Yun Ye shrank his neck, trying to slip away, but a hand like a dead man’s claw grabbed him by the collar, making it impossible to move. Li Er, with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes, ignored the royal clansmen who were bowing to him and wove through the crowd to stand before Yun Ye.

“Continue talking, continue bragging. The southern sea route takes ninety days to reach the Caliphate, and forty more days to reach the Black Continent. You only mention the wealth—why don’t you talk about the dangers involved? And heading south? You dare spout such nonsense when you can’t even get the direction straight? The Bohai Kingdom to the north is now in turmoil, besieged on all sides—do you think they have the leisure to trade with you? Japan’s silver is still in the ground, yet you dare claim their silver mines are richer than the Great Tang’s?”

“Last time, to sell locusts, you boasted about their miraculous effects—curing night blindness, benefiting the nation and its people. But why was it only your Yun Family that made a fortune in the end? My poor soldiers had to pay dearly to buy locusts from the Yun Family just to eat a mouthful. Your heart turned black! Now you’re shipping pig feed back, planning to deceive the common people of Chang’an. Can you bear to cheat these honest folk?”

“Every time you sell something, you tie it to national welfare and court affairs, making it seem like not buying your pig feed is disloyalty to the court and lack of concern for the country. Your deception has reached unprecedented levels—truly without precedent and without equal!”

As soon as Li Er finished speaking, a roomful of honest royal clansmen glared at Yun Ye in unison. Just moments ago, they’d been whipped into a frenzy, nearly ready to buy several carts of kelp each to try. Fortunately, His Majesty was wise and punctured the scam in time. Thinking back on it now, their faces burned with embarrassment—imagining their whole families gathered around a table, eating pig feed with gusto was truly chilling.

Li Xiaogong said with a sinister smile, “Boy, today apart from your aunt being the birthday girl and getting a decent bowl of longevity noodles, we were the pigs you were planning to slaughter. First you brought out the fine whale meat, then you stirred up our interest in kelp. With whale meat setting the standard, this kelp surely couldn’t be cheap either. Add to that the northern and southern routes where we could supposedly make a fortune effortlessly—if His Majesty hadn’t enlightened us, we would have become the laughingstock of Chang’an today. Boy, I’m going to make you eat kelp right now, and eating just a little won’t do.”

Li Daozong had already ordered servants to find kelp from the carts outside. If Yun Ye intended to promote kelp, there would certainly be some outside. Sure enough, the servants soon brought in a basin of reconstituted kelp. When everyone saw its slimy appearance and smelled its strong fishy odor, they felt nauseated.

Yun Ye was being held by the collar by the tall eunuch behind him and couldn’t move. He could only say with a dry laugh, “Everyone has misunderstood. I only came to invite you all to taste the whale meat. The kelp was just mentioned in passing. As for the sea routes, I also heard about them secondhand. With such a good opportunity, of course I wanted to invite everyone to make money together.”

Li Er sat in the largest chair, picked up a piece of lotus cake from the table, squinted his eyes, and slowly savored it. He turned a blind eye to Yun Ye’s predicament, settling in comfortably to watch the show.

Seeing Li Daozong grab a long, slimy strip of kelp about to stuff it into Yun Ye’s mouth, Yun Ye could only sigh and say, “Your Highness, this thing needs to be cooked before eating. Eating it raw is bad for the stomach.”

Li Daozong looked at the kelp in his hand and also felt it was improper. Food should naturally be cooked before eating. Since they didn’t know how to prepare it, he said to the eunuch behind Yun Ye, “Duan Hong, put him down. This old man wants to see today what kind of delicacy he can make from pig feed. Do it now.”

The eunuch glanced at Li Er. Li Er waved his hand. The eunuch released his grip and Yun Ye dropped down. Rubbing his aching neck, he stomped hard on the eunuch’s foot, only to find that this Duan Hong acted as if nothing had happened while his own foot hurt from the impact. He didn’t know where Li Er found so many eunuchs skilled in martial arts.

Cupping his hands in salute, Yun Ye took the basin of kelp from the servant and strode out the door with great strides, prepared to let these country bumpkins witness the deliciousness of kelp.

Watching Yun Ye leave, Li Er sighed and said, “You’ve miscalculated again. That boy possesses the culinary arts of Yi Ya. Never mind barely edible kelp—even a stick of wood would taste delicious in your mouths after passing through his hands. What he makes will definitely taste quite good. The question is, after you buy it, do you have the skill to make it as delicious? In the end, he still wins. You’ll see—today you’ll still buy his kelp, and not a small amount either.”

Li Xiaogong said with a laugh, “Your Majesty worries too much. Whatever he says, we’ll just treat it as wind passing our ears. Can he force us to buy? Everyone here is from the Li Family. A mere marquis can’t throw his weight around with us, can he?”

Li Er waved his hand irritably and said, “You haven’t seen him cajole me into eating locusts. If you had, you’d know your chances of winning aren’t great. As for locusts, even the Empress ate them, and Qing Que and Ke’er ate quite a few. Xiaogong, Daozong—you two didn’t escape either, did you?”

