Chapter 7: Strange History

Walking into the study, he found that the lighting here was very good. The sunlight happened to illuminate the study clearly.

This study was not large. Inside the study, there was a long desk. In front of the long desk hung an ink bamboo painting. This ink bamboo painting had been made by the original owner. It was not especially outstanding, but with just a few strokes, the integrity of the bamboo was revealed within it.

Behind the long desk stood a row of bookshelves. There were roughly forty to fifty books on the shelves. Most of them were texts similar to the ancient Four Books and Five Classics, along with poetry collections and scripture annotations by licentiate scholars, tribute students, and presented scholars popular at the time. There were also several history books and a few miscellaneous books.

The original owner usually read the Four Books and Five Classics and their scripture commentaries most often, while he read relatively little history. Li Si’s purpose in coming here was to look at the history books and see whether the structure of this world had anything to do with the real world.

After all, many things here were the same as the ancient world he had known, such as the written language being Chinese characters, the imperial examination system being the same as in his previous life, and the people also being of East Asian ethnicity. So Li Si felt that this world ought to be connected to the real world in some way.

Li Si took several history books and sat down before the desk, quickly flipping through them. He did not need to know the specific events in history. He only wanted to find the dynasties he wanted to see in these history books. He vaguely remembered a poem from the real world that summarized the dynasties. He only needed to find those dynasties.

Tang Yao, Yu Shun, Xia, Shang, and Zhou, the Spring and Autumn and Warring States were long in chaos.

Qin, Han, Three Kingdoms, and Jin unified, the Southern and Northern dynasties stood opposed.

Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, then Ten Kingdoms, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing, the emperors came to an end.

However, after Li Si quickly finished reading the history books, he discovered in despair that the history here was completely different from the history of the real world.

In the history here, the earliest record was of a country called the Jiuzhou Department, which had ruled this world for 2,429 years. During those 2,429 years, social classes had already solidified, and the people suffered unbearably, deeply exploited and enslaved by the upper classes.

Finally, in the 2,429th year after the founding of the Jiuzhou Department, peasant uprisings broke out frequently in various places and eventually overthrew the Jiuzhou Department’s original rule.

After that came another 278 years of war, and the situation finally stabilized, producing a balance of power among twelve states. This state of twelve powers existing side by side lasted for a total of 329 years. In the 607th year after the Jiuzhou Department was destroyed, the states of Wei and Yao among the twelve states swallowed up territory like whales within 5 years, rapidly destroying the remaining ten states. Each occupied the territory of five states, creating a situation where the two states divided the north and south between them. Now, it had already been 175 years since the ten states were destroyed.

What made Li Si feel surprised was that the hostile situation between these two states was somewhat strange. Although the two states constantly had minor conflicts, there had never been a major war, and they had always remained safe and at peace with each other.

“Inconceivable,” Li Si murmured. But what made him feel even more incredulous was that the Jiuzhou Department had actually ruled this world for more than two thousand years. In his view, this was an inconceivable thing.

One had to know that in ancient China on Earth, the longest feudal dynasty was only the Zhou dynasty, which existed for 800 years. Moreover, for the final 300 years of the Zhou dynasty, it could basically be considered to have existed in name only. Almost no other dynasty surpassed 300 years. Yet this Jiuzhou Department had ruled for more than two thousand years. That was completely abnormal.

Unless this country had never lacked food and had no natural or man-made disasters.

But that was simply impossible. From the original owner’s memories, he knew that this world’s grain production still remained at roughly more than 100 kg per mu (~220 lb per 0.16 acre), which could be called extremely low.

One had to know that during China’s Ming dynasty, the rice yield per mu was more than 150 kg (~330 lb), and it was cultivated over two seasons. But this world only had one growing season and had not yet developed two-season cultivation. It was even inferior to China’s Three Kingdoms period.

With this kind of grain yield, as soon as a natural disaster struck, many people would absolutely die. So there was definitely something suspicious about the Jiuzhou Department ruling the world for more than two thousand years. These history books must have hidden something.

Clack! Li Si accidentally knocked the paperweight down, and it fell to the floor, jolting Li Si awake from his deep thoughts. He immediately remembered that the rice was still cooking.

Li Si immediately put down the history book, bent down to place the paperweight back on the desk, then hurried toward the kitchen.

He could think about these matters later. Right now, the most important thing was filling his stomach.

When he reached the kitchen, he found that the fire in the stove had already gone out, leaving only some sparks. He opened the pot lid, used chopsticks to push aside the rice, and tasted it.

It was not undercooked.

Li Si wrapped his hand with a sweat towel and picked up the plates of rice and cured meat, then walked toward the main hall.

After placing the rice and dishes on the table, Li Si sat down, picked up his chopsticks, and began to enjoy them.

He picked up a slice of cured meat and brought it to his mouth. The salty cured meat, combined with chili, made him feel especially comfortable. Unfortunately, he did not have many ingredients. Otherwise, he could make other delicious food and would not need to eat so casually.

When Li Si wanted to pick up a second slice of cured meat, he could not help remembering the corpse whose head he had chopped off that morning.

That dried and skinny corpse had been wrinkled, and it really did bear some resemblance to this cured meat.

Thinking of this, he immediately felt somewhat nauseated. He could barely keep eating.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then opened them and continued eating as if nothing had happened. He even ate faster than before. In this world, wasting food deserved to be struck by lightning. Moreover, he needed to have a stronger body in order to face the unknown dangers of the future.

Being delicate now would be irresponsible toward food and irresponsible toward his own life. Li Si saw the gains and losses very clearly. He could also harden his heart toward himself.

If he could not guarantee his own safety in this world, then no one could guarantee his safety.

After finishing his meal, Li Si used the water that had steamed the food to wash the bowls and chopsticks.

After washing the bowls and chopsticks, he then picked up the broom and dustpan and began cleaning. In the past, he had not loved cleanliness this much, but ever since he no longer had a phone or the internet, he had nothing to do. He could only find things to do.

After finishing the cleaning, Li Si took some money from beneath the bedding and went out. He wanted to take some silver and buy a few things.

After leaving the house, he first ordered a knife and a dagger at the blacksmith’s shop. As for the knife, he wanted the blacksmith to make one in the style of a Nepalese military knife, so it would be easier to chop corpses in the future.

The dagger was relatively simple. Li Si gestured a little, drew a few lines on the ground with a branch, and the blacksmith understood. But as for the Nepalese military knife, Li Si explained and gestured for a long time, yet the blacksmith still did not understand. Li Si could only say that he would bring a drawing in a few days.

He left 1 tael of silver as a deposit and would pay another 3 taels after the weapon was finished. Of course, this was only the price of the dagger. This blacksmith’s craftsmanship was quite good, so his price was somewhat higher than other blacksmith shops.

But Li Si felt it was worth it. One had to know that in the system shop, a long sword was worth 1 soul point. And he had only spent 4 taels of silver to buy a dagger. Even if it was somewhat inferior to the weapons in the system shop, and even if its value was cut in half, it could at least count as 0.5 soul points, right?

How much was 0.5 soul points?

Half a year of lifespan!

Buying half a year of lifespan with 4 taels of silver was worth it.

Li Si’s method of self-consoling spiritual victory was very successful.