People in the Qin Dynasty, entertained during the Warring States period

With her bare feet bare, her slender body was like a reed, frail and delicate. Hearing her elder sister's teasing, she rubbed her slightly red and swollen eyes and said shyly, "Sir is too rough."

White sits on the tatami mat, holding Black's hand, feeding her younger sister.

"You all need to be more careful in the future. You've just recovered from a serious illness and can't handle too much stress."

Hei stuck out her little tongue and said coquettishly, "I know, sister. How about we do it together with Mr. sometime?"

Suddenly, Bai felt a dryness in her throat and instinctively wanted to refuse, but for some reason, she said as if possessed, "Okay, I'll help you share some of the burden."

Hei chuckled, her eyes crinkling with laughter. "Little sister knew that big sister wanted it too. You could feel it last night."

Bai Tengdi's face flushed red, and he almost felt ashamed.

"You little brat, you knew perfectly well... You're driving me crazy! Take this!"

The black and white sisters started making a ruckus on the tatami mat in the room, as if they had returned to their carefree childhood.

……

Cao Ze first went to Ganquan Palace.

With the convenience provided by Zhao Ji, he could communicate with her freely in Ganquan Palace, going wherever he wanted.

Zhao Gao looked at Cao Ze, who had come to Ganquan Palace, in surprise. He never expected that Cao Ze would take the initiative to come to him one day.

"Brother Zhao, what are you standing there for? Let's find a place to talk."

Zhao Gao, with his fingers delicately poised, chuckled, "It's rare for you, sir, to come to the palace to see us."

He led Cao Ze to the lotus garden.

It was shortly after the rain, and the lotus flowers in the garden were in full bloom.

Cao Ze exclaimed in admiration, "The lotus leaves stretch to the sky, an endless expanse of green; the lotus blossoms, bathed in sunlight, are a vibrant red. I had no idea such a beautiful place existed."

Occasionally, under Zhao Ji's coaxing, he would play with her in the palace and secretly have sex with her in the wild. In fact, there were very few places in Ganquan Palace that he hadn't been to.

Zhao Gao couldn't discern the quality of Cao Ze's poem, but he found Cao Ze's words quite beautiful, and immediately flattered him, saying, "Sir, you are a man of great talent. Under heaven, only you could write such fitting verses..."

He was hoping that Cao Ze could put in a good word for him with Ying Zheng and get him transferred to Zhangtai Palace. He flattered Cao Ze to the extreme.

Cao Ze waved his hand: "So-so."

"Brother Zhao, to be honest, I've come to see you this time for something."

Zhao Gao said, "Sir's affairs are the Empress Dowager's affairs, and also our family's affairs. Please speak freely, sir."

Cao Ze said, "I once heard Brother Zhao Cheng say that when Old Man Zheng came to Ganquan Palace to find Brother Zhao, he asked Brother Zhao to send Six Sword Slaves to assassinate me."

Zhao Gao was instantly paralyzed, his spine went cold, and a chill kept emanating from him.

"Sir, please let me explain..."

Cao Ze laughed and said, "Brother Zhao, don't worry. I'm not here to settle scores later, but to ask your brother and the Six Sword Slaves to do something for me."

When Zhao Gao heard Cao Ze ask Cheng Di to do something, he couldn't help but feel anxious. "I wonder what you want Cheng Di to do, sir?"

Cao Ze looked at the lotus flowers in full bloom in the lake and said slowly, "Help me testify and accuse Lü Buwei of using the pretext of assassinating me to secretly send Xuan Jian to Xinzheng to assassinate the King."

Zhao Gao's hand trembled involuntarily, and he exclaimed in shock, "Sir, are you going to attack Lü Buwei?"

Cao Ze narrowed his eyes and looked quietly at Zhao Gao. "Brother Zhao, you should know how to keep secrets, shouldn't you?"

"……Yes."

Zhao Gao said with some difficulty, "Could you do this without having Cheng Di come forward? I can handle it for him."

Cao Ze refused, saying, "No, it was Brother Zhao Cheng who went to Xinzheng to assassinate me, not you. I will need your testimony then."

Zhao Gao said worriedly, "Brother Cheng is the only man in our Zhao family who can carry on the family line..."

Cao Ze said calmly, "Brother Zhao, you're in the palace, so you should know better than me that some things can be discussed, while others cannot."

"Brother Zhao Cheng, the Six Sword Slaves, and you, Brother Zhao, will all need to show up then."

"Brother Zhao, let's change the terms."

With Zhao Ji by his side, if he still couldn't control the dead eunuch Zhao Gao, he could castrate himself and join Zhao Gao in his company.

Zhao Gao remained silent for a long time, then sighed to himself.

This is why he didn't want his younger brother to get involved in palace affairs; many things were simply beyond his control.

"Sir, could you please introduce me to the King? It would be even better if I could go to Zhangtai Palace."

Cao Ze was slightly taken aback. "Why is that?"

Zhao Gao certainly wouldn't tell Cao Ze that he wanted to climb to the top step by step, take control of his own destiny, and no longer be manipulated by people like you.

"Sir, you may not know this, but our Zhao family ancestors were princes of Zhao who were held hostage in Qin. They later settled in Qin. Not long after, my father died for unknown reasons, and my mother died in prison because of her involvement in the court. My brothers and I were also sent to the Hidden Palace as slaves."

