IHOEAYSTTTIW Chapter 97

Chapter 97: The Return Journey

New buds sprouted on the trees, and Lin Yan and Yun Qi were not far from the Capital City.

Since leaving Changning City, An Tan had not appeared again. Lin Yan and Yun Qi didn’t care; they both knew An Tan had gone to report to the new Emperor. If they hadn’t disguised themselves, kept a low profile, and hadn’t even hired a carter, they probably would have died in a manufactured accident long ago.

When he came to Shun Ning, he was alone, and Lin Yan was sad and bored, but now… the unremarkable carriage held hidden wonders, and the journey was a qualitative leap in experience.

The system was back, wireless charging was possible, his phone had a signal, and all the leisure and entertainment had returned.

Lin Yan, who was finally able to use his phone with internet, calibrated it and prepared to welcome the flood of information. He was disappointed to find that there were barely any spam messages.

It shouldn’t be, he thought, his popularity was alright, wasn’t it?

Lin Yan scrolled through Little Penguin, then Green Bubble, reluctantly accepting the fact that no one cared about him. He disappointedly locked the screen, but finally found the key when he saw the time displayed on the screen.

The flow of time was different in the two worlds. He had been in Great Zhou for over a year, but only a little over a day had passed there.

Due to the chain reaction caused by that sudden typhoon, his classmates were all busy with their graduation dissertations and hadn’t noticed that Lin Yan had been missing for an entire day.

This was a common trope in novels, and Lin Yan had good acceptance. Yun Qi wasn’t surprised either.

That place was a paradise to him. According to the storybooks, that kind of place should have a different time flow, one day in heaven, one year on earth.

These were all minor matters, as long as Big Brother was happy, anything was fine.

After two days of this, Yun Qi felt that something was wrong. This little glowing brick was too attractive; Big Brother clearly loved his phone more than him. Usually, when he was driving the car, Big Brother could only play with his phone when he was bored, but now that they were at the inn, Big Brother was still playing with his phone.

The future was turning to ashes. Not only did he have to drive away the admirers around Big Brother, but he also had to compete with a phone for affection.

Yun Qi transformed into an alluring enchantress, constantly singing around Lin Yan, “Big Brother, open your eyes and look at me, I don’t believe your eyes are empty~”

Lin Yan didn’t even raise his head, simply patting Yun Qi’s head perfunctorily, “Be good, I’ll play with you after I finish reading this.”

Yun Qi became even more aggrieved, shrinking into a mushroom in the corner, “Everyone else has the seven-year itch, but I’m already being disliked by Big Brother after only a month. What am I going to do for the rest of my life? Am I going to live alone in an empty room, growing old in solitude, watching batch after batch of little flowers bloom…”

“Stop, stop, stop.” Lin Yan made a pause gesture, explaining dryly, “I’m not disliking you, I’m…”

Yun Qi gave Lin Yan a look like a resentful woman in the deep palace, her mournful aura almost tangible: “Big Brother doesn’t even want to look at me, yet says he doesn’t dislike me.”

“I’m preparing this.” Lin Yan handed the phone to Yun Qi, opened a document, and quickly scrolled down with his finger. “Everything I can think of is here, including the management of common disasters, crop cultivation, livestock farming, weapon manufacturing, popularization of education…”

“Big Brother, you…”

Lin Yan chuckled, opened the window to look at the not-so-prosperous streets of the county town, then turned his gaze back, “I know you can’t let go of Great Zhou, can’t let go of the new Emperor. All I can do is this, don’t you dislike it.”

“How could I possibly dislike Big Brother?” Yun Qi’s hands trembled uncontrollably. He carefully put down the phone and gave Lin Yan a respectful bow, just like half a year ago, “These things can not only extend Great Zhou’s life by a hundred years, but also save many people’s lives. What Big Brother thinks are insignificant little things are actually meritorious deeds that will benefit future generations.”

“It’s not as exaggerated as you say.” Lin Yan’s face flushed red, and he awkwardly changed the subject. “I don’t know much about this era, and the things I found are also very mixed. You decide for yourself when you transcribe them which are suitable for this era and which are just fantasies. I’ll leave the phone with you for now, just give it back to me before we go back.”

Yun Qi felt like the phone in his sleeve weighed a thousand pounds. He solemnly nodded, “Just leave it to me, Big Brother has worked hard.”

