Chapter 546: The second meeting in the city, bringing the Empress Zhang family

Chapter 546: Meeting for the second time in the city, taking the empress home (5k)

After sending the female assassin away, Zhao Duan also left, and when he returned to Taicang City, it was already dawn. Song Jinxi and his group returned to the city earlier.

When the sun rose above the horizon in the east, the Beijing army withdrew in an orderly manner.

Zhao Duan met with Sun Xiaozhun, Yuan Feng and others in the government office. The night battle was just a feint, and there was no expectation of much success.

Sun and Yuan were delighted to see that Zhao Du'an had returned safely and rescued a group of officials. They were also delighted when they learned that a group of military supervisors had been killed.

"The commander-in-chief has great means. He has only been lurking in the area for a few days, but he has accomplished such a big thing. It's really a headache for Zhao Shixiong." Sun Xiaozheng praised with a smile.

Yuan Feng also said seriously: "The main battlefield is now on the eastern front, and Envoy Xue is in charge. We will continue to harass here to tie down the Yunfu Army's energy, which will also help the battle situation."

The two of them didn't know that Zhao Duan's real purpose of lurking this time was to implement the first step of the "divide and conquer" strategy.

It was even more impossible for Zhao Duan to tell anyone else.

Therefore, he just smiled and commended the soldiers for their hard work, and ordered them to defend Linfeng to prevent Zhao Shixiong's surprise attack.

After that, he had a simple meal and went back to his room, falling headfirst onto the bed. Sleepiness and fatigue surged like a tide.

About two hours later, Zhao Duan woke up, glanced at the sky, and busy himself with his breathing.

……

……

In the capital, inside the palace.

"I'm becoming more and more proficient." Zhao Duan walked out of the mural again, looking light-hearted and in a very happy mood.

Despite some twists and turns, Yongjia's group had achieved their goal and was one step closer to the goal of "recovering the Huai River within three months."

"It's time to report. Zhenbao must be getting anxious after not hearing any news for so long."

As he pondered, he raised his head and was about to float outside. At this moment, the sky was already bright, and a thin light came in from the doors and windows.

Inside the closed door, there was a note:
"Just go out this door and wait, I will come right after you."

The handwriting is not as delicate as that of an ordinary woman, but it is full of grandeur.

Zhao Duan was stunned. Was this the note that Zhenbao left for him? He tried to pass through the door, and then he heard the pleasant sound of wind chimes above his head.

Looking up, I saw a red wind chime under the eaves of the four-story pavilion.

At this moment, it seemed to be affected by the "soul body" and moved without wind.

Zhao Duan waited curiously for a while.

It was morning, the sun was shining, and the autumn air was crisp. Soon, a streak of golden light was seen crossing the palace wall from the direction of the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

The golden light faded away, and a white dress slowly emerged.

"I have accomplished my mission and have successfully brought the imprisoned officials back safely." Zhao Duan reported respectfully.

Know what the empress wants to hear.

Xu Zhenguan stood firmly on the fourth floor of the pavilion, but did not pay attention to what he said. Instead, he looked Zhao Duan up and down, making sure that he was in good spirits and calm. Only then did a look of relief appear on his face.

The corners of his slightly tired eyes showed joy, and he asked again as if to confirm:
"Did you return safely?"

I don't really care whether the mission is successful or not.

Zhao Duan smiled and nodded, then briefly recounted his experience after returning home last night. Since nothing happened, he finished the story quickly.

Upon learning that Zhao Duan had successfully returned to Taicang City, the lurking operation had come to an end. The empress finally felt relieved and nodded:

"That's good."

Zhao Duan pointed curiously at the red wind chime above his head: "What is this?"

Xu Zhenguan said "Oh" and said casually:

“I found a small magical instrument from the palace armory. There are two of them. They will shake when they sense the approach of a spirit.

I'll put the other one in the study so that I can quickly find it when you come back. It will also help to avoid delays when there is an emergency."

What she didn't say was that she waited here until almost dawn last night.

As he had to go to court, he had to leave. Fortunately, Eunuch Hai rummaged through the boxes and found the thing.

Oh my goodness... Is this a doorbell? Or an alarm? I will be caught if I come back secretly next time, right... Zhao Duan complained in his heart, how come the Great Yu Dynasty is both backward and advanced...

Xu Zhenguan calmed down and asked, "What are you going to do next?"

She did not forget that the young imperial guards had revealed in the conversation last night that Yongjia's lurking was only the first step in the plan to sow discord.

