To ensure Yang Yuanpu could understand thoroughly, Han Qian had to explain the reasoning with extreme clarity.

Seeing both Guo Rong and Song Xin reveal expressions of astonishment, Han Qian didn’t feel too much pride in his heart.

He knew that at present he wasn’t yet in Anning Palace’s eyes, but over time, the more Yang Yuanpu trusted him, the more inevitably he would receive Anning Palace’s suspicion.

Emperor Tianyou still lived, and his authority was enough to deter Anning Palace from daring to use excessively violent methods against Third Prince Yang Yuanpu. But this didn’t mean Anning Palace would have any scruples about dealing with small fry like him around Yang Yuanpu.

Han Qian withdrew his hand into his robe sleeve, where that “Epidemic Water Memorial” still lay quietly.

In front of everyone’s banquet table was placed a small dish of refined salt for adjusting saltiness. Chen De reached forward to pinch a small handful of snow-white refined salt from the small dish before his eyes and said with emotion: “A small pinch of salt has so many intricacies? I was still wondering what exactly His Majesty could teach Your Highness by inviting Shen Yang over?”

“It’s just like that,” Yang Yuanpu also knew he couldn’t make Han Qian stand out too much in front of Guo Rong and Song Xin. Smiling, he changed the subject: “However, Feng Yi learned a gambling technique and boasts he can guarantee winning without losing. I’ve already lost a thousand coins to him. After finishing the banquet, there’s nothing else to do—Chen De, help me win this money back from Feng Yi!”

Chen De loved gambling. Even though he was entrusted by Consort Wang to protect Yang Yuanpu’s safety, he often sneaked out at night to gamble.

Hearing Yang Yuanpu say this, Chen De didn’t believe Feng Yi truly had the ability to guarantee winning without losing. He sneered: “Listening to Feng Yi’s hot air—he’s just taking advantage of Your Highness being inexperienced.”

Feng Yi’s hands were also itching. Seeing Chen De unconvinced, he called for palace attendants to directly remove the leftover food and cold dishes from the banquet tables, took out two black and white gaming pieces, and explained the rules to Chen De.

“Unless your eyes can see through to the gaming piece in my palm, don’t boast about guaranteed winning without losing.” Chen De shook his head.

He was addicted to gambling, but the army didn’t have very ample conditions for gambling gatherings—often they made do with crude conditions to gamble on wins and losses. This method of gambling on the black and white colors of gaming pieces—he had played it plenty in the army. After hearing Feng Yi explain once, he understood.

“Everyone says your Feng family is the money pouch of Jinling City. If each round we just gamble three or two coins in wins and losses, how long would we have to play before you, this Young Master Feng, would feel the pain?” Chen De had long heard that Feng Yi’s gambling skills were terrible. He thought that opportunities to openly gamble at the manor in the future wouldn’t be too many—this time he couldn’t let Feng Yi off lightly.

No matter how great Chen De’s gambling addiction was, even if Guo Rong and Song Xin didn’t stop him, he still wouldn’t dare let Consort Wang know he was encouraging the Third Prince to indulge in gambling matters at the manor. He thought helping the Third Prince get revenge this time was another matter entirely.

“Then you should use gold coins as stakes!” Yang Yuanpu seemed like someone who watches a funeral procession and doesn’t fear it getting bigger, encouraging them.

This era primarily used copper coins, but the palace also used a small amount of gold and silver coins as rewards for ministers—they were extremely rare to see on the streets.

In this palace reward, besides silk and other goods, Han Qian had also received twenty-four gold coins. Chen De, as Commander of the Guard Battalion and one of the very few “external relatives” of Consort Wang and the Third Prince serving in court, received rewards more than ten times what Han Qian and Feng Yi received.

These gold coins, each containing two zhu of gold, were worth fully one thousand coins.

Feng Yi didn’t have many copper coins on him—if a copper coin dropped on the ground, he was too lazy to bend down and pick it up—but he had quite a few gold coins and gold ingots for squandering in places like Wanhong Tower, so he was eager to increase the stakes.

Honestly, this type of gambling was quite boring and tasteless, but with each round betting two or three thousand coins in wins and losses, even within the palace confines this was a grand gesture. It immediately stirred everyone’s interest—even Song Xin looked over with interest.

Chen De’s gambling luck was indeed good. In the first twenty rounds, he actually won fourteen, immediately winning ten gold coins from Feng Yi.

Chen De was quite pleased. He tossed a gold coin to Yang Yuanpu and laughed loudly: “Chen De has helped Your Highness win back the principal first. Next, I’ll help Your Highness strip the very robes off Feng Yi’s body!”

