Crouching Dragon: The Journey of Zhuge Liang sample (Act I) -- T. P. M. Thorne
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“Oh…?” Liu Bei said with interest.
“Ah… so you hope to serve Liu Biao, then…?” Jian Yong prompted. “Or do you plan to join your brother in Jiangdong…? …Or perhaps follow your equal, ‘Young Phoenix’ Pang Tong, into service in Jing…?”
“…So you are aware of us, then,” Kongming chuckled.
“Like Mister Sun, I have spoken with able minds, and your name arises often, Zhuge Kongming,” Jian Yong replied. “…You didn’t answer my question.”
Kongming looked at Liu Bei as he replied, “I have no desire to leave my cottage.”
Liu Bei hummed ambiguously; Jian Yong smiled sadly.
“…Mister Xu,” Jian Yong hailed. “Your contribution to today’s victory was appreciated. Today, I am glad that you got to meet Lord Liu. I hope that you will be remaining with us.”
“…I shall,” Xu Shu replied uneasily as he eyed the quiet, reserved Kongming, who continued to fan himself casually.
“…Thank you,” Jian Yong said with a slight bow to Xu Shu. “And Zhuge Kongming… I hope that one day the ‘Crouching Dragon’ decides to rise… a farmer’s life, though honest and vital, is not for you, I think.”
“…Should the day arise when my interest in the exigencies of the age grows beyond a casual one,” Kongming replied politely, “I should certainly be glad to share what little talent I have with you to benefit the cause of restoring the Han.”
Liu Bei eyed Kongming and nodded slowly, as though some sudden realisation had come over him; Kongming grinned broadly, got up from his seat, bowed, and prepared to take his leave.
“…I… I don’t believe what you just did,” Xu Shu exclaimed as he walked through the dark streets of Xinye with Kongming an hour later.
“Neither do I,” Kongming admitted with a strange laugh. “I think… I think it was the right decision, though.”
“…The right…!” Xu Shu said with exasperation. “You…! …That was the opportunity of a lifetime!”
“Was it…?” Kongming retorted with a slight tinge of humour in his tone.
“Yes!” Xu Shu insisted. “You… you just turned down a personal offer of work from Lord Liu, a man that you yourself said was one of the heroes of the age! I thought… I mean, I thought that you…!”
“Jian Yong was enquiring after my plans for the future,” Kongming interrupted. “It was he, not Lord Liu, that drove the conversation. That was a test… I passed it.”
“…A test…?” Xu Shu murmured.
“Yes, a test,” Kongming replied. “I am twenty-two years of age, Yuanzhi… if I were to offer my services now, I would be a petty adviser, a clerk in Jian Yong’s office, and be so for years to come. When a ravenous man begs for food, he gets scraps. When a nourished man is offered food… he eats well, and lives content.”
“…Nonsense!” Xu Shu said with disdain. “…Nonsense! What, you think he’s going to come back to you now that you’ve humiliated him, told him to his face that you’re ‘happy to stay in your cottage’…?”
“…I guarantee it,” Kongming replied. “Not now… not straight away… but he will.”
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