At this moment, Li Si truly wished that he had never grown ears. Or that he could temporarily go deaf would also be good.
He really did not dare to think about what Ying Zheng asking that question represented, because the matter was truly terrifying upon careful thought.
Although in his heart he knew that his younger sister did indeed harbor a bit of girlish feelings toward the King, later Li Si also found a reason for this inexplicable longing of hers. After all, his younger sister was still a little girl; the two siblings were of humble origin, and in their early years were influenced by objective external conditions, so Li Xi had seen very few outstanding members of the opposite sex. Moreover, at that time she had been foolish and not yet awakened, so it was even more impossible for her to have romantic feelings.
And Ying Zheng was the first boy of the same age that Li Xi met after she awakened, and he basically combined three thousand virtues into one—among which, broadly speaking, could be summarized as being good-looking and having high status. Obviously, he would be the perfect heroic figure in the hearts of young girls. Therefore, when Li Si later thought about it, his sister developing girlish feelings for the King was always something poetic and also very well-grounded, and after careful consideration, it was still very reasonable and justified.
However, what he could not quite see through was why the King would also look at his younger sister differently. Judging from Ying Zheng’s growth environment over the past sixteen years, logically speaking he should have seen all kinds of girls. During the nine years he suffered as a hostage in Zhao, he would have seen all kinds of ordinary girls from common families, or girls of modest and gentle households. And after returning to Qin, as a royal prince, he would inevitably have seen the daughters of various noble families. Although Li Si had a very strong “older brother filter” toward his sister, he had to admit that Li Xi truly was not the type of girl that fit the mainstream aesthetic of this era. Her personality, taken out alone, would make many families avoid her, afraid of inviting home a living she-demon.
And as for appearance, admittedly, in this respect Li Si felt that his sister was also a rare beauty in the world. But putting aside for the moment whether the King in his memory—temperamental and truly half lord, half tiger in his interactions—was shallow enough to fall in love with someone based on looks alone, just on another point alone: if Li Xi could be called a rare beauty in the world, then Zhao Ji, the Empress Dowager of Qin, should probably be described as a beauty unmatched in the world. With a mother like Zhao Ji, Li Si felt that Ying Zheng should naturally have a built-in immunity to beauties.
Naturally, none of these were the most important reasons. The true crux of the matter lay in—
Because of her rather special current status, Li Xi was now participating in Qin’s state affairs. And just this one point alone was enough for Li Si to think that Ying Zheng would absolutely not like a woman who interfered in court affairs.
Because speaking of it, Ying Zheng should have had a shadow regarding such women. Three years ago, Ying Zheng ascended the throne of King of Qin; although he was king, he did not hold real power. Major state affairs were controlled by the Empress Dowager Zhao Ji and the Chancellor Lü Buwei. And tracing further back, before Ying Zheng was even born, at that time the former king Ying Zichu… or it could also be said Ying Yiren, with the help of Lü Buwei, accepted Lady Huayang, who was favored by King Xiaowen, as his mother, ascended to the position of Crown Prince, and after ascending the throne, because of the reasons behind how he gained his position, was also in all aspects controlled by Empress Dowager Huayang.
Li Si felt that, with Ying Zheng’s personality, he should take these cases of inner palace regency as negative examples, and would certainly dislike this type of woman. But now… forget it, let’s not think too much about it for now. The priority was to quickly gloss over this question.
Thinking this, after a rapid and intense internal struggle, Li Si looked at the expression of the young monarch before him and cautiously probed, “Your Majesty, my younger sister is ordinary and unworthy of matching…”
In his heart, his younger sister was the best girl in the world, and there was no one unworthy of Li. Sister-con Li Si seriously began to tell lies against his conscience, only wanting to suppress the King’s inexplicable interest in his sister. Although he had already given up on trying to save the situation regarding Li Xi, like Ying Zheng, heart is heart, actions are actions, as the saying goes, judge actions, not hearts. If possible, he still hoped that the two of them would not have any relationship beyond official matters, because romantic feelings truly mislead people.
However, Li Si’s attempt at remonstration did not even have time to be completed. He had only just begun when he was swept back by Ying Zheng’s cool gaze.
