Tang Dynasty: Feeding Chang Le, Emperor Li Er exclaimed that she was a true immortal!

The delivery was very fast.

The factories in Yiwu are incredibly efficient.

Within three days, the suburban warehouse that Lu Ming rented was filled with goods.

The cardboard boxes were piled up to the ceiling.

Two hundred thousand hand warmers were packed into more than four hundred boxes.

One hundred thousand sets of thermal underwear were packed into more than six hundred boxes.

Several hundred more boxes of windproof face masks and wool socks were also ordered.

In total, there were more than 1,500 cardboard boxes.

Lu Ming hired three large trucks to bring the goods back from the logistics station.

As the movers unloaded the goods, they muttered to themselves – what kind of shop does this guy run? Why does he sell so many hand warmers?

Lu Ming did not explain.

They paid an express fee and sent the person away.

Then he started delivering goods to the light screen all by himself.

They promoted the products box by box.

The cardboard box passed through the invisible barrier and landed on the mahogany floor of the Tang Dynasty's sleeping quarters.

Chang Le was there to meet them.

But she couldn't move so many boxes by herself, so she had to call Cuiwei for help.

When Cuiwei first saw those colorful cardboard boxes, her eyes almost popped out of her head.

But one look from Chang Le was enough to shut her up.

The master and servant worked together to move the cardboard boxes one by one to the side courtyard outside the bedroom.

The side courtyard isn't big enough.

Chang Le had no choice but to ask Li Shimin to transfer a royal warehouse.

Without saying a word, Li Shimin emptied the largest armory in the Forbidden Garden to store these "celestial supplies".

When all the more than a thousand boxes of goods had been transported and neatly stacked into the armory—

Li Shimin stood at the warehouse door, looking at the mountain of cardboard boxes, and took several deep breaths.

He personally opened a box of thermal underwear.

Black.

Thin.

It's incredibly thin.

It is even thinner than the lightest silk of the Tang Dynasty.

Li Shimin picked up the underwear and examined it under the light for a long time.

"this one?"

His face was full of doubt.

"Can something so thin withstand a blizzard on the grasslands?"

Chang Le opened another box of hand warmers from the side, tore off a piece, and handed it to him.

"Father, try this. Stick it on your undergarments."

Li Shimin took it with some skepticism and pressed it against his chest through his dragon robe.

A moment later.

His expression changed.

A steady, continuous heat emanated from his chest, passing through his inner garment and outer robe, warming his entire front.

That warmth is different from that of charcoal fire.

The charcoal fire is used for grilling, so one side is hot and the other side is cold.

This stuff is seeping.

Even, gentle heat from the inside out.

Li Shimin looked down at the inconspicuous white patch on his chest.

Then he looked up at the hundreds of boxes of hand warmers in the warehouse.

Two hundred thousand pieces.

If each soldier wears two patches—one on the front and one on the back—

It can equip 100,000 people.

In addition, there are those black underwear pieces that are as thin as cicada wings yet provide far more warmth than cotton robes—

One hundred thousand Tang Dynasty cavalry, clad in these protective gear, braved blizzards on the grasslands at temperatures of minus thirty or forty degrees Celsius—

They won't freeze to death.

It can even make you sweat from the heat.

Li Shimin's breathing became rapid.

His palm was pressed tightly against the heat pack on his chest, and the light in his eyes grew brighter and brighter.

"Summon Li Jing." His voice was extremely low, but he spoke very quickly. "Summon Qin Shubao, Cheng Yaojin, and Yuchi Jingde. Tonight, we will have a secret meeting in the Forbidden Garden."

He turned and strode out of the warehouse.

The hem of the dragon robe fluttered in the cold wind.

He paused at the doorway and glanced back at the pile of cardboard boxes.

A slight smile played at the corners of his lips.

That curve was cold and sharp.

Like a knife.

into the night.

Chang Le Palace.

Li Shimin led his generals to the Forbidden Garden for a secret meeting.

