Eastern Han Dynasty, not the Three Kingdoms

At the banquet at the Tianshi Mansion, the bronze lamp cast Zhang Lu's shadow on the blue brick floor, causing him to feel uneasy. His knuckles turned white as he gripped the wine cup, his eyes flickering to the still-unwashed bloodstains of the Xiliang soldiers. The Han Chinese civil and military officers bowed their heads, their eyes lowered; even the clink of cups and chopsticks seemed stolen. Only Li Ru sat at the head of the table, his dark brocade robe undulating with his laughter, his brows and eyes sharpened by the gilded wine cup.

"The banquet is served." Zhang Lu waved his sleeves as if waking from a dream, and said with a rolling Adam's apple, "Your Excellency... would you please invite Miss Zhen Mi to come and see her?"

Li Ru's jade chopsticks, holding the venison, suddenly stopped in mid-air. His wolf eyes narrowed sharply, and a chill was condensed in the fine lines at the corners of his eyes: "How could the Heavenly Master not know the purpose of our visit?" He slammed the jade chopsticks down on the table, startling everyone in the room and causing their shoulders to tremble. The bronze wine vessels also began to hum. "The lord wishes to marry Zhen Mi to be the princess. How can a subordinate rashly ask for an audience? We have just been involved in a massacre today, and we are covered in blood. I am afraid we may offend the princess."

Zhang Lu hurriedly stood up, the hem of his dark robe sweeping over the wine jug beside the table. The amber liquor formed a thin stream on the blue bricks. He stumbled, holding onto the table, his voice weak: "The superior is very careful and meticulous, I was reckless."

"I'll see you again tomorrow after I've showered and changed my clothes." Li Ru suddenly raised his eyebrows and smiled. He caught a glimpse of the cold sweat oozing from Zhang Lu's forehead, and his laughter was filled with a hint of amusement.

A gentle breeze from the corridor rippled the copper bells from the eaves, their tinkling mingling with the lingering echoes of distant fighting. Zhang Lu stared at the bloodstained brocade peeking out from Hua Xiong's sleeve, a chill running down the back of his neck. This wasn't an envoy arriving to welcome the bride; it was a jackal in splendid attire, dragging him and Hanzhong into Xiliang's chess game with its bloody claws.

The civil and military officials of Han Dynasty sat with their heads bowed, watching the Xiliang soldiers tearing into the wine and meat roughly. The sound of knives and forks clattering mixed with laughter and scolding exploded in the hall. Li Ru took two sips of wine and suddenly looked at Zhang Lu: "Why is Miss Fu Bao still angry with me? It was just a joke. I had a good chat with her in the past, and she never treated me badly when I was in Xiliang. Why is she so petty?"

Zhang Lu hurriedly put down his wine cup, and the cuff of his Taoist robe knocked over the sauce dish on the table: "How dare I! How dare I get angry with you? It's just a childish temper..."

"The Heavenly Master doesn't know this." Li Ru knocked on the wine cup with his silver chopsticks, and the crisp sound startled the maid in the corridor. "I and Miss Fu Bao hit it off from the moment we met, and we have a deep friendship." He glanced at Zhang Lu's pale face, "Please call her over, and I will apologize in person."

Zhang Lu's Adam's apple twitched, and a thin layer of sweat formed on his forehead. Outside, the sun was blazing, and the chirping of cicadas, mixed with the clamor of the Xiliang soldiers, made his temples throb. He dared not disobey, so he only winked at his second son, Zhang Fu.

At that moment, Zhang Fubao was curled up on the couch in her boudoir, clutching a silk handkerchief and pounding her pillow until it made a loud thumping sound. In the sunlight filtering through the window lattice, the dust billowed with her movements. "That old man came and acted so arrogantly that my father couldn't even lift his head!" she cursed, biting her lip, the jade hairpin in her hair swaying violently with her movements.

The third sister Zhang Qiying patted her on the back and said, "Sister, calm down..." Before she finished speaking, Zhang Fu's voice came from outside the door: "Sister, father asks you to go to the front hall..."

"I won't go!" Zhang Fubao sat up suddenly, and his embroidered shoes kicked over the copper incense burner at his feet, and the incense ash spread all over the ground. "He killed so many people in Yizhou, and he still wants me to smile at him? This old man is very evil!"

