William Carter was finally satisfied and resumed reading the book about Song history. Some of the people and events mentioned in the book he had heard of or remembered before, while others had left no impression on him. Although he had graduated from university, he was not a history major, so most of what he knew about the Song Dynasty came from textbooks, or from things he’d picked up in TV dramas or novels—things whose truthfulness he couldn’t be sure of.

It wasn’t long before the imperial physician and the young attendant carrying his medicine box hurried over. Upon seeing William Carter sitting upright at his desk, both immediately knelt to pay their respects.

Afterwards, the physician performed the traditional Chinese diagnostic procedures of observation, listening, questioning, and pulse-taking. The empress, as instructed by William Carter, spun a web of lies. The physician only frowned in puzzlement, but said little more. As the saying goes, serving the emperor is like serving a tiger, and in this case, he was serving a muddle-headed one—so it was best to be cautious with his words.

With William Carter’s deliberate misdirection, the physician gradually became convinced that he was suffering from a strange and difficult-to-treat condition known as “soul-loss.” Fortunately, William Carter himself didn’t seem to care much about this “amnesia,” which allowed the physician to finally relax most of his long-held anxiety. He carefully treated the wound on William Carter’s head, prescribed a few remedies, and then said he would return to personally prepare the medicine for His Majesty, reminding him to rest well and delivering a string of somewhat nagging instructions.

The empress quietly took note of the physician’s words. Once the physician confirmed that William Carter truly had “soul-loss,” her attitude toward him improved considerably, though her expression remained somewhat complicated. She bowed and said softly, “Your Majesty, there’s no need to send away the eunuchs and maids now. I’ll call them in to escort you back to the Qianqing Palace to rest.”

William Carter had no objections; it was a good opportunity to change locations. Since he had traveled through time, he needed to seize this chance and quickly familiarize himself with this world.

After a group of eunuchs, some rather attractive palace maids, and the empress escorted him back to the warm chamber of the Qianqing Palace and settled him on the dragon bed, the empress dismissed the servants and personally tidied up the yellow pillows and quilts.

Seeing her like this, William Carter felt a surge of excitement. Could this be the perfect chance to lose his virginity?

“Your Majesty, please rest well.” After making sure everything was in order, the empress gracefully bowed, her expression calm, and said, “I shall take my leave now.”

As she stepped out through the curtains, William Carter’s brief excitement faded into disappointment. Sigh, wooing women really isn’t easy. Even an emperor has a hard time wooing the empress. A woman’s heart is truly hard to fathom.

Suddenly, the empress pulled back the curtain halfway, gazed deeply at William Carter with her beautiful eyes, and said softly, “My name is Grace Bennett, Your Majesty. Please, do not forget again.”

As the curtain fell, the empress’s footsteps grew faint as she walked away.

“Oh, damn!” Only after she had completely left did William Carter snap out of it, clenching his fist and pumping it in excitement. He was secretly delighted—winning the empress’s heart step by step was actually quite thrilling.

……

Chapter 4: What a Mess

……

In the days that followed, William Carter adopted a strategy of lying low and focusing on his recovery. Aside from the imperial physician coming by daily for checkups, the empress also visited him every morning and evening.

As for William Carter, he used his “soul-loss” as an excuse to chat with the empress about all sorts of things—partly to learn about the era he had traveled to, and partly to get a sense of the current political and military situation.

Although the empress wasn’t an expert in these matters, she was intelligent and came from a family with generations of officials in court—a true scholarly household. Having grown up in such an environment, she had picked up a general understanding of things, which was just enough to satisfy a clueless time traveler like him.

In this way, after several days, although the empress still didn’t smile much at William Carter, her attitude was much better than when they first met.

William Carter also gained a lot; at least he was no longer completely ignorant about this world he had traveled to. What struck him as odd was that this dynasty was called the Great Zhao Dynasty, and all the emperors shared the same surname as William Carter. Much of its earlier history overlapped with what he remembered.

But starting from the end of the Song Dynasty, things seemed to have changed quite a bit. Although William Carter wasn’t great at history, he did know that the Song Dynasty was ended by Kublai Khan.

However, the history the empress recounted differed from his memory. After the rise of the Mongols, they put tremendous pressure on the Southern Song. At the nation’s most perilous moment, the founding emperor of this dynasty, a commoner surnamed Zhao, gradually rose to power. Not only did he first repel the Mongols north of the Yangtze, but he also launched a counterattack from a desperate position, driving the Mongols out of the north, where they had been entrenched for years, and even reclaimed the long-lost Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun.

During this period, Emperor Zhao, in accordance with the will of the people and the mandate of heaven, destroyed the decaying Southern Song and established the vast Great Zhao Empire.

At its founding, the Great Zhao Empire lived up to the people’s expectations. Under the founding emperor’s rule, it was well managed. The next few emperors also did a decent job, at least maintaining the prosperity and prestige that had been established.