Chapter 90 First Meeting with Lü Zhi 2

As soon as she took that first step, Zhu Qing'ai removed the shielding, and now she can hear the sounds around her.

That's one good thing about the system; she can simply turn the function off when she doesn't want to listen anymore, and turn it back on when she wants to listen again. It's much better than pretending to be intermittently deaf.

When she heard the scholar shout "No!", she was a little curious about what he was going to say. She had already gone to such lengths... no, she had just casually created this momentum, so what else could he possibly have to say?

The rain stops when people are around, and the flowers and trees flourish when people are around. Flowers spread up the mountainside along both sides of the road. Can this person not be considered blessed by heaven?

What else is there to say? Zhu Qing'ai simply couldn't understand it.

For a moment, both Zhu Qing'ai and the First Emperor Ying Zheng, who was riding in the chariot, were curious about what this person was going to say. Zhu Qing'ai stood still under the shade of a big tree, so she could observe the person up close.

Ying Zheng sat in his chariot, looking back down at the people.

Despite such overwhelming power, the scholar still dared to stand up and speak loudly: "Your Majesty, such a miracle must be carefully protected. Since Heaven has given such a signal, it must be that you should walk up the mountain so as not to damage the flowers and plants under your feet."

Zhu Qing'ai couldn't understand and was greatly shocked. Although these weren't real flowers, it wouldn't matter if she stepped on them. Besides, the road had already been built, and there were no signs indicating a pedestrian crossing, so why couldn't vehicles pass through?

You're spouting weird rules here!

Zhu Qing'ai couldn't take it anymore, so she carried the First Emperor up the mountain overnight (crossed out).

Because the mountain road was narrow, it was impossible for too many horses to travel side by side; only two horses were responsible for pulling the carriage.

She waved her hand again, conjuring up an illusion, and the two horses broke free of their reins and galloped into the distant mountains and forests in full view of everyone.

Even Wang Jian, who was standing to the side intending to accompany them up the mountain, did not have time to reach out and grab the two galloping horses. Li Si and the others beside him did not react in time either. They were all marveling at the celestial miracle and made such a mistake due to their momentary oversight. They immediately apologized in fear.

The Confucian scholar, feigning deep concern for Ying Zheng, said, "Your Majesty, look, even Heaven has taken away these horses. If we insist on forcing them to ride in the carriage up the mountain, I'm afraid... we will displease Heaven!"

Li Si retorted, "Nonsense! This miracle was bestowed by Heaven. Even Heaven doesn't want Your Majesty to get your clothes wet, so how could Heaven be displeased?"

At this time, Li Si was still the number one expert at understanding the emperor's mind. He had no future ambitions and was wholeheartedly defending His Majesty. He rolled up his sleeves and was ready to debate with the group of Confucian scholars for eight hundred rounds.

It's just a debate; he can make even white things seem black.

Zhu Qing'ai was already used to it; someone so eloquent must be one of the Confucian scholars who had been debated by Zhuge Liang.

Instead of humiliating them, she deliberately waited with a twisted sense of humor for them to continue spouting nonsense. Only after most of the Confucian scholars had expressed their agreement did she play an audio recording.

The calls of deer echoing from the mountains and forests drew everyone's attention. Ying Zheng's side looked solemn, lost in thought; enough changes had already occurred today.

The horse broke free of its reins and galloped into the mountains; who knows what other unexpected events might occur?

If we wait for the attendants to come down the mountain and bring horses to pull the carriage, we might miss the time for the Fengshan ceremony.

But Ying Zheng sat in the carriage with a gloomy face, not wanting to actually get off and walk up the mountain. He came to show off the power of the Qin state, not to listen to these people lecturing him!

Zhu Qing'ai also found these scholars who acted like fathers to their children annoying. With a cold laugh, she added another layer of strange phenomena. As two white deer leaped out of the forest, birds chirped around them, creating a scene of birdsong and fragrant flowers—truly a paradise on earth.

The illusion of two white deer walked towards her under her control, and when they arrived, they stood in the place where the horses had been, with the reins tied to them as if they were sentient.

The two white deer had transparent antlers like tree branches, with some silk threads hanging from them for unknown reasons or perhaps just for decoration. They radiated a soft glow, and anyone who came would say it was an auspicious sign!

Zhao Gao, who was driving Ying Zheng's chariot, opened his eyes wide, raised his hand to rub his eyes, and then realized that the horses he was riding had turned into two divine deer.

They raised their hooves and called out, as if urging people to hurry up the mountain.

Would Zhao Gao dare to whip the divine deer? Of course not. He was at a loss and wondered if he should turn back and ask Ying Zheng himself for instructions.

The situation became deadlocked again, but Zhu Qing'ai did not give the Confucian scholar another chance to distort the truth. She directly controlled the two horses disguised as white deer to move forward.

There was no divine deer at all; it was just an illusion placed on an ordinary horse.

As the carriage began to move, Zhao Gao breathed a sigh of relief. At least he didn't have to actually ask His Majesty what to do, which would have made him seem too incompetent.

Zhu Qing'ai did not go up to perform the Fengchan ceremony with them, fearing that she might impulsively create an extremely difficult main storyline for herself.

****

After Ying Zheng led his ministers down the mountain, Zhu Qing'ai finally made the so-called divine deer stop under the big tree once again.

The two 'divine deer' broke free of their reins under her control, their movements just like horses breaking free of their reins. However, this time, even if someone reacted, they dared not reach out to stop them.

Not only did they not stop them, they even thanked them.

Even Ying Zheng was the same; it was one thing to be unwilling to compromise with Confucian scholars, but it was another to express his gratitude. He was still very polite to such a miraculous event.

