Chapter 583: Losing the Vest (Part 2)
"What's wrong? Is there a problem?" Xu Zhenguan stood under the street light, slightly tilted his head, and looked at him with pretended confusion.
Zhao Duan was silent.
I have to admit that my heart skipped a beat just now, and I almost thought Zhenbao knew something, but now looking at the beautiful urban woman with black hair under the night street lights, he pretended to be calm and asked:
"Why? Why did you specifically ask for this?"
Xu Zhenguan smiled slightly, raised his hand and gently brushed his hair, and said naturally:
"Because someone gave me a song called "Shui Tiao Ge Tou" for the Mid-Autumn Festival. Well, I want to use this tune to write a poem for the Mid-Autumn Festival. Is that okay?"
So that's how it is... Zhao Duan first breathed a sigh of relief, thinking he understood the reason behind Zhenbao's request.
Immediately, I felt a sharp pain in my balls, and I wanted to slap myself twice:
Damn it, why are you pretending to be fine? Isn't this just digging a hole for yourself?
Fortunately, it is not impossible to remedy the situation. There are many poems in the tune of Shui Tiao Ge Tou in history, and it is not difficult to find one to get by. Just when this thought arose, he heard the empress's subsequent additional request.
Water Melody Song Head, and it has to be a Mid-Autumn Festival poem... This is a bit too targeted...
Zhao Duan has a toothache again.
Well, there must have been poets in history who used this tune during the Mid-Autumn Festival... right? Zhao Duan was a little unsure.
Logically, it must exist, but he is not a major in this field, so how would he know?
Moreover, if he did a random search, the most famous poem would definitely come up first. He wasn't sure how many characters Zhen Bao knew from this world, so the risk was too great...
After pondering for a moment, he shook his head seriously and said:
"Unfortunately, I don't recall any work that meets the requirements. Well, the tune you mentioned is unpopular. Yes, unpopular."
The unpopular poet Su Dongpo...
Xu Zhenguan watched him talk nonsense quietly, his eyes subtle and he showed an expression of regret and disappointment.
So, women are born actors. For example, sometimes, for the sake of their partner's self-esteem, they will cooperate and yell a few times...
Yin Susu once said that beautiful women are the most deceptive.
At this moment, Xu Zhenguan's expression perfectly demonstrated this point. If she hadn't been worried about going too far, the empress would have almost acted pitiful...
"I see..."
Just when Zhao Duan had just breathed a sigh of relief, Xu Zhenguan raised his head again and cast an expectant gaze: "Do you have a farewell poem? I have a friend named Dong Da..."
"..." Zhao Duan exclaimed in his heart, "Oh my god, there's no way I can get over this mess, right?
He naturally thought that it was the poem "Farewell Dong Da" that he copied that attracted the empress's interest.
So he frowned and shook his head:
"There are a lot of farewell poems. Miss Xu wants to see them. I can help you find a few, but there are no poems by Dong Da or others."
The Empress once again showed disappointment, and then seemed to lose interest after being rejected twice, and sighed:
"Forget it. Well, do you have any Confucian works here?"
She briefly described the content of Xinxue.
Zhao Duan was sweating profusely and shook his head seriously, indicating that this was beyond the scope of the syllabus and he did not understand it.
The empress tied up her hair again and said softly:
"What about Buddhist scriptures? I see there are temples here..."
Zhao Duan shook his head again. He had copied this as well... Zhao had shamelessly quoted famous lines from the Diamond Sutra, including the Taoist Tao Te Ching. A quick check revealed his true identity.
The empress was a little unhappy after being rejected several times in a row. She frowned and said unhappily:
"You don't have this, you don't have that, what else do you have?"
I am here... Zhao Duan showed a simple smile:
"Well... If Miss Xu is interested in something else, then that's fine..."
The Empress hugged her shoulders, looking at him with an angry look on her face, and said calmly:
"I wanted to see the history of firearms development here, but you said you couldn't see it?"
She had raised this question last time, but was ruthlessly rejected by Zhao Duan.
Seeing Zhao Duan remained silent, Xu Zhenguan sneered and sighed:
"Never mind. I won't make things difficult for you. The last time I watched your 'drama', there was a dynasty. There should be records about the dynasty's legal reforms, right? How to rectify the administration? How to boost the economy? The gold and silver standard? Market trade..."
What she said were all the terms that Zhao Duan proposed when he opened a small class in Xiuwen Hall.
“…”
Zhao Duan felt something was wrong. Although when he thought about it carefully, the things Zhenbao wanted were all very "reasonable". As an emperor, it was understandable that he cared about these things.
But...isn't this a bit too targeted?
Every one of them hit Zhao Duan's lungs directly, and every one of them hit the weak spot of his bad reputation as a plagiarist.
