Step Down, Let Me Come!

Chapter 20: Blindly guessing the household

Shen Tang let out a gasp. 

She just realized why Qi Shan was looking so gloomy.

Who could bear such shame and humiliation?

“The defeated royal family led all the officials to surrender, which is the honor that the victorious country should enjoy. Likely, the king of Xin will not rebel, no matter how unwilling he is. But this Zheng Qiao… is he crazy?”

Qi Shan ridiculed: “In my opinion, he is not reconciled…” 

The humiliation the Xin country experienced that year, he wanted to give it back 10 times. No, 100 times. He also wanted Xin to be remembered in history as shameful forever. 

Shen Tang fumed: “this is too disgusting!”

“Disgusting” wasn’t enough to describe Zheng Qiao’s madness. Shen Tang only thought that person was malicious, narrow-minded, and repulsive. 

What the bindings and holding the jade in the mouth meant? 

Simply, the person had to tie their hands behind their back and put a piece of jade in their mouth – in funerals people believed that jade in a mouth of a corpse could prevent it from decaying and at the same time, it was to show the noble status of the deceased – then surrender to the victorious country with this image. 

In the specific implementation process, it was generally necessary to expose the upper body to show that one is not carrying any weapons, which also meant that one was a “lamb to be slaughtered”. Entrusting their life to others to let the others kill them, and let them do it as they please.

And now, Zheng Qiao forced Xin country’s king to abdicate and give the position to the woman – first, the women didn’t have wenxin or wudan, at the same time she was also the only daughter of the king of Xin - he also forced her to expose her body in a public place with numerous people to hand over the surrender letter with a sealed ribbon fastening correspondence, household register and state treasury.

Without a doubt, it caused the leftover men from Xin faces’ to be trampled on, leaving them with no leeway. 

Qi Shan stared at the teacup in his hand with a sneer, it took him a lot of effort not to crush it. He secretly took several deep breaths to calm down his volcanic anger: “Growing up in the depths of the palace, while only knowing the favor and flattery of the servants. Did they think that he would be ‘noble’ in his methods and vision? If he cannot get Xin’s seal of the state, this war’s profit would be halved. According to Zheng Qiao’s character, he wouldn’t leave it at that…”

Hearing “the seal of the state” once more, Shen Tang’s eyelids faintly twitched: “This kind of person can’t sit still”. 

Qi Shan previously said that if Zheng Qiao doesn’t die suddenly within these 5 years, the Geng country would surely be destroyed. This “prediction” was considered conservative.

According to the ruthlessness and viciousness Zheng Qiao was showing lately, it is still a big question if they can survive these 3 years. 

He also made a terrible mistake - 

Indulging the soldiers and horses to do evil, burn, kill and loot.   

Military discipline and loyalty were difficult to cultivate, but it was easy to destroy.

Outside the tea shop, the soldiers of the Geng saw that the wife of the boss of the tea shop looked a bit exceptional, so they unexpectedly thought of a wicked idea and exchanged glances with each other. They deliberately asked the lady to refill their tea, and in the process, someone touched her small hands and waist. They even wanted to pout and kiss her. The landlady's face turned pale with fright, and she screamed again and again, but the soldiers laughed.

“Solider, soldier…”

The owner of the tea shop attempted to step forward to help his wife but was thrown away by a slap to his face. Half of his face quickly became red and swollen.

“Get lost! Do you want to ruin your master's fun? Are you courting death?”

Break - 

Qi Shan followed the sound and looked down at Shen Tang's hand.

The teacup in her hand had been crushed by her fingers.

Fortunately, young master Shen didn't slap the table in anger and impulsively rushed out. Instead, he said with a cold face, “If he can't restrain the soldiers and horses with strict military discipline, these sharp blades used by Zheng Qiao to fight in the South and the North will sooner or later be driven by desire. Unsatisfied, they will become resentful towards Zheng Qiao, and finally—return to kill their Lord”.

Qi Shan raised his head to look into Shen Tang’s eyes. 