The young monarch in dark robes lightly swept his eyes over him, looking at Li Si with a half-smile, “Chancellor, where has your thinking gone?”
Li Si was instantly stunned. Had he… guessed the King’s intention wrong?
Then Li Si quickly lowered his head and said humbly, “Your Majesty, forgive me, this subject—”
“Enough.” Ying Zheng waved his hand, not in the mood to listen to his long, useless nonsense.
He only said lightly, “If someone has something they cannot judge, they can directly bring it to ask this king; at most it only makes that person seem dull. But if one makes presumptuous guesses and in the end produces an incorrect result,” at this point, he suddenly gave a light laugh, carrying a strange chill that made one’s back feel cold, “this king will think that this person is stupid and unfit for use.”
This was a warning to him not to presume to speculate about the thoughts of a ruler.
Li Si was a perceptive person, so upon hearing this sentence from Ying Zheng, he immediately nodded in agreement, and following Ying Zheng’s previous words, he said, “This subject is dull. May Your Majesty clarify why…”
Suddenly asking such a question filled one’s heart with countless misgivings.
Then he heard Ying Zheng snort and say in a light tone, “Being both women, this king merely wants to take the Divine Maiden’s preferences as reference, to send the Empress Dowager a gift.”
Combining Ying Zheng’s sentence with the question he had asked earlier, Li Si felt that the meaning hidden behind this was simply truly, utterly terrifying upon careful thought.
He could not help but bitterly smile inwardly and sigh, thinking that indeed half lord, half tiger—today’s matter could probably be considered a royal secret.
However, Ying Zheng truly chose the wrong person as his reference object, because his younger sister was…
Thinking this, Li Si’s tone became even more cautious, “This matter… in this subject’s foolish opinion, perhaps one could select a few young men of various types—some gentle and considerate, some obedient and compliant, some slightly proud. If today one has grown accustomed to such delicacies, tomorrow one can at any time change to plain porridge and simple dishes…”
After understanding the root of the matter, Li Si directly skipped over the question Ying Zheng had asked him and instead offered advice from the fundamental nature of the King’s inquiry itself, even though he himself did not know how he had said such a suggestion.
The pitch-black phoenix eyes looked at him for a moment. Finally, before Li Si began to break into a cold sweat, that clear, cold voice spoke again, “Since that is so, then let this matter be handled by the Chancellor.”
“Yes.” Li Si responded calmly on the surface.
But in his heart he could not help but cry out in misery, feeling that this was all so absurd. The King wanted to send male pets to the Empress Dowager; this was something that should have been kept secret, and it was already bad enough that he had been asked about it. In the end, the matter actually fell to him personally to select candidates for male pets for the Empress Dowager. This… whether he chose well or not, whether he could satisfy the Empress Dowager or not, this matter somehow felt off no matter what.
Liyang.
Leaning gently toward the brilliance of all things, steadfastly dwelling at the ends of the earth.
The third test phase had now been open for a period of time, and on the Liyang side, several new engineering projects in all aspects had already entered steady operation.
After experiencing the temporary server shutdown during the previous upgrade, and the moment of confusion upon returning to the game and discovering that many changes seemed to have occurred, once the players figured out the situation, under the misleading influence of the bullet comments they foolishly shouted about wanting to fast-forward the era to after the Industrial Revolution. After the system went to the forum and gave them a reference, it finally brought their already not very upright style back on track.
And because before the brief server shutdown Li Xi had long ago released the next step tasks, during that period the players had more or less done some preparation for new tasks—namely, going online to look up information. So after getting serious, the players each divided labor and formed several small groups to handle different aspects of the work.
A large portion of the players who had previously been burning glass but constantly failing quickly ran away, gave up continuing to butt heads with glass, and instead turned to another task that also required firing—going to the printing workshop to fire movable clay type. After leaving the brick kilns where they had always been confused and frequently died from explosions due to randomly adding things, these players who had nearly been driven mad by glass finally felt they had a place to quickly make use of their abilities.
