Hold His Hand

Lu Yanzhou learned a lot in the interstellar world, and also worked hard to live longer.

He is much older than Xie Chengze, if he wants to spend more time with Xie Chengze, he must take care of his body.

Xie Chengze died of old age. On the day of his death, the aged Lu Yanzhou also closed his eyes.

Putting another soul fragment belonging to Xie Chengze into his heart, Lu Yanzhou turned around and entered the next world.

When he opened his eyes again, he saw an ancient room with a faint scent of sandalwood.

He got up from the bed, rubbed his forehead, and processed the original owner’s memory.

The original owner of his body was a prisoner.

The dynasty he lived in was called the Great Jin Dynasty, which was somewhat similar to the Ming Dynasty in history that he had learned before, but it was not exactly the same.

When the world was in chaos at the end of the previous dynasty, the head of the Lu family at that time, the original owner’s grandfather, who was stationed at the border at that time, rebelled and led his soldiers who had lost their military pay and could not afford to eat to rebel.

The original owner’s grandfather was a rough man who was good at fighting, but not good at governing the world. In addition, he rebelled just to feed his subordinates…

After occupying a large territory, he weighed the pros and cons, turned to the late emperor who was almost as strong as him at that time and had a good reputation. He became a general under the late emperor, and followed the late emperor to conquer the world.

The original owner’s grandfather didn’t have any big ambitions, he just wanted to become a rich man after the world was at peace, so that his family members could live a good life.

At the beginning of the founding of the Great Jin Dynasty, he did indeed live the life he wanted.

It’s a pity that things are impermanent.

The most outstanding son of the late emperor, the crown prince Rongfu, who had followed the late emperor to fight from all four quarters, died of illness in the third year of the late emperor’s ascension to the throne!

The late emperor suffered a serious illness, but fortunately he survived in the end.

The late emperor had been fighting in his early years, so he didn’t have many heirs, and he also lost a lot during the war. After the death of the crown prince Rongfu, there was no suitable heir.

Fortunately, the late emperor was fifty years old at the time, and after opening the harem, he got two more sons.

The present monarch is one of these two people.

He was born after the founding of the Great Jin Dynasty, so he had no feelings for the founding heroes who followed the late emperor to conquer the world, and he especially hated them when they compared him to the crown prince Rongfu who died young.

In addition, most of the founding heroes did not read any books. After the world was peaceful, some of them did such stupid things as encroaching on land and embezzling.…he hates these founding heroes who rely on the old and sell the old1Take advantage of one’s seniority to do things.

The Lu family is one of the targets he hates.

The original owner’s grandfather saved a lot of property during the war, and after the world was peaceful, he didn’t do any evil things to make money but he had a lot of friends. When his early friends do something, he always pleads for them, which gets in the way of the present monarch’s eyes.

That’s alright, but even the original owner’s uncles are all well-developed but simple-minded, all had a good relationship with the crown prince Rongfu back then. In the present, the young were no less imposing than the elders. The Lu family were like braves and good at fighting armies.

How could he not hate them?

Seventeen years ago, the emperor’s only brother in the world, one of the late emperor’s sons, was killed for intending to plot rebellion. The Lu family was framed and implicated.

At that time, the original owner’s grandfather had already passed away, so there was no one to protect the Lu family. Under the insistence of the present emperor, they were sentenced to be beheaded. Only the original owner, who was still young, was rescued by a loyal servant and sent to Jiangnan to a man, who had been received a favor by the Lu family, so he was raised by that scholar.

The original owner’s father was the son of the second wife, who the original owner’s grandfather married after his first wife passed away, so he was also a different kind of Lu – the rest of the Lu family wielded sword and spear but he loved reading.

The original owner was influenced by him, so he also loved reading. The experience of his family being ruined when he was young made him study hard, and finally he was admitted to Juren at a young age.

After winning the imperial examination, he came to the capital from Jiangnan. At first, he was full of resentment, wanting to seek revenge on the current emperor. For this reason, he approached the current emperor’s second son, King Rui, and advised King Rui to target the current crown prince. He wanted to make the current emperor’s two sons fight each other, it’s best if they die together.

The present emperor was also like the first emperor, he had few heirs. He only has two sons, the crown prince and King Rui.

The empress and the noble consort had always been fighting, so the relationship between the crown prince and King Rui is also very bad. They don’t like each other.

It was not difficult for the original owner to make the two fight, but after he assisted King Rui, his mentality gradually changed.

