Chapter 625
Heretical Shock, Changping Corpses, and the Bond with Wei
When Xiao He met Xu Kai, Tang Zhipei was already seriously injured.
It was extremely cold in winter, and Xu Kai also caught a chill.
In modern times, this would at most be a high fever, requiring a couple of cold medicine tablets and an amoxicillin pill; in the Republic of China era, two days of intravenous fluids would usually be enough to cure it…
But this was during the pre-Qin period.
Xiao He, not wanting to meddle in other people's business, was about to leave when someone grabbed his trouser leg.
Xu Kai removed the layers of cloth, revealing an unnatural redness on his face. Xiao He was astonished by his hair.
“Strange clothes, and short hair! Are you Yue people? My father told me not to have any contact with Yue people.” With that, he turned and ran.
Xu Kai could only explain that he lost his hair during the war, while Xiao He said he had never heard of any war involving hair cutting.
The young Xiao He was shocked to hear the truth from two thousand years later... especially when he heard how Xu Kai's unconscious companion had survived the Nanjing Massacre... Xiao He almost sobbed...
For the next seven days, Xiao He secretly visited the hut every day, bringing them things to keep warm.
Day after day, Tang Zhibei's complexion gradually turned red, but he remained unconscious.
Xiao He was unaware that the person who told him things like "The revolution has not yet succeeded, comrades still need to work hard" and "The world is hot, but it is hard to cool our blood" was already destined to meet him at the time of their encounter.
During times of war, seeing outsiders on the battlefield is a very dangerous thing. And adult men are the primary targets for conscription.
In that snowstorm, Xu Kai stepped forward, looked at Xiao He who was still a child, and told him not to say anything.
Their shirts and work clothes were burned.
The only thing he carried with him was the fountain pen.
He stuffed it into Tang Zhibei's arms and left with Zhao Bing without looking back.
Battlefields are just as brutal in any era.
The Battle of Changping lasted a long time.
But for Xu Kai, there were only three days.
On his second day on the battlefield, he was shot in the calf by a stray arrow, the wound became infected, and his high fever worsened.
He couldn't walk, couldn't go to the battlefield, and couldn't be kept in Zhao's army camp.
Upon hearing Zhao Kuo's name, he truly understood what era he had arrived in.
The great waves of the times will not crush any one person; when they surge toward you, you will not even feel their power.
In these ten days, Xu Kai once again experienced a chaotic world. Even his most legendary time-travel story seemed absurd.
Sometimes, the wind would hit his head and make it hurt.
He wondered if Heaven had heard his prayers when he was shot. But why had he been brought here?
Primal killing, primal desire, primal plunder—all these things rushed at him, but without making a ripple.
Finally, the waves receded, leaving only a scene of bloodshed and despair. His legs were crippled, and he couldn't walk far, seeing vultures circling low again and again.
A person hiding in a straw mat rolled out of the mat and fell to the ground, still barely breathing. Xu Kai moved over and fed the person the last bit of water and dry food he had left.
The man opened his eyes slightly, panting, "If I have the chance, I will definitely repay you."
Xu Kai's glasses were broken long ago, so he couldn't see people's faces clearly. He waved his hand and smiled, "For me, the best reward is that you are alive, sir."
The Wei man in the straw mat gave him a deep look, struggled to his feet, and walked westward.
At this moment, a neatly dressed man from Wei came before him. The man was young and introduced himself as 'Xianye'. He said that he had come to travel around the states, that his family was wealthy and powerful, and that he could also help a few wounded soldiers.
He laughed and said, "I have recently been reading Confucian and Mohist texts, and their ideas on saving the world are quite interesting."
Xu Kai could never have imagined that forty years later, the Prime Minister Xian would completely forget that he had such thoughts when he was young, and that he would do something as crazy as flooding Daliang... indirectly and directly ruining his granddaughter's life.
Xian also noticed that this person named Xu Kai was different from others.
He wasn't a soldier, yet despite his injuries, he possessed a transcendent and extraordinary aura and foresight.
Xian also asked Xu Kai some questions, showing respect and courtesy.
He and Tang Zhipei both had this bad habit—they were willing to impart all their knowledge to eager students.
Before Tang Zhipei taught Wei Jiu, Xian also became Xu Kai's student.
Teachers can't say much on their deathbeds, and students can't remember much.
When Xu Kai uttered a single word, he felt something rushing through his body...
The temperature was dropping, blood was flowing from his body like a river, and life was slipping away.
Xian also used a wooden ox to record this conversation between Xu Kai and him.
"I still don't know your name, sir?"
"My surname is Xu, my given name is Zezhi, I was born in the Xuantong era and grew up in the Republic of China..."
"The Republic of China? I'm ignorant; I've never heard of such a country..."
He smiled wryly, "I grew up in a traditional family, which is lucky, I suppose. I wasn't the eldest in the family, but thanks to my elder brother taking over the family business, I was able to study abroad, hoping to realize my ambitions..."
He seemed to understand but not quite, "Sir, is there anyone else in your family?"
Xu Kai's mind was already scattered, his expression lost in memories, "My beloved wife died at the hands of the enemy... Relatives, son, no, I have no son, no relatives... I have no relatives, but now, there is someone who needs you to go and see..."
“Please speak, sir, and I will certainly protect him.”
Xu Kai remained silent for a long time before finally saying, "Go to the place where Zhao, Wei, and Chu meet and find a child."
In the end, Xian did not find Xiao He. He found Tang Zhipei, who had already woken up, but Tang Zhipei said that his surname was Mo.
Xianye and Moqi became close friends through their shared understanding of the Mohist school of thought. Moqi never knew that his supposed friend, who died in 1946, had traveled with him to the pre-Qin period.
