Yun Ye rarely welcomed his own vacation. All day long he accompanied the Empress wandering around Yushan. Sometimes he would go listen to lessons, and sometimes he would dine at Huang Shu’s restaurant. Not only did Yun Ye like bathing at the bathhouse Huang Shu had opened, the Empress also liked it, mainly because the pools here were large enough and there were enough people.

No one knew why such a noble person as Zhangsun liked bathing at the public bathhouse. In any case, Yun Ye and Li Tai found it very interesting that the entire bathhouse was full of naked students and teachers. Every time this happened, Yun Ye would sing loudly—one song called “The Wolf of the North” attracted countless admiring yet fearful gazes from students. At such times, Li Tai would distance himself far from Yun Ye.

Not going to the imperial hot spring pools at Mount Li but instead crowding into the public bathhouse—Yun Ye’s heart already felt that Zhangsun might be a bit perverted. He wondered if, watching those young bodies, Her Majesty would feel ashamed of herself.

“Nonsense!” Xinyue always spoke so boldly in front of Yun Ye. “The facilities there are excellent! Each person has a wooden compartment with a large wooden tub inside. The tub has a horizontal slat inside—lying on it is so comfortable. The tub Her Majesty uses is newly made from pine wood. When soaked in hot water, without even adding fragrance, there’s a scent of pine. Then listening to the whispered conversations of those silly girls at the academy—it’s truly much better than the pools at Mount Li.”

So she went to listen to others’ whispered conversations! Yun Ye felt he could already understand Zhangsun. Listening to young girls’ whispered conversations while reminiscing about how she herself was deceived by Li Er—comparing the two, she would surely gain considerable insights. This scene must be very fascinating to Zhangsun, so much so that when Li Er asked her to return to the palace, she put it out of her mind and instead fully invited Li Er to also come relax.

Xinyue held a small knife in her hand, helping Yun Ye clear the dead skin from the soles of his feet. Having walked too much these past days, a thick layer of old skin had formed on his soles.

Xinyue’s technique was very skillful. The knife was sharp—with a light stroke, a large piece of translucent old skin was peeled away. She showed it to Yun Ye with a sense of accomplishment, then quickly threw it away with a disgusted expression, as if the thing was very dirty.

Only Xinyue could do this task. If Na Rimu did it, Yun Ye’s feet would be covered in wounds. Lingdang would hesitate for a long time, not daring to use the knife. As for Xiao Miao, better forget it—with one cut, whether the foot would still be there was questionable.

“Don’t go back tonight—keep me company,” Yun Ye said softly to Xinyue. Today during the day, accompanying Zhangsun to climb Eagle Beak Cliff, his whole body felt uncomfortable. He seriously needed his wife to take care of him.

Xinyue looked left and right. Seeing the maids were all outside, she nodded with a red face. Yun Ye didn’t know why it was like this—they were already an old married couple, so why was she still so shy?

“How long has it been since Husband has been this relaxed? Ever since taking that position of Minister of War, our family has been very unhappy. People outside also speak to me as carefully as possible. Madam He came over and nearly kowtowed. It wasn’t like this before—we all treated each other as sisters. Now with ‘Madam Yun’ on the left and ‘National Lady’ on the right, the way they address me makes me uncomfortable. When did our two families become so distant?”

Yun Ye smiled bitterly and said, “What else could it be but the evils caused by power and influence? In the past, the Yun and He families had what could be called a mutually dependent symbiotic relationship. Now it’s different—a hundred He families can’t compare to the Yun family. So the He family people think they no longer have the right to speak with us as equals. Being extra careful is only natural. The more courteous you are to her, the more frightened she becomes. So the friendship between our two families can only possibly be renewed after the Yun family declines. This is human nature!”

Xinyue was also somewhat melancholic. Now whenever there were women’s gatherings, she was already a figure sitting in the seat of honor, sitting together with a group of white-haired old ladies and grandmothers, putting on airs to scold and reproach other women—scolding them justifiably too, and others accepted it. No woman would ever show off her jewelry or husband in front of her anymore. Xinyue used to really enjoy this kind of life, but having experienced it more, she no longer cared. Gradually she stopped attending those gatherings. Now what she liked most was being alone with her husband, even if just for one night.

Xinyue’s waist was no longer as slender as before—there was even some excess flesh. Xinyue would sigh every time she looked at her own body. In this respect, she simply couldn’t compare with Na Rimu. That vixen had obviously also given birth to two children like herself, yet her waist was still as slender and delicate as a young girl’s.

“Marry a wife for talent, take a concubine for beauty—isn’t that what they say, Husband?” Xinyue leaned against Yun Ye’s back in her gauze garment and asked softly.

“You were originally beautiful. From the day I met you until now, you’ve never changed.”

“But my waist has gotten thicker.”