Zhu Qing'ai, who had originally planned to bring back the phantoms of the two horses, changed her mind after hearing this. Since they had thanked her so much, it wouldn't be unreasonable for her to accept some reward, right?

Thus, on the day Emperor Qin Shi Huang performed the Fengshan ceremony at Mount Tai, he tragically lost two precious horses.

****

Zhu Qing'ai put the two stolen horses into her system space. She did not follow the First Emperor's entourage, but simply left a surveillance device next to the emperor and another next to Liu Bang, waiting for the two to meet before she went to check on them.

She went straight back to Wei Sheng Jiu Shi Jiu's side, feeling very gratified as she watched his figure diligently farming.

There are few modern people who have the patience to farm, and even fewer modern people who have a system and still have the patience to farm. Fortunately, her host is a system changer.

The human heart is a deep and unfathomable place; she can't grasp it.

To put it bluntly, she prefers hosts who blindly obey her, something a real human obviously cannot do.

Because the world had previously improved grain varieties from scratch, Micron 99 is now more skilled at improving grain varieties.

Thinking of this, Zhu Qing'ai spoke up like a client, saying, "Save some seeds from different time periods in the space, so that we won't have to spend so much time farming in the next world. We can just plant whatever we want and have improved grain seeds to use."

Most importantly, she doesn't need to spend points in the system shop. As long as the main system doesn't earn points from the host, then she's the one who's profiting.

Zhu Qing'ai was making her own calculations. If she hadn't been too poor in the previous world to buy a personal space with points, and if she hadn't been temporarily unable to afford the energy cost of bringing things across worlds, she wouldn't have needed the host to start planting all over again.

Fortunately, with the experience from the previous world, even starting from scratch was a breeze, and the difficulties encountered were easily resolved.

What she's struggling with now is... her goal is Empress Lü, but it's very difficult to help her ascend to the throne. At the very least, she needs to have military power in her own hands. Without troops, how can she even talk about the imperial throne?

"Ninety-nine, how about we try this time, combining the skills of civil administration to bring peace to the country and the military to stabilize the nation?"

She flipped through the list and found that this route also existed in the mission sequence, which was called "both literary and martial arts prowess"!

Having followed Meng Tian and the others for so long, even if I don't learn everything, I should be able to learn half of it.

The reason for thinking this way is quite simple: don't be afraid of having capable people above you, or generals stronger than yourself. You should believe that Liu Bang will eliminate them before he dies.

She flipped through it again, and thought that once she recovered from the initial setbacks, the current setup might not be enough to launch a full-scale attack in the future.

She made a note in her memo that she might be able to protect Han Xin if the opportunity arose.

And so time passed as Zhu Qing'ai accompanied Wei Sheng Jiu Shi Jiu to study military strategy books and farm along the way. Of course, she wasn't by her host's side every day.

She actually spent most of her time squatting beside Lü Zhi, who was only twenty-one or twenty-two years old, a beautiful and youthful age, but her life wasn't going well.

Liu Bang was indeed the current head of the Sishui Pavilion, but he idled away his days away. All the affairs of his household were managed by Lü Zhi. Lü Zhi was the one who took care of his parents, and even his illegitimate son Liu Fei was raised by Lü Zhi. He only cared about strolling around every day to catch up with his so-called 'friends'.

Recently, Liu Bang had to go to Xianyang on official business, leaving Lü Zhi alone with the whole family at home. It seems like the burden was heavy, but in fact, it was lighter. She didn't have to worry about her husband being idle and getting into trouble. How could it not be considered a reduction in burden?

Empress Lü was not worried that Liu Bang would cause trouble in Xianyang. Although her husband looked like a rogue, he actually had a sense of propriety and would not really provoke anyone he shouldn't.

Zhu Qing'ai felt a pang of heartache seeing the calluses on Lü Zhi's once delicate fingers. Liu Bang must have saved the galaxy in his past life to have such a beautiful and capable wife.

She had observed how the two interacted. Liu Bang still called Lü Zhi by her courtesy name, E'xu. Although Lü Zhi felt that life was hard, she still held a glimmer of hope for Liu Bang.

Not as distant as the latter two who loathed each other, Zhu Qing'ai sighed again, this family wouldn't fall apart without Lü Zhi.

On this day, Lü Zhi went to tend to the farmland as usual. She didn't actually manage all the fields by herself; her parents-in-law worked in the fields together. Even the illegitimate son raised at home would often come to the fields to pull weeds. The only person in the family who was idle was Liu Bang.

She carried the breakfast in her hand, intending to call her parents-in-law to eat first before working together. Liu Fei followed behind her, sucking his fingers and staring intently at the food box in Lü Zhi's hand.

Today, she only went back to cook a meal and brought Lü Zhi back when she noticed something was wrong in the fields. Standing on the ridge, she couldn't see her parents-in-law working in the fields anymore. She frowned slightly, wondering if the two elders had gone to fetch water to irrigate the fields.

She looked around searching for the two figures, and soon she was so shocked that she almost dropped the food box in her hand, and Liu Fei, who was following behind her, was also gone!

Her heart was pounding when she heard a woman's voice behind her: "Who are you looking for?"

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Author's Note: This is slightly different from the synopsis, but it's not a big deal. At this point, Lü Zhi simply thought she had encountered a spirit or monster, haha.

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I checked and compared several sources. In 219 BC, Lü Zhi was about twenty-two years old. She must have married before she was twenty. A young girl in her prime became a mother immediately after marriage (raising Liu Bang's illegitimate son, Liu Fei). How tragic.

She even raised Liu Fei well; how can that not be considered kindness?

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Raising a 22-year-old Lü Zhi doesn't count as raising a child, right? That makes sense!

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