After the three men quieted down, Yun Ye put down his teacup and pulled out a scroll from behind him, saying to them, “Look, to maintain a certain symmetry for the imperial palace, this palace can only be built beside Taiye Pool. Of course, the scenery here is also the most beautiful. However, the space isn’t large enough and needs to be expanded outward. The result of this expansion is that it will form a palace complex with Hanyuan Hall. This way, the entire palace will actually appear even more magnificent. I imagine how magnificent the palace will be at sunset.”

“But the more magnificent it is, the more money we’ll spend.” He Shao now feared hearing words like magnificent and grand. He wished he could just build a pigsty-like palace and be done with it.

“Her Majesty only said to have me build the palace. She didn’t say I also had to furnish the palace’s interior decorations. We’re receiving an imperial commission to procure various construction materials, including golden thread nanmu and white marble, along with other miscellaneous things. The golden thread nanmu and white marble will be procured by me. Other materials will be procured by Old He. Look carefully—as long as it’s needed for construction, we’ll order it, ordering from local areas. This time it’s not the imperial family paying, so seeing profit to be made, local areas will definitely open doors of convenience. The thirty thousand strings Her Majesty gave is for doing these things.”

“If we don’t give the money for ordering materials to the local areas but instead deliver it to the national treasury—meaning the local areas no longer need to transport treasury silver to Chang’an, only need to send the goods—and those laborers are no longer working for free but receiving wages, then there’s no oppression of the common people. I think the local areas will definitely like this method very much.”

“More than like it—they’ll definitely be grateful to Marquis Yun.” The door was pushed open and Li Jing walked in, followed by Old Zhuang with an ashamed expression. From his pained expression, he’d definitely been subdued by Li Jing and couldn’t make a sound.

He gave Old Zhuang a reassuring smile, indicating it was fine, and let him withdraw.

Li Jing sat in Yun Ye’s chair, poured himself a cup of tea, and said to Yun Ye, “Continue, continue explaining your plan. I’m planning to invest some money in your household. Just now outside the door, I didn’t hear clearly. Explain it in detail.”

“Your student’s meaning is to have the local areas send things over, with money given from Chang’an, then delivered by us to the national treasury as part of their tax silver. This way, eliminating one round trip, we can reduce costs by twenty percent. That means, adding Xinghua Ward’s profits, we can basically achieve a balance of income and expenditure. At most we’ll just work harder. But Old He, in this process you’ll establish connections with officials in various localities. In the future, when you need certain goods, you’ll only need to send a letter to the local area—that will be enough. This way, you’ll permanently save at least twenty percent in costs compared to others. What merchant in Chang’an will be your match?”

Old He’s fat face began to shine with oil, sweat continuously dripping down. Excited, he clapped his hands vigorously and raised both thumbs to the sky.

“This means my investment won’t earn any profit, right?” Li Jing was very dissatisfied about putting out money for nothing with no benefits.

“Uncle Li, how could your student have you work for nothing? Building the palace only requires eighty-one golden thread nanmu logs. Your student plans to order one thousand from Shu, bind them into rafts to reach the Eastern Capital via waterways. What do you think?”

Li Jing wasn’t Li Gang. All the waterways under heaven were stored in his head. His mind moved slightly and he understood. Giant logs flowing down the Yangtze, all the way to Yangzhou, then along the canal directly to the Eastern Capital—this truly was an excellent method.

“Young man, if your business also brings in the Water Army Commander Zhang Liang, it will be foolproof. Don’t tell outsiders that I also invested five thousand strings. This old face can’t afford to lose it.” After speaking, he stood up and left.

After seeing Li Jing out, Cheng Chumo and the others also took their leave to return home. These matters had to be explained clearly to the main people at home to avoid misunderstandings. Yun Ye looked at the courtyard full of copper cash with worry. The old grandmother stood far away, not understanding why everyone was eagerly transporting money to the household. Could it be grandson had another big business deal to do?

There were some things Yun Ye didn’t say explicitly—such as the ten docks he’d specifically requested. Since ancient times, Guanzhong had the saying “Eight Waters Surround Chang’an.” The eight waters referred to the Wei, Jing, Feng, Lao, Yu, Hao, Chan, and Ba—eight rivers flowing around Xi’an city, all belonging to the Yellow River water system.

In his famous rhapsody “Rhapsody on the Supreme Forest Park,” Sima Xiangru wrote, “Vastly the eight rivers divide and flow, diverging with different forms,” describing the magnificent beauty of the Han Dynasty’s Shanglin Park. Afterward came the description “Eight Waters Surround Chang’an.”

Among the eight waters, the Wei River joined the Yellow River, while the other seven all flowed into the Wei River. What Yun Ye valued was precisely these vast water systems—they were almost universally connected. Even if large ships couldn’t travel them, with current wooden vessels, boats under one hundred liao could pass unobstructed.

For some reason, Chang’an’s officials only regarded these waters as water sources, not even valuing these rivers’ transport capacity. Every time he stood on Chang’an’s city walls watching the bustling camel caravans and ox carts, Yun Ye wanted to run and ask what exactly was in the heads of Chang’an’s officials. It wasn’t until Wu Zetian’s period that they began truly recognizing these rivers’ transport capacity.

