Inside the Qilin Hall.
Ying Ziye’s voice carried no trace of warmth.
“Ziye.”
“How should I respond to this letter from your eldest brother?”
Those youthful eyes were as cold as ice.
The temperature in the hall seemed to drop again.
All officials fell deathly silent.
The excitement from the paper-making and printing earlier was instantly frozen.
Everyone looked at that small figure.
This question pressed like a mountain on every heart.
Dealing with Fusu—
This was not the same as dealing with Ying Teng or Kong Fu.
That was the Eldest Prince!
The once-undisputed heir to Great Qin!
Ying Ziye raised his head and looked at Ying Zheng on the dragon throne.
Father and son met eyes.
One gaze was icy; the other was innocent.
At that moment, a young censor in official robes suddenly rushed out trembling from the ranks.
Thud!
He knelt heavily on the golden bricks, his forehead striking the ground.
“Your Majesty! Please show mercy!”
His voice was trembling with tears.
“The Eldest Prince… he was merely deceived by others!”
“His heart is pure, his nature filial!”
“I beg Your Majesty, for the sake of father and son bond, please show leniency!”
His words were sincere and emotional.
Some old ministers also showed a glimmer of hope.
Yes—Fusu was simply deceived.
Ying Zheng said nothing.
He simply looked at Ying Ziye.
Ying Ziye moved.
He walked over with his short little legs and stood in front of the censor.
He did not look at him.
Instead, he looked up and asked Ying Zheng in a childish voice:
“Father Emperor.”
“I have a question.”
“What is ‘filial piety’?”
Ying Zheng leaned back on the throne, playing along.
“To obey one’s father and sovereign—that is filial piety.”
Ying Ziye nodded.
“Oh.”
He pointed his chubby little finger at the censor kneeling on the ground.
“He said my eldest brother didn’t obey Father Emperor, and that this is ‘supreme filial piety.’”
A puzzled look appeared on his small face.
“Then isn’t he saying that Father Emperor… is the wicked minister who deceived my eldest brother?”
Boom!
It felt as if thunder exploded in the young censor’s mind.
He suddenly raised his head.
His face instantly lost all color.
“No! That’s not what I meant! I didn’t!”
He looked into Ying Ziye’s innocent eyes.
Inside them was a depth of coldness he could not understand.
He tried to explain.
But found he could not utter a single word.
He had fallen into an inescapable trap.
To say Fusu was filial was to call the emperor a villain.
To say the emperor was not a villain was to declare Fusu unfilial.
Either way—death.
“I… I…”
His mouth opened and closed, producing a strange choking sound.
His eyes rolled back.
He fainted on the spot.
Ying Zheng curled his lips.
“Useless.”
Ying Zheng waved his hand.
“Drag him away.”
“He is disturbing my ears.”
Two guards stepped forward and dragged the unconscious censor out like a dead dog.
No one dared speak again.
The hall returned to dead silence.
Ying Zheng’s gaze returned to Ying Ziye.
“Now you may speak.”
“How should I respond to your eldest brother’s ‘filial heart’?”
Ying Ziye clasped his hands behind his back and began pacing like a little adult.
“Responding?”
He shook his head.
“Too troublesome.”
He stopped and looked at Ying Zheng.
“In his letter, Eldest Brother says I ‘punish without teaching’ and calls me ‘tyrannical.’”
“He also says he cares for the world, especially the laborers building the Great Wall in the northern border.”
A bright smile appeared on his face.
“Since Eldest Brother is so righteous and kind…”
“As his younger brother, of course I must fulfill his wish.”
“I will give him a great gift!”
A gift?
Li Si and Wang Jian exchanged glances.
They both saw the same unease in each other’s eyes.
Whatever this little ancestor called a “gift” was never anything good.
“Oh?”
Ying Zheng became interested.
“Let’s hear it.”
Ying Ziye cleared his throat.
“Doesn’t Eldest Brother like Confucian teachings? Doesn’t he speak of ‘benevolence and righteousness’?”
“Then let him go to the place that needs benevolence the most.”
He pointed north.
“The Great Wall in the northern frontier is too harsh.”
“Let him accompany the laborers he so dearly pities.”
As soon as those words fell—the entire court was shaken!
Send the Crown Prince to do forced labor on the Great Wall?
This…
Ying Ziye ignored everyone’s reactions and continued calmly.
“Father Emperor, just watching would not show his sincerity.”
His voice was serious, like a child explaining something important.
“First, strip Eldest Brother of his position as ‘supervising commander.’”
“Then strip him of his title as ‘Eldest Prince.’”
“Make him an ordinary laborer.”
He began counting on his chubby fingers one by one.
