Chapter 2

In the misty mountain city of Yuzhou Experimental Middle School, the sun on the fourth day of the lunar New Year in the Year of the Dragon had just passed its zenith.

At this time, for ordinary people, it was a time to celebrate, eat, or take a nap, or enjoy afternoon entertainment. However, for the students in the final year of high school, those who wanted to achieve something in the college entrance examination had already voluntarily entered the afternoon study session.

There were always exceptions. As a graduating student, Yang Tang was still sprawled on the desk in the front row, sound asleep, not at all in a state of studying.

Being able to sit in the front row was not because Yang Tang's grades were particularly good, nor because he was nearsighted. Rather, as one of the bottom students in this key liberal arts class, the head teacher, Cen Li, felt it necessary to constantly remind this small group of students who were dragging down her college entrance examination bonus. However, from the perspective of the underachievers, it was more like a punishment to make them eat chalk dust.

Buzz... Buzz... Buzz...

[Damn, I got electrocuted, I wonder if I scared my son?]

[Hmm? That's not right, where am I?]

Yang Tang, muttering to himself, realized his face was pressed against something hard, but he vaguely remembered collapsing on the sofa before he passed out.

Buzz... Buzz... Buzz...

He could hear faint voices coming from his ears.

"Yang the Hero, wake up, stop dreaming about martial arts!"

"Don't be like that, it's rare for Old Gan to fan you, let him enjoy it!"

"Brother Tang, are you a pig, stop sleeping!"

The voices became clearer, and then Yang Tang felt someone pushing him. He instinctively elbowed the hand away, saying, "Stop fooling around, let me sleep a bit more!" Then he heard a burst of laughter.

Yang Tang was startled awake by the laughter, sat up abruptly, and looked around in confusion. He instinctively asked, "Where am I?" Then he noticed an electric fan blowing above his forehead and saw a middle-aged man's dark face, which seemed somewhat familiar.

"It seems our classmate Yang is still asleep..." The middle-aged man's eyes were sharp, coldly staring at Yang Tang, seemingly indifferent, "But I still need to continue my history class on difficult questions... The next question: What is the epitaph of Wu Zetian, the first emperor of the Wu Zhou dynasty and the first female emperor in history? Yang Tang, why don't you try to answer?"

This was clearly a challenge, but the still confused Yang Tang didn't even notice!

"Yang... Tang!!" The dark-faced middle-aged man gritted his teeth and called Yang Tang's name again, "Stand up and answer the question!"

Still not understanding what was happening, Yang Tang remained motionless. A classmate on the other side of the aisle reminded him, "Third junior, Old Gan is angry, get up, stand up!"

Yang Tang didn't quite understand the first part about "Old Gan," but he understood the word "stand up" and knew the classmate was trying to help him. He instinctively stood up but still didn't understand the situation, so he asked the classmate, "What's next?"

The classmate rolled his eyes, "Answer what's written on Wu Zetian's tombstone..."

"Is there anything written on Wu Zetian's tombstone?" Yang Tang was taken aback, "That's ridiculous!" As he blurted out these words, not only did the whole class burst into laughter again, but he also felt as if something in his mind suddenly exploded, and countless images and fragments flooded his mind.

At this moment, the classmates who were laughing saw Yang Tang roll his eyes, stagger, and fall to the ground, knocking over his desk.

"Hey... What happened to Yang Tang?"

"Is he fainting?!"

"Can't be, is he faking it?"

"Real fainting and fake fainting are very different, just check his breathing."

"Oh no, his breathing is very weak, quickly, take him to the school clinic!"

"You guys, don't just stand there, come help..."

An hour and a half later, in the school clinic.

Yang Tang, lying on the bed, suddenly opened his eyes and stared blankly at the ceiling, muttering, "It must be a穿越..."

"What did you say?" The female school doctor, who was writing something at the desk, suddenly spoke, startling Yang Tang, who had just opened his eyes.

"Nothing... nothing..."

Yang Tang deliberately responded meekly to the female school doctor, but in his heart, he had accepted the reality and the countless memory fragments in his mind. After all, he wasn't reborn as someone else but returned to his high school days, though this Earth and this era were somewhat unfamiliar to him.

The same parents, slightly adjusted relatives, a similar school, a somewhat different country, and a shocking history... Yang Tang first confirmed that this should be a parallel universe, otherwise, he couldn't explain the additional history in his mind.

Emperor Zhongzong Li Xian failed to restore the Tang dynasty.

Wu Yanji, the son of Wu Chengsi, forced the palace and ascended the throne in 701 AD, becoming the second emperor of the Wu Zhou dynasty. Because of this monster, many great literary figures of subsequent dynasties were eliminated.

However, the gears of time were powerful, and after more than two hundred years, the course of history returned to its original track. In 965 AD, Zhao Kuangyin successfully staged a coup at Chenqiao and changed the era name to Jianlong, marking the beginning of the Song dynasty.

