Chapter 102 If You Follow Me [Jinjiang Authentic Edition, Tiger and Wolf Words]...
"Bang!"
The huge impact of Ying Zheng's grandson shouting out his real name was no less than being struck by thunder from the sky.
Zhang Liang slammed the door and turned around to run out quickly. However, before he could take a few steps, his shoulders were grabbed tightly by two big hands like steel that rushed from behind. He was forced to stop and his body was turned around uncontrollably.
The immense force gripping his shoulders made him groan in pain, and his entire upper body was pinned down by the elite soldiers of the palace.
Watching the young man being brought back by elite soldiers after just a few steps, Li Si, standing behind the emperor's eldest grandson, was speechless. He had personally been in charge of recruiting the Zhidianlang that day, but how could old Li have imagined that the second-ranked Zhidianlang would actually be Zhang Ping's son?!
Zhang Liang, who had failed in his escape attempt, was unwillingly escorted back to the small courtyard covered with snow. Qin Ying walked up to Zhang Liang on her short legs, tilted her head slightly, and seeing the anxious look on the man's face, she waved to Zhang Han on the right. Zhang Han immediately understood what she meant, bent down, and held the little grandson high in his arms.
Ying's perspective instantly shifted from looking up to looking down. Against the backdrop of the moonlight and the surrounding snow, Zhang Liang's beautiful face looked even more beautiful. Qin Ying stared at Zhang Liang's face for a moment, then couldn't help but click her tongue twice, blinking at him in a childish voice.
"Man, are you satisfied?"
With his hands held behind his back and his shoulders pushed down hard, how could Zhang Liang not understand the scene before him?
It turns out that the anti-Qin thief imprisoned by Meng Yi yesterday morning was the very force he had painstakingly cultivated in the suburbs for over a decade! And his true identity, hidden for so many years, had long been discovered by Ying Zheng!
Now, years of planning had come to nothing. As the victor and Emperor of the Qin Dynasty, Ying Zheng naturally disdained to interrogate a small-time rebel leader who had yet to accomplish anything. Instead, the people interrogating him became Ying Zheng's good grandson and the young high-ranking officials of the current court, the Imperial Court and the Imperial Household.
The key point was that he had no idea how his identity, which he had hidden for so many years, had been exposed. He knew Ying Zheng's character too well. Even if the people who "assassinated in the western suburbs" were not sent by him, he did not think Ying Zheng would let him, the leader of the rebels, go. Knowing that he was going to die, he struggled desperately to stand up under the hands of the soldiers. He looked at the little baby in front of him who was being held high by Zhang Han and laughed coldly:
"Qin Ying, since you've already seen through my identity, you can kill me or chop me up as you please. Why bother running to this humble little courtyard of mine and waiting for you?"
Qin Ying raised her eyebrows upon hearing this. Under everyone's surprised gaze, she stretched out her two small hands to cup Zhang Liang's handsome face, and said sincerely and tenderly:
"Man, isn't this what you've always wanted to do?"
[Hmm?] Li Si and Zhang Han were stunned when they saw the Emperor's eldest grandson suddenly change his tone. Even Zhang Liang, whose face was held by the little baby, frowned.
He frowned and looked into the baby's eyes. After entering the palace and learning about the series of things Qin Ying had done, he had never regarded his grandson Ying Zheng as an ordinary baby. But at this moment, even though he had been very smart since he was a child, he did not understand the meaning of the strange words the baby said without any context.
Whether you call him "Zhang Liang" or "Zhang Huai", why does the little baby insist on calling him "man"?
Seeing the confusion on Zhang Liang's face, Qin Ying touched his face with her small hand and said with a curled lip:
"Man, after your motherland was destroyed, you lived in hiding outside the city of Xianyang for over a decade, working tirelessly to pass the examination to become a palace official. Wasn't it all for the sake of entering the palace and getting closer to my grandfather?"
