“I never expected the Confucian Hero of legend to have such bearing, so open and unrestrained.” After Xie Shu and the other person had left, Zhang Yang heard Shen Zhi sighing, “He really does seem to be something special.”
He seemed to have completely forgotten his earlier hatred and distaste for traitors and rebels.
Zhang Yang’s sharp ears picked up on it.
“What did you say about a Confucian Hero?”
“The man just now was Qin Huang, Qin Shiming, famed as the ‘Confucian Hero.'” Shen Zhi clapped his hands in admiration.
“‘The phoenix cries on the lofty ridge; the parasol tree grows where the morning sun shines.’ Back home, I’d sometimes hear my elder brother and the others talk about how good he was.”
“How good?”
“They said he stood up for justice and helped the oppressed, prized loyalty over wealth, and roamed the land as a wandering hero, mingling with people from all walks of life. Though born into a prominent family, he had none of the arrogance of a noble son, and had supported many people from all sorts of backgrounds. His reputation among the common folk really is excellent.”
Back then, Shen Zhi had been only half-convinced.
It was only after meeting Qin Huang in person that he realized the rumors weren’t all baseless.
Qin Huang really did inspire instant goodwill in people.
Putting everything else aside, the fact that he took the initiative to apologize to two teenagers as someone in a position of authority, and admitted his own mistakes, showed a generosity of spirit worthy of praise.
It was a rare quality indeed.
That very gesture was what made Shen Zhi abandon his earlier prejudice and judge Qin Huang fairly and seriously.
She chattered on until she noticed Zhang Yang seemed lost in thought.
“You don’t agree?”
“I have a couple of examples. One’s called ‘Bright Moon of the Qin,’ the other ‘Qin Shi Huang and Emperor Wu of Han.'” She wanted to open her friends list to check, but halfway through she remembered that her Player friends list had already been cleared.
All she had now was her NPC friends list.
Shen Zhi was more or less used to Zhang Yang’s habit of leaping from one topic to another without warning, so she followed suit, dropped the previous subject, and picked up the thread as naturally as could be.
“What kind of parents give their children such bizarre, convoluted names?”
“They picked them themselves…” Actually, those kinds of game IDs were pretty normal.
Zhang Yang’s observation samples also included a whole bunch of series IDs like “XX Erotica Writer,” “XX Tourism Bureau,” and “XX TV Station.” She asked, “How much do you know about Qin Huang?”
“Got it. That’s all I know, and it’s all hearsay.”
Zhang Yang’s remark came out of nowhere.
“I don’t agree.”
She was answering Shen Zhi’s earlier questions.
Shen Zhi grew curious.
“Why?”
“An observation sample once said, ‘You can’t sleep two kinds of people under one quilt,'” Zhang Yang said.
“By the same logic, a general can’t lead two kinds of soldiers, and a boss can’t have two kinds of subordinates. A company’s corporate culture must be closely tied to the boss’s temperament. Everyone below knows how to read the room and understands what their superior likes and dislikes. Even the people who think they’re clever can’t get very close to the inner circle. So, working backward, if a company’s culture really reflected his true nature, then when one of his subordinates lost a prisoner in my hands, their first reaction shouldn’t be to make up the numbers by framing an innocent person. They should proactively tell their superior exactly what happened.”
“Wouldn’t a fair-minded leader be sympathetic to a subordinate’s difficulties?”
Shen Zhi: “…”
He looked at Zhang Yang as if he were seeing her for the first time.
Although quite a few of Zhang Yang’s words were odd, the context made it possible to understand most of what she meant.
To distill the core idea, the Qin Huang she’d just seen was merely a disguise put on by the other party.
His true temperament was probably entirely different.
“You—”
Zhang Yang looked at him, puzzled. The source of this chapter is g.com.
“What about me?”
Shen Zhi shook his head.
“Sometimes dull, sometimes clever.”
Zhang Yang: “…”
At that moment, her desire to make Shen Zhi show a red name reached new heights.
