Chapter 546: Meeting in the City for the Second Time, Bringing the Empress Home (5k)
After sending the female assassin away, Zhao Duan also withdrew. When he returned to Taicang City, it was already dawn. Song Jinxi and his group returned to the city even earlier.
When the sun rose above the horizon in the east, the Beijing army retreated in an orderly manner.
Zhao Duan met with Sun Xiaozhun, Yuan Feng and others in the government office. The night battle was originally a feint, and there was no expectation of much success.
Sun and Yuan were delighted to see that Zhao Duan had returned safely and rescued a group of officials. They were also delighted when they learned that a group of military supervisors had been killed.
"The governor has great skills. He has only been hiding in the area for a few days and yet he has accomplished such a big thing. It's really giving Zhao Shixiong a headache." Sun Xiaozhun praised with a smile.
Yuan Feng also said seriously: "The main battlefield is now on the eastern front, presided over by Privy Councilor Xue. We are constantly harassing here to tie up the Yunfu army's energy, which will also help the battle situation."
The two of them didn't know that Zhao Duan's real purpose of lurking this time was to implement the first step of the "divide and conquer" plan.
It was even more impossible for Zhao Duan to tell this to outsiders.
Therefore, he just smiled and commended the soldiers for their hard work, and ordered them to defend Linfeng to prevent Zhao Shixiong's surprise attack.
After that, he had a simple meal and went back to his room before falling headfirst onto the bed, feeling sleepiness and fatigue surging like a tide.
About two hours later, Zhao Duan woke up, glanced at the sky, and busily contemplated his breathing.
…
…
In the capital, inside the imperial palace.
"I'm becoming more and more proficient." Zhao Duan walked out of the mural again, looking light-hearted and in a very happy mood.
Despite some setbacks, the Yongjia group had achieved their goal and was one step closer to the goal of "recovering the Huai River within three months."
"It's time to report. Zhenbao must be getting anxious after so long without any news."
As he pondered, he looked up and was about to float outside. At this moment, the sky was already bright, and a thin light came in from the doors and windows.
Inside the closed door, there was a note:
"Just go out this door and wait, I will come right after you."
The handwriting is not as graceful as that of an ordinary woman, but it is full of grandeur.
Zhao Duan was stunned. Was this a note from Zhenbao? He tried to pass through the door, and then the pleasant sound of wind chimes came from above his head.
Looking up, I saw a red wind chime under the eaves of the four-story pavilion.
At this moment, it seemed to be affected by the "soul body" and moved without wind.
Zhao Duan waited curiously for a while.
It was morning, the sun was shining brightly, and the autumn air was crisp. Soon, a golden light was seen crossing the palace wall from the direction of the Yangxin Palace.
The golden light dissipated, and a white dress slowly emerged.
"I have fulfilled my mission and successfully brought the imprisoned officials back safely." Zhao Duan reported respectfully.
Know what the empress wants to hear.
Xu Zhenguan stood firmly on the fourth floor of the pavilion, but did not pay attention to what he said. Instead, he looked up and down, confirming that Zhao Duan was in good spirits and calm, and then a look of relief appeared on his face.
A hint of joy flashed through the corners of his slightly tired eyes, and he asked again as if to confirm:
"Did you return safely?"
I don't really care whether the mission is successful or not.
Zhao Duan smiled and nodded, and briefly recounted his experience after returning home last night. Since nothing happened, he finished the story quickly.
Upon learning that Zhao Duan had successfully returned to Taicang City, the lurking operation had come to an end. The Empress finally felt relieved and nodded, saying:
"That's good."
Zhao Duan pointed curiously at the red wind chime above his head: "What is this?"
Xu Zhenguan said "Oh" and said casually:
“I found a small magical instrument from the imperial palace arsenal. There are two of them. They will shake when they sense the approach of a spirit.
I'll put the other one in the study so that when you come back, I can quickly find it. This will also help avoid delays when there's an emergency."
What she didn't say was that she waited here until almost dawn last night.
Because he had to go to court, he had to leave. Fortunately, Eunuch Hai rummaged through the boxes and found the thing.
Oh my goodness… Is this a doorbell? Or an alarm? I'll definitely be caught if I sneak back next time, right? Zhao Duan complained in his heart, how could the Dayu Dynasty be both backward and advanced?
Xu Zhenguan calmed down and asked, "What are you going to do next?"
She did not forget that the small imperial guards had revealed in the conversation last night that Yongjia's lurking was only the first step in the plan to sow discord.