Zhao Duan thought for a moment and said:
"Your Majesty, I have an idea for the follow-up plan, and I will start making arrangements in the next few days. However, this time, I will hand it over to my subordinates. I will stay in Taicang City for a long time and will not run around anymore."

The reason for making this decision was not because of the shadow left by Zhao Shixiong who almost killed him.

But any strategy can only be used once and not twice. It would be too difficult for Zhao Duan to sneak into the rebel's lair again in a short period of time.

There would be too many eyes on him.

However, although he could not move, it did not mean that he could not influence the situation in the State of Yu.

The plan of sowing discord had already been launched, and the intelligence carried by Nie Yurong was the first bullet he fired at Xu Jingtang.

If you want to achieve great things, haste makes waste. He needs to let the bullets fly for a while.

"That's great!" Xu Zhenguan exhaled happily and smiled:

"In this case, you should be able to return to the capital frequently in the next few days, or even stay in the capital as a spirit."

No, why are you so happy... After all, I can't even drool all over you in my soul state... Zhao Duan looked at her warily:

"Your Majesty has any instructions?"

Xu Zhenguan suddenly looked at him deeply and said:

"There is one thing indeed. I have been trying to enter the Human World for a while, but I found that I could never meet the guide Zhang Hui again...

After much thought, I think my last judgment might have been wrong. What really caused the change in the world was not necessarily the disaster star, but... you."

hum-

At this moment, Zhao Duan, who was caught off guard, felt his head buzzing and became numb for a short time. Although he had no body, he felt as if there was a thorn in his back!
Oops!

Was I discovered? Did Zhenbao finally realize something was wrong? Did he guess the relationship between me and Zhang Hui?

Zhao Duan was a little panicked. As a Taoist partner with whom he had physical intimacy, it was not that he did not trust the empress, but the matter of "travelling through time" had always been his biggest secret.

And the more he practiced, the more he realized that his time travel was inextricably linked to Old Xu from six hundred years ago.

Zhao Duan still couldn't figure out how to explain it to the empress.

"Your Majesty...I..." Zhao Duan felt as if a huge rock was pressing on his chest, making it difficult for him to breathe.

Xu Zhenguan said:
“So, I have a new guess. Perhaps, only if you and I visualize at the same time, can some inexplicable changes occur in the Human World.

Even if you can only exist in it for a moment, you will pass through the stone wall and come to the palace, or go back to Linfeng. But as long as you seize that moment, maybe I can meet the guide again. "

"...Ah?" Zhao Duan was confused:
"Your Majesty means that you want me to..."

"You have nothing to do next, so let's do an experiment." Xu Zhenguan said with great interest: "When you go back later, I will try to visualize at the same time to see if it can succeed."

"……oh oh."

Zhao Duan looked at the empress's expectant eyes and suddenly realized that he was nervous for nothing.

She didn't guess it at all, but she was thinking about it wrongly...

But think about it, the setting of a time traveler is too outrageous. From the perspective of the empress, it is really outrageous to guess that he and Zhang Hui are the same person... On the contrary, the current speculation seems more reasonable.

Then, should we cooperate with her?
Not going in to meet her?
Well, this can certainly eliminate my relationship with the "chapter", but what then?
Zhao Duan also wanted to explore the human world, which meant that it was inevitable that the two of them would visualize at the same time.

Rather than being discovered later, he was meditating every time a chapter appeared.

It would be better to follow the empress's wrong guess, which would be more logical...

However, Zhao Duan highly suspected that if he continued like this, his identity would be exposed sooner or later, but... at least he had to hold on for now.

The king and his minister agreed to start the experiment immediately.

Xu Zhenguan obviously took this matter very seriously. He immediately pushed the door open and entered the room. He sat cross-legged in front of the mural and looked at his lackey:
"let's start."

After saying this, the female emperor with a fairy-like face closed her eyes and meditated silently.

Zhao Duan took a deep breath and stepped into the mural.

……

……

0:00 pm.

Midnight.

The bustling metropolis ushered in a new day.

In the office, Zhao Duan woke up again, squinted his eyes, and adjusted to the light of the incandescent lamp.

A computer with a flashing screensaver, colorful sticky notes on the edge of the monitor, a stack of blue folders on the table... Under the night sky, the dark curtains hanging from the glass windows were blown up by the cool night breeze, and the lights of cars outside flashed by.

"I'm back again. I don't know how long I can stay here this time."

