Chapter 01: Hypatia’s Fundraising
After Wei Zheng left, for a long time no one came to disturb Yushan. The incident involving the massacre of Koreans gradually fell silent under Li Er’s suppression. After reporting to the Emperor, Li Ke took his entire family to his fiefdom in Shu. When leaving, he held up three fingers to Yun Ye, indicating he planned to return in three years.
When seeing Li Ke off, Yun Ye saw Qing Que, whose complexion was turning green, looking increasingly like a vampire. Li Chengqian forcibly took him to Sun Simiao’s medicine lodge to receive Old Sun’s treatment. Every day when Yun Ye and Li Chengqian returned from the potato fields, their greatest pleasure was watching Qing Que drink various medicines.
“This is killing me with bitterness! Physician Sun, I’m not sick, so why must I drink so much medicine? Are you perhaps using me as a test subject for medicine?”
“Shut up! Not sick yet? People need to be exposed to rain, dew, wind, frost, and sunlight to live. Missing even one element will cause imbalance in the five internal organs. Underground is damp and cold. Short periods are fine, but over time, people who emerge will fear wind and light, and develop swollen joints. You’re already showing symptoms of imbalance. If you continue staying underground for long periods, whether you’ll even have descendants in the future will be questionable.” Sun Simiao continued unhurriedly chopping medicinal materials with his large cleaver, his face showing no hint of joking.
“Will it affect fertility?” Li Tai’s eyes widened, and the hand holding the medicine bowl began to tremble.
“Heh heh heh, when yin energy enters the body, what do you think happens? Yang energy will slowly be eroded by yin energy. When a man has no yang energy, do you think he can produce children?” Sun Simiao’s casual remark nearly scared Li Tai’s soul out of his body. Without another word, he raised the medicine bowl and drank it all in one gulp, not leaving a single bit of residue.
“Elder Brother, Ye Zi, how did your inspection of the potato fields go?” Li Tai couldn’t casually inquire about the matters he was working on, so when he wanted to talk with Yun Ye and the Crown Prince, he could only discuss what they were currently doing.
“Very well! In another month we can harvest. We dug up a few plants to look, and they had many potatoes growing on them. We’ll have a good harvest this year. Don’t go back these days. Let’s just walk around the fields and get some sun, otherwise I always feel like you’re going to turn into some kind of Western monster.”
“Turn into what? A jiangshi? A drought demon? Those things are all legends. Put one in front of me and then I’ll believe it. Didn’t you say we should dare to question things and separate truth from falsehood? However, I did personally witness rats eating salt and turning into bats.”
“Fine, fine! I’ll give you a jar of salt and a nest of rats. If you can’t turn the rats into bats, you’ll see how I deal with you. They’re completely different species! Where did all your coursework go?”
“Alright, you two stop arguing. Doesn’t Hypatia have a great experiment to perform today? Let’s go watch. I heard she invited many noble ladies, all preparing to see how she’ll use a ladle of water to burst open a sealed wooden barrel.”
Li Chengqian was helpless about the disputes between Yun Ye and Li Tai. Sometimes he couldn’t even understand what they were arguing about, which was quite depressing, so he had to bring up Hypatia’s experiment to resolve the conflict.
“I’m not going. That big-bottomed woman is no good person. The matter of her framing me last time still isn’t settled. This time she’s pulled some little trick to swindle those noble ladies into giving her money to build some laboratory. Refined gold, mithril—what even are those things? Ye Zi, have you heard of them? She also says she’s discovered some solution that can turn copper into gold when thrown in. Nonsense! However, going to disrupt her show wouldn’t be bad. Hahahaha!”
Thinking of such an amusing matter, Li Tai immediately became excited, completely forgetting Sun Simiao’s words about possibly being unable to have children. In his view, refuting Hypatia and recovering face was currently the most important matter.
While others were busy harvesting wheat, with bustling crowds everywhere in the fields, Yun Ye, Li Chengqian, and Li Tai rode fine horses in light furs, strolling leisurely in the shade, appearing particularly conspicuous. Watching the golden wheat waves rolling, everyone’s mood improved. Li Chengqian jumped down from his horse, came to the edge of a field, plucked an ear of wheat, and after rubbing it in his hands and blowing away the chaff, looked at the plump wheat kernels in his hand and said to Yun Ye: “Strange, why do the wheat ears from your family seem longer than others’? Let me count. Eh, this is real! Your family’s wheat ear has twenty grains of wheat. I remember when studying, people from the Department of State Farms told me that a wheat ear has at most eighteen grains, usually only fifteen. Let me look again.” Li Chengqian stuffed the wheat grains in his hand into his mouth, casually plucked another ear, continued rubbing it, and counted the grains. After counting, he happily spread open his hand for Yun Ye and Li Tai to see.
“Look! This wheat ear has a full twenty-two grains of wheat. I see this wheat field’s ears are all about the same size. I’ll take the middle value and count it as twenty grains. This is also a remarkable achievement. Ye Zi, why don’t you share your superior seed variety with everyone? If all of Guanzhong planted your family’s wheat, that would accomplish great things.”
