The First Gift
The comb was by no means an extravagant or luxurious item. While royalty and nobles might indulge in combs carved from jade, this was nothing more than an ordinary wooden one. Yet Ji Dan handled it with the utmost care, as if it were a rare and precious jewel.
“How is it? Do you like it?”
“Yeah… I really do.”
His voice remained calm and even, much like always. But the way he stared at it without blinking, the way his fingers traced the comb—those gestures spoke for the emotion he couldn’t express.
“It’s my first time. Receiving a gift.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
His very first gift in this life. Of course it would be.
Jing Ke’s father, the King of Yan, had left Zhao just two years after Jing Ke was born. From the age of three, the boy had been abandoned to the world without any parental protection. What a cruel world this was. Despite growing up without a mother’s or father’s love, the child still had to endure relentless torment simply because of his father’s bloodline.
I knew that pain all too well. How could I ever forget the bitterness of being discriminated against for the sins of one’s parents? At the very least, in my previous life I had been shielded by the institution of law. But Jing Ke received no such protection whatsoever. Worse, he was being abused by the very person who should have been his most fundamental safety net—his own mother. Unlike me, who at least had one ally, Jing Ke was painfully, utterly alone.
Because it was his first, because it was the first pure kindness he had ever received from another person, Jing Ke could barely bring himself to touch the comb properly. Afraid that the oil from his hands might stain it, he held it only by his fingertips. The sight was both adorable and heartbreaking. On impulse, I spoke again.
“It’s fine. You can touch it properly. Next time, I’ll give you something even better.”
“Next time? You’re going to… give me something again? Why? It’s not even my birthday.”
“You don’t need a reason to give someone a gift. If you want to give it, you just do.”
“I see… If you just want to give it…”
Jing Ke murmured my words back to himself. Then, as if he had come to some decision, he gently closed his fingers around the comb and asked,
“Then why did you give me a comb, Dan?”
I tilted my head at the unexpected question. Why had I chosen a comb? There hadn’t been any deep or profound meaning behind it. I had simply considered practicality.
At first I had thought of jewelry—bracelets or earrings. But given the clear signs of domestic abuse and the resentment he already faced from those around him, imagine if he started wearing something like that. ‘He’d be lucky if it was only stolen.’ So instead, I turned my attention to something he could keep hidden on his person rather than wear openly. That was when the comb came to mind. It was practical, and if the design was pretty, it could double as an accessory. That was all.
But if I told him the truth as it was, he would clearly be disappointed. So I wrapped my answer in a bit of embellishment. Even that, however, seemed to fall short of his expectations. After hearing it, Jing Ke made a slightly pouty face. It only lasted a moment before he corrected his expression and asked,
“When is your birthday, Dan?”
“My birthday?”
When was it again? I had never been the type to pay much attention to birthdays, and since being sent to Zhao as a hostage last year, I had been too busy adapting to life here to remember. Because my previous life’s date still came to mind first whenever I thought of birthdays, I had to pause and think before recalling my current one.
“October. The first day of October.”
“The first day of October… the beginning of the year. Yeah, that suits you perfectly, Dan.”
The calendar used in this era was the Zhuanxu calendar. It was a lunisolar system that accounted for both the movements of the moon and sun. Dates followed the lunar cycle while seasons were determined by the sun. It was an impressively advanced system that even calculated leap months, resulting in the familiar 365-day year. Thanks to it, I had never suffered any confusion over dates.
The peculiar part was exactly what Jing Ke had just mentioned—the year began in October. They called the month containing the Start of Spring the first month. It was rather arbitrary.
“Does it? That’s the first time I’ve ever heard someone say my birthday suits me.”
I had heard plenty of times that my name suited me, but whether a birthday suiting someone counted as a compliment was somewhat questionable. Yet Jing Ke affirmed it with clear, precise words.
“It’s true. It really suits you.”
That was the end of my meeting with Jing Ke for today. Because we couldn’t ignore the eyes of those around us, our encounters always had a strict time limit. After watching him trot away, I slipped out of the alley and rejoined Shi and Hu.
The way back was as ordinary as ever. The change that broke from daily routine came the moment I returned to the residence.
“Young Master!”
Han Jing came running the instant he saw me, as if he had been waiting. He must have been terribly anxious—beads of sweat dotted his forehead.
“What’s going on?”
“There is a message from Lord Pingyuan.”
That was enough. I immediately prepared to head out again.
“Shi and Hu, you two rest. I’ll go to Lord Pingyuan with Jing Ke.”
“Will you be alright?”
“I’ll be fine. Han Jing, please call Jing Ke for me.”
“Understood.”
Sensing the urgency of the situation, Jing Ke quickly got ready and appeared. On the way to Lord Pingyuan’s residence, I carefully analyzed the current state of affairs.