"Heh—you think your methods are so clever, but let me tell you bluntly! As early as the first time you entered the Zhangtai Palace to deliver a book to my grandfather, my grandfather saw through your 'good-looking-but-not-good' trick at a glance!"
"Alas, Zhang Liang, give up! Even though you were fortunate enough to study with Han Feizi for a few years in your youth, in my father's heart, Bai Yueguang is still Bai Yueguang. Han Feizi is unique. You can't just imitate a few of his temperament and become a replacement for Bai Yueguang in my father's heart."
“???”
Zhang Han's eyes widened in shock upon hearing such shocking words. He stared at the handsome son of Prime Minister Han in disbelief: "This man deliberately entered the palace to become a court official. Did he do this to become a replacement for Han Feizi and deliberately get close to Your Majesty?!"
Li Si, who was twirling his beard with his fingers, was so shocked that he pulled out a few gray hairs. He frowned and looked at Zhang Liang with a complicated expression. He really didn't expect that the son of the Prime Minister of Han was actually related to Han Fei.
Even Zhang Liang, the person involved, was stunned after hearing Qin Ying's bizarre words. What the hell was going on?!
He admitted that although he had lived in hiding for many years in the suburbs of Xianyang after the demise of his motherland and had tried his best to get close to Ying Zheng, and that he had indeed done these things, why did it sound so strange when it was recounted by a two-year-old baby?
He frowned and thought for a moment, then realized the little kid's deliberate distortion. He was so angry that he almost laughed. He immediately said:
"What on earth is Xiao An Guojun thinking? Liang went to such great lengths to get close to your grandfather because he hates him, not because he loves him!"
The little fat boy blinked his eyes, patted Zhang Liang's shoulder gently with his chubby hands, and sighed with a smile:
"Mr. Zhang Liang, I understand. I understand very well."
"There is no love or hate without reason in this world. To some extent, hate lasts longer than love."
"Isn't it because Mr. Zhang Liang couldn't get the love he deserved from his great-grandfather that he turned his love into hatred?"
Zhang Han: “!!!” [Hiss—what a love that cannot be obtained!]
Li Si: “???”
Zhang Liang: “…”
"Well, I understand all these little emotions."
"To be honest with you, Mr. Zhang Liang, when the black bird was teaching me in my dream, it told me that the greatest suffering in this world is to love someone but not be able to get them." Qin Ying said this while looking up at the cold and bright moon in the sky. He shook his furry black tiger-head hat and pointed at the bright moon in the night sky and sighed sadly:
"As the founder of the Qin Dynasty, my father is as cold and unattainable as the bright moon in the night sky."
"Mr. Zhang Liang followed Han Feizi in his youth and witnessed firsthand the moon's favoritism towards him. You hate the moon's brightness, insisting on chasing after your teacher! But it refuses to shine on you, right?"
Zhang Liang: "!!!" [The tyrant's grandson is spreading rumors about him with his eyes wide open!]
"So, over the years, your love for Grandfather has turned to hatred. Even if you're wearing a false identity, even if you're imitating your teacher, you still want to be close to Grandfather, hoping that Grandfather will favor you as much as he favors your teacher. Am I right, Mr. Zhang Liang?"
"Bang--"
In an unattended corner, a clay jar covered with snow and placed against the wall finally couldn't withstand the invasion of the severe cold and was frozen and cracked.
Zhang Liang was completely dumbfounded, and he couldn't help but open his mouth in shock. The scene before him was indeed completely different from what he had expected!
Now that his true identity as the leader of the Qin rebellion had been exposed, shouldn't Qin Ying, as Ying Zheng's grandson, have him immediately imprisoned and subjected to severe interrogation? Why would he bring people to this small, snow-covered courtyard and speak such lingering, bizarre, and insane words to him?
Could it be that this eldest grandson, who was favored by Ying Zheng and called "Holy Grandson" by himself, was sick?
Zhang Liang looked at the baby suspiciously.
