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

As the stone door opened, Lin Yanzhou's hand paused on the door. He thought to himself: If there is any danger, I can immediately activate the system and return to the modern world. I can even take someone with me. I'll go back to the modern world with the princess first, and then return to Xuan Shuo after a while. Or maybe I won't come back at all. Let Xuan Shuo do whatever it wants. Anyway, I have enough money to spend.

The light under the door crack did not disappear, nor was it disturbed by the pushing motion. It maintained its brightness unchanged, as if the light was not coming from a fixed lamp, but rather from the wall or the floor itself.

When he pushed the door hard, he didn't encounter much resistance. The door hinges turned almost silently, as if the opening and closing track had been finely polished and adjusted. Each bearing maintained a precise rotational gap in its own position, and friction and sound wave transmission were almost suppressed to a minimum.

Behind the door was a stone chamber. It was about two zhang square, with smooth walls and no windows. The light came from a row of translucent thin plates embedded in the rock strata at the top of the chamber, emitting a uniform white light, a spectrum that was neither sunlight nor candlelight. In the center of the chamber was a stone table, on which lay a scroll of silk, and beside the table sat an old man wearing a dark gray old robe.

He looked to be in his early sixties, with gray hair and a rather thin build. His posture didn't resemble someone who had been trapped for a long time—his shoulders were straight, and his hands rested steadily on the table, as if he had become accustomed to maintaining the same posture for extended periods in enclosed spaces, and accustomed to his existence being confined between stone walls. He raised his head, his gaze falling on Lin Yanzhou across the table, without any expression of surprise.

When Zhao Lingxi followed in, the old man's gaze shifted from Lin Yanzhou to her face, lingering for a moment. It wasn't that he recognized her, but rather that he was confirming a long-forgotten memory through certain details about her: "When your father came, he was a little younger than you."

Zhao Lingxi stood at the door without going inside: "You know my father?"

"I know him," he said. "He always sits across from me at that stone table whenever he comes. Sometimes he'll leave after a short while, and sometimes he'll sit there all day without saying a word. He told me that this room is the only place he feels comfortable being."

"I, the Emperor?" Lin Yanzhou repeated the word.

The old man smiled briefly, a weak smile, like a slight tug at the corner of his mouth. "I am Zhao Xuan, the founding emperor of Xuan Shuo. But you probably won't be surprised to hear my name. I had another name in Lin Yanzhou's time. I was called Wang Mang."

Lin Yanzhou's hand paused for a moment on the edge of the stone table.

"Wang Mang?" Lin Yanzhou was startled, then puzzled. "The Wang Mang of the Xin Dynasty?"

The old man nodded: "Back in my time, I implemented many reforms—land nationalization, the Five Equalizations and Six Controls, the abolition of slavery, and the forging of the 'Ingenious Sword'. I thought I came from the future, bringing a more advanced set of things, and that as long as I implemented them, history would proceed in the direction I envisioned. I wanted to give the world a better way of life. But as you know, the reforms failed, the new dynasty collapsed, and I was written about by later generations as a usurper."

"I failed, but my failure wasn't to those who opposed the reforms; it was to fail because I didn't understand one thing—a time traveler returning with knowledge from another era may seem to be changing history, but in reality, they're just following a pre-written script down a different path. No matter how I try to change things, the outcome is already predetermined."

He paused, his gaze falling on Lin Yanzhou: "Your current situation is better than mine was back then. You are more stable than I was; you didn't rush to become emperor, you didn't rush to change everything, you first focused on the people's livelihood. Grain prices, irrigation canals, farm tools, seeds—everything you did did was within the limits that the era could afford. That was the right thing to do."

Zhao Lingxi took two steps closer and stood by the table: "You just mentioned a 'pre-set script,' who pre-set it?"

Wang Mang did not answer. He stood up, walked to the innermost wall of the stone chamber, and pointed to a picture carved on the wall. Lin Yanzhou walked closer to look. The picture was carved on the entire wall, with lines finer than ordinary stone carvings, as if it were etched by some kind of laser with extremely strong penetrating power. However, the edge treatment clearly showed traces of handwork, and the deep lines still retained faint reflections produced during the carving process.

At the very center of the image was a grayish-white sphere, its surface covered with craters and dark patches. Its outline was more precise and clear than any lunar photograph he had ever seen in a textbook, as if someone had observed it from a very close distance with a high-powered instrument. Surrounding this sphere, the edge of the wall was engraved with a fine circular outline, like a large, slowly rotating gear.

"Abdala," Wang Mang's voice was lower than before, "They claim to be observers of the universe, an alien tribe whose function is to record and assess the evolution of civilizations. They have placed observation targets at multiple points in time—I am one of them. You are too."

Zhao Lingxi's gaze slowly shifted between the wall and the old man: "So you're trapped here because Abdullah locked you up?"

"Lock me up?" Wang Mang shook his head. "This isn't a prison cell. This is a reception room. The reason I didn't leave after I came in last time was because I chose to stay."

They gave me two choices—go back and continue being that failed emperor, or stay and observe the world's trajectory from another identity.

"I chose the latter. After your father found this place, he also met with Abdullah's envoy and learned everything. He didn't make a fuss, nor did he try to change anything; he simply continued to be his emperor, continuing to be the one being observed, and ultimately, he too couldn't escape his bizarre death."

He walked back to the stone table, his gaze shifting from Lin Yanzhou to Zhao Lingxi, then back to Lin Yanzhou: "You've come this far. According to their rules, you have several paths to choose from—continue being your national advisor, improve people's livelihoods, stabilize Xuan Shuo, and use those seeds and farming tools where they're needed. This is the path they most approve of."

If you want to be emperor, it's not impossible, as long as you don't alter the overall course of history, and as long as you don't try to cause the world's technological level to jump too far off track, you can do it. But you can also choose another path—continue forward, delve into their core region, figure out what they really are, understand the purpose of their observations, and what they will ultimately do with these observation records.

He sat back down on the stone bench, his gaze falling on the table in front of him: "I chose to stay here. I came to this era because I thought I could implement a more advanced system, and then I failed here, becoming a textbook example of failure. Now you see where the bottom line and boundaries of this world are—as long as you don't touch their core rules, this door will always be open to you."

"I've been waiting for you here for a long time. I don't know how much longer I can wait. This room maintains my physiological metabolic cycle with an efficiency no one knows about, but my memory and consciousness are fading at an extremely rapid pace. Your timing is perfect."

He paused, glancing down at his hands resting on the table. "The people from Abdullah said that you've made it this far, which means your behavior pattern has passed their initial assessment. You've passed the test. Now you just need to decide whether to move forward or stay here."

Lin Yanzhou felt that warmth spreading deep between his brows again. This time, it wasn't just warmth, but also a slight pulling sensation, as if someone in the shadows had gently tugged at the end of a thread, letting him know that there was still a path ahead, only that path was not yet illuminated. He glanced down at the blood-red jade pendant at Zhao Lingxi's waist, then turned his head, his gaze falling on Wang Mang: "How long have you been waiting for me here?"