He had wanted to use his capital to eat “fish,” but instead of getting a bite, Meng Qi was pressed into the bathing tub, stretched his limbs, and leaned comfortably against the tub wall.
Those ten days had not been pleasant.
Fortunately, everything was over.
Although the war had not ended, and the killing had not stopped, in Meng Qi’s eyes, every issue that might have led the situation toward irreparable territory had been resolved.
The greatest trouble came from people’s ambitions in the face of the current chaos—King Wu was like this, and so were the various forces in Jingzhou.
King Wu’s army would meet Cheng Jingchuan head-on, while the Jianghu people King Wu had gathered would directly confront the martial forces of Jiangnan summoned by Fengxing Pavilion. Added to this was the news brought back by Huang Biejia, whom Meng Qi had “intimidated,” so that the wealthy Qiantang County in Jiangnan essentially could not reap any real benefits from Ning and Jingzhou—apart from land.
Disease ravaged Poyang Lake in Ning, and rebels and bandits were everywhere in Jingzhou.
King Wu, unfortunately, was a man with soft ears. By the time he hesitated and finished deliberating, the opportunity had already slipped away.
Therefore, Cheng Jingchuan had to be tough, display full momentum, and seize the first victory, so he could completely hold back Wu’s troops.
Meng Qi flicked a handful of water, closed his eyes, and continued pondering. As for Cheng Jingchuan’s ambition, it actually did not count as a problem in the short term.
Not only Jingzhou but Ning also urgently needed to recover and rest. Cheng Jingchuan intended to support the young prince, and before he eradicated the dissenting voices among Ning’s gentry and bureaucrats, he could not fully expand his power. Following Qiu Si’s previous plan, Cheng Jingchuan could have used wars to divert conflicts and eliminate opponents, but it was not so simple now.
Besides, without Cheng Jingchuan, the commoners of Ning would only suffer more.
It depended on how far Qiu Si’s disciple and daughter could play this chess game in Jiangnan.
In the next three or even ten years, it would be a situation where they placed their pieces, competed, and might even join forces to advance together.
Meng Qi inexplicably favoured Qiu Jing a bit more, because that was a road no one had travelled before—letting commoners avoid being trapped in one place, preventing them from dying because they had no way out. As long as they could leave, could abandon the land, everything seemed capable of change.
“Splash.”
A bucket of warm water poured down from above.
Meng Qi was taken aback. He wiped his face and looked over.
“What were you thinking about? The water had gone cold, and so had the food.” Mo Li looked displeased.
Although cold food and cold water did not matter for martial experts, from a doctor’s viewpoint, swallowing cold food and dry rations every meal was bad for the digestive organs.
Indeed, fighting right after finishing a meal was bad for the organs, lying down right after a meal was bad for the organs, and eating the wrong food was still bad…
“If you don’t correct this, once we get back to Zhushan County, you will be nagged at endlessly by Teacher.”
Old Mister Qin was also human, and when one got old, one tended to become a bit naggy.
Hearing this, Meng Qi touched his nose. Actually, he hoped Mo Li would come down and bathe with him.
Yet this bathing tub was indeed a bit too small.
Meng Qi regretfully lowered his head and glanced at the wooden tub.
What he regretted most was that he could not use the excuse of having limited hot water to persuade Mo Li to take off his clothes because… fish liked cold water.
Thus, Meng Qi lazily raised his hand and pointed at himself, asking unreasonably, “I wonder if the doctor might agree—would it be bad for one’s health to eat while bathing?”
Mo Li: “…”
The sand mouse won.
Meng Qi got to soak in the tub, waiting to be fed.
Mo Li glanced at the bowl in his hand and wished it were bitter medicine.
But seeing the fatigue between Meng Qi’s brows, he gave in. He decided to feed him, at least to see that smug look of waiting with mouth open for food.
“The vegetables were overcooked, and the lotus root was tough.”
Meng Qi ate as he spoke, and he tried his best to make Mo Li have a taste as well.
Unknowingly, it turned into the two of them sharing one bowl of food.
The city defences were strict, and what Fengxing Pavilion could deliver was limited. This included the old lotus roots from the pond in this villa, which had been cooked in a very plain way. After all, Jianghu people did not care about cuisine as long as it was served hot.
Meng Qi believed Mo Li could calmly chew bitter herbs if he were fed those with chopsticks. But although he ate, he never ceased complaining.
Meng Qi noticed Mo Li’s chopsticks slowing down. He looked up and saw Mo Li appeared to be deep in thought.
“Worried about Jiangnan’s situation?”
King Wu would not be a problem. They only needed to solve the chaos in Jingzhou.
During those ten days, Mo Li had followed Meng Qi everywhere, witnessing scene after scene of absurdity.
