Zu An offered no reply. Instead, he said, “I’ve heard that the Book of Changes is used in divination. You seemed to be doing some of that earlier. What did you find out?”
Ji Chang lowered his head to look at the diagram below. He said with a bitter expression, “The Marrying Maiden; violence and killing.”[2]
Zu An was stunned. He didn’t expect this man to actually have some skill at divination. He was indeed out for blood this time, and it had to do with his younger sister.
Under different circumstances, he would actually have tried to learn about the usage of the Book of Changes from him. After all, Ji Chang was the creator of the Book of Changes, and it was definitely full of mysterious power.
However, he had no interest in all of this right now. He waved his hand casually, and a subordinate appeared in a few moments, bearing a plate of food.
A jailer quickly brought Ji Chang a meat patty. It was still steaming, and had clearly been freshly prepared.
Ji Chang’s expression instantly paled when he saw the meat patty in front of him.
Zu An sneered. “What’s wrong? Is the Western Duke afraid that I will poison you?”
Ji Chang sighed. “The king is the son of heaven. If you wished for this subject to die, then I must die. Why is there a need to resort to poison? This subject thanks the king for your favor.”
With that, he reached out a trembling hand towards the meat patty and brought it up to his mouth. Hesitation flickered across his face.
Zu An stared at him. He didn’t expect himself to really become history’s tyrant. He didn’t know why King Di Xin would do something this cruel, but he had his own reason for doing this. He had to have justice for his cute little sister.
Ji Chang sighed. In the end, he steeled himself and bit into the meat patty. However, he could not control his reaction. Turning to the side, he retched horribly.
Zu An sneered. “What’s wrong? Does it not suit the Western Duke’s tastes? This meat was freshly slaughtered and prepared.”
Ji Chang was speechless for a moment.
He took a deep breath to compose himself, then said, “The food is delicious, my king, but my body seems to be…”
Before he could finish, Zu An said, “Since it’s delicious, then have some more.”
Ji Chang’s breath caught, and he almost choked.
You have successfully trolled Ji Chang for 999 Rage points!
No matter how shrewd he was, Ju Chan couldn’t help but grow furious. However, he reminded himself of his mission. As long as he could make it past this, he would eventually get his revenge on the Shang Dynasty. He would kill this tyrannical ruler and his witch with a thousand blades. What did this momentary shame and disgrace matter, compared to the grand scheme of things?
As such, he ate all of the meat patties in front of him without a hint of expression. “Thank you, my king, for your gift.”
Zu An looked at him. “Do you know what type of meat these patties were made of?”
Ji Chang’s heart began to pound. “I do not know, nor do I want to know.”
Zu An’s voice grew cold. “Do you think that just because you obeyed me and ate these patties, I will somehow believe that you are truly obedient? That I’ll let you go back to the west so you can continue to carry out your revenge, and eventually destroy my great Shang Dynasty?”
Ji Chang knew that things had taken a turn for the worse, when he suddenly heard the words of the man in front of him. “I will make sure to repay your treatment of San Cai severalfold!
“Men, turn the Western Duke into mincemeat!”
1. The Book of Changes, or the I Ching, is an ancient and well-known Chinese divination text, originating from the Western Zhou period.
2. The Book of Changes uses a set of 64 hexagrams for divination. The Marrying Maiden (also known as Converting the Maiden) is hexagram 54.