George Washington took a deep breath, forcing himself to push away the guards who wanted to shield him in the center with their bodies to protect him from harm. He slowly stepped forward, struggling to control his legs that were so weak they could barely hold him up. George Washington kept hypnotizing himself that he was playing a fully immersive, three-dimensional personal role-playing game. He tried his best to stand up straight. “I am the Emperor of the Great Ming.”

“You say you’re the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, those Han emperors?” The centurion of the Oirat, his narrow eyes glinting with a cruel and vicious light, already had his hand on the hilt of his curved saber at his waist. The tall and burly Han man before him was indeed dressed in exceptionally luxurious attire, and the bright yellow color of his clothes was something ordinary people would never dare to wear. This made the Oirat centurion’s heart skip a beat—could it be that he had really caught a big fish this time?

Chapter Four: A Stubborn Duck’s Hard Mouth

“It is I.” George Washington kept his head high and chest out, meeting the Oirat warrior’s gaze steadily as he spoke, but his hands, clenched into fists inside his sleeves, were so tight that his knuckles had turned white.

The Oirat warrior let out a strange, owl-like cackle, then waved his large hand and shouted something in Mongolian that George Washington couldn’t understand. The Oirat cavalry, who had already surrounded George Washington and his group, suddenly charged forward like a pack of vicious dogs. In a very short time, the eight unarmed imperial guards and the middle-aged eunuch were all knocked down onto the grass, unable to move.

“What are you doing?” George Washington saw that the guards had only been captured by the Oirat cavalry and not killed, and he couldn’t help but secretly breathe a sigh of relief. He then spoke in a deep voice to the Oirat warrior.

“How could the emperor of the Ming only have a few weaklings without weapons at his side? You must be an impostor!” The Oirat warrior suddenly shouted, and with a clang, his curved saber flashed from its scabbard, spinning a dazzling arc of cold light in the air as it slashed toward George Washington’s face.

Yet George Washington showed not the slightest reaction to the saber coming down at him. His gaze was calm, his expression composed, and he didn’t even blink. The saber halted abruptly just inches from George Washington’s face.

The blade stopped just a few inches from George Washington’s face, but the wind it stirred up blew his slightly disheveled hair into the air.

“…Didn’t expect you to be a real man.” The Oirat warrior, seeing that George Washington hadn’t reacted at all to his strike, was not angry—instead, his eyes showed admiration.

It was only at this moment that George Washington, who had actually been scared senseless by the Oirat warrior’s sudden attack, finally came back to his senses. Hearing the Oirat’s words, George Washington, whose clothes were already soaked with cold sweat, forced a grin that was barely better than crying. But his voice was impressively steady and calm: “I am the Emperor of the Great Ming. What is there to fear from blades and weapons?”

Hearing George Washington say this—words reminiscent of the bravado used by gangsters on the losing side of a street fight in modern times—the struggling guards couldn’t help but look at him with faces full of worship and fanaticism. His Majesty truly is extraordinary…

Who could have known that George Washington had only frozen up because his mind went blank and he didn’t have time to react? But letting them misunderstand like this saved George Washington the trouble of having to shamelessly explain his “unmoved by axes and blades” theory.

“I do admire you as a real man, but whether you are truly the emperor of the Ming, I cannot decide. Wait here.” The Oirat warrior shouted a few more commands, and someone immediately responded. Then George Washington saw several Oirat soldiers sprinting down the hillside, apparently to fetch a higher-ranking officer to identify him.

After giving his orders, the Oirat warrior plopped down on a large rock nearby, his gaze never leaving George Washington.

After that scare, George Washington’s legs were still weak, so he didn’t care about anything else and simply sat cross-legged on the spot. The Oirat soldiers, apparently having received instructions, didn’t rush up to tie him up, but just surrounded him closely.

Seeing the Oirat soldiers staring at him intently, their eyes full of excitement, curiosity, and even some doubt—just like the first time he’d gone to the zoo to see a gorilla—George Washington, exhausted, thirsty, and on the verge of a nervous breakdown from shock and shortness of breath, simply closed his eyes, trying to recover some strength to face whatever came next. At the same time, he tried to search through the scattered memories left in this body for anything about the Oirat.

After only a minute or two, as George Washington sat with his eyes closed in thought, he heard the rumble of hooves—apparently a troop of cavalry was galloping up the hill.