Everlasting Palace

Liu Chang'an was deeply impressed by the bronze coffin. He frowned and thought for a moment, trying to recall Shangguan Dandan's carriage from back then, but found it a bit difficult.

When a person walks slowly through a primeval forest, covering hundreds of thousands or even millions of square kilometers, the climate changes and the biological communities vary along the way, but in reality, even if one stays there for hundreds or thousands of years, there are no particularly special memories.

Not to mention being swept along by ocean currents, circling in the center of the ocean, flowing through underground rivers for countless years, sitting on the seabed watching mountains slowly rise and break through the sea level to form new continents... These things are at most fragmented images and information retrieval points. In the hazy state of these years, it is difficult to leave any deep memories.

However, since the emergence of human civilization, countless scenes have been consciously or unconsciously recorded in our daily lives.

I remember a lot about Shangguan Dandan, but it's impossible to recall every detail of her experiences back then.

Liu Chang'an sat down, closed his eyes, and began to slowly and carefully review his memories... This was a very difficult task. Many people have tried to find their earliest memories, but often they only have a single image. It is almost impossible to find the scene and more details based on that image.

Liu Chang'an calmed himself down, and many images floated through his mind, as if he were personally flipping through them... At this moment, he received no information from the outside world. The sound of the wind, the rustling of leaves, the cool air, the crawling mosquitoes, the noise of the distant streets... all these distractions were blocked out. Just like many computers, when running high-load programs or tasks, it's best to put down the mouse and not click around randomly, otherwise it might crash.

The first image that came to mind was a black dragon, enormous and unparalleled.

Point of Memory 1: The black dragon emerged from the South Mountain, drank from the Wei River, and the mountains that it passed through stretched for more than sixty miles. Its head was at the Wei River and its tail reached Fan River. Xiao He supervised the construction of the Everlasting Palace, and he cut off the dragon's head to build the palace. The mountain itself became the foundation, and no further construction was needed. This is why it is a place of strategic importance.

Point of Memory 2: <The Book of Songs, Minor Odes, Wild Geese, Court Torches>: How long is the night? The night is not yet over, the light of the Court Torches... The name Weiyang was used by everyone from servants to dukes and emperors, so Liu Chang'an's focus of memory is naturally Everlasting Palace.

Point of interest three: There are three main roads within the Everlasting Palace city, two running parallel east to west, and one running north to south. To the north is the Heavenly Fortune Palace, the earliest national library. The scene shows Sima Qian writing the Records of the Records of the Grand Historian... This point of interest has a jumbled scene. Liu Chang'an is looking for Shangguan Dandan and her small carriage.

Point of Memory 4: Unicorn Pavilion, which contains portraits of Huo Guang, Zhang Anshi, Han Zeng, Zhao Chongguo, Wei Xiang and others. The Unicorn Pavilion is so bright that it even makes Liu Chang'an's memory begin to blur, and Liu Chang'an skips this location.

Point of Memory Five: Pepper Chamber Hall... The rafters are made of magnolia, and the beams and pillars are made of apricot wood, with very elegant grain. The Rooftop is covered with gold leaf, the facade is decorated with jade, and the gilded bronze door knockers are inlaid with many gemstones. The palace walls are coated with pepper powder and mud, warm and fragrant. The main hall faces south, and there are two towers in front of the hall... The presence of towers in front of the hall is not something that ordinary palaces can do, because this is the residence of the empress.

This is it... The image in Liu Chang'an's mind froze at this spot, as if walking through it, giving him the feeling of being trapped in a space where time and space had stopped. Everything was so clear and the colors were so vibrant. Liu Chang'an looked at the distinctive window patterns, walked up the right side of the slope in front of the hall, the purplish-red floor, the glittering gold wall bands, and the rare jade stones inlaid in them. Liu Chang'an passed through the main hall and walked all the way to the garden, finally seeing the small carriage.

Two small, Fruit Horse, like specimens, pulled the specially made cart. Liu Chang'an approached and was somewhat surprised to see many familiar patterns on the cart. In addition to some patterns related to sacrifices to the underworld, there were also patterns of mythical beasts, dragons, phoenixes, clouds, and so on. The same patterns were found on the bronze coffin and on the cart. Most importantly, the style was exactly the same, as if they were the work of the same painter.

In Liu Chang'an's quiet memory, a girl who shouldn't be there at all appeared, but instead lifted her skirt and skipped happily out.

She was dressed in the Empress's casual clothes, her youthful face revealing an innate elegance. The improved physique accumulated from her pampered life made her skin as clear as jade, as if she were adorned with a layer of moonlight in this unclear situation.

Just as Liu Chang'an was surprised that such a person had suddenly run into the scene in his memory, the girl suddenly looked around, her eyes full of doubt, and snorted coldly, "That unfilial son must be trying to steal my little carriage again."

After saying that, she turned her head and stared at Liu Chang'an.