Han Qian noticed Yang Yuanpu impassively tucked that gold coin into his breast and thought: Could it be that Yang Yuanpu wanted Chen De to lose big?

For game theory to hold, a sufficiently large base number was needed.

At one hundred rounds, Chen De still hadn’t lost much. Having drunk some wine, while guessing pieces he couldn’t help verbally ridiculing Feng Yi for boasting about guaranteed winning without losing.

This gambling method was boring on one hand, but it also proceeded extremely quickly.

At the start, Chen De still paid attention to reading expressions and adjusting the black and white faces of the gaming pieces. But he soon lost until his heart was floating and irritated. Rolling up his sleeves, he called Han Qian and Kong Xirong to help them both calculate the stakes, and also had Feng Yi first place the gaming piece under a white porcelain bowl without touching it again with his hands, to avoid secretly flipping it.

Besides the nearly hundred gold coins Chen De carried with him, he also lost clean the three hundred gold coins Third Prince Yang Yuanpu lent him. Fine beads of sweat seeped from his forehead.

“Enough, Chen De, let’s stop here for today.” Yang Yuanpu spoke up to terminate this gambling game in which Chen De couldn’t see the slightest hope.

“It’s still early now,” Chen De, having lost with red eyes, was unwilling to just let Feng Yi leave like this. He reached his hand toward Feng Yi’s side and said, “Feng Yi, lend me twenty ingots of gold. I don’t believe in this evil magic!”

“How can one lend money to people at the gambling table? Go elsewhere to raise money.” How could Feng Yi be willing to lend money to Chen De? He blocked Chen De’s hand.

“Your Highness, do you still have in your hands…” Chen De looked toward Third Prince Yang Yuanpu’s side. Only then was he alarmed to realize the hall was terrifyingly silent. Looking around, besides Feng Yi being excited from winning money, Yang Yuanpu’s seemingly immature face was dark as water, Li Chong’s brow was angrily furrowed, Han Qian sat there impassively, while Guo Rong, Song Xin, and the others wore faint smiles with ambiguous intentions…

“The hour is indeed not early. Your Highness should also rest.” Chen De was frightened into a cold sweat and said stutteringly.

Han Qian sighed slightly in his heart, recalling that on the very day Yang Yuanpu left the palace for the manor, Feng Yi had told him that military generals like Kong Zhou and others had a low opinion of Chen De. Now it seemed that even though Chen De was one of Consort Wang’s very few relatives serving in court, after all these years he only held the position of battalion commander in the army—it truly wasn’t entirely due to Anning Palace’s suppression.

Han Qian secretly felt that the Third Prince truly had no cards in his hand. The only person he could rely on without concealment and entrust with important tasks was Chen De, yet he was incompetent. So in the future, if Linjiang Marquis Manor truly formed any force, wouldn’t it all have to be controlled by Xinchang Marquis Manor and Wanhong Tower?

……

……

Han Qian, Feng Yi, and Kong Xirong took their leave first from the manor.

“Han Qian, shall we go to Wanhong Tower?” Feng Yi, having swept away all the bad luck from the gambling establishments these past days tonight, was in extremely good spirits and wanted to pull Han Qian to Wanhong Tower to squander money.

“It’s already late today, let’s go another day,” Han Qian said. “Otherwise, I’m afraid my father will send me to the manor to lock me up again.”

Feng Yi thought of Han Qian being sent out of the city by Han Daoxun to cultivate his character and thought it better for each to return to their own manor. He tossed a money pouch in his hand to Han Qian and said: “Here, this is yours.”

Han Qian caught the money pouch and felt it—inside were no fewer than two hundred gold coins. He secretly felt Feng Yi kept his promises. With this windfall, the household’s additional fifty or sixty mouths could be sustained for three to five months. He had Zhao Kuo secure it properly, then mounted his purple-maned horse and galloped toward the southern city.

When Han Qian returned home, he saw his father Han Daoxun standing in the central courtyard. He walked over and told his father Han Daoxun about staying late to gamble tonight:

“Today His Highness kept us at the manor to gamble for entertainment. Not only did he draw closer to Feng Yi, he also simultaneously warned Chen De. For this child, it could also be considered a reward. Perhaps he truly is not one who allows others to bully him.”

“Living deep in the palace confines, his mind and intelligence truly cannot be measured by ordinary people.”

Han Daoxun nodded. He also believed that living long-term under Anning Palace’s shadow, if the resilient part of the Third Prince’s character hadn’t been destroyed, having intelligence surpassing ordinary people was normal. He asked curiously again:

“How did you know this gambling technique?”