Another group, more persistent, who refused to retreat even after smashing their heads against the southern wall, and who also repeatedly failed at glassmaking, instead tricked some new third-test players into joining them in “explosions,” under the name of “actually this is quite fun.”
However, it must be said that after this batch of third-test players joined, the progress of glassmaking at the brick kilns truly advanced by leaps and bounds. Not only did they begin to truly produce glass, but they also obtained the colored glazed glass that Li Xi had specifically named—beautiful colored glass that looked expensive at a glance. This was because among these players, there existed European Emperors.
The reason European Emperors are called European Emperors is that under the same material ratios, other players throwing things into the kiln could only produce ordinary glass, whereas the European Emperor could obtain beautifully colored glazed glass.
This made the players who had been failing all along unconsciously embed an entire lemon into their eyes.
Compared to the work on this side that required open flames and carried a certain degree of danger, the textile and papermaking sides were much quieter.
However, the level of difficulty was not much lower.
For the players working on making textile machines, everyone constantly logged off to read books, then logged on to tell the content to the “NPC” craftsmen with skills. Later they found that this was too taxing on memory and too inefficient, so they simply divided the work and repeatedly switched online and offline to “write from memory” the useful information, then after finishing everything, took it to craftsmen who could read a little. After receiving the response, “This… I cannot understand what the Divine Lord wrote,” they then suddenly realized that simplified characters and Qin seal script were worlds apart, and afterward had no choice but to go to the Liyang magistrate to borrow a clerk who could write.
After finally getting all of this done, and the text could finally be understood, new problems appeared again. The craftsmen did not understand some of the descriptions in the books, and in the end the players had no choice but to start drawing pictures, attempting to make the craftsmen understand with both images and text—naturally, this also included the process of a group of clumsy-handed players who drew crooked, unrecognizable things seeking out companions who had studied drawing to help. It took several days back and forth before they could finally start work.
In a word, it was inexplicably bitter and arduous.
As for the players manually experimenting with ancient papermaking methods, relatively speaking, their progress was rather smooth.
After all, the first step of papermaking was very simple: first fell bamboo, scrape bark, collect and pick various fibrous plants, then boil them in a large pot with alkali lime, and later make pulp. Everything was relatively smooth compared to other players, and then—
They got stuck at the final step of scooping pulp with bamboo screens and making paper, repeatedly failing. Only at the final step could it be reflected whether there were errors in the previous operations. For example, if the pulp was not bleached white enough, the paper after scooping would be dark and gray. Or if the pulp was not beaten finely enough, the paper produced would be rough and prick the hands, and naturally it would bleed ink—when the pen touched it, even a single dot would instantly spread into a blot.
Even when occasionally the pulp was finally processed perfectly with no flaws to pick, there was still the possibility of failure, because when scooping paper with bamboo screens, after scooping and then stacking them together to dry as written in the instructions, as they dried, one might suddenly discover that the papers seemed to become inseparable and stuck together. In the end, because each single sheet was too thin, they could only take knives and pens and separate them page by page, treating them as if they were making thicker paper.
And amid the players’ repeated failures and indomitable perseverance, working in full swing, that player with exceptional handicraft skills who had previously drawn Li Xi’s attention finally completed the thing she had been working on since entering the game, bringing a huge surprise to her, or rather, to the farmers of this land.
—The curved-shaft plow.
Compared to the long straight-shaft plows widely used by the people at present, the curved-shaft plow, with its mobility, could break soil more easily, carry out deep plowing and fine cultivation, and improve labor efficiency.
Before this player, Li Xi had also not expected that there could be a player with such powerful handicraft skills, able to manufacture such a large and practically meaningful item with her bare hands.
Ancient society was mostly an agrarian economy, so an item like this that improved agricultural efficiency naturally had extraordinary significance.
Therefore, unsurprisingly, Li Xi, the “protagonist NPC” in the eyes of the players, personally received this player and gave her rewards—aside from the large amount of contribution points that players usually grind for, Li Xi also separately gave her a house, symbolizing that it would be her future “studio,” and also gave her a game account slot, encouraging her to continue making other useful items.