This was a completely intuitive movement.

Her eyes were overly tranquil. 

They were so calm that one could suspect that she was looking at a group of dying ants—when this thought came to his mind, Qi Shan was in a trance for a moment. He sipped tea to cover up some subtle emotions: “Before that, I didn't know what could happen. How many innocent and smart people have lost their lives… Sigh, the situation is so… Young master Shen, what can you and I do? We can only be spectators”.

“Yuanliang”. 

Qi Shan raised his brows.

Don’t be fooled by young master Shen. He was always saying ‘Mister Qi’, or ‘Mister’, which sounded respectful, but this respect was still false or perfunctory. On the contrary, it was the name “Qi Yuanliang” that he blurted out under his anger earlier, that sounded more truthful. 

Openly called out “Yuanliang”…  

He didn’t feel offended and even looked forward to it.    

“What is it?”

Shen Tang sat down. She controlled herself to not pay attention to the movements outside—these soldiers only took advantage of the situation, because they were in an advantageous situation. They had to escort the criminals, so they shouldn’t be too excessive. If she jumped out now “to fight for justice”, instead she would bring them more trouble.

As a result, she could only divert her attention and control her sullen emotions.

“I’m curious, who are you in the end?” 

Qi Shan knew too much.

Moreover, the timing of his appearance was too much of a coincidence.

How much luck, Shen Tang, needed to have to meet an awesome person that knew everything after the start of this Hell? 

Who knew, Qi Shan wouldn’t answer, but instead return her the ball.

“Before answering, young master Shen, shouldn’t you also reveal your true identity? Show some sincerity”.

And why do you have a national seal!

It’s just that he didn’t ask about this because he believed that young master Shen was enough crafty to know the meaning of his unfinished words - 

This could be the tacit understanding between them. 

Shen Tang “…”

It was useless to ask her this question.

If she had a minimum guarantee and possessed the memory of the previous owner of the body, would she need to do insinuations and depend on Qi Shan to understand the situation?

“Yuanliang. Who do you think am I?”

Shen Tang used the jack-of-all-trades way of speaking. 

She could also pass the ball to him and pretend to be mysterious!

Who knew that after her question, Qi Shan would become silent. His expression was complicated. She was unable to understand it thoroughly. He suddenly sighed: “I thought… yes, Shen, your surname is Shen!”

He didn't know what to think, but his expression suddenly brightened!

Shen Tang was confused. On her forehead appeared three question marks, but on the outside, her expression remained still: “My surname is Shen. Yuanliang, didn’t you know it earlier? Wenxin can’t be wrong, unless I’m like you and have your disguising ability”.

But - 

Why is her surname Shen?   

The next sentence of Qi Shan left her speechless.

“In this way, young master Shen is ‘Gong Cheng’?”

Shen Tang “…”

She suddenly really wanted to know what Qi Shan was just imagining.

Qi Shan continued, his eyes locked on Shen Tang. He talked about a scandal: “King of Xin was a womanizer, and he treated women extremely ruthlessly. Perhaps it was his retribution. For the past many years, he had only one daughter. But his love for her was far less than his love for Gong Cheng, the son of the first wife of the Gong clan. 

Someone once suggested to him that Gong Cheng should be his daughter's husband-in-law, but he was severely reprimanded by the king and even degraded… Therefore, there are rumours…”

Shen Tang voluntarily added: “You mean – King of Xin planted grasslands on the head of Patriarch Gong? No, I mean slept with the wife of the Patriarch Gong?” 

Gong Cheng was the child of the King of Xin???   

The patriarch of the Gong clan has been cheated on for many years??? 

Hold on - 

Shen Tang was stunned for a moment, and it took her a while to react.

Looking back at her wenxin and into the eyes of Qi Shan that said “I’ve seen through your secret”, she almost spit out a mouthful of old blood. 

Her voice was shaking: “The family name of the king of the Xin country is…” 

Qi Shan said: “Shen”.

Qi Yuanliang’s imagination was rich, but the truth…