The bedchamber fell silent once more.

I've been so busy these days.

From running errands and relaying messages to moving supplies, Chang Le hardly had any proper rest.

Although her illness was suppressed by modern medicine, her physical strength was still not as good as that of an ordinary person.

The intense work over the past few days left her extremely exhausted.

On the other side of the light screen, Lu Ming was also busy.

He was organizing the list of supplies to be purchased next in front of his computer screen.

The blueprints for the cast iron plowshare mold, the reserve plan for high-yield grain seeds, and the formula data for basic cement—

These were the technologies and innovations he planned to introduce to improve people's livelihoods after the Tang Dynasty had conquered the Turks and entered a period of stable development.

War is merely a means to an end.

Construction is the goal.

The two people were separated by a light screen, each busy with their own things.

They occasionally exchange a few words.

Most of the time, we just coexist quietly.

This feeling is strange.

They are separated by 1,400 years of time.

They couldn't even touch each other's hands.

But that quietness made people feel at ease.

Late at night.

After typing the last line of notes, Lu Ming leaned back in his chair and rubbed his sore eyes.

He turned to look at the light screen.

Chang Le sat on a low stool in front of the boundary wall.

He was still holding a modern science magazine that he had handed him earlier.

But the magazine has gone astray.

Her head tilted to the side.

His eyelids drooped, and his breathing became long and even.

Fell asleep.

He fell asleep while sitting.

His body tilted slightly, and his head tilted little by little toward the boundary wall.

Lu Ming looked at her for two seconds, intending to wake her up and tell her to go back to bed.

But before the words could be spoken—

A light screen was placed on Chang Le's forehead.

She leaned against him so gently and naturally.

It felt like leaning against a cold glass.

Lu Ming subconsciously tensed up.

He waited for that familiar repulsive force to bounce Chang Le away.

Previously, every time a human body came into contact with the boundary wall, it would be blocked by an invisible force.

He tried it himself.

Li Shimin's Emperor's Sword was tested.

But this time—

It didn't bounce off.

Chang Le's forehead pressed against that invisible barrier, as if it had sunk into a soft membrane.

Visible ripples appeared on the surface of the light screen.

It spreads outwards in concentric circles.

It was like a pebble being thrown into a calm lake.

Lu Ming's pupils suddenly contracted.

He stared at the ripples, his mind racing.

Previously, the rule of the boundary was that objects could pass through, but human bodies could not.

But now—

Chang Le's forehead was pressed against the boundary wall, and she was not bounced away.

Although they didn't manage to get through, the barrier's resistance was noticeably weakened.

Why?

Lu Ming didn't know why.

But he noticed a phenomenon.

Since he began sending supplies to the Tang Dynasty on a large scale, the state of the light curtain has been undergoing subtle changes.

Initially, the light curtain was completely invisible, only ripples appearing the moment an object passed through it.

Later, the ripples appeared more and more frequently.

Later, even when no objects passed through, spontaneous ripples would occasionally appear on the surface of the light curtain.

just like--

Every material that crosses the light barrier and has the potential to alter the course of Tang Dynasty history is gradually weakening this barrier.

just like--

The cracks in spacetime are widening.

And at this moment, in the pause of his thoughts—

A strand of Chang Le's hair slipped down from her sloping temple.

A strand of dark hair slid down her pale cheek, past her forehead pressed against the boundary wall—

They went through it.

The end of that strand of hair pierced through the light barrier and drifted into the air on the modern side.

Light and airy.

It sways slightly under the white light of the LED lights.

It finally landed on Lu Ming's computer desk.

It lies quietly beside the keyboard.

A strand of black hair belonging to the Tang Dynasty, 1,400 years ago.

He was lying next to a modern laptop at the moment.

Lu Ming stared at that strand of hair.

Breathing stopped.

He stretched out his hand.

Slowly.

Extremely slowly.

My fingertips touched that strand of hair.

A realistic tactile experience.