And this young woman’s special reward quickly spread, and for a time caused a great stir on the forum, mainly because of that one game account slot. After all, before this, because of outstanding personal contributions, players leaving the communal dormitory and obtaining their own small houses was not unprecedented; there had long been players on the forum boasting about “buying a house” in the game through grinding. In fact, in the game, house ownership, revival mechanisms, and livestream mechanisms were all the same—clearly priced and could be exchanged with contribution points, only that houses were much more expensive than other items.
But game account slots were different. This was the first time that, besides the official announcement to open new slots and conduct applications and lottery “random” selection, there appeared a new way to obtain a game account.
So for a time, the players’ game forum was once again flooded by “Great Qin.” The homepage was filled with wealthy players offering heavy money for accounts,They all said that as long as you’re willing to pay the price for this account, the girl can set it whatever she wants, and for a time made the onlookers unsure whether to envy the tycoons’ superpower of casually spending tens of thousands, or to envy the heaven-chosen lucky ones who could climb to the peak of life through a game.
However, from the time the tycoons began wanting to buy accounts until several days after the matter quieted down, the handicraft queen who had received the account slot as a reward never appeared from beginning to end, and in the end the matter could only fade away unresolved.
But through this incident, many people saw business opportunities, and some players who held accounts could not help but rub their hands together, secretly vowing to achieve great things in the game and then let the game carry them to the peak of life—
—because “Great Qin” accounts were now really expensive! Several well-known big spenders in the gaming circle who could casually burn tens of thousands mentioned prices equivalent to an apartment in a third-tier city, but since no one had spare game slots, everyone could only watch with envy.
And such an event happening on the forum naturally did not escape the eyes of the system, which, being an artificial intelligence, did not need rest and could surf the net 24/7 as long as Li Xi had not assigned it tasks. So it naturally reported it to its host.
After hearing about this, Li Xi only said calmly, “Very good.”
With heat and people liking it, she could snag countless free laborers from the players’ world who worked for her without seeking any return.
…Although in the process of working for her, it was actually beneficial to them as well.
Previously, on the game forum, some players had given feedback that after playing the game, they felt their physical condition had improved. But for the time being, in the players’ world, no one took this too seriously. However, according to what the system told her, in the later stages, when they invested more and more into the game, it could even produce “medical miracles”—for example, people who were originally severely nearsighted or even blind would gradually regain normal vision; or people who had injured their legs and could only sit in wheelchairs would be able to stand again.
However, these were things Li Xi absolutely could not put on the official game promotion page. If she really did that, “Great Qin” would probably be labeled as severely promoting feudal superstition and be shut down by that world. Then when officials came to investigate, they would find something even more absurd—they could not find the location of the servers, and then they would directly fast-forward to her and the system having to flee from that world.
But this did not mean that these things could never be made known to players. Li Xi’s original purpose was to let players know how many benefits “Great Qin” could bring them, thereby making everyone in that world go crazy for this game, smashing their heads against the wall begging her to give them opportunities to become free labor tools.
It was just that “Great Qin” had appeared in that world for too short a time, and although the heat existed, the foundation was not yet stable. A ten-thousand-story building rises from the ground; it was not yet appropriate to be overly high-profile in this direction. Only when Great Qin truly became a national-level phenomenon game would it be about right.
And by that time, there would be no need for the officials to guide this matter, because players would eventually be able to feel the changes in their own bodies themselves.
“Oh, right,” Li Xi added as if remembering something, “The account slots I reward in the game can be handled by the recipients however they like, but as for applying for the game’s closed beta… one person, one account. If the person logging in is not the applicant, then that account will be invalidated. There’s no need to announce this in advance; just bring it up whenever it happens.”
Li Xi treated players as tools for building Great Qin, so naturally there was no reason to let her tools treat her as a tool for making money.
Li Xi’s words were naturally obediently accepted by the system.
The Palace.
As soon as one stepped into Ganquan Palace, the ears were immediately filled with decadent, indulgent, intoxicating music.
Ying Zheng could not help but slightly frown, but this was Zhao Ji’s palace after all. Thinking that she usually stayed in her own palace and went nowhere else, the young monarch ultimately said nothing, but instead quickened his pace inward.