“If it weren’t for the Empress Dowager’s return to the country and her consideration that we were both from Zhao, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

After Zhao Gao finished his long preamble, he said slowly, "Later, I discovered that my mother did not simply die while serving her sentence; there seemed to be other hidden circumstances."

"I want to find out."

Cao Ze said, "This doesn't seem to have anything to do with Brother Zhao going to Zhangtai Palace, does it?"

Zhao Gao said, "It is related, but I cannot explain it to you in detail."

The stories he told were almost all true, except that he knew how his mother and father died.

It was because during the Battle of Changping, Qin and Zhao were locked in a stalemate. A member of the Qin royal family encountered the father of a prince of Zhao. Not only did the prince humiliate the father, but he also tried to insult the mother. The father retaliated and killed the prince, thus accusing the entire family of treason.

He later heard that his mother was imprisoned, first insulted by an unknown royal, and then beaten to death.

Unfortunately, by the time he found out, it was too late.

Those who acted back then are either dead, deceased, or purged. By the time he had the ability to take revenge, his enemies were no longer around.

Cao Ze inwardly scoffed; he didn't believe Zhao Gao's nonsense.

If you could believe the words of such treacherous eunuchs and officials, you'd probably be dead countless times over.

Most likely, they felt there was no future in Ganquan Palace and wanted to go to Zhangtai Palace to follow Ying Zheng. Everyone knows that following the boss means you'll have a good life.

"Alright, I agree to this. However..."

Zhao Gao smiled obsequiously, "Don't worry, sir. My brother Cheng and those sword slaves will stand up and testify on your behalf."

"That's good."

Cao Ze stood up and said, "I'll be going now. Brother Zhao, please make yourself at home."

Zhao Gao laughed and said, "Sir, won't you stay a while in the Empress Dowager's palace?"

Cao Ze casually replied, "Let's talk about it another day."

Zhao Ji is available anytime.

Not only is time tight, but there are also many unknown changes. Of course, he cannot let a woman's pregnancy delay his important business.

Zhao Gao personally escorted Cao Ze away from Ganquan Palace.

Hopefully, after Cao Ze speaks to the king, the king will allow him to go to Zhangtai Palace.

He had done enough by staying in Ganquan Palace to guard the gate and keep watch for Cao Ze and Zhao Ji.

He wants to climb to the top, he wants to control everything, he wants to be second only to the emperor and above all others!

……

Chapter 421 Carrying the Bed, They Ran Out of Xianyang City in the Middle of the Night

A crescent moon hangs in the sky.

The stars shone brightly, like diamonds and pearls on a deep blue backdrop.

"The night view is quite nice tonight."

Li Si emerged from the secret passage, gazing up at the brilliant starry sky above, filled with awe and admiration.

“When I was studying at Xiaoshengxianzhuang, my senior brothers and I often went boating at night to drink, watch the sea and sing.”

"Four or five years have passed in the blink of an eye."

There is a sense of vicissitude in Li Si's words, a feeling that things have changed and people are no longer the same.

Cao Ze laughed and said, "I imagine Brother Han will be drunk by then."

"That's right, he was always drunk, so drunk that he couldn't tell the sea from the starry sky, or the starry sky from the sea, and he would just sleep on the boat like that."

Li Si said calmly, "Tell me, isn't he very foolish? He can't tell the difference and always makes the wrong choices."

Cao Ze said, "Whether Brother Han can distinguish between them or whether his choice was wrong, I don't know."

"But I know he will never regret it, even if it means dying nine times over."

Li Si remained silent, while the Milky Way above his head continued to shine brightly.

He sighed softly, "I can't tell either, and I don't know if my choice was wrong. Maybe I'll be glad in the future, maybe I'll regret it, but I can't be as composed as my senior."

"My teacher told me to learn from my senior brother, but now that I think about it carefully, it wasn't about academic knowledge, but rather those things that I always considered unimportant, or even ridiculous."

Cao Ze said, "It seems you've made quite a bit of progress lately."

Li Si felt very uneasy and paced back and forth in the courtyard.

"It's not just big; if we could obtain it and expose it to the world, it would be enough to ruin Lü Buwei's reputation, send him to the execution ground, and tear him apart by five horses."

Cao Ze was slightly surprised: "Really?"

Li Si gave a helpless bitter smile, "Of course it's true, otherwise why would I hesitate, why would I worry?"

"Although it was just a fleeting glimpse, it was deeply impressive."

Cao Ze asked, "What did you see?"

Li Si said, "A Tantric text that was not completely destroyed."

“After working as a clerk in the Prime Minister’s office for a long time, I discovered that every now and then, someone from our department would take outdated and useless files to a specific place in the Prime Minister’s office to destroy them.”

"After that, I took the initiative to take on this task, but the files I could access were all ordinary and meaningless, so for a long time I didn't make any discoveries."

"But it wasn't without its benefits. When I was destroying the files, I found that the fire pits were covered in too much ash, so I always had to straighten them out a bit before I could completely burn the files. Some careless people would skip this step, so many file fragments didn't meet the requirements and were burned to ashes."