Governing the country, enriching the people, an unparalleled imperial tutor

As Lin Yanzhou walked through the Imperial Garden, the Chief Eunuch was already waiting inside the palace gate. He bowed from afar and said, "Grand Preceptor, His Majesty and the Eldest Princess have been waiting in the Zichen Hall for a quarter of an hour."

Thank you for your trouble.

Lin Yanzhou continued walking along the palace wall. When he stepped into the Zichen Hall, Zhao Yan was standing beside the imperial desk, the scroll in his hand half-flipped, as if he had just picked it up to flip through while waiting for Lin Yanzhou to arrive, but his gaze never truly fell on the pages. Zhao Lingxi sat to the side, dressed in a dark blue casual robe, her hair not tied up today. She hadn't planned to leave the palace and had been summoned to wait for him.

As Lin Yanzhou stepped into the hall, Zhao Yan put down his book: "Master, you've finally emerged from seclusion. I wonder if you have anything to show us?"

"There are some small items for Your Majesty to inspect first."

Lin Yanzhou didn't walk to the imperial desk, but stopped in the open space in the center of the hall. He raised his left hand, and with a thought, the first thing appeared in his palm—a square box about the size of a palm, entirely silver-white, with a smooth surface, and a narrow, elongated luminous surface embedded in the front. At this moment, the screen was dark, like a mirror without reflection.

Zhao Yan's breath hitched slightly: "What's this in your hand, sir..."

"This is a game console." Lin Yanzhou stepped forward and placed the silver-white square box on the imperial desk. "It contains about ten kinds of strategy and layout games. There are games about troop deployment, logistics, city attack and defense, and some about balancing the power in the court. Your Majesty can take a look at them in your spare time."

Zhao Yan looked down at the silver-white box, not reaching out to touch it. After a while, his gaze shifted from the darkened screen to Lin Yanzhou's face: "Can I use it too?"

"Prepared especially for His Majesty."

Lin Yanzhou lightly tapped the screen, and when it lit up, Zhao Yan's expression visibly tensed—the glowing panel was still clearly visible in the sunlight, with lines of characters and icons appearing, like some kind of writing style he had never seen before. Lin Yanzhou didn't explain further, directly flipping to a city siege interface. A besieged city appeared on the screen, with the number of defending troops and the remaining days of food supplies marked on the city walls.

Zhao Yan's gaze was completely captivated. He didn't speak, but leaned forward slightly, staring at the besieged city on the screen, truly conducting a silent deduction. He hovered his finger above the glowing panel for a moment, then withdrew it: "The layout of this siege—the defending army only has twelve days' worth of provisions, but all three supply lines outside the city have been cut off. If I were sitting inside the city, I would send men down the western wall by rope on the first night, taking a waterway to the enemy's rear to burn their provisions."

Lin Yanzhou remained silent. When Zhao Yan spoke those words, he spoke faster than usual, and his gaze did not leave the screen—he himself was unaware of this, but Lin Yanzhou had already noticed.

"Your Majesty can keep it to play with," Lin Yanzhou said. "The screen needs to be pressed lightly; it will dim on its own when you stop pressing it."

Zhao Yan finally reached out and touched the glowing panel. Where his fingertips touched, the screen flickered slightly, as if in response to his touch. He withdrew his hand, not pressing it a second time, but his gaze remained fixed on the slowly dimming light.

Lin Yanzhou walked up to Zhao Lingxi. She was sitting to the side, her gaze had been fixed on the silver box on the imperial desk, and she only looked away when she saw him approaching.

"For you."

He opened his palm. A slender glass bottle appeared in his hand, completely transparent, filled with a pale pink liquid, and with a tiny silver nozzle at the mouth. Sunlight streamed in through the high window, passing through the transparent glass and refracting into a small patch of shimmering light inside the bottle. Zhao Lingxi's gaze froze for a moment; the light slid from the bottle to her fingers and then back down, like a flowing veil.

"This is perfume," Lin Yanzhou said. "If you apply it to your wrists or the side of your neck, the scent will last all day."

He placed the bottle beside her and then took out a second item: a slim tube of lipstick, its casing a deep red, like a piece of polished jade, with a section of vermilion lipstick visible when unscrewed. She had never seen this kind of packaging before. She reached out, took it, unscrewed it, and closed it again, her fingertip pausing briefly above the section of lipstick without touching it.

"It's for applying to the lips. The color is very light, but it makes the lips look more moisturized after application."

Zhao Lingxi glanced down at the thin tube, then closed the cap and held it in her hand, as if to feel the smooth and unfamiliar touch.

"Such exquisite glasswork is a once-in-a-millennium find! Lin Yanzhou, the celestial artifacts of your immortal realm are truly amazing!"

"These are glass bottles, very common in my hometown. The perfumes inside are the high-end stuff. You'll know once you've used them."

She didn't ask where the items came from. She placed the slender perfume bottle on her lap, then turned to the side, her gaze lingering on the two items in her palm for a moment before lifting them again and glancing towards the palace gate—as if to make sure the palace servants sweeping outside wouldn't suddenly come in.

Lin Yanzhou then took out a round mirror, about the size of his palm, with a silver back. He handed the mirror over without saying much, only turning it towards her. Sunlight streamed in through the high window, falling on the mirror and reflecting back, illuminating her entire face—so clear that even the shadows of her eyelashes could be counted.

Zhao Lingxi's hand stopped. She didn't take it; she first stared at the clear outline in the mirror for a while before reaching out to take the mirror, turning it over to look at the silver back in her palm, then turning it back to look at her own eyebrows and eyes in the mirror. She could see her reflection in a bronze mirror, but it was blurry, as if through a layer of mist. This mirror, however, reflected things so clearly that she could see the very faint line at the corner of her eye—a line she had never known before, because she had never seen herself so clearly before.

She glanced down at the mirror in her hand, then at the slim lipstick and the pale pink perfume beside her. Sunlight fell on the three objects, reflecting three different kinds of light. Her ears burned slightly, and she shifted her gaze to the side, her voice softer than before: "Lin Yanzhou, you're really too good to me. What else did you bring for someone?"

Lin Yanzhou looked at her, unable to flirt with the princess in front of the young emperor, and didn't answer her question. He then took out a cylindrical metal can; its silver body was cool and made a crisp sound as it landed in his palm. He unsealed it, and white bubbles of steam rose from the opening, hissing as they dissipated into the air. Zhao Yan and Zhao Lingxi were both stunned—Zhao Yan leaned out to look at the steaming metal can, while Zhao Lingxi held the perfume bottle in her hand, her gaze fixed on the dissipating white steam, as if trying to determine what form it took.

Lin Yanzhou took a sip himself and put it down. "This is soda. It tastes sweet and has bubbles. There are a few other kinds too." He took out a dark brown can, a clear one, and a long, thin bag containing small, thin strips of snacks. Unwrapping it revealed golden, crisp strips coated with a layer of very fine salt, glistening in the sunlight. They were much harder than the palace pastries, making a crunchy sound when bitten. He took a bite and handed the remaining half to Zhao Yan: "Your Majesty can try some; it's salty."

Zhao Yan looked at him for a moment, then reached out and took the half-eaten golden, crispy strip, taking a bite. He paused as he chewed, as if getting used to the texture, which was completely different from the palace pastries, before chewing faster: "What's this crunchy thing called?"

"fries."