Chapter 6: Anhe seemed to believe it.
"Does Eunuch An know? I might come from a very distant future."
"There are airplanes flying in the sky, skyscrapers dozens of stories high, and many things and ideas that are completely different from here."
Zhao Liangxu didn't care whether An He believed her or not; she was just having a good time talking about it.
An He looked at Zhao Liangxu with an indescribable emotion in his eyes, still half-believing and half-doubting about Zhao Liangxu's origins.
“I was diagnosed with a terminal illness at a young age. It was the most difficult to treat terminal illness. From diagnosis to death, it was only five months. I survived for a relatively long time. Since I started treatment, it felt like my body was being eaten away bit by bit by a ghost. Every morning I would become thinner and more painful.”
"I didn't have the strength to walk in the sun, and I couldn't eat much. Before I died, I said that I wanted to live again."
Zhao Liangxu's smile remained the same as before, radiant yet tinged with a hint of melancholy.
"Perhaps it was those thoughts that were overheard by some deity or spirit, that brought me here. My soul possessed this princess's body, a situation we call 'time travel' in our region. But unfortunately, as soon as I arrived here, this body faced a very tragic situation, being coveted by three disgusting fellows."
Zhao Liangxu's smile faded, and disgust showed in her eyes. Clearly, she loathed those three people.
"But so what? They can't stop me." They can't stop my will to live.
Anhe pondered, thinking that the matter was still somewhat bizarre. He didn't want to believe it, but he also felt that it made sense; if he believed it, he would feel like a fool.
“You said you come from the distant future. What’s in the future? You have to say something useful to prove yourself.” Anhe wanted to know more details so he could better determine whether Zhao Liangxu was making it up.
"...Ah, I can't think of anything useful right now."
Zhao Liangxu muttered a few words, pretending to think.
How could an ordinary person like her find anything strange to prove she came from the future? After thinking it over, she figured the only thing that could fool him was some chemical experiments.
But she doesn't study chemistry, and she's long forgotten the little knowledge she learned in junior high school.
"If you can't figure it out, then we can assume that everything you said before was nonsense," Anhe threatened coldly.
Zhao Liangxu lamented, "Even if I come from the future, I'm just an ordinary person among many others. Professional matters should be handled by professionals. You're a eunuch, so you must know the rules of the palace like the back of your hand, but you don't know how the Imperial Observatory operates."
Anhe's brow twitched, and the word "eunuch" slipped out of her mouth so easily, only to be drowned out by other words.
"Oh, by the way, do you know about the will-o'-the-wisps in the wasteland?"
Zhao Liangxu was much more relaxed and didn't notice An He's change. She thought of the scientific explanation for the will-o'-the-wisp, but she didn't know if An He would believe it, since she couldn't verify it herself.
"The will-o'-the-wisps in summer cemeteries are not real ghosts or spirits, but rather the result of a person's body decomposing and the decomposing substances combining with substances in the soil to form a substance that is very easy to ignite. The summer temperature is high enough for it to spontaneously combust, hence the will-o'-the-wisps."
As Zhao Liangxu recalled the limited knowledge she had, she described it to An He. After she finished speaking, she looked at An He.
Very well, Anhe's face was terribly gloomy.
"Do you think I'm stupid? These are your words, and I can't verify their truth or falsehood right now. I can only listen to what you say."
An Heqi no longer uses his catchphrase "our family".
Zhao Liangxu sighed; she was really not easy to fool.
"Hmm... shall I recite a few more poems? Please don't be angry, Eunuch An. You should be able to tell what kind of poems I am."
Zhao Liangxu recited a series of poems that came to mind, from the Book of Songs to poems from the Ming and Qing dynasties. These poems had different styles and forms, and with the ancients' expertise in poetry, they would surely be able to tell that the different verses were not written by the same person.
The premise is that Anhe is a eunuch with high literary cultivation.
An He was initially impatient; he almost wanted to have the guards drag Zhao Liangxu, who was spouting nonsense, out. But as Zhao Liangxu rattled off a string of words, his expression changed.
The poems Zhao Liangxu spoke of were indeed written by different people. These poems had different rhymes and styles, and he had never heard of them before. Some of the poems were similar in style to famous poets and lyricists of the past and present, but they were not written by them.
For example, the line "Heaven has endowed me with talents that must be put to use, and though a thousand pieces of gold are spent, they will return again" is extremely similar to the style of the famous poet Bai Muzi in history, but Anhe is certain that Bai Muzi did not write this poem.
In Anhe's opinion, these poems were by no means written by one person. Moreover, the literary style has changed in recent years, and a transformation is underway from poetry as the main form to a combination of poetry and lyrics. Lyrics, which were once considered low-class romantic works, are gradually becoming a format that literati are happy to use. Some of the lyrics that Zhao Liangxu just recited are already mature and grand, and have become a school of their own.
It's as if Zhao Liangxu predicted the future direction of the literary world.
Now, Anhe was starting to believe that Zhao Liangxu was from the future.
"Heh, you should be grateful that I have some knowledge of poetry. If I only knew some characters but didn't understand these poems, you probably wouldn't be able to go back to see your servants alive today."
Anhe gently stroked the ring on her hand, and her mood seemed to improve again.
“I believe the poems you recited prove your identity, but your emotionless memorization is an insult to these excellent works.” He was a literature enthusiast and couldn’t tolerate Zhao Liangxu’s monotonous and rigid recitation of those masterpieces.
You believe that?
Zhao Liangxu was somewhat surprised. Did Anhe really believe she came from the future just based on these poems?
"You believe me now?"
Zhao Liangxu voiced her doubts: Could a meticulous eunuch like Anhe trust others so easily?
Anhe stood up and glanced at Zhao Liangxu.
"You're dreaming. Of course, we won't completely believe you, but what you said is quite interesting. In the future, you should recall all the interesting things in your head and tell us to prove that you come from the so-called 'future.' If you can't interest us..." The threat in his words was undisguised.
Okay, I believe it, but not completely.
Perhaps they kept her around simply because what she said was funny, something to listen to for amusement.
That's fine, at least I survived.
Her presumptuous actions and words just now showed that she no longer wanted to pretend to be subservient. After all, she came from an era of equality, and she was not willing to learn to fawn over others when she first arrived in this place.
However, upon calming down and thinking about it, such things are unavoidable. After all, in this place, one wrong move could result in being beaten to death or losing one's head.
She doesn't need to adopt an overly obsequious attitude, but she certainly needs to act cautiously.
Anhe seemed happy to keep me here and listen to my stories. He was somewhat unpredictable, but not as ruthless and indiscriminate as the outside world had described. He was not incapable of communication.
However, communication is very difficult.
Anhe turned around and looked at Zhao Liangxu, who was still kneeling on the ground in a daze. She seemed to have returned to her usual indifferent expression, showing no trace of the somewhat eerie smile she had just given.
Thinking of that smile, Anhe felt a strange attraction to the gloomy smile on that beautiful face.
He suddenly thought of a question he hadn't asked earlier: if it was a possessing soul, were Zhao Liangxu's face the same as Princess Zhao's face now?
Anhe closed her eyes, trying to dispel those strange thoughts.
“Princess Zhao, what are you still sitting there for? Didn’t you say you wanted to read during the day? Our study has plenty of books, so feel free to choose.”
A note from the author:
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Everyone is familiar with this.
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