Chapter 1

"Beast! You have caused a catastrophe, and the Li family has been implicated because of you! You cannot atone for your sins even if you die a hundred times! Why don't you come down and accept your punishment!"

A roar of anger rang in his ears, and Li Qinzai woke up from his unconscious state, involuntarily groaning.

It hurt, everywhere hurt, and what puzzled him even more was that he could faintly smell a burnt odor, like the smell of a new barbecue stall where the chef overcooked the meat and forgot to sprinkle the cumin.

Opening his eyes, the first thing he saw was a pitch-black sky, with lightning flashing across the dark horizon, and the rumbling thunder like the galloping of ten thousand horses, coming from the distant sky.

Rain poured down like cold arrows, striking his face and body, mixed with the howling wind, making Li Qinzai shiver violently.

His gaze slowly shifted from the night sky to the ground, and then Li Qinzai was shocked to find that he was lying on a tree, clinging to the trunk with all his limbs, like a dog hugging the thigh of a beautiful goddess, feeling both humble and ashamed.

Looking down, the tree was in a very elegant small courtyard, and a group of people were gathered around it.

A group of people dressed in ancient costumes, both old and young.

Li Qinzai was stunned, blinking hard, and then tried to use scientific and rigorous logic to explain the hallucination that seemed to be produced by a split personality.

They must be a group of people playing ancient costume COS... right? Playing COS in the rain on a stormy day, clearly under immense pressure from life and work, Li Qinzai could empathize with their need for relief.

Why not just find a proper job?

The group of people in ancient costumes surrounded the tree where Li Qinzai was, their faces showing anxiety, and a dozen or so ancient warriors slowly approached the tree in a surrounding formation, as if they were playing in a minefield.

Not far away, a middle-aged couple was surrounded by the crowd, the middle-aged woman looking anxious, several times opening her mouth to speak but afraid of startling him.

The middle-aged man, however, had a dark face, his lips tightly pressed, his eyes cold and full of disgust.

Li Qinzai also stared at him, though he didn't understand the current situation, the middle-aged man's look of disgust made him feel insulted.

The look was too hurtful, like wearing new shoes and accidentally stepping on a pile of dog shit. No matter how humble and self-deprecating Li Qinzai was, he was at least better than a pile of dog shit.

So Li Qinzai's eyes also changed, filled with a defiant challenge.

The two of them stared at each other from a distance, their eyes full of hostility, and sparks flew in the air.

Clearly, just using eyes couldn't express the challenge of wanting to beat him up. After a long time, Li Qinzai decided to break the silence.

Bulging his eyes, Li Qinzai shouted with a voice like a spring thunder.

"What?"

The middle-aged man was stunned, involuntarily taking a step back, then feeling a loss of face, he stepped forward two steps, his hair standing on end, his whole body trembling, and roared, "What!"

"You what?"

"What do you want to do!"

"Come up, you damn punk, do you want to fight?"

"Come on!"

One on the tree, one on the ground, the two of them cursed at each other, getting more and more into it, completely forgetting themselves.

The essence of the dialogue came from the northeastern region, similar to "What are you looking at?" "What if I look at you?" "Try it again!" "If you try, I'll try!"

Usually at this point, the dialogue should end, and the next stage would be physical confrontation, with the winner going to the police station for interrogation and the loser to the hospital ICU or the crematorium.

At this moment, Li Qinzai and the middle-aged man were almost there. Li Qinzai clearly saw the middle-aged man's face full of ferocity, ready to attack.

The two of them, so engrossed in their curses, were oblivious to the reactions of the onlookers. The people under the tree were stunned, the middle-aged woman pale, almost fainting.

Li Qinzai sneered inwardly, having played so many games and given so many heads, he had never met a match in the field of trash talk.

Sure enough, the middle-aged man, like a lit fuse, exploded after a moment of silence.

"Where are the Li family's troops? Shoot this beast to death!" the middle-aged man roared with a ferocious face.

Li Qinzai's eyelids twitched.

Trash talking and taking action were two different things. He had said so much trash talk while playing games and giving heads, but no one had ever come through the internet to beat him up. Compared to the familiar trash talk, Li Qinzai had very little experience in physical confrontation.

Among the onlookers, there were a dozen or so warriors, probably the "troops" the middle-aged man referred to. They exchanged glances, each hearing that the order was mostly out of anger, but they didn't dare to disobey the middle-aged man.

A young warrior hesitated for a moment, then immediately drew an arrow and pulled the bow.

Whoosh!

When an arrow with a warning meaning trembled and nailed to the tree trunk next to Li Qinzai's ear, Li Qinzai's face immediately changed.

These people playing Hanfu COS were crazy, actually daring to play for real!

The middle-aged man stared angrily at Li Qinzai on the tree, like a celestial lord using a magical artifact to trap a rogue mount that had come to wreak havoc in the human world.

"Beast, come down and accept your punishment!"

A roar, like a Buddhist chant, echoed in the courtyard.

At that moment, Li Qinzai, clinging to the tree with his hands and feet like a koala, indeed looked like a confused rogue mount.

After a long time without a response from the beast, the middle-aged man had completely lost his patience.

Shooting to death was not necessary, that was just out of anger, but...

"Bring the tree down! I don't believe you won't come down!"

Li Qinzai's eyelids twitched, are you serious?