Zhao Duan stood up, stretched, and washed his face first, wetting his face with cold water.

Looking at the unfamiliar face in the mirror, he forced an exaggerated smile and muttered to himself:

"The plan to deceive the empress continues..."

Zhenbao wanted to explore the secret of this scroll and find the revelation left by Emperor Taizu.

How could Zhao Duan not want to?

During this period, he followed Pei Niannu in the "Big Dream Scroll" and traveled around the world, but he never found many clues related to Old Xu. Now he placed more hope on the urban world in this painting.

Without wasting any time, Zhao Duan immediately went downstairs and headed straight for the barbecue restaurant where they met last time.

When he arrived, he was surprised to find that the empress, wearing a shirt, trousers and women's sandals, was standing obediently and anxiously at the door of the barbecue restaurant.

Keep looking around.

Suddenly, the empress looked over, across the green belt, and saw Zhang Hui getting off the online-hailing car.

Her eyes suddenly lit up and she almost ran over.

Zhao Duan simply didn't move. He put his hands in his pockets and waited for the empress to come over with a smile. When the two of them got closer, his expression suddenly became strange.

All I could hear was the empress muttering softly: "It really works. I should have asked him to try it a few days ago..."

Under the cover of night, on the road, two young men and women stood face to face next to the green belt.

No one said anything for a moment.

Xu Zhenguan was a little unsure whether this NPC had any memory of their last meeting and whether he had to "trigger" the task again.

Fortunately, after a brief silence, Zhao Duan smiled and spoke first:

"Ms. Xu is quite punctual. Last time she said she had to leave for something unexpected and agreed to meet again today. I am late."

Phew... Fortunately, it is indeed just a person in the painting, not a real living person. It seems that my departure will not be abrupt in the eyes of the people in this world, and everything will have a reasonable explanation...

Xu Zhenguan breathed a sigh of relief silently, feeling quite satisfied with this.

The look he gave Zhang Hui became more majestic and arrogant——

After all, I am just a person in a painting, no different from the people in the previous paintings. In this painting, I am the "master".

The empress relaxed at once. After entering this strange world, she always had a slight sense of crisis. It was a subconscious alertness to the unfamiliar environment.

However, as she entered more and more often, her mentality as a female emperor gradually returned.

"Yes," the empress raised her snow-white chin arrogantly and coldly, and said lightly like a peacock:

"It's good that you know. My time is precious, don't waste it. You should take me to see what my father left behind."

Last time, Zhao Duan pretended to be a guide and made up a story that he and Emperor Taizu Lao Xu were close friends regardless of age difference, and that Lao Xu had left some things for his "daughter" who had returned from abroad, and he was responsible for delivering them.

But last time, the two of them walked on the street for a while, and the empress was forced to end her visualization.

This time it's a continuation of the plot...

"Okay, but walking is too slow. Wait a moment. I'll call a taxi."

Zhao Duan smiled, took out his mobile phone, lowered his head to open the taxi-hailing app, and sent another order.

During these days, he also thought about how to explore "The World".

And I have some ideas.

Although the story of the friendship with Old Xu, who was of different generations, was made up, it was obvious that the fact that this urban world could be drawn showed that Emperor Taizu of Dayu must have entered here in the past.

So, maybe there are some secrets related to it left in this city.

How to find it? In the absence of a "guide", there are only two breakthroughs.

One breakthrough point is Xu Zhenguan...but the empress has tried various things and has not achieved anything.

Therefore, the only remaining breakthrough is...

Yourself.

So, Zhao Duan began to think, if Old Xu knew of his existence six hundred years ago... and before that, the painting "The World" did not depict a modern city.

So... is there a possibility that the painting in front of us was not prepared for Xu Zhenguan, but... prepared for myself?
Just like "Dragon Soul"?
If this line of thought works, then the place where some clues are most likely to be left will be obvious.

As soon as the order was sent, it was snapped up in seconds.

then……

The king and his minister, who were standing by the green belt, saw the car that Zhao Duan had just walked out of silently back up from a few hundred meters away...

"Get in the car." The driver said cheerfully:

"Dude, you're quite particular. Why don't you just place an order and set the destination so that I can stop by the roadside to pick up your girlfriend..."

Good idea, I'll do that next time!

Zhao Duan listened to the advice humbly, opened the car door, and got into the back seat first.

The empress frowned and got into the back seat of the car. She then stared at the "coachman" with unfriendly eyes and said coldly:
"Girlfriend...what does that mean?"

