New Three Kingdoms Tales: Starting as the expressionless Liu Bei

The maids filed in, placing goblets of blood-red wine before each official's table. The dark red liquid swirled slightly in the goblets, emitting a faint, fishy odor.

Wang Yun stared at the wine in front of him, his pupils suddenly contracting. Zhang Wen, who had just been standing outside the door talking to him in hushed tones, had now transformed into this crimson liquid before him.

The officials below looked at each other, some pale-faced, some with trembling fingers, but none dared to pick up the wine cup.

Dong Zhuo returned to his seat, took the blood wine handed to him by a maid, tilted his head back and drank it down in one gulp. His Adam's apple bobbed as he finished the entire cup.

He smacked his lips, his tongue lingering on them, a look of pure enjoyment on his face. "Fine wine! This blood wine is incredibly sweet, with an unforgettable aftertaste!"

His gaze slowly swept across the entire room. Seeing the officials frozen in place, the smile on his face vanished, and his voice turned cold: "Why aren't you drinking? Perhaps you think our wine is too sour?"

The officials shook their heads vigorously, like rattle-drums. Dong Zhuo slammed his hand on the table and roared, "Then please come in!"

The sound was so loud that the candlelight in the room flickered twice. The officials trembled and dared not hesitate any longer. With trembling fingers, they picked up the cup of blood wine on the table and brought it to their lips.

Wang Yun steeled his resolve, picked up the wine cup, and gulped it down, swallowing it hastily before his tongue could even taste it.

The liquor slid down his throat, and a strong, metallic taste of blood surged from his stomach, rushing into his nasal cavity. He felt as if his internal organs were churning, and he almost vomited on the spot.

But Wang Yun gritted his teeth and forced back the urge to vomit.

The officials around him, however, lacked the same composure. Some swallowed the contents with difficulty, their faces turning ashen, while others spat them out with a "quack" as soon as they were halfway through, filling the room with a strange smell that was a mixture of blood and sour alcohol.

Looking at the scene before him, Dong Zhuo wore a satisfied smile that bordered on perverse.

He slowly walked up to Wang Yun, stared at the old face that was still struggling to suppress nausea, and suddenly asked, "Lord Wang, how does this wine taste?"

Wang Yun snapped back to his senses, his face now a purplish-blue from straining, veins bulging on his forehead. He nodded with difficulty, managing to squeeze out a single word: "Good...good..."

Dong Zhuo chuckled, leaned forward, narrowed his eyes, and asked like a cat teasing a mouse, "Is it really good?"

Wang Yun nodded stiffly again, his voice trembling almost imperceptibly: "So...so good..."

"Is it sour or not?" Dong Zhuo tilted his head, drawing out his words as if he were savoring an interesting game.

Wang Yun's lips trembled several times, and an even stronger urge to vomit surged up from the bottom of his stomach. He stubbornly held his mouth shut, his whole body trembling.

Dong Zhuo, however, was trembling with excitement. He suddenly turned around and shouted at the top of his lungs towards the outside of the hall, "As long as it's not sour! Come on! Let Lord Situ drink three more cups!"

He paused, then waved his hand again, as if that wasn't enough, and changed his tune, shouting, "Oh no, three bowls! Someone, bring big bowls! Today, we're going to drink with Lord Situ until we're completely drunk!"

Wang Yun's pupils contracted sharply, his eyes rolled back suddenly, and he slumped limply beside the table.

Not long after, at Wang Yun's residence, several servants hurriedly carried Wang Yun back, carefully placed him on the bed, and then quietly withdrew.

As soon as the door closed, Wang Yun suddenly opened his eyes.

He practically tumbled off the bed, staggered into the backyard outhouse, knelt by the pit, and vomited up all the three bowls and one jar of bloody wine he had in his stomach.

The pungent smell of blood mixed with the acidity of alcohol filled his nostrils, and as he vomited, he forced out a resentful growl through his teeth:

"That traitor Dong Zhuo! Ugh!"

"You beast! Ugh!"

"I can't kill you alive, but even in death I'll become a vengeful ghost and haunt you! Ugh!"

He vomited until there was nothing left to vomit, then collapsed against the cold wall, disheveled and in disarray, looking exactly like Yuan Shao when he angrily cursed Cao Cao in the latrine.

After an unknown amount of time, those empty eyes suddenly shifted. As if remembering something, he abruptly scrambled to his feet, muttering to himself:

"That's right... I can go to Jia Xu! I helped him escape the torment of eternal reincarnation, and he personally promised to repay a favor. With Jia Wenhe around, taking that traitor Dong Zhuo's life will be a piece of cake, won't it?"

He stumbled back to his study and pulled a yellowed piece of paper from the depths of a drawer. It was covered with dense notes on how to contact Jia Xu.

He read those lines of text over and over again, memorizing them, before summoning a servant and ordering him in a low voice to prepare the necessary items: half a cup of corpse oil, a wick made of twisted white cotton thread, seven white candles, yellow paper, cinnabar, and so on...

The servant, though filled with doubt, dared not ask further upon seeing his master's expression. He simply responded and turned to leave. He hadn't gone two steps before turning back, his face flushed with embarrassment, hesitant to speak:

"My lord, the remaining funds in the manor... are not enough to purchase these things."

Upon hearing this, Wang Yun remained silent for a moment, then turned and went into the inner room. He took out several old treasures from the bottom of a chest, handed them to a servant, and sighed softly, "Let's pawn these."

He paused, then shook his head with a wry smile. "Sigh, I'll have to go begging on the streets again tonight. That damned Dong, I'll kill you!"

A moment later, a servant returned with a basket, carrying the items that Wang Yun needed.

Wang Yun took the basket, waved for his servants to wait outside, and personally closed all the doors and windows of the room tightly, leaving not a single crack.

The candlelight burned quietly in the enclosed room, casting swaying shadows on the walls.

He walked to the late emperor's memorial tablet, respectfully placed the half-cup of corpse oil on the table, and then took out a wick made of twisted white cotton thread from his bosom, carefully inserting it into the center of the corpse oil. This lamp symbolized that the deceased had found his way under the guidance of Heaven.

He then took out seven white candles, corresponding to the seven souls of a person. He lit six of them and arranged them one by one according to the handle of the Big Dipper. The candle wax dripped onto the table, leaving tiny scorch marks. He deliberately left the position of the Broken Army Star at the end of the handle empty.

Finally, he took out a large lamp, lit it, and placed it in the main position. If anything unusual happened during the ceremony, the lamp would go out, and Jia Xu would leave.

With everything arranged, Wang Yun knelt before the late emperor's memorial tablet, his forehead pounding heavily on the ground, his aged voice echoing in the silent room:

"Your Majesty, I have encountered a great calamity in the mortal realm and beg for your help. Please help me contact Jia Xu, Jia Wenhe, who has escaped the cycle of eternal reincarnation..."

He lay prostrate on the ground, his lips moving as he repeatedly recited those ancient and difficult words.

Time passed slowly, and the room remained deathly silent, with only the occasional soft popping of the candlelight.

Just as he was beginning to doubt the methods taught by Jia Xu, a white candle on the table suddenly went out without warning. A cold wind swept into the room from somewhere, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

Wang Yun's heart skipped a beat. The doors and windows were clearly shut shut long ago, so where did this cold wind come from? He turned around abruptly and saw that the door had been silently opened at some point.

An extremely sinister figure slowly walked into the house from the darkness outside the door.

The man's face was deathly pale, devoid of any color, as if he had just crawled out of his grave.