Chapter 23

Qin Haidu's personality was somewhat effeminate, while Liu Huer's was stubborn. Both of their personalities were quite extreme, so they always looked at each other with disapproval.

Even eating a meal couldn't be peaceful. Liu Huer quickly finished his meal, pushed away his bowl and chopsticks, and immediately glared at Qin Haidu, pursing his lips. He had already told Qin Haidu that a man should eat like a man, and that chewing slowly was something women did.

Since Zhao Chen had Zhao San make a wheelchair for Liu Huer, the boy had become noticeably more lively and talkative.

The wooden wheelchair looked a bit strange, but it at least allowed Liu Huer to move around freely. Zhao Chen told Liu Huer that if he wanted to walk normally in the future, he would have to figure out how to get a prosthetic leg. He could teach him the method, but whether he could stand up or not was up to him.

After saying this, Zhao Chen went to one side to copy a book. The old Taoist was about to come to the Geyu Academy, so he gave him a copy of the *Compendium of Materia Medica*. This book was available in the supermarket, but the tricky part was removing the names, places, and other words that could raise suspicion.

The workload was huge! This task couldn't be delegated to anyone else, so he had to copy it word by word himself!

Snow was about to fall, and he had to build the house before the snow came, otherwise everyone would have to spend the winter in tents, which was not what Zhao Chen wanted.

Since he was planning to build a house, he had to inform his superiors. Otherwise, if the house was built and they were unhappy, they could find any reason to tear it down, which would not be good.

However, before he could say anything, the big boss kicked him out, roaring that Zhao Chen could build the house if he wanted, but the Ministry of Works wouldn't give him a penny.

Alright! He could understand the bad mood. He heard that today in court, they were discussing the funerals of Jiancheng and Yuanji, which made the atmosphere very somber. Then Wei Zheng started crying on the ground, saying that the emperor must agree to let him see Jiancheng off.

Wei Zheng's crying made Wang Gui also crawl out, crying even more dramatically, tearing his heart out. This made Emperor Taizong cry as well, and the entire court had to cry.

However, they couldn't really cry, nor could they not cry. So they chose to fake it, covering their faces with their sleeves, and the court was filled with wailing, but no one could see any tears.

In the end, Emperor Taizong, choked with sobs, was persuaded by the officials to posthumously grant Jiancheng the title of Prince of Xiyin and Yuanji the title of Prince of Hailing, and to allow Wei Zheng and Wang Gui to see Jiancheng off.

When Zhao Chen heard about this, he was stunned for a long time. The truth about the Xuanwu Gate Incident was always shrouded in mystery. In some Sui and Tang novels, Jiancheng and Yuanji were portrayed as a pair of evil and incompetent brothers. But was the truth really like that?

Zhao Chen didn't know and didn't plan to ask anyone. This was a taboo for Emperor Taizong, and anyone who mentioned it would lose their head.

However, Zhao Chen knew that the Xuanwu Gate Incident set a bad precedent for his descendants, and the power transitions in the Tang Dynasty seemed to never be free from bloodshed.

If he was going to build a house, he would do it without delay. The Ministry of Works wouldn't give him money, but he had plenty of his own. Hu Lu sold the glass and got hundreds of strings of coins, and he had also extorted a lot of gold from the rich young men. With so much money, building a few houses or even a building was no problem.

A row of small bungalows. When Zhao Chen hung the design of the Geyu Academy on the door of his tent, the rich young men immediately started shouting and took action.

The two shabby huts were quickly demolished, and materials were brought into the Geyu Academy. While all the other government offices were dead, the Ministry of Works was bustling with construction.

The big boss of the Ministry of Works was too ashamed to go out. He had only said it in anger, but these guys really started building without hesitation. Were they even human?

The rich young men rolled up their sleeves and got to work. Zhao Chen had said that they should supervise the construction of their own houses, and even if they built a pigsty, it was their own problem.

This was unacceptable. Their houses had to be better than others, not worse!

Qin Haidu looked dispirited. Even children competed fiercely, but since he was young, he could only watch the family guards sent by Old Qin do the work.

But when he saw Liu Huer next to him, he immediately perked up, proud and arrogant.

Liu Huer, seeing this, turned his head away in anger. Qin Haidu was missing a brain cell, and he decided not to take him seriously. Building a house was no big deal; he didn't need to do anything. All the work was done by Qin Haidu's family guards, and he could just move in when it was done. What was there to be proud of?

