Chapter 3: Cross-Server Exchange, Plush Toys Build Bonds

Lin Xuan leaned against the carpet at the foot of the bed, rubbing his sore brow.

A very faint sound of fabric friction came from the bed.

He raised his head.

The little girl on the bed opened her eyes.

Her face, originally flushed red with fever, had lost its heat, revealing a paleness left by illness.

She did not cry or fuss, only slowly rolling her eyes.

Her gaze swept over the white ceiling, the fan shaking in the corner, and finally settled on Lin Xuan.

Panic shattered her calm.

The little girl scrambled with hands and feet, shrinking back desperately.

Her back slammed hard against the soft padding of the headboard. Read good books, read novels every day on ttks. tw, super worry-free.

She pulled the quilt over herself, clutching it tightly to her chest, leaving only a pair of eyes like a startled fawn exposed.

"You... who are you?"

Her soft, childish voice carried obvious trembling.

The pronunciation was strange, with an extremely heavy nasal tone.

The intonation sounded like singing, mixed with obscure tonal shifts.

Lin Xuan froze for a second.

He couldn't understand at all.

It sounded like Minnan, yet mixed with a bit of the Guanzhong accent.

This accent was definitely not Mandarin, nor a dialect from the Jiangzhe area.

Which family teaches a four or five-year-old to speak like this?

Seeing he didn't answer, the little girl asked again: "Where is this place? Where is my father?"

Lin Xuan detected a hint of emotional terror.

He pushed himself up from his knees, took out his Mobile Phone, and opened an obscure ancient Chinese and dialect translation app.

He activated the recording and recognition mode.

"Little friend, don't be afraid." Lin Xuan softened his voice, pointed at the Mobile Phone, and said, "Could you say what you just said to uncle again?"

The little girl stared at the glowing black square, her body shaking even more violently.

"I am a princess of the Great Tang... you barbarians, how dare you abduct me?"

The Mobile Phone screen spun in circles, and two seconds later, a line of translated text popped up: 【I am a princess of the Great Tang, you outsiders, how dare you abduct me?】

Looking at these words, Lin Xuan forced a helpless smile at the corner of his mouth.

A princess of the Great Tang? Barbarians?

She's too immersed in the role.

What kind of immersive ancient role-playing summer camp is this, that it brainwashed even a four-year-old like this?

He put away his Mobile Phone, his gaze sweeping over the little girl's defensive posture.

His experience in pediatric emergency told him.

Dealing with a child lacking such extreme security, an adult male's standing posture brings immense pressure.

Lin Xuan walked to the storage cabinet in the bedroom corner and pulled open the bottom drawer.

He dragged out a huge white goose plush toy, half a person's height.

This was something a family of a cured and discharged patient had insisted on giving him, left in the cabinet gathering dust all this time.

Carrying the big white goose, he walked back to the bedside, knelt on one knee directly, and kept his eyes level with the little girl.

"Giving you something good."

Lin Xuan pushed the big white goose forward, stuffing it into the little girl's arms.

The little girl instinctively wanted to dodge, but the huge white goose had already squeezed into her embrace.

The soft plush fur touched her cheeks, carrying a hint of dry freshness after being sun-dried.

The little girl's stiff body paused for a moment.

She tentatively drew her arms closer.

The size of the big white goose perfectly filled the gap in front of her chest, forming a soft barrier.

She rested her chin on the top of the goose's head, and the alertness in her eyes dissipated slightly.

Above the Sky Screen, the image was crystal clear in every detail.

Great Tang, Taiji Palace.

When Li Shimin saw his daughter wake up, shrinking into the corner like a startled rabbit, his heart suddenly tightened.

"Sizi..." Zhangsun Huanghou covered her mouth, too nervous to speak.

In the image, that short-haired man walked away.

Li Shimin's heart rose to his throat.

Immediately, the man took a huge white object from the cabinet, looking like some kind of strange auspicious beast.

The man knelt on one knee and stuffed that furry object into Sizi's arms.

Li Shimin saw that after his daughter hugged that object, her tense shoulders clearly slumped.

"Haa—"

Li Shimin exhaled a heavy breath of turbid air.

"That man in strange clothes knows how to soothe young children; he seems to truly have no intention of harming Sizi."

Just then, the little girl in the image, through the big white goose, lifted her chin and spoke, feigning calmness.

"I am the Jinyang Princess of the Great Tang! My father is the reigning Emperor!"

"Hurry and return me to the palace; I shall grant you ten thousand taels of gold!"

The childish voice, transmitted through the Sky Screen, echoed throughout the entire Chang'an.

Outside the Lizheng Hall, the hundred officials stood in silence.

Inside a modern apartment.

Lin Xuan watched the real-time translation on his mobile phone screen and could no longer hold back, bursting into laughter.

"Not bad, little girl."

Lin Xuan plopped down on the carpet, crossed his arms, and spoke with a teasing tone: "You're quite skilled at this murder mystery game; your parents must be willing to spend a lot of money."

"This outfit, plus the script training, must have cost quite a bit, right?"

He extended a finger and poked the big white goose's beak: "Still the Jinyang Princess, still ten thousand taels of gold."

"Do you know how much one gram of gold costs nowadays?"

"Demanding ten thousand taels on the spot; if you were sold, it wouldn't even cover the change."

Lin Xuan stopped smiling, his tone turning serious: "Stop acting. What is your elders' phone number?"

"Or tell me which residential compound you live in? I'll call the police uncle to send you home."

"You just had a fever; you need to rest properly."

Outside the Sky Screen, the Tang Dynasty court completely erupted.

"Insolence!"