Lin Yan’s stomach rumbled twice, singing a loud rendition of the Empty City Stratagem.

“I’ll go prepare dinner…”

Yun Qi volunteered to get out of the car, but Lin Yan stopped him as soon as he lifted the curtain.

Anything else was fine, except for cooking.

The kitchen killer had been practicing in the kitchen for half a month and had finally evolved and leveled up, the frequency of blowing up the kitchen had clearly increased, and the power of his fireball spell had significantly improved.

The inn had a lot of ingredients. Lin Yan picked up the Chinese cabbage, tearing off the rotten outer leaves, and casually asked, “What do you want to eat?”

Yun Qi looked at Lin Yan’s fair neck, secretly swallowing his saliva, and ordered with a lot of calculation, “I want to eat the bamboo shoots and toon sprouts that Big Brother dug up the other day…”

Lin Yan rummaged through the kitchen, looked at the eggs in the basket, and raised an eyebrow. “Eggs can be fried with toon sprouts, bamboo shoots…”

A gust of wind blew outside the window, carrying over the noise from across the street and the aroma of cured meat.

Lin Yan wrinkled his nose, able to judge from the aroma alone that this was a good piece of cured meat. It had both the charcoal aroma from burning wood and the unique flavor of salt and meat fat blending together.

“Let’s make stir-fried bamboo shoots with cured meat.” Lin Yan snapped his fingers, took his purse, followed the scent, and found a dilapidated courtyard.

The wall plaster was peeling, the half-open wooden door was swaying, and dead branches protruded from the yard. Only the weeds at the corner of the wall showed a bit of vitality.

“The money for the meat is enough for three days of medicine!” A woman’s shrill voice startled the sparrows under the eaves. “The doctor said this medicine can’t be stopped, and you still…”

“Kang’er wanted to eat some cured meat porridge!” A child’s intermittent cough came from the room. The man lowered his voice, but still pointed to the kitchen unwillingly, “You smell this stove, what’s left besides the bitter taste of medicine?”

Lin Yan pushed aside the dead branches and saw a thin figure swaying on the window paper of the east wing.

The thin child was curled up at the head of the bed, frowning even in his sleep, coughing every now and then.

Lin Yan struggled to look away, looked around, and soon saw the string of cured meat in the yard.

The shiny pieces of meat hung on the dead pomegranate tree, the aroma wafting in the wind.

Lin Yan spun the ribbon on his purse, threw it into Yun Qi’s arms, and gave him a “you know what to do” look: “You distract them, I’ll go steal the meat.”

Clearly, he was giving money, so why did he have to make it so thrilling?

Yun Qi wanted to persuade him, but when he saw the eager look in Lin Yan’s eyes, he nodded as if possessed.

Lin Yan climbed over the wall, quietly picked up the meat from the shelf, and was about to retreat when he heard the rustling of cloth rubbing together in the room.

Lin Yan looked in the direction of the sound and met the child’s surprised, wide eyes.

“Shh—” Lin Yan put his index finger to his lips, pulled a piece of candy from his pocket, and threw it through the window. “How about Big Brother exchange a candy for your cured meat?”

The wooden door creaked open, and Lin Yan, holding the cured meat, scrambled up the courtyard wall. The falling plaster hit the tree, shaking the purse hanging on the branch three times.

“Aiya, what a wicked thief.” The woman looked at the empty branches, and without bothering to argue with the man, grabbed a hoe and stuffed it into the man’s hand. “I told you to buy medicine and you wouldn’t, and now you bought half a piece of meat and it got stolen by a thief! What are you standing there for, go catch the thief.”

“Don’t be anxious…” The man put the hoe back into the woman’s hand, walked to the tree, took down the purse, and opened it with trembling hands.

“Not anxious? The person has already disappeared…”

The man took a bank-note from the purse, his hands shaking even more violently. He struggled to unfold the bank-note and identified its authenticity against the light.

The woman’s shrill scolding had long stopped. She took the bank-note with trembling hands, her fingers stroking the numbers on the bank-note, “Fifty… fifty taels, Kang’er’s disease can be saved?”

The man threw down the hoe in his hand, knelt down in the direction of the wall, and kowtowed heavily on the ground.

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