Gasp! She's a Time Traveler Using Modern Tech to Improve Ancient Life

Chapter 882: Xiao Chong Side Story 7_2

In his former world, scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants—families like Qi Bingqiong’s, who run businesses, were considered lowly and had no qualifications for the imperial examination, whereas farmers were virtuous citizens and the backbone of the court.

In his past life, he had been tirelessly working for the welfare of the people, feeling a natural closeness to the lower-class farmers.

Anyone who looked down on farmers found their values incompatible with his.

He stayed away from them, disdainful of socializing.

Mi Yunzhi saw Xiao Chong say this and laughed cheerfully, saying, "Ah, I just remembered, the basketball league starts next month, and Chong is an absolute team member. He has to train, so I’ll cheer him on and not go."

With both of his close friends saying they wouldn’t go, naturally Hong Yijing wouldn’t go either.

Qi Bingqiong unhappily said, "Oh," and didn’t talk much afterward.

However, the four boys had their topics to discuss, completely ignoring Qi Bingqiong’s mood, not to mention other classmates occasionally coming over to chat and joke around.

To be honest, except for Fang Junjie, the other three had been classmates with Qi Bingqiong for only a month, so it was normal not to care about her.

After the lunch picnic and cleaning up the trash, everyone gathered to prepare for the next stop.

The afternoon schedule was to visit the museum.

Everyone arrived at Lu’s Museum at one o’clock in the afternoon, queued up for security checks with their ID cards, and then freely toured around.

The museum was very spacious, and the air conditioning was set low; as soon as they entered, the cold air hit them.

Everyone gathered in groups of two or three, and Lin Wanwan also followed the crowd, visiting one exhibit after another.

The antiques displayed here were all particularly well-preserved, clearly having survived quite a few catastrophes, and many of the items were quite famous.

After touring the first floor, looking at both the artifacts and the printed explanations beside them, they gained quite a bit of knowledge.

Moving to the second floor, Lin Wanwan was absorbed in what she was seeing when a commotion came from the side.

She looked over and found that it was the staff exhibiting a new piece, which seemed to be a painting, though she didn’t understand why so many were gathered around.

People naturally have a herd mentality, and Lin Wanwan was also curious, squeezing through to take a look, and only then understanding why everyone was gathered there.

It turned out this area was the exhibit of Great Tang’s famous minister Xiao Chong; since he shared a name with a classmate of theirs, it stirred up excitement, right?

Historically, Xiao Chong was a renowned handsome man, holding high-ranking positions, though unfortunately, he died unexpectedly before he reached fifty, reportedly dying on the road to disaster relief.

During his tenure as County Magistrate in Ancient Mao County, he built the Ta Mountain Dam, dug Sun Lake, constructed reservoirs, etc., transforming the living environment of the residents there for the better, his deeds benefiting the present and leaving a legacy for the future, thus earning great admiration from Ancient Mao County’s residents.

After his death, the people of Ancient Mao County specially built a memorial shrine for him, which remains today.

In Mao County’s history, besides Xiao Chong, their locale’s Village Lady Le’an was the most famous. The current National Museum still houses the Imperial Decree issued by Li Shimin conferring titles to the Lin family.

Seeing Xiao Chong’s authentic works here, many pulled their classmate with the same name and surname, Xiao Chong, to tease him.

"Hey, this is you!" Mi Yunzhi nudged Xiao Chong with his elbow and raised his eyebrows.

"Yes, it’s me." Xiao Chong slightly raised the corners of his mouth, readily admitting.

"Geez, you’re shameless!" Mi Yunzhi laughed and swore.

Xiao Chong’s mouth held a smile full of unexplained meaning, making no comment.

See, people only believe what they want to believe.

He gazed at the twenty-some peach charms with repair marks and the faded couplets hanging here, feeling mixed emotions.

Unexpectedly, he was able to see these in modern times.

The scenes from back then when his cousin pulled him to make peach charms and write couplets were vividly recalled, and in the blink of an eye, a millennium had passed.

After a moment, Xiao Chong’s gaze slid from the peach charms and couplets, settling on a separately preserved portrait beside them.

In the painting was an ancient beauty sleeping soundly on an Imperial Concubine Couch, her face sweetly innocent, eyelashes long and elegant, her figure like rolling mountains, extremely graceful.

What was most stunning about the entire painting was not the beauty of the person depicted, nor the realistic style existing a thousand years ago, but the amorphous feelings pervading the scroll.

This was a particularly heartfelt painting, even those who did not understand art would praise it.

"The person in this painting must be someone Xiao Chong loved." Lin Wanwan murmured softly as she squeezed in to admire it.