Indeed, without the tricky figures of Holy Lotus Sect Leader and Zheng Tu, they only had to deal with scattered rebels looting everywhere. Yet figuring out how to reduce the devastation these locust-like rebels caused to Jingzhou was not as simple as wielding a sword and killing everywhere. Across Jingzhou, bandits had already appeared pretending to be the Tianshou King’s rebels. They rose in the chaos to plunder and slaughter, then removed their headscarves to disguise themselves as ordinary people. The cellars were already filled with bloodstained gold and silver.
Zheng Tu or Qiu Si—they both believed that the tide of chaos was like a rolling wheel, unstoppable.
Whether invincible warriors or brilliant strategists, no one could curb human greed. Whoever tried to block the flood would be crushed to pieces.
“In principle, I actually agreed with their views.” Meng Qi propped himself up from the wooden tub, casually stepped out, lifted the clothes hanging on the screen, and draped them on. His inner power dried the water droplets.
He was not in a hurry to tie his sash, and while slowly putting on his shoes, he raised his brows, his expression without any nostalgia for the fallen Chu Dynasty of those years: “Whenever one stood for the entire realm and tried to change something, one would inevitably face that barrier, like a praying mantis trying to stop a chariot. But in any case, it wasn’t my first time; I was never alone each time.”
“Ha.”
Mo Li could not help but laugh. He loved seeing this plump mouse look so proud of himself.
“Duke Zhuang of Qi once encountered an insect on the road that tried to stop his carriage. He asked those around him, and they answered it was a praying mantis, knowing only to advance and not to retreat, lacking self-awareness, using its arms to resist the giant wheel. The duke was moved by its valour and ordered the carriage to turn aside to avoid it.”
That was the earliest record of “praying mantis trying to stop a chariot.”
During the Spring and Autumn period, the ruler of Qi chose to honour a tiny insect, and word spread throughout the land. As a result, warriors flocked to serve Qi.
“Zheng Tu certainly hadn’t read much.” Mo Li thought for a moment, then said, “He might as well have used ‘strike a stone with an egg’ or ‘scratch boiling water with a finger.’”
It all meant the same thing, but at least the original anecdotes did not involve praising valour.
“That was just semantics.” Meng Qi shrugged, feigning discontent. “The doctor should have said, ‘Those who gain the Way receive ample help, those who lose the Way have scant support,’ given that I was never alone.”
Mo Li shook his head, deliberately countering: “That statement was inaccurate. The crooked and heretical also attracted plenty, as proven by how we just killed a bunch of Holy Lotus Altar thugs with Daoist Ning.”
Meng Qi grabbed the bowl away and stuffed a bite of vegetables into Mo Li’s lips, telling him to hush.
Mo Li did not resist and ate it willingly.
Lips and tongue touched the bamboo chopsticks; the heat seemed to pass through the wooden chopsticks to Meng Qi’s fingertips, and he shuddered slightly.
“…”
Mo Li almost failed to bite the piece of lotus root. He looked up in confusion.
That expression made Meng Qi awkwardly avert his gaze, circulate his internal power to steady his eight extraordinary meridians, and rein in the blood and qi that showed signs of boiling.
Mo Li felt both annoyed and amused, took back the bowl and chopsticks, and walked out of the inner chamber.
——The sand mouse had taken an inch and wanted a mile; he could not be indulged.
Meng Qi acted as though nothing had happened and strolled out, right as the door was knocked upon.
“Doctor Mo?”
Qiu Jing was outside.
It seemed that while Meng Qi and Mo Li had been eating and bathing, she had already made orderly preparations for the next step.
“It appeared that Pavilion Master Qiu already had a strategy against Wu.” Meng Qi spoke with a hidden meaning.
The moment Qiu Jing stepped in, she saw Master Meng suddenly “appear.” She only paused in mild surprise; after all, she could not really stop Meng Qi from sneaking into the city if he wished.
“Apologies, I accidentally recalled that Cheng Jingchuan once mentioned he suspected Master was the transformed spirit of a civet cat from legend—agile, keen, able to enter any place.” Qiu Jing clasped her hands in a slight bow and smiled, even cracking a joke to lighten the mood.
Yet beyond her expectations, Meng Qi and Mo Li’s expressions turned extremely strange in an instant.
First came disbelief, then Meng Qi looked as if he might flare up, while Mo Li seemed to be holding back laughter.
Naturally, he could not explain why he was upset. He merely assumed a solemn face and spoke about business.
“General Liu Dan under Qi, who had earned his merits suppressing bandits and had support from Yunming Academy, excelled in envelopment, driving out the enemy, and rounding them up. After ten days of bitter fighting, he had preliminarily taken control of the northern region of Jing. As for the south, if Jiangxia dispatched troops to clear it up, they could make a pincer attack. Within one month, they could drive off the roving rebel soldiers.”
