This emperor in Yun Yi’s mouth was dressed in trendy clothes, yet his bearing was condescending. It was a bone-deep arrogance, an innate aura of authority.
Yun Guoqiang somewhat resented the sheepskin sofa beneath him. His whole body sank into that softness, making him look utterly devoid of presence.
Thinking carefully, it seemed every time he saw Xiao Zhi, he naturally felt inferior by a degree.
Xiao Zhi’s knuckles unconsciously tapped the armrest, signaling Yun Guoqiang to speak first: “Yun Yi has been kind to me. Since you are her father, ask freely. I will tell you everything I know.”
The girl sitting between them turned her head toward Xiao Zhi like an antenna and blinked at him.
Xiao Zhi couldn’t gauge what she was trying to say.
The old tacit understanding—knowing each other’s thoughts—had been diluted by time.
The chandelier cast ample light. Yun Yi, bathed in brightness, mouthed: You don’t call yourself “I” anymore?
Xiao Zhi nodded slightly.
Seeing the two young people exchange secret signals, Yun Guoqiang, unable to join in, felt thoroughly uncomfortable. As an elder, his presence was nearly zero.
He had just thought of getting up when his daughter’s sharp gaze swept over. Under that stare, he slowly picked up the piece of durian shell. Suddenly he didn’t know whether to stand or sit.
“Your name is really Xiao Zhi?”
“Yes.”
“You’re from Yan? And an emperor?”
The questions came rapid-fire, like an interrogation.
Xiao Zhi admitted it openly.
“The founding emperor of Yan was your father?”
“Naturally.”
“Hah, if I believe that, you’re my father!” The durian shell was thrown at Xiao Zhi’s feet along with the word “father,” and he kicked it away.
“Dad!”
“You think your old man’s an idiot?”
Father and daughter started arguing again.
Xiao Zhi strolled leisurely to the backyard, his interest piqued, and began observing every plant and tree.
When he looked up again, Yun Guoqiang, face taut, had walked to his side and, with difficulty, opened his mouth: “Your father… how did he become emperor?”
Xiao Zhi raised an eyebrow. Yun Yi’s father had accepted it this quickly?
Just now, Yun Guoqiang had checked the surveillance: above the flower field, an invisible door of time and space had opened, and Xiao Zhi fell from the sky.
The surveillance hadn’t been edited. Yun Guoqiang had watched it many times.
Once he accepted that Xiao Zhi came from Yan, everything connected.
His black dragon robe.
His coming and going without a trace, no phone, no contact information, like a person who didn’t exist.
Yun Guoqiang asked about the thin Yan dynasty history book.
As a witness to history, Xiao Zhi calmly narrated: “My father was a general of the previous dynasty. He raised troops and rebelled…”
What Xiao Zhi said unfolded before Yun Guoqiang like a shadow puppet play—
Xiao Zhi’s father was the previous dynasty’s great general. He recovered lost territories and quelled rebellions, majestic in all directions. The palace emperor bestowed upon him a sword of merit. No one expected that the sword, not yet sharpened, would decapitate the emperor in one stroke.
Yun Guoqiang couldn’t stay calm: “Your father is Xiao Cheng?!”
There weren’t many records about Xiao Cheng in historical texts. His name was always bound to the four words “young military genius.” Few descendants knew of him—because General Xiao had died accidentally at twenty-three while quelling northern rebellions.
So it wasn’t death—it was becoming emperor.
Xiao Zhi: “Exactly.”
Yun Guoqiang crossed his arms: “Don’t think I’ll believe you.”
As the narration continued, more details not found in historical texts leaped out of thin air, vivid and lifelike, unlike fabrication.
Yun Guoqiang paced back and forth in the living room. Feeling his daughter’s gaze, he said: “Don’t think unofficial history can fool your dad. You believe him?”
Yun Yi held a bowl of durian and nodded.
Xiao Zhi pulled up his zipper and silently buried his nose in his clothes.
This smell was nauseating. He needed to constantly use true qi to suppress it—how was it different from torture?
Yun Guoqiang’s phone rang at an inopportune moment. It was Old Yu from the research institute.
He signaled with his eyes—”Don’t you try any tricks, kid. I haven’t believed you yet”—and went to the backyard to take the call.
The middle-aged man’s slightly bent back made Xiao Zhi’s brows knit. Past the age of fifty, still laboring to support a family.
In his daze, Xiao Zhi suddenly remembered he hadn’t brought gold or silver and couldn’t improve the Yun family’s life.
After the call, Yun Guoqiang went to the study, grabbed an ancient book, and made to head for the garage.
That call urging him back to work was like timely rain. Yun Yi bit her cheek, her hand waving like a lucky cat.
Yun Guoqiang glanced at his daughter—she was practically carving the words “Farewell, old father, go back to being a workhorse” on her face.
How could the old father have the heart to care about that? A “utility pole” was planted beside his daughter—how could he feel at ease?
Xiao Zhi was clearly an outsider. What right did he have to appear in the garage like a host?
“Old Yu has something for me. Dad has to go back to work. Xiao Xiao, come with me.”
“Dad?” Yun Yi blocked Xiao Zhi.
“I’m not at ease leaving him at home.” The kid was quite handsome, better looking than a celebrity. If his daughter got bewitched by him, how would he, as her father, live?
“Fine,” Xiao Zhi answered readily, then lowered his head to look at Yun Yi. “I’ll go work with your father. You stay home.”
It was just going to work, wasn’t it? He’d help Yun’s father share the burden.
Yun Guoqiang’s eyes went wide, stunned by that master-like air.
He was about to explode when he heard Xiao Zhi softly ask Yun Yi: “How do people here address your father?”