Wei Zheng, the Imperial Censor, was so angry his beard trembled wildly; pointing at the Sky Screen, he cursed: "Such a barbarian commoner dares to mock the Princess!"

"His words are frivolous, and he directly gazes upon the Princess's jade face; this is utterly devoid of respect and propriety!"

"Such a traitorous villain deserves to have his nine clans exterminated!"

The ministers one by one echoed him, their anger reaching the heavens.

"Your Majesty. This person has insulted the royal dignity; we implore Your Majesty to issue an edict, summoning all Daoist sects across the land to perform rituals and execute this beast!"

Li Shimin sat on the dragon throne, watching the agitated ministers below with cold eyes.

"Be silent."

The low voice was not loud, yet it instantly suppressed the noise within the hall.

Li Shimin stood up, walked to the edge of the steps, and looked down upon the ministers from above.

"Respect and propriety?" Li Shimin sneered, "When Sizi just now suffered a high fever and convulsions, with her life hanging by a thread, could your propriety save her?"

"Could those Imperial Physicians in the Imperial Medical Bureau, who are so particular about propriety, save her?"

Wei Zheng was speechless, his face turning red: "Your Majesty, one matter is one matter; he has merit in saving the Princess, but he despises the royal family..."

"I say it again, he saved my daughter!" Li Shimin waved his hand to cut off Wei Zheng, "In this great hall, it was I who watched him pull Sizi back from the gates of death!"

Li Shimin drew the horizontal sword at his waist and severed a corner of the imperial desk in one strike.

"Transmit my edict: the man within the Sky Screen is exempt from all rules of respect and propriety in the Great Tang!"

"Anyone who dares to criticize this person based on propriety shall receive fifty strokes with a cane and be exiled three thousand li!"

Once the imperial edict was issued, all civil and military officials in the court knelt prostrate on the ground, and no one dared to speak again.

Inside the master bedroom.

Lin Xuan waited for a long time but heard no little girl report her parents' phone number.

She merely hugged the big white goose tightly, looking at Lin Xuan with an expression as if he were an idiot.

"What do you speak of? What is a 'phone'? What is a 'police'?"

The little girl frowned slightly, "I am a Princess of the Great Tang; how could I speak falsely!"

Lin Xuan rubbed his chin.

This child is too deep in character; conventional methods won't get anything out of her.

I must break her cognitive logic.

He stood up, walked to the coat rack, and took out his wallet from his jacket pocket.

Several paper bills and coins scattered onto the bedspread.

"Aren't you a Princess?"

"A Princess must have bought things and bestowed rewards upon servants, right?"

"Have you seen this? Do you recognize who is printed on this?"

The little girl lowered her head, her gaze falling on the red paper bill.

She looked very carefully.

After a full minute, she shook her head.

"This object is as thin as grass paper, with a figure of strange appearance drawn upon it; how can this be money?"

"And this metal and stone object..."

The little girl extended a slender, tender finger and poked the one-yuan coin.

"It has no hole; it is not Kaiyuan Tongbao."

"Its color is dull; it is also not a Gold and Silver Ingot. Do not try to deceive me because I am young."

The little girl raised her chin, carrying a hint of royal pride.

The smile on Lin Xuan's face gradually froze.

There is no five-year-old modern child who does not recognize a hundred-yuan bill.

Even if everything is paid via mobile phone now, the concept of paper money has long been imprinted in their minds through various channels.

Moreover, she accurately stated "Kaiyuan Tongbao" and "Gold and Silver Ingots".

A child playing dress-up might say "ancient money," "copper coins," or "silver"...

but would never use such precise and obscure professional historical terms.

Kaiyuan Tongbao, first cast in the fourth year of Wude under Emperor Gaozu of Tang, spanned the entire Great Tang.

A thread of extreme dissonance crawled up Lin Xuan's spine.

He stared at the clothes on the little girl.

At first, he thought they were high-end custom-made Hanfu.

But when he applied the cooling patch just now, he had touched the fabric.

The texture was wrong.

No matter how modern synthetic fibers are imitated, they possess an absolutely uniform quality of machine weaving.

But the texture of this garment bore the tiny flaws unique to hand weaving, yet overall presented a complexity that was hair-raising.

Lin Xuan's expression grew serious; he said in a low voice, "Don't move."

The little girl, frightened by his gaze, hugged the white goose tightly and truly dared not move a muscle.

Lin Xuan bent down, his fingers pinching a seam at the edge of the girl's ruqun.

It was a tiny loose thread, impossible to notice without close inspection.

He pinched hard, pulling off a small segment of silk thread a few millimeters long.

The little girl watched him in terror.

Lin Xuan offered no explanation.

He stepped back two paces, creating distance.

He reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out a silver Zippo lighter.

Click!

The flint wheel rubbed, and a cluster of dark blue mixed with orange-yellow flames shot out.

Lin Xuan held the tiny thread near the top of the flame.

Modern synthetic fiber Hanfu, no matter how expensive, are essentially plastic.

Upon meeting fire, they would melt and shrink rapidly, forming hard black tar-like lumps, and emit a pungent smell of burning plastic.

The instant the thread touched the flame.

It did not melt or clump.

It instantly curled, burned, and turned into extremely fine ash, rustling down.

At the same time, a unique scent spread through the air.

It was not the acrid stench of chemical agents.

It was the smell of burning hair, the scorched odor of pure animal protein destroyed by high heat.

One hundred percent pure natural silk, with no chemical additives from modern processes.

The lighter's flame still flickered, illuminating Lin Xuan's somewhat stiff face.

Doors and windows locked from within, appearing out of thin air.

Ancient sounds, Tang speech, pure ancient silk.

The materialist worldview Lin Xuan had built over more than twenty years, at this very moment... seemed to be shattering?