I started on a deserted island and encountered Ying Zheng, who insisted I was an immortal.

Meng Yi held the linen paper inscribed with "Thoughts on a Quiet Night" with great care, as if it were a proverb written in gold powder, not charcoal.

"Prelude to Water Melody?" Meng Yi pressed, his voice filled with an eager thirst for knowledge. "Please, sir, bestow upon me the complete poem!"

"When will the moon be clear and bright? I raise my cup to ask the blue sky." Zhang Ying stirred the white porridge in the pot and recited it casually.

"I wonder what year it is tonight in the celestial palace."

With each sentence he read, Meng Yi's body trembled a little more.

Wang Ben couldn't understand, but seeing the horrified expressions on Ying Zheng and Meng Yi's faces, he also became nervous.

"I long to ride the wind and return, but I fear the jade palaces and crystal towers are too cold at such heights."

"Dancing with my shadow, how unlike the mortal world!"

At this point, Zhang Ying stopped and tapped the edge of the earthenware pot with a spoon.

"I forgot the rest, but it was about a guy who got drunk on Mid-Autumn Festival, wanted to go to heaven, but was afraid of the cold at high places, and finally realized that the human world was better."

He summarized this timeless masterpiece in an extremely down-to-earth way.

"People experience sorrow and joy, separation and reunion; the moon waxes and wanes, and nothing in this world is ever perfect."

Ying Zheng continued, his voice somewhat hoarse, repeating the sentences Zhang Ying had recited the previous night.

May we all live long and share the beauty of the moon, even though we are thousands of miles apart.

He shut his mouth, his chest heaving violently.

What a broad mind, what magnanimity!

The joys and sorrows of life are compared with the laws of heaven and earth, and finally it all comes down to a blessing that spans thousands of miles.

Qin Shi Huang, who swept across the land, considered himself to have surpassed the Three Sovereigns and the Five Emperors in virtue, yet he could not write such gentle yet magnificent sentences.

This person's talent is probably no less than that of Qu Yuan.

"Alright, alright, stop with the Renaissance stuff, let's eat." Zhang Ying placed three bowls of white porridge on the stone table.

"After you finish eating, get to work in the fields."

Wang Ben had just picked up the bowl when he heard those words, and his hand trembled so much that he almost dropped it.

"Work?" He glared at him with his bruised panda eye. "I am the Marquis of Qin, and you expect me to do work?"

"What's wrong with Marquis Che? Doesn't Marquis Che need to poop?" Zhang Ying rolled her eyes. "The rule here is that those who don't work don't eat. Take it or leave it, if you don't work you'll starve."

"You!" Wang Ben's temper flared up instantly.

"Wang Ben," Ying Zheng said calmly.

Wang Ben swallowed back the angry curse that was on the tip of his tongue. He turned to Ying Zheng, his face full of grievance.

Ying Zheng ignored him, calmly picked up his bowl of porridge, and took a sip.

hot.

But he didn't show it; he simply put the bowl down slowly.

He recalled Han Feizi's words: "The most powerful weapons of a state should not be shown to others."

He then recalled the laws of Lord Shang, which emphasized agriculture and warfare as the foundation of the nation.

The person before them, everything about him, every piece of knowledge he possesses, is a "weapon" capable of shaking the very foundations of the Qin state.

Potatoes and rice can ensure that the Qin Dynasty will never suffer from famine again.

Refined salt can fill the national treasury and enrich the people.

Paper enables government orders to be effectively implemented and culture to flourish.

Poetry can usher in an era of lasting peace.

Compared to all this, what does it matter to make him, the First Emperor, do some work?

In his quest for immortality, Ying Zheng was willing to humble himself before alchemists.

Now, a true "immortal" is right before us, and what he is after is the future of the entire Qin Dynasty.

Let alone working in the fields, he would even bark like a dog if he could bring these things back to Qin.

"What you say is true, sir." Ying Zheng said to Zhang Ying, uttering a sentence that left Wang Ben and Meng Yi speechless.

"We eat the king's food and bear the king's worries. We eat the master's food and should share the master's worries."

Zhang Ying looked at Ying Zheng with an expression that said, "Are you out of your mind?"

Dude, your role-playing even includes a self-conquest guide?

Meng Yi was the first to react, and he quickly chimed in, "Old Ying is right, right! We have wasted money and grain, and we feel ashamed. We should work instead."

Wang Ben stared at Ying Zheng, then at Meng Yi, feeling utterly isolated.

These two guys, they've even abandoned all shame for a meager meal?

He angrily shoveled at the white porridge in his bowl and took a big bite of the salted fish on the table.

Ok?

The fish had firm flesh and a savory, salty flavor that was better than any other pickled fish he had ever eaten.

"What kind of fish is this?" Wang Ben asked vaguely.

"I don't know, maybe tuna," Zhang Ying said casually. "It's caught in the sea, and sometimes you can find it on the beach when the tide goes out."

"Did you catch it? Or did you find it?"

Wang Ben and Meng Yi exclaimed in surprise at the same time.

In Daqin, the fishing industry was extremely backward. The so-called fishing nets were crude nets woven from hemp ropes, and the fishhooks were crude copper hooks. They might not even have much of a catch in the rivers, let alone in the treacherous sea.

For ordinary people, getting a bite of fish is as difficult as climbing to heaven.

But according to this gentleman, this sea fish, which is comparable to a delicacy, was caught by fishing? Or even picked up?

"Can you guys stop making such a fuss? It's like I'm in a wildlife park." Zhang Ying's head was throbbing from their noise.

"This is so annoying. I was thinking of having you guys do the dishes, but never mind."

"Come with me."

Zhang Ying put down her bowl and, leading the three bewildered people, walked around the wooden house and headed towards a depression at the foot of the mountain.

It was a natural harbor surrounded by reefs, not very large, about half the size of a football field.

But Ying Zheng and his two companions immediately noticed that this place was unusual.

A clearly man-made ditch connects this depression to the open sea.

The entrances to the ditches and the exits from the depressions were all fenced off with sharpened bamboo and vines, which could be raised and lowered.

Through the crystal-clear seawater, they witnessed a scene they would never forget.

Schools of sea fish they had never seen before swam leisurely in the water.

Several giant, bright red crabs, each the size of a washbasin, swaggered across the sandy bottom of the water.

And there were those dark green shrimp with two huge pincers, thicker than a human arm, lazily lying under the rocks.

"This...this is..." Meng Yi pointed at the water, his tongue tied in knots.

"My living reservoir, or you could call it a seafood tank," Zhang Ying said matter-of-factly.

"Open up the ditch, and when the tide comes in, the fish, shrimp, and crabs will swim in on their own. Then lower the fence, and they won't be able to get out."

"Just scoop out whatever you want with a net. It's convenient."

convenient.

Just two words, yet they struck Ying Zheng and the other two like two heavy hammer blows to their hearts.

Looking at the enormous lobster, Wang Ben recalled a time when he was inspecting the border region. Local officials went to great lengths to bring him a lobster the length of a forearm from the East China Sea, thousands of miles away. At the time, he thought it was the ultimate delicacy.

Compared to this one, it's nothing but a shrimp.

Ying Zheng remained silent.

He simply crouched down and reached his hand into the cool seawater.

A silver fish swam over curiously, pecked his finger, and then quickly darted away.

He could tell that these fish, shrimp, and crabs, if cooked properly, would be exceptionally delicious.