“In the past in Xuanzhou, I often went to gambling houses to play. I once saw a gambler use this method to leave with small winnings for dozens of consecutive days. This person’s demeanor was also extremely confident, unlike my previous obsession with this path. So I secretly paid attention. Looking carefully, this person had no other tricks—he only randomly showed black seven times out of twenty rounds, and could steadily win. I thus secretly recorded this method. Father, you’re proficient in arithmetic—I still wanted to find an opportunity to consult you.” Han Qian made up an excuse, then threw the question to his father, not knowing if the profundity and vastness of game theory could divert another portion of his father’s attention.

“…” Han Daoxun stood in the courtyard thinking for quite a while, shook his head and said, “The world is vast with endless wonders—your father also cannot see through the mystery within. Oh right, I’ve finished writing my memorial on expelling refugees and submitted it to Wenying Hall…”

“…” Han Qian’s heart was in such pain he nearly groaned aloud, thinking—couldn’t you delay a few days to let everyone catch their breath?

Han Qian cried out bitterly in his heart, but on his face he could only put on an air of confidence and said: “Before the storm of discussion rises, sending the ‘Epidemic Water Memorial’ to Xinchang Marquis Manor may not receive sufficient attention…”

“That’s true.” Han Daoxun nodded, but then said worriedly, “It’s already mid-winter. If we delay further, it will be the Great Cold solar term. This year, who knows how many frozen corpses will line the roadsides!”

The sky hadn’t snowed yet, but cold winds howled.

Han Qian raised his head to look at the deep lead-colored firmament and shivered involuntarily.

Han Qian returned to his own room and saw Zhao Ting’er sitting by the lamp reading, completely absorbed. She didn’t even notice him returning to the residence.

By the standards of a maidservant, she truly was not even slightly qualified.

“Ah!” After quite a while, Zhao Ting’er noticed someone beside her. Looking up and seeing Han Qian, she jumped up in startled panic and opened her mouth to ask: “When did Young Master return?”

“I’ve been standing here for an entire hour.” Han Qian said.

“Really?” Zhao Ting’er asked innocently. Although still somewhat thin and weak, her eyes were both beautiful and large.

“Are you so easily deceived, or am I so easily deceived?” Han Qian laughed.

Zhao Ting’er, who had known to encourage her younger brother Zhao Wuji to come seek refuge with him, possessed boldness and independent views rarely seen in country girls. At this moment, she actually also knew that men most ate up this innocent and naive act she was currently displaying. Perhaps this was natural talent?

If it weren’t that the Old Zhao’s family at Taowu Market still had traceable roots, if it weren’t that Zhao Ting’er was only fifteen years old, Han Qian would suspect that like Zhao Kuo, she had come to the Han family with some other ulterior motive.

“…” Called out by Han Qian, Zhao Ting’er was so embarrassed her pretty face flushed bright red.

Han Qian saw on the desk Zhao Ting’er’s character practice sheets. The handwriting was still quite crude, but one could see Zhao Ting’er was trying extremely hard to write well. Looking at the several books spread out, he asked: “Which books have you read?”

“During the day I don’t dare let Qing Yun and Aunt Zhou be unable to find me. At night I wait for Young Master to return to attend to you, then I have free time. I didn’t expect Young Master to return so late,” Zhao Ting’er said. “…”

Seeing Zhao Ting’er’s beautiful eyes full of expectation, Han Qian thought of another matter. He wondered what would happen if he had Zhao Ting’er learn the knowledge from the dream world from the very foundation?

Zhai Xinping from the dream had engaged in stock investment during his lifetime, was proficient in game theory, and liked reading history. Although his mastery of other disciplines was far from proficient, and even the most basic things couldn’t be organized into a system in a short time, if he truly wanted to teach Zhao Ting’er, it was still sufficient.

“You don’t need to take any female scholar examinations. What use is reading these books?” Han Qian kept only the two volumes for elementary literacy instruction and threw the other Confucian classics and commentaries that Zhao Ting’er had moved to the desk back onto the bookshelf. “From now on, I’ll personally teach you mathematical classics and some miscellaneous studies…”

“…” Zhao Ting’er pouted her pink, moist little mouth.

“What, you also think I’m unlearned and incompetent?” Han Qian’s brow furrowed deeply.

“Everyone at the manor says so.” Zhao Ting’er said without hiding it.

Only now did Han Qian truly furrow his brow. No wonder this girl dared play little mind games in front of him. He just didn’t know if Zhao Wuji also had this kind of rigid impression in his heart. If so, then Zhao Wuji’s loyalty would also be unable to withstand testing.

Very obviously—who would be loyal to someone they themselves looked down upon?