Li Si and Zhang Han, who were standing next to the baby, couldn't help but look up at the bright moon in the night sky. At that moment, the two important officials felt the same bitterness in their hearts:
[Alas, what the young prince said is so apt. Isn't Your Majesty the moon in the sky, so high and unattainable? Unfortunately, I only regret that this cold moon doesn't shine only on me!]
Seeing Zhang Liang's face getting darker and darker, Qin Ying, who was in Zhang Han's arms, had awkwardly curled her toes in her deerskin boots for several times, racking her brains to recall the "domineering CEO quotes" she had heard in her previous life.
There is no way. Zhang Liang, this "little white flower", is really too difficult to deal with. The "tyrannical president" specializes in recruiting "little white flowers". Even if he can't recruit Zhang Liang, he will use the tyrannical president's quotes that make people feel goosebumps all over their bodies to disgust this "little white flower" to death.
Hmm…how is mental torture not considered a form of torture?
He coughed lightly twice, pretending not to notice Zhang Liang's face, which had turned gloomy due to the disgust of the "domineering tone". He continued to lift Zhang Liang's chin with his chubby little hand, narrowed his eyes and said faintly to the unyielding "little white flower":
"Humph! Man, it's come to this, why are you still pretending to be noble and stubborn with me?"
"Hasn't everything you've done these years been a desperate attempt to attract my great-father's attention?"
"What? My grandfather has finally noticed you. Why aren't you happy now that you've gotten what you wanted? Why are you being so stern and rude to me?!"
"In the past, your Zhang family served as ministers of Han within Xinzheng for five generations, assisting the Han royal family in turning the Kingdom of Han into the weakest of the Seven Kingdoms. This made the people of Han the first to become new Qin people. Did my great-grandfather, the king of the neighboring country, say anything?"
Zhang Liang: “…”
"Although your Kingdom of Han is surrounded by enemies, not only is it small and its people weak, but the royal family is also incompetent, the upper class is corrupt, and the lower class is powerless. Your motherland is simply unable to withstand the attack of our powerful Qin. However, in order to save your motherland's face, my father is willing to send an army of 100,000 to take over your Kingdom of Han and rescue the powerless Han people. Although my father won, did he say anything?"
Zhang Liang: "..." [Has Ying Qin's sage grandson suddenly become hysterical?]
Li Si and Zhang Han were busy looking up at the bright moon, or looking down at the snow, and they didn't dare to look at the emperor's eldest grandson who was talking nonsense.
"Alas," said Ying, the little chubby boy, stroking Zhang Liang's handsome face with his chubby hands with a compassionate look, in a low voice, "Mr. Zhang Liang, I also know that since the capital of Han was captured by our Qin army, you have fallen from the noble son of the Han Prime Minister to the man of a fallen country today. Your love for my great-grandfather, the cold bright moon, has turned into hatred. Although Ying is young, I understand your change of heart."
"But what I don't understand is, Mr. Zhang Liang, you are clearly a well-educated and intelligent person, how can you lie so openly?"
"Don't you see that the Great Qin Empire is not only the Great Qin of the Great Qin nobles, but also the Great Qin of over 20 million Great Qin common people. And your Kingdom of Han is recognized by the Han nobles, but to this day, is there a single Han common people living in their homeland who miss it?"
Zhang Liang glanced sideways.
"Mr. Zhang Liang, you clearly knew that my father's sweeping conquests and unifying the world were unstoppable! What's this? After Qin conquered Han, your love for my father turned to hatred, and you're filled with resentment. After Han's fall, my father showed mercy and allowed the descendants of the Han royal family and nobles to move to Xianyang and start a new life. When you Han people conquered Zheng and moved the capital to Xinzheng, where are the descendants of the Zheng nobles now?"
Zhang Liang pursed his lips.
