A butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon rainforest might cause a tornado in Texas, USA.
Ever since leaving Fuxiang, Pei Ying's life had deviated from its original track. A person who previously had no intersection with her had forcefully barged into her life.
She clearly wasn't in the same college as him, and he clearly couldn't have his phone on him all the time, but there were the mandatory nightly messages, the figure that would definitely appear on weekends, and the people on campus who claimed to be acquainted with him and were entrusted by him to take care of her...
That person seemed to be everywhere.
Pei Ying sometimes felt like a frog in a pot. The water around her went from cool to warm, and the temperature slowly rose. She noticed it, but was powerless to escape the situation.
The frequency of her dreams had increased over the past two months.
Very bizarrely, they were still those antique-style dreams. The dreamscapes were very messy. One moment she was leading a little girl with a blurred face and hiding in a carriage, as if running from someone; the next moment she was playing chess with a burly man in what seemed to be a study.
There was something even more outrageous. She actually had an erotic dream.
In the dream, the silk curtains of the bed were drawn. She was completely naked, yet covered from head to toe in various gold ornaments. Someone chuckled in her ear, lifting and lowering her with his strong, powerful arms.
Upon waking from the dream, Pei Ying hugged her pillow, her eyes vacant, but her face was so red it looked like it was going to bleed. She felt like she was about to be steamed alive.
God, she actually had that kind of dream.
It was incredibly realistic. She even remembered that the older version of Huo Junze in the dream had a certain part that was larger than her hand...
Pei Ying looked down at the length of her hand, then vaguely made a grasping motion. When she realized what she was doing, she buried her head in her pillow.
She was doomed. What on earth was she doing!
"Yingying, aren't you coming down yet? We have a full day of classes today. After the major courses during the day, we still have an elective at night. You can't just make do with biscuits today; we have to go to the cafeteria for a proper breakfast," her roommate urged.
Pei Ying patted her cheeks, trying hard to pull herself together. "Coming."
*
Although there were many classes today, affected by that confusing and unrestrained dream last night, Pei Ying was listless all day.
Others said that you can't remember the details of dreams, and that dreams have no logic. One second you might be on a vast grassland where the wind blows the grass low to reveal cows and sheep, and the next second the fog clears to reveal the impossible River Styx covered in spider lilies.
Pei Ying used to believe this, but recently she had started to doubt it.
She remembered every dream she had. Sometimes, a dream she had a few days ago would reproduce a certain scene in the following days, and it could actually be continued.
She also remembered the details in the dreams, from the pattern on the chess box to the direction of certain events.
"Yingying, you've been absent-minded all day. What are you thinking about? Could it be that you're thinking about..."
Lyu Meng winked at Pei Ying. Seeing her dodge her gaze, she smiled and said, "Sure enough, you're thinking about your boyfriend! However, the fact that you got a boyfriend in the second semester of your freshman year was a surprise to the whole dorm. We secretly discussed it before and unanimously thought you'd leave the singles club shortly after enrollment."
Pei Ying choked. "Ah, why?"
Lyu Meng looked her up and down and clicked her tongue twice. "Great beauties have no self-awareness. If I looked like you, I could change three boyfriends in one semester."
Pei Ying: "..."
Lyu Meng sighed, "It's a pity about Song, the most handsome guy in the finance department. I previously thought..."
Before she could finish her sentence, Lyu Meng was nudged by the roommate next to her, Su Yu: "Alright, don't talk about the past. Let's go to the elective class."
Not everyone in their dorm chose the same elective class. Pei Ying's elective class tonight was "Ancient Chinese History", and only Lyu Meng had chosen this class with her.
After dinner, the two parted ways with the other roommates, and Pei Ying and Lyu Meng went to the multimedia classroom together.
As the sky gradually darkened, the freshmen from various colleges arrived at the classroom one after another.
Pei Ying and Lyu Meng sat in the outermost seats in the middle section.
Five minutes before class started, a tall figure walked into the classroom from the front door. Lyu Meng glanced over there, then turned to look at Pei Ying beside her.
Catching sight of the other party heading this way out of the corner of her eye, Lyu Meng sighed in her heart.
It had been two months since school started. They occasionally bumped into that handsome guy from the finance department. According to what she had found out, plus a bit of guessing, Yingying must have laid her cards on the table with him the night they scrambled for elective classes.
The other party didn't seem to believe it at the time, and insisted on choosing "Ancient Chinese History" as well.
