History

The imperial throne referred to the position of the Celestial Emperor? Was the Human Emperor the emperor of the mortal realm? Ding Songyan suddenly developed an immense interest in the book in his hands.

Ding Qingyan listened to his answer, her face dawning with understanding.

"You don't have to be so anxious, Second Brother. Rest for a few days before you do anything."

"Reading is also a kind of rest." Ding Songyan always had something to say.

Ding Qingyan did not try to persuade him further. She went behind the screen and brought out books, paper, brushes, inkstones, and other items.

"I'm going to practice calligraphy." Her lighthearted voice drifted toward the main room.

Ding Songyan waved his hand and focused on the storybook in his hands.

The storybook was written in a very concise manner. As for ancient history, it mentioned only that Zhuanxu succeeded to the imperial throne and ordered Chong and Li to sever communication between Heaven and Earth. After that, the Celestial Emperor continued walking among mortals while also serving as Human Emperor. The position successively went to Tang Yao, Yu Shun, Xia Yu, and others. Once Qi of Xia became Human Emperor, there were no more reports of a Celestial Emperor appearing in the mortal world.

"According to the annotations in Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas, Emperor Zhuanxu wasn't the Northern Emperor—in other words, the Black Emperor of the north? Though he was also one of the Five Emperors of the Five Directions, he certainly wasn't the highest-ranking one. Why do all these storybooks place him after the Yellow Emperor and before Tang Yao as the Celestial Emperor? For people of the present without any inheritance, the affairs of antiquity are indeed difficult to verify. But an event as major as severing communication between Heaven and Earth shouldn't be wrong about who led it, should it? Besides, all the accounts agree... If the one who could lead that event wasn't the Celestial Emperor, then who was?"

Ding Songyan quickly flipped through several other books.

He mulled it over for a long while before making a tentative guess.

"Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas was supposedly copied from The Classic of Mountains and Seas Annotated by the Emperor, and the major sects take it so seriously. It shouldn't be wrong in this regard.

"Could it be that the Celestial Emperor isn't an inheritance but a position? Anyone who harmonizes with the Great Dao can become the Celestial Emperor?

"Or perhaps inheritance and position can be separated. Even with the inheritance, one cannot become the Celestial Emperor without reaching the corresponding realm. The position can only be concurrently held by whichever of the Black Emperor, Azure Emperor, Flame Emperor, and White Emperor has harmonized with the Great Dao, then handed over once someone with the corresponding inheritance reaches the Celestial Emperor realm?

"Even after severing communication between Heaven and Earth, the Celestial Emperor continued ruling the mortal realm. Only when Qi of Xia established the Xia Dynasty did he suddenly vanish. What other reason is hidden behind this?"

Ding Songyan could not figure it out, but he did not dwell on it. What did the secrets of that mythological age have to do with an ordinary storyteller like him? There was no need to waste time on them.

He continued browsing the contents that followed.

"After a thousand years, Xia declined. Youqiong replaced Xia and enjoyed six hundred years of national fortune..."

According to the storybook's version of history, the Xia Dynasty lasted a full thousand years—far longer-lived than the Xia Dynasty in Ding Songyan's memory of his previous life. That was the first difference.

And the one that replaced Xia was not the Black Bird's Shang, but a tribe called Youqiong. It enjoyed more than six hundred years of national fortune, though during its final two hundred years or so, the various feudal lords rose together. Ding Songyan conveniently matched that period to the Spring and Autumn era.

After the Youqiong Dynasty fell, the heroes contended for supremacy for a little over four hundred years. There was a hundred schools contending, and the sage Master Zuo, in his youth, established military reforms; in middle age, he transmitted Confucianism and honored ritual; and in old age, he founded Daoism and expounded the words of morality.

The one who ended the heroes' struggle for supremacy was Ying State. After unifying the realm and subduing the hundred tribes, it adopted "Qin" as its dynastic name. The Son of Heaven at that time called himself the First Emperor.

After Qin flourished for more than two hundred years came Han. Han lasted eight hundred years and was followed by the Three Kingdoms as well.

Further on came Wei, but no Jin. Wei lasted less than three hundred years before the realm fell into chaos. The founding emperor of the current dynasty embarked on the road to unifying the empire from the position of Zhao Marquis.

"Qin excelled in fu poetry, Han was strong in verse, and Wei flourished through ci poetry. This..." Ding Songyan felt somewhat mentally disordered as he read.

All the history seemed both familiar and not. Many things were things he knew well, yet they had been combined in strange ways, giving him the sensation of "a butterfly's dawn dream confusing Zhuang Sheng."

