Chapter 65 Qin: Ha, you stubborn tsundere 65

"Then you don't have to sit; standing is better for your health."

"You're talking about humans, but I'm not human." 'Zhao' circled around the table, occasionally waving her hand in front of the guests. After circling around, she only confirmed one thing: no one could see her.

Looking around the entire venue, apart from the palace servants standing behind each guest and the attendants moving between the tables, only 'Zhao' was still standing, and the seats were completely full, with not a single empty seat.

Her slightest sound was enough to attract the attention of the two kings and the people. The other guests, as usual, mingled and chatted. The banquet held to celebrate did not have many rules. Most of the people present were members of the royal family, and a small number were court officials.

Most people did not notice the subtle movements of the king and the king sitting at the head of the table. Some noticed but did not care. Others carefully followed the gazes of the two, but there was nothing there and nothing special about it.

Qin kindly pointed to the seat a little in front of the first seat on the left, left prime minister Taishu Jiu, and instructed the attendants behind him: "Give her a seat there."

The banquet still adhered to the tradition of kneeling instead of using tables and chairs, which is quite different from the later practice of eating around a round table. There were three seats in the first row at the head of the table and four rows in the second row on both sides.

The guests sat facing each other on both sides, with a distance that was both close and far. If they wanted to talk to the person next to them, they would usually reach out to the person to their left or right. Few people would have a conversation with the person opposite them across the distance.

There were also specific arrangements for seating, all of which were decided in advance by the master of ceremonies.

Although there was still some distance between the upper and lower seats, a seat could be squeezed in if one really wanted to, but it would still look out of place. 'Zhao' was not thinking about being out of place. She quietly watched the other people's actions, her eyes slightly moving but she did not say anything to object.

As soon as 'Qin' uttered her name, a servant standing behind her called out 'Wei' and went to do her bidding.

There wasn't a fixed number of these seats. Qinian Palace had quite a few spares. Soon, someone carried out a long, narrow table, and servants brought out the seats. Several other people brought up the same dishes as those served to the officials.

No one questioned why 'Qin' had suddenly added seats; they just secretly glanced at the row on the left, wanting to see whose seat was better than the Left Prime Minister's.

Zhao, who was entitled to a seat even better than the Left Prime Minister's, didn't even glance at Qin. He walked straight up, smiling broadly, and squeezed next to Qin. He put his arm around Qin's arm and said in a deliberately sweet voice, "No need to trouble yourself, I'll sit here."

'Qin': ...

Seeing that Qin was turning its head to look at itself, Zhao did not feel ashamed of losing its country and smiled generously.

'Qin': ...

Sometimes, when even death doesn't matter, one can be shameless even if they're not human.

Of course, this doesn't mean that the person is shameless; it simply means that 'Zhao' successfully learned some of humanity's finest virtues.

If you have no shame, you are invincible.

Zhao leaned affectionately on Qin's shoulder, which made Ying Zheng fall silent for a moment. This coming-of-age ceremony was far too shocking for him.

It's barely acceptable for Zhao to come and offer his congratulations... no, it's completely unacceptable!

He subconsciously gripped the sword beside him, stroking the intricate patterns on the hilt—the sword Zhao had given him.

It sounds absurd, but it's a fact that has already happened. No one at the table noticed this, but he was aware of it.

What happened today alone is enough to make you think about for a whole year.

Qin raised his hand and touched the back of Zhao's neck. Under Ying Zheng's observation, it looked as if he was embracing Zhao. The people below were even more confused as to why Qin suddenly raised his hand.

She smiled threateningly: "You're so close, aren't you afraid of dying?"

Zhao felt a moment of panic, but quickly said with certainty, "You won't make a move, at least not today."

"Sit up straight, don't be spineless."

Hearing this tacit approval, Zhao straightened his posture and occupied a seat at the edge of the room.

She wisely refrained from forcibly placing herself between Ying Zheng and 'Qin', occupying only a marginal position, and 'Qin' ultimately chose to let her go.

Since Zhao has already obtained the sword of state, Qin will definitely benefit more.

Qin also lowered his hand, and two pairs of small black birds appeared in the room. They shouldn't have approached the crowd, but they flew around the room as if they had come to celebrate the crowning of the King of Qin today.

It was more like Qin summoned auspicious omens with a wave of his hand to congratulate King Zheng of Qin, and the ministers at the banquet once again witnessed the status of this King Zheng in Qin's heart.

Leaving aside the distant past, there is no doubt that he has surpassed King Zhuangxiang. As for whether he can surpass King Zhaoxiang in the future, everyone at the banquet was pondering this.

To cover things up, Qin instructed his attendants to place more water on the newly added seats. As many black birds perched and drank at those seats, the people below assumed they had discovered the truth and assumed the seats were reserved for the black birds.

As a national auspicious creature, it certainly deserves to occupy such a seat. Everyone was convinced and would occasionally look at that seat with curious eyes, or more precisely, at the extremely rare guest (guest bird) standing on the table.

Meanwhile, Zhao, standing next to Qin, was pointing at the food in front of her, saying, "This looks nice, but it's cold. How can it taste good?"

"And this one, it has a layer of oil floating on top, oh my god~~~"

In this day and age, being able to afford food is already a blessing. As for the criticisms that Zhao is pointing out, all we can say is that everyone is in the same boat, so let's not judge each other's situation.

