Yan Liang is very popular with animals. Before Da Xue even opened her eyes, she kept jumping onto his hand, meowing sweetly and affectionately.

His heart melted.

After finishing his studies, Yan Liang would squat in front of the cat's bed and play with the cat, meowing softly, completely devoted to the cat.

Not long after, Emperor Huizong learned that the Crown Prince had a cat. Instead of being displeased, he was pleasantly surprised and even a little smug.

Several court officials always opposed him, even when he raised birds and built mountains. Now that the Crown Prince has raised a cat, it's practically a declaration that he shares the same stance as him.

—I'll raise it then, even if you don't let me, I'll raise it anyway.

So Yan Liang met with a eunuch from the palace, who told him that Emperor Huizong wanted to see the cat he kept and asked him to take the cat with him when he went to the palace.

Yan Liang: ...This emperor is really annoying.

Annoyed as he was, Yan Liang still took his own snow to the palace.

Emperor Huizong waited for Yan Liang at the pavilion in the middle of the lake in the Imperial Garden. Upon seeing the large snow in Yan Liang's hand, he first asked his name: "What's this little fellow's name?"

Yan Liang answered truthfully: "Heavy snow."

Emperor Huizong asked in surprise, "It's so small, shouldn't it be named Xiaoxue?"

Yan Liang smiled and said, "It is precisely because it is too small that I hope it can grow up and be healthy."

Emperor Huizong nodded and said, "That's fine too."

He couldn't resist reaching out to tease the cat, and Daxue rubbed against Zhao Ji's hand, letting out a delicate meow.

Having a cat... seems like a pretty good idea?

Zhao Ji thought to himself.

"Marquis Shentong requests an audience."

The eunuch outside the pavilion shouted loudly. Zhao Ji withdrew his hand and had someone lead the Marquis of Shentong into the pavilion. At the same time, he said to Yan Liang, "The person who will be coming in a while is the Marquis of Shentong, Fang Yingkan. You have not met him yet... Stay and meet him."

Emperor Huizong (Zhao Ji) originally intended to befriend Fang Yingkan's adoptive father, Fang Juxia, but Fang Juxia delayed in responding. In the end, his adopted son accepted the title on his father's behalf. The young marquis had a handsome face, perfectly matching the aesthetic preferences of the face-obsessed Emperor Huizong, not to mention that he knew how to please him.

In his spare time, Yan Liang learned about the affairs of the martial arts world, but there were too many people and he was too lazy to remember them. He only knew that Divine Marquis Fang Yingkan was a martial arts master who had connections with both the royal family and the martial arts world.

Moreover, this person's Divine Marquis Mansion was formerly the Pang Mansion.

As a prince, Zhao Huan and the Marquis of Shentong had never met, simply because he kept his distance from matters of the martial world and always stayed in his residence, meeting only the same few people.

Yan Liang held Da Xue in his arms, watching the white figure slowly approaching. The person was carrying a wooden box, and the smile on their face had a touch of childishness, making them appear genuine and innocent.

Fang Ying bowed to the emperor, then looked at Yan Liang with a hint of doubt. Zhao Ji explained at the opportune moment, "This is my son, Zhao Huan. You should not have met him before. Today, the two of you can get to know each other."

The young marquis cupped his hands to Yan Liang and said with a smile, "So it is Your Highness the Crown Prince... I have indeed never met you before, but I have long admired your name."

His gaze shifted slightly downwards, meeting the white kitten in Yan Liang's arms, and he raised an eyebrow almost imperceptibly.

Yan Liang smiled silently, offering no response. Normally, if this person had said "I've heard so much about you" to him, Yan Liang would have given a long reply. However, Fang Yingkan was clearly there to see Zhao Ji, not to chat with him. Yan Liang understood this clearly and wisely pretended not to exist. He watched as the young marquis placed the wooden box on the table, gently opened it, revealing the various pigments inside.

"These pigments are made from minerals that I have collected from various places, and I have come to present them to Your Majesty."

Fang Yingkan's smile was childlike and innocent.

Zhao Ji was overjoyed. The paints in the wooden box were of various kinds, including those he usually used and even those he had never seen before. Ying Kan's favor towards him immediately increased, and he addressed him as "my beloved minister" repeatedly, his excitement visibly evident.

...No wonder he is called the Emperor of Art.

After being chased away by Zhao Ji, who was eager to try out the new pigments, Yan Liang walked out of the palace with only this thought in his mind.

With a smile on his face, Fang Ying walked briskly alongside Yan Liang and asked him, "I wonder what the Crown Prince's cat's name is?"

"Heavy snow."

Yan Liang answered him.

"Your Highness's cat is all white; Snow is a good name indeed."

Fang Yingkan praised him.

Yan Liang was a little confused about the purpose of the Marquis of Divine Power's words. Could it be that this person was also a cat lover?

Just as he was wondering, he heard Fang Ying say casually, "When I said that it was the first time I had met Your Highness, it was not the truth..." The young marquis paused, then looked at Yan Liang with a smile, "I had met Your Highness once a few days ago."

Yan Liang raised his eyebrows slightly. He did remember that a carriage had passed by after he left the Shentong Marquis's residence that day, and the people inside had stared at him for a while.

"So the person in the carriage is the young marquis?" he exclaimed in surprise. "It truly is a meeting of fate from afar."

Fang Yingkan smiled and said, "Your Highness and I are indeed destined to meet, but I wonder if Your Highness has something on your mind—? Why have you been standing in front of my residence for so long?"