After forcibly calming his emotions, he coolly began searching for useful information and possible patterns.

"Quite a few dynasties are missing, and several new ones have appeared. But among the dynasties I know, Xia, Qin, Han, and Wei are in the correct order...

"Fu poetry, verse, and ci poetry also flourished in the correct chronological order, just not during the dynasties I remember...

"If I had to describe it with one word, that would be..."

Ding Songyan slightly furrowed his brows.

Misalignment!

A misaligned space-time?

After finishing the storybook, Ding Songyan, who now had some understanding of the current world's history, picked up the Four Treasures of the Study, left the western side room, and sat down across from Ding Qingyan. He spread out the paper and clumsily tried to grind the ink.

Ding Qingyan, who had been concentrating on practicing calligraphy, looked up at him and pushed her inkstone toward the middle.

"Use mine first."

"All right." Ding Songyan readily agreed.

He had practiced brush calligraphy for only two or three years as a child. His posture was not quite wrong, but his writing was as rusty as it could be, and the characters he produced were as ugly as they could be.

Most importantly, he only knew how to write simplified characters. There were also quite a few characters he had forgotten how to write as soon as he picked up the brush. He planned to leave them blank for now and ask Ding Qingyan about them all at once at the end.

"Second Brother, what characters are you writing?" Ding Qingyan stretched out her white, jade-like neck and peered at the words on the paper across from her.

Ding Songyan answered with a sage-like calm.

"Didn't I lose most of my memories? I forgot many characters too, so I can only write them in simplified form. There are some I'll have to ask you about."

See? Choosing "honesty" from the beginning really had been the best choice. He no longer needed to rack his brains for all kinds of reasons and excuses. A casual evasion could solve most problems.

"You don't even know how to write anymore..." Ding Qingyan lowered her brush, rose, and moved behind Ding Songyan. After examining his writing for a while, she muttered with some heartache, "Our predecessors used these characters, so I can recognize them... Second Brother, what are you writing?"

"Last night, I suddenly got some inspiration and wanted to write a storybook about a demon and a human falling in love." Ding Songyan thought for a moment before saying, "Once I finish it, you can copy it out for me. I'll take it to the book society and see what price it can fetch. I'll give you a share then, and help you save up some money for your dowry chest."

Ding Qingyan's eyes instantly lit up.

"All right, all right!"

Mentioning money reminded her of something.

"Second Brother, did you buy the gift for Qu Sanlang?"

"..." Ding Songyan fell silent. "I forgot."

"It's all right, it's all right. I'll go with Father or Mother to buy food this evening and look for one while we're out. Or tomorrow is fine too." Ding Qingyan smiled brightly, waved her hand, sat back down, and resumed practicing her calligraphy.

She wrote a beautiful zanhua small regular script.

Ding Songyan lowered his head and immersed his mind in creating Legend of the White Snake.

This section needed to begin from the plot point he remembered: Xu Xian and Lady White opening an apothecary, then progress to the Dragon Boat Festival and realgar wine making the white snake reveal her true form and frightening Xu Xian to death.

He had long forgotten what other plotlines came in between, so he could only make them up himself.

His idea was to begin with the collision between the identities of the white and green snake demons and human society, bringing out the story's unique character.

Thus, Lady White would first use magic to create minor illnesses and improve the apothecary's business. Yet she would then be moved and influenced by Xu Xian's concern for the patients, the neighbors, and the poor common people, gradually developing a "human heart." Then Xiaoqing would punish frivolous rakes, bringing about a series of events that allowed the ignorant young snake demon Xiaoqing to gradually understand what love was and comprehend the feelings between her sister and Xu Xian. Finally, the two demons would rely on their magical abilities to help Xu Xian's relatives, neighbors, and suffering weaklings resolve problems and obtain justice.

This section was primarily meant to be satisfying, while also showing the characters' growth and changes. Ding Songyan wrote it with great satisfaction and nearly added several more chapters.

However, he still reined himself in rationally. He also cut most of the domestic squabbles and government-office incidents that could have been developed through Xu Xian's relatives, because the white-robed young woman was not from Dingjiang Prefecture and would not remain here for long.

Under these circumstances, making the story too short would make it difficult to build a connection and earn her goodwill. Yet making it too long would mean the most exquisite parts could not reach her ears before she left, preventing them from leaving the deepest impression.

He wrote until the sun began to slant westward. Ding Songyan transferred the brush to his left hand and shook out his right wrist.

Even writing only a rough version had taken this long... As he reviewed the sheets of paper waiting to dry, he pondered writing down the song "Lady Bai Suzhen Beneath Qingcheng Mountain."

