When Zhao Zhongyu saw the poisoned wine sent by Liu Cong, he only felt briefly sad and indignant for a moment.
After being captured, he had already prepared himself for death.
In fact, many times in the dead of night, he had wanted to kill himself; many times when he witnessed Liu Cong humiliating the Emperor, he had wanted to rush forward and assassinate Liu Cong to seek death…
Whenever this happened, his brother’s gloomy face and disdainful gaze would appear in his mind, that look seeming to say: weak, incompetent, impulsive like a child, dying without any value – better to live on in shame.
Zhao Zhongyu could only suppress his impulse to seek death. The Emperor was gentle by nature – even when forced by Liu Cong to wear servant’s cloth clothing and hold wine pitchers to pour drinks for Xiongnu nobles, he had no heart to resist. As the highest-ranking captured Jin official, if he died, the Emperor and the remaining Jin officials would have even less chance of survival.
Most importantly, the humiliation they suffered would multiply and fall upon the Jin officials, soldiers, and Jin people behind them.
He had to preserve some dignity for them, hoping to inspire the morale of the Jin officials and soldiers behind him.
He could no longer help the Jin state and Zhao Hanzhang much, only clinging to survival to prevent the Han people and soldiers’ dignity from being trampled too severely.
Therefore, when he saw the poisoned wine sent to him and the Emperor by the Xiongnu, he was happy.
He knew the opportunity had come.
If the Emperor didn’t die, the court would remain somewhat constrained by the Xiongnu, even if they established a new Crown Prince or even a new Emperor.
Morale would still be affected.
Now the opportunity had come.
As long as the Emperor died, and died heroically, died with some dignity, his Jin state’s soldiers and people, even if it was to avenge the Emperor, would rise up in resistance.
So Zhao Zhongyu was willing to add another feather to this foundation – with his own death.
Therefore, Zhao Zhongyu personally fed the Emperor the poison, then poured all the remaining poisoned wine into himself.
He endured the excruciating pain in his abdomen, until even his heart was wracked with pain, but it was brief – seemingly only an instant – and the physical pain disappeared.
When Zhao Zhongyu opened his eyes again, he was in a very strange state. He was somewhat dazed for a moment, thinking at one point that the violent resistance and poisoned wine had all been a dream.
But… everything before his eyes was even stranger.
This seemed to be a chaotic space. After he opened his eyes, everything around him gradually became clear, and only then did he discover that he seemed to be in a desolate, empty place.
As soon as the thought flashed through his mind, figures appeared one after another. Before long, everywhere his eyes could see was filled with people, and people stood all around him.
Only they were covered in blood, and he saw several familiar faces among them. Their faces showed confusion, their gazes blankly sweeping over him, as if they couldn’t see him standing right before them.
Zhao Zhongyu fell silent.
His silence was deafening.
He had already understood – he was dead, and all these people he saw were also dead. They were no longer people now, but ghosts!
He instantly lost the desire to explore and speak. Something ahead seemed to guide him, and though this was his first time in this place, he knew which direction to go.
All the ghosts headed in the same direction. Soon, those who had fallen behind him also quickly came to their senses, realizing they were dead.
Then came ghostly wailing and howling from behind, along with cursing voices. Even in death, they were still cursing Liu Cong, cursing the Xiongnu, cursing Wang Yan, cursing the various princes of the Sima family, and even cursing Emperor Wu.
He didn’t know what the geography of the underworld was like. When alive, he rarely saw so many people, but now in the underworld, everywhere his eyes could see were ghosts – crowded, jostling ghosts. The further forward they walked, the more ghosts there were. Several ghosts pushing past him even stepped on his feet.
Zhao Zhongyu looked down at his feet. He too was a ghost, and being stepped on by ghosts didn’t hurt, but this was still unacceptable to him.
Therefore his face was very ugly.
A young ghost stepping past him saw his dark face and, examining the brocade robe he wore, immediately became displeased. He spat at him and said: “Oh, a high official still thinks he’s in the mortal realm? Let me tell you, this is the underworld. In death, everyone’s the same – whether you’re a high-ranking noble or a beggar, all the same.”
He waved his fist and said: “Keep staring at me, and I’ll beat you!”
As he spoke, his fist swung toward Zhao Zhongyu’s face. Just as it was about to touch his face, a golden light flashed from Zhao Zhongyu’s body, and the person clutching his fist began wailing while holding his hand.
The surrounding numb ghosts were startled, expressions appearing on their faces. They all jumped three feet high, fleeing from that ghost. A group of ghosts, perhaps not yet accustomed to the lightness of their soul forms, jumped too high and collided with each other in mid-air.
Everyone saw smoke rising from the back of that ghost’s hand, and then his entire form became somewhat blurred.
Zhao Zhongyu also widened his eyes watching.
Before long, a ghost officer came to arrest him. With one glance, he understood the situation. The ghost officer examined Zhao Zhongyu more carefully, his expression softening slightly. “This person receives worship from the mortal realm, has great prestige and great merit. You dared to attack him – isn’t that seeking death?”
“Your soul form has become faint. Go soak in the ghost pool first. After your soul form recovers, then you can go reincarnate. Otherwise, reincarnating like this, you’ll die and come back before long. The more you reincarnate, the fainter your soul form becomes, until finally you can only enter the animal realm.”
Not only that ghost, but Zhao Zhongyu was also very surprised by these words. He quickly asked: “Sir, isn’t reincarnation into the six realms determined by one’s good and evil deeds in life? If those with great prestige have special privileges, then…”
Wouldn’t those princes of the Sima family, people like Wang Yan, also be able to walk sideways in the underworld?
They caused havoc in the mortal realm, yet wouldn’t be punished even in the underworld?
The ghost officer’s face showed disdain, but because of Zhao Zhongyu’s merit, he still softened his voice to answer: “Good and evil in the underworld are different from your mortal realm, and the measurement of prestige is naturally also different from your mortal realm.”
“Take Wang Yan, for example. In the mortal realm, doesn’t he have more prestige than you? But no one worships him – he doesn’t have your merit.”
At this time, the colleague ghosts who had fallen behind Zhao Zhongyu also walked to this place. Seeing Zhao Zhongyu, they grabbed him and wept uncontrollably.
Clearly they were already ghosts, yet tears still fell in strings – who knew why ghosts could cry.
“Minister, wuwu, you died so miserably~”
Zhao Zhongyu saw that his chest had a large hole in it, and even as a ghost, that hole hadn’t been repaired. He couldn’t help but sigh: “Director Yan, you died even more miserably than me~”
He had drunk poisoned wine and died – it hurt for less than an hour before he expired. He looked more dignified in death than they did.
Director Yan didn’t think so. He still tightly gripped Zhao Zhongyu’s sleeve and wept loudly: “With the Minister’s death, our hearts also died. The Jin officials have no way to live, so we subordinates came to follow His Majesty and the Minister.”
Director Yan said this, then lifted his tear-covered face and looked around asking, “Where is His Majesty?”
Zhao Zhongyu: “His Majesty is the Son of Heaven and must have gone to another place.”
The ghost officer snorted coldly: “He just left a while earlier than you. As long as you’re in this underworld, you’ll meet sooner or later.”
Having said this, he led them forward. Along the way, some ghosts tried to cut in line but were whipped away by the ghost officer.
Very quickly, everyone understood the difference between having merit and not having merit.