“When he reaches the Great Wall, he must personally move five hundred bricks every day.”
He paused slightly and added:
“Each brick weighs one hundred jin of large green stone.”
Hiss—
Another wave of sharp gasps filled the hall.
Five hundred bricks a day?
Each weighing one hundred jin?
That’s fifty thousand jin in total!
Even the strongest soldiers in the army couldn’t move that much in a day!
This was a sentence that would work Fusu to death!
Yet Ying Ziye acted as if he couldn’t see the shock around him.
He continued in that innocent childlike tone, speaking the cruelest words.
“After moving five hundred bricks, only then can he eat.”
“If he doesn’t finish…”
He tilted his little head.
“Then he goes hungry and reflects properly.”
“Let him use his stomach to think it over.”
“Whether all that ‘benevolence and righteousness’ he talks about…”
“can actually fill a stomach.”
“……”
“…………”
The entire Qilin Hall fell into dead silence.
All officials, civil and military alike, felt a chill surge from their feet straight to their skulls.
They looked at the eight-year-old child.
As if they were looking at a demon crawling out of hell.
Too ruthless.
This was far more cruel than simply killing Fusu—ten thousand times worse.
This was about completely crushing a person’s dignity, beliefs, and even the hope of survival, piece by piece.
Wang Jian’s usually calm face was twitching.
Li Si kept his head lowered, not daring to look at Ying Ziye.
He was afraid he would have nightmares.
On the dragon throne,
Ying Zheng looked at his son.
The coldness on his face had already vanished.
Replaced by shock, disbelief—and then overwhelming delight!
“Hahaha…”
“Hahahahahahaha!!”
Ying Zheng suddenly stood up.
He let out the most unrestrained, joyful laughter of the day!
The sound shook the entire hall.
“Good!”
“Truly a ‘personal experience’!”
“Truly ‘can benevolence and righteousness fill one’s stomach’!”
He walked down the steps and scooped Ying Ziye into his arms.
“Worthy of being my Qilin son!”
He kissed Ying Ziye hard on the cheek.
Then he turned to the attendants behind him.
“Brush and ink!”
“I shall personally draft the decree!”
Very quickly, a jade desk was brought forward.
Ying Zheng wrote in one breath, composing an imperial decree as sharp and strict as steel—word for word matching what Ying Ziye had said.
When he finished, he still seemed unsatisfied.
“Men!”
“Send out an 800-li urgent order!”
A messenger hurriedly knelt.
Ying Zheng looked at him coldly.
“Immediately deliver an edict to General Meng Tian in the northern frontier!”
“Tell him this!”
“If Fusu moves even one less brick, or eats even one mouthful of food outside the plan…”
“I will make you, the Great General, go and move bricks alongside him!”
“Until the quota is met!”
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
The messenger scrambled out in panic.
As the imperial decree was sealed with the jade seal, a cold mechanical voice suddenly rang in Ying Ziye’s mind.
【Ding!】
【Detected: Host has completely altered the fate trajectory of core “Dune Crisis” figure—Fusu!】
【Detected: Host has dealt a devastating blow to the ideological foundation of Confucianism!】
【Great Qin national fate has undergone a massive shift!】
【Congratulations! “National Luck Critical Strike” triggered!】
【Reward: Super Hybrid Rice Seeds × 100 jin!】
【Reward: High-Yield Sweet Potato Seeds × 1000 jin!】
【Reward: National Luck Points +1000!】
Ying Ziye’s eyes lit up.
Rice! Sweet potatoes!
This time, Great Qin’s granaries would be completely full!
……
The court was dismissed.
The officials walked out of the Qilin Hall like walking corpses.
Every face carried a look of shock that had not yet settled.
Everything that happened today had completely overturned their understanding of the world.
News spread through Xianyang like it had grown wings.
In an instant, the entire city was shaken.
Outside the palace gates, several guards roughly threw a figure onto the cold stone road.
It was Kong Fu.
His scholar’s robes were now dirty and torn.
He lay motionless on the ground like a corpse.
After a long while, he finally struggled to prop himself up with his elbows.
He raised his head.
That once arrogant face was now covered in blood and dust.
He stared blankly at the imposing palace.
Then slowly turned his head, toward the direction of the Xianyang Academy.
That was the root of Confucianism in Great Qin.
A hollow light gradually ignited in his empty eyes.
A mad, venomous light.
“Cruel Qin…”
“Tyrant…”
His lips moved, his voice hoarse like sandpaper scraping.
“I… have not lost yet!”
His hand gripped the stone slab on the ground tightly, nails breaking, blood seeping out.
“You may have paper! You may have printing!”
“But the hearts of all scholars belong to me!”
“The scholars of the world… will never agree!”
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