“The negotiation process wasn’t as miraculous as I imagined. To put it bluntly, they were all a bunch of people who would side with whoever offered them benefits. I thought there would be all kinds of battles of wit and courage, mixed with conspiracies and schemes, where saying one sentence would require eight years of consideration.”

Yun Ye was very disappointed. He had originally thought that Qu Zhuo must have accomplished some world-shaking feat, like killing someone, becoming a spy, or seducing a foreign princess—some legendary episode like that. But it turned out he had just gotten lucky, relied on his glib tongue and naturally gregarious personality to befriend a wastrel, and this wastrel had merely helped him a little.

The contempt in Tang Jian’s eyes grew increasingly heavy. Finally unable to restrain himself, he said, “What do you think negotiation is? To put it bluntly, whoever can gain advantage wins. When the Xiongnu king Modu set conditions for the Han Empress Dowager, he demanded she sleep with him for one night. The Empress Dowager didn’t even get angry—she simply declined, saying she was old and her beauty had faded, and sent him quite a few beautiful women to settle the matter. From this you can see what negotiation really is—the strong bully the weak, and the weak try to lose less through negotiation. That’s all there is to it. Do you think that when a nation is weak, you personally being strong can negotiate flowers into bloom?”

“When Ban Gu abandoned his writing brush to join the military, he dared to kill people at will on foreign soil with just one hundred men, traversing the Western Regions, and ultimately was enfeoffed as a marquis for it. What do you think he relied on? Wasn’t it the magnificent prestige of the Great Han Dynasty? If the Great Han had been weak, those one hundred men would have been chopped into mincemeat long ago. Lions and tigers can reach agreements—when has a lion ever cared about a sheep’s feelings?”

“Lord Tang, are you certain you won’t teach all my Academy students to become opportunistic trimmers? This junior is truly somewhat concerned.”

Tang Jian’s worldview had problems. His philosophy was that as long as there was an opportunity to bully others, it absolutely could not be missed. Once missed, who knew—they might bully you right back.

Qu Zhuo had been kneeling on the edge of the kang the whole time, ears perked up listening to the two teachers’ conversation. These words couldn’t be heard in a classroom. More than a year at the Academy had long since transformed someone who couldn’t even detect sarcasm from others into a knowledgeable, reasonable, and capable talent well-versed in worldly affairs.

There were three types of people in this world who shouldn’t read books. The first type was perfectly good people who would become villains after reading books, and worse than ignorant villains by a hundred times, because they absorbed enough capital for evildoing from books.

The second type was that group of people for whom “recognizing characters is the beginning of confusion”—their simple life principles conflicted with what books taught after reading, muddleheaded insects who couldn’t distinguish right from wrong.

The third type was people like Qu Zhuo—literacy was sufficient; they couldn’t delve into scholarship, otherwise the principles in books would suppress their own innate intelligence. Reading books would absolutely be a disaster for them, so this type of person was better off not reading.

Let him absorb what he needed from life and the deeds of predecessors, ultimately forming his own effective methods for handling affairs.

Follow nature’s way—isn’t that what everyone says? So let him venture forth on his own. With his cautious and meticulous personality, he couldn’t stir up any major disasters.

He saw Tang Jian off in the snow. The slight wine flush dyed his cheeks red as he swayed and climbed into the carriage. Qu Zhuo straddled the carriage shaft and drove the carriage toward Chang’an.

The wheels carved two parallel tracks in the snow-white earth, but before long, they were covered by continuously falling snowflakes and disappeared without a trace.

After snow, only horse tracks remain empty—yet nothing remained. Time would wash away all traces of the human world.

He wouldn’t think about Li Er’s annoying plans. If you want to fight wars, then fight. What I should do, I’ve done. What I shouldn’t do, I’ve also done. Today you send a boring person to come mutter a few sentences, tomorrow you send another—will this ever end? Even moving home from Chang’an doesn’t bring peace. Are you afraid I’ll hide in a well and not come out?

The Academy’s current development also exceeded Yun Ye’s expectations. Scientific research was a flood and fierce beast—once the shackles were released, it would operate according to its own inherent laws.

Li Tai was already struggling with the problem of the earth’s unevenness. After learning from Yun Ye about the speed of light, he pursued questioning about how Yun Ye had measured it, and ended up being dealt with by Yun Ye using violence.

Good heavens, I’m just a defective product from an educational assembly line. Being able to know the term “Bradley’s aberration of light” already shows I didn’t slack off when I was in school. And you dare ask me to help you conduct experiments—you’re really asking for a beating.

He found examples from ancient books and repeated Mozi’s pinhole imaging, arriving at a conclusion that light travels in straight lines. Although Yun Ye knew that Einstein had proven the fact that light bends, he didn’t plan to tell him, because he had no evidence to refute Li Tai. If they discussed this problem further, he would be questioned into speechlessness.

If you dared mention black holes and extreme mass, you’d probably be despised, and even your character would be questioned as nonsense. His pinhole imaging was already hard evidence—if you have the ability, produce a black hole and let’s see it.

Water mills were now operating on the large and small rivers of Chang’an, a major advance in utilizing natural forces. Now they had become a disaster. Many wealthy families, in order to set up a few more water mills, arbitrarily altered watercourses. When watercourses became silted, naturally drainage was poor, and once floods came, the common people on both banks would suffer disaster.

Wei Zheng began investigating the water mills on Chang’an’s eight rivers. It was said that whenever he discovered one harmful to the watercourse, he would deal with it. Princess Honghua’s water mill had already been demolished by him.