Eleven years later, Zhao Dezao, taking advantage of the situation to seize the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun, forced Zhao Kuangyi to commit suicide and successfully ascended the throne. Afterward, during the Song dynasty, whether the northern regime was Liao or Jin, they never retreated south of the Yellow River.

But the wheel of time was still powerful. In 1275 AD, Kublai Khan established the Yuan dynasty. In 1283 AD, the Mongol Yuan army bypassed the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, captured Xiangyang, and two years later, the divided and besieged Song dynasty finally fell.

Unfortunately, the Yuan dynasty still couldn't escape its short lifespan. In 1367 AD, the Ming dynasty was established. In 1400 AD, the second emperor Zhu Yunwen defeated his uncle Zhu Di at Shun Tian and the same year eliminated the Mongol Yuan in the north.

Afterward, the Ming dynasty lasted for more than four hundred years. Under the rule of the Ming, the northern nomadic tribes were suppressed, assimilated, and eventually integrated, so there was no Later Jin, and in modern times, at least half of the Russians could speak Chinese.

...

Time passed, and the Ming royal family no longer had the same power as before, only a faint echo, confined by the Chinese government.

However, the Chinese, who inherited the territory of the Ming, became the largest, most technologically advanced, and economically developed country in the world, with economic, technological, and legal standards far surpassing those of the previous life. The entertainment industry was also highly developed, but the center and focus of global entertainment were in Europe and America.

[The center of entertainment is in Europe and America, isn't that the same as the previous Earth?] A small question arose in Yang Tang's mind, but the "it's none of my business" attitude quickly took over. [What does this have to do with me, a commoner?]

Indeed, it had nothing to do with Yang Tang. Whether in the previous life or now, he was just a fan, a music fan, a movie fan, a book fan... He had seen countless songs, movies, and books, and could recite a few lines of popular songs or dialogues, but he couldn't remember the complete lyrics or plots of songs or movies.

Besides, who would care about the center of entertainment? For Yang Tang, who had been reborn and had a wife and children, the most pressing concern was the present and the future, including his "future" wife.

As for the phrase "It must be a穿越," Yang Tang wasn't referring to himself but to Wu Yanji, no, Wu Yanji, and that Zhao Dezao, as well as the short-lived Emperor Zhu Yunwen!

Flipping off the bed, Yang Tang said to the female school doctor, "Doctor, I'm fine now, can I go?"

The ordinary-looking female school doctor glanced at him and said, "You can go, but you suddenly fainted in the classroom, and I didn't find any cause. Be careful, and if it persists, go to a big hospital for a comprehensive check-up. After all, the college entrance examination is only a hundred days away."

"Understood, thank you! I'll go now."

After thanking her, Yang Tang hurriedly left the clinic but didn't return to the classroom. Instead, he climbed over the southern wall and left the school grounds.

It wasn't that Yang Tang didn't want to study hard for the college entrance examination, but he was well aware of his grades. In his previous life, he had to rely on connections to enter Chengdu University through the adult college entrance examination because his score was too low. In this life, he didn't have an extraordinary memory or superhuman abilities, and picking up two foreign languages and history again would be like insanity.

Indeed, two foreign languages.

English and a second foreign language.

This was a rule set by the Ministry of Education, with the slogan, "Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated!" When Yang Tang integrated this memory, he really wanted to spit in the face of "that person."

Actually, Yang Tang still had some hopes. He dreamed of doing well in the college entrance examination and directly entering Yujing University to meet his wife from his previous life earlier. However, deep down, he was also afraid that with the changes in time and space, even the name of the university might be different, and his wife might not appear in that campus on time.

"It won't be, it won't be, after all, my parents are still the same!" Yang Tang muttered to himself as he walked to the old street, trying to comfort himself.

Passing by an ATM, Yang Tang withdrew all the money from his bank card, which wasn't much, just 800 yuan. He wasn't acting on a whim; he had a specific purpose for going to the old street. He wanted to intercept someone's goods.

The old street was a place where anything could be bought, especially by second-hand dealers selling antiques, with prices ranging from tens to hundreds to thousands. However, back then, Yang Tang was just a naive young man who knew nothing about antiques, and with his weekly living expenses of less than 100 yuan, he wouldn't even glance at the antiques on the old street.

However, around the Lantern Festival in his senior year of high school in his previous life, Yang Tang heard that a Chenghua porcelain from the old street had been bought for 300 yuan and resold for over 2 million yuan. He later investigated the matter in detail and gradually understood the principle of "one in a hundred is genuine" in antiques. Naturally, the shape of that 300-yuan antique from the old street was etched in his mind and remained fresh.

Reborn and returned, Yang Tang couldn't afford to miss such a big opportunity. However, as he left the ATM booth and accidentally saw a banner next to it that read "China Bank," he froze on the spot.

Damn, with the Tang, Song, and Yuan dynasties out of place and the Ming history different, where could there be such a big opportunity?

...

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