Li Er lay on a soft couch, moaning in pain. Empress Zhangsun stood beside him, pacing back and forth anxiously. The white-bearded imperial physician felt Li Er’s wrist, utterly perplexed. With no other option, Empress Zhangsun waved the physician away and sat down beside him, gently massaging Li Er’s temples with her hand.

“I’m planning to eat locusts. What do you think, Guanyin Bi?” Li Er asked the Empress.

“Why would Your Majesty eat such filthy things?” Empress Zhangsun was somewhat hesitant.

Li Er suddenly scrambled up, walking around barefoot without even putting on his shoes. Empress Zhangsun chased after him holding his shoes. After finally getting the Emperor’s shoes on, she saw him looking at her with a bitter smile: “Guanyin Bi, I’m afraid I can’t escape eating locusts this time. I just hope Yun Ye can make the locusts taste somewhat palatable.”

“Was it Yun Ye who instigated Your Majesty to eat locusts? He deserves death!” Empress Zhangsun’s anger flared. Truly worthy of being the mistress of the six palaces, the palace maids and eunuchs serving in the hall didn’t dare breathe loudly.

After dismissing the palace maids and eunuchs from the hall, he took the Empress’s hand and said, “You’ve misunderstood. In this world, if I’m unwilling to do something, no one can force me. Don’t you understand me yet?”

“That’s precisely why your concubine finds it strange. You only went to Yun Manor once—how did you come back crying about a headache?”

“Hmph, a headache. After you hear what I have to say, you’ll have a headache too. That boy is nothing but trouble—making me eat locusts to spread his reputation while he rakes in money hand over fist. What’s strange is that I wasn’t angry at all; I was even somewhat excited.” Speaking of these matters, Li Er became enthusiastic again.

Empress Zhangsun was completely confused.

“The locust plague this June is already unavoidable. The Directorate of Astronomy says this winter wasn’t cold—it only snowed twice. The heavy snow didn’t kill the locust eggs in the fields, so after the spring warmth returns, they’ll inevitably multiply in great numbers. Yun Ye’s master’s words are credible. I’m not afraid of the locust plague; what I fear is people using the locust plague to attack me. I won’t speak of others, but you should know—I just woke from that nightmare and don’t want to enter it again. I was already prepared to open the killing gates wide, but I casually went to Yun Manor to ask Yun Ye what that worldly sage thought about this matter. Unexpectedly, I got an answer I couldn’t have dreamed of: eat the locusts!” Li Er beamed with joy and clapped his hands in admiration.

Seeing the Empress even more confused, he became even more pleased with himself.

“Yun Ye says locusts taste very good. He also wants me to mobilize the army and common people to catch locusts on a large scale, then sell them to him at five jin per coin. In the end, I finally convinced the boy to raise the price to three jin per coin.” Li Er was quite proud of his business acumen.

“Your Majesty, he alone couldn’t possibly eat that many locusts!”

“Naturally. That boy plans to dry the locusts in the sun and grind them into powder, which will become precious medicinal ingredients. I specially went to ask Sun Simiao. Daoist Sun said that locust powder is indeed an excellent medicine. Oh right, don’t you have asthma? This is a medicine that treats exactly that. My wind illness also needs it for treatment.”

“Your concubine also needs to eat locusts?” Empress Zhangsun’s expression became somewhat unpleasant.

“Haha, if I can turn a disaster sent by Heaven into ingredients sent by Heaven with a flip of my hand, what does it matter if I eat locusts? Without moving troops or weapons, my greatest current crisis becomes a joke—why not? Why not let Yun Ye make some money? When the locusts arrive, the expressions on those noble clans from Shandong will be so wonderful. I can’t wait to see them now. Hahaha…”

After hearing the entire story, Empress Zhangsun’s eyebrows also rose with joy…

Yun Ye was very annoyed. Huangfu Wuyi, the head of the Court of Agricultural Administration, was staying at his home and refusing to leave. The old man kept saying he came to visit the handsome young fellow who was the newly promoted Marquis of Lantian. But they’d already been meeting for two hours. He’d drunk so much tea he’d made three trips to the latrine, yet the old man still showed no intention of leaving.

