Chapter Two: Acquaintance

  Zhong Jinwei was struck as if by lightning, stunned. The legendary crossing, unexpectedly encountered by himself. The probability is even lower than winning the lottery, because winning the lottery is common, but crossing over, so far, it's just him!

  Chongzhen Emperor suppressed his anger and asked again: "Where are you from? Why did you suddenly appear in my imperial garden?"

  Zhong Jinwei stared blankly at Emperor Chongzhen, and after a while, he replied: "This, Your Majesty, I want to tell you my origin, but you definitely won't believe it!" He paused for a moment, then decided to speak the truth, because he didn't have the ability to think on his feet and explain away what had just happened. The more he tried to cover it up, the harder it was to conceal.

  "Your Majesty, I can be ninety percent certain that I am from over four hundred years later, and I have crossed through time and space!" Zhong Jinwei confessed.

  Wang Chengen didn't quite believe it, if Zhong Jinwei said he was a banished immortal from heaven, maybe people would still believe him, but later generations came to inquire and it seemed like no one had ever heard of it.

  Zhong Jinwei began to explain further: "I also came here inexplicably. The things on my body, your era absolutely doesn't have them, and you've definitely never heard of them either. For example," Zhong Jinwei lifted his foot to walk into the pavilion, but a nearby guard immediately grabbed him and wouldn't let him pass.

  The Chongzhen Emperor waved his hand, indicating that he should come over. This was the first time he had encountered such a strange and ancient affair, and he was very curious, causing him to forget his previous worries and become engrossed in figuring out what was happening before his eyes.

  Zhong Jinwei had just taken a step forward when he spotted the map on the ground, and hastily picked it up. One sheet, two sheets. Everyone else was watching his movements.

  There was a large footprint in the middle of the Chinese map, fortunately it was plastic and could be wiped off. When Zhong Jinwei walked to Wang Chengen's side, he handed him the map: "Help me take it down, thank you." Wang Chengen looked up at Emperor Chongzhen for instructions before taking it over.

  Zhong Jinwei came to the stone table, sat down beside Emperor Chongzhen, picked up his mobile phone and introduced it: "This is a mobile phone, a communication device." Wang Chengen followed him over, looked at the mobile phone and couldn't help but say: "Isn't this just a mirror?" In fact, he had already noticed that the front of the mobile phone could clearly reflect images.

  "No, this is a mobile phone." Zhong Jinwei continued to explain, "If we are not in the same place, we can use this thing to contact each other and talk. For example, if I am in Guangdong Province and you are in Beijing, I can call you and we can chat through this mobile phone."

  "What's a hand chicken? That's absurd, how is that possible?" Wang Chengen's face was full of disbelief. "The Wind Ear is somewhat believable, but shouldn't it be on a person's body?"

  "It can be said that it has a function similar to Shunfeng Ear, which can emit electromagnetic waves and transmit them to satellites in the sky, and then receive them thousands of miles away. I can show you." Zhong Jinwei replied.

  He immediately discovered that his mobile phone had been flooded with water, speechless, and could not be turned on. The surrounding crowd stared at him without blinking, expecting a miracle to appear.

  Zhong Jinwei felt embarrassed, looked up at the Chongzhen Emperor beside him and said: "I'm sorry, Your Majesty, this mobile phone has gotten wet. But even if it hadn't gotten wet, it would still be useless, because you need satellites in the sky and other phones and so on." The people around immediately showed disbelieving expressions.

  Chongzhen Emperor stared into Zhong Xing's eyes and said, "I trust you."

  Zhong Jinwei let out a sigh of relief and continued to explain a few other things, money, keys, bank cards, but didn't go into details.

  After he finished speaking, he paused for a moment and then said: "Your Majesty, I have another very conclusive evidence to prove that I come from the future."

  Zhong Jinwei took the map from Wang Chengen's hand and then asked him again: "Trouble taking away the dim sum, thank you."

  Wang Chengen also wanted to see what it was, and didn't mind letting Zhong Jinwei do the work. He took the pastry away and casually threw it to a nearby guard.

  Zhong Jingwei spread the map on the table, with the Chinese map placed on top. Then he said to Emperor Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, this is the map of later generations, please take a look."

  Chongzhen Emperor saw a reflective paper with green and red marks, as well as very small text and curved lines. Is this a map? A bunch of question marks appeared on Chongzhen Emperor's forehead.

  Zhong Jinwei took one look at the expression of Emperor Chongzhen and knew things were going to go badly, thinking it was too easy, he quickly pointed: "This is Beijing, this is Bohai, this is Korea, and this is Nanjing."

  Here, Zhong Jinwei stole a glance at Chongzhen's expression and quickly continued to introduce: "This is the Yellow River, this is the Yangtze River. And, and, this one, this one is a world map, it's a map of the whole world."

  Zhong Jinwei said as he flipped out the map below, continuing to explain: "This is China, Russia, the United States, Canada..." All messed up, all messed up. Zhong Jinwei was in a hurry and didn't care about this era or whether they had heard of it before, and he introduced the most famous countries in one go.

  The people around were all black lines on their foreheads, but no one spoke, they all looked at Emperor Chongzhen.

  Chongzhen Emperor at this time did not ask again, but looked down and watched. After a while, he picked up the China region that was pressed underneath and continued to look, also didn't know if he could understand it.

  After a while, he slowly raised his head and said to the people around him: "You all retreat first." Wang Cheng'en looked at Zhong Jinwei, raised his head to ask for instructions: "Your Majesty, this person...", before he finished speaking, Emperor Chongzhen waved his hand and said: "I believe he is not an assassin, you all retreat."