Liu Chang'an was jolted awake from his reverie. He opened his eyes and let out a long breath. The feeling he had just experienced was as if a time warp had transported him back to the Everlasting Palace two thousand years ago. Why was this happening?

It's like he was just having dinner alone with Bai Hui, but then he realized that An Nuan was actually sitting at the same table with them, staring at him!

That scene, that situation, never happened! Yet it appeared vividly in my memory, the girl's eyes lively and dignified.

What's going on? Liu Chang'an looked at the carriage in front of him, puzzled. He slowly walked into the carriage. Could it be that Shangguan Dandan was interfering with him?

Or perhaps it was actually her own memory, only becoming clearer just now? That doesn't make sense either, because all the other scenes were still, only the one just now was dynamic, and the Everlasting Palace in the scene, including the small carriage, were all still. Shangguan Dandan ran out, breaking the tranquility of the scene.

"Did you just use your 'treasure' to distract me?" Liu Chang'an asked bluntly.

Shangguan Dandan remained silent.

"I was just recalling some things that happened in the Everlasting Palace when I was emperor," Liu Chang'an continued.

"What's there to reminisce about!"

Shangguan Dandan sent him a message.

Liu Chang'an remained silent. Now that she had a cell phone, she stopped talking altogether. Texting was too much trouble. Apart from casual conversation, Liu Chang'an didn't like texting when it came to serious business.

"I noticed some similarities between your little carriage and this coffin; they're both your treasures," Liu Chang'an continued.

"My darling!"

"Knowing it's yours, I'm just asking!"

"Don't ask, I'm turning off my phone."

Liu Chang'an really had no way to deal with this "stepmother" who was lying in the coffin and wouldn't come out, but he felt that the unusual situation in his memory just now must be related to Shangguan Dandan, or to this mysterious coffin.

"I don't believe you'll never come out," Liu Chang'an thought patiently. "Anyway, it's just to satisfy my curiosity. It doesn't matter if I find out about this a hundred or a few hundred years later."

The mobile phone could fully display the modern world to Shangguan Dandan. He himself was full of curiosity about this world, and he didn't believe that this country bumpkin empress dowager from more than two thousand years ago could resist coming out to take a look.

Liu Chang'an pointed to the coffin and said, "Let's see who can outlast whom."

Instead of using the most laborious method to continue recalling, Liu Chang'an sat there and casually recalled many people and events that he had memorized.

After a while, the humidity in the air gradually increased, and it rained during the night.

Liu Chang'an had been soaked in the rain all night. He slowly stood up, went home, took off his clothes, took a shower, and changed into clean clothes.

It was already daylight.

Liu Chang'an already knew that it would rain on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. After all, he could use a water bowl to put a needle in and tell divination, and he could also catch spiders to see how they spun their webs. He was also very knowledgeable about meteorological symptoms. But he knew it would rain today because he had checked the weather forecast.

The weather forecast was very accurate. Unlike most people, Liu Chang'an didn't find rain annoying. People with nothing to do often feel more at ease when it rains.

While having breakfast, Bai Hui sent a message. Instead of asking where Liu Chang'an and An Nuan were on their date, she wished Liu Chang'an a happy Qixi Festival and that he would be as happy as the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl... This seemed a bit off, didn't it? Liu Chang'an didn't mind and replied with two words: Rebound.

"Are you a primary school student?" Bai Hui replied again.

Liu Chang'an ignored her. Qin Yanan also sent him a blessing message, along with a selfie of herself holding Zhu Juntang. Zhu Juntang was sleeping with her mouth open. So this is what it looks like when a fairy sleeps.

"I'll show this photo to Zhu Juntang next time." Liu Chang'an kept it; he could show it to Zhu Juntang whenever she bothered him in the future—it might come in handy.

There was even a text message from Gao Dewei: "Chang'an, Happy Qixi Festival! I've arrived at school, but the unfamiliar environment reminds me of my familiar Affiliated High School, and of you and my classmates. I've decided to finish reading <Introduction To The Explicit Finite Element Method For Nonlinar Transient Dynamics> today. The e-book cost me over 800 yuan, and I don't even know why I'm reading it. A girl recommended it to me, and she asked me to go to the library with her to discuss it today. Finally, I can enjoy the feeling of studying properly again."

"Keep it up." Liu Chang'an smiled, then thought of Miao Yingying, though he meant no harm whatsoever.

Putting away his phone, Liu Chang'an reached up and touched his hair to tidy it up. Looking up, he saw the girl he had arranged to meet today holding a large umbrella, carefully covering two bags in front of her chest, avoiding puddles. As she watched Liu Chang'an walk over, her face was filled with a slightly shy smile.

After all, it was their first Valentine's Day together, and girls always like to have some sense of ritual. She said she wanted to meet him at his house today, and she came early in the morning despite the rain. Liu Chang'an liked her earnestness.

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