"..." Ji Tan was silent for a few breaths. "The physician said you took a blow to the head and might lose part of your memory, or end up a little wrong in the head. I won't go so far as to expect you to suddenly awaken to your gifts like the Duke of Wu'an. Just don't come out of it addled, at least."
Ji Zhao asked, "Who are you?"
"If you're going to fake amnesia, at least look a bit more lost. Third-rate acting." Ji Tan rose calmly. "Looks like you're fine. Go to the study. Eldest Sister is about ready to die of rage over you."
With that, she left without lingering a moment, heading outside — but at the doorway she abruptly stopped.
"Oh, right... You haven't lost your memory, but is nothing else wrong with you either? Did you used to make jokes like that?"
Ji Zhao, now in possession of the memories, gave a bitter smile. "Looking back, that blow was never going to kill me. But at the time, watching a thing like that come down on my head, I really did think I was going to die... After a walk like that between life and death, I suppose some change is only natural."
"That's true enough..." Ji Tan nodded and left the room.
Ji Zhao took the chance to get out of bed. What he had said just now had been deliberate. It was true that he had gained all of his predecessor's memories, but playing the part perfectly was impossible; sooner or later something would slip. The two of them looked almost identical, but there was no small gap between their personalities... Since this had happened to come along, he might as well use it as his excuse. After all, nothing in the world could change a person more than a walk between life and death.
【"So weak, this body... Its obsession is protecting its family? As expected."】
Ji Zhao began running simple tests of this body's various values. But just as he was feeling his way through them, some pale red text suddenly surfaced around him.
【Character: Ji Zhao】
【Comprehension: 25+65】
【Constitution: 6+3】
【Martial Attainment: 8436】
...(For the remaining attributes, see True·Ji Zhao in Volume One, Chapter 2.)
Ji Zhao clearly remembered every one of his own attributes.
【"Constitution has got worse, but Martial Attainment has risen a little... I see. Because the body is his, it uses his Constitution, and the rise in Martial Attainment comes from the extra memories. After all, my Martial Attainment is entirely in 'fighting technique,' whereas he has some understanding of internal arts."】
Having tested things roughly, Ji Zhao left the room. Just as in the game, Wang An was practicing martial arts beneath the big tree in the courtyard. Ji Zhao gave him a couple of quick glances, took his measure, and then headed for the study.
KNOCK, KNOCK.
Ji Zhao knocked on the door, and Ji Bei's voice sounded in answer.
"Come in."
Ji Zhao pushed the door open and went in. He looked around: the study was not large, and Ji Bei sat behind the desk, looking almost exactly as she had in the game, except that she was now a real person — red lips and white teeth, a heroic air between her brows, and a chest with nothing whatsoever to show... Meeting her for the first time, you could be forgiven for taking her for a young noble gentleman.
Ji Bei looked up and asked, holding her anger down, "How's your body?"
"Not too good." Ji Zhao shook his head. "My heart's been fluttering the whole way over. I'm afraid I can't take much of a scolding."
"Then grit your teeth and take it... Idiot!" Ji Bei was fuming. For all that she told Ji Zhao to bear it, she herself had no intention whatsoever of bearing anything, and would not be satisfied until she had cursed him a few times. "You think you're that hard to kill?!"
"I don't think so anymore." Ji Zhao spoke softly. "Death... I never had any real sense of it before. Now, at last, I understand it a little."
"Hmph..." Ji Bei snorted coldly. She seemed to have been moved by Ji Zhao's attitude, and did not go on scolding. "Good that you know it. The Qi-Nurturing Scripture isn't a method for fighting enemies. However long you've practiced it, it won't do you much good in a real fight. Go find Uncle Wang in a while and have him teach you the basics, and switch to a different cultivation method while you're at it... I had you practice the Qi-Nurturing Scripture back then to nurse your body. Your frame is weak — if you went straight into other methods without laying a few years of foundation, not only would it fail, it would turn back on you in your old age. But with the realm in the state it's in now, there's no room to worry about that far ahead. Go."
Ji Bei's voice fell silent, but Ji Zhao did not leave.
"What, is there something else you want to say?"
Ji Zhao put on the look of a man with something hard to say. "It's like this... Eldest Sister, I think Anchun is just too dangerous. If we keep staying here, I'm afraid..."
Ji Bei cut him off. "You want to leave?"
Ji Zhao nodded. "I want our whole family to leave together."
Ji Bei gave a cold laugh. "It seems you really have learned to be afraid this time. I always wondered why the Yan armies of the Xuande years fell apart at a single blow, a hundred thousand men chased about by ten thousand of the Ning — so it turns out they were all clever men like you, who look to their own skins the moment trouble strikes."
Hearing this, Ji Zhao knew there was no chance of making a run for it, but he still wanted to hold out a little longer, and said in a low voice, "Soldiers are soldiers, and common folk are common folk."
"SLAP!" Ji Bei reached out and slapped a token carved with the character 'An' down onto the desk with a sharp crack, and shouted, "I am the Martial Warden of Anchun! I bear the name of the Duke of Wu'an, and I eat the stipend of Yan without doing a day's labor — how could I abandon the land of Yan now!"
Ji Bei seemed to have truly lost her temper and was about to roar a few more lines, but she forced it back down. "...Enough. You barely escaped death — it's no surprise you'd think this way. I don't blame you. But don't say such things again. Go on, out."
"I understand."
Ji Zhao turned and left, his expression calm, without the slightest trace of fear.
【"Doesn't work after all, huh."】
Leaving Anchun — Ji Zhao thought it a decent option. At the very least it would satisfy the original body's obsession with 'protecting his family.' As for where to go after leaving, he could only take it one step at a time. After all, who could say what would come later?
Unfortunately, the plan had died in the womb before it could even take its first step... Ji Zhao was not discouraged. It had only been an attempt; failing did no harm.
After all, he did not have much say in this family... And that was not only a matter of his abilities or his age. Most important of all, Ji Zhao could not really be counted as a member of the Ji family.
In the game, Han Yi had cursed Ji Zhao as a 'bastard' in his inner thoughts... And to be honest, it did not really count as a curse.
Ji Bei's father, Ji Ren, had been infatuated in his youth with a courtesan, and had spent a fortune pursuing her. She would not give him the time of day, and bore a child to another man instead. But just as Ji Zhao was about to be born, the man ran off... And it happened to be just when the state of Ning was rising and the times were in upheaval. In that kind of world, a pregnant courtesan was worth less than a blade of grass. It was lucky that there was a Ji Ren around to pick up the pieces... But Ji Zhao's birth did not go smoothly, and the courtesan bled to death.
Ji Ren, it could be said, was every bit as benevolent as his name promised — in the end he really did bring Ji Zhao home and raise him. Sadly, only a few years later Ji Ren joined the army and died in battle, and Ji Bei and Ji Tan's birth mother fell ill from grief and longing and died as well. That left the Ji household with only Ji Bei's generation, plus Wang An, whose life Ji Ren had saved years before and who had served at the family's side ever since.
So Ji Zhao was, in effect, the child of some stray man (?) and a prostitute... In this era, a status that lowly was about as low as it could possibly get.