Zhao Duan thought for a moment and said:
"Your Majesty, I have already made an idea for the follow-up plan, and I will begin making arrangements in the next few days. However, this time, I will leave it to my subordinates to handle. I will stay in Taicang City for a long time and will not travel around anymore."
The reason for making this decision was not because of the shadow left by Zhao Shixiong who almost killed him.
But any strategy can only be used once and not twice. It would be too difficult for Zhao Duan to sneak into the rebel's lair again in a short period of time.
There would be too many eyes on him.
However, although he could not move around, it did not mean that he could not influence the situation in the State of Yu.
The plan of sowing discord had already been launched, and the intelligence carried by Nie Yurong was the first bullet he fired at Xu Jingtang.
If you want to achieve great things, haste makes waste. He needs to let the bullets fly for a while.
"That's great!" Xu Zhenguan exhaled happily and smiled:
"In that case, you should be able to return to the capital frequently in the coming days, or even reside permanently in the capital as a spirit."
No, why are you so happy... After all, in my soul form, I can't even make you drool... Zhao Duan looked at her warily:
"Your Majesty has any instructions?"
Xu Zhenguan suddenly looked at him deeply and said:
"There is one thing indeed. I have been trying repeatedly to enter the Human World these days, but I have found that I can no longer meet the guide 'Zhang Hui'...
After much thought, I believe my last judgment might have been wrong. The real cause of change in the world may not be the calamity, but... you."
Buzz——
At this moment, Zhao Duan, who was caught off guard, felt his head buzzing and became numb for a short time. Although he had no body, he felt as if there was a thorn in his back!
Oops!
Was he discovered? Did Zhenbao finally realize something was wrong? Did he guess the relationship between me and Zhang Hui?
Zhao Duan was a little panicked. As a Taoist partner with whom he had physical contact, it was not that he did not trust the empress, but the matter of "travel through time" had always been his biggest secret.
And the more he practiced, the more he realized that his time travel was inextricably linked to Old Xu from six hundred years ago.
Zhao Duan still couldn't figure out how to explain it to the empress.
"Your Majesty...I..." Zhao Duan felt as if a huge rock was pressing on his chest, making it difficult for him to breathe.
Xu Zhenguan said:
“So, I have a new guess. Perhaps, only if you and I contemplate at the same time can some inexplicable changes occur in the Human World.
Even if you can only exist there for a moment, you will pass through the stone wall and come to the palace, or return to Linfeng. But as long as you seize that moment, perhaps I can meet that guide again.
"...Ah?" Zhao Duan was confused.
"Your Majesty means that I..."
"You have nothing to do next, so let's do an experiment." Xu Zhenguan said enthusiastically, "When you return, I will try visualization at the same time to see if it works."
"……oh oh."
Zhao Duan looked at the empress's expectant eyes and suddenly realized that he was nervous for nothing.
She didn't guess it at all, but she misjudged it...
But think about it, the setting of the time traveler is too outrageous. From the perspective of the empress, it is really outrageous to guess that he and Zhang Hui are the same person... On the contrary, the current speculation seems more reasonable.
So, do you want to cooperate with her next?
Don't go in and meet her?
Well, this can certainly eliminate my relationship with the "chapter", but what then?
Zhao Duan also wanted to explore the human world, which meant that it was inevitable that the two of them would visualize at the same time.
Rather than being discovered later, he was meditating every time a chapter appeared.
It would be better to follow the Empress's wrong guess, which would make things more logical...
However, Zhao Duan highly suspected that if he continued like this, his identity would be exposed sooner or later, but... at least he had to hold on for now.
The king and his minister agreed to start the experiment immediately.
Xu Zhenguan obviously took this matter very seriously. He immediately pushed the door open and entered the room. He sat cross-legged in front of the mural and looked at his lackeys:
"Let's get started."
After saying this, the female emperor with a fairy-like face closed her eyes and meditated silently.
Zhao Duan took a deep breath and stepped into the mural.
…
…
0:00 minutes.
Midnight.
The bustling metropolis ushered in a new day.
In the office, Zhao Duan woke up again, squinted his eyes, and adjusted to the light of the incandescent lamp.
A computer with a flashing screensaver, colorful sticky notes on the edge of the monitor, a stack of blue folders on the table... Under the night sky, the dark curtains hanging from the glass windows were blown up by the cool night breeze, and the lights of cars outside flashed by.
"I'm back again. I don't know how long I can stay here this time."