The sky was already growing dark. With no other choice, he had to keep the old man for a meal. Who knew the old man would start crying bitterly while eating, repeatedly saying that while he enjoyed delicious food today, farmers across the realm couldn’t sustain three meals a day. How could he bear it? Occupying his position uselessly, he might as well bash his head and die rather than see this and be troubled by it.

If you want to die, go die outside! Don’t grab my arm and crash into me—that won’t even kill you! If you have the guts, go crash into the stone lions outside the door—that would guarantee death in one hit. In his heart, Yun Ye hoped the old man would die, but his mouth offered gentle consolation.

It was all trouble caused by interests. Old Cheng and Old Niu had made a big scene at the Directorate of Imperial Manufactories, describing it as utterly worthless. The Directorate didn’t dare talk back because they had evidence in hand. The Director of Works glanced at the blueprints and humbly accepted the criticism with lowered head. Old Cheng and Old Niu gained the upper hand, showing off their power at the Directorate for a whole day. Finally, after the Director bowed and scraped, they left satisfied.

The Court of Agricultural Administration caught wind of this. Learning that marvelous agricultural implements had been created, they naturally couldn’t sit still. The old fellow Huangfu Wuyi discovered these were blueprints drawn by Yun Ye. He was too embarrassed to ask for them directly—after all, these were someone’s specialized craft. To ask for them out of the blue naturally wouldn’t work. He could only make him献 them voluntarily—only then would it appear that the Court of Agricultural Administration was responding to popular demand.

The face of a government department! The old man would rather lose his own face, playing the fool before a youngster, than lower the noble head of a government department.

There was no cure. Yun Ye gave in. In the end, he was no match for an old bureaucrat. The education he received from childhood never included strategies for dealing with this kind of situation.

“Please sit peacefully, Elder. This junior just remembered there’s a Han-dynasty plow diagram at home. I’ll fetch it for you right away.”

“This old man will go with you. Just right to critique Marquis Yun’s masterpiece.”

Hearing Yun Ye agree to give him a blueprint, the old man immediately lost his sadness and followed Yun Ye to the study. After randomly praising the diagrams of Directorate of Works implements on the wall, the old man carefully examined the blueprint Yun Ye produced. Who knows if he understood it or not—he probably didn’t. The blueprints Yun Ye drew couldn’t be comprehended except by exceptional craftsmen. After all, the three-dimensional views from later generations required a certain foundation in mathematics to understand. For an old man who’d recited “The Master said” and poetry his whole life to understand them would be the strange thing.

Rolling it up and tucking it in his sleeve, the old man became energetic, saying that earlier he’d just started enjoying Yun Manor’s fine wine when Yun Ye disturbed him with some trivial matters. He said that since Marquis Yun献 his family’s treasured diagram, the Court of Agricultural Administration would give a certain reward. Because he’d just drunk Yun family’s fine wine, there was some abuse of power for private gain, so he’d generously reward the Yun family with fifteen strings of copper coins—this was the court’s highest reward amount for craftsmen.

The old man burped, with the Han plow blueprint tucked in his sleeve and two jars of Yun Manor’s fine wine clamped under his arm, swaying as he strode away triumphantly.

Old Grandmother stood behind Yun Ye, stroking his chest with her hand to soothe his qi, afraid her grandson might be angered into illness. After a long while, Yun Ye finally recovered. He and his grandmother supported each other back to the reception hall. The smell of wine in the hall hadn’t yet dissipated, and the leftover dishes on the table hadn’t been cleared away. Yun Ye picked up a relatively intact piece of pork liver and chewed it. As he chewed, he suddenly threw his chopsticks far outside and asked his grandmother: “Tell me, does our Yun family lack fifteen strings of coins?”

“We don’t lack them, we don’t lack them. Just treat that old bastard as if he were farting. Quickly drink some water to suppress your anger.” Old Grandmother went along with her grandson’s words.

After drinking a big mouthful of water, the grandparent and grandchild sat facing each other for a long while.

Old Grandmother urged Yun Ye to go to sleep. Yun Ye stood up, poured another big mouthful of water, and said to his grandmother, “Still angry…”