Seeing this, the several palace attendants who came with him also hurriedly quickened their steps.
As King, Ying Zheng naturally had no one daring to block him in Ganquan Palace. Moreover, because of the strong aura of the dark-robed youth, among all the palace attendants who saw Ying Zheng in Ganquan Palace, not a single one dared to go inform Zhao Ji.
The young man strode swiftly, passed through several courtyards, and directly arrived at Zhao Ji’s residence inside. As soon as he stepped inside, he first followed traditional etiquette and greeted Zhao Ji, and then swept his gaze and began dismissing people, saying coldly, “All of you, go out.”
Upon hearing this sentence, the palace attendants serving on both sides immediately all withdrew knowingly.
Only one person was different, and that was the man lounging beside Zhao Ji—Lao Ai, the one who had previously tried to use Zhao Ji to seek a noble title from him.
After seeing all the other palace attendants withdraw, for some reason, Lao Ai actually cast a look at the tall, jade-like youth with a faintly provocative meaning. But how could Ying Zheng be in the mood to bother with such a trivial plaything? A servant who did not obey their master should simply be beaten or killed.
So Ying Zheng directly said lightly to the palace attendants who had come with him carrying something, “Take him away.”
Upon hearing this, the two palace attendants immediately put down what they were holding, and then, regardless of Zhao Ji’s shocked gaze and Lao Ai’s curses, directly walked forward and dragged him away.
The meaning of the King’s words just now was already very clear—drag him away and execute him. Therefore, as attendants serving Ying Zheng, they naturally had no doubts about following the King’s command. Moreover, Lao Ai’s arrogance toward Ying Zheng also struck the two attendants as strange—just how much must the Empress Dowager dote on this servant to let him become so inflated that he did not even put the King in his eyes?
After the two attendants dragged Lao Ai away, Zhao Ji, who was seated, blinked, seeming to have only just reacted to what had happened. Her beautiful face could not help but turn somewhat ugly.
She raised her eyes to look at Ying Zheng and asked displeasedly, “My son, what are you doing?” How could he, without any explanation, come in and have her attendant beaten and killed?
Zhao Ji could not help but feel a bit aggrieved. And after feeling aggrieved, she inevitably felt some unease, because the person Ying Zheng had ordered dragged away was not some other person, but precisely the male pet Lao Ai whom she had previously smuggled into the palace.
Could it be that Ying Zheng had come today specifically to hold her accountable for this matter?
She could not help but think this in her heart.
But Ying Zheng only said lightly, “Your son came here today to specially deliver a gift to Mother, yet did not expect to see such an ill-mannered attendant in Ganquan Palace, who even dared to be disrespectful to this king. Such a servant, if lightly spared, I fear that in the future he would bully Mother.”
“It is merely dealing with an ill-mannered attendant. Mother should not be angry with your son because of such a servant, right?”
Hearing the youth’s words that carried a hint of ambiguous double meaning, Zhao Ji could not help but fall silent.
Then Ying Zheng gave a light laugh, appearing like nothing more than a clear and bright youth, and said, “Why does Mother not ask me what gift I have come to give you?”
Her favorite male pet had just been dragged away and dealt with by Ying Zheng, yet she was also blocked by Ying Zheng and could not speak—because Lao Ai’s words and actions indeed made him deserving of this. Now feeling somewhat depressed, Zhao Ji could not help but ask in an unpleasant tone, “What is it?”
At present, she had no interest at all in gold, silver, or jewels. She only wanted her male pet. In this deep palace courtyard, the loneliness of having no one accompany her was simply driving her crazy!
Seeing Zhao Ji’s mood worsen after losing her little lover, Ying Zheng did not get angry, but instead walked over to where the several palace attendants had placed the boxes, slightly bent down and opened the two boxes, then the youth turned his head slightly and said in a light voice, “Mother, please look.”
“?” Zhao Ji looked over in confusion, and after this one glance, she could no longer look away.
There was no other reason.
Because inside the two boxes, the “gifts” Ying Zheng gave her were not gold or silver treasures, but… four young men of about twenty years old, each with handsome looks and distinct styles.