The dozen or so warriors around the tree hesitated and gathered, some even holding axes to cut down the tree.

A wise man doesn't suffer a loss, and Li Qinzai was always very practical.

"Wait! I'll come down! Everyone, calm down, the world isn't about fighting, it's about human relations..."

...

In the afternoon of a summer day, the rain had not stopped. The drizzle pattered on the leaves outside the window, making one feel restless.

In a side room of an ancient and elegant mansion, Li Qinzai sat in front of a large bronze mirror, staring blankly at his reflection, his eyes meeting the stranger in the mirror, both equally strange and eerie. Both the real person and the reflection in the mirror had the same question in mind.

"Who is this guy?"

After sliding down from the tree last night, Li Qinzai, as expected, received a severe beating.

It wasn't until after the beating that Li Qinzai learned that the middle-aged man who called him a "beast" was actually his father, and the middle-aged woman beside him was his mother.

Thinking about the arrogant trash talk he had with his father last night, Li Qinzai suddenly felt that his entry into this strange world was quite impressive.

The aftereffect was that the beating still hurt, and the reflection in the mirror was bruised and swollen, each bruise deeply reminding him of the consequences of trash talking with his father.

His cheeks and body ached, and even slight movements caused pain. His father had clearly aimed to "punish the family" and "rebuild the character," and if it weren't for his mother's desperate intervention, the Li family would have been setting up a memorial hall today.

After waking up in the morning, Li Qinzai, limping from the beating, gritted his teeth and opened the door, taking a tour of the large mansion.

The pain in his body was nothing compared to the shock in his heart; he had to figure out what this strange world was all about.

He had never toured such an ancient and elegant mansion before. The mansion covered several acres, divided into front and back yards, a central courtyard, side yards, and several independent small courtyards, with hundreds of servants.

Li Qinzai, limping and bruised, toured the mansion, and the servants, seeing him, were as if they had seen a snake or a scorpion, trembling and treading on thin ice, clearly indicating that the previous owner of this body was not a good person, and the servants had suffered a lot from him.

Li Qinzai, with a cold face, toured the mansion, interrogating a few unfortunate servants, and gradually understood his situation.

He had actually traveled back to the Tang Dynasty.

It was now the first year of Longshuo in the Tang Dynasty, and the current emperor was the young and vigorous Li Zhi.

Six years ago, Li Zhi, despite widespread opposition, insisted on deposing Empress Wang and establishing Wu Mei as empress. In the field of capturing the hearts of men, especially emperors, Wu Mei was undoubtedly several levels higher than Empress Wang.

Because of the "deposition of Wang and establishment of Wu" incident, the long-standing contradictions between Li Zhi and his uncle, Changsun Wuji, and the Guanzhong Group finally erupted. Four years later, Changsun Wuji, the first prime minister listed in the Lingyan Pavilion, was implicated in a rebellion case and was brought down by his nephew Li Zhi and Empress Wu, dying on the way to exile.

With the powerful minister dead, the imperial power was restored, and Li Zhi and Empress Wu, this couple, finally had the freedom to implement their grand plans. After several years of purging the court, the government was clear, the people were simple, and the world was in a rare period of peace and prosperity.

The legacy of the Zhenguan era still lingered in the air, and the prosperous era had quietly arrived.

The fate of the nation, the trend of the times, the world was united in heart.

As for Li Qinzai's background, it was extremely prominent.

He was the grandson of the Duke of Britain, Li Ji, and the fifth in his generation, and the servants all respectfully called him "Fifth Young Master."

The middle-aged couple under the tree last night were his parents, his father named Li Siwen, the second son of Li Ji, and the governor of Runzhou, and his mother, Li Cui, from the Boling Cui family.

The Duke of Britain, Li Ji, was a famous general in the early Tang Dynasty, second only to the war god Li Jing. After Li Jing's death in the 23rd year of Zhenguan, Li Ji became the undisputed first person in the Tang military.

Having served under three emperors, Li Ji had achieved great military accomplishments, and his prestige in the army was unparalleled, deeply trusted by Emperor Taizong and the current emperor Li Zhi. Saying that Li Ji was a pillar of the Tang Dynasty was not an exaggeration.

Li Ji is still alive, having survived and resolved every political storm in the court over three generations, especially the "deposition of Wang and establishment of Wu" incident a few years ago. Before the incident, Li Zhi had privately consulted Li Ji's opinion, and Li Ji decisively stated, "This is the emperor's family matter, why ask outsiders?"

This statement undoubtedly gave Li Zhi a sense of security, representing the attitude of the military and further solidifying Li Zhi's determination to depose Empress Wang. It can be said that Li Ji's words played a decisive role in the "deposition of Wang and establishment of Wu" incident.

Empress Wang was deposed, and Li Zhi used this incident to strike the Guanzhong Group, removing the powerful minister Changsun Wuji, and at the same time, restoring imperial power. Wu Mei successfully rose to power, and the imperial couple was extremely grateful to Li Ji, showering him with favor. The Li family's imperial favor was now at its peak.

Born into a prominent military family, Li Qinzai naturally would not be ordinary.

His extraordinariness lay in the fact that he was a complete rogue.

He had done everything that a spoiled young man should do, and even things that others dared not do.

However, this lawless young man from a military family finally went too far, causing a disaster that implicated the entire Li family.