Chapter 4: The Three Meals of the Duke (Part 1)

  Thinking of how she had traveled through time, and looking at the two corn stalks and a piece of pumpkin in her hand, Zhao Yan was on the verge of tears. Who would have thought that she would be cursed by a petty ghost to the Northern Song Dynasty, simply because she had taken his corn and pumpkin from his field? If she had known this earlier, perhaps she would rather starve to death than touch someone else's things.

  But now it's too late to regret, Zhao Yan can only carefully put away the corn and pumpkin. Although he wanted to bite these two things that caused him to cross into fragments with his teeth to relieve his hatred, reason told him that this was absolutely unwise. After all, these two crops originating from the Americas are highly productive grains. If they could be promoted, they would definitely bring huge changes to the Song Dynasty.

  In the end, only two plastic bags were left on the bed. The white bag was bought by Zhao Yan for someone else. Liu Dajie, the school gatekeeper, had chronic bronchitis and would have an attack whenever the weather turned cold, requiring frequent injections of anti-inflammatory medication. As it happened, Zhao Yan had a medical student girlfriend in college, so he also knew some basic medical skills and sometimes helped take care of the children's illnesses. This time, Liu Dajie asked him to buy some injectable medicine, which would be administered to him later, saving him from having to travel tens of kilometers to town to see a doctor.

  As for the last yellow plastic bag, it was also brought from the county town by Liu Dajie, because Liu Dajie lived and ate at school when he came to inspect the school, and even opened up a vegetable garden in front of the dormitory, usually planting some vegetables for himself to eat. This time, he asked Zhao Yan to bring some seeds from an acquaintance in the county town.

  Zhao Yan took out the yellow bag, inside which were several small paper packages. He opened the paper packages and found seeds of different colors, shapes, and sizes. However, at this point, Zhao Yan was stumped because he had never planted vegetables before and couldn't recognize what kind of vegetable seeds they were. Still, he pretended to be knowledgeable and picked up each type of seed to sniff it under his nose, but still couldn't identify them.

  "What bad luck! How come there are no chili pepper seeds? Am I going to go my whole life without eating chili peppers?" Zhao Yan sighed after putting away the vegetable seeds. Although he didn't recognize the seeds in the bag, he could be certain of one thing - that there were absolutely no chili pepper seeds inside. After all, for someone who can't get enough of spicy food, chili pepper seeds are definitely recognizable.

  A microscope; some clothes and miscellaneous daily necessities; two corn stalks and a piece of pumpkin; finally, there are also some unknown vegetable seeds. These are all the things brought by oneself. No, there is one more thing, that is, the knowledge and experience brought from later generations. These are the greatest reliance for oneself to stand in the Northern Song Dynasty.

  Here is the translation:

  Thinking of this, Zhao Yan put everything back in its original place and sat down to carefully recall the knowledge he had learned from his past life. TVs, computers, cars, air conditioners, refrigerators, etc., all these technological products were manufactured using knowledge from later generations. Unfortunately, Zhao Yan's brain was not a computer, and what he had learned was only how to use these things, but not how they were made. After thinking carefully, the most useful thing he could think of was that these goods were assembled in various factories, and then he would go to an electrical store to buy them.

  "Damn it, I should have studied electrical engineering in college. At least that would be useful after crossing over." Zhao Yan muttered to himself, feeling embarrassed about his major in college, which was painting. He had spent most of his four years in college skipping classes, either sleeping in the dorm or attending classes with his girlfriend from the medical school. Exams were always a last-minute cram session, or he would just get someone else to take it for him. In the end, he barely managed to scrape together a degree.

  It's precisely because of this that Zhao Yan only learned the most basic sketching in painting, and also self-studied some comics, which were useful when flirting with girls. On the other hand, he learned a lot of medical knowledge from accompanying his girlfriend to class, and was quite skilled at treating minor illnesses like headaches and colds, but that was under the premise of having sufficient Chinese and Western medicine available. Now that he has traveled back in time to the Northern Song Dynasty, he can't even buy a "cold cure" let alone save someone's life. As for traditional Chinese medicine, Zhao Yan only knows about Banlangen and Lonicera japonica, and is clueless about everything else.

  His professional skills learned in college were useless, and his medical skills were also rendered useless due to the lack of medicine. This made Zhao Yan sigh in despair. Fortunately, he had crossed over as the emperor's son, so no matter what happened in the future, at least he wouldn't have to worry about food. Otherwise, if he had crossed over as a poor person, he would probably be starving on the streets by now.

  It's clear that Zhao Yan was too optimistic about his life. He is still recovering from his illness, and all three meals a day are delivered to his bedroom. Today's breakfast was the same as before - a bowl of millet porridge with a plate of steamed vegetables and tofu, without any oil or water. This was because the imperial physician had previously instructed that his body should not consume greasy or spicy food. So for the past few days, all three meals have been mostly just vegetables and tofu with thin gruel, occasionally adding some buns at noon. Moreover, he is also forbidden from being near women. To put it simply, Zhao Yan's current life is like that of a monk, not those fake monks in later generations who drink wine, eat meat, and get married.

  Zhao Yan picked up her chopsticks, clamped a piece of tofu and threw it into her mouth. She chewed twice and almost spat it out. This was not a stir-fry at all, but rather some greens with tofu and water boiled together, with only a bit of salt added, nothing else. As for the taste, there's no need to mention it. Anyway, since Zhao Yan graduated from school, this was the first time she had eaten something so disgusting.