Qiu Jing was delighted upon hearing this; it was something she could not possibly have learned from the elders of the Hengshan Sect.
Meng Qi picked up a teacup and spoke slowly, “It was too early to rejoice, as the problem lay with the authorities across Jingzhou. Some had begun pursuing the small bands of rebel troops, while others thought they had seized a golden opportunity and staged a ‘push back and recapture’ show of defeating rebellious generals under the Tianshou King. They had already sheltered rebel soldiers, busily linking up all of Jingzhou’s civil and military officials, and prepared to support the son of the King of Jing to inherit his title.”
They ignored the Tianshou King’s rebel army as the root cause, turning all their blades against the Qi Dynasty—who had gained the throne illegitimately and invaded Jiangnan.
Because the King of Jing was dead.
This news, withheld for several days, could not be hidden anymore, stirring Jiangnan.
The King of Jing, out of despair, died by self-immolation. When those aristocrats in Jingzhou had packed their carriages—some even killing off their favoured wives and concubines—ready to flee with their private forces in the midst of conflict, the prefectural city of Nanping County ultimately had not been broken. Back then, everyone was simply stupefied; they could not decide whether to open the gates or keep them closed.
This incident even became a joke widely spread in Jiangxia.
A city that had not been breached ended up nearly destroyed in essence.
It seemed as though, overnight, Jingzhou turned into the feudal states of the Eastern Zhou, each faction staking out its territory.
They absolutely could not allow this. Once those factions had grown, the chaos in Jingzhou would drag on, showing no sign of settling for three or five years.
At that critical moment, the people from Yunming Academy played a vital role.
Even though Fengxing Pavilion had all kinds of capabilities, including some reach into officialdom, it mainly worked among petty officials and military officers. After all, Qiu Si had spent over ten years building a vast power base in Ning, and the Fengxing Pavilion under Qiu Jing’s leadership possessed a wide-reaching network of information and connections, yet it could not shake the civil official system.
——They took the money but did nothing.
——They let their household servants fish for money and later pretended not to know.
In the eyes of merchants and commoners in Jiangnan, even the tax collectors had more credibility than the county magistrate.
And the only ones who could influence the civil official system were the literati.
Whether they were truly aloof or simply cared about reputation, no one wished to be singled out and berated by the literary circles of Jiangnan.
Of course, once scolded enough, one became numb to it. But for now, it was just beginning, and Yunming Academy had come prepared.
“Opportunity knocks but once; it all depended on Pavilion Master Qiu and General Cheng.”
“Master’s meaning was…”
Qiu Jing felt she vaguely grasped something.
“Work with King Wu to carve up Jingzhou, redraw the borders of governed territory, and fund Qi’s withdrawal.”
King Wu and King Ning would gain land and populace, while the Qi Dynasty would receive silver, grain, and rice.
Qiu Jing stood up in shock.
Meng Qi sneered with deeper significance: “After all, compared with the Qi Dynasty, the literati of Jiangnan were more willing to accept the orthodoxy of Chu.”
If they wished everyone to lay down weapons and sit down to negotiate, they first had to offer enough benefits.
After the talks ended, they would turn around and crush anyone not qualified to sit at the table but still harbouring grand ambitions.
“King Wu wished to expand his territory but lacked resolve. He controlled the richest parts of Yangzhou, and the remainder belonged to King Ning. Trying to seize those was too much trouble—like gnawing on a dry bone. But Jingzhou had always been a land of outstanding talent.”
Yet King Wu could not swallow Jingzhou alone.
Cheng Jingchuan could not swallow it either.
If the young King Ning could shift his prefecture to another location, there would be no need to rebuild the collapsed old city walls, and after the local aristocracy in Ning was weakened, they would head over to claim land for the new prefecture, clashing yet again with Jingzhou’s gentry.
“When all was said and done, warfare and chaos were about interests. If you could put in minimal effort to reap maximum returns, would you rather slam into a hard rock or pinch a soft persimmon?”
Meng Qi raised his teacup toward Qiu Jing and spoke unhurriedly.
The various factions around Jingzhou, scattered like a pile of sand, were that soft persimmon.
After saying this, Meng Qi cast Mo Li a look, indicating that one needed no ‘Way’ to gain more support—benefits sufficed.
A gentleman was not born different; he merely excelled in borrowing resources.
Author’s Note:
Meng Qi: “Doctor, look at me. I also knew the way of the gentleman.”
Mo Li silently sipped tea by his side: “Another day of being a proud sand mouse.”
————
A gentleman was not born different; he merely excelled in borrowing resources. This line should need no explanation. A gentleman was no different from ordinary people, only more adept at utilizing external things to comprehend truth and achieve goals.