"Alas, in these chaotic times of frequent wars between nations, it's normal for big nations to devour small ones, and small nations to eat up small ones. Success makes you king, failure makes you captive. Our Qin State is standing peacefully outside Hangu Pass, so why don't you Han people come and destroy it?"
Zhang Liang: “…”
"When the capital of Han was captured, your father committed suicide by sword atop the city walls, sacrificing his life for his country. But ask yourself, how can you blame my great-grandfather for this? Had your motherland truly been united and strong from within, would it have been destroyed? Your father, as Prime Minister of Han, sacrificed his life when the kingdom was destroyed, preserving the good reputation of your Zhang family, who had served as Prime Ministers for five generations. If your father had been captured by our Qin army along with the Han royal family, would your Zhang family's reputation as Prime Ministers of Han be as strong as it is today?"
"As the son of the Prime Minister of Han, will you be able to rally support among the remnants of the anti-Qin movement?"
"Mr. Zhang Liang! You are so dishonest! I am so disappointed!"
When Zhang Liang heard the two-year-old baby mention his father who committed suicide, his eyelashes trembled, hiding the pain in his eyes.
The image of his father who died for his country on the city wall that day became his nightmare for the next few years. At first, he really hated Qin very much. In the past two years, he entered the palace as a court official and read the ancient books preserved in Han. He accidentally saw the precious bamboo slips that the young Han Fei wrote to King Han several times in Xinzheng City, which were the national policies of "saving Han" but were not adopted by King Han. His mood was extremely complicated.
His father had been the prime minister assisting King Han Ran during his lifetime, and he absolutely did not believe that his father had not seen the young Han Feizi's memorial to the king...
When he saw the rows of ink words on the bamboo slips, he felt like he was slapped hard in the face. If you ask who is the Han people who most wanted to save Han, it was not the deceased King Han Ran, nor his father who died for his country, but Han Feizi, who, when he was young, wrote letters to the king for four consecutive years even though he had to face the cold eyes of the king and his ministers in Xinzheng.
If King Ran of Han was a wise ruler like Marquis Zhao of Han, if the young Han Fei had half the good fortune of Shen Buhai to be trusted by King Han, when Han Fei was young, the Kingdom of Han began to follow the example of the State of Qin in abolishing the hereditary aristocracy system, eradicating the corrupt officials in the country, and carrying out reforms. Would the direction of the Kingdom of Han have changed later?
My father maintained the dignity of the Zhang family by dying for his country, and my younger brother died of illness during the period when the country was destroyed and the family was ruined. Although my father and younger brother died miserably, if you think about it brightly, they did not have to be treated as prisoners and suffer in vain when they were moved from Xinzheng to Xianyang.
Zhang Liang pursed his thin lips, and his two big hands were clenched tightly at his sides until the knuckles turned white.
Seeing Zhang Liang in front of her with his eyes downcast and silent, Qin Ying just took the opportunity to open the system panel when she heard the electronic voice broadcast in her mind -
[Congratulations to the host for successfully disgusting Zhang Liang with his overbearing quotes. Zhang Liang's mind was shaken, and his favorability towards the host increased by 3.33%. Please keep up the good work, host! May you successfully capture Zhang Liang soon!]
Hearing the dry, mechanical electronic sound in his head, Qin Ying hurriedly glanced at the taskbar and saw that Zhang Liang's strategy task bar had indeed changed from "negative 33.33 percent" to "negative 30 percent". His almond-shaped eyes lit up. As he expected - there is no construction without destruction! The domineering CEO's quotes are only for little white flowers!
Ying·Little Fatty used her mind to retract the floating system panel, and then used her two small hands to forcefully lift Zhang Liang's slightly drooping head. She looked at the man with her bright almond-shaped eyes and said in a small voice:
"Mr. Zhang Liang, 'Understand that the past cannot be changed, but know that the future can be pursued.' It's not a big deal if you take the wrong path for a while; what's scary is that you keep taking that wrong path forever!"