Zhang Fu lowered his voice and called out through the carved wooden door: "Little sister, don't lose your temper." His knuckles knocked on the door with a very light sound. "That Li Ru is the think tank of Xiliang, known as the 'poisonous scholar who disturbs the country'. Even your father has to be careful. If you make trouble again, won't it make your father's life more difficult?"

From inside the room came the rustling sound of a brocade quilt. Zhang Qiying grasped her sister's clenched fist and said gently, "Li Ru said he would personally apologize, and he also mentioned the friendship they had in Xiliang..."

"What kind of favor is this!" Zhang Fubao suddenly shook off her sister's hand, her embroidered shoes trampling over the incense ashes on the ground. "Today, he killed the Yizhou envoy and his blood splattered on the city gate. Tomorrow, I'm afraid he will do the same to Hanzhong..." Before she finished speaking, she heard her father's voice smiling in the hall from afar. She bit her lip, and her eyes suddenly turned red.

Zhang Fu sighed outside the door: "Little sister, Dad's hands were shaking when he was pouring the wine just now..."

The room remained silent for a long moment, then the carved door creaked open a crack. Zhang Fubao clutched a crumpled shawl, her hair swaying to one side, but she followed her brother, stepping through the sunlight as he walked toward the front hall. Amidst the tinkling of the copper bells in the hallway, caught in the wind, she could hear the soft tinkling of the jade hairpin in her hair, a sound that felt as if her heart were shattering into pieces.

Zhang Fubao shuffled into the banquet room. Li Ru saw her and hurriedly stood up to greet her. "Ah, Miss Fubao, perhaps I was confused for a moment, and that made you feel uneasy. Didn't we get along well during our time in Xiliang? If there's anything you did that wasn't right, please don't hold it against me, an old man."

These words reminded Zhang Fubao of the patience with which Ma Teng and his wife had taught her archery, the kindness with which Sister Dong Bai had always thrust candied fruit into her hands, and the tenderness with which Sister Wen Ji had played the zither. But then she thought again of Li Ru's nonchalant attitude towards so many lives today. In his eyes, human lives were but withered grass by the roadside.

She turned her head away and snorted, causing the pearl flowers on her temples to tremble. Seeing this, Zhang Lu hurriedly tugged at her sleeve, "Fu Bao, Mr. Li Ru is a man of noble status and has already apologized. Please don't be so petty again."

"I'm not targeting the people of Xiliang!" Zhang Fubao shook off her father's hand, her eyes red. "Uncle Ma taught me to protect the people with swords. Sister Dong Bai gave me her last Hu pancake. Sister Wen Ji was afraid I'd be frightened, so she comforted me first when her zither strings broke—" She pointed at Li Ru, her voice trembling. "You old man, you treat human life as a joke. What else do you expect me to do to you?"

Li Ru remained unperturbed. He continued to smile apologetically, his fingers rubbing the jade ring from his sleeve. "This is my fault. I deserve the punishment." His peripheral vision swept over the girl's flushed face, and he mused to himself—this talisman was no ordinary item within the Five Pecks of Rice Sect. Back in Xiliang, he had witnessed this girl preaching in her cassock. Even Ma Chao's cavalrymen in Xiliang unconsciously slowed their pace as the followers knelt and kowtowed.

More importantly, he had learned from spies in Hanzhong that Zhang Lu's belief in his daughter's fate was almost unwavering. It was said that the prophetic charts in the secret chamber of the Tianshi Mansion clearly indicated the hexagram "The Saintly Maiden's arrival will bring prosperity to the country." Zhang Lu was convinced that his daughter had the destiny of a phoenix, destined to rule the country as a mother. Thinking of this, Li Ru's smile deepened. Even if he was pointed at and scolded, he would regard it as the claws of a small animal, nothing to be afraid of.

Li Ru, still smiling, repeatedly bowed and apologized. Zhang Lu, smiling beside him, smoothed things over, and his brothers and sisters offered gentle soothing words. After much deliberation, Zhang Fubao's lips twitched slightly, his eyes still red, but he finally accepted the candied fruit offered by the maid. Zhang Lu breathed a sigh of relief, and Li Ru, seeing this, changed the subject, smilingly asking about the rules of the Five Pecks of Rice Sect in Hanzhong. The atmosphere at the banquet finally brightened.

After the banquet, Li Ru grabbed Zhang Lu, who was about to leave, and said with a smile, "Master, there's no need to keep up this grimace and force a smile."

Zhang Lu stiffened slightly and laughed dryly, "Your Excellency, you are joking. How could I be worried?"