Seeing him silent, Xu Zhenguan glanced at him: "Why? You don't have this either?"
"That's possible." Zhao Duan felt that this was not a big problem, because history always repeats itself, and similar policies can be considered coincidences, and will never be as shocking as poetry.
"However, professional books need to be checked in the library, but it is closed at this time," Zhao Duan explained.
Of course, you can also use the Internet... Well, although this world in the painting is full of bugs, some functions on the Internet can be used, while others cannot. I don't know if I can check it...
Seeing that the empress was showing signs of getting angry, Zhao Duan felt that he could no longer remain passive.
He suddenly had an idea and pointed to a coffee shop not far away that was still open late at night and said:
"It's not convenient to talk while standing. Could you please have a cup of coffee?"
Xu Zhenguan did not comment. Seeing him walk away quickly, he had no choice but to follow with a complicated look.
Order, scan the code, pay...
Done in one go.
When the two came out again, they each had a paper cup in their hands.
Zhao Duan took out a thin tube, poked it open, took a sip, and his brows relaxed... Before the time travel, he would get off work late at night, and sometimes when he felt sleepy, he would order a cup, and enjoy the taste he had not had for a long time.
Xu Zhenguan imitated his movements, biting the thin tube into his mouth and sucking gently. Then he frowned, spitted it out in disgust, and said coldly: "It's bitter."
It's actually kind of cute.
Zhao Duan smiled, regaining some of the initiative. He explained with a smile: "Only those who endure the most hardships can become the best."
Xu Zhenguan sneered: "How can suffering make one a superior person?"
Zhao Duan was left silent by her.
The two of them, each holding a cup of coffee, walked along the street lined with bright billboards. Zhao Duan suddenly said:
"Why is Miss Xu so obsessed with poetry?"
He felt that Zhenbao was not quite right tonight and decided to test it out.
Xu Zhenguan spit out the straw and looked at the light pollution in the sky above the city. She could not see the stars or the moon. She said softly:
"My...fiancé wrote a poem. It's very good."
"Oh? Would you like to know more?"
"When will the bright moon appear..." The empress recited the Mid-Autumn Festival poem and then asked, "What do you think?"
Zhao Duan was full of admiration:
"Although I'm not very proficient in classical poetry, I can tell that this poem is excellent. It's a pity that classical poetry is declining these days, otherwise this one poem alone would be enough to make it famous. I didn't expect Miss Xu's fiancé to be such a talented scholar. With such a deep knowledge of classical Chinese, he must be an outstanding person, right?"
Xu Zhenguan looked at the "Chapter" exaggeratingly with a sidelong glance, feeling very surprised. He nodded and said meaningfully:
"He's indeed an outstanding person, and very famous. His name is Zhao Duan, have you heard of him?"
Zhao Duan shook his head and said, "Not really."
Xu Zhen nodded, took another sip of coffee, and suddenly said:
"Have you heard of Su Shi? What about Gao Shi?"
"Of course, this is as well-known as thunder and lightning..." Zhao Duan nodded subconsciously, and suddenly stopped talking halfway. He also stopped abruptly and looked at Zhenbao in surprise and doubt.
The empress also stopped. The night wind ruffled her hair and the collar of her shirt, revealing her delicate collarbone. Half of her face seemed to be covered with a faint shadow in the light of the street lamp.
Xu Zhenguan turned back, her dark eyes meeting Zhao Duan's. She finally stopped pretending to be innocent and revealed a meaningful look:
"I asked someone to look up Su Shi's Water Melody. They said it was from the Song Dynasty, many years ago... What a coincidence... Don't you think so? Zhao... Qing...?"
Zhao Qing... ?
Her voice was very soft.
To Zhao Duan's ears, it was like a thunderclap, instantly shattering his brain into countless turbulent and messy thoughts.
She...knows...
When did she know?
Who found this poem for her?
Zhao Duan stood there in a daze, feeling a numbness rushing from the soles of his feet to his scalp.
His scalp tingled, but he still tried to remain calm, trying to look dazed.
"Miss Xu, what did you say? I don't quite understand..."
The talent of pretending to be stupid is activated.
Xu Zhenguan smiled, she really smiled, her smile was somewhat gentle, but also had an inexplicable coldness to it:
"Mr. Zhao, do you want me to explain it more clearly? Those poems, firearms, government orders, Wang Yangming...
I only figured it out not long ago. No wonder the 'chapter replay' only appeared when you and I entered the human world at the same time. Last time, I stopped hiding it and revealed that I was not from this world, and you were not surprised at all..."
Zhao Duan's heart sank little by little, and he was finally sure that the empress was not deceiving him.
The two stood quietly facing each other, the street lights casting long shadows on the ground. In the distance, online taxis were speeding on the road, and farther away, office buildings and bars were still brightly lit in the night.
