Qin Dynasty: Who offended my frail and sickly minister?

After the banquet, as dusk fell, the ministers dispersed, heavy with thought.

At the palace gate, Li Si didn't even glance at the shadow of his own carriage. He grabbed Zhou Wenqing's sleeve and shoved himself into the carriage next to Li Yi.

Zhou Wenqing stood outside the carriage, straightening his wrinkled sleeves, and raised an eyebrow at the person who had already climbed into the carriage and was frantically pulling at the curtain:

"Oh, Brother Gu'an, you're taking the initiative today? Aren't you afraid of coming to my residence?"

Li Si cautiously pulled the carriage curtain shut tightly, making sure there wasn't even a crack, before leaning against the carriage wall and letting out a long breath.

"Let's skip it today."

Just kidding. Those people asking for folding fans and ink sticks are one thing, but as long as he doesn't go out, at worst they'll flood his gatehouse with a bunch of door stickers.

But the group that begged for wine was different.

Those completely unreasonable drunkards could actually climb over the wall and sneak into his house!

Li Si shuddered.

The Zhou residence is safer.

He'd rather be forced to drink some bitter medicine than be picked up and questioned like a chick.

Zhou Wenqing shrugged, about to make a sarcastic remark—

"Zhou Neishi! Zhou Neishi! Wait for me, please stop!"

Suddenly, a hurried call came from behind, accompanied by the sound of heavy footsteps, as if someone was running wildly.

He glanced back.

A person was seen rushing towards them, his face filled with a strange excitement, his features somewhat distorted, a wicked smile playing on his lips, and his eyes darting around, as if he were thinking of something wonderful.

It was the young scout who had been watching him all night at the banquet.

For a full hour, every time Zhou Wenqing waved the folding fan in his hand, the man's heart would itch. The fan ribs were smooth and lustrous, the fan surface was elegant, and the crisp sound of it opening and closing was like a hook that beckoned his soul, drawing all his attention to it.

Looking at Zhou Wenqing's handsome appearance, and then at the plain white bamboo folding fan, his mind automatically began to imagine—

What if you were the one holding the folding fan?

Wouldn't that mean...?

Anmei's shy smile flashed through his mind, and his heart skipped a beat.

Hehe~ Hehehe~~

His heart trembled with longing; he couldn't bear it any longer, he had finally gotten his chance.

Just then, Zhou Wenqing turned around and saw the man's lewd expression. He immediately felt a chill run from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.

He didn't even have time to think; his feet reacted instinctively. He grabbed the frame and jumped onto the bike, his movements so swift that even he himself hadn't expected it.

"Ah Yi, hurry, let's go back to the manor! Now, immediately—!"

The carriage sped off in the next second, kicking up a cloud of dust that swarmed over the man.

"Hey! Zhou Neishi, wait for me!"

The young official took a few steps after the carriage, but stumbled and almost fell. He staggered several times before regaining his balance. He held his knee and gasped for breath. When he looked up, the carriage had already turned the corner and disappeared into the twilight, leaving only a series of hooves fading into the distance.

The man stood there blankly, looking down at his empty hands.

I looked up again at the empty street corner.

The expression on his face gradually froze.

Anmei's shy smile flickered in my mind, she blinked, and then—

"Snap—"

It shattered into dust!

He stared blankly outstretched his hand, gazing into the depths of twilight. The evening wind rustled, whipping up a few withered leaves that swirled past his feet.

After a long while, a mournful wail pierced the night sky:

"No--!"

Inside the carriage, the two of them shivered simultaneously.

Zhou Wenqing rubbed the goosebumps that had risen on his arms, while Li Si pulled the carriage curtain even tighter, even though it was already completely sealed off.

They exchanged a glance and both saw the terror in each other's eyes.

This guy... wasn't he playing a bit too aggressively?

Li Si swallowed hard, already calculating in his mind whether the clothes and luggage he left at the Zhou residence would be enough for him to hide for a month.

No, it will take at least three months!

Only after returning home safely did Zhou Wenqing glance back at the tightly closed gate and see the thick bolts behind it, at which point his expression relaxed.

