Chapter 380: Discussing heroes over boiled wine

The next day, morning.

The Sky Screen lit up again.

Golden characters floated up from the depths of the ink color, one by one, like bubbles rising from the bottom of the water:

【Counting down the top ten famous scenes of the Three Kingdoms: "Discussing heroes over boiled wine" — seeing through the world's situation at a glance】

A line of small characters floated in the ink, red background with gold characters, eye-catching:

【The heroes of the late Han dynasty seem to be chasing the deer in the world, but in fact, they are all ants. There are only two people who truly stabilize the troubled times and can be called heroes.】

Yuan Shao frowned first.

He stood in the front row of the formation, holding an unopened bamboo slip, rubbing his thumb along the edge of the slip.

Yuan Shu snorted on the side, the sound not loud, but the few people in the front row heard it.

Cao Cao stood diagonally opposite, hands behind his back, looking up at the words on the Sky Screen, the corners of his mouth moving, not making a sound.

Liu Bei stood further back, with Guan Yu and Zhang Fei beside him.

He glanced at the Sky Screen, then looked down at the mud in his hand, which had been stained in the vegetable garden just now.

He rubbed the mud off with his thumb, the movement very light, no one beside him noticing.

The image on the Sky Screen moved.

When the first scene appeared, someone laughed.

In the image was a vegetable field, Liu Bei wearing

Beside it sat a wooden bucket containing water, the surface of which shimmered with light.

After planting a row, he straightened his back, wiped the sweat from his forehead with his elbow, and then squatted back down to continue.

A young Cao Wei commandant couldn't help but laugh out loud; it was only after the person next to him tugged on his sleeve that he quieted down.

The second scene cut to the pavilion.

On the stone table sat a copper pot with white steam rising from its spout, and beside it were two wine cups with water droplets condensed on their rims.

Cao Cao sat on a stone stool, his hands resting on his knees, looking at the person opposite him.

Liu Bei sat opposite him, his back straight, both hands placed on his knees, his fingertips pressing down on the hem of his robe.

There was no expression on his face, but his eyes moved slowly, sweeping over the items on the stone table before retracting.

Cao Cao poured him a cup of wine; he received it with both hands, did not drink, and placed it on the table.

The celestial screen displayed this entire conversation.

Cao Cao picked up his own wine cup and spoke slowly:

【Yuan Shu, declaring himself emperor in Huainan, has elite troops and ample grain; what do you think?】

Liu Bei's voice on the celestial screen followed, light and steady:

【Yuan Shu has elite troops and ample grain, yet he lacks the hearts of the people; he is a hollow shell and will struggle to achieve anything great.】

The camera cut to Yuan Shu's face—

Yuan Shu in the scene had not yet spoken.

Yuan Shu outside the scene had already turned pale.

He gripped the scroll of bamboo slips in his hand; his thumb no longer rubbed it, but gripped it until his knuckles turned white.

Cao Cao's voice continued:

【Yuan Shao, from a family of four generations of high officials, sits like a tiger in Jizhou, with strategists like clouds and fierce generals like rain under his command.】

Liu Bei's voice continued as before:

【Yuan Shao is stern in appearance but weak in spirit, fond of plotting but lacking decisiveness; he cherishes his own life when undertaking great tasks and forgets his life for petty gains—he is no hero.】

No one looked at Yuan Shao outside the scene, but Yuan Shao could feel the surrounding gazes converging.

He stood where he was without moving, his Adam's apple bobbed, his complexion showed little change, but his hand gripping the edge of his sleeve loosened and tightened, tightened and loosened.

The names Cao Cao mentioned next came one after another:

【Liu Biao, Liu Zhang, Sun Ce, Zhang Lu, Zhang Xiu—all are mediocre, not worth mentioning.】

Every time one was mentioned, that person's face on the celestial screen would flash—

Not the face in the scene, but that face in the present world: pale, stiff, mouth shut.

Liu Biao stood in the distance; when he heard his name, his shoulders moved as if he wanted to turn and leave, but his legs did not move.