Although the original owner had hatred in his heart, the education he had received since he was a child was to ‘learn literature and martial arts and sell the imperial family’. King Rui is also used to being a good person,so he treated the original owner with various courtesy. The original owner regarded King Rui as his Bo Le2Someone who is good at finding talent and he began to sincerely work for King Rui.

What he wanted was no longer to take revenge with his own hands, but to overturn the case for the Lu family after King Rui came to power.

Of course, the most important thing is…the original owner fell in love with King Rui.

The present emperor was born after the late emperor ascended the throne, so with the selection of the most beautiful beauty, he was born. King Rui’s mother, the current noble consort, is a national beauty, so King Rui’s appearance is also very outstanding.

The original owner was very talented and capable, so King Rui staged some plays to live and sleep together3having a close relationship to get closer to the original owner. The original owner liked men, so getting along like this, he gradually fell in love with King Rui.

After being tempted, the original owner sold his life to King Rui. For King Rui, the original owner pretended to get close to the crown prince and took the opportunity to frame the crown prince. In the end, the crown prince, who suffered from heart disease, was ruined and died from illness.

Of course, the original owner didn’t end well either. In fact, King Rui already knew the original owner’s identity, a member of the Lu family. He treated the original owner so courteously because he wanted to gain the Lu family connection in the original owner’s hands.

When the crown prince passed away and King Rui ascended the throne, the original owner no longer had any use for King Rui…King Rui had indeed overturned the Lu family’s case, but he also ordered someone to poison the original owner, and those who were close to the original owner were also wiped out.

After the Lu family’s incident, there were actually quite a few people who wanted to find justice for the Lu family, so they secretly helped the original owner. The original owner also had some cousins who were divorced or reduced to prostitution because they were married women, but they still survived then.

It’s different now, everyone is dead.

Lu Yanzhou: “…” The original owner’s vision is really bad!

This King Rui is ambitious and used to acting, he can tell he’s not a good thing at first sight. If he really wants to help others or find someone to take refuge in, he can also look for the crown prince, why bother to follow King Rui?!

By the way, the crown prince is Xie Chengze.

Xie Chengze’s identity in this small world is the current crown prince. His mother is the empress. He was named as the crown prince not long after he was born. He has read poetry and books since childhood, so he has an upright noble temperament. The only flaw may be that he suffers from heart disease.

Xie Chengze had always kept the disease well hidden, so few people knew about it. However, the original owner later discovered it and deliberately provoked Xie Chengze several times.

After the original owner tricked Xie Chengze out, he killed two young men in Xie Chengze’s room, and then said to the public that Xie Chengze liked men and abused others.

Lu Yanzhou really didn’t know what to say to the current situation.

The original owner wanted to avenge his family, it couldn’t be said that he is really wrong – this current emperor really has a problem.

If the original owner’s grandfather hadn’t joined the late emperor back then, who would be the person on the throne now?

Moreover, the Lu family did not participate in the rebellion, but they were ransacked and had the whole family beheaded, which is really pitiful.

But the one who has enmity with the original owner is clearly the current emperor, why did he aim at the crown prince? Targeting the crown prince was fine, he was too cruel to the crown prince. In the end, his hands were covered with blood—a lot of officials in the crown prince’s family. who were sincerely serving the people, were framed to death by him.

What is the difference between him and the current emperor?

Fortunately, none of this has happened yet.

Right now, the original owner has been King Rui’s advisor for two full years, and he has already fallen in love with King Rui. However, he has just met the crown prince with the help of King Rui, and has yet murdered the crown prince.

In the past two years, the main thing the original owner has done is to help King Rui recruit subordinates. Because he has a good impression of King Rui, the original owner has given a lot of money, and even used his identity as the Lu family to make some of his uncles’ old subordinates join King Rui.

But he hasn’t done more than that yet.

Lu Yanzhou sat on the bed for a while, then he heard a knock on the door: “Young master, are you up yet?”

“Already up.” Lu Yanzhou answered.

Hearing Lu Yanzhou’s answer, a servant immediately came in with a basin and waited for Lu Yanzhou to wash.

After the original owner came to the capital, he bought a house in the capital to live in. In the past two years, he had contact with King Rui from time to time, but he avoided contacting people in private.

In outsiders’ eyes, he came to the capital from Jiangnan to take part in the imperial exam. He is just a talented scholar named Lu Yanzhou.

The imperial exam will be held soon, and he is also the most likely to win.

After washing up, Lu Yanzhou took the boy out and entered a teahouse in the capital.