At this mention, Li Ke’s face turned pale. Covering his mouth, he ran outside. The locusts had left too deep an impression on this child. Li Xiaogong laughed heartily and said nonchalantly, “That locust plague was eaten clean by us in the end. These years, we’ve never heard of another locust plague in Guanzhong. With that achievement as foundation, even if I have to eat more, it doesn’t matter.”

“I’m afraid when you eat kelp in a moment, you’ll think the same way.” Li Er put down the pastry in his hand, picked up the bamboo rod Yun Ye had placed on the sand table, and pointed at the terrain, explaining to the clansmen the differences between the southern and northern routes. The southern route was distant, passing through many countries and ports along the way. If one wanted to do business, this route was best, with the most substantial profits. The north had continuous warfare, so there was danger. There, the Great Tang’s influence was insufficient to impose any effect on the savages of the Yilou tribe…

Only after being escorted to the kitchen did Yun Ye realize that today was the fiftieth birthday of Li Xiaogong’s legitimate wife—a significant event for the Li Family. Whenever such occasions arose, Li Er as clan leader would come with Zhangsun to offer congratulations and strengthen family bonds. After all, this was his greatest support in governance. He had chosen the wrong day today. Originally, he thought these fools would be easy to deceive—lots of money and little sense, that’s what described them. Just shout a few slogans, present some facts, and finally give them a goal that made their blood boil, and he could smoothly sell the kelp. This common commercial technique was overused in later generations, but in the Great Tang, it was always effective.

Unfortunately, he’d encountered Li Er, the stubborn fellow who believed nothing except himself. Li Er gave him no face at all, having him dangled in midair by a damned eunuch. How humiliating! If he hadn’t forced himself not to flail about, it would have been even more disgraceful. Forget it—getting angry with Li Er would only infuriate himself to death. The Li Family fools were unreliable. He could only find another group of fools. He wondered if Fang Xuanling and the others were home.

If Li Er knew what was going through Yun Ye’s mind, he would surely tear him limb from limb. How could he still put on the appearance of a good clan leader, seeking benefits for the Li Family?

The Great Tang was a very strange society. In the imperial court, as Emperor, Li Er absolutely did not allow the Li Family to take advantage of the state. But as soon as his identity changed and he became the clan leader of the Guanzhong Li Family, he would scheme for the clan and formulate long-term development plans with equal dedication. This was the strange phenomenon created by a dynastic system where family and state were one.

Li Ke leaned against the doorframe, watching how Yun Ye would handle the pig feed. Could that slimy kelp really be eaten? But the chicken soup in the clay pot smelled really good. He’d seen with his own eyes Yun Ye throw the greenish kelp into it—why was the aroma so enticing?

Kelp could also be stewed with spare ribs? It could be cooked with meat? That plate of sesame kelp looked appealingly colored. The kelp stir-fried with a bit of chili pepper was surprisingly aromatic—what was the reason for this? He even tied the kelp into knots and stewed them with tofu, sprinkling on scallions. The colors were so beautiful.

Why throw away the spare ribs from the soup? Keeping only the radish and kelp? Arranged in small white porcelain cups, they looked extremely elegant and valuable at first glance.

He unconsciously walked in, because Yun Ye was eating spare ribs. In fact, as long as Yun Ye was eating something, Li Ke wouldn’t reject it too much—except for excessively bold dishes like locusts. His tastes weren’t much different from Yun Ye’s. He fished out a spare rib from the plate, bit into it with his teeth—not bad at all, the taste was very special, exceptionally fresh and delicious.

“Ye Zi, these spare ribs are so delicious. Why did you take them out? What a waste.” Li Ke asked after finishing the rib.

Yun Ye said nothing but handed Li Ke a small porcelain cup, indicating he should taste it before speaking. Li Ke took it, closed his eyes and sipped the soup, then immediately used the spoon to finish every drop. He looked at Yun Ye hopefully—he wanted to try the other dishes too.

“Xiao Ke, is the Empress here too? Is she talking with the aunts now?” Yun Ye asked Li Ke thoughtfully.

“Of course she’s here. How could the Empress possibly not be here at a time like this? Right now in the inner quarters, there’s a large group of women chattering away gossiping. Several of my younger sisters came too—so annoying. When my elder brother was here, they used to pester him. Now that elder brother has gone to the frontier, and you know Qing Que has no patience and is boring, so now they pester me. My residence in Chang’an is turning into their playground. It’s gotten so bad I can’t go home. Most of the time I stay at the academy and let them make a fuss at home.”

Yun Ye sighed and said to Li Ke, “There are several dishes here that are most beneficial for women’s health. I think the Empress and the aunts who are getting on in years need these things most. Even your mother needs them very much. Never mind calming the mind and brightening the eyes—kelp’s most important function is removing excess fat, which is greatly beneficial for the Empress’s wind illness. Its effectiveness in cleansing the intestines and stomach is also quite obvious.”

“Ye Zi, you don’t need to tell me all this useless stuff. Just tell me what you want. If I can help, I definitely will.” Li Ke had done countless business deals with Yun Ye, so he naturally knew all these words were just buildup, laying the foundation for what would come next.

“Actually, I just wanted to ask—would it be too improper for us brothers to bring these dishes to the inner quarters?”