"Holy Emperor Guan?"
"Sangharama Bodhisattva?"
"Lord Wenheng?"
"Sage of War?!!"
Everyone in the hall was completely shaken.
Even Zhao the Unbothered, Steady as a Mountain, Yun stood there wide-eyed. Damn it! Just looking at these titles, it feels like Guan Yunchang won completely and utterly!
Zhang Fei was the first to shout in shock. "Holy shit, Second Brother became a god?!"
Guan Yu's entire face turned the color of a late-autumn jujube, red to the point of purple. The tough man from Hedong finally dropped a single sentence. "The light screen session is done. I am going to the practice yard!" Then he fled the side hall at lightning speed.
The moment he was gone, the side hall exploded into cheers and laughter.
"Second General became a god!"
"Then after we die, we will have Second General's protection, right?"
"Just make sure you die after General Guan."
"What are you afraid of? Even if your soul goes to the underworld, Holy Emperor Guan should be able to put in a good word with the Lord Taishan."
"What if he has not become a god yet when you anger the Lord Taishan?"
"Do I look that brainless? Only you would do something that stupid!"
Amid the noisy banter, everyone naturally threw up a thumbs-up. Like!
Sun Qian, Jian Yong, and Mi Zhu looked highly entertained and copied the gesture.
Then a serious question was placed in front of them. "What should we send?"
Liu Bei immediately shut down the whole plan right there. "Those horseshoe gold and gold Wuzhu coins we sent before? They are already a massive fortune to the descendant!"
"If we keep piling up treasures, it just makes us look cheap and flashy. Worse, it might wear down the descendant's drive and fighting spirit. They are still young. Absolutely must not let money corrupt them!"
He sounded so noble and righteous saying it. But every single person there thought the exact same thing. My lord, aren't you just heartbroken after figuring out how much those high-speed rail tickets cost?
Not a single person dared say it out loud.
But someone else dared to say it. "Big brother, are you still holding a grudge about the descendant saying your eyes would pop out when you see a high-speed rail?"
Liu Bei's face flushed red, and he immediately started spouting a bunch of hard-to-understand phrases, something about "I am a descendant of Prince Jing of Zhongshan" and "the future Emperor Zhaolie of Shu Han" and so on. For a moment, the hall was filled with a joyful atmosphere.
In the end, Zhuge Liang made the proposal, Liu Bei made the final call, and the gift for this time was decided.
A single sheet of paper.
Zhuge Liang held the brush and neatly wrote a few lines in formal script:
How should the Han dynasty develop nuclear energy?
What must Shu Han do to achieve unification?
What mistakes and omissions exist in Zhuge Liang's administration?
And, added under Zhang Fei's intense demand:
Has Zhang Yide ever been granted a divine title?
Answer any one of these, and the reward is ten horseshoe gold ingots.
Zhuge Liang carefully blew on the ink to dry it and handed it to Liu Bei. With a pious and solemn face, Liu Bei placed the paper on the floor in the center.
Very quickly, perhaps sensing their intentions, the light screen slowly unfurled once again. Under everyone's watchful eyes, the paper gently floated up, but the moment it hit the screen, it plummeted rapidly.
Blood-red exclamation marks filled the field of view, casting a crimson glow over everyone in the hall and making their expressions change drastically.
[Warning! Warning! Suspected scam message detected!]
[Warning! Warning! Suspected scam message detected!]
[Please do not send any content containing inducement information!]
[If you try again, you will be banned!]
The paper, carrying everyone's hopes, fell to the ground and spontaneously combusted without any wind. Reflecting their ugly expressions, it quickly turned to ashes.
Zhuge Liang remained completely calm. "So that is how it is."
His gaze swept around the room before finally focusing on the blank paper in front of him. He wielded his brush and splashed the ink, quickly finishing a simple piece of calligraphy. Finally, he added his signature and seal, and it was done.
After blowing the ink dry, Zhuge Liang was just about to send the calligraphy up when Liu Bei stopped him.
Liu Bei showed an embarrassed smile. "Kongming, I have an immature idea."
Zhuge Liang: ???
...
In Chengdu, Wen Mang packed his change of clothes in the hotel.
He had already seen Huahua. As a country bumpkin, he would just skip Taikoo Li. Next, he should probably go out and gather material for real, right?