There were six people in the photo, all wearing work clothes. The one in the middle was wearing narrow-rimmed glasses and had a Parker pen clipped to his pocket.
The appearance of that pen gave her a headache; it was unlike any of the engraving pens or calligraphy brushes she had seen on Li Xian's desk.
But it seemed that many years ago, she had received one. It was made of jade and was called—a ritual object. A blurry figure flickered in her memory, and a voice rang out, "My master instructed me to give this to you..."
The person who gave her that thing was a young master of high status.
His name seems to be "Wei Jiu".
Unbeknownst to her, the pen's journey from Mo Qi's hands back to hers was, in itself, a form of rewinding.
At this time.
Xiao Lu squatted down and observed some traces on the ground, saying, "It seems that this is where someone fled before the Battle of Changping. Back then, Qin defeated the combined forces of Zhao and Wei, capturing several cities of Wei and Guanjin of Zhao. No wonder Father wanted me to bring this to Zhongnan Mountain, but you said it wasn't necessary. So that Mr. Mo lived here."
"It's just unexpected that the disaster that almost brought down the Zhao state many years ago came from a retainer who fled from the Wei state."
Lu Heng paused, then suddenly realized.
"Is the person your father is looking for someone who once saved a man surnamed Fan?"
Yan Yue and Lu Heng exchanged a glance, and in their astonishment, they realized who Xiao Lu was referring to...
She had heard it from her brother Yan Dan several times as well.
He was a relative of his mentor, Fan Zeng!
Cai Ze obtained the seal of the Qin state from him.
Fan Ju's life can definitely be described as legendary.
A man who was wrapped in a straw mat and about to be thrown into a mass grave survived and later became the Prime Minister of Qin, serving as one of the most important pillars in the aftermath of the Battle of Changping.
If the story ends here.
Then the Qin state could also have a period of harmony between the ruler and his ministers.
but.
The Battle of Changping changed everyone's fate.
Many people say that it was Prime Minister Fan Zeng who slandered Bai Qi to the emperor, causing his death.
Fan Ju was filled with anxiety and could not find peace. He received Cai Ze's advice that the moon wanes after it is full, but he still could not find relief. After handing over the seal of the prime minister to Cai Ze, he resigned and returned to his fiefdom, where he died of a long illness.
Yan Yue knew all of these things.
It wasn't until today that everything was finally connected.
Cai Ze was from the State of Yan, and after the war, he was also sent as an envoy to Yan. Perhaps it was during this period that Fan Zeng agreed to teach a princess of Yan martial arts, enabling her to possess unparalleled martial arts skills, the ability to protect herself, and thus threaten the lives of others.
Before Ying Hehua got into trouble, she always liked to say things that were neither good nor bad to her. She hated that Ying Hehua was from the perspective of the victor and that she downplayed her hatred.
If from the very beginning it was just an unsolvable fate, then she didn't even know how to resent or hate anymore!
Later, after Bai Qi died, his daughter Bai Xun fled to the State of Zhao and, by a twist of fate, married the son of her father's nemesis, giving birth to Li Zuoche.
Later, and until his death, Zhao Jia never used Li Zuoche's identity.
Yan Yue had no idea what Ying Hehua thought when she heard Xiao Lu's words, holding the portrait of six people that had fallen from Xiao Lu's sleeve.
She looked at her, and for a moment she was deeply moved.
Suddenly, the other person looked up and asked her casually, "Why are you staring at me like that?" Ying Hehua's expression was distant, blank, and sad.
After saying that, she walked over to Xiao Lu and said a few words.
“I was really foolish. How could I hand over the wooden calf because of me? If Father finds out, he will probably be furious.”
"It was my desperate measure to escape the pursuers that led me to this predicament, and Xiao Yan helped me a great deal."
"If the investigation and verification are true, wouldn't that be a mistake for Miss Aya?"
“I wander through this world, making mistakes everywhere. Carving words on bamboo slips is an act of cherishing life. It is to take the real for the fake and the fake for the real, and it cannot be called a mistake.”
This surprised Lu Heng.
The word "wandering" is heartbreaking. How many people had she offended in the Qin Palace all these years? She had incurred the emperor's wrath and been forced to flee to this remote and impoverished place, Lingcheng.
What triggered this? She once preferred to be a widow rather than marry, but in order to save her life and escape, she easily wrote a legally binding document and married a little-known man named Xiao Yan under the identity of Ya.
If Li Xianruo knew that it was he who personally ordered her to be driven to this point after losing her memory, she would probably go insane.
Stepping inside, it was indeed a hidden paradise!
Lu Heng cut off the surrounding vines and quickly cleared away the messy debris, revealing a deep and dark narrow path.
Xiao Lu tore down the 'barrier' covered in dust, and the decaying old thing embedded in the valley saw the light of day again.
The group was shocked by what they saw!
That corpse was more like a skeleton!
The skeleton was in a reclining position, mostly covered by green vines!
There is a hole in the dome.
If it were a sunny day, a beam of light would shine just right on that bony knee.
Because it is constantly exposed to sunlight, two small light purple flowers have bloomed on its knees.
There was a small, rusty thing next to the skeleton.
She slowly pulled it out of the mud and ash; it was an arrowhead.
In that instant, she stood frozen in place, tears streaming uncontrollably down her face and onto the ground.
The next moment, she collapsed to the ground, almost all her strength drained away, and then screamed and crawled forward.
Yan Yue rarely saw Ying Hehua so distraught. She must have truly gone mad; how could she be crying like a child before a skeleton? (End of Chapter)