[Western Han Dynasty] Livestreaming the Book of Han for Liu Bang

Li Yu, an undergraduate history student, had some free time, so he started streaming on a certain website under the handle Fish of Kunming Lake.

To complete an assignment for a general education course, he livestreamed himself reading all twelve volumes of a publisher's original text of the Book of Han to help him remember it. He also often slipped in some personal opinions as a Han dynasty fan in the chat.

Even if only one or two fans were watching, he went live every day and read a few pages without fail, quite diligently.

Who could have guessed that the chat and the original text of the Book of Han would appear above the Western Han dynasty's skies?

The traitor Xiang had been defeated, and the realm had only just been pacified. Han troops were still hunting down stragglers everywhere. Having finally stopped to rest in Baicheng, Gaozu looked up at the sky screen that had suddenly appeared overhead.

[Fish of Kunming Lake: Exactly. If you don't understand the Overlord, you can't understand Gaozu. The two of them are an eternal pair of foils.]

Gaozu: ...If you're a fan of Xiang, just say so. Why pretend to be a Han fan?

[The Camel of Shanglin Park: One of them had to win in a messy way, but a win's a win. The other had to be shot from every angle in a 360-degree Mary Sue-style portrait, even in defeat!]

Gaozu: -_-|| A win is a win. What does it matter how you win?

Suddenly, Gaozu felt a hollow pang in his chest. An inspiration came to him. "Hurry up and leave. The words on that sky screen are all nonsense. Looking at them is giving me a headache."

Behind him, Guanchao, who had come all this way with a knife after covering five hundred li, flew into a helpless rage. "The child of fortune has escaped another calamity..."

*

| Educational | Does not alter the course of events | Contains personal extrapolations | Publisher's collated edition |

The story will progress volume by volume, slowly showing Gaozu reacting to the glorious two hundred years of the Former Han.

[Reading Guide]

1. I haven't started the Records of the Grand Historian yet because I plan to do so when I reread it. I'm currently reading the Book of Han from beginning to end, so I might as well write about it alongside that.

2. My aim is to strengthen my own reading and critical thinking. Readers are welcome to offer suggestions about my writing. If you have doubts about the content, please discuss them scientifically and rationally.

3. It may be rather dry, without many wish-fulfillment moments. I'm not sure whether my ability is up to the level of writing educational content.

4. I'll expand on Han society and daily life as far as my abilities allow. If you enjoy the social lives and inner worlds of Han dynasty people, please add it to your collection.

5. I'll write as I read, and update at my own pace.

Also, I'm planning a historical transmigration story called The C-Journal Academic Overachiever's Guide to Time Travel. If you're interested, please add it to your collection, pretty please!

[Real overachiever x fake purist | A female historian who refuses to lose x a flying general determined to die]

Lu Ao, a twenty-first-century overachiever and a regular contributor to top-tier academic journals, was stationed at the ruins of Lin'an City, bored out of her mind. She begged the excavation leader to let her examine some unearthed documents, but was turned away.

With no other choice, she left the site. As she passed the column base of Yongzhen Gate, newly exposed by the archaeological dig, a torrential rain suddenly swept over Hangzhou. In her daze, Lu Ao was struck by lightning and fell to the ground. In an instant, she transmigrated back to the Great Sui era. The person she had become was none other than Shi Wei, the daughter of Shi Qiao, Grand Historian during the Taichu era of the Great Sui and a compiler of the Book of Sui. Shi Wei was an unlearned, easygoing daddy's girl who spent her days idling around.

Though she missed her research career, Lu Ao stumbled into enjoying a laid-back life in this body. With her father, a leading writer of the empire, to protect her, and a crowd of cousins who doted on her, she discovered that life was so much easier when she wasn't an overachiever.

Lu Ao remembered that in the sixteenth year of Taichu, Shi Qiao would be found guilty of treason after his diplomatic mission to the Northern Desert failed, and would be executed at Yongzhen Gate in Lin'an City.

Though the pre-transmigration Lu Ao had always been cold and focused only on results, now that she was part of the story, she couldn't stand by and do nothing. She tried to change its course.

The Court of Judicial Review had just ruled that General Cui Pu, who accompanied Shi Qiao on the mission to the Northern Desert, was guilty of the same crime. His military service spared him the death penalty, but he was sentenced to serve for life in the imperial prison, where no one was allowed to visit him.

After suffering the ultimate punishment, Cui Pu lost all his martial arts skills. He thought of a hundred ways to die, but a female prison guard disguised as a man always stopped him from taking his own life.

"You can't die. My father hasn't been cleared in the eyes of the world, and you're the only one who can prove his innocence."

*

In 2035, the collated edition of the Book of Sui was released.

Lu Ao attended as one of the joint editors and spoke about her experience working on the text.

Thinking of Cui Pu, who had once left an indelible mark on her heart but had only two lines devoted to him in the Book of Sui that survived to this day, Lu Ao added two more sentences.

"Also, history's truth is often left unsaid. As researchers, we cannot witness it firsthand, so we must be extremely careful when drawing conclusions."

*

[Bonus Scene]

"Why did His Majesty give you the title of General Lian'ao? It sounds rather odd." Shi Wei quietly took a cotton handkerchief, which she had soaked beforehand, from her purse and spread it in a clay bowl. After pouring boiling water over it and waiting a while, she cautiously tried to pick up the linen cloth.

This was the first condition for getting Cui Pu to speak: smuggling him something he couldn't get in the imperial prison.

Cui Pu, hunched over after spending the morning smelting iron at the kiln, sidestepped forward and swiftly stopped her hand. He picked up the scalding handkerchief and casually tucked it into his sleeve.

Only after quite a while did he answer.

"There is a Lian'ao Mountain in the northern desert." Cui Pu took the contraband from her hand and sat on the floor in a corner, drinking openly. A hint of wildness seeped from his very bones. "In the dialect of the north, Lian'ao means 'sunrise.'"

"...I planted a banner on that mountain and carved an inscription into stone."

*Also known as The Clang of Cold Jade

*The main plot follows the heroine as she moves from a modern mindset, narrowly focused on achieving personal success, toward a transcendent way of thinking that carries on the wisdom of the sages.

*Inspired by a line from the Tang dynasty poet Wei Zhuang's Twenty Stanzas on Early Autumn Reflections, Written in Response to Xue's Letter:

"Cold jade rings in Lu's palace, broken gold resounds on the mossy mountain."

*Eternal love for the great Sima Qian.

Theme: Let's study together.