Right at that moment, his phone rang.
"Hello, hi, who is this?"
"Excuse me, is this Mr. Wen Mang? There is a delivery for you here."
"Huh? I am playing in Chengdu right now. Can you just leave it at the delivery station?"
"Hello, this delivery is already in Chengdu."
"Huh?"
After seeing off the courier, Wen Mang muttered about how overly enthusiastic fans were these days while opening the package.
It was another beautiful box, but this time it was long and rectangular. When he shook it gently, he could hear a rustling sound inside.
"Calligraphy or a painting?"
He opened it with high interest, and sure enough, a paper scroll lay safely inside. Wen Mang unrolled it and could not help but laugh or cry.
Written in perfectly neat regular script were six large characters:
Glory belongs to the people!
The small inscription on the side was densely packed:
Written by Han Jungshi Jiangjun, Military Advisor General, Zhuge Kongming, Winter of the 14th year of Jian'an.
Accompanied by: Governor of Jingzhou Liu Xuande, Pian Jiangjun, General of the Side, Zhao Zilong, Tao Ni Jiangjun, General Who Punishes Captives, Huang Hansheng, Attendant Official of the Left General Mi Zizhong, Jian Xianhe, Sun Gongyou.
On a new line, there was another row of much wilder regular script, clearly different from the previous handwriting:
Zhenglu Jiangjun, General Who Smashes the Caitiffs, Zhang Yide, acting for his brother Dangkou Jiangjun, General Who Sweeps the Bandits, Guan Yunchang.
Next to every single name, they even stamped a seal, making the inscription longer than the actual main text!
Good heavens! Wen Mang suddenly remembered a scene from a TV show where Zhuge Liang's door boy and Liu Bei had a conversation.
"Zuo Jiangjun, Left General of the Han, Marquis of Yicheng Pavilion, Governor of Yuzhou, and Imperial Uncle Liu Bei has specially come to visit the master."
"I cannot remember so many names."
"Just say Liu Bei is visiting."
This calligraphy piece was even more excessive than Imperial Uncle Liu! Did they come here to hold a massive convention or what?
But it was a gift after all, and seeing this pile of names inscribed on such a piece of calligraphy gave it a bizarre, brain-shocking beauty of time and space tearing apart.
He took pictures from multiple angles, casually made a content preview for the next episode, edited it in a few swift moves, and clicked send!
After finishing up with the video site, Wen Mang hummed a tune, planning to take another shower and then head out to find some maocai to eat, but his plan was interrupted by another phone call.
He picked it up and heard the same pleasant female voice. "Is this Mr. Wen Mang?"
Wen Mang quickly remembered why this voice sounded so familiar. It was the scam call he received before getting on the high-speed rail!
"No, I am Qin Shi Huang."
The other side let out a light chuckle and continued. "I would like to ask, are you willing to sell the Han-style horseshoe gold and Han-style gold Wuzhu coins you showed off on the video site before?"
"And the Li dragon jade pendant you posted pictures of earlier. If you are willing to sell, we would also be happy to take it off your hands, provided of course that it is authenticated as genuine."
A raw suspicion formed in his heart, and Wen Mang just asked it directly. "What, you guys cannot use online shopping over there?"
The other side remained very patient. "My colleagues and I are experts in history and archaeology. Judging from the pictures and comparing them with existing excavated gold Wuzhu coins, we believe there is a very high probability that what you hold are genuine artifacts."
"Genuine artifacts?" Wen Mang repeated the two words and fell completely still.
"How about this. Since you are in Chengdu right now, you can come to Sichuan University and take a look at our laboratory. At least you can confirm I am not a scammer, right?"
Hanging up the phone, Wen Mang's heart was suddenly filled with both unease and happiness.
What kind of rich fan was this!
Such heavy horseshoe gold, such glittering gold Wuzhu coins. If they were real artifacts...
Could he pay off his mortgage first?
There was no helping it. The desire for his own little home was truly engraved into his DNA.
"Horseshoe gold, huh..." Wen Mang muttered to himself, only then noticing a small red dot in the upper right corner of his backend account.
[Historical Deviation Value: 3]
Wen Mang casually tapped it, opening a secondary menu.
[Danmaku function unlocked: Deviation value 1 point]
[Add eavesdropping audience: Deviation value 2 points]