Yan Liang was already prepared and remained calm: "I recently reread some history books and became very interested in Grand Tutor Pang and Lord Bao, so I couldn't help but go to the Kaifeng government office and the former Pang residence to take a look."

"I see."

Fang Yingkan seemed to believe Yan Liang's answer and gave an ambiguous response.

Yan Liang didn't care whether the man believed it or not. After leaving the palace, the two exchanged a perfunctory goodbye and got into their respective carriages to go home.

—It must be mentioned that Fang Yingkan's carriage was even more luxurious than his own, the crown prince's carriage.

That's incredibly extravagant; I can't compare.

After returning home, Yan Liang first put Da Xue in the cat's bed before going to class.

Before going to the palace to pay his respects to Zhao Ji, Yan Liang had already completed his studies as the Crown Prince's tutor; now only his martial arts lessons remained.

The martial arts instructors had moderate expectations for Zhao Huan, always worried that he might get hurt, but even with their leniency, Zhao Huan still performed only so-so.

But those things were easy for Yan Liang. He specially asked the martial arts instructor to add a staff fighting class after the archery class. Then he disguised his staff fighting book, pretending it was a secret manual he had found, and strongly demanded to learn the mental techniques and staff fighting methods in it.

The martial arts master was deeply moved by the sudden enthusiasm of the usually lazy prince, and after studying the staff technique book, he strongly encouraged Yan Liang to learn it, and was amazed by his rapid progress.

Despite being moved and surprised, Yan Liang continued to diligently practice his staff techniques—although the moves were already imprinted in his mind, Yan Liang still hoped to save his life, or at least not die so soon.

He forgot one thing in his previous analysis: besides the Jurchens, treacherous officials, and unreliable emperor, there was also the Jianghu (江湖, a term referring to the world of martial arts and chivalry) here.

Yan Liang felt a headache coming on just thinking about the martial arts world of this world—back in his time, the martial arts world here was much simpler! It wasn't like now, full of various factions and sects constantly clashing…

Among them, the most outstanding were probably "Six and a Half Hall" and "Golden Wind and Fine Rain Pavilion," and these two sects were actually located in Bianliang City—back then, not many sects dared to establish themselves in the capital.

Yan Liang never expected that in just under a century, the martial arts world would have developed so rapidly.

...Although he didn't stay in this world for very long, he died in less than a year.

With the thought of saving his own life in mind, Yan Liang finished practicing the staff techniques. Afterward, he took a bath to wash away the sweat, bid farewell to the still-sleeping snow, and slipped out of the manor with practiced ease, his destination very clear—

He was going to the bookstore to find books that recorded the deeds of Zhan Zhao and others.

In the past few days, whenever he had a spare moment, he would browse through books in bookstores in the capital. However, with so many bookstores and such a large number of books, it was a bit difficult for Yan Liang.

Yan Liang had already visited two bookstores, and today he was going to the third one.

Even if you can't see your friends, it's still good to visit their graves.

With this in mind, Yan Liang walked through the door of the bookstore.

For some unknown reason, Zhan Zhao resigned from his official post and went into seclusion. Bai Yutang's name appeared even less often than Zhan Zhao's. The book Yan Liang read only described them briefly. Pang Yu was mentioned briefly as the son of Grand Tutor Pang, and it seems that he eventually returned to his hometown of Chengwu in Danzhou.

Yan Liang thought that there must be someone with too much free time who would record the deeds of the martial arts world. If he searched carefully, he would surely be able to find books that recorded the whereabouts of his friends.

The system completely failed to understand the point of doing this—even if it found it, what then? He might be faced with a cold tombstone, which would only add to his sorrow.

Despite its confusion, the system didn't discourage its host; it simply stayed in a corner and watched him flip through the book.

As dusk settled, Yan Liang closed the book, rubbed his temples, and sadly put the book back down.

Although the books he found recorded anecdotes about the martial arts world, most of them only recorded events from recent years, without mentioning anything about the past, or only briefly mentioning them.

Yan Liang paid for the two books he found, stuffed them into his pocket, and then strolled leisurely through the streets without rushing back to his residence.

It was early spring. He walked along the street for a while. A light rain was falling, and a gentle breeze carrying moisture and the fragrance of flowers wafted towards him, lingering with an indescribable coolness.

Yan Liang looked up at the sky, where dark clouds covered the sky and occasional raindrops fell on his face. He did a quick calculation with his fingers and then took off running.

He hadn't run more than a few steps when he heard a thud above his head, followed by the sound of pouring rain.

Yan Liang hurriedly covered his head with one hand and protected the badly damaged book with the other, but he was too slow to react and his back was already soaked when he reached the eaves in the distance.

It was a sunny day when he went out, but the weather changed after he spent the afternoon in the bookstore.

Now Yan Liang stood soaking wet under the eaves, looking utterly disheveled. After wringing out his wetness, he lazily leaned against a pillar behind him and surveyed his surroundings.

Yan Liang wasn't the only one seeking shelter from the rain under the eaves; every rooftop along the street was filled with people trying to escape the downpour. The flickering lights seemed almost ethereal against the backdrop of the rain.

After looking at the people, he gazed at the white curtain of rain, knowing that the rain would stop soon, and began to stare blankly at the white curtain.

A figure came running through the rain. The eaves of the houses along the way were full of people. When he saw an empty space next to Yan Liang, he ran to Yan Liang's side, leaving behind a spray of water.

Yan Liang looked at him lazily.

After supporting his back for a while, the other person stood up and gave Yan Liang a relaxed but slightly embarrassed smile.

When Yan Liang saw his face clearly, he paused for a moment and returned a smile.

The boy's appearance reminded him of someone.