“Heaven and Earth have yin and yang qi, interdependent and coexisting. When yang reaches its extreme, yin is born; when yin reaches its extreme, yang persists. The Taiji fish rotates without rest, yin and yang alternate in cycles. Solitary yin cannot generate, isolated yang cannot grow. When Heaven and Earth’s forces harmonize warmly, it’s like black and white alternating, like the rotation of sun and moon. Now Prince Wei has extracted the yin-yang qi from inside the copper ball. According to principle, yin-yang qi is everywhere, operating at all times. The yin-yang qi inside the copper ball has been seized by Prince Wei. The yin-yang qi outside attempts to enter the copper ball but cannot find a way in.”
“Therefore, the omnipresent yin-yang qi surges from all directions wanting to fill the void. Because there’s no yin-yang qi inside the copper ball, the yin-yang qi outside presses on the copper ball, causing these two copper hemispheres to stick tightly together. Your Majesty, observe—this is a teacup. We can easily lift off the lid, but if the method is wrong, we cannot open it. For instance, if we press downward, the teacup and lid will only bond more tightly. To open it, we can only shatter the teacup to succeed. Clearly, the power of yin-yang qi is not yet enough to shatter the copper ball.”
This was how Elder Li Zhang explained the concept of atmospheric pressure to the Emperor. Yun Ye listened dumbstruck. What gave this old fellow the ability to accurately explain atmospheric pressure? This explanation—as long as you replaced “yin-yang qi” with “atmosphere”—was the standard explanation. Staying on Mount Tai through mental gymnastics alone, he could figure out a problem that had been debated for hundreds of years in the history of science?
“Master Li Zhang, according to your words, Qing Que having people use draft horses to pull in both directions—is this the correct method for opening the teacup?” Li Er was also beginning to take interest in this learning. Having heard Elder Li Zhang’s explanation, he asked with great interest.
“Your Majesty speaks truly. The method Qing Que uses is indeed correct. But for draft horses to pull the copper ball open, the horses’ force must exceed the force of yin-yang qi acting on the copper ball. Prince Wei is truly extraordinarily intelligent—thinking of such a method to measure the force of yin-yang qi. This truly makes this old fool admire him. For many years we’ve been discussing yin-yang, discussing qi, yet never thought to use such a method to reveal qi’s existence. How foolish we’ve been!”
Elder Li Zhang’s self-reproach completely satisfied His Majesty the Emperor’s vanity. He laughed with his mouth open, extremely proud, continuously telling Elder Li Zhang how Li Tai gave him headaches and so on. Zhangsun also chimed in from time to time. Monarch and subject conversed and laughed breezily, harmonious to an absurd degree, which also moved other distinguished scholars who’d come to observe the ceremony.
Sixteen horses went up together—the copper ball still didn’t budge. Twenty-four horses took the field—same result. As the number of horses increased, everyone on the entire training ground held their breath, eyes wide, watching to see just how many horses it would take to contend with yin-yang qi.
Li Tai gritted his teeth and ordered people to bring over another sixteen draft horses. Ten grooms cracked their whips with sharp snapping sounds. The ropes connected to the copper ball had already been replaced with iron chains. Listening to the teeth-grinding squeaking sounds of iron chains rubbing, Yun Ye involuntarily stood up. He wanted to say it was already very dangerous now. Once the copper ball was pulled open, under the reactive force, it would definitely bounce back. Hemispheres weighing fifty or sixty catties—hitting a person would be much stronger than a meteor hammer.
Amid everyone’s astonishment, they heard an explosive bang. The copper ball separated in an instant. An iron chain with half a copper ball heavily smashed into the rear end of a horse behind it. A strong draft horse was actually sent flying by the copper ball. The reins on two connected horses snapped. One draft horse was severely injured, fallen on the ground wailing. The horse that was sent flying had pink bone fragments protruding from its hide, its neck already broken, blood flowing from mouth and nostrils, whole body convulsing—clearly wouldn’t survive.
Li Tai didn’t care about the dead draft horse. He came to the side of the now-dented copper hemisphere, crouched down and gently stroked it, seeming somewhat sorrowful. Guards retrieved the other half from the earth, placed it beside him, and walked away. The Prince had exhausted his efforts initially to cast these two copper hemispheres. Now that they’d become flattened gourds, naturally he wasn’t happy—better to stay far away.
Li Er descended from the platform and looked at the bloody, mangled draft horse, ordering guards to quickly remove it. He said to Li Tai, “Your experiment today was very successful. If the copper ball is dented, it’s dented. Melt it down and recast it. No need to feel sorrowful. Now go accept everyone’s congratulations. This is your reward for academic achievement, the honor you deserve.”
Li Chengqian and Yun Ye happily led over a white horse. That white horse was covered with brocade palace flowers. After pounding Li Tai’s shoulders twice, the two used both arms to hoist Li Tai onto the white horse. Li Chengqian personally held the reins. Yun Ye walked behind the horse’s rear, slowly circling the training ground once.
Tang people had always had the custom of women throwing fruit to invite men they admired to eat. Now was exactly when fruits were ripening. Fruit kept being tossed toward the three of them. Large green dates were fine—catch them and toss them in your mouth to eat, crisp and sweet. Pears were also good. Throwing melons was excessive—hitting someone on the head had suspicion of murder.
