Two choices
In Yi Shen's room, a boy was sleeping soundly on the bed, wrapped in a blanket. Suddenly, he turned over, disturbed by the aroma of food. His stomach growled with hunger, and he reluctantly opened his eyes. He changed his clothes, which were soft and clean, and cautiously glanced around the room before fixing his gaze on a man and a woman at the table.
He didn't know the names of the man and woman, only that the woman was General Wu, who led troops into battle.
He wielded immense power, capable of giving or taking lives, and not only did he push her in public and blame her for his father's death, but he also verbally abused her!
Thinking of this, he threw off the covers and was about to run outside.
The food must have been freshly prepared; the soup was still steaming. Wu Qi swallowed the pastry in his mouth, stood up, and stopped him.
He struggled and cried out, "What are you doing! Let me go!!"
Wu Qi said, "Let's eat. You've slept for so long, aren't you hungry?"
The child stared at her suspiciously, took two steps back as if ready to run away at any moment, and pretended to be angry, saying, "You... what does it matter to you whether I'm hungry or not?"
Wu Qi chuckled inwardly: "Knowing that running away means you don't want to die, and if you don't want to die, you have to eat. As for you calling me bad, you'll have to wait until you've eaten before you hold a grudge against me."
"I……"
"Eat first, we'll talk after you finish eating." Wu Qi pulled him to the table and sat him down. Yi Shen handed him a pair of chopsticks. He looked at the chopsticks, then looked up at Yi Shen before taking them.
Wu Qi placed the food on the table in front of the boy and asked, "My name is Wu Qi, his name is Yi Shen, what's your name?"
"Jingzhu".
"It sounds nice. Who named you?"
Jing Zhu gripped his chopsticks tightly, hesitated for a moment, and then said, "My father."
Wu Qi nodded, placed a chicken leg on Jing Zhu's plate, and continued to ask, "Who else is in your family?"
Jing Zhu lowered his head and said, "It's over. I'm the only one left."
Wu Qi then asked, "Has the post-war compensation reached you yet?"
Jing Zhu suddenly put down his chopsticks and looked at Yi Shen. Yi Shen's appearance seemed to appeal to children, or perhaps it was his looks that easily made them lower their guard. Seeing Jing Zhu looking at him, Yi Shen reached out and patted Jing Zhu's head, softly asking, "Didn't you receive it?"
Jing Zhu nodded.
Because there was only one child left in the family who was still a child, he embezzled the post-war pension money, leaving the child to live alone. Wu Qi said, "Then someone should die."
Jing Zhu was initially a little apprehensive, but after swallowing the first bite of food, he no longer felt apprehensive.
He was so hungry.
After his father went to war, Jingzhu was left alone at home. He was tall, looking like he was eight or nine years old, but he was actually only seven. He was thin and bony, and to save money, he cooked for himself at home. The family was not well-off to begin with, and the money his father left behind was originally intended for his schooling. But when he woke up one morning, the money was gone. He knew it had been stolen. He went to ask for it back, but the thief accused him of framing someone. He reported it to the authorities, but the whole city was busy with the war, and no one paid any attention.
Upon receiving news of his father's death in battle, he cried at home for several days. He even secretly went to the army camp, but was driven away. The rice and flour at home had long been exhausted, and the old lady next door, seeing his pitiful state, would occasionally let him come over for a few meals.
He didn't want to trouble the old lady, so he gradually stopped going.
I've been starving for days.
After finishing the meal, Wu Qi said, "Alright. You've eaten my meal, so I'll give you two choices. First, I'll help you get back your post-war compensation and allow you to search for your father's remains. Also, considering your youth, I can give you more money. Second, come back to the capital with me."
Jing Zhu put down his chopsticks, lowered his head in silence, and pondered. After a long while, he replied, "I want to go back to the capital with you."
“You pushed me, aren’t you afraid I’ll go to the capital and kill you?” Wu Qi asked.