All of Chang’an didn’t have a single dock. Watching the cool, clear water day after day flowing idly through Chang’an city, Yun Ye fantasized about the Martial Empress era when sails would gather like a forest in the city.

So be it. Since no one liked using waterways, then he would. The academy urgently needed a permanent financial source to support its basic operations. When heaven drops windfall profits, not taking them brings disaster instead.

Just by simply building several docks and some warehouses, they could enjoy the dividends from water transport with enormous profits forever. Such a simple thing, yet not one person thought of it? The northwest was arid land where riding horses was more common than traveling by boat. Once thinking became fixed, could they never have this insight?

Li Chengqian’s guard captain came to the Yun residence, bringing five thousand strings of cash. He said the Crown Prince had sent it and asked Yun Ye to please accept it. Building a palace for one’s own father—as the son, he truly had no reason to stand by and watch.

In other words, this money didn’t need to be repaid—that was stated very clearly. But Yun Ye said to the guard captain, “Trouble Brother Guard to return and report to His Highness the Crown Prince that, considering he’s a pauper, I’ll accept his five thousand strings as invested capital. Two years later, when calculating profits, Yun Ye won’t let his five thousand strings just disappear.”

The guard’s eyes widened, his nostrils continuously flaring, as if he couldn’t decide what method to use to face Yun Ye. Finally, he cupped his fists once and hurriedly left. He really worried he couldn’t restrain himself from leaving a fist print on Yun Ye’s face.

He’d seen ungrateful people, but truly hadn’t seen anyone like Yun Ye. The Crown Prince’s good intentions were all fed to dogs. He deeply felt it wasn’t worth it for the Crown Prince. A fast horse quickly sent him back to the Eastern Palace. Li Chengqian was in the garden accompanying his sister flying kites. The silk kite swayed shakily in the sky. Lanling called out very loudly, constantly urging her brother to run faster so the kite could fly higher.

Seeing the guard return, Li Chengqian handed the kite to Lanling. He accepted the cloth towel an attendant passed him and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He really had quite a few sisters. Every single girl wanted her brother to help put their kites in the sky, saying it was preparation for the third day of the third month. He felt he’d already been running all day. But thinking that Yun Ye also had eight sisters, his heart instantly balanced. People are like this—not worried about scarcity but about inequality. As long as there’s someone even worse off, the heart feels much more comfortable.

“How was it? Yun Ye must have been very moved, right? Did he cry?” Li Chengqian had already been moved by his own selfless friendship several times. Just thinking about Yun Ye seeing several carts of copper cash, he’d definitely be moved to tears. When he himself had only said a word of thanks to a meritorious subordinate, that strong man cried like a baby in swaddling. Yun Ye, receiving such great kindness from him, would definitely be even more spectacular!

After waiting a long time without hearing the guard respond, he looked up and saw the guard looking as if he had constipation, his face all twisted together.

One look and he knew Yun Ye definitely hadn’t said anything nice. But this guard was his trusted confidant, so he didn’t need to worry much. He asked directly, “What did that bastard say? Tell me completely and entirely.”

The guard gritted his teeth, knelt down, and said to Li Chengqian, “Yun Ye is utterly insubordinate. He said considering Your Highness is a pauper, he’s accepted your invested capital and told you to come collect dividends in two years.”

“So arrogant? I originally thought Mother Empress had grabbed his vital point and he could no longer play tricks. I didn’t expect him to answer like this. Is he giving up in despair?”

“No, that’s not right. This fellow never does things without certainty. Daring to say this, he definitely has something to rely on. He’s already in a desperate situation—what method could he still have?”

He wasn’t the only one thinking this. Li Er was also asking Zhangsun, “Guanyin Maid, this difficult problem you’ve posed is quite tricky. That young man—surely he can’t turn stone into gold?”

“Erlang, your subject feels things aren’t that simple. I always felt when he agreed to build the palace, his eyes were full of mockery, as if he truly had a method to untangle this dead knot. At the time, your subject only wanted to make things difficult for him a bit, to make him give up rebuilding Xinghua Ward himself. It wasn’t about coveting those few copper coins, but rather your subject felt the Ministry of Works would fall into his trap. For the sake of the court’s dignity, your subject had no choice but to do this. A person being too outstanding isn’t necessarily good. Your subject worried Yun Ye would be harmed.”

Li Er smiled bitterly and said to Zhangsun, “Under an enlightened ruler’s governance, this kind of situation shouldn’t appear. The more talented someone is, the more they should be valued and employed. It’s just that this world still cannot tolerate brilliant and extraordinary existences.”

The couple was silent for a while.

Li Er looked at the worried and frowning Empress and suddenly laughed heartily, “Guanyin Maid, don’t worry. Regardless of good or bad, this matter benefits the nation and profits the common people—that’s a good thing. As for the Ministry of Works officials’ face problem, you don’t need to consider it. Could it be that we don’t allow the existence in this world of people smarter than them? As long as it benefits Great Tang, I don’t care about dignity. Running to the Wei River bridge to negotiate with Xie Li—what face do those few vegetarian officials at the Ministry of Works need? I hope Yun Ye wins. I hope he can bring a refreshing breeze to this lifeless and stagnant hall.”