At the ferry crossing, the young Ying Zheng was asking the price of rice. He said, "My name is Qin Zhao." The youth repeated those two characters: "Qin Zhao. Like Qin, the Qin of the State of Qin." He looked up at the man in white. "Your name sounds like it was made for the Great Qin." "You'll understand in time."
From then on, the Great Qin had a man in white: he wouldn't kneel to the king, call himself a subject, or accept an official post. He grinned as he enjoyed the scenery and looked for fun, while casually rescuing one doomed, broken heart after another from history and bringing it back to life. He exposed three years of false accounts in Xianyang in the time it took to burn a stick of incense; he unraveled the chaos at the Qinian Palace with flawless calculations; he drew Li Mu's blade into a conversation; he dissolved Jing Ke's dagger in a wine cup; he turned Xiang Yan's game into a vision for the whole realm...
Salt, paper, wine, green glaze, movable type, musical instruments... One by one, he brought the wonders of later generations to the Great Qin, letting the people of the six states enjoy the benefits of Qin's rule first. And so the six states vanished in smoke, without a single one drowning in blood. Six kings walked down a single street in Xianyang.
"I won my empire through negotiation."
He stayed by the boy at the ferry crossing until he became the First Emperor, and accompanied him from "I, the lonely one" to simply "I." On the night of his coronation, the emperor said, "Sir, now that the realm is unified, why am I a little afraid?"
The man in white smiled. "Then build an academy to uncover the principles of all things, and build a road so that every child in the realm can travel it."
One written language, one set of axle widths, a realm unified without bloodshed. He rescued the Great Qin from its fate of falling after two generations and turned it into a foundation for all ages.
Enjoy the scenery, look for fun. The man's name will be new for all eternity.