Jing Zhu shook his head, and when he looked up at Wu Qi again, he had a depth that was not in his age. "You won't kill me."
Even if our fates are uncertain, you will still come back to the capital with me?
Jing Zhu nodded.
“Perhaps you can have both choices.” Wu Qi smiled, patted his head firmly, then got up and handed him an outer robe and cloak. “Put these on, and we’ll go ask for the post-war compensation, and then get back the money your father left you!”
Jing Zhu took it blankly and asked, "How did you know the money my father left me was stolen?"
Wu Qi said, "I've done a quick check, let's go!"
Wu Qi and Yi Shen took Jing Zhu to the place where the pensions were distributed. They repeatedly asked if there had been any omissions or embezzlements. Naturally, the person could not admit to Wu Qi that he had withheld the post-war pensions and repeatedly said no.
"Really? I'll ask you one last time, is there any omission or withholding of hair?" Wu Qi played with Jing Zhu's hair with her fingers, appearing nonchalant, making it unclear whether she was indifferent or about to get angry.
"No! Young general, how could we dare to underpay or embezzle post-war compensation!"
"I see..." Wu Qi let go of that strand of hair, covered Jing Zhu's eyes with her palm, and still not satisfied, moved her hand to his shoulder, used a little force to turn Jing Zhu's body around. At the same time, she took out her sword and, before the man could speak, directly slit his neck.
A few drops of blood splattered onto Wu Qi and Jing Zhu, and Yi Shen raised his hand.
A few drops of blood splattered onto his sleeve.
When Wu Qi covered his eyes with his hand, Jing Zhu knew that Wu Qi was going to kill someone. But Wu Qi turned around and before he could react, he saw everyone in the room take a deep breath, and then they knelt down on the ground with a thud. Then came the smell of blood.
Before the man could finish speaking, Wu Qi killed him.
“We’ve already investigated, yet you still stubbornly refuse to admit it.” Wu Qi threw his sword on the ground and lazily glanced at the people kneeling on the ground. “You dare to embezzle and fail to pay the post-war compensation. You’d better return it within three days. If I find out again, this is what will happen to you.”
The blood on Yi Shen's sleeves was impossible to clean completely. He didn't want to go out wearing bloodstained clothes, and Wu Qi didn't want to see blood on his clothes either, so the three of them went back to the courtyard to wait for Yi Shen to change his clothes.
Wu Qi sat down on the steps in front of the door, and Jing Zhu followed her down, asking, "Aren't you afraid of his family retaliating against you for killing him like this?"
"If you're afraid, people won't retaliate?" Wu Qi said. "Then I've killed so many people on the battlefield, wouldn't I be killed in retaliation? If I don't kill him today, he won't know remorse and will become even more ruthless. Others present will follow suit, and people like you will die. And there are too many people like you."
Jing Zhu remained silent, but Wu Qi continued, "He gained wealth, while others lost their lives. Shouldn't he have died?"
Jing Zhu asked again, "Then aren't you afraid when you kill people?"
For some reason, Wu Qi recalled the torrential rain in the mountains and the escape from the dilapidated temple. She sighed, "I was afraid; I even had nightmares about it. But if I didn't kill them, they would kill me. I didn't want to die at their hands, so I had no choice but to kill them. So, in a sense, it was...it was they who courted death?"
At this point, Wu Qi laughed at himself. Following the principle that it didn't matter if the child was led astray, since he wouldn't go astray and someone would teach him later, he continued to say to Jing Zhu: "You can think of it as anyone who wants to kill you as courting death."
Jing Zhu nodded and said, "I've got it."
"...There's nothing to remember about this, and it's okay to forget it." Wu Qi felt genuinely ashamed for teaching a seven-year-old about fighting and killing. "You really can forget it."
Jing Zhu added, "I've got it."
Wu Qi was at a loss for words and could only think that he should never speak carelessly in front of this child again.
