Liu Bang said, "Aren't you welcome?"
Fatty Ying slapped him hard on the back: "You're so tough!"
Hu Hai seemed quite uncomfortable in Liu Bang's arms, frowning. Suddenly, he saw Baozi and jumped to the ground, shouting, "Aunt Baozi!"
Baozi smiled and said, "Auntie can't hug you now. Here's a chocolate for you."
Hu Hai popped a piece of chocolate into his mouth and savored its taste, then took a piece with his little hand and offered it to Qin Shi Huang, saying, "Father, you should eat some too."
Fatty Ying said, "If Father doesn't eat, he'll get high blood sugar."
Because Liu Bang had held him before, young Hu Hai offered the food to Liu Bang, saying, "Then you eat it."
With a chocolate in his mouth, Liu Bang remarked, "This child is so generous."
Hu Hai pointed to Baozi's belly and said to Qin Shi Huang, "Father, if Aunt gives birth to a younger brother, how about we make him the King of Chu?"
Qin Shi Huang smiled and said, "Very good."
Liu Bang muttered, "You two spendthrift men—Hu Hai, let me tell you, from now on, we can't just give our things to outsiders, understand?"
Hu Hai snatched the chocolate from his hand, put it in his mouth, and said, "I understand."
We all laughed and scolded, "Don't teach the kids bad habits."
Seeing so many old friends, Baozi was finally in high spirits and said, "Let's eat, I'm hungry."
Fatty Ying said, "What are we eating? Look at us. We've been hungry for ages."
Baozi said, "It's a pity I can't use the spatula right now, otherwise I would have prepared a feast for you."
Liu Bang said, "Then let's have our special treat—hot pot."
Hu Hai clapped his hands and said, "Good, good! I love hot pot the most."
Liu Bang asked in surprise, "You've eaten this?"
Li Shishi smiled and brought out a copper pot, saying, "Although this is the Qin Dynasty, the living conditions are much better than where you are." As she spoke, she took out a bunch of tofu, wide rice noodles, and other things. These were all things that Jin Shaoyan would buy every time he came back. They were all kept in the royal freezer of Qin Shi Huang—the kind that's underground. In the Qin Dynasty, if you wanted to eat an ice pop in the summer, only a few people in the whole country could do it.
As we busied ourselves preparing the food, Liu Bang, looking rather embarrassed, approached Qin Shi Huang, patted Hu Hai's head, and said, "Brother Ying, I think it's necessary to explain something to you about our relationship..."
Qin Shi Huang waved his hand and said, "Say no more." He pointed at Ersha and said, "If we start arguing about everything, it will never end."
Liu Bang seized the opportunity to back down, saying, "That's right, that's right. When you're in the world, you're not in control of your own destiny. Brother Ying is a wise man—besides, this is also Xiao Qiang's fault..."
I yelled, "What's it to me?"
Liu Bang said, "If you hadn't stopped giving me my medicine earlier, how could things have gotten to this point?"
I said indignantly, "Still not satisfied? I was already taking risks even when I carried the drugs in my socks. They should just stuff them in their anuses like drug dealers do..."
Liu Bang: "Ugh..."
We laughed and joked. This was the most the five of us had gathered since the group split up. As for their little conflicts, they'd actually let them go in their past lives. Like Qin Shi Huang said, if we were to hold grudges, almost all my clients would be at each other's throats, and Yuwen Chengdu and Li Bai would be enemies. Especially considering the power struggles between emperors, there was hardly any hatred involved. If you can't live in a house and you can't let others live in it either, how would the secondhand housing market function?
Just then, a servant came to report that a group of people had arrived at the gate of the mansion. The man said his surname was Xiang and he wanted to see Xiao Qiang.
