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

Lin Yanzhou took the jade pendant and answered firmly, "I want to continue."

Lin Yanzhou didn't immediately cross the threshold. He turned his head and glanced at Zhao Lingxi: "You stay here."

Zhao Lingxi stopped in her tracks: "What's inside?"

"It's not certain yet," he said, "but I can't take you in."

Why?

"Your father has already gone in," Lin Yanzhou said. "He hasn't come out since. He wasn't trapped; he chose to stay. You're going in too, and you have to make a choice. Are you sure you want to make that choice now?"

He paused, his voice lower than before, "The less you know about what's going on inside, the better. I don't know what I'll encounter once I go in, but I can't let someone who doesn't know the consequences share the burden with me."

"What if you can't get out?"

"Then you'll have to remain a widow," Lin Yanzhou said. "You wait for me here."

After saying this, he turned and stepped over the threshold. The door slowly closed behind him, the light at the bottom of the crack maintaining a steady brightness throughout the closing process. Once the door was closed, Zhao Lingxi stood outside and reached out to touch the edge of the doorway. She touched a smooth rock face; there was no gap to accommodate her fingertips. The door had merged back into the rock face, as if it had never existed.

Beyond the door lay a space beyond measure. Beneath his feet was a translucent crystalline floor, beneath which stretched an unfathomable depth. The entire space was illuminated by two spherical objects suspended in the air, each about the size of a person's embrace. Their surfaces possessed a constantly flowing quality, like translucent gas slowly circulating and adjusting its direction along its own contours. They had no fixed outlines, no eyes, no mouths, no recognizable facial features, yet Lin Yanzhou could sense them watching him.

The warmth began to emanate from deep within his brow, spreading more evenly than ever before, covering the entire surface of his consciousness. When the first message arrived, he saw a still image of an unfamiliar city. Immediately following, a complete question was implanted into his consciousness: "If you could change this era, what would you do?"

A complete set of concepts emerged in his mind: liberating all of humanity and enabling everyone in the world to live a good life. No war, no oppression, no discrimination based on birth, skin color, language, or belief; everyone coexisting in the same system.

The second question followed closely: "What are your views on other civilizations?" Eight words surfaced in his mind: peaceful coexistence, non-aggression. He added a more complete picture to those eight words—different forms of civilizations operate at their own pace in the same space, without interfering with each other, like stars shining brightly in the same night sky.

The third question was slightly slower than the first two: "Will Xuan Shuo, under your rule, unify the world?" He presented a complete sequence of concepts: Xuan Shuo does not invade. It will only attract, only help, and only prove itself worthy of being approached through the benefits created by hard work.

The information flow paused for a moment. The light flowing across the surfaces of the two spherical objects continued to move, neither speeding up nor slowing down. Then, all three choices simultaneously reached his consciousness.

The first option: continue serving as the imperial advisor and not alter the natural course of history.

The second option: Return to the modern world and live a peaceful life, never to return again.

The third option: Stay and be an observer, no longer interfering in the world's direction.

Lin Yanzhou didn't stop after reading the third option. The outline of the fourth option he created began to take shape in his consciousness, as if it had grown out of his own: "I will continue to be your guinea pig. I will not return to the modern world to be a rich man, nor will I be an observer. I will continue to travel between the two worlds, making both worlds change because of me."

You don't need to search for another time traveler. All variables are concentrated in one sample; you just need to continue recording me to see everything you want to see. The condition is—you have to give me some power to change the modern world.

After the message was sent, there was no immediate response. A long time passed before a very short message reached his consciousness: "Under review." Then the surface luster of the two spherical objects began to dim, and the movement at their edges gradually slowed, as if they were entering a dormant state. The warmth was fading, receding below his brow, leaving a lingering, slowly cooling sensation.

Lin Yanzhou stood still, waiting for the warmth to completely dissipate before turning back to where he came from. The stone door opened to the sides as he approached, revealing Zhao Lingxi standing outside, her hand still half-raised.

"How long has it been?" Lin Yanzhou asked.

"It's been three hours! I was so worried!" Zhao Lingxi said. "When you went in, I leaned against the wall and counted how many breaths you took."

Lin Yanzhou nodded and walked back the way he came. He didn't stop to look at the stone wall carved with clerical script when he passed it. As he climbed out of the well, Zhao Lingxi followed him out, stood beside the old locust tree, bent down to brush the dust off her clothes, and then turned to look at him as she straightened up: "What did you see in there?"

"Take your men back to the palace first, I'll take another look."

He felt the blood-red jade pendant at his waist suddenly vibrate. The vibration wasn't caused by loosening or collision, but rather it emanated from within the jade, like a rhythmic pulse, continuously transmitting along the edge of the leather belt to his side.

After the princess and her entourage left, the crimson color of the jade pendant slowly flowed across its surface, gathering from the edges to the center and then spreading outwards, forming concentric circles of expanding dark red ripples, as if something was squeezing outwards from the inside of the jade, pushing the red layer on its surface outwards piece by piece.

The second vibration came from within the jade. The red area on the surface of the jade pendant began to shrink into a tiny dot, as if all the red color spreading outward was being absorbed back by that dot, converging from the edge towards the center to form a dark red core only the size of a bean. Then it spread outward.

The red color spread rapidly upwards along the leather belt, through the fabric at his waist, up his spine, to the back of his neck, across his hairline, and met the warm contact point of the mineral crystal between his brows, creating a current-like penetrating sensation. He felt his body being enveloped by a continuously thickening force field, as if an invisible container was drawing him into a closed, insulating layer at the speed of light, and then the ground was sucked away from beneath his feet.

He was disoriented as he fell. He couldn't feel gravity, he couldn't feel acceleration, and the surrounding light interspersed his vision in discontinuous fragments. He glimpsed a grayish-white rock layer rushing backward, followed by a continuously glowing space, as if passing through layers of closing membranes. He tried to turn his head to confirm Zhao Lingxi's location; she was right beside him, her clothes and hair floating in the same direction, as if being pulled by the same airflow.

The airflow was accelerating, propelling them forward with increasing force, then suddenly changed direction, as if being pushed along a straight line into a vertical channel by an invisible thread. The surrounding light gradually changed from gray to warm yellow, and then from warm yellow to a clearer white, as if they were passing through a barrier composed of multiple layers of filters, each layer altering the wavelength distribution of the external light.

The landing was more stable than he had expected. The ground beneath his feet felt solid, as if a flat surface was supporting his weight. He steadied himself, then immediately looked around, his hands on his hips. She looked down at her feet; beneath the translucent crystalline ground, a slowly rotating stratum was constantly changing its texture and edges, like a giant, rhythmically spinning old record.

Above my head was a huge dome, the curved surface of which was covered with luminous fine lines. These lines were uneven, as if they were driven by some constantly changing force field to flow in different directions, intersecting to form new branches, and then merging into thicker light veins.