After Yi Shen changed his clothes, the three of them went to ask Jing Zhu's father for the money he had left for him. At first, the man refused, claiming that Jing Zhu was making false accusations and that his father had not left him any money at all.
Jing Zhu said, "You're talking nonsense! My father clearly left me money. Besides him, only the two of us in this world know where that money was hidden! You're the one who took it!"
"Why would I talk nonsense! You're not your father's biological son, why would he leave you money! Does he want to leave the money he worked so hard to earn to an adopted son?"
Jing Zhu: "What... I'm a child my father picked up?"
"Didn't your father tell you?! You're an adopted child! You have no parents! And you still have to spend your father's money. It's pitiful that he hasn't married for so long because he's carrying this burden of yours!!"
“You’re lying!” Jing Zhu said.
"I'm lying!? Your father and I found you together! I told him to pretend we didn't see you. But he wouldn't listen and insisted on bringing you home to raise you! I'm lying!?"
Jing Zhu was only seven years old, yet this person was telling a seven-year-old child that he was an orphan, that he had no father or mother, and that he was a burden to his adoptive father. Wu Qi drew his sword and placed it against the man's neck, saying, "Whether you are lying or not, I ask you, did you take the money his father left him?"
The sword slashed across his neck, and the man took a few steps back in fear. Wu Qi's sword followed, and he suddenly knelt on the ground, begging for mercy, "I'll take it, I'll give it back to him right away, please... please be magnanimous and don't kill me!"
The money eventually returned to Jing Zhu's hands; some was spent, but a considerable amount remained. Jing Zhu took out some of the money and gave it to the elderly neighbor, saying, "Thank you for taking care of me, Grandma."
The elderly neighbor refused to accept it, saying, "It's good that you took it back. I don't need the money. You can keep it."
Jing Zhu placed the money on the table, bowed to the old lady, and said, "Thank you. I'm leaving now."
The old woman said, "Where are you going? You're still so young."
Jing Zhu said, "The capital city."
That night, Jing Zhu found his father's body again. He had slit his throat with a sword, but the rest of his body was fine. He gave his father a proper burial with money, knelt on the ground, kowtowed three times to the tombstone, and said, "Father, I'm going to the capital. You can scold me, or you can hit me in my dreams."
Such a disloyal, unjust, and unfilial man left Lanbing City, where he had lived for several years, after his father's death, and went to the bustling capital. He would accept it even if his father were to kill him with a knife.
Wu Qi knew the child was unhappy, so he squatted down and pinched his cheek, saying, "Little Jingzhu, I'm taking you back to the capital. How will you repay me?"
Jing Zhu gave all his money to Wu Qi, who suppressed a laugh and returned it to him, saying, "There are many things in this world that money can't solve. I don't want your money as a reward. Sing me a song instead!"
Jing Zhu shook his head: "I'm not a good singer."
Whether something sounds good or not is not up to the singer to decide.
"……All right."
Jing Zhu cleared his throat and looked at Wu Qi, seemingly terrified that Wu Qi would laugh at him. But before he even started singing, Wu Qi had already begun clapping. He blushed, turned his head away, and only began to sing after Wu Qi's applause had subsided.
"The flowers in front of the hall have fallen, and the carp in the pond are dead."
Spring's bounty has passed, autumn's chill has faded, and outside the city, half-snow-covered tombs lie.
"My father has died after bleeding to death, and my mother's whereabouts are unknown."
"Who is weeping? It is the orphan in the house."
As soon as he finished singing, he shut his mouth in embarrassment, turned his head to look elsewhere, and said, "This is what I heard someone else sing before. I didn't hear it clearly, so I can only sing the general idea."
Wu Qi said, "It sounds nice."
Jingzhu's voice is very suitable for singing, but the meaning of the lyrics is really not good.
Wu Qi asked, "What song is this?"
Jing Zhu replied, "It is 'The Song of the Orphan'."
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