Soft, slightly cool, with a faint herbal scent—

Real hair.

It's not a hallucination.

It's not a projection.

It is a real, tangible substance.

Lu Ming's fingers trembled slightly.

This was the first time he had shown significant emotional fluctuations during this absurd experience that spanned time and space.

No matter what he faced before—a spacetime rift, a dying princess, an emperor of the Tang Dynasty, an assassin from a powerful clan—he was able to maintain a calm and almost indifferent demeanor.

But at the moment.

A single hair.

It caused a crack to appear in all of his armor.

His gaze shifted from his hair to the light screen.

Chang Le is still asleep.

His forehead was pressed against the boundary wall, his breathing was long and even, and his eyelashes trembled slightly.

Her face had that kind of soft, defenseless look that only comes after extreme fatigue.

He was wearing his hoodie.

The neckline was too big and slipped to one side, revealing half of her slender collarbone.

Lu Ming stared at her for a long time.

Then he stood up.

They walked up to the light screen.

Extend your right hand.

Fingertips slowly reached out towards the invisible barrier that rippled with waves.

It touched the surface of the boundary wall.

There is resistance.

But not much.

Unlike the repulsive force of being knocked away by a bull before.

It's more like reaching into a layer of viscous colloid.

There are obstacles.

But it can be moved forward.

Lu Ming gritted his teeth.

Keep pushing forward.

My fingertips passed through that layer of resistance.

A cool breeze enveloped his fingertips.

That was the night breeze of late autumn in the Tang Dynasty, carrying the scent of charcoal fire and herbs.

His fingers crossed the boundary wall.

index finger.

Middle finger.

By the time you get to the third finger, the resistance increases significantly, as if a barrier is resisting you.

But that's enough.

His fingertips extended forward one last half inch—

It touched Chang Le's cheek.

It's warm.

Soft.

It carried a thin layer of warmth, slightly flushed from falling asleep.

It's the temperature of a living person.

It's not pixels across the screen.

It wasn't a sound that traveled through the light curtain.

It is the real, tangible body temperature of a living being.

Chang Le woke up.

They weren't awakened by a start.

It was awakened by being touched.

She felt something land on her cheek.

It's warm.

Rough.

It carried an aura of another world that she had never experienced in the Tang Dynasty.

She slowly opened her eyes.

My vision blurred for a moment, then focused.

She saw a hand.

A hand with distinct knuckles reaching out from the other side of the light screen.

The fingertips were resting on her cheek.

Chang Le's breathing stopped.

Her gaze moved upwards along that hand.

wrist.

forearm.

Shoulder.

Then there was a face.

Lu Ming's face.

He stood on the other side of the light screen, his right hand passing through the barrier that had never been breached by a human body before.

His fingertips rested on her cheek.

His expression—

Chang Le had never seen him show such an expression before.

It wasn't the usual coldness.

It wasn't the condescending attitude one had when facing Li Shimin.

It's not about being calm and composed when facing danger.

It was something she couldn't name, something that made her heart pound violently in her chest.

Something shattered in those usually cold eyes.

What's revealed after it shatters is something soft, hot, like emotions that have been suppressed for a very long time.

Chang Le's eyes welled up with tears.

Without any warning.

Tears welled up, blurring my vision.

She did not dodge.

He didn't speak.

She simply and slowly raised her hands.

Two slender, pale hands covered the hand that Lu Ming had been holding on her cheek.

Fingers intertwined.

Palms touching.

Fourteen hundred years of time were stitched together by two hands at this moment.

The slight chill of late autumn in the Tang Dynasty and the warmth of modern heating blended between my fingers.

Chang Le looked at him.

Tears clung to her eyelashes, reflecting the white light of the LED lights.

The corners of her mouth curved into a smile.

It bent very, very slightly.

Then she spoke.

The sound was even softer than the first snow of late autumn.

"Lu Ming... one day, I will cross this threshold."

"I'm going to see you."

"Go and see your prosperous China too."