His admiration turned to Zhao Chen, who was his real idol! He could get a bunch of idiots to work while he sat there drinking tea and writing, without worrying about anything.

The term "idiot" was something Liu Huer had learned from Zhao Chen when he scolded Li Yuanjing for trying to build a house identical to the one at the academy, which got him scolded out of the place.

Liu Huer found the term "idiot" very powerful, so it became his catchphrase, and Qin Haidu often became his target.

Liu Cheng's life was so strong that even the King of Hell was afraid. He had somehow come back from a state of living death. When he woke up, Zhao Chen went to see him. The once strong man was now skin and bones.

When Zhao Chen arrived, Liu Cheng opened his mouth silently, crying like a baby. He was overwhelmed with gratitude for Zhao Chen, who had not only saved his life from the King of Hell but also taken his son Huer to the Geyu Academy.

What the Geyu Academy was, others might not know, but Liu Cheng, who had spent so much time with Zhao Chen in the mountains, knew the significance.

For Huer to be taken to the Geyu Academy and become Zhao Chen's disciple was a great favor that couldn't be repaid with just words.

Zhao Chen knew what Liu Cheng wanted to say, so he tightly held his hand, indicating that he understood. He then comforted Liu Cheng and checked his wounds with the old Taoist before leaving.

The wounds were healing well, with new pink flesh growing along the sutured lines. In a few more days, after the stitches were removed and he rested, Liu Cheng would be able to move around again.

Zhao Chen felt very good, proud to have saved another life. As the saying goes, saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda!

On the way back, he handed the copied *Compendium of Materia Medica* to the old Taoist, who was so impressed by the beautiful handwriting that he couldn't move!

The old Taoist was a pure person, completely absorbed in his work, just like Cheng Chumo, who was obsessed with battle, and Li Yuanjing, who was obsessed with fine wine, and Wang Xiaotong, who was obsessed with mathematics. Everyone he knew had something they were passionate about, but what about himself?

He had never thought about it. Since coming to the Tang Dynasty, he had been aimless, just getting by day by day, not knowing what he wanted to do. Everything had been pushed by others.

He couldn't go back to the future, but this world couldn't give him what he wanted. He didn't care about power, as it made people cold and ruthless, and even brothers could be killed, as seen in Emperor Taizong.

So what did he care about? With the time-traveling supermarket, he could live comfortably even in the mountains!

Life was meaningless! Zhao Chen didn't want to admit it, but he sadly realized that he had nothing to hold onto!

"Smack!" A heavy slap landed on his head, and Zhao Chen looked at the old Taoist in confusion, seeing him frowning and glaring angrily.

"Tell me, I'm very curious, what could a young boy like you have that makes you look so hopeless!"

"I don't know what to live for!" Zhao Chen lowered his head, speaking as if he had done something wrong.

"You're a troublemaker!" The old Taoist was very angry, and the consequences were severe. He angrily grabbed Zhao Chen's sleeve and marched toward a坊 (neighborhood) in Chang'an, ignoring Zhao Chen's apologies.

Once they entered the neighborhood, Zhao Chen stopped struggling and let the old Taoist pull him forward. The neighborhood was the poorest, with ruins everywhere. Along the way, they saw people with disheveled hair and blank faces staring at them.

Zhao Chen's scalp began to tingle. He suddenly understood what the old Taoist was going to do!

A group of people who had been trampled in war!

In the future, the Sui and Tang Dynasties were often mentioned together as the Sui-Tang Prosperity. The Sui Dynasty, in its prime, was not much worse than the Tang Dynasty. However, after the chaos at the end of the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Taizong was left with a drastically reduced population and ruins everywhere.

The Tang Dynasty's population was now 2.6 million households, a decrease of several hundred thousand households compared to the previous dynasty!

Several hundred thousand households! On paper, it was just a number, but they were real people!

"Master, I was wrong, truly wrong!" Zhao Chen grabbed the old Taoist's sleeve, not wanting to see those people. Even if he didn't look, he knew what they looked like.

A group of people who had crawled out of a pile of corpses, having experienced the most brutal things in life. Just being alive, seeing the sun rise, breathing the air, and seeing the grass move and the clouds drift, was enough for them!

As long as they were alive!