Ati was taken aback and smiled, saying, "The Xiongnu people are not so bad after all."

  "Yes, they're very good indeed." Zhang Yan pressed on, "Every year in autumn and winter, they provoke the Great Han's border guards, slaughter them after a siege, plunder everything and leave with their spoils. They are so ruthless that they don't even spare newborn babies. Do you think this is good?"

  "Ah Yan----" Ah Ti frowned and said, "I don't agree with such barbarism. But that's the battlefield, and the battlefield is not a place to talk about benevolence, righteousness, and morality..."

  "So you just accepted it. And then take pride in being a Xiongnu?" Zhang Yan shook her head, sadly saying, "You are Temur of the Xiongnu, but don't forget that you are also Luo Mi of China two thousand years later. It was the Han people who established China, supported your departure from the grasslands, educated you with knowledge, and let you see a broader world----"

  "----But I still have to go back to the prairie," Ati interrupted her.

  "There would be no Temir without the Han people, and the help they gave you was not to let you travel back a thousand years to deal with their ancestors."

  Ati's face flushed, and she hastily interrupted, "I was indeed deeply grateful to Han. Don't think I'm not thankful at all. But no matter how much I appreciate it, I will still return to the grasslands. Yes, Xiongnu has countless shortcomings, but since it has become my homeland, I will love it, accept its inadequacies and strive to improve them, rather than despising it, disowning it, and hating it. If one must ask whether it's good or not before loving it, then that kind of patriotism is fake."

  "Ah Yan," Timiriona looked at her close friend with a serious expression. "I thought you understood. This world has its own rules, customs, and inertia, which are not easily shaken by us as crossers. In the face of reality, even if we have more than two thousand years of memories and experiences, we are still small. If we insist on blocking it, we will soon be swallowed up by the torrent of history."

  "Actually, Ah Yan, aren't you the same?" she said coldly and sharply. "You accepted the idea of equal and autonomous progress, then came to the present two thousand years ago. Can you think of overthrowing the feudal imperial system and rebuilding an equal and autonomous kingdom? You also took a step back and accepted its existence. Then married the emperor and became the empress of Great Han. Didn't you?"

  "How can that be the same?" Zhang Yan said with annoyance, shaking her head in refutation. "At least the Han Dynasty didn't harm others to gain benefits, whereas the Xiongnu people recklessly killed Han people, robbed their cattle and horses, and plundered their food. How can these two things be equal?"

  "Do the common people of this great nation deserve to be exploited by the emperor and his officials, working day in and day out without being able to fill their bellies?" Timiriona retorted. "What's the difference between a soft knife that kills people and a real knife that sees blood?"

  Zhang Yan sighed, "The feudal imperial system is the best policy for the current Han Dynasty. The common people of the Han need a strong central government to lead and protect them in an atmosphere without freedom and democracy. Forcing freedom and democracy on them would only harm them." Ah Yan," Timiriona lowered her gaze and said slowly, "Don't you think you have double standards? If we must say so, then the Xiongnu's invasion of Han territory is also just to survive during the autumn and winter when the grasslands are withered."

  "Whatever!" Zhang Yan sneered, "Just to survive? I don't believe that if we don't bully the Han and Xiongnu, we really can't survive. It's just to live a better life and shift the contradictions. You don't have to speak so grandly. Besides, Atai, I'm not asking about the Xiongnu, I'm only asking you, who has been deeply favored by the Han people. Having become the Xiongnu queen, what are you thinking, and what do you want to do?"

  Tiemiruona was stunned. Suddenly, she buried her face in the warm pool water until she couldn't hold it anymore, then splashed up, her cheeks flushed and her eyes misty with water vapor, softly saying, "Ayan, don't ask me, I'm also very confused. I love the grasslands, but I don't love war. I never thought of fighting against the Han Dynasty. Not only because of my past life, but also because of you, and Guaner. I just wanted...I just wanted..."

  "Actually, putting aside personal opinions, Modu Chanyu is still a hero in some sense, he brought the Xiongnu to its peak. The current Xiongnu is very powerful, I don't hope to help it become even stronger militarily and then invade Han territory. I just hope that its internal vitality can last longer. In history, after the Three Kingdoms period, either they were annihilated or gradually assimilated into the Han Chinese. The Xiongnu disappeared from this land. Later generations can only visit the ruins to imagine their past glory on the grasslands. I don't want it to be like that. What I want is not its height at a certain historical stage, but the length of life as an entire nation."

  "...I thought that by doing so, I could do my part for the Xiongnu I love, and at least from a personal perspective, I would not harm the Great Han and betray the kindness the Han people had shown me."

  "It's impossible." Zhang Yan shook her head and sighed, "Two equally powerful countries, with borders adjacent to each other. It was destined that they would constantly rub against each other until one side perished. Just like the later Russia and Japan. You've seen it, haven't you?"

  The two women stood silently opposite each other, their values having been in conflict from the start and never truly unified. It was only the peace of their past lives that had masked these differences, allowing them to coexist harmoniously. But once they found themselves in this new era of sharp contrasts, these differences inevitably emerged and pierced each other painfully.

  "Ti Mi Luo Na said in a low voice, "A Yan, we are all just standing on our own standpoint to look at things, whether right or wrong, no one can convince anyone."

  Zhang Yan closed her eyes, we have different stances and will soon be in the not-too-distant future when the two countries are at odds, without hesitation or choice but to support our own nation and husband, thus reluctantly confronting each other.

  So old friends can only turn around and go their separate ways after the initial excitement of reuniting.

  The moment they met, it was destined to be a farewell. In fact, after discovering Timir's existence, she felt not only relieved but also somewhat anxious. All these years, because she firmly believed that there were no other time-travelers in this era except for herself, she could live carefreely, hiding behind one person after another, using extremely gentle methods to promote the development of the Han Dynasty.

