Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 695 Not Allowing White Hair to Be Seen in the Mortal World

“These days, many merchants from beyond the Great Wall have come. Baozhu has been here for a while now. A few days ago, she said she missed home, so I brought her here to pick out some things from these northern merchants. Speaking of which, Tang Bao’er clearly said she would arrive today, but the sun is about to set and she still hasn’t arrived.”

"She was delayed on the way. The advance caravan arrived yesterday. She needs to stay in Hongdu Prefecture for a few more days because she wants to merge two academies of calligraphy and painting."

Xia Lin placed two bowls of iced mung bean soup in front of the princess and continued, "Don't run around these days. There aren't enough people to fill a gap. Wait until half a month before the Harvest Festival opens, then you'll see what a sea of ​​people looks like."

The princess still had a hint of anticipation on her face, but when she looked up at the flowing clouds above her head, she said, "It's just that the weather is too hot. I haven't been able to sleep well these past few days."

"Don't worry, I'll come up with a solution for you tonight."

As the two were chatting, Dou'er tilted her head and watched for a long time. Only when they stopped talking did Dou'er speak up: "Master, Madam, the way you two are chatting doesn't seem like that of a married couple. It's more like that of refined scholars in a teahouse. I've seen how couples chatted when I was keeping watch before, and they weren't this polite."

"You don't know anything," Xia Lin said dismissively. "This is called mutual respect and harmony, you know?"

However, after speaking, Xia Lin felt that he had been rambling on a bit with a eunuch. It wasn't that he looked down on eunuchs, but this eunuch was clearly out of his mind.

"By the way, didn't you go to your brother's today? Why are you here?"

The princess's words startled Xia Lin. At this moment, his perverse sense of humor kicked in again, so he pointed to Dou'er beside him and said, "This fellow said he wanted to take me out for a stroll. I thought it was just a walk around, but who knew he wanted to take me to a brothel to see the girls' thighs. Of course, I refused and firmly rejected him."

The princess glanced at Dou'er, whose eyes immediately fell on her. Dou'er quickly stood up and knelt down, saying, "This servant only saw that Master has been very depressed these days and wanted to take him out to relax. If we have offended the mistress, please punish us."

Xia Lin stood up with his hands behind his back and strolled out as if nothing had happened. Then he waved to Princess Baozhu from afar, and the beautiful twelve-year-old grassland princess quickly came to his side: "Did you call me?"

“Baozhu, tell me the truth, do you want to go home? If you do, I have a way to get you home, and I can even make sure your people don’t dare to punish you.”

Baozhu was initially excited upon hearing the word "home," but she quickly displayed a mental state completely out of character for a twelve-year-old, shaking her head with a smile: "Baozhu just misses home, but Baozhu doesn't want to go home. When I came here, I knew I was a person sent for a political marriage, like cattle, horses, and sheep used in the tribe to exchange for cloth and grain. There are already quite a few sisters in my family who have been sent to such places. I'm lucky that I wasn't treated like cattle or horses by the master. If I go back and am chosen again, I'm afraid I won't be so lucky. So, Baozhu misses home, but doesn't want to go home."

Good heavens, Xia Lin was genuinely taken aback. He pinched Princess Baozhu's cheek: "Does your tribe specialize in intermarrying with other tribes?"

“I don’t know either. It’s just that the women who were sent to marry into the tribe were all from our tribe. They were my older and younger sisters. Of the women my mother said were sent out, only one out of two survived. Baozhu is glad that she was that one.”

"I see."

Xia Lin roughly understood. It seemed that Baozhu's family was related to the emperor of Northern Han. They were conducting a selection process to ensure that all the girls from this family were beautiful, and then their children were sent out as princesses for political marriages.

This sounds cruel, but it is actually a way to survive. If you look closely at this era, you will find that not everyone is from a family of high-ranking officials, nor is everyone richer than a country. Most people are still struggling on the brink of death.

It is estimated that the current population of the entire East Asian region is about 110 million, but only about 10 million of them can live the kind of life that Gangnam Province has, which is just a tiny fraction.

The strength of the Northern Han Dynasty was undoubtedly built on extreme exploitation; in fact, it could be said that the strength of most countries and regions, including the Jiangnan region, was built on extreme exploitation. The only difference was that, due to increased productivity, things were somewhat better than in other places, but productivity had not yet reached such an advanced level, so this chronic problem could not be completely eradicated.

Therefore, Xia Lin knew that what Bao Zhu said was true, and that her maturity beyond her years was definitely not innate, but something she had learned from being in that environment.

Are there fools in the world? Of course there are, but it's impossible for a whole group of people to be fools. In fact, just like Baozhu's family, even a twelve-year-old child can understand this, so how could adults not understand it? It's just that they are powerless to resist, partly because they are numb, and partly because they need to exchange this kind of suffering for their comfortable life.

"Baozhu, how old is your father?"

"My father is almost fifty years old."

"Where's your mother?"

