Translator: Dj2203
Editor: Dj2203
Advance chapters available for patrons on Patreon. And a chapter can be sponsored by buying me a ko-fi.
Mother Su was still urging her, and Su Xi was afraid that her mother would get impatient and suddenly come into the room to drag her out, so she had no choice but to rush out quickly.
Lu Huan watched her close the door and leave.
For a long time afterward, he remained standing motionless in her room, his mind filled with Su Xi’s words, his heart pounding wildly.
He wanted to get to the bottom of what she meant, but hearing her parents’ voices outside and the sound of the television being turned on, he knew it was really not the right time.
Su Xi pulled out a chair at the dining table, sat down, patted her slightly flushed cheeks, and then picked up her bowl and chopsticks.
The feeling of someone hiding in the room; it was absolutely thrilling!
No one knows a daughter better than her mother. Mother Su immediately felt that Su Xi was acting strangely, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. She glanced at her and asked, “What did you do this afternoon? Did you play games all afternoon?”
Su Xi took a bite of rice and said absentmindedly, “I went out to get my phone.”
Mother Su asked again, “Why is your face so red?”
Su Xi was startled and almost dared not look up. But she tried her best to remain calm and said, “The sun was too strong this afternoon, so I was in the sun for a while.”
Mother Su looked at her suspiciously, but couldn’t see anything wrong with her, so she put two pieces of food on her plate and said, “Eat more.”
….
When Lu Huan disappeared the day before yesterday, he was standing behind a screen in the council hall of the Chengzhou government office, waiting for the governor of Chengzhou and two other subordinates to come and report.
Along the way, the governor of Chengzhou had prepared countless flattering and grateful words in his mind, memorizing them perfectly. He was about to kowtow to the Ninth Prince to express his gratitude, but to his surprise, when he pushed open the door, he found that the council hall was empty!
They were informed that the Ninth Prince, who had come with the Grand Eunuch and the account books, was not actually present.
The guards outside the council chamber said that the Ninth Prince had not come out since entering the chamber.
Could it be that the Ninth Prince had vanished into thin air?
The officials of Chengzhou were immediately anxious, fearing that if something happened to the Ninth Prince, who was currently in power in the capital, in Chengzhou, it would not just be a matter of exterminating nine generations of his family!
When Lu Huan arrived in Chengzhou, he brought a troop of Imperial Guards. The governor of Chengzhou, fearing for his life, dared not tell his subordinates, only delaying the visit while secretly sending men to search for him. Seeing that the deception was about to be exposed, the governor was frantic, pacing back and forth, when suddenly a report came from the government office that the Ninth Prince had returned from his investigation. The governor, who had been holding his head in suspense, hurriedly went to pay his respects.
And so another chaotic scene ensued.
Thanks to the Governor of Chengzhou’s cover-up, only the remaining guards knew that Lu Huan had disappeared without a trace. After returning, Lu Huan hurriedly changed his clothes before opening the door and summoning his men. He told the Governor of Chengzhou that he had gone to investigate something. The guards then thought they were seeing things, that the Ninth Prince had clearly gone out, but they had been dozing off and hadn’t seen him.
And so the matter was dropped.
“It’s good that you’re back, it’s good that you’re back.” The Governor of Chengzhou wiped away his cold sweat and said, “Your Highness, if there’s anything you want to investigate in the future, why do you have to do it yourself? Just order your subordinates around. I was almost driven crazy by your absence for the past two days!”
Lu Huan asked, “Two days?”
The governor of Chengzhou asked, “Yes, it’s been two whole days.”
Lu Huan paused for a moment and said, “If there’s nothing else, you can leave now.”
The governor of Chengzhou breathed a sigh of relief and left.
After dismissing everyone and leaving the room empty, Lu Huan sat down behind the table and opened the curtain as before. This time, after more than ten days, the curtain finally reappeared. Everything on the screen was exactly the same as before, with no major changes. Only then did Lu Huan feel relieved.
However, as the governor of Chengzhou said, he had only been gone for two days. That meant that after two hundred points, the time flow ratio between his world and Xiao Xi’s world seemed to have changed again. Now, it should have become exactly the same time flow.
Lu Huan was somewhat pleased. He had previously considered that if time was flowing rapidly on his side while time was flowing very slowly on Su Xi’s side, wouldn’t Su Xi still be young while he was already old? But now it seemed that after the passage between the two worlds was fully opened after two hundred points, the time in the two worlds finally became the same.