Li Ru did not expose the truth. He dragged the person to sit in the main seat, stroking the gilded teacup on the table with his fingertips: "My behavior today may seem reckless and overbearing, but in fact it is for the sake of the Heavenly Master."

Zhang Lu reluctantly nodded: "Yes, that's right."

"You clearly didn't listen." Li Ru suddenly leaned forward, his smile still radiating, but with a hint of sharpness in his eyes. "Forget it, let me explain this to you in detail."

Li Ru tapped the table with his fingertips, a gleam of light glimmering through his narrowed eyes: "Tianshi, in your opinion, what is the general trend of the world?"

Zhang Lu's Adam's apple moved, and his voice became a little deep: "Now that there are many princes and the Han Dynasty is in decline, I'm afraid there will be years of chaos."

"It seems the Heavenly Master is not completely oblivious to what's happening outside." Li Ru clapped his hands and laughed, the jade pendant hanging from his sleeve banging against the table. "It's true that the princes are fighting each other, but the Heavenly Master left some room for doubt. When Liu Bian was in power, the Han Dynasty could still be said to be in decline; but now that the new emperor has ascended the throne in Xudu, he is nothing more than a puppet in Cao Cao's hands."

He leaned forward, the candlelight casting a shadow on Zhang Lu's face: "People like Cao Cao and Wang Yun are both leaders of aristocratic families. Among the aristocratic families is the Yuan family. Yuan Shao is ambitious, how can Wang Yun control him? Moreover, Cao Cao is not the strongest among the princes, and the new emperor in his hands is just a cover. The Han Dynasty has run its course and will never recover."

The voice paused, Li Ru's eyes were like knives: "If the Heavenly Master does not rely on the strong in this chaotic world and survive in the cracks, what is the way out for the Hanzhong Five Pecks of Rice Sect?"

Zhang Lu clenched the talisman in his sleeve with his fingers and sighed deeply, "I have never sought hegemony. I only wish to maintain peace in Hanzhong and carry forward the Five Pecks of Rice Sect passed down by my ancestors. This is my greatest wish in life." He gave a wry smile, his fingertips creating a few wrinkles on the desk. "But now, we are surrounded by powerful enemies, all of whom are eyeing us covetously. Let alone carrying it forward, I'm afraid I can't even hold on to this little piece of land..."

The candlelight "crackled" and sparks flew, making the newly white hair on his temples particularly dazzling: "What can I do?"

Li Ru tapped the table with his fingertips and suddenly asked, "Since the Heavenly Master knows that the world will be in chaos, do you know who among the princes will be able to compete for the throne?"

Zhang Lu lowered his eyes and stroked the talisman in his sleeve, his tone becoming somewhat cautious: "If the Han royal family could unite as one, there might be hope for revival. But now..." He paused, looking up with a look of melancholy, "In my opinion, no one in the world today can stop the Liang King's cavalry."

Li Ru stroked his beard and chuckled, the candlelight reflecting off his eyes, which gleamed slightly. "Since the Heavenly Master knows that the Liang King's cavalry is unstoppable, why bother with these warring princes? If you join us now, it won't be difficult for the Five Pecks of Rice Sect to be established as the state religion in the future."

He leaned forward and tapped the table. "Besides, the prophecy of Miss Fu Bao, whom the Heavenly Master has always valued, may not only come true in the Han Dynasty. If my master sweeps across the world and ascends to the throne..." He paused, observing Zhang Lu's suddenly changed expression meaningfully. "This prophecy of 'the arrival of a saint, the rise of five pecks of rice' may also come true in a wider world."

Seeing Zhang Lu's fingers clenched around the talisman, Li Ru stood up and patted him on the shoulder: "You're acting this way today just to let the Heavenly Master see the situation more clearly. This opportunity cannot be missed."

Zhang Lu suddenly looked up, his fingertips tightening. He had previously focused on the words "imperial concubine's fate," never considering that if Ma Chao truly conquered the world, Fu Bao, the daughter of an old acquaintance from Xiliang, would be more than just an imperial concubine. Perhaps the hexagram of "Five Pecks of Rice" on the divination chart would manifest itself when the world was unified!

Thinking of the might of the Xiliang cavalry, which had stormed Chang'an, and the fact that no one among the princes could match their might, his Adam's apple rolled, and his breathing trembled. The candlelight on the desk suddenly burst into sparks, illuminating his eyes with a fiery glow.