After 10 seconds of countdown, the scene in front of Yue Xingwen’s eyes flickered, and he reappeared in the streets of ancient times.
It was obviously winter, and there should have been a heavy snowfall a few days ago, and some of the snow still hadn’t melted off the streets. The people coming and going were all dressed very thick, Yue Xingwen himself was wearing a thick cloak, holding a fan in his hand and he didn’t know what his identity was.
There was not a single familiar face to be seen in the crowd around him, and even the architectural style was different from before. Yue Xingwen was puzzled, and a new prompt suddenly popped up in the hover box in front of him——
[The plot task has been opened
Time: First month of the first year of Changzhou
Location: Luoyang
Your identity is a scholar who entered Beijing to take the exam]
In the previous ‘Xuanwu Gate Incident’ task, the six of them were teleported to Chang’an, and now they had actually come to Luoyang. It was no wonder that the streets and buildings around them were very unfamiliar.
Yue Xingwen walked forward, while asking passers-by about the location of the largest inn in Luoyang City.
After passing through several streets in a row, he came to an inn, and as soon as he entered the door, he saw a familiar figure. Yue Xingwen stepped forward quickly, patted the other party’s shoulder lightly with the handle of his fan, and called out with a smile, “Pingce.”
Jiang Pingce turned his head, meeting Yue Xingwen’s gaze, and the corner of his mouth couldn’t help but raise slightly. “This outfit kinda suits you.” White long shirt with a fluffy cloak over it, a square hat on his head, and an ancient poem written on the folding fan in his hand. It was really not out of place when Xingwen wore this scholar’s attire.
Yue Xingwen used his fan to cover both of their faces, and moved to Jiang Pingce’s ear and whispered, “My identity this time is that of a scholar going to the capital to take the exam, and I have to meet with others as soon as possible to figure out the task for this round.”
Jiang Pingce said, “I rushed to the inn as soon as possible, and I didn’t find anyone else.”
Yue Xingwen pointed to the position by the window. “Then let’s sit down first, and have something to eat while waiting for someone?”
Jiang Pingce nodded, turned around and sat down with Yue Xingwen by the window, asked for two side dishes, pretended to be an old friend reunited, and chatted in a low voice.
Yue Xingwen asked, “In the first year of Changzhou, do you have any memory of what happened in Luoyang City?”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Jiang Pingce shook his head helplessly, “I don’t like studying history, and I’ve basically forgotten everything I learned in high school.”
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Yue Xingwen smiled and cooperated with the act, “You guys are also in Luoyang? Have a seat, let’s eat together.”
It didn’t take long for Zhuo Feng and Lin Manluo to come in and walk side by side. Everyone sat around the table and waited for a while, but they didn’t see Ke Shaobin and the others. Qin Lu was puzzled, “Are Ke Shaobin and the others not in this time and space?”
Yue Xingwen said, “After the task was completed just now, the hover box prompted ‘please wait for the rest of your teammates to meet’, and the 12 of us should have met in this world.”
Zhuo Feng calmly said, “Maybe it’s inconvenient for them to come to the inn for the time being, so let’s wait a little longer.”
Yue Xingwen turned his head and asked, “Qin Miao, do you know what important events happened in the first year of Changzhou?”
Qin Miao frowned and thought for a moment before lowering her voice and saying, “Wu Zetian’s reign era was called ‘Tianshou’, and in the third year of ‘Tianshou’, the reign era was changed to ‘Ruyi’, followed by ‘Changzhou’. In the first year of Changzhou, corresponding to 692 A.D., an important event, all I can think is that Di Renjie was falsely accused and imprisoned.”
Qin Lu was stunned and said, “Sister, I remember that Wu Zetian was the Emperor, and Di Renjie was the Prime Minister?”
