calmly replied, "I am but a crude and uncouth man who has never seen the world. I apologize for making a fool of myself in front of Your Majesty and everyone else." He then took the map of Dukang and said, "Now, please allow me to explain this map to Your Majesty."
"Approved!" I shouted excitedly, secretly relieved: finally on the right track.
Ersha, holding the map, walked up step by step. I glanced back at Qin Shi Huang, who nodded slightly to me, indicating that he was alright. I felt a sense of relief; the eight bows were done, and only the final hurdle remained.
Ersha walked to the table with his head down, silently unfolded the map, and said, "Your Majesty, please look..." At that moment, he was facing away from the courtiers, blocking my view. I made a strange face at him, calling out, "Kezi, Kezi!" hoping for a response. Ersha ignored me and slowly unfurled the map, saying, "This is the most fertile land in Yan, the population..."
I suddenly had a bad feeling. Logically speaking, now that there are only the three of us up there, it wouldn't be hard for us to play some tricks on each other. But isn't Ersha getting a little too into character? If we didn't know his purpose beforehand, we would really be fooled by him—that's a basic quality of an assassin.
I stood next to Qin Shi Huang and whispered in his ear, "Brother Ying, something's not right..."
Qin Shi Huang was bent over, staring intently at the map, his eyes filled with greed, and he didn't hear a word I said.
At this moment, history finally aligned perfectly with the last time. Jing Ke unfolded the map to the very end, where a dagger was revealed. With lightning speed, he grabbed it and thrust it at Qin Shi Huang: "Hey!"
With a short, crisp sound, the dagger stabbed forward like lightning. The distance between Jing Ke and Qin Shi Huang was short, and the fat man seemed somewhat distracted; it was clear he couldn't dodge. Fortunately, I was prepared. I grabbed the fat man's shoulder and pulled him back, the tip of Jing Ke's dagger barely touching his clothes. If I hadn't modified the dagger, sharpening the tip into a rounded shape, the fat man would probably be injured by now.
After missing his first attack, Ersha jumped onto the table without hesitation, sitting halfway down on it, and lunged at Fatty again. I shoved Fatty Ying aside and whispered, "Brother Ying, run!"
Qin Shi Huang glanced at me and Jing Ke in alarm, then turned and ran toward a bronze pillar. Jing Ke, without a word, nimbly jumped off the table and gave chase.
Cold sweat instantly soaked through my cotton underwear—I realized that these two people no longer recognized each other at that moment! Damn it, it really proves the saying: no one can stop the wheels of history from rolling forward.
At this moment in the royal court, Fatty Ying was running around a bronze pillar, with Jing Ke chasing after him, gritting his teeth. My mind was a mess, and I involuntarily took two steps forward, but I didn't know who to help or what to do.
When Qin Shi Huang circled the second ring of the hall, the assembled officials erupted in alarm. Some rushed forward, some retreated, and many more shouted, "Assassin!" Jing Ke gripped his dagger tightly and thrust it repeatedly, the blade clanging against the bronze pillar. My heart pounded with anxiety. The pre-arranged plan was completely disrupted. Whom should I help now?
After circling halfway, just as Ying Pangzi disappeared behind the pillar, Jing Ke barely reached the assembled officials. A thin, wiry old man, already clutching a medicine pouch, roared and threw it at Jing Ke. Jing Ke, unaware of the contents, instinctively dodged, giving Ying Pangzi a brief respite. He gripped his sword with one hand and held the scabbard with the other, trying to draw it, but his arm was too short halfway. He tried to pull the scabbard back, but it got stuck in his belt. Seeing the urgency of the situation, the crowd erupted in a cacophony of shouts. Amidst the commotion, a sharp, high-pitched voice cried out, "King, take the sword!" It was Zhao Gao—"I didn't get a single task that was supposed to be mine!"
Qin Shi Huang paused for a moment, drew his long sword from behind his back, glanced at the menacing Er Sha behind him, and muttered, "You kid, are you going to kill us again?"
Ersha also suddenly stopped in his tracks, staring at the dagger in his hand, and stammered, "I don't know..."
I was overjoyed. The two of them had regained consciousness at the last moment, and they were both standing behind the bronze pillar, so no one could see what was happening inside. Before I could even go over and the three of us could argue, Qin Shi Huang suddenly slashed at Er Sha with his sword and ran out in a panic. Er Sha gasped in pain, his eyes widening, and he followed suit.
At this moment, a person suddenly rushed through the crowd, running towards them while shouting, "Jing Ke, don't panic, I'm here to help you!" It was Qin Wuyang, who had been trembling the whole time.
Normally, the guards would have entered the hall long ago given the commotion. But today was a special day. Everyone knew that the king liked to joke around with the Prince of Qi. If it was the king who gave the order, there was nothing that could be done. As a result, a group of ministers joined in the commotion, and the guards just laughed it off. Anyway, there was nothing wrong with what they were doing. The palace guards only obeyed the king's orders.
Therefore, Qin Wuyang, who should have been torn to pieces long ago, actually mustered up the courage to rush forward after a long pause.
This is driving me almost crazy. Not only are two crazy people fighting each other in a seemingly real but actually fake way, but now there's someone else who genuinely wants to kill the fat guy.
I grabbed everything on the table that could be used as a hidden weapon and threw it at Qin Wuyang. Surprisingly, the kid was quite agile, dodging them all and getting close to Fatty and Ersha. After all, he was an assassin personally chosen by Prince Dan; aside from being a scoundrel in his childhood, his skills were passable.
Qin Wuyang blocked their path, arms outstretched, ready to grab Qin Shi Huang. In the brief moment the fat man hesitated, Er Sha, sword in hand, viciously lunged at his back. Qin Wuyang was shocked, dodging the fat man's attack and grabbing Jing Ke's weapon, shouting, "Don't kill him! Capture him alive to save our lives!"
Taking advantage of the moment, Fatty Ying slipped through the gap between the two and disappeared behind the pillar in the blink of an eye. Jing Ke's eyes flashed, and he suddenly said, "You're right, we can't kill him!" As he spoke, he glanced at me. I realized that in that instant, Jing Ke had gone through another back-and-forth. If it hadn't been for Qin Wuyang, even a blunt sword would probably have already taken Fatty's life.
I was both shocked and anxious. Seeing that Qin Wuyang had already secured one point of the pillar, and not knowing when the two of them would turn against each other and one wrong step would lead to eternal regret, I frantically emptied everything I was carrying onto the table, and then without thinking, stuffed the cookie that had been copied from Zhao Bailian into my mouth...
The moment the biscuit went down, the world seemed to change completely. The clamor from the courtiers became incredibly distant, and the three people in front of me were radiating a radiation that gave me a headache. If I'm not mistaken, this is what Zhao Shazi often refers to as: murderous aura!
This murderous aura sometimes emanates from one person, sometimes from two, and sometimes it vanishes into thin air. The reason for this is probably because Ersha and Fatty's memories are constantly intertwined, causing them to treat each other differently at different times.
I glanced at the things on the table, wrapped a small cauldron in my coat, and then, like an idiot, shouted "There's murderous intent!" before joining the fray.