  But she didn't know that in another place of this world, there was another Timirouna.

  It was as if on the two ends of a balance, the Han and Xiongnu were maintaining a delicate equilibrium. She thought she was the weight that tipped the scales in favor of the great Han, but it seemed that the Xiongnu also had an A-Tie of their own. So, over the past seven years, how much had A-Tie helped the Xiongnu progress with her knowledge? Was the Xiongnu still the same as the one in her memories? She suddenly felt uncertain. This feeling of uncertainty made her feel anxious and uneasy.

  "Ah Yan." Timiriona said with a sigh, "It's not easy for us to meet like this. Perhaps after tonight, we may never see each other again in this lifetime." She looked up at him, her eyes sincere and pleading, "Tonight, just for tonight. Can't we not talk about these troublesome things?"

  Zhang Yan quietly looked at her and finally nodded.

  And on this night, at least for tonight, we won't be Xiang Yan and Di Mi Luo Na, but just a pair of good friends after a thousand years. You are Luo Mi, I am Xiang Yan Ran.

  Then Tiamat smiled brightly and said

  She swam over, pulled Zhang Yan's hand, dipped water on the pool wall and wrote a line of words. She smiled with her lips pursed and asked, "Guess what I'm writing?" The gaze looking at the words was gentle and proud, like looking at her own beloved child.

  "How do I know?" Zhang Yan said irritably. "It's not Xiao Zhuan, it's not Lishu, it's not ancient script, and it's not the simplified characters we used to use." Suddenly enlightened, she exclaimed, "Is this the Huns' script you created?"

  "Hmm." Ati nodded, smiling, "Only with their own script can a nation continue on its own. This is the first thing I did for the Xiongnu. Ah Yan, can you guess what I just wrote?"

  Zhang Yan slightly furrowed her brow, trying hard to make out the faint Chinese characters inside, and based on her previous understanding of Luomi's personality, she guessed, "Is it 'Luomi, Yan, and friends forever'?"

  "Hmm." Timiria nodded, smiling brightly. "A Yan, I hope you know that even if the Han and Xiongnu are destined to be mortal enemies in the future, in my heart, you will always be the same A Yan as before. Always will be."

  She was taken aback for a moment, and her heart softened slightly.

  "Ha!" Ati suddenly burst out laughing, "Indeed we have a spiritual connection, the Xiongnu script I created, Modu couldn't recognize it at first. It's quite troublesome to learn too."

  Zhang Yan's lips curled up slightly, and she couldn't help but say something to tease her, "You said you don't want the Xiongnu to be assimilated, but isn't this character for Xiongnu also derived from Chinese characters, just like Japanese and Korean languages are?"

  This time it's Artie's turn to be sulky, kicking the waterway. "Do you think I want to? I'd rather use pinyin characters. But two plans were presented and people immediately settled on one. They said it was because they were used to seeing it."

  Nomadic nations possess powerful mobile forces, while farming nations own brilliant cultures. One attempts to conquer the world with force, while the other silently infiltrates with civilization. The latter is more subtle and leaves no trace than the former. Some invisible things have already quietly taken root.

  Actually, Zhang Yan had a sentence stuck in her throat and didn't say it out loud.

  The whole Huns were most influenced by the Han people, isn't it you, Atai? You mentioned your uncle twice or thrice, and you really rely on him a lot, don't you?

  "Uh-huh." Zhang Yan's face turned slightly red, unsure if it was the hot spring steam or shyness, "He's a really good person, I really, really like him."

  Ati lowered her head and thought for a moment, then smiled and said, "It's not that big of a deal, on the grasslands there are even customs where if a husband dies, his brother takes over as the son-in-law. In this world, men and women can love whoever they want, why bother with so many formalities? But, speaking of which, you've been married for a year now." She smiled slyly and her gaze circled around her slightly plump chest, "And yet, you still haven't tasted the freshness?"

  In their past life, when they lived together in the dormitory, roommates would often tease each other, and it was always a cold and unbridled atmosphere. At this time, Adi suddenly spoke up, she hadn't been through such an ordeal in a long time, and because the conversation was related to Liu Ying, her face flushed with anger, and she felt both hands were restless, "What are you talking about? I'm only thirteen years old now."

  "Hmm." Adi stroked her chin, gazing at her slender figure reflected in the pool water, with an appraising expression. "Hmph, thirteen years old, not too young either. The taste of youth and innocence is most intoxicating. As long as your uncle is gentle enough, it's not bad to take a bite. Come, let me help you think about it. Just like today when we bathed together, one day you can bathe and then sneak into his bed naked. Men are always lustful, they won't let go of something delicious once they've tasted it."

  "What kind of ridiculous idea is this?" Zhang Yan's face turned black with rage.

  If things were that simple, why did she have to make such a big fuss at first and now go to great lengths to win Liu Ying's heart?

  "Hmm, won't do?" Ati clapped her hands and said, "Then it's settled. There's a kind of ** outside the pass that's most effective, I'll send you some later. You put it in your uncle's tea water and trick him into drinking it. A lone man with no one to rely on, he won't be able to resist your control. When the time comes, uncooked rice will become cooked rice, according to his personality, he'll have to acknowledge it whether he wants to or not."

  Zhang Yan suddenly became annoyed, coldly laughing and counterattacking, "It sounds pretty good, I don't know if Ati has ever used this trick? I heard you also married that great Modu Chanyu for a year, I wonder if the zither and se are harmonious on the couch?"

  Rice is spoken much.

  Continue to ask for pink tickets to make up 800 and update more.