  When Zhao Yan was young, he had a tough time. His biggest dream at that time was to be able to eat meat every day. As a result, after having the financial ability, almost every meal was meat-based, even when he was teaching in a remote area, there was no break from eating meat. Now facing this plate of stir-fried vegetables and tofu, he simply couldn't eat it down, so he put down his chopsticks and only finished the bowl of millet porridge. Although the dish was unpalatable, the millet porridge was cooked well, fragrant and glutinous, definitely made from new rice.

  After finishing breakfast, Zhao Yan continued to lie in bed thinking about his heart affairs. As an art student who studied painting, he had basically dispelled any ideas of crossing over and becoming a king or overlord. Moreover, this didn't fit his personality. For Zhao Yan, being able to rely on his identity as the Duke to muddle along and then take in a few beauties to fill up his manor was the real deal.

  Thinking of his own identity as the king, Zhao Yan finally showed a hint of a relieved smile on his face, which might be the most exciting thing for him after crossing over. However, immediately afterwards, Zhao Yan thought that since he was struck by the spherical lightning, although some people came to visit him, but his emperor father, Zhao Shu, had not come at all, only the Empress Dowager brought imperial physicians to treat him and let Cao Ying supervise his recovery, so now in the entire palace, Cao Ying has the final say, even the people around Zhao Yan were all replaced.

  At the mention of Zhao Xian, Zhao Yan immediately recalled the historical records of this emperor. He was relatively familiar with the history of Northern Song Dynasty during this period. According to what Zhao Yan knew, his father's fate had been quite bumpy. Emperor Renzong did not have a son at that time, so he adopted Zhao Xian as his own son. However, later on, one of the imperial concubines became pregnant, and Zhao Xian was expelled from the palace. Unexpectedly, the prince died young, and in the year before Emperor Renzong's death, Zhao Xian was finally appointed as the crown prince and eventually ascended to the throne.

  Zhao Xiang's body was in poor condition, and he had just sat on the throne for less than a month when he fell ill and was unable to handle government affairs. Therefore, he asked Empress Dowager Cao to listen to politics behind the curtain, which was also one of the main reasons why Zhao Xiang did not come to visit Zhao Yan. In addition, due to some things, the relationship between Zhao Xiang and Empress Dowager Cao became very stiff, but fortunately, Han Qi and Ouyang Xiu mediated from the middle, allowing the relationship between Empress Dowager Cao and Zhao Xiang to ease somewhat, although it was only a temporary easing. This nominal mother-son relationship did not have any feelings, on the contrary, Zhao Xiang's wife, Empress Gao, was Empress Dowager Cao's niece, and had been raised by Empress Cao in the palace since childhood, and the two were like mother and daughter. It was precisely because of this that Empress Gao had always acted as a buffer between Zhao Xiang and Empress Dowager Cao.

  In addition, Zhao Yan also knew that after Zhao Xu's body recovered, the most famous "Bo Yi" dispute of the Yingzong dynasty would erupt. The so-called Bo Yi was actually a title issue for Zhao Xu's biological father, Prince Pu Anyi Zhao Yunrang. This Bo Yi dispute lasted for 18 months, and Zhao Xu had been emperor for only four years. In hindsight, this may seem unbelievable, but for the Song Dynasty monarchs, it was a matter of great importance regarding imperial etiquette. At the same time, it was this Bo Yi dispute that made the relationship between Empress Dowager Cao and Zhao Xu even more deteriorated.

  The current debate has not yet erupted, but even if it does erupt, Zhao Yan does not plan to intervene. Firstly, he has just crossed over and is very unfamiliar with everything in the Northern Song Dynasty. Secondly, the debate between Pu Yi and Cao Tai Hou is actually a struggle between Emperor Zhao Shu and Empress Dowager Cao, and as a junior, Zhao Yan cannot intervene at all. Therefore, it is better to stay in his own mansion and recover from his illness first.

  Having realized his situation, Zhao Yan suddenly jumped up from the bed. As the ancient saying goes, a good body is the capital of revolution. He now has money and power, but only his body is not very good. In the future, there will be a lot of luxurious life waiting for him to enjoy. Without a good body, he can't stand the corrosion of the extravagant life of the feudal nobility.

  People live for a mood, good mood, all kinds of life are delicious, bad mood, beautiful women surrounded by brocade clothes and jade food are also unhappy. Now Zhao Yan has come out of the depression of crossing over and started to face his new life positively. He even made a fitness plan for himself: practicing Tai Chi in the morning, running in the afternoon, and continuing to run at night. Isn't it said that life is about exercise? Zhao Yan decided to adjust his life through exercise, and he will start implementing it after lunch today.

  Lunch was a bowl of millet porridge with green vegetables and tofu, almost the same as breakfast, the only difference being that lunch had an extra bun. Looking at this nauseating food, Zhao Yan decided to cancel her afternoon run. Can't even eat meat, what's the point of running?

  Dinner was the same, Zhao Yan closed her eyes and ate the green vegetables and tofu, meanwhile silently thinking to herself that this was for her own body, and also cancelled her evening run.

  The next day, three meals a day remained the same, Zhao Yan endured...

  The third day, endure again...

  The fourth day, endured again and again...

  On the fifth day, unable to bear it anymore...