Zhao Ji could not help but be stunned, looked at her son, and said haltingly, “Zheng’er, this is…?”
In this palace, there was never a lack of handsome young eunuchs. If they were eunuchs, Ying Zheng would have no need to put them in boxes and have attendants carry them in. And connecting this with his words about a “gift,” Zhao Ji suddenly had a bold guess in her heart, and her heart could not help but pound.
Seeing this, Ying Zheng said lightly, “It seems Mother likes them.”
Upon hearing this, Zhao Ji immediately beamed with joy, and in an instant forgot the displeasure from just now when Lao Ai had been dragged away by Ying Zheng. After all, what she wanted was only men. As for who that man was, she did not truly care at heart—after all, she was not going to have a romantic relationship, but to be pleased by them, so why think so much?
Moreover, the young men Ying Zheng gave her were far more handsome than Lao Ai. Although she herself was already beautiful enough, who would not like beautiful people?
Then Ying Zheng waved his hand and had the four male pets that Li Si had carefully selected for Zhao Ji temporarily withdrawn. The dark-robed youth raised his eyes and looked at his mother. Seeing Ying Zheng’s look, Zhao Ji could not help but feel puzzled and said, “Does Zheng’er have other words to say as well?”
Although Zhao Ji was not very clever, seeing him dismiss all the attendants also made her sense that Ying Zheng had something to say to her alone.
Then she heard Ying Zheng speak, “Mother’s behavior like this… is probably not suitable to continue staying in Xianyang Palace, to avoid giving rise to rumors.”
Upon hearing this, Zhao Ji was first stunned, then seemed to react to something, and nodded somewhat blankly, saying, “Yes, Zheng’er, you are right…”
Then she could not help but ask back, “Then where should I go?”
Ying Zheng casually said, “What does Mother think of Jingyang?”
“Jingyang…” Upon hearing this name, Zhao Ji first thought about it for a while. After a long time, still unable to think of anything particularly special about it, she reluctantly nodded, “That’s fine.”
Thus Ying Zheng made the final decision, “Then Mother should prepare in these next few days, and afterward your son will have people escort you to Jingyang.”
“Oh, okay.”
Thus arranged, Zhao Ji could only respond dully.
Seeing that the matter was thus settled, Ying Zheng then found an excuse and left the Ganquan Palace filled with decadent music.
He immediately arranged manpower to prepare Zhao Ji’s departure from the palace.
In fact, Ying Zheng making male pets for Zhao Ji had from the beginning been aimed at this result—having her leave Xianyang.
Indeed, even now, Zhao Ji, even if she stayed in the palace, could not influence or interfere with his thoughts and decisions at all. All powers were already firmly in his hands, and no one else could touch them. However, his desire to send Zhao Ji away had nothing to do with power at all; it was simply because looking at her displeased him.
—Since she had long ago abandoned him as her son, then why should he allow her to remain in his sight?
Not long after Zhao Ji left Xianyang, Ying Zheng received a letter from Chengjiao, reporting the situation on his side, stating that the people he had brought had now successfully dug up gold ore and were continuing to dig downward, and requesting that the King send him more manpower.
When Chengjiao went there, because he was going to search for gold ore—the paper Li Xi gave him marked a certain regional range, and exactly where to dig and how deep to dig to find gold were matters Chengjiao needed to personally verify—so Chengjiao initially did not bring many people.
Now that it had been confirmed that there was indeed a large amount of gold hidden there, naturally more manpower had to be sent to dig out the hidden gold and enrich the state treasury. After all,
—Qin was still at war.
Although frequent reports of victory came from the front, winning was one thing, but the money-burning nature of war was another matter entirely.
Chengjiao’s letter was not only received by Ying Zheng in Xianyang; Li Xi in Liyang also received a copy.
After all, no matter how much Chengjiao verbally claimed to dislike Li Xi, in the end the gold mine matter benefited from her discovery, so naturally there was no reason not to inform her, the rightful person, as well.
At that time, Li Xi was sitting in Chengjiao’s pasture, once again eating pigs he raised, slowly flipping through his letter.