This teahouse was opened by King Rui. King Rui and his advisors often discuss ‘big things’ here.

The so-called ‘big things’ is naturally how to frame the crown prince and the people from the crown prince’s family.

But when Lu Yanzhou came here today, except for King Rui, he didn’t see anyone else.

“Jizhi, you are here.” Upon seeing Lu Yanzhou, King Rui smiled, and affectionately called Lu Yanzhou’s name ‘Jizhi’.

King Rui and the crown prince were born in the same year, both are 20 years old this year, while Lu Yanzhou’s body just turned 22 this year.

Lu’s ancestors all lived at the border, they were all soldiers, so they were all tall and big. Lu Yanzhou was actually taller than King Rui and looked more powerful.

It’s a pity that the original owner has always acted like a little girl in front of King Rui, acting shy and embarrassed…

Lu Yanzhou was in a complicated mood when he found out that King Rui, who in the original owner’s impression was heroic and majestic, was actually smaller than him in height and weight.

When he observed King Rui, he also found that although King Rui was quite enthusiastic, he was actually quite cold. It was a bit like I am high above you and my politeness, virtuous, and warmth to you is that I value you, so you have to be grateful.

The original owner even believed this set!

“Your highness!” Lu Yanzhou treated King Rui like the original owner and entered the teahouse backyard with King Rui.

This backyard is exclusive to King Rui, no one else can come here, so Lu Yanzhou and King Rui sat down by the stone bench in the courtyard. King Rui asked, “Jizhi, you have already met my brother, how do you feel?”

Lu Yanzhou said: “he’s not as good as one tenth of your highness” Xie Chengze is not as ruthless as King Rui in front of him!

King Rui was very happy. When he asked Lu Yanzhou for details, Lu Yanzhou did not hide it. After all, the original owner himself approached Xie Chengze under King Rui’s arrangement.

Xie Chengze was born as the crown prince and had outstanding knowledge. The officials in the imperial court naturally respected him very much, but Xie Chengze himself was very low-key and rarely appeared in front of others.

He would only occasionally go to the temple to offer incense.

The original owner would lit a sandalwood incense at home, read a few more scriptures, and after making preparations, he wandered around the temple from time to time.

That day, seeing that the temple took in some orphans without any father or mother, the original owner thought of his old days. Feeling sympathetic, he helped the little novice monk in the temple take care of the children…While taking care of them, the original owner saw Xie Chengze as soon as he looked up.

Xie Chengze had a very good impression of the original owner. The original owner had real talents and knowledge, so the two chatted very happily, but it was the first time they met, so they were only talking about scriptures and poems.

After Lu Yanzhou finished speaking, King Rui stretched out his hand and put it on Lu Yanzhou’s hand, which was holding a chess piece: “My imperial brother is used to doing superficial shows, no one knows what is going through his mind…Jizhi, please help me watch him. ”

Lu Yanzhou trembled and quickly withdrew his hand. Seeing King Rui looked over in surprise, he showed a little shyness.

But his goosebumps were all over the place.

Lu Yanzhou knew that the original owner was interested in King Rui. Now, looking at King Rui’s behavior, and recalling the original owner’s previous experience…The original owner was seduced by King Rui, it also has something to do with King Rui.

With King Rui acting like this, he clearly knew the original owner’s feelings and deliberately seduced him.

Lu Yanzhou felt sick for a moment, but he continued to chat with King Rui.

This is ancient times, when the imperial power was supreme. King Rui is a prince, it’s very easy to kill him. He can’t offend King Rui for the time being.

Moreover, if he stays with King Rui, he can also know what King Rui wants to do next, and maybe he can help Xie Chengze.

Fortunately, after Lu Yanzhou avoided the touch, King Rui did not continue to touch him.

As far as Lu Yanzhou knew, although King Rui hadn’t married a wangfei yet, there were already several women in his mansion. He obviously liked women and probably didn’t want to have any physical contact with him.

The previous ‘touching hands’ should be because King Rui wanted to give him some sweets.

“Jizhi, I will trouble you with my brother!” King Rui said again.

“It’s my blessing to share your highness’ worries, it’s just…” Lu Yanzhou showed hesitation.

King Rui asked, “What’s wrong?”

Lu Yanzhou said: “Your highness, I gave General Zhou a lot of silvers before, now I’m embarrassed to be short of silvers…”

Back then, the original owner’s grandfather conquered the world and grabbed a lot of gold, silver, and jewels. He was afraid that his future generations would spend money and ruin the family property, so he divided the money into three parts, one for spending, one for hiding at the border, and the other was hidden in Jiangnan.