He felt that the young woman in white was not very old and should be highly receptive to new things. She probably would not reject such a "special" song.

And the more unusual something was, the more deeply it would impress her, making her remember someone called Second Young Master Ding.

That was one reason. Another was that Ding Songyan felt the song would have a finishing-touch effect if it appeared and was sung during certain plot moments, such as when Lady White's emotions were most intense or when her memories ran deepest.

Fortunately, the lyrics to this song were simple. Later, people had also covered it one after another, and he had often heard it... Ding Songyan quickly finished writing the lyrics. For the very few parts he could not remember clearly, he tried filling them in himself.

"Second Brother, Xu Xian is dead already?" While taking advantage of the time to let the ink dry and fold up the papers, Ding Qingyan read through the contents, which resembled a rough story outline, and was captivated.

Ding Songyan gave an affirmative hum.

"That's right."

"Then, then what do we do? What happens afterward?" Ding Qingyan's eyes widened.

"Afterward?" Ding Songyan glanced at his sister. "There is no afterward."

"..." Ding Qingyan was slightly dazed at first, then realized her brother was teasing her and began to grumble.

Only then did Ding Songyan say, "The next installment is Lady White stealing an immortal herb to save Xu Xian."

If the "main audience" responded well, he could even add an installment about Lady White braving the underworld and snatching Xu Xian's soul back from before Lady Meng's throne.

"An immortal herb? Oh, an elixir of immortality!" Ding Qingyan's expression relaxed.

Right. Given the customs of this world, an elixir of immortality was easier to understand than an immortal herb...

Ding Songyan had just begun pondering this when the half-closed door was pushed open.

Liu Yuzao entered, wearing a black gauze veil.

"Mother! Second Brother's matter is settled!" Ding Qingyan, still retaining a little of a child's nature, hopped over to greet her.

"Is it?" Liu Yuzao removed her veil and turned her gaze toward Ding Songyan.

Ding Songyan roughly repeated what he had told his sister earlier, omitting Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas and its true provider. Liu Yuzao's expression gradually relaxed. Though it was not obvious, a trace of delight still showed through.

She gave a hum and said, "If you have time tomorrow, go to Zhen Estate. Your Nuansheng-jie helped greatly, as did Mr. Yu. You must thank them in person. Our family cannot neglect proper etiquette."

After Ding Songyan agreed, Ding Qingyan had already tugged at Liu Yuzao's sleeve and pleaded, "Mother, let's celebrate today!"

Liu Yuzao nodded lightly.

"Then I'll go to the street and buy some food. What do you want?"

"Anything is fine." Ding Songyan still did not know this place well, so he added, "As long as there's meat."

"The fragrant crispy duck from Peony Residence!" Ding Qingyan blurted out. "Mother, I'll go with you. We can also buy the gift for Qu Sanlang."

Liu Yuzao did not object. Mother and daughter put on their veils, picked up the food box, and went out.

At dusk, several dishes were set on the Ding family's square table: fragrant crispy duck, white-sliced fatty chicken, red-braised mutton, steamed eggplant, mixed raw vegetables, several sesame cakes, a bucket of rice, and another bucket of sweet bean soup to serve as a cold drink.

"Shall we have some wine today?" Ding Shengyi turned his gaze toward his wife.

Liu Yuzao nodded.

Ding Shengyi's brows immediately rose with delight. He brought out a small jar of wine and said to Ding Songyan, "This 'Rose Dew' was given by the government office during the New Year celebrations. You... you two want a bowl?"

The "you two" referred to Ding Songyan and Ding Daniu.

Before Ding Shengyi finished speaking, Liu Yuzao quietly looked at him, and he immediately shut his mouth with an awkward mumble.

"I'll have a bowl." Liu Yuzao withdrew her gaze.

"Good, good, good!" Ding Shengyi happily slapped open the wine seal and poured a bowl each for himself and his wife.

Ding Daniu smelled the drifting fragrance of wine, and his Adam's apple bobbed once, but he did not dare ask for any.

After Ding Songyan had poured cold sweet bean soup for his elder brother, sister, and himself, Ding Shengyi raised his wine bowl and looked around the table. In excellent spirits, he said, "May our family's fortunes turn after reaching rock bottom, and may blessings follow calamities!"

Ding Songyan, Liu Yuzao, and the others picked up their respective "wine bowls" and clinked them together, some with radiant smiles and others with faint ones.

Amid the ringing clatter, their lively voices rose together.

"May our fortunes turn after reaching rock bottom, and may blessings follow calamities!"