As for why Li Xi had come here again to eat roast suckling pig, the reason had to be traced back to the last time she ate, when the preparation was somewhat insufficient, lacking one ingredient—honey for brushing to make the meat more crispy and firm. And these past two days, it just so happened that players in the wild accidentally poked a hornet’s nest and, nearly risking their lives, brought back some wild honey.
Ever since that first handicraft queen received a game account from Li Xi, the other players had been coming up with various ways to bring gifts to the Divine Maiden Residence, trying to curry favor with the goddess so that they too could, like the first lucky one, obtain a game account and thus walk the road to the peak of life three times over—that was a house! Who could resist the temptation of a house!
So this wild honey was Li Xi’s latest “spoils of war.” Thus, having obtained new “seasoning,” Li Xi decided to eat roast suckling pig again and wreak havoc on Chengjiao’s pigs. After all, he could not beat her, and now he was not even there, so he could not even try to beat her even if he wanted to.
Seeing the contents of Chengjiao’s letter, the system was very excited and sighed while asking Li Xi, 【Wow! They found it! Host, is Qin about to get rich?】
“Not necessarily,” Li Xi said. “It still depends on how large this deposit actually is. The key is that Qin is constantly at war, fighting this one and then that one, and after fighting that one, fighting this one again, burning money endlessly.”
The system said, 【Then once the world is unified, it will be fine.】
“Actually,” upon hearing this, Li Xi paused for a moment, then said, “I truly want to give Brother Zheng a world map.” So theoretically speaking, this money-burning activity of war would not stop.
“It’s just that my memory really cannot recall how to draw a detailed ancient-modern world map; I can only remember the general outline.”
At this point, she could not help but sigh somewhat melancholically. Then she shook her head and said, “Forget it, I won’t think about it. Another day I’ll catch another one of Chengjiao’s pigs to improve my mood. He’s a big household now; I won’t eat in vain.”
Hearing this, the system could not help but silently light a candle in its heart for the young Chengjiao.
Time passed in the blink of an eye, and in no time it arrived at the autumn harvest season, and the people all began to get busy with farm work.
Seeing that everyone had fallen into busyness, some players who had never farmed before could not help but curiously come over, follow behind the people, and help harvest grain together.
Some players who were building cement roads between Liyang and Xianyang even made a special trip back to watch a scene that was hard for them to see.
And on this day when the people were all busy, Li Xi quietly left Liyang, but she did not return to Xianyang. Instead, she went to a place she had never been before.
However, there were acquaintances there. It was precisely the place where Chengjiao was currently located.
The reasons Li Xi suddenly decided to go find Chengjiao could roughly be divided into two points. One was that during the autumn harvest period, she was truly too bored, but she could not return to Xianyang to find her older brother, because the matter of the five states forming a vertical alliance to attack Qin had just recently entered its final stage. At this time, it was impossible for her to go back and disturb her older brother, whose workload was extremely heavy, so she could only wreak havoc on Chengjiao.
The second was that since it was now autumn, and in another two months it would enter winter, it was time to add winter clothing. So Li Xi thought to take advantage of autumn to go hunting and get a fur cloak for her older brother—their family was truly not rich.
It just so happened that Chengjiao’s place had mountains and was suitable for hunting.
As for herself, Li Xi had no extra thoughts, because her physical condition and her brother’s physical condition… were simply not things that could be compared on the same level.
Li Xi was not a person who hid her intentions, so after arriving at Chengjiao’s place, she directly told the young boy that she wanted to go hunting.
Chengjiao immediately pointed at her and said, “Why are you so troublesome? I have very important matters in my hands right now.”
However, although Chengjiao’s mouth was unforgiving and he was picking on Li Xi and calling her troublesome, just looking at the slightly upturned corners of his mouth showed that the child was actually very happy to have a familiar person come and play with him.
But Li Xi was not someone with a good temper. She specialized in retorting to tsunderes and shot back, “If you don’t want to go, then don’t go. I never said you had to come with me.”
With a single sentence, she directly shattered the rare lack of hostility that Chengjiao had shown toward her when the two met.