Just how much did Lord Pingyuan actually know? Under normal circumstances, he would have been aware of my meetings with Jing Ke. But right now, he was pouring all his energy into his power struggle against Lord Jianxin. His roaming retainers were scattered in every direction as well. Could his intelligence network really be the same as before?
While I was lost in thought trying to gauge Lord Pingyuan’s level of information, Jing Ke spoke up casually.
“Even the Yan prince gets nervous, huh?”
“Hm?”
“You said it was your first time pressuring someone. When you challenged Nokucheon, you were overflowing with confidence.”
“The opponent is different. Nokucheon is formidable, but Lord Pingyuan is on another level entirely.”
“Hmm, another level, you say…”
Jing Ke ran her fingers over the hilt of the sword at her waist.
“Still, he wouldn’t stay fine after getting stabbed by a blade, would he?”
“What?”
Was this woman crazy? To say something like that so openly on the streets of Handan, practically Lord Pingyuan’s own backyard.
“Pfft, look at that dumb face. I’m joking, just joking. But your expression looks much better now. See? When you think about it that way, it doesn’t seem so different, does it?”
She called it a joke, but I could never take those words lightly. This was Jing Ke, the woman who would one day approach the Qin general Fan Wuji in order to get close to the First Emperor. She had boldly asked the exiled general for his head, and she had actually taken it. She was someone who had tried to assassinate the man who held the world in his grasp. What was Lord Pingyuan compared to that?
‘When I think of it that way, Lord Pingyuan really doesn’t seem like much.’
Perhaps because I was imagining the First Emperor—the man I might have to face for the rest of my life—Lord Pingyuan’s presence suddenly felt faint. The tension drained away, and my cluttered mind grew clear.
If I had been overly nervous, acting like a guilty thief because of my relationship with Jing Ke, Lord Pingyuan would have noticed something off in my demeanor and uncovered even the things he hadn’t known. A little tension was necessary, but I needed to remain as composed as usual.
“Thanks. I feel a bit more at ease now.”
“Have some confidence. You’re the one who took this Jing Ke as a retainer, after all.”
It had been somewhat forced, but taking Jing Ke as my guest really had been a good decision.
The moment we arrived at Lord Pingyuan’s residence, I was summoned before him. This was our second private audience.
“Do you understand why I summoned you, young master?”
“Is it not because of that incident?”
The matter where I had stepped between Jing Ke and Nokucheon. I had openly mentioned the state of Yan there. It was a stance completely at odds with Lord Pingyuan, who was currently clashing with Yan’s demands.
As expected, Lord Pingyuan gave a light nod.
“Correct. But there is no need to be so tense. I did not call you here to reproach you.”
I let out a sigh of relief inside. And then I felt a chill run down my spine. If I had not listened to Jing Ke’s advice and had remained overly nervous, Lord Pingyuan would have sensed something strange about me and looked into it. Of course, there was still the possibility that this was a bluff. It was not yet time to let my guard down.
“The reason you deliberately brought up Yan was to make it appear as though you were intentionally opposing me, thereby distancing yourself from the political struggle. Is that not so?”
“…That is correct. Do you consider it ungrateful?”
From Lord Pingyuan’s perspective, it could certainly feel like a betrayal. Even though he had taken me in, I had schemed to avoid getting involved in the power struggle. However, his reaction was not bad.
“How could that be? On the contrary, I wish to praise you. If you had let your judgment become clouded by your connection to me and tried to involve yourself in the struggle, I would have been disappointed in you.”
“That would have been stepping out of my bounds.”
I was, after all, nothing more than a hostage. Not a person of Zhao, but of Yan. If I had become an official of Zhao, that would be one thing. But for a pure hostage to recklessly insert himself into a critical contest for power was not only dangerous—it was incredibly stupid. In a brutal political war where one walked on the edge of a blade, acting without reading the room was practically suicide. If someone sent an assassin after me because I got caught up in the struggle, could I truly stop them? Nine times out of ten, I would die without even realizing what had happened.
‘At least now I have Jing Ke.’
The most famous assassin in the East. If it was Jing Ke, the woman who had come within a hair’s breadth of killing the First Emperor, she would easily be able to repel one or two ordinary assassins. At first I had wondered if this was the right choice, but now that I thought of Jing Ke, my heart felt reassured. How easily a person’s feelings could change.
Although we had passed the biggest hurdle, the private meeting with Lord Pingyuan was not over yet.
“Seeing how well you understand the situation, I find myself curious.”
Lord Pingyuan was not some benevolent benefactor who supported me unconditionally. Unlike my own feelings of pity and empathy that led me to look after Jing Ke, he had invested in me after seeing my objective value. Therefore, he was in a position to test me at any time in order to evaluate that value. And now was one of those times.
“What is your view of the power struggle between myself and Lord Jianxin?”