Driver: “…Ah?”

Zhao Duan smiled and waved his hand, indicating that there was no need to answer, and said to the empress:
"It's a female friend."

The empress glanced at him, nodded doubtfully, and then stopped talking.

But as the car began to speed on the road, the empress's eyes gradually became lively and she looked at every detail inside the car curiously.

Feeling the material of the seat, looking at the steering wheel held by the driver, and the colorful dashboard in the dark, my eyes were especially on the large screen of the car computer, and the mobile phone fixed next to the car computer, both of which I kept staring at.

Seems to be trying hard to see something.

Although she had been here several times, this was her first time riding in a car. With her intelligence, she easily understood that this was the "carriage" of this world.

He couldn't help but secretly compare it with his own royal chariot.

Although I don't want to admit it, its speed and stability are far superior to the royal carriage.

Moreover, this chapter seems to have a very powerful position in this world, otherwise he would not be able to afford a coachman and such a carriage.

Well, she didn’t know that Zhao Duan had opened a money-saving card for this order…

There were countless doubts in her mind, but the empress kept a straight face and did not ask. Even when facing a mere person in a painting, she did not want to lose face and tried hard to maintain the dignity of an emperor.

Soon, the car stopped outside a slightly remote residential area. Zhao Duan opened the door and got out first, followed closely by the empress.

"boom."

After closing the car door, the online taxi drove away.

The empress frowned and commented arrogantly:

"You, the driver, are too rude and don't know etiquette."

"..." Zhao Duan smiled:
"Here, everyone is equal, and there is no hierarchy. Miss Enxu has lived abroad for a long time, so she may not be able to adapt."

The empress frowned and said disdainfully:

"Well, customs vary from place to place. But your carriage is okay, but it is too cramped and small. My carriage is much bigger."

Zhao Duan smiled bitterly and said, "If I had money, I would also like to buy a big one. However, my job... even if I have money, it's not easy to buy something too good."

The empress looked at him in confusion: "Aren't you an official?"

Zhao Duan took out his key, swiped the door to open the community gate, led the way in, and smiled calmly:

"What kind of official? In ancient times, at most he was a clerk beside a prefect."

The empress looked at him in surprise, but said nothing. She turned to look at the buildings in the community:
"Where are you taking...me?"

She knew that people in this world rarely had their own houses. Most of them lived in upstairs rooms like inns. She once sneaked into a neighborhood, but had never entered anyone else's home.

"My home." Zhao Duan said calmly.

He felt the empress's eyes beside him suddenly become dangerous and cold, as if she was going to kill him at any time.

He added calmly: "The things Uncle Xu left behind are in my house."

The murderous intent in the empress's eyes subsided slightly, and she closed her mouth and said no more.

After the two of them entered the unit door and got into the elevator, the number keys lit up one by one. The empress was surprised to feel the slight sense of weightlessness, and suddenly said:

"You can afford to live in such a new house. It seems that your salary... well, the salary is not bad."

She was trying to adapt to the discourse habits of this world, but her words were obviously half-baked.

Zhao Duan smiled and said with a complicated expression:
"It's OK, mainly because the housing fund can cover the mortgage. But it's already difficult to get a down payment, so I can only buy a new house. After all... the newer the house, the more remote the location.

My family is from the countryside, and we can scrape together some money, plus what I have saved from working over the years, it’s barely enough. But…it’s not bad, people like me are the envy of many people.”

Well, except for sudden death...

Housing fund? Down payment?

The empress was puzzled when she heard these unfamiliar words, but in order to maintain the emperor's dignity, she resisted the urge to ask.

However, as the elevator door opened with a "ding!" sound, the empress looked through the window and found that she had actually arrived at a height of more than ten floors. Her face, pretending to be "worldly-wise", finally changed.

She suddenly came back to her senses, staring in shock at the slowly closing "iron cage" called the elevator, wondering:

"How can this thing lift a person to such a height so easily?"

"Ms. Xu, this way." Zhao Duan stood in front of the security door, took out the key, and called her to come over from the stairwell.

The empress put on a stern face again and walked over silently, looking curiously at the open security door.

I wondered to myself, is this the home of the person in the painting?

The room was pitch black.

Zhao Duan opened the door and fumbled to turn on the light in the entrance hall.

With a "click", in the empress's surprised gaze, the lights came on, and a white cat in the living room meowed and jumped out.

(End of this chapter)