When Cheng Jinyang saw the princess sister again, he was startled.
She looked like she hadn't slept well in a long time.
"I have to monitor the device of the Zheng family head 24 hours a day," Princess Nankang explained when she saw his concerned look. "Otherwise, if anything goes wrong, the entire city of Jiankang will be doomed."
"Can't you assign synthetic mercenaries for this?" Cheng Jinyang asked.
"Of course not. Synthetics don't have coding permissions and are at risk of being hacked," Princess Nankang replied.
This reminded Cheng Jinyang of the household service robot Xiaoyun, which had been hacked several times, and he quickly asked, "But if you stay up 24 hours without sleep, won't it affect you?"
"With drugs and mechanical assistance, I can manage it," Princess Nankang replied while yawning. "Though it's tiring, I can hold on."
She steadied herself and said, "You're the head of the Shendu Cheng family now, right?"
"Yes," Cheng Jinyang nodded.
"Next, when you go to the palace, my father will definitely see you," Princess Nankang advised. "Don't be overly afraid of him, but also don't trust him completely."
Not trust the Emperor?
It felt strange hearing this from sister Xinnan, his daughter. Cheng Jinyang thought to himself.
"You're the son of my teacher. My father might bring this up," Princess Nankang hesitated before continuing, "I've said that I would tell you about your parents once you reached the seventh grade and had the ability to protect yourself."
"But my father won't have such concerns, so whatever he says to you, think carefully before believing him," she concluded. "Don't trust his words easily, be cautious."
Why has sister Xinnan also started speaking in riddles? Cheng Jinyang thought to himself, but he seriously promised, "Understood."
After bidding farewell to the princess sister, Cheng Jinyang once again descended the mountain along the western path, heading toward Taicheng.
At the east gate of Taicheng, he found the guards on duty.
To his surprise, the guard was actually a synthetic human... or rather, a soldier heavily modified with mechanical parts. All his exposed body parts were mechanical, giving off an unsettling, eerie feeling.
Cheng Jinyang recalled something called the "uncanny valley effect," which describes how the more a being resembles a human, the more it elicits fear. But if it becomes indistinguishable from a human, the fear dissipates.
After confirming his identity, the guard directly led him into the Taiji Hall.
Unlike the descriptions in novels and TV shows, the guard did not instruct him on any "etiquette for meeting the sovereign," such as bowing or not looking directly at the emperor—he said nothing at all.
When Cheng Jinyang reached the steps of the throne, he saw the emperor sitting a hundred meters away, alone in an empty hall. The only light came from beams shining through the side wall's skylights, creating an eerie and ceremonial atmosphere.
"You may address His Majesty from here," said the guards stationed on either side, their mechanical voices indicating he could not approach further.
"Uh," Cheng Jinyang began to rack his brains for what to say, when he heard the emperor's voice coming from a nearby speaker:
"Sigh..."
"You are the son of Xie Guyan, correct?"
"Yes, Your Majesty," Cheng Jinyang responded.
"Xie Guyan," the emperor let out a laugh of ambiguous meaning, "Her death was a great loss to the empire. I warned her not to trust Cheng Qinghe and the Shendu Cheng family too much... but she refused to heed my warning."
"If she had chosen to stay in Taicheng at that time, she might not have died. No one could have anticipated the demon attack on Wujiang Town after breaching the Chuhe defense line." The emperor paused briefly, "But if she had stayed, perhaps you would not have been born into this world."
Cheng Jinyang didn't know what to say.
Refute the the emperor? The fully armed guards were still standing nearby!
Agree with the emperor? That would be tantamount to saying he wished his parents had never conceived him!
Fortunately, the emperor did not dwell on this topic and instead asked him:
"Jinyang, has Wang Chuzhong sent someone to find you?"
Cheng Jinyang was about to instinctively say no when he suddenly remembered the incident with the domestic robot Xiaoyun and replied:
"Yes, they seemed to have hacked into a housekeeping synthetic human before..."
"Hmm, and you destroyed it afterward, which is good." The emperor continued, "Because of that, Wang Chuzhong marked you as hostile and recently sent Shen Shiju to test you, only to be driven away by Princess Nankang at my order."
Cheng Jinyang broke into a cold sweat.
Good heavens, the Jinyiwei's spies were truly everywhere!
Luckily, I destroyed Xiaoyun in time that day; otherwise, had I aroused the emperor's suspicion and distrust, it would have led to a heap of trouble!
"If you hadn't been so decisive then, for instance, if you had listened to that insidious theory, what would have happened?" The emperor seemed to read his thoughts and continued, "Then Shen Shiju would not have tested you secretly but would have taken you out of Jiankang City directly."
"And you would have become one of those brainwashed by ideological imprint."
Cheng Jinyang remained silent for a moment before saying:
"Your Majesty, although I am not knowledgeable about political affairs, I do know that one must be loyal to the sovereign and love the country. Since Wang Chuzhong has rebelled, I am irreconcilably opposed to them and would never join them."
Only the latter part of his statement was true. Now that the Duke of Wuchang had secured the main lineage of the Cheng family, the value of the Cheng clan members remaining in Jiankang City had greatly diminished. If the Longxiang Army were to truly overthrow the court, his fate would be entirely at their mercy, depending on their whims.
But what choice did he have? Whether for his princess sister, or for Ah Zhi, Wanrou, Qingqing, and the others, he could never become a traitor.
"Speaking of loyalty to the sovereign and love for the country," the emperor said calmly, "have you ever thought about what the meaning of being loyal to the sovereign and loving the country is?"
Cheng Jinyang: ???
What?
Is the emperor asking me why we should be loyal to the sovereign and love the country? How am I supposed to answer that?
"Or let's change the topic," the emperor continued. "The Founding Emperor once said that there are some people known as 'social evolutionists.' They advocate for unrestrained competition, promote survival of the fittest, and believe that those who are capable should rise to power. They even claim that the state should stop providing basic assistance to the lower classes, letting the weak naturally be eliminated. What do you think of this?"
"That's absolutely unacceptable," Cheng Jinyang immediately replied. "It's definitely a fallacious and pernicious idea."
"Survival of the fittest, in the long run, is indeed beneficial to humanity as a whole," the emperor said wistfully. "But in the short term? Do you think those who are being eliminated will accept it willingly? Thus, we have intense competition, or even more extreme, war."
"War is absolutely detrimental to humanity as a whole, which is why the significance of loyalty to the sovereign and love for the country lies in this," the emperor paused, then continued, "What humanity needs is not an emperor or imperial power, but a stable political order."
"Once political order becomes unstable, competition arises, and countless ambitious individuals will eye my position. They will wage wars, dragging almost everyone into the conflict. The victor will exhaust their resources to ascend, only to be overthrown by new challengers, until someone consolidates most of the power, gains an absolute advantage, and establishes a new political order. But before that happens, such turmoil can last a long time."
"Yet will the demons give humanity such time? I think not. Or rather, if it really happens, no one can bear the corresponding cost. The empire today cannot afford internal strife, and Wang Chuzhong has chosen precisely this path of turmoil."
"Even if he truly overthrows the court and ascends to the throne, can he smoothly subdue everyone else? Let's not even mention Wang Maohong; among the remaining four of the Five Great Clans, he can't subdue any of them. People can accept a weaker Sima family emperor, but they can't accept a high-ranking supernatural from the Taiyuan Wang clan, especially one who can brainwash people."
"So why be loyal to the sovereign and love the country? If you can achieve absolute power, instantly crush the court, and subdue all forces, then my position can be yours. But there is no such person. All conspirators whose ambitions exceed their abilities ultimately bring only disaster to the empire."