"Mr. Wen Mang? There is a package here for you. When would be a good time to come pick it up?"
Wen Mang wiped sweat from his forehead. Stepping outside this time of year felt like losing two pounds of body water every single trip.
The packaging said it was a 'fan gift'?
He peeled off layer after layer of wrapping and to his surprise found a jade pendant resting inside, glowing with a soft warm sheen.
The pendant was carved as a hollow circle with a dragon coiling twice around it, its head meeting its own tail. Tiny twisting dragons decorated the surface in exquisite detail. Honestly it was breathtaking.
Wait a dragon jade pendant? Wen Mang dug through his memory and pulled up the historical trivia he had read long ago.
"Not bad craftsmanship!" He ran his thumb over it twice and made his judgment: high-grade Yiwu market stuff!
Probably worth at least twenty-five yuan on Taobao!
Underneath the pendant was a folded note.
Wen Mang unfolded it and saw neat, careful clerical script:
'One jade pendant, a humble offering to express this one's sincere respect. Signed, Liu Bei, Han Zuo General, Marquis of Yichengting, Governor of Jingzhou.'
Wen Mang could not quite wrap his head around it. Was this some kind of immersive roleplay fans were doing these days?
But in the end he decided to put it away carefully. It was the very first fan gift he had ever received so it meant a whole lot no matter what the story behind it was.
After thinking it over he pulled out his phone, snapped two photos, uploaded them to Bilibili, and typed out a short caption to share his thoughts.
What Wen Mang did not notice was a faint line of text that had appeared in the top right corner of his account page: "Historical Deviation Value: 0."
...
Fourteenth year of Jian'an, 209 AD. Gong'an County, Jingzhou.
Ever since the light screen last appeared, Zhuge Liang had simply moved his entire workspace into this side hall.
Twenty full days had passed since that last supernatural broadcast. Between handling the administrative duties of the four Jingzhou commanderies, Zhuge Liang spent the rest of his time dissecting every word the screen had said.
A servant appeared at the door. " Chief Strategist, the lord and three generals have returned together!"
"Bring them in at once. We have matters to discuss!"
Three generals meant Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Zhao Yun. Naturally.
Right after the last broadcast finished Liu Bei had ridden out with Zhao Yun to inspect the four newly captured commanderies. The territory had only recently settled down so clearing out bandits and reassuring the people needed his personal attention.
Now they were all heading back. Most likely they had crossed paths with Guan Yu and Zhang Fei returning from the front lines. That could only mean the battle for Nanjun was finally over.
Before long Liu Bei's tall figure, Guan Yu's dark solemn face, Zhang Fei's fierce bearing, and Zhao Yun's broad shoulders all crowded into the small side hall at once.
"Big brother! Why are we crammed into this little room? You cannot even fit a victory banquet in here!"
Zhang Fei spoke first. On the battlefield, the man followed orders without question. But off duty, he loved his wine like a fish loves water. Ever since Nanjun fell, all he had been thinking about was the celebration feast waiting for him back home. At minimum, one full day of drinking. No, make it three!
But before he could finish, a light screen unfurled in midair right there in the side hall. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei both froze, jaws hanging open. Their minds raced with the same thought. 'Holy hell, did big brother invite some immortal here? How'?
Zhuge Liang, Liu Bei, and Zhao Yun leaned in to look. This time there were no moving images. Just a few lines of text and several vivid pictures:
[Lightscreen]
[Got the dragon jade pendant from my fan friend! Beautiful Han-style replica, this uploader absolutely loves it!
But seriously, a triple tap is more than enough. Please hold back on the expensive gifts, okay?]
Below that were four photos of the jade pendant from different angles, plus a handful of comments:
[Server Chat Log]
[DrunkenPandaSage: Wait a brand new uploader and already getting fan gifts? Wild!
EastRiverWatcher: Honestly this guy's takes are pretty solid. Though let's be real you don't need a whole video to prove Eastern Wu was a mess. The Xiaoyao Ford disaster alone is embarrassing enough.
EightHundredRiders: Exactly! Ten thousand troops getting crushed by just eight hundred of Zhang Liao's men? And their commander nearly lost his head in the chaos? Only one army in history could pull that off. Sun Hundred Thousand — the legend lives on!
NovelVersusHistory: Hold on, Sun Quan almost getting killed is from the novel. But yeah eight hundred guys holding off a hundred thousand is still completely insane no matter how you look at it.
CrouchingDragonFan: The Seasonal Han had the best shot at unifying the land by far. Such a shame Brother Liang worked himself to the bone doing everything all alone. Meanwhile his old rival Sima Yi lived all the way to seventy two. Seventy two! Imagine that.
