A hand goes up; seated at a side table is a young twenty-something of man who continues to brush away at his notes. The scholar from Yong was spared from the fire and flames of Xianyang by a chance journey into the boondocks to retrieve public dossiers that were now of little importance. As his former employers were dead or in hiding, the young bureaucrat scoffed at the idea of joining one of the many Qin holdout groups attempting to harass the Dictator-King of Chu, Xiang Yu. Eventually these cadres would meet the same fate as Liu Bang the Butcher; in the grave, on the way to the grave, or on the road to exile. Such a fate was not one the scholar relished and so it came to pass that Ji Qing languished for the better part of a year, hiding in plain sight in Chu. But Chu was also the place where his mentor had begun his career and a fitting place to research that man, the Chancellor of the Qin Empire under the First Emperor, Li Si.Aleksandr wrote:The Tavern door slammed open to make room for Kang Xingtu's impressive form, the murmur of the tavern dying off for a moment as people looked over their shoulders toward him. He hefted a massive double-bladed axe over one shoulder, a weapon of obvious quality that seemed to glisten as though the silver-colored metal were perpetually wet.
The man swept his gaze across the tavern's patrons and twisted his face into a scowl, taking a few more steps into the building before raising his voice up to be heard over the various conversations.
"Where's Ji Qing?!"
It was for the purpose of passing the time outside the halls of government that the scholar set out writing a narrative history. Once when the scholar asked the Chancellor about his ploy to force the Crown Prince Fusu to commit suicide the Chancellor replied, "Well, when a bureaucrat does something, anything for the sake of the Empire, that means that it is not illegal. " Of course Li Si undertook such an action to prevent Crown Prince Fusu from replacing him with the General Meng Tian but such details were trifles considering all that cushy positions that Li Si and his other rivals in the bureaucracy fought each other over were now all but dust and ashes.
His research on the Qin had lead him to the name of Kang Xingtu. His mount had been so rudely named after the birth name of the Qin Emperor and the records seemed to indicate that all attempts at convincing the fellow to alter the name had been met with blood and failure. The scholar had made up his mind to meet this man face-to-face and had invited him to the rather generic looking city tavern to chat, "Come Sir, please have a seat. It's not every day a former official such as myself meets a man who defied the Shi Huangdi's naming ordinance and lived to tell the tale. If it's not too much trouble you'll do me the honor of conversing with me on this fine afternoon. Yes?"
The scholar could not help but focus on the individual's weapon of choice; he hefted a massive axe with ease. He would be a wonderful ally in battle but perhaps problematic to keep satisfied in times of peace and leisure?