Jiangnan’s share of the money is now in the original owner’s hands, and many of the Lu family’s former subordinates are also in the original owner’s hands.

This is also the reason why King Rui values the original owner – he has money and people, he can always do all the things King Rui has asked him to do well.

However, the original owner was willing to spend the Lu family’s money for King Rui, but Lu Yanzhou was not.

He also wanted to get back the money the original owner had spent on King Rui.

King Rui’s face changed slightly when he heard Lu Yanzhou’s words.

The reason why there are only two sons, the crown prince and King Rui, is that since seventeen years ago, after killing off his younger brother and the Lu family and the founding fathers, the current emperor has been obsessed with alchemy and striving for longevity. He barely appears in the court meeting.

With the present situation, of course he would not give money to his son. King Rui longs for the throne, so he had spent silvers to do this and that, now he became very poor.

But Lu Yanzhou wanted the money. King Rui laughed dryly and asked Lu Yanzhou to go to the tea house accountant to get the silvers.

“Thank you, wang ye.” Lu Yanzhou waited for King Rui to leave, and immediately went to the restaurant’s accountant to collect a large sum of silvers.

This time, the original owner can only get back one-tenth of the money spent by King Rui, but if he takes it a few more times, he can always get it back.

Putting the few money laundering vouchers in his bosom, Lu Yanzhou left the tea house and went straight to the grain store in the city.

Great Jin already has bank notes, which is the one in his hand. As long as one takes the money to the bank to deposit it, the bank will give them a corresponding voucher, which is commonly known as bank notes.

Whichever bank the money is stored in, one can only go to that bank to get the money with the bank notes, so the bank notes in the capital cannot be used in other places.

This kind of bank note is not easy to imitate, it’s written by the owner of the bank himself, and it has two copies and also a stamp.

Of course, the bank notes in the capital in his hand are very convenient to spend in the capital. It’s better than carrying silver to buy things.

When Lu Yanzhou arrived at the grain store, he gave a bank note saying he wanted to buy grain, and then the grain store immediately sent someone to the bank to ask for someone. After the people in the bank saw it and confirmed that the bank note was genuine, they sold a lot of grain to Lu Yanzhou.

Lu Yanzhou said: “These grains will be sent to Jingning Temple outside the city tomorrow.”

The temple where the original owner and the crown prince met was Jingning Temple. That temple would often help poor people. He sent food there, not only to earn merit, but also to meet Xie Chengze.

Naturally, the owner of the food shop didn’t say anything else, after all, it didn’t cost much to ask someone to deliver food.

In the old days, traffic was inconvenient and troublesome. It took Lu Yanzhou half a day to talk to King Rui in the morning, and another half day to buy food. After finishing his orders, it was almost dark, so he hurried home.

The original owner’s house was bought from a retired official. Although it is not big, it can accommodate some servants. At this time, manpower is really cheap…

Besides the servant named Changfeng and a maid named Lu Hai, whom he brought from Jiangnan, the original owner also bought some servants in the capital.

The mother in the family is in her fifties and is a cook. Her two daughters are in charge of making clothes and doing laundry, and the father takes his son to do odd jobs and look after the door.

When Lu Yanzhou got home, the food was already ready, warmed in the pot, and brought out quickly.

The food in ancient times was not very good. It was completely different from the interstellar world where Lu Yanzhou was in his last world. Fortunately, he was not a picky person.

After eating, Lu Yanzhou lit the oil lamp, took out a brush and paper to think about what he was going to do next, then wrote it down one by one.

After writing it down, he lit it again and burned it.

Early the next morning, Lu Yanzhou asked Lu Hai to prepare a carriage to take him to Jingning Temple.

It was already noon when he arrived. The food he bought yesterday had already been delivered one after another.

It’s very cold today, but the porters are wearing thin clothes. straw sandals, or bare feet…Seeing their hands and feet cracked from the cold, and some people’s bodies bent under the weight of the load, Lu Yanzhou couldn’t help sighing.

These porters all came from the same village, so Lu Yanzhou gave the leader a load of food and asked them to share it when they returned.

A load weighs about a hundred catties, and there are a total of twenty people here, so each person can’t even have a few catties.

However, they were all very happy. They said good things one after another, packed up and went to pick it up for the second time – Lu Yanzhou bought a lot of food, so it took several trips to pick it all up.