A big part of why Zhang Yang wasn’t taken in by Qin Huang’s humble, deferential manner was that she’d always been self-centered.
Another part was that she’d just noticed Qin Huang had appeared on the recruitment page too.
His Morality Value was barely passing.
His Ambition Value was a whopping 99, a little higher than Xie Shu’s.
Could someone with low morals and sky-high ambition really be any good?
Zhang Yang couldn’t resist trying to recruit Qin Huang too.
The System’s reason for rejecting him was that he wanted to stand alone in all his glory.
His ambition was so high that he might stab his liege in the back at any moment, so the request was denied.
“He says he’ll give you a person. Should you politely decline?”
Zhang Yang said expressionlessly, “Why turn him down? He’s free labor, after all. Don’t be too picky. If he’s useful, use him. If not, kill him. At worst, we’ll waste a little time digging a hole and dumping the body.”
Shen Zhi: “…”
He had a feeling Zhang Yang would absolutely do exactly what she said.
“Go on.”
Zhang Yang picked up her proposal.
Shen Zhi wanted to refuse, but when he saw the gold brick Zhang Yang had deliberately left half-exposed, he silently swallowed the words he’d been preparing.
Two worthless craftsmen couldn’t come up with one Zhuge Liang.
Even with their combined Intellect of 92, they’d made zero progress after half a day.
Shen Zhi insisted the problem wasn’t his brain.
It was purely because Zhang Yang wanted whatever she laid eyes on, but there was nothing she wanted that she could actually get.
He wasn’t some tortoise in a temple pond, so how was he supposed to help her realize her grand ambitions?
Once Shen Zhi was finally free, he’d never imagined playing pretend could take so much out of him.
Qin Huang had Xie Shu bring the person back.
There were some unpleasant truths to get out of the way first.
“If you’re not pleased…”
Zhang Yang looked at her, waiting for her to continue.
Xie Shu sighed.
“Either set him free, or kill him.”
From that sigh, Shen Zhi could hear far too many complicated emotions.
It didn’t take much thought to know that whoever they’d brought back would be a hot potato, while Zhang Yang was still wet behind the ears.
Xie Shu clapped her hands.
Attendants carried an unconscious, bloodied man out of the side room.
He was disheveled and filthy, dressed in prison garb.
New and old wounds crisscrossed his body.
Shen Zhi immediately noticed the mangled leg beneath the ragged trouser leg, the fingers twisted at unnatural angles.
“Yikes…”
Shen Zhi sucked in a sharp breath.
“His injuries are this severe. Was he tortured?”
Xie Shu nodded.
“More or less.”
Shen Zhi hesitated, wanting to ask something but stopping himself.
He thought of Zhang Yang’s assessment of Qin Huang.
No matter how curious he was, it wouldn’t do to ask outright.
He was afraid it might lead to complications.
“Did you do this to him?”
At first, when Shen Zhi heard this, he thought he’d let his inner thoughts slip out without realizing it.
His heart lurched.
But when he turned toward the voice, sure enough, it was Zhang Yang.
He cursed inwardly: Zhang Yang really was relying on her ironclad fate to say any kind of nonsense she pleased.
Xie Shu said, “Not exactly.”
Zhang Yang frowned as she examined the blood-covered man, then said disdainfully, “With a hand and a leg broken, he hardly looks like someone who can work.”
Xie Shu replied calmly, “His value goes beyond that.”
Looking at the blood-covered man, Zhang Yang remained noncommittal.
Name: Mysterious Bloody Person (Unknown, recommend asking)
Age: 28
Faction: Dou State
Occupation: Strategist
Stars: Unknown (awaiting decryption)
Talent: Unknown (awaiting decryption)
Loyalty: 0 (Unknown warning!)
Morality: 0 (Unknown warning!)
Intellect: 93 (cannot be controlled by those with too little Intellect)
Ambition: 0 (all drive exhausted)
Title: Welcome All Comers
It is recommended that you recruit this person with caution
Zhang Yang: “!!!”
Someone actually had zero for loyalty, morality, and ambition.