Although the real boyfriend had visited the school a few times later, confirming that Yingying was taken, the submitted courses could no longer be changed.
Seeming to notice Lyu Meng's gaze, the handsome boy not far away looked over. Finding it was her, he gave a polite smile, and as he looked away, he glanced at the girl beside Lyu Meng.
Finally, Song Qinghe and his roommate sat diagonally behind Pei Ying and Lyu Meng.
Lyu Meng: Awkward.jpg
"Ring, ring, ring." The bell rang.
The teacher, who was already on the podium, cleared his throat: "I've been teaching you for over two months and haven't taken attendance yet. Let's take attendance today. The students whose names are called, please stand up so I can get to know you."
This caused an uproar.
"Ni Jingyu, Lyu Meng..."
Pei Ying's phone on the desk vibrated at this moment. She picked it up and looked, unsurprisingly, it was him again.
Over the past two months, someone had figured out her class schedule. He knew perfectly well when she had class and what class it was. He never avoided non-major classes like "Ancient Chinese History" where she could slack off.
[H]: Which dynasty is your teacher talking about tonight?
Pei Ying realized that Huo Junze was really interested in history. Ever since he found out she had an elective class called "Ancient Chinese History", he would ask about it every week when she had this class.
[Yingyue]: Class hasn't started yet. The teacher is taking attendance.
"Pei Ying." The teacher on the podium called the last name.
Hearing this, Pei Ying stood up.
The teacher smiled and said, "What a coincidence. In the history I'm going to talk about today, one of the main characters is also named Pei Ying. According to historical records, this one was also a great beauty. Her life was full of ups and downs and incredibly legendary, much talked about by countless people in later generations."
Pei Ying: "..."
As gazes fell upon her, the tips of Pei Ying's ears gradually turned red. She felt like she was going to melt into a puddle under the stares.
She finally managed to sit down, and a message came from the other side, asking about today's topic again.
Just then, the teacher opened a folder from a USB drive and clicked on the prepared PPT. The words "Talking about the Great Yin" were prominently displayed on the large screen. Pei Ying took a picture of the projection and sent it over.
The other side replied.
[H]: Listen carefully.
Pei Ying curled her lip. What was his problem? Which class didn't she listen carefully to?
Then another message came from the other side.
[H]: Requesting to audit the class.
Pei Ying's first reaction was that things were not looking good. This guy was going to cause trouble again. She immediately typed: It's just an ordinary history class. What's there to listen to?
In the end, the other side did as he pleased. He called it a "request," but it left no room for refusal.
[H]: Start a voice call, I'll keep my mic muted.
Pei Ying: "..."
Ultimately, the call was secretly connected.
The little interlude off-stage didn't catch the teacher's attention. In a non-major elective class like this, there were plenty of students skipping or slacking off.
It was just playing on a phone, not causing a ruckus in class.
The teacher even made a recommendation: "Before class begins, I want to recommend an app to you all. It's called Haijiao. You've probably heard of it. It has many sections, such as film and television, entertainment, history, and so on. Personally, I feel that highly educated individuals frequently appear in the history section, and many threads are well worth a read."
Coincidentally, Pei Ying had this app on her phone.
Since the teacher said it was worth reading, she naturally opened Haijiao and entered the history section, a place she had never visited before.
Because the Haijiao app housed numerous sections, its daily active users were high. However, "History" was tucked away in a small corner. Pei Ying initially thought it would be quite unpopular, but upon clicking in, she found it was anything but cold.
Several hot threads floated on the front page, and the latest replies were all within the past hour.
[If I lay out the evidence that Empress Mingsheng was a time traveler, no one should be able to refute it, right? Come debate me if you disagree.] (hot)
[Whenever I lose faith in love, I come here to look at Brother Shan and Sister Ying, and then I feel like I can believe again!] (hot)
[My Shan-Ying ship remains invincible in the shipping world. Today is yet another day of dying over their romance ovo]
[The Great Yin dynasty really gets more fascinating the more you analyze it. It's just a pity that the last emperor, Emperor Xun of Yin, was waaaay (...) too incompetent. If he had even a tenth of Brother Shan's capability, Great Yin could have lasted another fifty years.]
At this moment, the teacher on the podium said, "Looking throughout the thousands of years of our Chinese history, spanning nearly thirty dynasties and giving rise to countless brilliant civilizations, if we were to pick the most awe-inspiring ancient dynasty that is most worthy of repeated study, many people would cast their vote for Great Yin."