“So what? You’re still just as beautiful. In a few years, that vixen-like figure like Na Rimu’s won’t be popular anymore. Everyone will prefer plump women, and the plumper the better. You’re still far from plump enough now.”

“Really?”

“Of course. Actually, it’s because Yan Liben and the Yuchi brothers like plump women, so they’ve painted many plump women. They’re leading people’s aesthetic habits. Now everyone knows Yan Liben’s paintings are valuable, so they find women according to what’s in the paintings. Don’t you often attend women’s gatherings? Haven’t you noticed there are more and more plump people?”

Xinyue lay on Yun Ye’s back, rolling her eyes and thinking hard. She hadn’t attended such gatherings for quite a while. Now hearing her husband say this, it seemed it really was the case. Not only were women getting plumper and larger, the clothes on their bodies were also becoming less and less. Now it was very fashionable to expose half one’s bosom.

“Yes! Husband, I always thought it was because everyone’s lives are better now—doing less work and eating more food resulted in plump people. So it was because of this reason! No wonder the history books say things like ‘The King of Chu loved slender waists, so many in the rear palace starved to death.’ Now men are starting to like plump people?”

When Xinyue was by her husband’s side, she generally didn’t bring her brain. Discovering that what her husband said made great sense, she immediately laughed merrily. No wonder Husband always liked coming to her place. Even when Na Rimu dressed up like a flower, Husband didn’t go there much.

The couple lying side by side in bed would inevitably touch and caress. After just a few moments, mouths became dry and tongues parched. The fire was lit, so it had to be tended. Therefore, when the two of them embraced with sweat all over their bodies and lay down comfortably, they found it very interesting. Xinyue covered her face with her hair and giggled. This feeling was like having an affair—both body and mind could obtain the greatest satisfaction.

The next day before noon, Li Er also came to the academy. Staying alone in the vast empty palace probably felt boring too. They say young couples make companions in old age. At his stage, his need for affection far exceeded his pursuit of carnal desires.

“Scorpions! This size is truly rare. Oh? King Scorpion? Such a large physique truly deserves to be called king.” Upon entering Zhangsun’s workroom, Li Er immediately saw the two giant scorpions fixed on frames. Now these two scorpions that had their venom extracted weren’t yet dry enough, so they could only continue waiting for them to slowly air-dry. But their fierce appearance still made one shudder.

Zhangsun smiled at the Emperor, then continued using a soft-bristled brush to tidy the already somewhat disheveled fur on the scorpion’s large pincers. Because the Emperor was coming, Zhangsun had specially added two covers to the scorpions’ tail hooks to avoid accidentally injuring the Emperor.

Li Er felt this task was very interesting, so he also picked up a brush and, imitating Zhangsun, reorganized the scorpion’s fur. Perhaps feeling the scorpion’s current posture wasn’t majestic enough, he used his hand to try to adjust the position of the scorpion’s large pincers. As a result, using slightly too much force, he accidentally broke off a pincer. Holding it in his hand, he was a bit embarrassed.

Zhangsun could no longer hold back and burst out laughing. Li Er was stunned for a moment, put the pincer on the table, and also laughed.

“Your Majesty, this scorpion is almost dried—how could it withstand your pulling like that? However, there’s still a remedy now.” As Zhangsun spoke, she picked up two thin needles, inserting one end into the pincer and one end into the broken section of the scorpion’s large pincer. Only after it was completely secured did she let go. The damaged scorpion became majestic and imposing again.

“Interesting! Guanyin Servant, today let’s do nothing else but fiddle with these little things. Very interesting indeed!” As he spoke, seeing another box on the large table, he opened it and found it full of strange and peculiar insects. These were all things Zhangsun planned to make into specimens. Now the only thing lacking was filling in the labels below with the origins and names of these insects, as well as their classifications.

Biology at the academy had now been divided into two categories: microbiology and macrobiology. Those fellows studying microbiology had all been sent by Yun Ye to the city deep in the Qinling Mountains. The academy’s current biological research was actually compiling and classifying existing species. Whether human or animal, as long as they lived on Great Tang territory, there must be accurate knowledge of them.

Li Er’s pen calligraphy was also quite good. Since the academy required these labels to be filled in with hard pen, Li Er used a quill pen, dipped it in ink, and wrote very earnestly.

At this moment, Li Er thought of nothing else. One moment he would flip through the academy’s compiled animal annals, the next moment he would consult the animals’ place of origin and habits, and only then would he start writing excerpts. He worked very seriously.

Only when Li Tai brought food did Li Er realize the sun in the sky had already reached its zenith.

After washing his hands, using a spoon to scoop the rice bowl in his plate, he said to Zhangsun across from him, “Very interesting. Just now my heart was incomparably calm, my whole mind immersed in the books. I was thinking entirely about this mantis’s living habits. Only now do I know that after praying mantises have children, to ensure the offspring’s robustness, the female mantis will eat the male mantis as food.”