Chapter One: Only After the Calamity Did I Understand the Thousands of Years
Outside the plane was a vast expanse of white clouds, with some dazzling sunlight shining through the small porthole onto Yan Lu's body.
Yan Lu chose to pull down the window and lean on the partition, relieving his slightly sore right arm, trying to let himself fall asleep as soon as possible.
Just now, a new book signing event was held in Shanghai, and what Yan Lu and the publisher did not expect was that thousands of book friends came to buy books and ask for signatures, and the event time was extended by three hours.
For six hours straight, signing non-stop and posing for photos with book lovers, Yan Lu was unsure if his right hand still belonged to him.
It suddenly occurred to me that today's update content hasn't been coded yet, and Yan Lu pinned her hopes on being able to rest well on the plane from Shanghai to Beijing, and after returning home in the evening, she would be able to muster up the spirit to complete today's chapter content.
As the plane shook with an irregular jolt, Yan Lu woke up from his sleep, and suddenly there were passengers' noisy and terrified voices and flight attendants' gentle soothing sounds in his ears.
The situation temporarily calmed down, but Yan Lu carefully saw the nervous expression on the young and beautiful flight attendant's face.
Things have indeed started to develop in the worst direction, and just twenty minutes later, the flight attendants with tears in their eyes began distributing pens and paper notes to passengers still on board.
The plane's shaking was extremely violent, countless passengers began to cry and scream, some cursed loudly, some turned pale and fainted in their seats, some quickly pulled out life jackets from under the seat to try to save their own lives, while others frantically opened their mobile phones trying to contact their loved ones...
Yan Lu suddenly felt that he was in a transcendent position, with great terror between life and death. Suddenly, at the last moment before his death, Yan Lu somehow thought of the main characters from the novels he had crossed over into.
The absurd plot of Yan Lu almost made every protagonist cross over due to a plane crash, and unexpectedly, I also encountered this one-in-a-million plane crash. Is it the heavens teasing me? I don't know where I'll cross over to next.
At the last moment of life, a beam of light suddenly came from the horizon, with a dazzling white color and seven colors inside, shining brightly. The light passed through the porthole and shone directly on Yan Lu's chest, emitting an indescribable warmth from his heart. The dazzling light enveloped him entirely, and in an instant, he disappeared from the sight of the stunned people in the cabin.
－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－
As if emerging from a deep and misty abyss, Yan Lu forced open his own eyes.
In the midst of struggling, nothing was seen, but first heard a clear and crisp girl's shout: "Young master woke up!" Immediately followed by the sound of the curtain being lifted and the soft sound of the girl's lotus steps moving lightly.
The whole body felt heavy as if it had been pressed with a thousand pounds of weight, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't open his eyes.
Just then, a warm towel had been placed over his forehead. Although it was still impossible to observe the surroundings visually at this time, hearing was very sensitive.
Straining to suppress his concerns about his physical condition, Yan Lu suddenly discovered that the conversation he overheard was somewhat similar to the dialect of Henan Province. For some reason, Yan Lu had no difficulty understanding it at all. This made the faint unease in Yan Lu's heart even more intense.
Before long, the sound of footsteps grew louder and closer. After a brief ten seconds or so, the door curtain swung open again, followed by a very steady female voice: "Qing'e, is Wenbo awake?"
"The young master's eyebrows are furrowed, as if he is about to open his eyes, and should be waking up soon." Just beside Yan Lu, a gentle female voice responded, presumably the same person who had just applied a hot towel to her forehead.
Then a pair of slightly wrinkled and calloused hands reached deep into the quilt and tightly grasped Yan Lu's left hand.
Yan Lu struggled to open his eyes, and the first thing he saw was an old lady with a hairpin on her head, wearing a hemp robe but exuding an air of dignity. The initial impression she gave Yan Lu was similar to that of his strict middle school class teacher, and although twenty years had passed, Yan Lu still felt some respect and fear.
Unfortunately, before Yan Lu could determine whether the person standing beside him was a beauty or not, a wave of fatigue surged up from the bottom of his heart, and Yan Lu once again fell into darkness.
In the midst of half-dreaming and half-waking, Yan Lu's consciousness had switched back and forth countless times, but fortunately, a memory that belonged to this body yet didn't belong to Yan Lu was clearly imprinted in his mind.
It is now the third year of Tongguang in Later Tang, which corresponds to 925 AD. This year has a major event in history, that is, the three-year-old Later Tang regime sent troops to conquer Former Shu, with Prince Li Jitao as the commander-in-chief and Chancellor Guo Chongtao as the deputy commander-in-chief, and destroyed Shu in seventy-five days.
