The Empress's No.1 Lackey

Chapter 1052 - 583: Identity Revealed (Part 2)

"What? Is there a problem?" Xu Zhenguan stood under the street lamp, slightly tilting her head, looking at him with feigned confusion.

Zhao Douan remained silent.

He had to admit, he felt a jolt in his heart earlier, almost thinking Zhenbao knew something, but looking at the urban beauty under the night-lit street lamp, he pretended to be nonchalant and asked, "Why? Why specifically this?"

Xu Zhenguan smiled slightly, raised her hand to gently brush her hair, and naturally said, "Because someone gave me a ’Water Melody’ poem for the Mid-Autumn Festival. Um, I want to use this title to write poetry about the Mid-Autumn Festival, can I?"

Ah, so that’s it... Zhao Douan first breathed a sigh of relief, thinking he understood the reason behind Zhenbao’s request.

Then he felt a sharp pain, wishing he could slap himself hard: Dammit, why act so high-handed? Isn’t this digging a hole for myself?

Fortunately, it wasn’t beyond remedy, there are plenty of poems with the ’Water Melody’ title in history. Finding one to muddle through isn’t difficult. Just as this thought arose, he heard the Empress’s supplementary requirements.

’Water Melody’, and it must be a Mid-Autumn poem... this is quite targeted...

Zhao Douan felt his teeth ache again.

Well, surely there are poets in history who used this title during Mid-Autumn... right? Zhao Douan was a bit uncertain; logically, it must exist, but he wasn’t a scholar in this field, how would he know? Moreover, a casual search would show the most famous ones at the top, and he wasn’t sure how many words Zhenbao recognized from this world, the risk was indeed high...

After pondering, he shook his head earnestly and said, "I’m sorry, there’s no work that meets the requirements in my memory. Um, the title you mentioned is quite niche, that’s right, niche."

Niche poet Su Dongpo...

Xu Zhenguan quietly watched him talk nonsense, her gaze subtle, and cooperated by showing a regrettable and disappointed expression.

As they say, women are natural actors, especially at times when, for their partner’s self-esteem, they might utter a few compliments...

Yin Susu once said, beautiful women are the best deceivers.

At this moment, Xu Zhenguan’s expression showcased this well, if not worried about overdoing it, the Empress might have even donned a pitiful look...

"I see..."

Just as Zhao Douan quietly breathed a sigh of relief, Xu Zhenguan looked up again with hopeful eyes: "Well then, do you have any farewell poems? I have a friend named Dong Da..."

"..." Zhao Douan internally exclaimed, ’Good heavens,’ this pesky gag couldn’t be escaped, right? He naturally assumed it was because the Empress was intrigued by his copy of the poem "Farewell to Dong Da."

So, he frowned, shook his head, and said, "There are many farewell poems, if Miss Xu wants to see, I can find some for you, but Dong Da... no."

Once again, the Empress looked disappointed, seemingly feeling listless after being rejected twice, she sighed: "Forget it, um, do you have any Confucian works here?"

She briefly described the contents of Heart Learning.

Zhao Douan was sweating, seriously shaking his head, indicating this was beyond his syllabus, and he didn’t understand.

The Empress once again tied her hair, softly said: "What about Buddhist texts? I see there’s a temple here as well..."

Zhao Douan shook his head again. He had copied this too... including famous quotes from the "Diamond Sutra" and the Daoist "Tao Te Ching" which he shamelessly borrowed, searching would expose him.

After being rejected several times, the Empress was a bit unhappy, she furrowed her eyebrows and said displeased: "You don’t have this, nor that, what do you have?"

I am here... Zhao Douan showed a naive smile: "If Miss Xu is interested in anything else, I could..."

The Empress crossed her arms, posing like a girlfriend who is mad, squinting at him, said flatly: "I’d like to see your history of gunpowder development, didn’t you say it couldn’t be seen?"

This question, she had brought up last time but was ruthlessly rejected by Zhao Douan.

Seeing Zhao Douan stay silent, Xu Zhenguan sneered and sighed: "Alright, I won’t trouble you, last time I watched your ’theater’, there was a dynasty, there should be records on dynasty law reforms, right? How to reform governance? How to boost the economy? Gold and silver standards? Market trade..."

What she said were terms Zhao Douan had proposed during his small classes at Xiuwen Pavilion.

"..."

Zhao Douan felt something was off, although thinking carefully, the few things Zhenbao wanted were quite "reasonable", as an Emperor, it was natural to be concerned about these.

But... is this targeting a bit too intense?

Each piece and each matter directly hit Zhao Douan’s Achilles’ heel as a plagiarist.

Seeing him silent, Xu Zhenguan glanced at him: "What? You don’t have this either?"

"This could work." Zhao Douan felt, this wasn’t a big issue because history is always similar, similar policies can be considered a coincidence, and wouldn’t sound like a poetry plagiarism disaster.

"However, specialized books need to be checked in the library, but it’s closed at this hour." Zhao Douan explained.

Of course, you can use the internet... Um, although this world within the painting is filled with bugs, some online functions work, some don’t, not sure if it can be checked...

Seeing the Empress showing signs of anger, Zhao Douan felt he couldn’t continue being passive.

He got an idea, pointed to a nearby coffee shop that was still open late at night, and said: "Standing and talking isn’t convenient, let me treat you to a cup of coffee?"

Xu Zhenguan didn’t refuse, seeing him quickly walking ahead, she followed him with mixed emotions.

Ordering drinks, scanning the code, and paying...