"How dare you think that?! When the Kingdom of Han still existed, the Han people couldn't do anything to the Qin State. What makes you think that now that the Kingdom of Han has been destroyed for more than ten years, you, a Han Chinese, can overthrow the Qin State with just a few people from the fallen country who have anti-Qin motives?"
"Why? Because you're weak? Because you're short on manpower? And because you're good at daydreaming?!"
"Zhang Liang, oh Zhang Liang, you were once a top noble in the Han capital, enjoying the hard-earned support of the Han people. How could you not consider the Han people?! After hundreds of years of turmoil and conflict, the Han people finally managed to farm their land thanks to Qin's laws after their country was destroyed, and they haven't even had a few years of peace. How can you have the nerve to tie the poor Han people back to the chariot of rebellion just for your own sake?"
Zhang Liang's eyelashes trembled slightly.
"Tell me the truth, are you reluctant to leave the Kingdom of Han, or are you reluctant to leave the honor of your Zhang family as the fifth generation of prime ministers?!"
"As a half-disciple of Han Feizi, how can you be so lacking in imagination?!"
"Your Zhang family finally survived, and you're the only one left! You're so stubborn that you're going against me, and you're so stubborn that you're turning your love for me into hatred! I've already said that if you, the remnants of the anti-Qin clan with ulterior motives, can be used by me, I'll use you. If you can't, I'll kill you all! After all, the Qin Dynasty has plenty of talented people!"
"Why seek death when you can live a good life? If you die, your Zhang family, which has served as prime ministers of Han for five generations, will completely become the dust of history! Ying really doesn't want to see Mr. Zhang Liang only do foolish things. Do you understand what the first great unified empire in history is? Do you understand the tremendous courage it took for my father, under the ideological background of a thousand years of feudal fiefdom, to rely on his iron fist to forcibly combine seven vassal states with different scripts, different languages, and different ideological traditions into a vast empire? Do you understand the great political achievements of my father, such as unifying the writing system, currency, weights and measures, building a highway with Xianyang as the center, and conscripting millions of laborers to build the Great Wall?"
"Humph! You, a leader of the anti-Qin forces, don't know anything!"
Zhang Liang's pupils trembled at the barrage of scolding. Before he could even make a reasonable expression, he saw the little kid opposite him, who didn't know whether it was the cold wind or the hot blood he was talking about, with a red face, shouting at him in a childish voice:
"Mr. Zhang Liang! Han Feizi will be my great grandfather's lifelong lover, both in life and after death! What's the point of you secretly trying to complete our ancestors' legacy and become a mere prime minister of Han? You must understand that my great grandfather can give you life or death with a single word. If you obey me, I will give you the position of prime minister of the Qin Dynasty! Who knows, hundreds of years from now, there might be a biography of yours in history books, and when others mention your Zhang family, which has been prime ministers of Han for five generations, they might even mention the "Prime Minister Family." I... woooo!"
Zhang Han couldn't help but tremble when he heard the emperor's eldest grandson shouting these "earth-shattering" and outrageous "tiger words" in public. Li Si even raised his hand to cover the baby's mouth, and stared at Zhang Liang with his cold eyes. His expression was dull, as if he had been struck by lightning.
At this moment, Zhang Liang felt numb from head to toe, and his head was filled with the three words "follow me" over and over again.
Li Si and Zhang Han looked at each other, and both the old and the strong looked at each other with a headache in their eyes.
Finally, Old Li, the Chief Justice, said coldly to the soldiers around him:
"Quickly put the thief Zhang Liang behind bars and try him later!"
The elite palace guards who were standing by and listening to His Royal Highness the Emperor's eldest grandson's series of shocking words all shook their bodies, shook off the goose bumps that had appeared on their bodies, stepped forward and pulled Zhang Liang, preparing to push him away.
When Zhang Liang was pushed by Qin soldiers in black armor, he glanced at Zhang Han's arms for some unknown reason.