Unfortunately, according to the memory of this body, Old Man Zhou De-yuan was at this time the Rear Admiral ( equivalent to the current Military/Commission Chairman) of the Later Tang Dynasty, and the deputy commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force that destroyed Shu.
As someone who has written a historical masterpiece spanning the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, this brief 70-year span of history may not be as familiar as the back of my hand, but it's still quite well-known. However, there seems to be some conflict between actual history and the memories of this body, so I suppose I won't be able to rely solely on my own recollections.
This body was a sixteen-year-old boy named Zhou Wenbo, who was the second son of Zhou Deyan.
Zhou Dewei is like a combination of Guo Chongtao and Zhou Dewei in history. His career path is very similar to that of Guo Chongtao, but his performance in war is like that of the Later Tang's first general, Zhou Dewei. He was an early favorite of Li Cunxu and later received heavy use from Emperor Li Siyuan of Later Tang. In the war against Later Liang, he achieved the first great merit, even before Li Siyuan broke through Bianjing (now Kaifeng), so he was enfeoffed as Prince of Zhao and made military governor (Jiedushi) of Zhenzhou and Jizhou (equivalent to a regional commander-in-chief and mayor today). He can be said to be the Later Tang's most deserving first minister.
This era no longer has Guo Chongtao and Zhou Dewei, but instead has an additional Zhou Deyan.
Zhou Deyan's family encountered military chaos when he was young, and only his wife and eldest son were spared. Later, he had several concubines, but due to his advanced age, only one became pregnant, and she died in childbirth. The child born was Zhou Wenbo. Zhou Wenbo was twenty-five years younger than his elder brother Zhou Wenshuang, and forty-two years younger than his father, making him a late-born son.
Zhou Wenbo was weak and sickly from a young age, loved reading books, and was completely opposite to his eldest son Zhou Wenyuan who entered the military early. Similarly, because of his eldest son Zhou Wenyuan entering the military camp to assist Zhou Deyuan, Zhou Wenbo was also tacitly allowed to take the path of reading books.
Zhou Wenbo fell ill this time because he accidentally fell into the water, although the pond was clear and shallow, but it was already late autumn, so he caught a cold and had a fever.
Yan Lu began silently calculating his current situation.
Because his mother died in childbirth, he was raised by Zhou De's wife Lady Lü from a young age. Although he did not suffer any hardships, at the root of it all, he could only be considered an illegitimate son.
Although there is only one brother, the cheap nephew has two. The big nephew Zhou Jinkang is already 20 years old and followed the imperial army to go on an expedition this time. The three generations of grandparents, parents and children are firmly in charge of the army, which is also the foundation of the Zhou family's rise. The younger nephew Zhou Jinshan is only two years old, fortunately, Zhou Jinkang has not yet given birth to a child, so he will not become a grandfather at a young age.
However, it is clear that the title of Duke of Zhao was passed down through the line of Zhou Wenyuan and Zhou Jinkang, and had nothing to do with Zhou Wenbo. Therefore, his predecessor in this body was clever and chose to make literature the foundation of his career during these tumultuous years when military affairs were not valued.
But all of this is meaningless to Yanluo, who has already crossed over. If history still has any reference value, then just one year later, when the current emperor was killed, Ouyang Xiu wrote "The New History of the Five Dynasties", in which the preface to "Biography of Jester Officials" tells the story of Zhuangzong Li Cunxu, which Yanluo had memorized by heart during his high school days.
However, this is not the most fatal. The most fatal thing is that after Guo Chongtao destroyed Shu in history, he was killed by Li Cunxu's suspicion and the slander of small people because he did not return to the army for a long time and offended Li Tinggui, and finally father and son were killed.
But little did they know that the cheap father and brother of this life would end up in what kind of situation, if continuing to follow the trajectory of history, this magnificent Zhao Guo Gong Fu will soon be "fallen into a vast white land", that is really wailing and lamenting, can't even hide.
Yan Lu was on the one hand recalling the course of history, and on the other hand thinking hard about how to proceed after crossing over. After all, as someone who had written five or six books on crossing over into historical times, hadn't he ever eaten pork without seeing a pig run? When it really came down to him personally crossing over, he was still able to calm down and truly think about where to go next.
After a moment's thought, Yan Lu still focused his mind on the boy's memory. This memory was the greatest reliance for him to truly survive and live well in this era. Yan Lu had to carefully examine and analyze this memory, truly grasping his own destiny.
Finally, Yan Lu suddenly remembered the light that pierced through everything in the last moment before crossing over, making himself seem to burn with an intense glow. It seems that this light is the real reason for his transmigration, but he doesn't know what kind of fate it will bring him. From the current situation, it seems like he's just an ordinary transmigrator.