No one dared throw things at Li Chengqian. Li Tai was the protagonist—at this moment, no one cared whether he was a prince or not. The imperial family pushed him out precisely to integrate with the common people. A prince fond of learning was much better than an imposing prince. Though he was thrown at the most—mostly dates, pears, persimmons—Li Tai could handle it, occasionally even catching one or two dates to eat. As long as he grinned and smiled at those women, he could daze one or two of them.
As for hitting Yun Ye, that was universally celebrated. Everyone had long heard of this great scourge of Chang’an. Now that there was an opportunity to eliminate this menace for the people, naturally everyone was brave, everyone competed. Dates, pears, and persimmons had already been given to the Li family brothers. By the time it reached Yun Ye, only the big items remained. Yun Ye exploded an overripe melon with one punch, then punched away a half-eaten section of sugarcane. His head immediately received a heavy blow. Dizzy and seeing stars, he looked at the weapon—damn it, who threw a pomegranate at me? What’s the difference between this thing and a rock?
In the viewing stand, Li Huairen was grinning at him with bared teeth. No need to ask—that bastard threw it. Why only hit me alone? He pointed at Li Chengqian at the front, indicating not to spare anyone. Others had reservations, but he wouldn’t. He picked up another pomegranate, thought better of it, selected a red persimmon from the fruit basket, and with a whistling sound sent it toward Li Chengqian’s face. Who would have thought—Li Chengqian didn’t even look, punching the persimmon so pulp flew everywhere. He’d still miscalculated. Beside Li Huairen also sat his brother-in-law Hou Jie. Seeing Li Huairen take action, how could he show weakness? The Crown Prince had just exploded the persimmon when a pear smashed into his chin. If not for maintaining dignity, he definitely would have jumped from pain.
Yun Ye had only thrown half a melon toward the viewing stand when an overwhelming barrage of fruit immediately came his way. He had no choice but to abandon the Li family brothers and run away holding his head.
Li Er pointed at Yun Ye below the platform and said to Kua Yang, “Look at that—this is not someone who can take a loss. A dignified marquis brawling with a group of women—if word gets out, where will the Great Tang’s dignity be? Please, in the future, strictly discipline him. He’s already an adult, yet sometimes does things like a child, making people not know whether to laugh or cry.”
“Your Majesty, in this old man’s view, that this young man can still maintain the heart of an innocent child—this is what’s rare. Only someone with single-minded focus and open magnanimity can have such a disposition. You only see Yun Ye fooling around. Look again at those three old men surrounding Li Wenji demanding wages, and you’ll know they can’t teach Yun Ye anything good.”
Li Er looked back in surprise. He only heard Elder Nong Mei angrily questioning Li Gang—why could he get as much as fifty strings of cash per month while he himself only got twenty strings?
After Li Er’s astonishment, he immediately laughed heartily. Where was this about fighting over money and grain? This was fighting over face. Several old men were amusing themselves.
The people of Chang’an truly opened their eyes today. They saw forty horses pull apart a copper ball, also saw three noble persons chased away by women’s fruit, and incidentally watched a polo match. Eyes opened, entertainment found—everyone returned to their respective homes. One couldn’t waste all one’s time watching excitement. Finding more food for the family was the proper principle. As for stupid, boring things like horses pulling copper balls—that was the patent of the nobility and didn’t have much to do with us common small households.
On the road back to Yushan, Hypatia’s complaints never stopped. The method Yun Ye taught was useless in front of Masters Yuanzhang, Yushan, and Li Gang, causing her to be slapped countless times on the back of her head by Master Yuanzhang. It was a thoroughly rotten idea.
Yun Ye rode on his horse ignoring her. This woman still couldn’t distinguish inside from outside. These words could be said to outsiders, to officials—but running to babble nonsense to several old masters, being slapped was deserved. Master Yuanzhang regarded her as a granddaughter. Of course he wouldn’t let it pass when seeing something that didn’t suit his wishes.
“Yun Ye, Li Qingque’s family is such a large family! How much money will he gather tonight? Can you give me some? Refined gold and mithril silver are really important to me. I want to prove that magic exists. My homeland is still in darkness now. To save them, I must borrow magic. Human hearts are unreliable. Perhaps only science and magic are worth my attempts. For friendship’s sake, please help me.” Hypatia’s head had only withdrawn into the carriage for a short time before drilling out again, earnestly speaking her hopes to Yun Ye.
“Stop dreaming. There’s no such thing as magic potions. People drinking magic potions can’t grow wings, can’t become incredibly strong, can’t become invisible by wearing a cloak. There are no little sprites, no witches, no werewolves, no vampires—only frauds. Things like refined gold and mithril silver don’t exist. These past days you’ve destroyed so much gold and silver but haven’t extracted those two things. Zeus won’t turn into a white bull to rape you. I won’t turn you into a swan. Li Tai has no chance of turning into a frog. So focus on your research and don’t go down wrong paths.”
“What are you talking about? What swan, what frog? Don’t joke about Zeus—be careful he strikes you with lightning. I’ve seen werewolves. Though they didn’t transform, after he bit someone else, that person also became a werewolf. Later everyone beat him to death. Since Judas became a vampire, he’s been wandering the mortal world. Don’t disbelieve—one of my ancestors saw a vampire.”
Yun Ye looked at Hypatia sadly. Even someone devoted to scientific research believed in alchemy and magic. Was his wanting to spread modern doctrine in the Great Tang a bit too early?