The presentation transitioned at this point. The slide displayed an ancient portrait of a man wearing imperial court attire and a twelve-tasseled jade crown.
"First, let's introduce our Great Ancestor of Yin. The Great Ancestor of Yin, Huo Tingshan, was born into the Huo clan of Xuantu in Youzhou. His family started rising to power during his great-great-grandfather's generation. In modern terms, the Great Ancestor was a multi-generational official. His family laid the foundation for his future conquest of the Central Plains and his domination of the world. However, it was merely a foundation. In the final years of the Chu dynasty, you could easily grab a handful of people with better foundations than him. After all, Youzhou at that time was plagued by severe cold and barren land, not to mention frequent invasions by the Xiongnu from the north. It was a world apart from what it is today. Youzhou revered martial prowess. Huo Tingshan grew up in the military camps and had already followed his elders north to fight in wars by the age of twelve..." the teacher explained.
Pei Ying was still scrolling through the threads on Haijiao. Seeing one that introduced character backgrounds, she casually clicked into it.
[Brother Shan was carrying a blade onto the battlefield at twelve. What was I doing at twelve? Oh, transitioning from elementary to middle school, playing with mud like an idiot (streaming tears/)]
[Hmph, you were playing with mud, but I was different. When I was twelve, I was helping old ladies cross the street (the red scarf on my chest shines even brighter/)]
The teacher continued introducing Huo Tingshan's life: "At twenty, upon coming of age, he led the army north and annihilated fifty thousand Xiongnu elites. The following year, he went to Chang'an to receive his title. He lost his father at twenty-five, and in that same year, Huo Tingshan took over the position of Governor of Youzhou. When he reached thirty, the northern Xiongnu, having built up their strength for ten years, invaded the south again. The Great Ancestor personally led his troops to meet the enemy and successfully severed the head of the Left Worthy Prince, returning peace to the northern lands once more."
Perhaps because she had been teased about it too much, Pei Ying was slightly self-conscious about her own name and subconsciously didn't want to learn too much about that Great Ancestor of Yin.
However, it was very strange. She was clearly studying him in detail for the first time, yet she felt incredibly familiar with the series of numbers the teacher reported. Even when the teacher mentioned he lost his father at twenty-five, she inexplicably knew that in the "same year," he took over as Governor of Youzhou.
It was truly too bizarre.
"In 144 AD, the Blue Turban rebels, led by Dream Fulfillment Master, caused chaos in the Jizhou region. After the Great Chu imperial court sent troops to suppress them several times to no avail, they issued orders to the governors of all provinces the following year, commanding them to jointly crusade against the Blue Turban rebels."
"It was also in this year that the Great Ancestor of Yin, who was leading his troops south, met the recently widowed Empress Mingsheng in Beichuan County. He fell in love with her at first sight. From then on, the two powerhouses joined forces, kicking off the glorious four-hundred-year history of Great Yin," the teacher said.
Pei Ying inexplicably wanted to complain, "Love at first sight? More like lust at first sight."
Halfway through her muttering, a WeChat message popped up from him.
[H]: This teacher of yours is not bad.
Followed by another message.
[H]: Why couldn't it be love at first sight?
Pei Ying recalled the thread she had just seen on the forum debating whether the Emperor and Empress fell in love at first sight. So, she clicked into it, scrolled and scrolled, found two comments, and deliberately screenshotted them to send to him.
[Saying it was love at first sight is an absolute joke. Brother Shan was already thirty-six when he met Sister Ying! You expect a mature man who chops off people's heads without blinking to yearn for love like a little boy? What a joke.]
[It couldn't possibly be love at first sight. For a career-obsessed man like my Brother Shan, he was probably wondering if Bingzhou was acting up at the time, or thinking about what posture he should use to slice off that old thief Dream Fulfillment Master's head. Romantic love? Does my Brother Shan even know how to spell those words!]
Not long after she sent the screenshot, the other side threw an image back. What was incredibly absurd was that his picture also came from the exact same thread.
Compared to Pei Ying's carefully selected and precisely cropped two comments, he had just randomly screenshotted a whole page.