Zhao Duan stood up, stretched, and washed his face first, wetting his face with cold water.
Looking at the unfamiliar face in the mirror, he forced an exaggerated smile and muttered to himself:
"The plan to deceive the Empress continues..."
Zhenbao wants to explore the secret of this scroll and find the revelation left by Emperor Taizu.
Didn’t Zhao Duan want to do that too?
During this period, he followed Pei Niannu in the "Big Dream Scroll" time and time again, but he still couldn't find many clues related to Lao Xu.
Now I place more hope on the urban world in this painting.
Without wasting any time, Zhao Duan immediately went downstairs and headed straight to the barbecue restaurant where they met last time.
When he arrived, he was surprised to find that the empress, wearing a shirt, trousers and women's sandals, was standing obediently and anxiously at the door of the barbecue restaurant.
Keep looking around.
Suddenly, the empress looked over, across the green belt, and saw Zhang Hui getting off the online taxi.
Her eyes suddenly lit up and she came running over almost at a jog.
Zhao Duan simply didn't move. He put his hands in his pockets and waited for the empress to come over with a smile. When the two of them got closer, his expression suddenly became strange.
All I could hear was the Empress muttering softly, "It really works. I should have brought him here a few days ago..."
Under the cover of night, two young men and women stood face to face beside a green belt on the road.
No one said anything for a moment.
Xu Zhenguan was a little unsure whether this NPC had any memory of their last meeting and whether he had to "trigger" the task again.
Fortunately, after a brief silence, Zhao Duan smiled and spoke first:
"Ms. Xu is quite punctual. Last time she said she had to leave suddenly for something, and we agreed to meet again today. I am late."
Phew... Fortunately, it turns out that they are just people in the painting, not real living people. It seems that my departure will not seem abrupt in the eyes of the people in this world. Everything will have a reasonable explanation...
Xu Zhenguan breathed a sigh of relief silently, feeling quite satisfied with this.
The look he gave Zhang Hui became more majestic and arrogant——
After all, I am just a person in the painting, no different from the people in the previous paintings. In this painting, I am the "master".
The Empress relaxed instantly. After entering this strange world, she had always felt a slight sense of crisis. It was a subconscious alertness to the unfamiliar environment.
However, as she entered more and more often, her mentality as a female emperor gradually returned.
"Yes," the empress raised her snow-white chin arrogantly and coldly, and said lightly like a peacock:
"It's good that you know. My time is precious, don't waste it. You should take me to see what my father left behind."
Last time, Zhao Duan pretended to be a guide and made up a story that he and Emperor Taizu Lao Xu were close friends regardless of age difference. Lao Xu left some things for his "daughter" who came back from abroad, and he was responsible for delivering them.
But last time, the two of them walked on the street for a while, and the empress was forced to end her visualization.
This time the story continues...
"Okay, but walking is too slow. Wait a moment, I'll call a taxi."
Zhao Duan smiled, took out his mobile phone, lowered his head to open the taxi-hailing app, and sent another order.
During these days, he also thought about how to explore "The World".
And I have some ideas.
Although the story of friendship with Old Xu, regardless of age difference, was made up, it is obvious that the fact that this urban world could be drawn meant that Emperor Taizu of Dayu must have entered here in the past.
Then, maybe there are some secrets related to it left in this city.
How to find it? In the absence of a "guide", there are only two breakthroughs.
One breakthrough point is Xu Zhenguan...but the empress has tried various things and has not achieved anything.
Therefore, the only remaining breakthrough point is...
Own.
So, Zhao Duan began to think, what if Old Xu knew of his existence six hundred years ago... and before that, the painting "The World" did not look like a modern city.
So... is there a possibility that the scroll in front of me is not prepared for Xu Zhenguan, but... prepared for myself?
Just like "Dragon Soul"?
If this line of thought works, then the place where clues are most likely to be left will be obvious.
As soon as the order was sent, it was snapped up in seconds.
Then……
The king and his minister, standing by the green belt, saw the car Zhao Duan had just gotten out of silently back up from a few hundred meters away...
"Get in the car." The driver said cheerfully:
"Dude, you're quite particular. Why don't you just place an order and set a destination so I can stop by the roadside to pick up your girlfriend..."
Great idea, I'll do that next time!
Zhao Duan listened to the advice humbly, opened the car door, and got into the back seat first.
The empress frowned and got into the back seat of the car. She then stared at the "coachman" with a bad look and said coldly:
"Girlfriend...what does that mean?"