Qin Miao said, “Yes, in September of the following year after Wu Zetian became Emperor, Di Renjie was promoted to Prime Minister, but unfortunately, Di Renjie was only the Prime Minister for four months, and he was falsely accused of rebellion, was taken away from his post and sent to prison, and then he was relegated to Pengze County, where he worked as a small county magistrate until he was reinstated to his official position five years later.”
Yue Xingwen thought about it carefully, and said in a low voice, “So, in this time and space, what we need to do is most likely to protect Di-daren from being unjustly killed?”
Everyone looked at each other in disbelief.
Different from the ‘Xuanwu Gate Incident’ where they directly replaced some key characters to push to plot forward, this time the task, Yue Xingwen was a scholar going to the capital to catch up with the exams, Jiang Pingce was an Imperial Guard, Qin Miao, Qin Lu were female workers in the embroidery workshop, and Zhuo Feng and Lin Manluo were husband and wife who came to the capital to do business—— In other words, they were all passerby.
How could they meet these famous people in history?
Just when everyone was silent, someone suddenly walked into the inn, and everyone recognized him when they saw his smiling expression—— Was that senior brother Xu Yishen?
Xu Yishen obviously spotted them as well, winking at Yue Xingwen before walking over to the front desk of the inn, pulling out a silver ingot from his pocket and tossing it on the table. “Boss, this table is my friend, I will pay for the meal. Are these enough?”
He pointed to the location of Yue Xingwen and the others, and the boss’s eyes lit up. He hurriedly said, “Enough, enough, enough! Gongzi, please wait a moment, I’ll have the kitchen add a few more specialties for you!”
Xu Yishen walked over and sat in front of Yue Xingwen, and greeted everyone with a smile, “You’re all here.”
Yue Xingwen asked softly, “Senior brother, what’s yours?”
Xu Yishen rubbed his temples and sighed softly, “It’s convenient for them to act, I’m a free man, I will for you at the inn first.” When he said this, he lowered his voice and said, “The inn is not a place to talk, but later, you can come with me and go to my place to talk.”
Everyone looked at each other without saying anything more and hurriedly followed Xu Yishen after eating.
Xu Yishen had an independent courtyard in Luoyang, Zhuo Feng walked into the courtyard, looked at the surroundings and couldn’t help but sigh, “This courtyard is big enough ah! The library knows that you are a rich second generation, and arranged for you to be a local tyrant?”
Xu Yishen said helplessly, “No, this courtyard was bought by the six of us with money, because there were people who died in this courtyard, the price was very low, and we bought it as a temporary base.”
Qin Lu said curiously, “Senior brother, what is your task?”
Xu Yishen said, “The beginning is a palace fight of several women, we have to secretly protect Wu Zetian from being framed, and we must also assist her in becoming Empress, and finally ascending to the throne as Emperor.”
Qin Miao asked, “Protecting Wu Zetian? What is it all about?”
Xu Yishen said in detail, “Senior brother Liu is the Imperial Doctor, senior sister Lan is the maid next to Wu Zetian, and Zhang Xiaonian is the gardener in the palace, helping to repair the palace; Xin Yan is an Imperial Guard; I’m an idle merchant who can move freely outside the palace, and they will come to me when they leave the palace.”
Yue Xingwen said curiously, “What about Ke Shaobin?”
Mentioning Ke Shaobin, Xu Yishen couldn’t help but burst out laughing. “Xiao Ke is the chef of the Imperial kitchen, changing his patterns every day to eat delicious food, he can enjoy this instance too much.”
Everyone: “……”
Yue Xingwen lamented, “That’s really to his liking, there are many exquisite delicacies that he can touch in the Imperial kitchen, which he has never seen before, right?”
Xu Yishen nodded. “It’s a pity, he can’t take out his laptop for this instance, and he can’t summon Xiao Tu, otherwise, he can’t wait to record all those recipes.”
Imperial doctor, Imperial guard, chef, maid, gardener, and a flexible Xu Yishen…
The point in time when Xu Yishen and the others appeared was the time when Wu Zetian had already entered the palace and was fighting with Empress Wang and Consort Xiao Shufei, and the others openly and secretly. The six of them were assigned, though not pivotal key roles, to secretly protect the plot character Wu Zetian from the detail.
