The carriage was very large, about the same size as Lin Youchu's house.
Even with Li Chang'an and Su Xiao walking in, it didn't feel crowded.
Inside sat a man, pale-faced and beardless, with his eyes closed in the carriage.
Wang Zhongxian was not surprised to see Zhang Jiadi get out of the car.
This imperial envoy is good in every way, except that he loves making friends too much.
He had done this countless times along the way, and he was used to it by now.
He opened his eyes and glanced at someone who came in.
Upon seeing Li Chang'an for the first time, he, who was somewhat of a germaphobe, felt completely at ease.
What a clean man! Unlike the scholars and wandering knights of the past, who were all dirty and whose eyes were full of greed and desire.
This man was not only neatly dressed, but also exuded an otherworldly aura.
A pair of eyes held only curiosity, and a tranquility like a still spring.
What a celestial being banished to the mortal realm!
Wang Zhongxian looked at Li Chang'an with a smile, nodded slightly, and moved his body further inside to let him in.
Zhang Jiadi looked as if he had seen a ghost when he saw Wang Zhongxian's attitude.
Why is Eunuch Wang, who is always complaining about this or that, suddenly being so polite today?
Zhang Jiadi smiled awkwardly and introduced to Li Chang'an, "This is Eunuch Wang, the Director of the Eastern Depot."
He was unwilling to elaborate further, because no scholar in the world was willing to have any contact with the Eastern Depot.
Li Chang'an didn't mind at all; instead, he greeted Wang Zhongxian.
He looked at Eunuch Wang with great curiosity; this was the first time he had ever seen a living eunuch.
I don't know if the Fertility Pill is effective against the Tai-style supervision.
The "breeding pill" is an item in the game, specifically designed for cows and horses, and its function is to stimulate reproduction.
A set of fertility pills contains two pills, one for the male and one for the female. After taking them, the person will immediately go into heat and then conceive in one go.
As for whether the person can be used, Li Chang'an felt that it should be about right.
"Shengzaiwan" (生崽丸) – cows can eat it, horses can eat it, and both cows and horses can definitely eat it.
Li Chang'an, imitating Eunuch Wang, knelt on a low stool. Seeing the carriage start to move, he thought for a moment and took out a fan from his pocket.
"Brother Yujie, it's our first meeting. I would be grateful if you could give my master and me a ride. This is just a small gift, nothing more."
Li Chang'an felt that since he had taken someone's car, he should pay some fare.
So he took a paper fan out of his backpack and handed it over.
The fan isn't very good; it's white plastic with a layer of silk cloth over it, and a tassel hangs from the bottom. It costs at most five yuan on Pinduoduo.
But in Zhang Jiadi's eyes, this was an extremely fine and valuable fan.
The white fan ribs resembled jade but were not; they felt icy cold to the touch. The fan surface was made of the finest fabric, and a crystal hung from the tassel at the bottom of the fan.
This fan would cost at least a hundred taels of silver in the capital.
Zhang Jiadi felt it was too expensive and declined.
But Li Chang'an still stuffed it into his hand, as if to say, "If you don't accept it, I'll get off the bus," which left him no choice but to accept it.
He opened the fan, and a poem about limestone was written on the fan surface. Zhang Jiadi read it aloud softly.
"Carved and hammered from the deep mountains, it emerges from the earth."
They treat the raging fire as nothing.
I fear not being ground to dust or shattered to pieces.
"One should leave behind a legacy of integrity."
"Excellent, excellent, excellent poem, excellent poem indeed!" Zhang Jiadi couldn't help but exclaim, startling even Eunuch Wang, who looked over in surprise.
"What a wonderful line, 'I'm not afraid of being ground to dust, I just want to leave my integrity in the world.'" The more Zhang Jiadi read it, the more he felt that it described him perfectly.
Ten years of hard study are nothing more than carving out a piece of the deep mountains.
I fear not being ground to dust, but only wish to leave behind a pure reputation in the world.
Isn't this my ambition?
"Brother Haoran, who wrote this poem? It perfectly captures my heart," Zhang Jiadi asked, clearly delighted with the gift.
Li Chang'an was surprised that Zhang Jiadi did not recognize Yu Qian's poem "Ode to Limestone".
Isn't this the Ming Dynasty?
Wasn't it the Little Ice Age?
Logically, it should be the end of the Ming Dynasty, so why hasn't Yu Taibao appeared yet?
I can't exactly go smoking, drinking, or getting my hair permed.
Li Chang'an didn't dare to claim the poem as his own, and said, "This was written by my elder. I thought it sounded nice, so I wrote it on the fan. I'm glad Brother Yujie likes it."
"I love it so much." Zhang Jiadi liked it more and more as he looked at it, and carefully put it away in his arms.
Seeing how generous Li Chang'an was, Zhang Jiadi's page took out some fruits and placed them on the low table, gesturing for Li Chang'an to eat.
Those poor scholars, who never received gifts when they boarded the train, always ate and drank for free. They talked about being common people, but their hearts were full of greed.
There are also quite a few wandering knights who need to borrow some travel expenses when they leave, which is really annoying to see.
"I just heard Brother Haoran say that he is cultivating in the mountains. I wonder what year and month it is, and what dynasty it is. May I ask Brother Haoran how many years he has been cultivating in the mountains?"
Li Chang'an took an orange, peeled it for Su Xiao, and even peeled off the white pith on the orange.
Seeing this, Zhang Jiadi felt even more convinced that Brother Haoran must be from a noble family, otherwise he wouldn't have such a bad habit.
Eating oranges without eating the white pith—such refined habits are something that people from humble backgrounds can't possibly cultivate.
Li Chang'an swallowed the orange in his mouth before replying, "I don't know. I've been cultivating in the mountains with my master since I was a child. I was only driven out of the mountains by my master a few days ago and came to this world. Apart from some knowledge, I don't know anything else."
I hope Brother Yujie can help me figure out what year and month this is.
Upon hearing this, Eunuch Wang looked at Li Chang'an with surprise.
The fan he gave away wasn't cheap, and there were also his speaking habits, his clothes, and his fair skin.
Any one of these points could prove that he came from an extraordinary background, yet he insisted that he did not know the dynasty.
Could it be that we've really encountered a reclusive master?
Zhang Jiadi thought for a moment, observing his expression as he spoke: "It is now the twelfth year of Jianyuan, and our dynasty is called Ming."
The preceding dynasty was Tang, and before that came Sui, Jin, Wei, Han, and Qin.
At the end of the Tang Dynasty, the Hu people entered the pass, and from then on, the fortunes of us Han people were interrupted.
For four hundred years, we Han people were massacred.
In the past four hundred years, the cultural heritage of the Han people has been destroyed, and their backbone has also been destroyed.
Our beautiful land has been ravaged by war, with fighting taking place every day.
Han people fight with non-Han people, Han people fight with Han people, and Han people fight with Tartars.
Until fifty years ago, when our dynasty's founding emperor, Zhou Taizu, emerged out of nowhere and led the Han people to drive the Hu and Tartars back to the northern grasslands, we Han people were able to stand on the Central Plains again.
It's a pity that he died of illness on the battlefield before he could reclaim the last few territories in the north.
The twelfth year of the Jianyuan era? Was the Ming Dynasty's founding emperor surnamed Zhou?
This isn't the Ming Dynasty I remember!
Li Chang'an remained outwardly calm, but inwardly he was in turmoil.
That's it, all that history I learned was for nothing.
This is definitely not the original world; it seems I need to get more information out of them.
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