Xiao Zhi stood under the tree, his gaze passing through layer upon layer of peace talismans. The enormous canopy was lush with green. Branches and leaves interlocked, mirrored against the blue sky, rendering the tree full of wishes solemn yet serene.
Yun Yi slid down from his shoulder and landed beside him, following his gaze upward.
He was staring at the talisman she had written, his expression complex—unreadable.
She wrinkled her nose, displeased.
“If you’re unwilling, forget it. Temple Master, lend me a pole. I’ll poke it down!”
Qingxuan wore a bitter-melon face that said “don’t touch me.”
“Who said I’m unwilling?” Xiao Zhi looked down at her.
In an instant, his body went boneless and leaned toward her. “It only counts with a seal and stamp.”
His tall, sturdy body tilted like a mountain. Yun Yi instinctively caught him.
His shadow fell across her face. She turned her head, her lips almost brushing his earlobe. “How do I seal it?”
Xiao Zhi’s fingertip tapped his own cheek. “Here. Xuan paper.”
Yun Yi’s lips parted slightly, trying to understand.
In the blink of an eye, her lips were pressed by his fingertip. She heard him say shamelessly: “Here. The imperial seal.”
Yun Yi’s face exploded red and hot.
If you want to kiss, just say so. What was with the roundabout ways?
Inside the Fuyun Temple gate, the loyal assistant squad craned their necks, not daring to disturb their master. They could only grip the door frame with their fingers.
Noticing the others’ gazes, Yun Yi turned her head awkwardly: “Shameless.”
Xiao Zhi said instead: “Public morals are open in this era. Yesterday walking along the riverside avenue, several couples were kissing…”
Yun Yi covered his mouth with her hand, forbidding him to say more.
She stood on tiptoe and swiftly stamped a kiss on his cheek, quick as a thief.
He laughed freely: “One isn’t enough.”
“You!”
Really, enough. Since when did girls take the initiative in this? She was a first-time relationship too!
Xiao Zhi’s smile widened, his mouth stretching to his ears.
Sensing his girlfriend’s indignant mood, he hooked one hand around the back of her neck and pulled her into his arms. Before she could react, he tilted his head slightly, his nose tip gently brushing hers—
This was his first kiss.
In public.
Inexperience led to misjudgment.
Yun Yi’s nose tip went numb from the bump. Her protests clogged in her throat. Before they could escape, the moment his lips touched hers, her heart trembled softly.
A soft touch, like a cloud brushing past.
Yun Yi secretly opened her eyes. Xiao Zhi’s increasingly handsome features blurred in the backlight. Only his eyelashes were distinct, trembling gently, like her heartbeat—unable to stop.
She closed her eyes again, wrapped both arms around his waist, and carefully, cherishingly felt this moment.
The temple gate slowly closed.
Wang Delan fanned his face: “Phew, so hot.”
He Su’s expression was blank, only a sigh: “Times have changed. Public morals are open.”
Wang Delan kicked him—something he would never have dared imagine before.
“Young Master said to study hard and make progress every day. You’ve only learned the surface, haven’t you?”
“Who says?” He Su avoided Wang Delan’s eyes.
He had bought Pregnancy Care Guide and Prenatal Education Methods from the bookstore.
Every day he went home and studied diligently.
Wang Delan hesitated, then said: “I’m so afraid Young Master will make us go to school.”
The People’s Education Press textbooks Xiao Zhi had studied—the two had flipped a few pages. The content was like heavenly script.
He Su was skilled with blades and spears but not with books. His expression was grave, carrying some confusion of bleak prospects.
.
Xiao Zhi’s wish in this life was not to be emperor.
The current era wasn’t bad. War didn’t need thousands of horses. Big birds flew in the sky—
Yun Yi pinched his hand and pointed at the contrails in the sky: “You haven’t flown on a plane yet. I’ll book tickets. We’ll fly whenever we say.”
Xiao Zhi squeezed her hand. “In a while.”
Yun Yi studied him. “You’re afraid of heights?”
This was very reasonable.