“Amitabha, benefactor is very kind.” There was a lot of movement outside, and Jingning Temple was not a big temple, so the abbot came out in person to salute Lu Yanzhou.

Lu Yanzhou hurriedly returned the bow.

According to what King Rui investigated, the people in Jingning Temple didn’t know that the young man who came here once or twice a month was the crown prince, so Lu Yanzhou didn’t say much. He just said that he wanted to do some good deeds and donate food to the temple.

“Thank you, benefactor!” The abbot of Jingning Temple was very happy.

Lu Yanzhou immediately said that he wanted to live in Jingning Temple for a while. As for the reason…many people would disturb his study, so he wanted to find a quiet place to bury his head in his studies.

Naturally, there was no objection from Jingning Temple, and they also said that their temple had already taken in a few candidates who came to the capital to rush for the exam and had no money to spend.

Normally, it’s easy for a Juren to find a job in the capital, but now there are only three or four months before the imperial examination, and there are too many Juren in the capital, so it’s difficult to find a job.

Unfortunately, accidents are prone to happen on the way to the imperial examination. Whether it is encountering bandits or getting sick, it could all emptied their silvers.

Such a juren, after coming to the capital, often can only seek refuge in a temple, and then earn some silver by copying books or something.

Lu Yanzhou immediately decided to live here, and took out a bank note to ask Lu Hai to find someone to repair Jingning Temple. If possible, build a few more houses, so as to accommodate more people.

The monks in Jingning Temple responded to Lu Yanzhou’s demands, and the abbot even gave up his room to Lu Yanzhou to live in.

Jingning Temple is not big, it used to only have monks from their own temple, which could accommodate them, but recently it has taken in three Juren and some homeless children and elderly people, so the room is not enough.

Lu Yanzhou was not too polite either. After giving some incense and teals to the temple, he stayed there.

Well, it was said to be the abbot’s room, but it’s actually a small room with a few pieces of furniture in it.

He found some people to build some new houses, so he also had them build a kang. He would live in the new house when the time came.

Lu Yanzhou had already made up his mind to guard Xie Chengze at Jingning Temple. He would change places after he got to know Xie Chengze well.

Of course, he also has another reason to do this…

At the same time, the East Palace.

In the past few years, the current emperor didn’t attend court, so many matters in the court have been handed over to the crown prince.

It was already dark, but many lamps were still lit in Xie Chengze’s room so that he could continue to read the memorial.

After all the memorials were finally approved and put aside some that needed to be reviewed by the emperor, Xie Chengze got up and was ready to go to sleep.

The East Palace is not big, but fortunately Xie Chengze is not married, so the place he lives in is fairly spacious. He simply wiped his body and looked towards the palace gate.

“What are you thinking, your highness?” The old eunuch who took care of Xie Chengze brought over a bowl of medicine.

“Nothing.” Xie Chengze said.

He really wasn’t thinking about anything, he just…wanted to go out for a walk again.

He suffers from heart disease and can’t stand stimulation. When his mother is facing him, she will be very careful and doesn’t allow him to walk around.

After all, when others were bumped into, they would be frightened, so he could also accidentally die.

Especially in the past few years, his condition has become more and more serious…Because indulging in sex is not good for his condition, his mother, who is obviously anxious to make him have an heir, still bears it.

But he was really uncomfortable being trapped in the East Palace, so every month, he would choose two days to go out for a walk.

He didn’t dare to go to places that were too lively, he usually went to Jingning Temple.

The scenery there is beautiful, there are also no messy things, and the abbot is still a wonderful person…It can make him relax.

After meeting a scholar surnamed Lu last time, he missed Jingning Temple even more and always wanted to see him again.

He liked Lu Jizhi’s face very much.

“Your highness, take the medicine and go to bed early. Take care of your body.” The old eunuch said again.

Xie Chengze took the medicine and drank it down. Seeing this, the old eunuch handed over another candied jujube.

Xie Chengze took it with a smile, ate it, rinsed his mouth with warm water, then went to bed.

It’s just…he doesn’t know why, but Lu Jizhi appeared in his dream.

He has grown up so much, this is the first time he can’t forget a person he has only met once…Xie Chengze was a little dazed. After thinking about it, he asked someone to check Lu Yanzhou’s recent situation.

T/N: Holy hell, translating this chapter makes me once again remember how much I love and hate historical setting.

1Take advantage of one’s seniority to do things2Someone who is good at finding talent3having a close relationship