Chapter 11: Kill Him
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A sudden shock gripped Li Chengxin’s heart; Zhao Kuangyin’s unexpected reaction left him utterly bewildered.
Wait… So Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Dezhao braving the snow to meet him wasn’t because the battle report of the 27th had arrived, announcing the fall of Jiangning City, Li Yu’s surrender, and the collapse of Southern Tang?
Instead, none of that had happened—and Zhao Kuangyin intended to kill him?!
“You history-writing bastards, can you use less of this ambiguous, veiled language? For those sensitive major events, if you’re too scared to write them directly, then subtle hints or allusions would be understandable. But for something as clear and straightforward as the fall of Southern Tang, you still use such cryptic writing and can’t even get the dates right! Can you have just a shred of professional integrity?!”
Li Chengxin closed his eyes and cursed loudly, panic and the despair of impending death evident in his voice.
Zhao Kuangyin did not swing the jade axe as expected; instead, his unwavering eyes fixed on Li Chengxin.
Two or three breaths passed. Li Chengxin, expecting death, opened his eyes warily and took several steps backward, increasing the distance between himself and Zhao Kuangyin, nearly stumbling over a chair.
Zhao Kuangyin’s stern face softened considerably.
“Did you really see all this in the history books?”
Li Chengxin nodded vigorously, still shaken to his core.
“Absolutely. Where else could I have gotten this information if not from the history books? But I never imagined the historians would be so shameless, getting such major events wrong and causing me such trouble! Your Majesty, just wait a few more days and trust me—the date may be wrong, but the fall of Jiangning City and Li Yu’s official surrender are definitely true! Those people wouldn’t make a mistake. Even if it doesn’t happen on the 27th, it will surely happen afterward!”
Zhao Kuangyin stroked the jade axe and spoke: “You are correct. Jiangning City did fall, and Li Yu did surrender officially—on the 27th.”
“Ah? But…”
Li Chengxin was stunned. “Didn’t you just say it hadn’t fallen?”
Zhao Kuangyin’s expression remained unchanged: “That was just a jest with you.”
Li Chengxin was instantly both shocked and delighted. He let out a long breath and seemed somewhat drained.
The history records describe Zhao the Elder as benevolent, but meeting him now shattered that impression.
Where was the benevolence? There was only a royal heart as deep and unfathomable as the sea!
But then again, it made sense. To emerge from the bloody chaos of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period to become emperor and establish the Great Song dynasty—
Though some accused him of bullying orphans and widows, it must have been no easy feat to ascend the throne and hold it firmly in such circumstances.
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Such deeds required more than kindness alone.
In truth, Li Chengxin had already realized that Zhao Kuangyin’s claim that Jiangning City had not fallen and Li Yu had not surrendered was a lie.
After all, judging by Zhao Kuangyin’s initial reaction when they first met, if those events hadn’t happened, Zhao Kuangyin would never have brought Zhao Dezhao to meet him.
He would have simply ordered his immediate execution.
Coming out in the snow now, there was only one possibility: Li Chengxin was right.
But knowing this didn’t change the fact that since Zhao the Elder wanted to use this opportunity to trick him, Li Chengxin had to play along.
Of course, though he was acting, much of his fright, his closing his eyes to await death, and his now long exhale were genuine.
Zhao Kuangyin was a formidable man who had risen above the brutal Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms era and ruled as emperor for many years, widely acknowledged for his skill. Facing Li Chengxin’s fierce expression and commanding aura, he was genuinely intimidating.
His body refused to obey him fully; he felt as if the next moment Zhao Kuangyin’s jade axe would cleave him in two.
It was precisely this fear that allowed Li Chengxin to play his part convincingly and pass Zhao Kuangyin’s test.
“Your Majesty, you really shouldn’t do this—scaring someone like that could kill them! I keep saying, those who write history can’t have zero professionalism; how could they get something so important wrong?”
Li Chengxin wiped the sweat from his brow.
Zhao Kuangyin’s expression softened further.
After probing and observing, he preliminarily concluded that this man did not harbor deep scheming.
Zhao Dezhao twitched his face; this young Li… had just been scared half to death by his father the emperor, and now that the crisis was passed, he was already showing such disrespect.
No one in the entire Great Song dared speak so casually with His Majesty.
“Are you truly a time traveler, really someone who has come from a thousand years in the future?”
Zhao Kuangyin asked Li Chengxin earnestly.
Li Chengxin nodded vigorously: “Absolutely.”
“But the information I have is completely different. You are a native of Lijiawa—how could you be someone from a thousand years later?”
As Zhao Kuangyin asked this, the room’s atmosphere, which had just eased, stiffened again.
The temperature seemed to drop several degrees.
Zhao Dezhao also stared unblinkingly at Li Chengxin; this was precisely where his greatest doubts about Li’s identity lay.
Li Chengxin smiled and explained: “This is easy to explain. Time travel generally comes in two forms: one is physical travel, where the whole person crosses time and space to a strange place.
The other, which is my case, is just the consciousness crossing time and space, awakening within someone else’s body.
This body had actually already died in a cattle pen.
Because of my arrival, it was given new life…”
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“Nonsense! You dare spout such rubbish in front of me? You insult my jade axe’s sharpness? Even a three-year-old wouldn’t believe that!”
Li Chengxin suppressed the urge to retort, “My sword has never been dull,” and said instead to Zhao Kuangyin: “To prove to Your Majesty that everything I say is true, with not a hint of deception—since you have sent people to investigate my background, you should know I am an orphan with little schooling, who has spent my life doing rough work like tending cattle and chopping wood in the countryside. There’s no way I would know so much otherwise.
Nor could I have created something like perfume—a thing almost no one can produce.
Doesn’t this precisely prove that I am a time traveler, that the soul inside this body is not the original one?”
Zhao Kuangyin was silent for a moment, then slowly nodded.
“So you mean, you can enter anyone’s body you wish, even from a thousand years later?”
Li Chengxin shook his head repeatedly. “If only that were true. If I could just enter the bodies of the rich and powerful, wouldn’t that be great? Why would I be stuck as this boy?
Time travel isn’t something controlled by later generations. It’s hard to explain—I don’t even know how I got here myself.
I just went to sleep normally, and when I opened my eyes again, I was here.
I’m the one who’s got the short end of the stick! Air conditioning, playing on the computer, scrolling on the phone, sipping soda whenever I want—then suddenly, wham! I’m thrown into this barren place with nothing.
If I could control it, I wouldn’t come here for anything in the world.
Rest assured, this kind of thing is far less likely than being struck by lightning.”
Zhao Kuangyin didn’t know what air conditioning, phones, computers, or soda were, nor did he care.
He only needed to know that this man could not simply jump through time at will.
Li Chengxin sensed that about three or four seconds after saying this, the suffocating, chilling atmosphere in the room gradually dissipated.
It seemed he had basically gained Zhao Kuangyin’s trust and convinced him he would not jump into his body, so Zhao no longer intended to kill him.
“So, the earlier claim that our Great Song has lasted for 319 years—is that true?”
Zhao Kuangyin asked again.
Zhao Dezhao watched Li Chengxin intently, afraid to miss a single detail.
After all, the Great Song was his father’s dynasty, and likely his own someday.
The fact that the Great Song could last 319 years, only falling after such a long time, was thanks in large part to his father’s achievements—and perhaps his own.
This time, however, Li Chengxin did not answer directly. Instead, he pointed outside and said, “That eunuch is not trustworthy. Please, Your Majesty, have him killed.”