"Alright, alright, it's safe now." He breathed a sigh of relief, patted Li Si on the shoulder, and said with a sigh, "I've seen it all, Brother Gu'an, you've had a tough time."

"Sigh~"

Li Si raised his hand to his forehead, letting out a long sigh, filled with the relief of surviving a calamity.

"It's a long story."

He waved his hand, his gaze falling on the bolts, but his brows furrowed slightly. "Let's not talk about anything else. Based on my experience, let's reinforce the bolts first."

Zhou Wenqing's eyes widened instantly, staring at him in disbelief:

"You're reinforcing it? Isn't that enough?"

Li Si raised his head, glanced at him with a deep look, and said nothing. He simply raised his hand and silently pointed to the area around his waist.

Zhou Wenqing followed his gaze and looked over there, but it was empty; there was nothing there.

"Brother Zicheng, do you still remember?" Li Si's voice was faint, as if it were coming from a very far place, "I used to have a sword at my waist."

Zhou Wenqing blinked and tried hard to recall.

It seems... there was one. The scabbard was wrapped with thin hemp rope, and it looked quite ancient. He always carried it with him. Before, when we went to court together, I would always stand at the palace gate and wait for him for a while until he retrieved the sword from the eunuch and put it back on his waist.

"That's truly a fine sword..." Li Si's voice held a strange hint of pride. "It was used as a door bolt for over two months!"

Zhou Wenqing: "!!!"

His eyes widened instantly, staring at Li Si in disbelief.

Li Si met his stunned gaze and nodded affirmatively.

"Otherwise, how do you think...?" His voice was terrifyingly calm, "that General Wang and General Meng Wu could monopolize half of the fine paper in the Bureau of Hundreds of Items, how did they get it?"

hiss--

Zhou Wenqing gasped.

Thank goodness, he thought to himself, when the king put him in charge of the Department of All Things, he had decisively asked for a helper and assigned the "sales" job to Li Si.

Otherwise...

Otherwise... the two generals wouldn't have gone so far as to forcibly demolish his residence, would they?

It shouldn't be that bad. If they dare, he might just faint from fright.

Even with these thoughts in mind, Zhou Wenqing couldn't help but glance a few more times at the door latch.

Those few pieces of wood suddenly seemed rather flimsy when compared to Li Si's sword, which had "lasted for two months."

He wasn't carrying a sword, but he couldn't very well offer up Li Yi's sword as well, could he?

Zhou Wenqing was mentally planning how many iron bolts to have made tomorrow, but before he could figure it out—

"Knock knock knock".

There was a knock at the door.

Zhou Wenqing and Li Si retreated almost simultaneously, and in the blink of an eye, they had jumped two meters away. One leaned against a pillar, and the other pressed against the wall, their four eyes warily staring at the door.

"Who?" Zhou Wenqing asked warily.

There was a moment of silence outside the door before someone said, "Zicheng? Why did you lock the door? It's me."

Oh, it's Mr. Wei Liao.

Zhou Wenqing let out a long breath, his whole body relaxing. He waved to Li Yi, signaling him to open the door, and then took half a step back, pulling Li Si, who was still hiding behind a pillar, out.

"Come out," he said in a low voice, but a smirk crept onto his lips. "Look at you, so pathetic."

Li Si slapped his hand away impatiently, brushing the dust off his robe as he pointed at Zhou Wenqing's back:

"And what makes you any better?"

Zhou Wenqing pretended not to hear, reached out and patted the dust off his back against the wall. Suddenly, he felt that the two of them looked both "sincere" and funny.

I was truly horrified by that lewd "pervert." This was the Zhou residence, the residence of one of the Nine Ministers of the Great Qin Dynasty, a place frequently visited by the eldest son, Fusu. Who would dare to act so recklessly here?

If anyone dared to come knocking on his door demanding something back, he would have them chased away with sticks.

Just then, the door creaked open.

Ying Zheng, dressed in black casual clothes, stood with his hands behind his back. His gaze slowly swept across Zhou Wenqing's face and landed on the folding fan at his waist that he hadn't had time to put away.

"I see that Minister Zhou's folding fan is truly magnificent today. Do you have any extras that I could admire?"

Zhou Wenqing: "..."