Chapter Eighty-Seven: The Art of Playing Dirty

By the time she left the palace of Prince Pei, Li Yuechen had long since lost the mood to keep playing. After finding a random excuse, she turned and departed.

On the way back, her mind kept turning over the same question. Since she already knew about this, should she go straight to Li Zhi and ask him why he had done it?

But as soon as the thought surfaced, she pushed it back down.

Going to ask now might or might not get her the answer she wanted, but the atmosphere would certainly become awkward.

Li Yuechen understood very well that whatever Li Zhi’s purpose was, it certainly could not be to name her heir apparent.

It was hard enough for this country to give rise to a woman emperor. There were many female rulers abroad because royal houses acknowledged a woman’s right to inherit the throne.

Here, that was absolutely impossible.

To the ancients, succession was a matter of grave importance.

She was only a woman, and even if she married and bore children here, her descendants would not bear her surname. If she were made heir apparent, it would be no different from handing the empire to someone else.

Not to mention, Li Yuechen had no intention of marrying at all.

But if becoming heir apparent was ruled out, then why had he shown her the Imperial Model of Conduct?

Li Yuechen felt her head ache from thinking about it, and even after returning to Anfu Hall, she still had no reliable answer.

She was helpless about it herself. After all, she was only an athlete, not someone naturally good at thinking things through.

The emperor’s logic was hard enough to fathom as it was, let alone the fact that she had never invested a single point in the skill of reading people.

Especially those two as a married couple: the husband was emperor, and the wife was emperor too. Their logic was even harder to decipher.

With that in mind, Li Yuechen decided to keep pretending she knew nothing.

She also stopped thinking about why Li Zhi had done it. In any case, judging by the current situation, it could not be because he saw her as a threat.

At the very least, being a well-behaved child all these years had been useful.

As the saying went: so long as the emperor did not feel threatened, there would be no trouble at all.

Once she had figured that out, her steps could not help but grow much lighter.

Time passed day by day, and the weather grew hotter and hotter.

Another Dragon Boat Festival came around, and Li Zhi once again brought the whole family up to the imperial city walls to watch the races on the river.

Ever since Li Xian and Li Lun had learned to whistle from their younger sister the previous year, they would occasionally show off.

Today, amid the unbroken drumbeats of the race and the shouts of the people along both banks of the Luo River, they could not help but let out a whistle.

Two sharp notes sounded one after the other from the city wall, and many of the spectators below by the river instinctively looked up.

Li Zhi and Wu Zetian were both slightly startled as they turned to look at the two mischievous boys.

Sensing their parents’ gentle gazes, Li Xian and Li Lun immediately realized they were in trouble, and for a moment stared at Li Yuechen in fear.

Good heavens, were these two fools planning to betray the team? Li Yuechen thought in surprise.

Sure enough, Li Lun spoke first. “Father, Mother, please do not be angry. Yuechen taught me this whistle!”

Hearing that, the couple turned to look at Li Yuechen as well.

“Brother, it is true that I taught you, but I never told you to do it in a place like this...” Li Yuechen promptly passed the blame.

Li Xian chimed in from the side. “We simply could not help ourselves for a moment...”

“Oh? Taught by Chen’er?” Li Zhi suddenly interrupted them, looking quite interested. “How is it done?”

“...”

Seeing his father looking so curious, Li Yuechen was silent for two seconds. “Father... are you interested in this?”

Li Zhi nodded. “I think it is rather nice. If I were to keep a horse in the future, I could whistle once and it would come over. That sounds rather amusing.”

When Li Zhi said this, Li Xian and Li Lun nearly had their eyes pop out.

Perhaps because the family atmosphere had lately felt much warmer, Li Xian gathered his courage and joked, “If Father is so biased, are you not worried that Fourth Brother and I will be upset?”

“Upset?” Wu Zetian turned her head and asked expressionlessly, “You?”

Li Xian instinctively took two steps back. “Th-this... Your son is not made of stone. Of course I would be upset.”

“No matter. Afterward, go find your second brother and have a cockfight, and you will no longer be upset.” Li Zhi waved a hand dismissively.

Behind them, Li Yuechen licked her lips. This really was his own father.

Li Xian could not help but complain, “Father, there is no need to drag me into this, is there?”

“Get used to it!” Li Zhi suddenly laughed.

Hearing such an obvious joke, Li Yuechen was the first to laugh. “Father is right. Get used to it!”