Driver: “…Huh?”
Zhao Duan smiled and waved his hand, indicating that there was no need to answer, and said to the empress:
"It's just a female friend."
The empress glanced at him, nodded doubtfully, and then stopped talking.
But as the car began to speed on the road, the empress's eyes gradually became lively, and she looked at every detail inside the car curiously.
Feeling the material of the seat, looking at the steering wheel held by the driver, and the colorful dashboard in the dark, my eyes were especially focused on the large screen of the car computer and the mobile phone fixed next to the car computer. I kept staring at the two screens.
Seems to be trying hard to see something.
Although she had been here several times, this was her first time riding in a car. With her intelligence, she easily understood that this was the "carriage" of this world.
He couldn't help but secretly compare it with his own royal carriage.
Although I don't want to admit it, its speed and stability are far superior to the royal carriage.
Moreover, this chapter seems to be quite powerful in this world, otherwise he would not be able to afford a coachman and such a carriage.
Well, she didn't know that Zhao Duan had even opened a money-saving card for this order...
There were countless doubts in her mind, but the empress kept a straight face and did not ask. Even when facing a mere person in a painting, she did not want to lose face and tried hard to maintain the dignity of an emperor.
Soon, the car stopped outside a slightly remote residential area. Zhao Duan opened the door and got out first, followed closely by the empress.
"Bang."
After closing the car door, the online taxi drove away.
The Empress frowned and commented arrogantly:
"You, the driver, are too rude and ignorant of etiquette."
"..." Zhao Duan smiled:
"Here, everyone is equal, and there's no hierarchy. Miss Enxu has lived abroad for a long time, so perhaps she's having trouble adapting."
The empress frowned and said disdainfully:
"Well, customs vary from place to place. Your carriage, while acceptable, is a bit too cramped and small. My carriage... is much larger."
Zhao Duan smiled bitterly and said, "If I had money, I'd also like to buy something bigger. However, my job... even if I have money, it's not easy to buy something too good."
The empress looked at him doubtfully: "Aren't you an official?"
Zhao Duan took out his key, swiped the door to open the community gate, led the way in, and said with a calm smile:
"What kind of official? In ancient times, at most he would be a clerk beside a prefect."
The Empress glanced at him in surprise, but said nothing. She turned her gaze towards the buildings in the complex.
"Where are you taking...me?"
She knew that few people in this world had their own houses, and most of them lived in upstairs rooms like inns. She had once sneaked into a residential complex, but had never entered anyone else's home.
"My home." Zhao Duan said calmly.
He felt the empress's eyes beside him suddenly become dangerous and cold, as if she was going to kill him at any time.
He added calmly, "The things Uncle Xu left behind are in my house."
The murderous look in the empress's eyes faded slightly, and she closed her mouth and said no more.
After the two of them entered the apartment door and got into the elevator, as the number keys lit up one by one, the Empress felt the slight sense of weightlessness in surprise, and suddenly said:
"You can afford to live in such a brand new house. It seems that your salary... well, it's not bad either."
She was trying to adapt to the discourse habits of this world, but her speech was obviously half-baked.
Zhao Duan smiled and said with a complicated expression:
"It's OK, mainly because the provident fund can cover the mortgage. But it's already difficult to come up with a down payment, so I can only buy a new house. After all... the newer the house, the more remote the location."
My family is from the countryside, and we can scrape together some money, plus what I've saved from working over the years, it's barely enough. But...it's really not bad. People like me are the envy of many people."
Well, except for sudden death...
Housing fund? Down payment?
The empress was puzzled when she heard these unfamiliar words, but in order to maintain the emperor's dignity, she forced herself not to ask.
However, as the elevator door opened with a "ding!", the empress looked through the window and found that she had actually arrived at a height of more than ten floors. Her face, which pretended to be "worldly-wise", finally changed.
She suddenly came to her senses and stared in surprise at the slowly closing "iron cage" called the elevator, wondering:
"How could this thing lift a person to such a height so easily?"
"Ms. Xu, this way." Zhao Duan stood in front of the security door, took out the key, and asked her to come over from the stairwell.
The empress put on a stern face again and walked over silently, looking curiously at the open security door.
I wondered to myself, is this the home of the person in the painting?
The room was pitch black.
Zhao Duan opened the door and fumbled to turn on the light in the entrance hall.
With a "click", in the empress's surprised eyes, the lights came on, and a white cat in the living room meowed and ran out.
(End of this chapter)
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