Honghua relentlessly complained to her brother Li Er. Li Er very much wanted to smooth things over and have Wei Zheng apologize to settle the matter. The result was predictable—Wei Zheng, who went to apologize, gave Princess Honghua a severe tongue-lashing. Not only did he point out the princess’s extravagance and debauchery, but he also said she was greedy and oppressed the people. Not only did she disgrace the imperial family, but like a buzzing fly and sneaking dog, she wouldn’t let go of even a grain-sized source of wealth—she was Chang’an’s shame.

Even hiding at home, Yun Ye had no peace. Getting shot in the buttocks was already routine—the court had long since become accustomed to it.

But this time was different. Honghua accused Wei Zheng of appearing as clear as water and as honest as a mirror on the surface, but actually constantly engaging in extortion. For example, the Yun family was a pitiful victim. A luxurious mansion clearly worth three thousand strings of cash—he gave only one thousand strings and barbarously seized it. The poor Yun family couldn’t afford to offend the Chief Censor and could only knock out their teeth and swallow them, tearfully accepting this unfair loss.

Others feared Wei Zheng, but Princess Honghua didn’t. Today she was venting anger for the Yun family, speaking out for justice.

Hearing this news, Yun Ye very much wanted to greet Princess Honghua’s ancestors for three generations. In view of Li Er’s ferocity, he abandoned this idea.

If you have grievances, go make a scene, go throw a tantrum, go roll on the ground—anything’s fine. Just don’t drag the Yun family into it, all right? The Yun family had already been so low-key they were nearly disappearing from Chang’an. Common people would ask from time to time, “Where did that spendthrift of the Yun family go? Did His Majesty deal with him?”—what a gratifying matter.

When Wei Zheng heard Honghua’s testimony, he laughed heartily and said there was indeed such a matter. He had personally handled the transaction and only gave Yun Ye one thousand strings, not more. Thinking about it, he had really given too much. The neighbor to the Wei family residence was a wealthy man who sold cinnabar and had spent ten thousand strings to buy it. Now he feasted daily without rest. A mere peddler and menial laborer daily came and went among the distinguished and wealthy—all because he was the Wei family’s neighbor.

His own reputation had been used by Yun Ye to make money. Tell me, who gained the advantage and who suffered the loss?

As soon as these words came out, Chang’an was in an uproar. Many families looked at their own neighbors and couldn’t help beating their chests and stamping their feet. As long as they were distinguished families, their neighbors without exception were all major merchant households, and moreover all country bumpkins with new money—inferior families with nothing but money.

The clamor denouncing Yun Ye immediately resounded throughout Chang’an city. Families who had been swindled by Yun Ye once again prepared to unite and demand their house money back from the Yun family.

Unfortunately, it was too late. The Yun family’s money had all turned into mountains of piled-up various materials. When people questioned the Yun family’s steward, he tearfully said that the Marquis had spent all the money and only bought these worthless scraps.

Over a million strings of cash! Hearing this news, all the meritorious noble families beat their chests and stamped their feet. This was a true spendthrift. All of Chang’an’s spendthrifts combined couldn’t match how ruthlessly this one person squandered wealth.

Xinyue took Na Rimu out to pay calls on their elders. Whenever she mentioned her husband’s money-spending methods, tears filled her eyes. She smiled forcedly, saying it didn’t matter—the family still had some surplus. The tenant farmers had all paid their rent, and if they economized a bit, they could still get by.

“Husband, how does this expression of your concubine look?” Xinyue nestled on the kang, using her hair to gently tickle Yun Ye’s nostrils.

Yun Ye, who had been feigning sleep, helplessly opened his eyes and sat up. Looking at Xinyue’s appearance on the verge of tears, he pinched her nose and said, “That’s good. Now your husband’s reputation as a spendthrift is firmly established. Today when Zhangsun Chong came to see me, he even said that if the family can’t get by, just say the word and he’ll have servants send money over anytime to help our family through the difficulties.”

Na Rimu giggled and sprawled on Yun Ye’s back, acting coquettish. Yesterday Xinyue had taken her to the storehouse to count gold. She had secretly taken a piece, planning to have that white-bearded old goldsmith at the marketplace make her a thick bracelet and a gold hair ornament. Xinyue had many gold hair ornaments, but she only had two.

Xinyue, who loved money like life itself, would never give her the opportunity to steal money. She snatched the gold from her hand, placed it on the shelf to admire for a long while, then gave Na Rimu two slaps on the buttocks.

The honest child from the grasslands didn’t even know to run when being beaten. She just stood there waiting to be hit. When she came back, she complained to Yun Ye and ended up getting another beating.

Yun Ye rummaged through his money chest with great difficulty and finally found two gold ingots. He gave them to Na Rimu, letting her freely craft whatever equipment she liked. He also gave her several pearls and stones.

That was just Xinyue’s temperament. Even seeing Yun Ye gnawing on a radish, she would snatch it over and take a bite, then say it didn’t taste good. Now seeing money and valuables, she immediately became envious. The two of them tussled into a ball on the kang. Since Xinyue was pregnant, Na Rimu didn’t dare fight with her. Watching as she was left with only two gold ingots while everything else was snatched away by Xinyue, she anxiously pulled on Yun Ye’s sleeve and wailed.

This wasn’t—

“Your child is here. At your age, you couldn’t give birth to such a grown daughter. Sometimes it’s ‘husband,’ sometimes ‘older brother,’ sometimes ‘child’—what exactly is she supposed to be?”

Xinyue pointed to her own belly, then said to Yun Ye with a mischievous smile.