Seeing the smile on her face, Li Hong, who was usually the most serious of them all, was actually the first to lose composure, bursting out laughing.

Then the laughter spread like a contagion, and the other brothers followed suit.

Li Zhi laughed even more heartily, his voice booming and fully revealing the majesty of an emperor.

That warm, teasing atmosphere of a family joking with one another even made Wu Zetian cover her mouth and smile softly.

After the dragon boat races ended, Li Zhi, as usual, rewarded the first-place team with some bolts of silk.

Then, astonishingly, he actually started learning to whistle from Li Yuechen.

And to be fair, he had some talent for it. After trying a few times, he was already able to make a sound successfully.

Once he had learned, Li Zhi kept whistling like a child all the way back to Renshou Hall.

Back in the hall, they brewed a pot of tea, rubbed their somewhat sore cheeks, and sat down to chat with the children.

Their mother, Wu Zetian, also pulled the two elder sisters aside to ask about their impressions of the moisturizing cream. Comparing notes, they found that the stuff really was quite effective.

Meanwhile, Li Yuechen played around with her brothers on Li Zhi’s side. Perhaps because the mood was so good, Li Xian was suddenly inspired and wrote a poem.

He actually had considerable literary talent, and had received high praise from both his father and mother—he simply did not usually devote his mind to it.

Li Yuechen could not make sense of it, though, and had no idea what the poem was saying.

In any case, everyone else said it was good, so all she needed to do was clap along and shout her approval.

There was still some time before lunch, so the family played at the capture-the-culprit game Li Yuechen had invented.

After this period of practice, everyone had improved quite a lot, and they could also play much more freely now. At the very least, they were already daring enough to suspect their father and mother to their faces.

Such a family atmosphere, with everyone immersed in laughter and play, could be called excellent.

By the end, Li Yuechen was even riding on Li Zhi’s back, wrestling and fooling around with him.

In the palaces of the Tang Dynasty, the floors were wooden, and one had to remove one’s shoes when entering, so there was no need to worry about dirt and such.

Watching the father and daughter rolling into a heap on the floor, Wu Zetian coughed twice, reminding Li Zhi to mind his dignity.

But Li Zhi had not the slightest intention of listening, and even the youngest, Li Lun, joined in.

At noon, the family happily ate a hot pot meal, sweating profusely, and only then did today’s family gathering come to an end.

After lunch and a few cups of tea, the children took their leave, and Li Yuechen returned to Anfu Hall.

Just as she entered the gate and was about to check on the rice seedlings, Shangguan Wan’er came running over with a face full of grievance. “Your Highness, I lost today.”

“Lost?” Li Yuechen asked as she walked into the Línbō Pavilion. “In herb picking?”

“Yes.” Shangguan Wan’er nodded gloomily.

Li Yuechen raised her eyebrows. “Why would you lose? Did I not teach you the method to ensure victory?”

Shangguan Wan’er explained softly, “Last year I won against them. Afterwards they asked me what method I had used, and I told them. So this year...”

“Oh...”

Li Yuechen nodded, then smiled and reached out to pat her head. “It is all right. I have an even better method. Next year I guarantee you will win for sure! But you must not tell them this method again.”

“Really?” Shangguan Wan’er looked up and took two eager steps forward. “What method?”

Li Yuechen looked left and right, and saw that no one else was around.

Then she leaned in close to Shangguan Wan’er’s ear. “Next year, find a relatively thicker blade of grass, then thread a strand of copper wire through it...”

Perhaps because her ear was too close, the breath from her words brushed inside it, and Shangguan Wan’er could not help shivering.

Then she blushed bright red and stepped back two paces. In a voice as small as a mosquito’s, she said, “Your Highness, is this not... cheating?”

Li Yuechen laughed. “Only if you are found out. If no one discovers it, then it is skill!”

Hearing this, Shangguan Wan’er widened her eyes, experiencing her first-ever shock to her worldview.

But Li Yuechen did not dwell on the matter. She gently patted her head and stood up. “Come, go with me to see the rice.”

The two walked side by side toward the fields. Suddenly Shangguan Wan’er turned and said, “Without realizing it, Your Highness has already grown taller than me.”

“Is that so?” Li Yuechen turned her head for a look. She truly had not paid much attention to it.

After all, in an age without a full-length mirror, it was difficult to notice one’s own height.

Only now, walking together with Shangguan Wan’er, did she suddenly realize that she really had grown quite a bit.