Sun Ce's fists clenched tight.

The foundation his father left him was described by Cao Cao in just four words:

【Relying on his father's name, brave but without strategy.】

Zhang Lu's face flushed red.

He stood on the periphery, where there were few people around.

But the words on the celestial screen—【Short-sighted, content with a corner of the land, a passerby in troubled times】—slapped him in the face like a palm; his lips moved, but he made no sound.

On the Cao Wei side, Guo Jia had been standing from the beginning, arms crossed, watching Cao Cao on the celestial screen comment on the various warlords; he didn't even blink.

Xun Yu stood a few steps away, clutching a scroll of bamboo slips in his hand, but his gaze was not on the slips.

He tilted his head slightly, glanced at Cao Cao's back, and then looked away.

Finally, the wind and rain in the scene stopped.

Leaves outside the pavilion were still dripping, but the sound of thunder had moved far away.

Cao Cao set down his wine cup, his gaze landing squarely on the person sitting opposite him, the corners of his mouth curved, but there was no smile in his eyes:

【The only heroes in the world are you and I.】

The scene on the celestial screen froze.

The pavilion, the wine cups, the two people.

The wine cup in Liu Bei's hand hung in mid-air.

He looked down at the water droplets on the rim of the cup, then looked up at Cao Cao; the surprise on his face was like the surface of water being struck, rippling out, then receding.

He did not respond, placed the wine cup back on the table, and pressed his fingertip against the rim.

Liu Bei outside the scene stood in the crowd, looking down at his own palms.

The bit of mud in his palm had dried, turning into a small gray-brown mark.

He rubbed his palm against his trouser leg, but it wouldn't come off.

Above the clouds, Ying Zheng's voice came down first, unhurried, as if savoring a cup of tea that had gone lukewarm:

【In troubled times, everyone is trapped by the situation and deluded by empty fame; only Cao Cao sees through the reality of all living beings and the pattern of the world. Such vision to judge people and the world is unparalleled in the final century of the Han.】

When Liu Bang responded, his voice carried a hint of laziness:

【Dragons and tigers lie hidden, two heroes stand in opposition. Cao Cao has the ambition of an overlord, Liu Bei hides his edge in forbearance; both are natural-born emperors. The other warlords are merely stepping stones on their path through troubled times.】

Liu Che's voice was firmer:

【In terms of vision, perspective, and the art of judging people, among all the warlords and famous scholars of the late Han, not one can surpass Cao and Liu.】

【This casual conversation is worth more than ten years of strife in troubled times.】

Liu Xiu spoke more slowly:

【In just a few words, the secrets of the troubled times are laid bare.】

【The division of the world is merely an illusion; those who can truly stir the winds and clouds and settle the world have always been only these two.】

Yang Jian's voice had no inflection:

【Warlords rose together in the late Han, seemingly gathering talents, but in reality, mixing fish eyes with pearls.】

【Looking across the world, only these two, Cao and Liu, are worthy of being called heroes of troubled times.】

Li Shimin: 【This is the highest-level, most sophisticated silent peak confrontation of the late Han.】

【No clashing of blades, no slaughter of armies, yet it determines the allegiance of the world, every step heart-stopping.】

Zhao Kuangyin: 【Since ancient times, heroes recognize heroes, and overlords of troubled times cherish overlords.】

【This discussion over boiled wine is the most brilliant and insightful peak dialogue of the late Han troubled times.】

Zhu Yuanzhang's voice was the deepest, like a stone falling into deep water.

【A single remark determines the destiny of the world.】

【Cao Cao judges people and the world, seeing through everything; his vision is peerless, seeing through the rise and fall of a century of troubled times at a glance.】

Zhu Di provided the final conclusion:

【The warlords of the world are mediocre and hold only empty fame; as the winds and clouds of troubled times churn, only the two heroes Cao and Liu can settle the world and pacify the chaos.】

The silence on the ground was louder than the thunder.

