Liu Bei POV

I wanted to ask her directly, but I didn’t do so as it was just her hypothesis after all. If you tell someone your hypothesis and it doesn’t happen, then you will only end up becoming a laughing stock. As an administrative official, Yi Ji probably doesn’t want to see that happen.

And so, I could only hold back.

“Imperial Uncle, the big tent up ahead is where the young mistress is at. You can just enter directly without knocking. She’ll be inside.”

“Un, I understand.” I nodded.

“I’ll be doing some checks now to make sure that everything is accounted for. Please excuse me.” Yi Ji added.

“Alright, go do your work.”

“Un, but come to think of it, Imperial Uncle and his subordinates are rather superb commanders. I thought that they would be a lot less obedient.”

Eh? Yi Ji didn’t say everything, and it was clear what she was trying to imply, and it seemed like she knew the troops wouldn’t be easy to command. Could it be that Jing state troops are generally discriminatory to outsiders?

I don’t know, and didn’t ask her when she didn’t continue. And so after I bowed and saluted, I headed off in the direction of Liu Qi’s tent.

On the outside, Liu Qi’s tent had a triangle hemmed flag with a large ‘琦’ character written on it. You could easily tell that this was the overall commander’s tent as it was much larger than all the other tents in the vicinity. Even if she hadn’t led me, I would have made my way to this tent.

I was the same as usual and got nervous at this sort of formal meeting. To clam myself down, I took a deep breath and tidied my clothing. Leaving aside everyone else, I felt that I had to have my best appearance on to my niece. She was my first niece after all.

“Liu Qi, Yi Ji brought me here.” I called out from outside the tent first. When I saw that there was some movement in the tent, I a.s.sumed that I was granted permission and decided to enter, “I’m coming in.”

Because of what happened with Ben Chu the last time, I made sure to be extra careful this time. And so I carefully parted the curtains and didn’t enter immediately as I peered inside to see if there was any special situation going on. If there was, I could very quickly get out.

“…”

And at the most obvious place in the tent– The main seat– I found Liu Qi. She was kneeling upright with her clothing properly on, and her eyes were wide open and she was looking straight ahead, probably because she was deep in thought and didn’t notice what I was doing.

“Liu Qi, I’m here.” Seeing that she wasn’t in a state of undress or seemed unprepared, I decided to walk in boldly and called out to her as I did so.

“…” But she didn’t say anything.

“Oi… Liu Qi?” I called out again. By now, I was right in front of her.

“Liu Qi? Niece?” I decided to try calling her a different way, hoping she could notice my existence that way.

But even though I was standing in front of her, she still didn’t pay any attention to me at all. This meant that either my existence was far too weak or that she was too concentrated.

She was a rather rigid person so I can understand why she’s like this when she’s concentrating on something. Un.

“Liu Qi, snap out of it. Come, let’s discuss the matter which you called me for.”

Of course, I can’t just let her go on like this. Honestly speaking, I was beginning to feel sleepy. A lot happened today and I actually did a fair bit of activity so I wanted to get this over with and go back to sleep soon.

And so, I lightly pushed her.

I pushed her with very little strength but for some reason, it seemed like it had a huge impact on Liu Qi as she careened over and landed on her back on the not-so-thick carpet.

“Liu Qi!”

The dull sound her head made when it landed gave me a fright, and I didn’t bother with proprieties as I hurried forward and carried Liu Qi up. I then felt the back of her head, and felt slightly at ease when I saw that she didn’t have any injuries. But on the other hand, I was beginning to panic at her current state.

Could she be dead?!

I’ve seen some very strange television shows before where there was this expert who could throw a needle from 100 paces away that would kill the target instantly. Could Liu Qi have fallen to some evil trick like that?!

“Liu Qi! Stay with me!” I grabbed Liu Qi’s shoulders and shook her, hoping that she had some life left in her.

“… Un.” She let out a faint moan as her eyes twitched. This meant that she was still alive.

“Hu… Hu…” And then she let out faint breathing sounds.

“… Hu.” I slowly calmed down when I realised what was going on.

So she fell asleep huh.

Even though she’s asleep, she’s still in an upright seiza position with her eyes wide open. That’s a little too rigid of you.

Doesn’t she have something to discuss with me?

Never mind, I’ll let her sleep for a bit first.