She was already a full head taller than Shangguan Wan’er. Thinking back carefully, although she was only seven this year, she seemed to have reached about her mother’s chest already. If they stood side by side, she ought to be nearly at her shoulder by now.

Then she looked at her clothes and understood why she had not noticed it.

The garments of this era were all rather loose. Even after growing quite a lot, wearing these clothes still did not make them feel small.

Come to think of it, if there were a chance, she should try making a mirror someday. Then she could have several large full-length mirrors placed in the palace.

Back when she was in school, she had done experiments on the silver mirror reaction, but in this era it would be rather troublesome to make such a thing.

She did not know whether silver could really be turned into a mirror. If the cost were a bit high, so be it.

As long as it was not something essential to the common people’s lives, Li Yuechen always sold things at a very high price, and she was not afraid of failing to recoup the costs.

When they reached the edge of the field, Li Yuechen crouched down and looked at the drooping rice heads before roughly counting them, a look of satisfaction appearing on her face.

If nothing unexpected happened, this round of the experiment could be considered a success. At present, even from the outside alone, it was clear that these plants were growing far better than the rice outside.

But exactly how far they would go, they would have to wait and see.

In any case, this batch of rice could be harvested at the end of June. As for the final result, they would know then.

“How does Your Highness feel about it?” Shangguan Wan’er did not know what the other rice looked like and could not tell good from bad.

Li Yuechen nodded slightly. “It seems all right... Fine, let’s not look at this anymore. Let us go have some yogurt.”

Back in the hall, she drank some yogurt, read for a while, and practiced writing for a bit.

By the time she looked up and saw that it was about the hour of Shen, Li Yuechen decided to go take a look at the Ministry of Crafts and see how the carriage was progressing.

Come to think of it, the glass workshop in Jixian Ward had already been built, and telescopes had officially begun production.

At the same time, transparent bowls, cups, bottles, and the like had also begun trial production. If successful, they could explode onto the market at once.

As for the exact method, Li Yuechen only told them that the glass was blown, but she did not know exactly how to blow it, so she simply let the craftsmen experiment freely on their own.

In any case, the cost of the thing was not high, and there was plenty of room for trial and error.

In order to avoid drawing attention, Fulai had not bought manganese ore alone, but had also acquired many other stones that were at least for the moment completely useless.

Although this meant spending quite a bit more money, in Li Yuechen’s view it was money well spent, as it could keep the glass formula secret for as long as possible.

Those great clans were certainly already attempting to make soap and transparent glass at home. The only question was when they would succeed.

When she arrived at the Ministry of Crafts, she saw that the artisans had already finished making the tires. At that moment they were wrapping woven cowhide strips around the wheel rims, then sealing them with fish glue.

It had to be said, this stuff was impressively adhesive. It felt sturdier than anything she had ever seen.

The tires were not wide, roughly the width of a mountain bike tire.

From a little farther away, at a glance, they really did look somewhat like modern tires.

The outer rim of the wheel was made of iron, and the spokes were made of Yunnan iron bamboo—strong, yet not heavy.

The only troublesome point at present was that there were no bearings at the connection to the axle, so they could only solve it with oil.

Li Yuechen watched as they finished making the tires, then stacked them together and compared them. The sizes were exactly the same.

Seeing that, she could not help but give them a thumbs-up in admiration.

Seeing that the sun was about to set, she told them to wrap things up and call it a day, and to continue tomorrow.

The fish glue still needed some time to dry completely, and these tires would probably have to sit for a few more days before they could truly be installed.

In addition, the leather bellows on the body had also been completed. Li Yuechen watched them test it from the side, and it really did stir up a peculiar sense of nostalgia.

Fulai watched the vanes close and open as the body swayed left and right, and could not help praising, “Your Highness truly possesses a wondrous imagination!”

Li Yuechen smiled faintly. “That is only because you have yet to see anything even stranger.”

Though she did not mean to look down on the ancients, seeing Fulai’s admiring gaze still made her feel a little light-headed inside.

For him to be impressed to this extent—if he ever saw something that could fly, would he not kneel on the spot?

Still, this reaction was understandable. Even if it were herself, if one day she suddenly saw black technology beyond all comprehension, she would probably make much the same face, and perhaps even worse than he did.

But truthfully, she really ought to keep a lower profile now. Li Zhi’s whole move of having her read the Imperial Model of Conduct was simply too difficult to interpret.