A Tyrannosaurus rex was once the land’s overlord, and it never flew either.
“Who says so.” Xiao Zhi wouldn’t admit it.
He had no choice but to pull her into his arms, holding her tight.
Yun Yi was like a piece of old fried dough—wiggling and squirming—sliding out from top to bottom.
On the riverside avenue, the water vapor carried the scent of early summer. Pedestrians came in twos and threes, pushing strollers or walking dogs.
“Look, that dog!” Yun Yi called him to look.
What was so strange about a dog?
Yan had them too. Though not as many breeds as now, Yan’s dog lovers knew how to raise them. Some even painted little portraits of their beloved dogs.
A certain elegance of its own.
Xiao Zhi followed his girlfriend’s gaze—
A medium-sized dog walked over from afar, neck held high, steps confident, bearing majestic.
That dog had steel and iron bones. When Yun Yi teased it, it even wiggled its rear.
“It’s a robot dog.” Yun Yi said goodbye to the dog.
“You want one?” Xiao Zhi knew the Yun family’s golden retriever had been taken to America by Yun’s mother. Yun Yi missed it.
“Ah?” Yun Yi was startled.
But Xiao Zhi had already caught up with the robot dog’s owner, chatting briefly. His lips seemed to say “my girlfriend…”
From dozens of meters away, Yun Yi said in a daze: “You’re not going to…?”
Xiao Zhi raised his phone at her. The river wind was warm and soft, softening his sharp contours, restoring him to that unrestrained youth: “Bought it!”
“…”
“Should we buy it clothes?” Xiao Zhi opened a shopping app and started browsing pet clothes.
Yun Yi: “What clothes does a robot dog wear?”
Xiao Zhi looked at the pet dog’s retreating figure: “Walking around naked like that—shameless.”
Absurd!
A bizarre sense of ancient-modern collision stew.
The two sat on a riverside bench. Xiao Zhi became a head-down tribe member, ordering seven outfits for the robot dog.
He didn’t even spare a pet raincoat.
After a satisfying shopping spree, he turned and saw the girl beside him staring at him blankly. Her gaze was too direct—it made Xiao Zhi’s eyelid twitch. The words slipped out: “Why are you looking at me?”
Yun Yi came back to herself and said slowly: “You’re too idle.”
Only then did Xiao Zhi realize—his left eyelid was twitching.
Left eye twitching meant disaster.
His eyelid twitched for three days straight, reaching its peak in the IELTS class.
The dark-skinned exotic person before him spoke a mouthful of bird language.
Five minutes passed. Xiao Zhi came back to himself and cried foul.
Seeing he was too idle, Yun Yi had also enrolled him in the same IELTS course.
Yesterday he was still an “elementary school chick” learning sixth-grade English. Today he was mixed into an adult English class.
His eye-blades kept sweeping toward Yun Yi.
His good deskmate looked straight ahead, head down, taking notes on her tablet.
Taking advantage of the teacher turning around, Xiao Zhi let out a harsh threat: “I—mmph!”
Yun Yi clamped his mouth and told the foreign teacher: “My husband played emperor games and broke his brain.”
She typed rapidly on the tablet, reasoning with him: “One-on-one IELTS class cost me forty thousand. Please, let’s study properly, hm?”
Xiao Zhi closed the heavenly book: “Abandon. Switch to another subject.”
“No. I’m a study blogger! If you don’t study, how do we earn yuan?!” Yun Yi steadied him, appealing to emotion. “Those three and a half people outside the door… what do we feed them with?”
Outside the classroom, three pairs of bright eyes—
At this moment.
Three months had passed since the three of them transmigrated here.
After a long painful adaptation period, the three had integrated into modern society in bizarre postures.
The first among them to start earning money was He Su.
Yun Guoqiang’s friend ran a local education and training institution, specializing in children’s martial arts and karate.
On his strong recommendation, He Su became a martial arts teacher.
One day, the karate teacher suddenly jumped ship.
The boss panicked and discussed with He Su—could he substitute a few classes?
He Su speed-learned karate in a short time, and because of this, grew curious about ninjutsu…
As for Wang Delan.