  It's all said and done, so there's nothing left but to step down. Wang Cheng'en led the guards and palace maids to a distance where they could see but not hear.

  After everyone had taken their positions, Emperor Chongzhen looked up and stared into the eyes of Zhong Xianwei, saying slowly: "Tell me, where is the Great Ming? Is it gone? When did it go?"

  Zhong Jinwei knew that the time had come to test the emperor's character. It is said that Emperor Chongzhen of history was impatient, suspicious and fond of killing. But what he understood seemed to be the slander of the Qing dynasty against him, but after all, what kind of person he was, his heart was still whispering.

  Since I've crossed over, it can't just end like this. Zhong Jinwei also slowly and firmly replied to Chongzhen Emperor's eyes: "Your Majesty, do you want to hear the truth or a lie?"

  "The truth! To be honest, I won't blame you!" After the Chongzhen Emperor finished speaking, he felt a bad premonition in his heart, but still hoped to hear good news afterwards.

  "The truth is that the Ming Dynasty will be destroyed more than ten years later, I remember it was in 1644 AD, you can ask someone to calculate the time for me, I don't remember very clearly."

  Chongzhen Emperor was visibly struck, his body swayed, but he immediately stood firm and asked again: "I, I am the ruler of a lost country?"

  "Yes, Li Zicheng will lead the army to attack Beijing City. Your Majesty hanged himself on Coal Mountain with only one Wang Chengen by his side. Before dying, he wrote in blood that it was not I who lost the world, but rather my ministers who lost the world. That's what it meant, I don't remember the exact words." Zhong Jingwei immediately replied, at this moment, he knew there could be no hesitation.

  The Chongzhen Emperor listened, painfully closed his eyes, and slowly fell onto the stone bench. After a while, he suddenly stood up, staring into Zhong Xian's eyes, shouting: "I don't believe you, you deceive the emperor!"

  Zhong Jinwei had no room to retreat and immediately replied, "Your Majesty, if I were to deceive you, I would choose the words that sound good to your ears. Am I not afraid of being beheaded? Deceiving you has no benefits for me, I am just telling the truth. Unless..." Chongzhen Emperor immediately followed up with, "Unless what?" Zhong Jinwei replied, "Unless my era is not a continuation of your era, and history has deviated."

  "Yes, it must be so, you are mistaken about the times. I am diligent in governance, personally experiencing and doing things myself, apart from Taizu and Taizong, who else can compare to my diligence? How could I possibly lose the country and the people?" Chongzhen Emperor grasped this like a lifeline, immediately responding, then repeating himself. However, slowly but surely, his voice became lower and lower.

  Zhong Jinwei quietly watched Emperor Chongzhen, he suddenly felt some sympathy and pity for Emperor Chongzhen. Including his past life, he also sympathized with Emperor Chongzhen, who had a heart to be a middle-reviving monarch, but ended up with such a result.

  But at this moment, he looked at the young man in front of him who was suffering, and his sympathetic heart was deeper than ever.

  The Chongzhen Emperor sat quietly, like a sculpture. Wang Cheng'en watched the silent movie in the distance, knowing that something bad was bound to happen, but the Chongzhen Emperor didn't say a word and neither did he dare to go over.

  Finally, it was Zhong Jinwei who broke the silence and said, "Your Majesty, don't be sad. Since heaven has brought me to your side, it must be that I am meant to change this outcome."

  The Chongzhen Emperor suddenly lifted his head, staring at Zhong Xianwei. Zhong Xianwei looked at the emperor's hopeful eyes and clenched his fist: "Although some people say that the fall of the Ming dynasty is a historical inevitability and that it is already too late to save it, I do not think so. I believe that I can change this outcome, change the fate of future generations, but of course, I need your support."

  The Chongzhen Emperor looked at Zhong Xue's determined face, and with a surge of excitement, his expression suddenly changed to that of Guan Gong. He said urgently and excitedly: "Good! I fully support you! No matter what official position you want, I will give it to you, as long as you can protect the country and our ancestral heritage!" After his excitement subsided, the Chongzhen Emperor's self-reference changed back to the first-person singular pronoun he had used for over a decade.

  Zhong Jinwei was a technical person in his previous life, a software programmer, and worked all the way up to project manager. Although he was a project manager, he still didn't like dealing with people and the intrigue that came with it, so it wasn't until after working for ten years that he finally bought a house. Based on his true nature, he replied to Emperor Chongzhen: "I don't need any official position, I'll help you come up with ideas, broaden your horizons, and propose methods to solve problems. After all, I'm also a graduate of the 21st century's top university."

  "Good!" The Chongzhen Emperor replied with a single word, then paused for a moment: "Graduated from a 211 key university?"

  "It's like, it's... " Zhong Jinwei explained as soon as he heard it. He wanted to convert it into something that Emperor Chongzhen could understand, but it seemed that saying 211 graduates were somewhat mysterious even for the imperial examination candidates of the time. The people who worked for Emperor Chongzhen now were all jinshi, equivalent to PhDs from top universities like Tsinghua and Peking University. Oh dear, he had just said something unpleasant. Emperor Chongzhen was still listening with great respect, although he didn't understand it, but the tone sounded good.

  Zhong Jinwei didn't care anymore, and said straightforwardly: "It's equivalent to a jinshi in your era." As soon as Zhong Jinwei finished speaking, before Chongzhen Emperor had any disappointed reaction, he immediately added: "However, I have over 400 years of experience, which no one else has. I can guarantee that you will achieve the great dream of the Ming Dynasty in your heart!"