For a little baby over two years old, both love and hate seem so burning.
When his eyes met those clear and vivid phoenix eyes, the words "If you obey me, I will give you the position of Prime Minister of the Qin Dynasty" suddenly popped up in his mind. Zhang Liang couldn't help but shudder, and immediately turned his head away in embarrassment at the fierce words.
Qin Ying, whose mouth was covered by Old Li and whose microphone was forced to mute, stared at Zhang Liang's back until the moment Zhang Liang was led out by the soldiers. When he saw Zhang Liang turning back, the mechanical electronic sound rang in his mind again -
[Congratulations to the host for using such ruthless words to make Zhang Liang lose his mind, causing Zhang Liang's favorability to increase by 30%. The current favorability is "0"!]
It turns out to be zero!
After hearing the electronic sound, the little fat boy couldn't help but blink his eyes, watching Zhang Liang's back disappear at the gate of the courtyard. Just as he was about to raise his fat hand to push Old Li's big hand away, he saw Old Li put down his big hand, lean over to him with a complicated expression and apologize:
"Your Highness, I was disrespectful just now. Please forgive me."
"Um."
Ying, the little fat boy grinned and waved his hands in a good mood, his eyes still fixed on the gate of the courtyard.
Li Si followed the baby's gaze and glanced towards the gate of the courtyard. He was extremely heartbroken!
Could it be that Han Fei was a succubus? How could anyone connected to him be so captivated by the members of the Qin imperial family?
Your Majesty treated Han Fei like this. Now that Han Fei is gone, a man who is suspected to be Han Fei's disciple has come and has confused the "Second Emperor" in his mind again.
At just over 600 days old, he's already been so bewitched that he can say such vicious words in public, "You obey me!"
Holy crap! Which thief was reading a storybook to His Royal Highness the Grandson?
…
It's past curfew.
After Qin Ying, who was feeling sleepy, was escorted back to the eldest prince's mansion by Li Si and Zhang Han, the two of them went into the palace overnight and told the emperor the process and content of the emperor's eldest grandson's "interrogation" of Zhang Liang word for word.
Looking at Li Si's worried eyes, he said sadly:
"Your Majesty, I'm not exaggerating. Although His Royal Highness Changsun is intelligent, he's still very young. How can a baby understand the ethics of family life? You still need to guide him well and avoid exposing him to those bizarre stories written by folk novelists!"
"Zhang Liang is a man with a strong rebellious streak. If we're not careful, he could become a disaster! Your Majesty, please don't let the young prince have too much hope in him."
Listening to Li Si's complex voice, a complex look welled up in the First Emperor's eyes. He simply felt that his beloved grandson had been too strange tonight. Aside from the line "Realizing that the past cannot be changed, knowing that the future can be pursued," which paraphrased the line from the Analects of Confucius, "The past cannot be changed, but the future can still be pursued," which sounded somewhat astonishing, the rest of his words, to his grandfather, seemed like fat lard. How should I put it? A little strangely sticky and greasy.
The First Emperor lowered his eyes to look at Li Si, who was almost crying in grief, and said in a gentle voice, "There's no need to be like this, Minister of Justice. Ying was a little naughty tonight. I will control the books he reads in the future."
When Li Si heard this, his lips trembled slightly and he looked at the First Emperor, who was as bright as the moon outside the window, with some grievance. Sure enough, the successor of Han Fei's fellow countryman has appeared, so he is no longer worthy of the favor of the Majesty?
Otherwise, why did Your Majesty call him "Si Qing" before and call him "Ting Wei" now?
Alas—I originally aimed my heart at the bright moon, but the moon shines only on a thousand people. Compared to the deceased Han Fei, am I, Li Si, inferior in knowledge? Or is I inferior in ability? In Your Majesty's heart, the living are ultimately no match for the dead. Of the two great jewels of the Legalists, Li Si is no match for Han Fei. Li Si is unworthy.
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