The last question was, how will I get to her world from now on?
With no one around, Lu Huan got up and walked towards the curtain.
In the past, whenever he tried to pass through the curtain, he would always miss it. But now, Lu Huan looked in surprise as the curtain seemed to have turned into an invisible door. He stepped through and returned to her room.
At that very moment, the sounds of her television, washing dishes, and her mother’s voice could still be heard coming from the living room outside.
The voices were so vivid and real that he knew she was in the living room just a wall away.
Lu Huan was suddenly overjoyed!
He turned back to his own world, then turned back again and stepped into hers once more.
After several attempts, it was finally confirmed that as long as the curtain remained, one could easily enter her world!
All of this was incredibly fortunate for Lu Huan. He was deeply grateful for the curtain that connected his and her worlds, so he opened the task system again to see if there were any tasks left after 200 points.
A line of text quickly popped up on the screen, accompanied by a familiar mechanical voice.
[Please continue with Mission Sixteen (Advanced): Please help the Yan Kingdom implement laws that reduce taxes and corvée labor[1]. The reward is 3000 gold coins and 15 points!]
In recent years, the Yan Kingdom’s treasury had been relatively empty, but both disaster relief and war required gold, silver and grain. Therefore, the emperor had previously issued several imperial edicts to increase the collection of various taxes. As a result, public resentment had accumulated, and cries of lamentation filled the air, creating a vicious cycle.
To solve this problem, we must root out the corrupt officials who line their own pockets at every level.
However, this would inevitably involve various forces, and a single move could have far-reaching consequences, potentially leading to a rebellion.
Moreover, the Yan Kingdom was vast, with seventy major states besides the capital, and each state had more than a dozen smaller counties. There were thousands of officials serving in the court alone. If one were to investigate them all, it would be impossible to know where to begin.
The tasks issued by this system were getting progressively more demanding, all for the benefit of the country and its people.
However, Lu Huan was surprised that there was another task? So, would there be a third gift pack after completing 300 points?
As if knowing his thoughts, another line of text appeared on the screen: [‘Lu Huan, who is seventeen years old and old enough to marry and have children,’ please complete the task diligently. After 300 points, there will be a third big gift pack, and the passage will become two-way.]
Two-way?
Does this mean that at this point only he could travel from his world to hers, but if he reaches 300 points, she could also come to his world?
Lu Huan was overwhelmed with emotion and eager to tell her, so he subconsciously entered her room through the curtain.
But the room was empty; she seemed to have just finished dinner and was still in the living room. Suddenly, she heard her mother’s footsteps outside her room, so Lu Huan quickly returned to her room.
….
Chengzhou was located in the heart of the Yan State, a land connecting the nine provinces. It had always been prosperous, but because it was close to the Yangtze River, it was prone to flooding during the summer when there was abundant rainfall.
If Lu Huan hadn’t learned of the situation beforehand, written a letter, and rushed to Chengzhou, preemptively deploying officials to inspect the riverbanks, repair and reinforce the dikes before the floods escalated into a major disaster, and subsequently evacuating the population and diverting water for irrigation, Chengzhou would likely have suffered an even greater natural and man-made catastrophe.
Therefore, Lu Huan had made a great contribution.
At this time, Chengzhou was filled with gratitude, and the capital was abuzz with discussion about it.
Lu Huan had rushed to Chengzhou earlier and missed the imperial decree to select a princess consort for him. Since he missed it, there was no question of disobeying the decree. On the contrary, the eunuch was a step late and would probably be scolded by the empress after returning to the palace.
But now his business in Chengzhou was largely finished, and his subordinates had sent him a letter summoning him back to the capital.
Upon returning to the capital, the emperor, in high spirits, would inevitably bring up the matter of selecting a princess consort for him again.
If he then tried to find a reason to refuse, that would be considered a true act of disobeying the imperial decree.
Guys, ads are my only source of revenue, so please do not turn on the AdBlock when you are accessing this website…. Thank you, this would be a great help…
You can buy me a ko-fi and sponsor a chapter on: https://ko-fi.com/midnightrambles
Or become a Patron and access advance chapters on: https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=45665005
If you support me, I would be able to provide more chapters….
Previous • Table of Contents • Next
[1] Corvée labor is unpaid, mandatory, or forced labor imposed by a state or feudal lord on lower classes, typically serving as a form of taxation. Instead of paying with cash or crops, citizens contributed their physical labor for limited periods to construct or maintain public infrastructure like roads, bridges, and canals.