[Yeah, yeah, yeah, they didn't fall in love at first sight. But even though Beichuan County was so close to Youzhou, Brother Shan deliberately didn't send her back to Youzhou and insisted on bringing her south with him (doge/)]
[I was arguing with a fan of Emperor Rongguang before. They couldn't win the argument, so they actually claimed that my Sister Ying wasn't Brother Shan's only one later on. Their reasoning was that they dug up some historical records saying that when they were in Xuzhou, Brother Shan secretly found a craftsman behind Sister Ying's back and had a full set of gold jewelry made. And supposedly, this set of jewelry never appeared on Sister Ying, so Brother Shan must have secretly given it to some mistress. I completely died laughing. Sister Ying had so much jewelry. The main tomb of the Emperor and Empress hasn't even been opened yet. Just from the two side tombs excavated at the very edges, eight or nine out of ten of the burial items were women's belongings, and the jewelry alone is dazzling. Besides, just because you say it was a secret means it was? Maybe Sister Ying knew perfectly well in her heart! Who doesn't know that my Brother Shan was the most chaste man in all of Great Yin.]
[I specifically looked through a lot of historical materials before. Honestly, there are quite a few founding emperors who conquered the world, but the only one who brought his wife along from beginning to end was Brother Shan (pointing fingers/)]
[Sigh, let's stop arguing and just let them have this one (boredly checking nails/)]
The comments on the Haijiao forum could all be liked, and in the page of comments he sent over, every single comment had over 100k likes.
Pei Ying: "..."
The teacher's focus gradually shifted from Emperor Taizu of Yin to Empress Mingsheng. "High-bridge saddles, stirrups, scented soap, white and brown sugar, telescopes, glass, and gunpowder... These shocking inventions of the time all sprang up like a geyser from the hands of one person."
"Aside from inventions, Empress Pei also made great contributions to people's livelihood and education. The terraced farming policy was proposed by her; the newspapers we have today can be traced back to the Yin Dynasty, and it was also Empress Pei who advocated their implementation; the imperial examination system, which broke the monopoly of powerful clans on official promotion and has been used for over a thousand years, was also initiated by Empress Pei. According to historical records, the dynasty where women had the highest status in ancient times was precisely the early-to-mid Yin Dynasty. Women could study, could independently divorce their husbands, could establish their own households, could engage in business freely, and could even serve as officials in the court..."
The teacher sighed with emotion, "Empress Pei was a genius, a person with true great wisdom. The Great Prosperity Era, co-created by her and Emperor Taizu of Yin, and continued by Emperor Xian of Yin, lasted for a full century and is hailed as the most dazzling pearl of ancient dynasties. If Emperor Taizu of Yin hadn't met Empress Pei, perhaps he would still have ascended to the throne in the end, but the Great Yin would absolutely not be the Great Yin Empire that lasted for over four hundred years and is still talked about with great relish by later generations."
Pei Ying didn't know why, but with every sentence the teacher said, a wave of heat rushed to her face, making her feel increasingly flushed.
It was just, weirdly embarrassing.
Pei Ying unscrewed her cup to drink some water and calm her mood. No longer looking at the PowerPoint, she cast her gaze on her phone.
[Got cheated on by a scumbag today, feeling unhappy, came back to watch Brother Shan and Sister Ying for comfort T^T]
[Can I just say, actually compared to Brother Shan, I'm more curious about Sister Ying, and admire her to death. Remarrying up to a provincial governor, directly training her husband from a man-eating wolf into a tail-wagging big dog, and her two stepsons respecting and loving her more than the other. After the Emperor and Empress passed away, Brother Shan and Sister Ying were buried together as originally planned, and their memorial tablets were enshrined together. Who wouldn't say my Sister Ying is awesome (Thumbs up/)]
[God of Transmigration, this faithful believer is willing to sacrifice his eight-pack abs as the price, wishing to travel back to Beichuan County at the end of the Great Chu Dynasty to marry Pei Ying as his wife (Hands folded together/)]
[Upstairs, do you know how to write the word 'death' (Doge/)]
[Go ahead and marry her, then Brother Shan will be like: your wife? ok, mine.]
[And while he's at it, he'll make the ex-husband disappear from the face of the earth, right? Hahahahaha, what good does it do you to make me die of laughter.]
*
A class period quickly passed. After the dismissal bell rang, Lyu Meng, who was sitting next to her, leaned slightly towards Pei Ying.
"Yingying, that Song, the most handsome guy in the college, he..."
Pei Ying's heart skipped a beat. Her hand moved faster than her brain, pulling down the WeChat call screen that had been ongoing for an entire class period, and swiftly hanging up.
[H]: ?
[H]: Is there something I'm not allowed to hear?
