Chapter 256: Half-brother (same mother, different father)? [Requesting monthly votes]
"Someone beat you to it? Who?"
Gong Xiqiu had to admit that he felt a bit of schadenfreude.
The advisor seemed oblivious to Gong Xichou's subtle expression, replying indifferently, "We don't know yet. All we know is that the person who took the Imperial Seal is no ordinary person; they either possess the special ability to hide the Imperial Seal or have special items. We could vaguely sense their presence a couple of days ago, but it has faded over time and disappeared without a trace."
This elite force came specifically for the Imperial Seal.
Since the Imperial Seal is no longer attainable, staying would be futile. It would be better to withdraw troops to reinforce our own military and prevent Zheng Qiao from launching an attack. Therefore, withdrawal is highly probable; staying to entangle with the allied forces would be a foolish move.
Gongxi Chou initially listened with great interest.
Upon hearing the last sentence, his expression twisted, and he almost gritted his teeth as he forced out, "Why didn't you say so sooner?"
His advisor asked him with his eyes what he meant.
He then asked, "Didn't I speak up soon enough?"
"You said you could still vaguely sense it a couple of days ago, but it's been completely gone for the past two days—" Gongxi gritted his teeth in hatred, his molars itching. "If you had said so two or three days earlier, the soldiers who fought today wouldn't have lost their lives in vain! Why didn't you say so sooner?"
The advisor not only remained calm but also gave a fleeting, sinister smile, saying, "You do know how to feel sorry for people."
Gong Xichou: "Those are more than two thousand living lives."
It wasn't that he felt sorry for her.
In this world, human life is the least valuable thing.
Even the most worthless human life can be judged by whether it was a worthwhile or worthless death. They could have died more meaningfully, instead of being hastily buried here!
Even if these were actually the King of Pigs' soldiers...
Therefore, even though the advisor before him was the only remaining member of his clan in the world, Gongxi Chou felt no goodwill towards him whatsoever.
His advisors laughed at his naiveté.
"Gongxi Chou, do you know something?"
He started the conversation, then paused suspiciously, deliberately whetting Gong Xichou's appetite, leaving Gong Xichou with no choice but to comply.
He pressed further, asking, "What do you know?"
"Do you know what orders the King of Zhi gave me before he left? You and the troops under your adoptive father's command can all be sacrificed if necessary, as long as we can capture that national seal, sacrifice is no object!" The advisor looked at Gongxi Chou with sarcasm, "If necessary, you can also give your life."
Gong Xichou thought it was some kind of order.
He said, "Isn't this normal?"
He'd seen similar faces countless times, let alone someone as peculiar as the Pig King. In fact, the "mildness" of this order surprised Gongxi Chou slightly. Given the Pig King's character, his instructions shouldn't be this "normal"...
The advisor gave him a look that said, "You're still too young."
He sneered and uttered a sentence more insidious and sticky than snake venom: "The meaning of the King of Pigs is not what you understand. His original intention was to say that if the casualties in Xiaocheng are not enough to force out the national seal of Xin Kingdom, then those soldiers can be abandoned."
Gong Xichou: "..."
The advisor said coldly, "So, you see clearly now? The two thousand-plus lives you see are nothing but weeds to others! Whether they died on the battlefield serving their lord or in some unseen place, whether they died today or later, it makes no difference. Gong Xichou, you should have died on the day of the clan's extermination, instead of leaving your clan's land to wade through this murky world, lest you—die without a burial place!"
Gongxi Chou looked at the advisor and messenger with both surprise and anger.
In his memory, every member of the Gongxi clan diligently followed the guidance of the gods and lived life to the fullest. They were open-minded, optimistic, and generous by nature. Men, women, young and old alike were skilled in singing and dancing, and any unhappiness could be expressed through loud songs and unrestrained, ever-changing dances.
They live in seclusion, detached from worldly affairs.
Gongxi Chou had never seen any member of his clan as sinister and unsettling as the one before him, so contrary to the typical Gongxi clan style. What were the other's intentions in speaking to him, the sole survivor of the clan's annihilation?
His gaze was too easy to read. The advisor said, "The clan crest of the Gongxi clan is the snake, which is disliked by the world. Being cheerful, lively, and loving life would be against the ancestral teachings, wouldn't it? I'm used to being gloomy. Even if you can't stand me, what can you do about it?"
Gong Xichou: "You—"
The advisor said, "That's all I have to say."
Gong Xichou wanted to hurl a few more curses, but the man's figure vanished back into the shadows, completely disappearing into the darkness, leaving Gong Xichou alone, cursing inwardly, wishing he could dig up the man's ancestral graves...
No, ancestral graves cannot be dug up.
Their ancestral graves are the same.
Gong Xichou frowned deeply in frustration.
Even more frustrated than having his head repeatedly intercepted by Shen Tang during the day, he sat there with his arms crossed for a while, then suddenly got up and started rummaging through his suitcase, which he took everywhere with him. Despite Gong Xi Chou's chaotic lifestyle, with documents and official business scattered everywhere, making it impossible to even step inside, the contents of his suitcase were always neatly organized, and he would periodically take it out and wipe it clean.
He found a thick volume of family genealogy at the bottom of the box.
Every name on this family genealogy scroll had been crossed out with trembling, childish strokes of ink. Upon closer inspection, tear stains and watermarks were still visible. Only Gong Xichou's name remained. Skipping over those names, I flipped through the pages again and again, comparing each one to the others.
"This isn't..."
I attended this person's funeral.
"This isn't it either..."
The old man next door isn't one either.
"This...this...this...none of these are..."
Gong Xiqiu remembered that his advisor had said that he had crossed out the names in the genealogy overnight, and that his handwriting should be different from that of the clan head who was in charge of the genealogy at that time. He just needed to find the one with the unusual handwriting.
Following this clue, they actually found two.
Gong Xichou seems to be the most likely candidate.
but--
His eyes widened in disbelief.
His hands, holding the family genealogy, were trembling.
"How...how could it be him?"
Unlike outsiders, children of the Gongxi tribe only take their mother's surname. They are generally raised by their mother and maternal grandparents, such as maternal uncles. To avoid problems arising from overly close bloodlines in newborns, adult women can choose to marry within the tribe or leave the tribe's territory to find a husband elsewhere, returning to the tribe with their children after a period of time.
Gong Xichou's father was one of them.
Apart from her deceased mother, no one knew who her dead father was.
Gong Xichou didn't know either.
There are many examples of half-siblings within a clan.
Gong Xichou was no exception.
He had an older half-brother, much older than him, whom he had heard had been chosen by the clan chief at a young age to be groomed as the next chief, but Gongxi Chou had never met him. His mother said his brother had died young, but his uncle let slip that his brother had committed a grave offense and been executed by the clan elders. His mother was heartbroken, and to cope with her grief, she had a second child at her uncle's encouragement—the son of Gongxi Chou…
What if this gloomy fellow is the older brother...
No wonder the clan elders always looked at Gong Xichou with such complicated expressions.
Gong Xichou dug a mirror out of the pile of rubble.
Look to the left, look to the right.
He murmured absentmindedly, "I didn't notice it unless I looked closely, but there are indeed some similarities..."
Staff envoy: Who do you think I am?
Gong Xichou :)
P.S.: I'm taking a day off today, hehe, something unexpected happened. I'll only be posting one chapter today, and I'll make up for it with an extra chapter tomorrow.
P.S.: Wan'er Bao Bao has started a new book! It's not signed yet, but you can jump over to check it out and follow along – you definitely won't regret it!
(End of this chapter)
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