After transmigrating into the book, I helped my mother reconcile with her divorced husband.

Xiao Yebai couldn't see his own shoulders, but he had a feeling that Lu Zhiyuan was sewing shoe soles. He had seen Arona shoe soles before, and this felt very similar. He closed his eyes and felt the needle pierce his skin, pulling out a thin, long thread. The thread was red, with some skin flakes wrapped around it... or rather, there were no skin flakes, just a thin, long red thread.

A drop of blood fell onto his back, sliding gently down. Then came the second injection, not as painful as the first, but it made sweat bead on his forehead. He gritted his teeth, letting his cheeks puff out slightly.

Lu Zhiyuan noticed, her hand still gripping the needle: "Xiao Yebai, did you see what I brought?"

Xiao Yebai opened his eyes and looked at the painting hanging in the meditation room.

The painting depicts a Bodhi tree. One half of the Bodhi tree is alive, with lush branches and leaves, while the other half is dead, with withered leaves and fallen petals. Beneath the tree lies a chessboard with black and white pieces on it. The black pieces are the winners, positioned on the "living" side of the Bodhi tree. The white pieces are the losers, and have reached their limit, positioned on the "dead" side.

Looking at both ends of the chessboard, an even stranger scene unfolded. The black side had no stone bench; it was empty, as if no one was playing chess. Or perhaps the person playing chess was standing. The white side not only had a stone bench, but also a cushion on it, and the cushion seemed to depict a Bodhi tree.

In ordinary people's minds, black represents evil, and white represents light. Black signifies death, and white signifies victory. Yet this tree, this chessboard, this stone bench—all exude contradiction. What exactly did the person who painted this picture want to say?

Lu Zhiyuan, unaware that Xiao Yebai was captivated by the painting, continued talking to herself. She didn't expect Xiao Yebai to reply; she only hoped that he would be distracted and not focus on the injury on his shoulder and the pain from the stitches.

A Luo carried in hot water, and the light and shadow cast by the lifting of the curtain fell on the painting. Xiao Yebai snapped back to reality and heard Lu Zhiyuan murmur on his shoulder, "The best things to eat in hot pot are meatballs and lamb rolls. As for the lamb rolls, you don't need to explain them. Slice the lamb into paper-thin slices, roll them up, and put them in the ice... in the ice cellar."

"Put the mutton rolls in the ice cellar?" Xiao Yebai frowned slightly. "That place is suitable for storing whole sheep."

“The ice cellar I’m talking about is smaller.” Lu Zhiyuan thought for a moment and tried to describe it using something Xiao Yebai had seen and could understand. “It’s about the same size as the boxes we use to store clothes. The outer shell isn’t made of wood, but of some other material, which keeps the contents at a constant temperature so they won’t be easily damaged.”

Xiao Yebai turned his head: "What does 'constant temperature' mean?"

Lu Zhiyuan bit her finger: "Constant temperature means it's always winter, always summer, always autumn, always spring."

Xiao Yebai frowned: "It's always winter inside the box, undisturbed by the outside seasons. Isn't this the legendary place where immortals live? Could it be that these immortals live inside the box?"

"Pfft!" His hand trembled, pulling on the thread on his shoulder, causing Xiao Yebai to wince in pain.

Lu Zhiyuan quickly apologized, suppressing a laugh as she praised Xiao Yebai for being cute. "Gods living in boxes, not a bad idea. Maybe these gods really do live in boxes, after all, humans live on a planet. Earth, a planet, no problem there."

Out of the corner of his eye, Xiao Yebai caught a glimpse of Lu Zhiyuan's suppressed smile, and his heart sank: "As a hostage, my knowledge and experience are limited. I have never seen the thing you mentioned, Miss, and I can't imagine what it looks like. I only know that the ice cave is located beneath a side hall of the Brocade Palace. When I first entered the Brocade Palace, Consort Jin would lock me and A'Luo inside every few days."

Lu Zhiyuan, holding the needle, leaned forward, resting her chin on Xiao Yebai's shoulder: "Consort Jin locked you and A'Luo in an ice cellar? She wanted to freeze you to death?"

His breath caught in her ear, and Xiao Yebai turned his head, almost brushing against Lu Zhiyuan's cheek. Xiao Yebai froze on the spot, motionless.

A Luo brought in water and, upon hearing Lu Zhiyuan's words, continued, "Consort Jin just wanted to make things difficult for us, freezing us half to death. Fortunately, she's not very favored, and the ice cellar under the side hall quickly ran out of ice, though it's incredibly damp, infested not only with all sorts of insects, but also with rats and snakes."

Xiao Yebai said, "Snake meat is the best, followed by rats, and most of the insects are hard to eat."

A Luo chimed in, "Consort Jin treated us harshly, often not giving us food. When we first arrived at Jinxiu Palace, we were young and didn't dare to or know how to get food from the kitchen, so we just starved. When we couldn't stand the hunger anymore, we would look for something to eat in the side hall. There were rats the most, followed by snakes, and snake meat tasted better than rat meat."

Lu Zhiyuan had eaten snake meat—all kinds of snake meat, raw, cooked, roasted, braised, and boiled. She had never eaten rat meat; she'd heard on TV that rats carried the most germs.

The prince of Southern Chu, a descendant of the royal family of Northern Liang, was forced to eat rat meat in the Northern Liang palace. He was even more pitiful than her, an orphan forced to become an assassin.

Taking a deep breath, she whispered in Xiao Yebai's ear, "With me here, I will never let you eat that junk food again. Don't worry about that freezer or anything. No one except me... and my uncle has ever seen it, not even the Emperor. It's from a foreign land, extremely precious. My uncle went to great lengths to bring one back, but he broke it when he was a kid."

"When you were a kid?"

“When I was two or three years old.” Lu Zhiyuan lied without blushing: “My uncle sent that thing to another courtyard, and I went inside out of curiosity. The servants smashed it to save me. If it were now, I could have stocked up on hot pot ingredients for at least a few days, and I could eat wherever I went without worrying about the food spoiling.”

Let's not even consider electricity; after all, there was no electricity in ancient times, and people back then didn't know that refrigerators and freezers used electricity. Amitabha, let her spout nonsense.

After the wound was stitched up, the rest was left to A'luo. While wiping the wound, A'luo asked Lu Zhiyuan, "Is the hot pot you mentioned that copper thing? I haven't seen that freezer you mentioned, but I did see the food box Her Highness used to store things. It was bigger and heavier than ordinary food boxes, and it contained ice to keep the food from spoiling for several days. If we hadn't had that accident on the way, we probably would have already been eating hot pot."

Lu Zhiyuan slapped her forehead, almost forgetting that many modern designs are inherited from the ancients. Refrigerators and freezers, for example, were born from the wisdom of the ancients. She had been so smug just moments before; in terms of ignorance, she was no different from this hostage imprisoned in the deep palace.

To save face, she clapped her hands twice and said, "You guys rest, I'm going to find the princess. We're having hot pot tonight, eat until we're stuffed."

A'Luo, clutching a handkerchief, chased after her to the door: "Miss, please wait a while before going! Her Highness the Princess is with the Empress Dowager. They seem to have caught a thief, who came with Lord Xie."