If Yue Xingwen and the others took the ‘political fight’ script, Xu Yishen and the others were the ‘palace fight’ script.
Now that Wu Zetian had become the Emperor, the two groups of teammates from different time and space had finally joined, and the task goal this time was as Qin Miao said—— It was very likely that the historically famous incident of Di Renjie unjustly imprisoned.
Qin Miao asked, “Senior brother Xu, do you have any new hints for your quest line?”
Xu Yishen pressed his temple and said, “I just wanted to say, after Wu Zetian became Emperor, we successfully completed the task, and settled the points, and got a task evaluation of 90 points, and then the library said, wait for the other teammates to meet. Opening my eyes again, it was three years later, and I was a bit confused.”
He looked at Yue Xingwen and said, “I checked carefully, my identity is still the same, and they should be the same as well. I thought that when you came to this time and space, you would definitely go to the inn to meet as agreed, so I rushed over first. I’m not sure exactly what to do next.”
Jiang Pingce asked in a low voice, “How did you contact each other on your previous task?”
Xu Yishen said, “When Zhang Xiaonian goes to take care of flowers everyday, he can see senior sister Lan. Ke Shaobin can find a way to meet senior brother Liu, and I, because the skill of ‘becoming a cell’ is available to me, and I’ll look for a chance to blend into the palace in the dead of night and deliver a message to them.”
The human body was made up of cells, so senior brother Xu’s ability to change into a cell was not affected by time and space travel, which was the key to the six of them being able to successfully complete their task.
Xu Yishen, as a ‘free man’, turned into a cell that could eavesdrop and pass messages around the palace, so they could get a head start on the conspiracy of the concubines in the harem and secretly helped Wu Zetian rise to power.
Even if their team didn’t have Qin Miao, who knew a lot about history, they finally got a high score of 90 points, which showed that under Xu Yishen’s contact, the cooperation of the six people was also quite tacit.
When Yue Xingwen thought of this, he said, “The Imperial Doctor, the Imperial Chef, Imperial Guard, and the maid around the Emperor’s side… These identities are indeed not convenient to leave the palace. Senior brother Xu, please go back to the palace tonight, tell Ke Shaobin and the others, you have joined us, and let them pay close attention to Di Renjie-daren’s movement.”
Xu Yishen raised his eyebrows in surprise, “Di Renjie? Does this task have something to do with Di-daren?”
Yue Xingwen said, “The library has not released the task clues, and we are only guessing now.” He looked at Qin Miao and said, “According to Qin Miao, in the first year of Changzhou, Di Renjie had been wrongfully imprisoned and removed from the post of Prime Minister, and there were many people in the court who looked at him unfavorably and wanted to get rid of him. The point in time now is not far from this.”
Qin Miao nodded and said, “In the first year of Changzhou, Di Renjie must be the key figure, if he can’t escape this catastrophe, it will be impossible for him to return to his official position later in life and become Wu Zentian’s confidant.”
She paused and added, “Wu Zetian originally wanted to pass the throne to his nephew Wu Sansi to continue the reign of Wu Zhou, but it was Di Renjie, as the Prime Minister, who helped Wu Zetian interpret her dreams and persuaded her many times before she decided to pass the throne to Li Xian. If something happens to Di Renjie, no one will be able to talk to Emperor Zetian, and maybe the Tang Dynasty will fall, and it will be the Wu Zhou era later.”
If they wanted history to return to the right track, they must not let Di Renjie have an accident this year.
Thanks for the chapters! <3
I read that it used to be quite a popular practice to send someone to work in a distant place for a while to hide and protect this person under the guise of disgrace, and then return him when the danger is over. Maybe something like that happened to this man
Thank you for your translation 💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚
Ke Shaobin as a chef is perfect