"What would you like to eat? The official will order some more."

Zhao tilted his head uncertainly, looking past Qin, and spoke to Ying Zheng: "Are you asking me?"

Qin sat upright, and watching Zhao act foolishly, he suddenly found it a little funny.

King Zheng of Qin nodded without changing his expression: "Exactly."

"I..." Zhao opened her mouth, then stopped speaking. She wanted to eat that...

She didn't dare, she probably wouldn't be able to eat it in her lifetime, and she felt quite regretful.

Zhao was happy for only a short time before he became unhappy again. Alas, what a useless King Zhao.

Zhao looked up warily and glanced at Qin. The reason Zhao looked at Qin like that was because she had shrunk again.

Zhao, who is 1.55 meters tall, has to look up at Qin, who is 1.70 meters tall. She wasn't originally that short. But never mind, it's all tears when I talk about it.

She is now much shorter than Ying Zheng, and looks more like Ying Zheng's sister than his biological mother.

Are you laughing at me?

“No,” Qin said, suppressing his smile. He raised his hand and conjured up a pile of illusory food in an empty space on the table. He then picked up a slice of meat with his chopsticks and placed it on Zhao’s plate. “Eat up. You’ll grow taller if you eat more.”

Zhao suspiciously picked up his chopsticks, grabbed a slice of meat, and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing it.

She frowned: "This is no different from eating air, what's the point?"

She thought that Qin was so generous in using his spiritual energy to conjure up some food, but she underestimated how stingy Qin was.

Qin replied naturally, "It looks beautiful, and there's no excess oil. Doesn't this resemble mountains and rivers? It's something that no human could create."

"What's the use of a bunch of useless trash?" Zhao said with a look of disgust.

'Qin': 'Then don't eat it.'

As she spoke, she looked up at Ying Zheng with a smile. Ying Zheng understood and cooperated by picking up the illusory chopsticks to serve food to 'Zhao'.

It was clearly a very respectful act, and it was the ruler of a country doing such a small thing for her, but Zhao was not particularly happy.

Because 'Qin' repeated, 'You can choose not to eat this waste.'

After struggling for a moment, Zhao chose to save face.

Over there, King Zheng of Qin, along with the rest of the Qin family, was receiving toasts from numerous members of the royal family and ministers, while Zhao Ji was following behind them.

At this time, the liquid was more of a beverage with a hint of alcohol than wine, and it could not compare to the wines of later generations.

The only person present who knew how to brew high-concentration alcohol didn't have time to do it at the moment; the only item on the research list of the chemistry research lab at Qingjiu School was medical alcohol.

No one paid attention to Zhao, who was still struggling with her decision. Taking advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention, she quickly picked up her chopsticks and tasted a fruit, which was no different from before.

She curled her lip: Ha, nothing special.

Zhao pretended nothing had happened and knelt upright in place, gazing calmly at the people below. No matter how much the people below fawned over Qin, Zhao didn't find it too uncomfortable.

She was also calculating in her mind how long it would take for 'Qin' to annex all the sisters on this land.

Until the banquet ended, Zhao did not utter another word. As the banquet was about to end, she gracefully rose and walked towards the direction of the Zhao Kingdom, only glancing back briefly as she was about to leave the main hall.

She saw 'Qin' sitting there, his gaze as calm as when he was born.

They were all born to resist the Quanrong, but ultimately they went down different paths. I wonder if 'Qin' will be lonely in the future, and that no spirit will accompany her on that path.

After Zhao left, Ying Zheng and Qin also noticed that an inconspicuous fruit was missing from the plate. Ying Zheng had never seen the bright red small round fruit before, but he remembered it clearly.

'Qin': Ha, what a smug jerk.

****

After King Zheng of Qin completed his coming-of-age ceremony, it marked the beginning of his formal reign. Right Chancellor Lü Buwei chose to obediently hand over most of his power, thus retaining his position as Right Chancellor and continuing to work for the Qin Dynasty in a 996 work schedule.

The biggest difference after taking power is probably... the endless government affairs to handle every day, and the overtime work that starts at dawn.

The sheer number of them made Qin's scalp tingle. He then stepped in to help Ying Zheng, for example, by picking out the empty boasts and empty reports from various places: "These are all boasts; they contain no real content whatsoever."

Ying Zheng nodded. He flipped through the stack of documents, not looking at the contents but only at who sent them.

Although paper was available and all letters were replaced by more convenient memorials, such a thick stack of documents piled up like a small mountain made one's hands tired just looking at them.

In the past, it was fine to use bamboo slips. Out of consideration for the bamboo slips, they wrote in a concise manner and avoided writing excessive flattery.

Now, paper has been used instead. Nowadays, even lower-quality paper is not expensive, and families with slightly better financial conditions can afford it. This has led to written language becoming less concise and more like spoken language.

The flattery in the memorial was the same as always, but it took up a much larger page.

Some people even mix seal script and simplified Chinese characters, which is simply making things difficult for their bosses. How can they expect to get promoted if they do that?

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The author notes: The *Wu Yue Chun Qiu* (Annals of Wu and Yue), in the biography of Prince Guang, states, "Those who cannot avenge their fathers will ultimately become useless." This is a derogatory term, used metaphorically to describe someone who is useless or a hindrance (a criticism). "Useless" is a very ancient word (hhh).

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