Before I could say anything, Xiang Yu's boisterous laughter rang out in the courtyard: "I said I know Xiao Qiang, and I mean it. Do you think I'd lie to you?" He had probably just barged in. It wasn't that my servants were afraid to discipline him because of his size, but rather that they had been trained by Jin Shaoyan and his wife to be very polite. The Xiao Mansion was poised to become the Hilton of the Qin Dynasty.
In the blink of an eye, Xiang Yu had already pushed open the door and walked in. Liu Bang's face changed drastically, and he scurried under the table.
Li Shishi and Baozi greeted him, "Brother Xiang!" "Big Guy!" Behind Xiang Yu stood Yu Ji, who was also heavily pregnant, flanked by Xiao Huan and Hua Mulan. Even Er Sha and Fatty stood up. Er Sha stretched out his long hand towards Xiang Yu, saying, "You've come?"
Xiang Yu completely ignored him. Sure enough—the silly boy went straight to Mulan, took her hand, and said affectionately, "You've been doing well lately, haven't you?" It seems the big guy had been treated before.
After another round of pleasantries, Baozi, holding Hua Mulan's hand, complained, "You promised to take me with you to the battle!" Hua Mulan laughed, "You're already the Grand Marshal, why would I need to take you?" She then peered into the room curiously, "Where's Brother Liu? Isn't he with you?"
As soon as Xiang Yu entered the room, he saw Liu Bang crawling under the table. He smiled and came to the table, saying, "Come out. I won't beat you up. I just want to ask you a few questions."
Liu Bang poked his head out and asked, "What do you want?" He was still quite afraid of Xiang Yu. The feud between them was rather complicated. To put it another way, if the empire was like a house, Qin Shi Huang only moved out before Liu and Xiang inherited it. But this secondhand house was cheap and affordable; they had jointly invested in it. They had originally agreed that each would get a small bedroom and a living room, but while Xiang Yu was out buying paint to furnish the new house, Liu Bang changed the property deed to his own name…
Xiang Yu pulled Liu Bang out and placed him beside him. He asked, "I'm just wondering why I, with my foresight, still can't defeat you—I even know your every military plan."
Liu Bang said, "I don't feel anything. I think you fought even worse this time than last time. Where's your Fan Zeng?"
Xiang Yu said, "Since I know your plan, what's the point of having strategists? I know exactly what your Zhang Liang and Han Xin will do next."
Liu Bang spread his hands and said, "See, you've found the reason, haven't you? You thought you knew what they would do, so you deployed your troops accordingly. We did suffer a small loss at first. If it were last time, we would have definitely lost. But if Zhang Liang and Han Xin only knew how to follow the rules and think with their old minds, they wouldn't be Zhang Liang and Han Xin—how wicked they are."
Hua Mulan said, "It's like playing rock-paper-scissors. Brother Xiang thought that others would play rock-paper-scissors in order, but after losing once, they changed their thinking. Brother Xiang underestimated his opponent and was arrogant, so it would be difficult for him not to lose."
Liu Bang clicked his tongue and said, "Look, even a girl like her is better than you—Mulan, Baozi is the Grand Marshal of the Qin Dynasty, how about you go to the Han Dynasty and be my Grand General?"
Xiang Yu punched his head and laughed, "You've overlooked the biggest problem: people change."
Liu Bang cautiously asked, "Are you done asking? Let's eat when you're done."
At this moment, Fatty Ying stepped in to mediate, saying, "Let's not talk politics, let's eat." Little Hu Hai picked up a sweet potato, dipped it in the pot, and was about to put it in his mouth when Fatty Ying slapped it away, yelling, "It's not cooked yet!"
The crowd roared, "Let's eat! Let's eat!"
Chapter 189 Tang Dynasty People in Tokyo
During the banquet, Liu Bang suddenly exclaimed, "I just realized that, apart from me, you all have families to support."
I laughed and said, "Why don't you go back and bring your tigress with you?"
Liu Bang said, "That's not enough trouble yet. That woman can't have peace wherever she goes. I've already wronged Brother Ying enough."