There was a long silence.
Zhao Duan squeezed the coffee cup in his hand hard, and then he let go, letting half a cup of coffee fall to the ground.
Then, Zhang Hui calmly met the bright eyes of the Great Yu Empress, smiled slightly, opened his arms, and said:
"Since Your Majesty has already seen through it, there is no point in me pretending any longer."
"so……"
"I'm going to stop pretending. I'm going to reveal my cards."
"Your Majesty, welcome to my world."
…
…
Welcome to my world...
Xu Zhenguan listened to these words and looked at the urban youth standing opposite him with his arms open. A familiar expression and temperament appeared on the somewhat unfamiliar face.
She bit her red lips, and her slender fingers also clenched the coffee cup, letting the warm liquid inside spill out and soak her white fingers.
In fact, even when she entered the world this time, she was not completely sure.
That's why she chatted with Zhang Hui for a long time and made many attempts. It was through these targeted attempts that she gradually confirmed Zhang Hui's identity.
It was not until this moment that Zhao Duan's personal admission finally put an end to her suspicions.
Zhang Hui is Zhao Duan.
Zhao Duan is Zhang Hui.
That's not the point...
The key point is that Zhang Hui has existed in this world a long time ago, and even has a home, an identity, and a past in this world... He is the "indigenous person" in this mysterious picture.
And a lot of completely unreasonable knowledge that Zhao Duan brought out outside about the past of the Dayu Dynasty actually came from this broken world in the painting.
What is going on?
Did Zhao Duan enter the human world a long time ago? No... that doesn't make sense.
He is the person in the painting? This is even more unbelievable.
At this moment, the empress got the answer, but was filled with greater doubts.
There was a long silence.
Finally, she opened her red lips and asked the biggest question in her heart: "Who... are you?"
Zhao Duan was silent.
It must be admitted that he panicked for a moment when the empress revealed his identity, because time travel was his biggest secret, which he had never revealed to anyone.
However, the tension only lasted for a moment before he calmed down again.
Because, a long time ago, he had encountered the arrival of this day. From the moment he learned that the human world was actually the world he was familiar with, Zhao Duan knew that sooner or later, the empress would find clues of his plagiarism in this world.
Even if he didn't copy the song "Shui Tiao Ge Tou"... it wouldn't affect the final result.
But this day came a little earlier than expected.
It is obvious that from the perspective of the empress, she does not care about the true source of the knowledge that helped the Dayu Dynasty. All she cares about is the origin of herself as the "imperial husband".
Zhao Duan met the empress's sharp gaze, smiled bitterly, and spread his hands, saying:
"That's a long story..."
"Then let's make it short." Xu Zhenguan interrupted him and said calmly, "If we can't finish here, let's go out and talk."
Seeing Zhao Duan silent.
Xu Zhenguan stared at him with complicated eyes and said:
"I've always been puzzled by how you've changed so much in the past two years. Ever since you let Zhuang Xiaocheng go, you've been on the rise. In less than two years, you've reached this point today... You're truly astonishingly talented. But the more amazing you are, the more confused I am."
She seemed to be talking to herself:
"I've investigated you. From your childhood until the year before last, over the past twenty years, there's been almost nothing unusual about you. This is the biggest anomaly. Even if, according to your original statement, you were misunderstood as a playboy by the people of the capital, it was a deliberate disguise...
Okay, that makes sense, but how do you explain how someone who hasn't shown any extraordinary qualities for over twenty years can suddenly develop such profound thoughts and outstanding talents?
She continued:
"I was very confused for a while, until I realized that the dragon soul was in you. Then I thought I had found an explanation. But even this explanation didn't make sense. Why did Emperor Taizu choose you to inherit the legacy... But now, I have some understanding."
Xu Zhenguan stared at him without blinking, and also dropped the crushed coffee cup, clenching his fingers with both hands:
"So, who are you?"
Facing the Empress's repeated questions, Zhao Duan answered calmly:
"I am Zhang Hui, and also Zhao Duan."
After a pause, he said with a look of reminiscence in his eyes:
"To be precise, in the bamboo forest south of the capital, Ren Kun of the Kuangfu Society came from afar and rescued Zhuang Xiaocheng. Before he knocked me unconscious, I only had memories of Zhao Duan. But after I woke up that day, a whole new chapter of memories appeared in my mind."
Zhao Duan pointed to the top of his head and said calmly:
"In Zhang Hui's memories, he lives in this world."
——
P.S. No more pretense, let's get down to business... In order to prevent some readers from feeling uncomfortable with the setting of soul-traveling, I'll give you a sneak peek: the protagonist is not a soul-traveling person... Of course, the Yu Kingdom is definitely not Earth... The setting of this book is definitely different from Joy of Life...
(End of this chapter)
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