Yun Yi tilted her head: “Teacher Yun?”
Xiao Zhi was quite surprised and studied Yun Guoqiang.
He vaguely remembered that when he first met Yun’s father five years ago, Yun’s father had been directing a group of people in excavation and mining—it seemed he was in the tomb-robbing business.
Five years later, Yun’s father had changed professions?
With that bristling, glaring look, how did he resemble a private school teacher in the slightest?
But he still called out: “Teacher Yun, after you.”
Yun Guoqiang fastened his seatbelt, quietly observing the young man in the passenger seat. Xiao Zhi was two seconds slower but smoothly fastened his seatbelt.
An ancient person, yet he fastened his seatbelt quickly.
Yun Yi stood outside the garage, waving desperately: “Follow my dad—don’t wander off!”
Yun Guoqiang glanced at the passenger seat. The kid had turned his head and was staring at his daughter.
Yun Guoqiang deliberately rolled down the driver’s side window.
Cold wind poured in. Yun Guoqiang reached out and tapped the rearview mirror: “Look from here.”
Xiao Zhi pondered for a moment, then accurately pressed the window button on the passenger door.
The window rolled down.
Cold wind circulated, raising goosebumps on both their necks.
Xiao Zhi, not to be outdone, also tapped the rearview mirror with his knuckle: “Teacher Yun speaks truly. This kind of mirror is indeed convenient.”
Clearer than ancient bronze mirrors.
.
In the archaeology institute parking lot, Xiao Liu was waiting early. He handed Teacher Yun a badge, glanced at Xiao Zhi, and immediately felt a chill. He fled as if his feet were greased.
Yun Guoqiang said coldly to Xiao Zhi: “Duck down a bit.”
Xiao Zhi didn’t understand but slightly bowed. The next second, a lanyard dropped over his head and settled around his neck. A temporary work badge dangled on his chest.
Name: Xiao Zhi.
Photo: Fierce-as-a-wanted-criminal.jpeg
Xiao Zhi rubbed the work badge with his fingertip and looked at it for a long time.
Only at this moment did he shed his earlier composure and steadiness, revealing the bewilderment and novelty an ancient person should have when facing an object from a thousand years later.
Yun Guoqiang was quite pleased. He wouldn’t tell Xiao Zhi that the badge was made on the spot by Xiao Liu, and the photo was screenshotted from the surveillance.
The bright corridor. The two walked one after the other, passing each other.
From time to time, staff greeted Yun Guoqiang, calling him “Engineer Yun” or “Teacher Yun,” their tones full of respect.
Xiao Zhi wondered inwardly. In Yan, tomb robbers were a shameful, hidden trade. How was it that a thousand years later, they were respected instead?
“Old Yun.” Yun Guoqiang’s colleague waved him over when he arrived. Seeing the tall young man beside him, he asked: “Oh, Xiao Yi’s boyfriend came too?”
Yun Guoqiang was like a bristling wildcat: “Friend!”
Xiao Zhi curved his lips and naturally called out: “Teacher Yu.”
“Oh? You remember me?”
“Naturally.”
“Come, come, come, look at this.” Old Yu happily showed off the results.
Xiao Zhi walked over, took the mask and gloves Old Yu handed him, clumsily put them on, and looked down at the pages spread on the worktable.
The Yan dynasty history book.
Yun Yi had already shown him one page, which recorded Yan’s founding history. Unfortunately, the page only went as far as Xiao Zhi’s ascension, then stopped.
His gaze swept over the familiar handwriting. Old Yu noticed he read extremely fast and laughed: “Young man, it’s normal not to understand these. My son doesn’t like them either.”
“Teacher Yu,” Xiao Zhi asked, “is there more?”
These three words reignited Old Yu’s enthusiasm: “Yes! Of course there is!”
Old Yu led Xiao Zhi into the inner room and spread dozens of pages on the copying table.
A massive screen hung on the wall, its photos cycling in a carousel.
The screen showed not only photos of the excavation site and unearthed artifacts, but also jumped to a rotting, aged rectangular object.
Its surface was caked with yellow mud. It was impossible to identify what it was.
Yun Guoqiang pointed at several indentations on the bottom of the chest: “The Yan dynasty history book was stored inside this. The object is extremely similar to a modern suitcase. This is also one of the reasons we doubt the Yan dynasty’s origins. How would ancient people understand modern suitcases?”
Due to the great age, the wheels on the base were long missing.
Xiao Zhi finally recognized it: “So it’s called a ‘suitcase.’”
Yun Guoqiang looked at him in surprise. Illogical words slipped out: “You know?”
“This chest was originally made for Yun Yi.”
“What nonsense.” Yun Guoqiang frowned.
Xiao Zhi said unhurriedly: “Its surface is carved with many clouds, like koi scales.”
Just as he spoke, the big screen happened to jump to the last image. It was a photo of the wooden chest after preliminary restoration.
On the four corners of the chest were indeed carved scale-shaped clouds.
Exactly as Xiao Zhi had said.
“You—how did you know?” Only the archaeology institute staff knew about this.
Xiao Zhi’s eye corners lifted: “I ordered the Imperial Workshops to rush-produce it.”
Yun Guoqiang’s breathing slowed: “Those clouds on it…”
“Yun Yi said they’re called scale clouds, also known as altocumulus translucidus. Her teacher taught her in school.” Seeing the disbelief in Yun’s father’s eyes, Xiao Zhi said regretfully: “Originally, this chest was filled with gold, silver, and treasures. Yun Yi intended to bring it back to supplement the household expenses.”
Yun Guoqiang: “!!!”
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