Cao Cao stood where he was, finished listening to those words from the clouds, and raised his hand to stroke his beard.

Xu Chu beside him saw the corners of his mouth curve—very faintly, but they did curve.

Cao Cao did not turn back, did not speak, just stood there, his back a little straighter than before.

On Liu Bei's side, Guan Yu took half a step forward, standing to Liu Bei's side and rear.

He said nothing, but his very presence was a statement.

Zhang Fei stood on the other side, his serpent-headed spear planted on the ground, his hand gripping the shaft until his knuckles turned white.

He looked at Cao Cao sitting in the pavilion on the celestial screen, then at his eldest brother's profile, and gripped the spear shaft even tighter.

Yuan Shao finally spoke, his voice not loud, but everyone nearby heard it: "What he said is not entirely correct."

No one responded to him.

He paused for a moment himself, then added: "Not entirely wrong."

Then he unfolded the scroll of bamboo slips in his hand and looked down at the characters, though it was unclear if he saw them.

On Sun Ce's side, his clenched fist loosened, then clenched again.

Zhou Yu stood beside him, not turning to look at him, but placed his hand on Sun Ce's forearm and pressed gently.

Sun Ce did not look at him, but his fist did not clench again.

Liu Zhang stood toward the back of the crowd, surrounded by a few of his own generals.

After hearing Cao Cao's assessment of him, he did not argue or refute, but just kept his head down, as if counting the cracks in the bricks on the ground.

A general nearby whispered "My Lord" to him.

He looked up, grunted, and lowered his head again.

Guo Jia lowered his hands.

He had been standing with his arms crossed for a long time.

When the scene on the celestial screen ended, he lowered his hands to his sides, tilted his head to glance in Cao Cao's direction, then looked away.

Xun Yu opened the scroll of bamboo slips, then closed it, his fingers lingering on the edge of the slips as if wanting to say something, but ultimately saying nothing.

Among the commoners, a middle-aged man in a gray short jacket squatted on the ground, pinching a blade of grass in his hand, chewing it twice, and spitting it out.

Seven or eight people were gathered around him, all local commoners; they had huddled together to watch when the celestial screen was playing, and no one spoke.

After it finished, someone asked: "Those people Cao Cao mentioned, are they all no good?"

The man chewing the grass pulled the stalk from his mouth and threw it on the ground.

"Cao Cao says others are no good, then says Liu Bei is as good as him, so how good must Liu Bei be?"

The few people nearby looked at each other and did not respond.

Not far away, an old scholar in a long gown stood with his hands behind his back, looking in the direction where the celestial screen had disappeared, as if verifying something in his heart.

He muttered something, unclear to those nearby, but someone heard the last few words: "... sharp vision."

The ink color on the celestial screen was fading, and the large golden characters began to blur, like ink marks soaked by water spreading out bit by bit.

The final two lines of text floated out, smaller than the previous ones, but brighter in color:

【Mediocre people chase profit, heroes plot for the world.】

【The winds and clouds of the late Han are settled by these two heroes.】

The characters vanished, the ink color dispersed, and the celestial screen returned to the dark blue color appropriate for evening, with a bit of un-faded orange-red showing behind the clouds.

Cao Cao walked away, his pace neither fast nor slow.

After two steps, he paused, tilted his head to glance in Liu Bei's direction, but it was too far away to see his expression clearly.

He turned his head back and continued walking.

Liu Bei stood up, dusted the ash off his robe, and turned to walk toward his own side.

Guan Yu followed on his left, Zhang Fei followed on his right, and the three of them walked slowly.

Yuan Shao still stood where he was, motionless.

The people beside him had dispersed, leaving him alone.

He stood for a while, rolled up the bamboo slips again, tucked them back into his sleeve, and turned to leave.

His pace was half a beat slower than usual.

The sky darkened, and the firelight in the camps lit up, cluster by cluster, flickering in the wind.

The celestial screen was gone, but those words were still spinning in people's minds—

【The only heroes in the world are you and I.】

Like a needle, it had pierced through.