ChengduPilgrim: Visited the Wuhou Shrine in Chengdu last month. Saw that famous couplet "Two memorials repaid three visits, one strategy lasts a thousand autumns" and it hit me so hard. The Prime Minister is truly eternal! But wait why is Liu Chen enshrined there and not Liu Shan?
LoyalMartyrGate: Everyone honored at Wuhou was a loyal martyr of Shu Han. Does Liu Shan even deserve to stand among them? If he was there would he not feel ashamed just being near these great men?]
The comments were few, but the information packed into them was enormous.
After carefully transcribing every word, every detail description, and every comment, Zhuge Liang straightened his expression and announced:
"Alright. We are now going to discuss the matter of Yunchang's death."
Liu Bei gazed fondly at his invincible second brother.
His invincible second brother stared back at his big brother, completely lost.
"Big brother... I died?"
"Yes. You died."
"How did I die?"
Liu Bei thought back. "You were guarding Jingzhou. Lu Xun and Lu Meng teamed up for a sneak attack. Sun Quan had your head chopped off."
Guan Yu went blank. He turned to Zhuge Liang. "Kongming, is my big brother..."
Zhuge Liang waved his feather fan. "Everything the lord says is accurate to the letter. Yunchang, please look at this."
He handed over a thin booklet.
It was the compiled transcript of the light screen's broadcast, already neatly organized.
The cover read: "A Strategic Analysis of Shu Han's Path to Unification."
The booklet was thin, but every page hit like a thunderbolt. Guan Yu was the type of man who would not flinch if a mountain collapsed in front of him. But the first page alone made his eyes go wide.
"What in the heavens is written here..."
"That is exactly what we are about to discuss!" Zhuge Liang swept his fan. "Yunchang, how is Gongjin's health, truly?"
Guan Yu and Zhang Fei exchanged a glance. They had both been in the thick of the assault on Nanjun, charging at the front. They had seen Zhou Yu take that stray arrow with their own eyes.
That night, rumors spread like wildfire. The next day, Zhou Yu personally walked the camp to show he was fine, and the gossip died down.
But that performance only made it feel more like a cover-up, and a thread of worry lingered in Guan Yu's chest.
Cao Ren, holed up inside the city walls, knew none of this. Over the following days, the Jiangdong soldiers attacked with increasing ferocity, yet Zhou Yu himself appeared less and less.
Thankfully, Nanjun was already running on fumes. The city fell in just ten days, and Cao Ren abandoned it and fled.
With Jingzhou recovered and Liu Bei sending word of urgent matters, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei had no choice but to bid farewell to Zhou Yu and ride back at full gallop.
"When you two departed, did you get to see Gongjin in person?" Zhuge Liang asked.
"No." Guan Yu shook his head. "The one who saw us off was a personal attendant from Gongjin's staff. He said Gongjin was swamped with affairs after taking the city, and that any rudeness would be made up for the next time we meet."
"Was that attendant a man named Pang Tong?"
"It was indeed. An old acquaintance of yours, Kongming?"
Zhuge Liang waved his fan and sighed. "An old friend from Nanyang. To think..." According to the light screen, Pang Tong would come to serve Liu Bei next year and die at Luofeng Slope, cut down far too young. Fate had a cruel sense of humor.
"Yunchang, this booklet is a military secret. Once you finish reading it, pass it to Yide, and then we will discuss."
"The topic of discussion is this: how do we stop Sun Quan from chopping off Yunchang's head?"
The thin booklet made its way from Guan Yu's hands to Zhang Fei's in short order. By the time Zhang Fei finished reading, the loudest voice in all of Shu Han was already boiling over.
"That Lu Meng! We saw the bastard during the Nanjun campaign! Did not think he was such a snake! Second brother, hold on, I will go cut off his head right now and avenge you!"
"Yide, stop!" Guan Yu and Liu Bei both shot to their feet and grabbed him.
But this towering man already had tears streaming down his face.
"Big brother! Second brother! We three swore the oath of brotherhood, to die the same year same month same day! But second brother gets killed by a sneaky backstabbing coward! Big brother tries to avenge him and dies of pure grief instead!"
"And I just get left behind to go on living alone like nothing even matters, fine, whatever! Then Kongming dies young too! And big brother's boy A-Dou turns out completely useless! Forty years was all it took for him to burn down everything we three brothers spent our whole lives building!"
"Old Zhang's heart is so torn apart and bitter I can barely breathe. How am I supposed to keep going after all that? Tell me brother, just tell me!"