Li Tai curiously walked to the middle of the wheat field, closed his eyes and also picked two ears. After rubbing them, he counted and said to Li Chengqian: “That’s right, Elder Brother. I picked two ears with a total of forty-two grains of wheat. This fellow hides good seeds and won’t let us use them. Basically has no conscience. And to think that when I catch a dog to eat its meat, I think of you.”
“What nonsense are you spouting? The seeds are still the same seeds. My family’s farmers are willing to apply fertilizer. Where do you think all the night soil from Xinghua Ward goes? It all returns to the fields. You find it dirty and think your fields shouldn’t have this stuff. Being of the imperial family, being particular is appropriate. However, if you’re particular with the land, the land will be particular with you. Only taking from the land without knowing how to give back, being able to grow fifteen grains of wheat should be counted as His Majesty being biased, giving you all the good land.”
“Are we still going to the Academy or not? We can properly discuss these matters when we have free time. We can’t explain it clearly in a short while anyway.”
The two brothers exchanged glances, tossed the wheat in their hands into their mouths, climbed onto the main road, and continued strolling toward the Academy.
The Academy today could truly be described as filled with fragrant garments and beautiful figures. Everywhere were lightly dressed noble ladies accompanied by maids or their own children, scurrying about. Upon seeing the large fish skeleton, they would shriek a few times. Seeing the Tyrannosaurus skull, some even knelt in worship and couldn’t be pulled away, making their nephews and nieces standing nearby flush with embarrassment. Seeing the windmill automatically pour water into wooden troughs, they actually lifted their skirts and followed the water, intending to see where exactly the water would flow.
Some people gazed obsessively at the butterflies of various forms in the butterfly house, letting out strange cries like infatuated fools. The bolder ones wanted to experience the Academy’s famous gate. Of course, they couldn’t figure out the mystery within, only feeling that they kept walking forward yet always emerged from the other side’s gate. Seeing their disheveled hairpins and ornaments made one want to pull a few over and ravish them to vent frustration.
Li Gang was surrounded by many women. At Li Gang’s age, he had long disregarded the separation between men and women. Pushed along by those women, he introduced the Academy’s scenery item by item.
“The Liu family’s daughter-in-law, this artificial hill was created by your son! The brat was disobedient, climbing Eagle’s Beak Cliff in the dead of night, planning to jump down with a parachute. Had the guards not discovered him, something might have happened. As punishment, Hong Cheng made him spend two months piling this artificial hill. Go look at the nameplate—it even has your son’s letter of repentance on it.”
“He deserved it! Grandfather punishing him was right. This child only grows courage but not sense. His father is a military officer who fights on the battlefield. My timid nature didn’t manifest in him—instead he’s exactly like his father.”
“Of course the child is a good child. After a few years of tempering his character at the Academy, when released he’ll be another pillar of talent.” Li Gang never spoke ill of any student. In his eyes, all students needed to receive education—otherwise, what was the Academy for? Precisely because children had various flaws, they were sent to the Academy for education. There were no children who couldn’t be taught well, only incompetent teachers. Therefore, he was extremely strict in his requirements for the Academy’s teachers, sometimes to the point of nitpicking. Many teachers lamented that the Academy’s high salaries weren’t easy to earn. They said this, but not one wanted to leave.
“Look, this is the masterpiece of the Tao family’s child and eleven other children. You’re women of the household and don’t know what this is. This old man will tell you—this thing is called a water pump. Step on it with your foot, and the scraper inside will continuously send water to high places. The Department of State Farms awarded a full eight strings of cash.”
“The money was just too little. It’s embarrassing to mention. Such a fine water pump! With it, high dry land can be irrigated, turning dry fields into paddy fields. An award of eight strings of cash—hmph! A group of short-sighted fools.”
Speaking of these matters to these women was somewhat like playing music to cows, but these women raised their ears high. As long as they heard their child’s name from Li Gang’s mouth, regardless of whether it was good or bad, they would bloom like flowers.
Just as they were happily chatting and laughing with Li Gang, the Academy’s small bronze bell began ringing: clang, clang, clang. Li Gang picked up his teapot and said with a smile: “The Academy’s Master Hypatia is beginning to read her lecture notes. Let’s go listen together. This old man wants to know what secret of heaven and earth she’s discovered to make such a grand production.”
The women clustered around Li Gang as they came to the small auditorium. They were very curious about the very large blackboard behind the podium, where there was also a semicircular table. Below the table were rows of connected chairs. Many students were already seated below, preparing to listen to the lecture. Yun Ye, Li Tai, and Li Chengqian stood at the small door on the side of the podium, preparing to see how Hypatia would fundraise enough money for herself to buy the so-called refined gold and mithril.
Hypatia initially had no intention of fundraising. She had properly filed a report saying that she had discovered some miraculous phenomena in her research, but the materials at hand weren’t sensitive enough and couldn’t amplify this microscopic phenomenon she’d discovered. She needed to obtain more sensitive materials, such as the legendary refined gold and mithril.
Of course, no money was approved. After being sprayed with a face full of Yun Ye’s spittle, Hypatia’s stubborn nature flared up. She prepared to fundraise sufficient funds from the Tang Dynasty’s noble ladies through lecturing to buy refined gold and mithril.