"My mother is twenty-three years old."

Xia Lin nodded gently, understanding... What an excellent breeding mechanism.

As they were chatting, the eldest princess got up and came over. Dou'er, who was with her, had a very obvious handprint on her face. Xia Lin couldn't help but laugh, but he didn't say anything. He just coughed and asked, "Where are you going later?"

"Will you come with me when we go to see Father later?" the Princess asked. "No, you shouldn't go these days. If people see you, they'll start gossip."

"Who dares?" Xia Lin's eyes changed: "Whoever spreads rumors, I'll tear their mouth apart."

“I’m not talking about you, I’m talking about Father. After all, you’re a commoner now. If you go to see Father, you have to bow and kneel at the door to wait. If you don’t know how to kneel, Father won’t let you kneel either. Then some people will start to use etiquette to make trouble. It’s better to avoid trouble.” “It’s alright, don’t worry.”

"Then I'll go with you. No one can do anything about your stubbornness."

Xia Lin didn't say anything, but simply put his arm around her shoulder and said, "Let's go."

In fact, no one is really going to provoke Xia Lin right now. Everyone has become more gentle, kind, respectful, frugal, modest, benevolent, righteous, wise, and trustworthy. It's not that they've become better, but that they know they're about to be in big trouble. The whole capital is filled with the feeling of an impending storm. In addition, they are now attacking each other and can hardly protect themselves. Their strength has been spread evenly, and no one will touch Xia Lin, this unpredictable time bomb.

He went to his father-in-law's house and ate and drank for free. The local custom is that a son-in-law cannot stay overnight at his father-in-law's house. Although he didn't know where this absurd rule came from, Xia Lin was too lazy to care about the unspoken rules of officialdom, but he still had to abide by the local customs.

"Then I shall take my leave now, as I happen to be going to visit Father Guo."

“Go ahead.” Prince Teng waved his hand. His beard was now a bit gray, and he was not as tall as before. “He hasn’t been feeling well these days. You can go and take a look at him.”

"Yes, that's why I went there."

Leading Dou'er out of the palace, Xia Lin turned to look at him and asked, "Are you happy to have been slapped by the princess today?"

"Sir, sell me!"

"I'm telling you to stop talking nonsense and spreading rumors all day long. I'm not selling you out, but teaching you a lesson: leave some words unsaid, and don't gossip to others. You know best why you had to say that about Shang Anshan today. You just wanted to show off. But I'll teach you again: you can show off, but you can't use others to show off. You have the ability to defeat him yourself."

"I know I was wrong, sir..."

"If you do this again, I'll have ways to punish you."

Dou'er dared not speak anymore, much less try to be clever, because he realized that his little schemes could not be hidden from the person in front of him. What did his great-grandfather Delu mean when he told him in the courtyard, "Be careful when you serve Xia Daosheng, and do not try to test him. He has a very clever mind"?

The two arrived at the General's Mansion. Old Guo is now nominally the Grand Marshal of the Armed Forces of the Empire. Although it is a nominal official stationed in the capital, everyone knows that he is the last remaining war god of the empire and has been maintaining the last vestige of the empire's dignity. No matter which faction it is, they all avoid him.

"Young Master, the Master was still talking about you today." The official looked up at Xia Lin and forced a smile: "He even said..."

"Is my father Guo still feeling any better?"

“Alas, young master. I’m telling you this, but don’t tell the young master and the others. The master is always out on the battlefield, enduring wind and snow, and has many hidden injuries. He may seem strong, but if he falls ill, it will be like a mountain collapsing.”

Xia Lin sighed, "Uncle Guo is almost seventy..."

"He is sixty-nine years old."

Carrying the things to the backyard, I saw that Old Guo was eating. But after his serious illness, he had obviously aged a lot. Although the table was full of his favorite foods, his bowl was clean and there was still a lot of food on the table.

The moment Xia Lin saw him, she didn't feel much grief, but rather endless emotions.

It is said that great generals, like beautiful women, are not allowed to grow old in this world. The great war god of Wei, who was once clad in heavy armor and awe-inspiring, and who once overshadowed Gao Shilian in front of the palace, now sits there sulking because he can't eat.

"father."

Xia Lin called out, and Lao Guo looked up, his face immediately breaking into a smile: "You've finally come, kid! Come on, come sit down."

"Before, I was a sinner and couldn't move around freely. Now that things have been dealt with, I came here immediately."

Xia Lin put the things aside and sat down next to Lao Guo: "Dad, what do you want to eat? I'll cook for you myself."

Old Guo waved his hand: "I was just thinking about you today. I have a few things to give you. Wait here, I'll go get them."

Watching him stand up, his figure thin and frail, Xia Lin couldn't help but sigh again. But there was nothing he could do. It was true he was a transmigrator, and it was true he possessed cheat codes, but a Baidu search couldn't find any information on immortality, and Wikipedia couldn't provide any clues about rejuvenation…

People...

(End of this chapter)