[You began to study in seclusion, ignoring worldly affairs.]
[For you, the Kremlin Palace library storing tens of thousands of books was a huge treasure trove waiting to be excavated. As the saying goes, "there is a golden house in books, and jade-like beauty in books."]
[But you were not impatient. You knew that countless sages in history had served as librarians—for example, Laozi in China's Spring and Autumn period, Aristotle in ancient Greece, and… in modern China. You understood that a true dragon rises from dust.]
[With years of magecraft research experience and being a genuine theological master, you also knew the principle that haste makes waste. Therefore, every day you stayed in the library, but you were not reading twenty-four hours a day. You would receive visits from Nicholas II and give him guidance. You never personally examined Alexei; instead you directly gave Nicholas II the complete method to treat him. Nicholas II was especially grateful to you. You would also chat with other palace members who visited and resolve their doubts.]
[You began to keep a diary.]
[In your diary you wrote—]
["Nicholas II is a contradictory person—showy yet devout. He loves grand gestures, is extravagant and wasteful. Every time he travels he brings columns of well-trained soldiers, flowers, red carpets, and golden decorations to express respect for God."]
["In comparison, the Empress who often comes with Nicholas II is undoubtedly a beauty. She is also a devout believer in God. She has beautiful silver-white long hair and often wears off-shoulder Victorian dresses. The fluffy hem outlines round hips and long legs, extremely captivating. Besides coming together with Nicholas II, she occasionally arrives alone in the middle of the night to pray for God's guidance."]
["We had in-depth yet shallow exchanges—limited to verbal ones."]
["Although comforting believers is a common practice of the Church in this era, and although the Empress intended as much, I am not Rasputin after all, and the time is not yet right."]
["Must endure."]
["I am not surnamed Cao, nor am I the prime minister," you used this sentence to end the diary entry. Your ambition lay elsewhere.]
[The Empress, however, grew more and more enamored with you—"what one cannot obtain always stirs the heart," you thought.]
[…]
[On the fifty-first day after arriving at the Kremlin Palace library, you heard that a wave of revolutionary thought had appeared inside the Tsarist Empire.]
[At that moment, you had completed the collection, organization,梳理, and backup of mystical knowledge.]
[Just as you were about to place the completed books in the center of the thousands of volumes, you heard a crisp girl's "Ah!" from behind the towering bookshelves.]
[At the same time, you saw snow-white, crystal-clear beautiful long hair.]
…
Kremlin Palace Library.
This place with hundreds of thousands of books was majestic and vast—one of the few world-scale collections in this era.
Windows high on the walls faced the vast sky.
Blazing sunlight pierced the light gauze and fell in bundled rays, like golden ink dropped by God, dyeing the interior that smelled of paper and ink.
Rows of bookshelves over ten meters high, arranged in arcs, had red-wood carvings coated with layers of gold.
The bookshelves were golden, the book covers golden.
In this golden world, Lu Kang's vision reflected a patch of silver-white—
"Ouch."
The soft, crisp voice was gentle.
Lu Kang held the newly compiled catalog of mystical knowledge in one hand and pushed up the glasses-like mystical outfit he had worn on his face since entering the library—engraved with mystery to assist in organizing knowledge.
Through the glass lenses he looked at the figure who had made the sound. Besides the soft silver-white hair, he saw the pretty, adorable face below and the graceful, delicate body wrapped in a snow-white angel-down long dress.
He also saw the ladder that had toppled to one side and the books scattered around.
Clearly.
She had fallen from the ladder.
"If you are looking for romantic novels, you have come to the wrong place," Lu Kang glanced at the book covers and said. "This is the religion section."
"Mm…" The silver-haired girl did not answer Lu Kang immediately.
She simply sat on the floor, lowering her head to rub her ankle.
Silver-white hair fell, setting off her fair skin and blue-green eyes, and gently rested on the soft, white area at her chest.
She did not look very old, yet she had an exceptionally full figure. The tightly bound curves at her chest were prominent; her slightly exposed shoulders delicately outlined bright, clean side lines. Her waist was as slender as a willow, but because her legs were bent while sitting, the area that should have been covered by the fluffy hem was gently pressed, revealing round arcs and a deep triangle.
Yet for a girl with such a full figure, her facial expression was clean and pure.
"Wh… what religion section?" she stammered in reply to Lu Kang.
Lu Kang pointed at the sign standing on the nearby bookshelf, clearly written in standard Russian: "Religion."
Classifying and sectioning books.
This was also something he had been doing these days.
The girl was stunned: "Was there such a sign here before?"
"No!" She realized she had been led astray. "Who told you I was looking for romantic novels?"
"Wasn't that the case? Otherwise could you be looking for military strategy?" Lu Kang pretended to be puzzled.
"N-no, that's right, military strategy." The girl's face reddened again, but she forced herself to stay calm. Clearly a personality that easily became shy around strangers, yet she pretended to be composed.
She rubbed her ankle and tried to straighten her waist, but the action not only failed to give her any confidence—it made the arcs at her chest sway gently twice, dazzling the eyes.
She said, "I am determined to become a female general of the Tsarist Empire!"
"Then may I ask which military strategy book you want? I will help you find it." Lu Kang pushed his glasses again.
The girl instantly choked. She secretly glanced at the vast sea of books and immediately saw stars—she knew nothing about military strategy! How could she name any specific book?
Facing the girl who stammered and could not speak a complete sentence for a long time, Lu Kang could not help laughing: "Never mind, I won't tease you anymore."
The girl instantly felt stifled. So this guy had been teasing her?
She had just said something when Lu Kang continued, "Princess Anastasia, may I ask what honorable business brings you here?"
So this guy knew her?
The girl who thought she had hidden her identity well was stunned.
Lu Kang pushed the glasses on his face and revealed a smile that said "as expected." Of course he recognized the girl before him—from the first glance.
That head of silver-white long hair almost identical to the Empress's, that figure and appearance quite similar to the Empress's.
As someone who had had many "in-depth yet shallow" exchanges with the Empress, how could he not recognize her?
Moreover, compared to other imperial family members, Anastasia was special—in the near future, when Nicholas II's rule was overthrown, she had not yet truly reached adulthood, yet she was executed together with her family and pitied by many as one of the two who should not have died—the other being her younger brother Alexei, who suffered from illness.
He thought that Anastasia's arrival was not the least bit surprising.
Or rather, with his current identity, any palace member appearing before him was perfectly normal!
Getting along well with every palace member was something Lu Kang would naturally do.
Even though right now he actually still wanted to say… was the princess before him "inflated"? If he remembered correctly, Anastasia was Nicholas II's youngest daughter, born around 1900. In 1912 she should be at most thirteen or fourteen—
Lu Kang glanced at the girl from the corner of his eye.
You call this fourteen?