His only dream was to serve his master.
Xiao Zhi told Wang Delan that serving too much as a servant would turn a person into waste.
Life requires learning to subtract.
So he was forced to read, travel, rock climb, swim… filtering out what he didn’t like, keeping what he did.
Whatever remained was what he was worth pursuing for life.
One day, Wang Delan brought back a young man.
“Young Master, this is my partner.”
“…”
Yun Yi: “So Wang Delan fussed around for ages and ended up a lovesick fool?!”
Xiao Zhi was silent.
Yu Lian’er’s belly grew bigger and bigger.
With a nanny’s careful care, life was comfortable, and there was hope.
Occasionally looking back, that winter night a thousand years ago, after Xiao Qian got drunk, he fell onto her…
She had never told anyone.
The memory was compressed into a yellowed film, hidden in an unvisited corner.
This was fine too.
.
Xiao Zhi looked through the glass, silently meeting the three’s eyes.
The guard addicted to ninjutsu, the eunuch who let himself go and became a bottom, the palace maid with a bulging belly.
Earn yuan to feed those three and a half outside the door—his girlfriend’s words were like an imperial decree.
Short time, heavy task—must make money!
Xiao Zhi picked up a pen and wrote in his notebook: My tomb is southeast of Emperor Ridge. Shall we dig tonight? The burial goods are quite rich.
Yun Yi’s face was cold. She continued writing on the tablet: I’ll enroll you in another class. Study law.
Xiao Zhi suddenly felt like a tiger fallen to the flatlands being bullied by dogs.
He indignantly wrote, five large characters piercing the paper: I—AM—THE—LAW!
Yun Yi countered with the tablet: Keep this up and the mental hospital will come fork you away!
The foreign teacher on stage thought to himself: Could it be my face is too dark, and the students haven’t noticed I’m angry at all?
He spoke in a perfect Northeastern accent: “You two! Stand up! Get—get up for me!”
Yun Yi covered half her face and stood.
As for Xiao Zhi, he tasted the flavor of punishment standing for the first time in his life.
Seeing their master punished to stand, the assistant squad was agitated.
He Su: “Young Master is being physically punished by a teacher? Outrageous!”
Wang Delan wailed: “My young master has never suffered such indignity!”
Yu Lian’er held her belly. The little thing inside kicked twice in protest: “The baby is very angry and wants to speak up for his uncle.”
Several gazes suddenly softened.
Wang Delan: “Is it a little princess?”
Yu Lian’er shook her head: “The 4D scan only showed the baby’s face. Can’t tell boy or girl.”
He Su: “It’s illegal to check gender. But during the examination, the doctor suddenly said the baby looks like its mother.”
Could it really be a boy?
If she hadn’t transmigrated and had stayed in Yan, mother honored for her son, a consort position would naturally be hers. Once the child in her belly became crown prince, Yu Lian’er’s life would be endless glory and wealth.
Silence for a moment.
The historical records said Xiao Qian had no sons and passed the throne to his nephew before his death.
Yu Lian’er stroked her belly and said freely: “The world is unpredictable. I don’t like being a consort, and I don’t like Xiao Qian. I only want to be myself.”
Once timid, she now spoke His Majesty’s name openly and generously.
This was the courage the era gave her.
.
Half a year later.
Xiao Zhi held Yun Yi’s hand and walked into the provincial museum’s special exhibition hall.
He Su pushed the stroller. Yu Lian’er raised her phone, photographing the little one in the stroller.
The little one’s eyes were bright as obsidian. His looks resembled his mother nine parts.
The remaining one part—
Xiao Zhi beckoned to him and said good-naturedly: “Call me uncle~”
The little one raised an eyebrow at him.
Xiao Zhi complained: “Exactly like Xiao Qian.”
Yun Yi glared at him, blaming him for not knowing how to tease children.
“Baby, I’m auntie~”
The little one’s brows relaxed, releasing a string of happy laughter.
Xiao Zhi pulled Yun Yi into his arms, somewhat displeased: “Are auntie and uncle a couple?”
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