Li Tai also noticed this phenomenon from outside the door. He tiptoed in, crouched on the ground to look at that strange sphere, and even poked at it with his hand. Watching the iron ball roll around on the ground, he picked it up again and placed it on the table, tugging hard—no movement.
He shouted toward the back, and immediately two broad-shouldered, thick-waisted guards walked in. After cupping their fists in salute to Yun Ye and Gongshu Mu, they began pulling at the hemispheres while Li Tai nervously observed from the side.
Yun Ye paid no attention to the three of them, master and servants. Using a small teapot, he filled two extremely small tea cups with green tea and invited Gongshu Mu to taste it. Gongshu Mu smiled brilliantly, picked up a small cup, placed it under his nose to smell the tea’s fragrance, then gently sipped a mouthful. He didn’t swallow it down but let the aroma fully ripple through his mouth, extremely intoxicated.
Yun Ye also picked up a cup, drinking while telling Old Gongshu about the wonders of tea.
“Sir, you don’t know—I once heard of a kind of tea cake. The longer this cake is stored, the more precious it becomes. It’s said there are even tea cakes stored for two hundred years. Each sip is like drinking gold, though unfortunately it’s only hearsay and I haven’t seen it personally. What a pity. They say that flavor is truly the finest in the human world.”
“Two hundred years—wouldn’t that tea have already rotted away long ago? And it can still be drunk?”
“Indeed it can be drunk, and the taste is extraordinarily wonderful. I’m quite certain of this. This world is full of wonders. There are many mysteries we simply cannot explain. Physics is precisely such a field of study, explaining our world through movement, sitting, reclining, and walking. I’m often secretly delighted by gaining even small discoveries from this world.”
The two men’s conversation was extremely engrossing. Gongshu Mu with his long beard flowing, Yun Ye in black-haired blue robes, from time to time letting out hearty laughter of mutual understanding.
The room was already overcrowded. On one side, five bare-chested, burly men were pulling on ropes, veins bulging, the rope tied to the iron ball’s handle pulled taut and straight, sweat sliding down their shoulders and backs like winding little snakes.
The iron ball remained utterly motionless. When one side’s strength weakened slightly, they were pulled over by the other side. In a careless moment they knocked over Yun Ye’s flower stand, smashing the flower pot to pieces.
Yun Ye frowned with displeasure, came to the iron ball that had been thrown on the ground, untied the rope bound to the cow tendon tube, and with both hands pulled apart, the iron ball was split into two halves. Casually tossing them in the corner, he pointed outside to the wide-eyed Li Tai, indicating he could leave.
Li Tai drove away those guards but stayed behind himself, diligently pouring tea for Yun Ye and Gongshu Mu, his attitude respectful. This bastard was just like this—don’t look at his obsequious appearance, he was respecting the knowledge in your belly, not respecting you as a person. Even if you were a beggar, as long as you could help his studies, this bastard would visit eight times a day.
Once he had drained your knowledge dry and learned it all, he would immediately turn hostile. If you should be a beggar, then you were a beggar, no longer that person he respected. This characteristic was no different from the Japanese. His current respectfulness was merely to better humiliate you in the future. Was Prince Wei’s favor easy to benefit from?
Having such a terrifying student, no wonder Gongshu Mu was so haggard, worrying every day about what to teach him.
To obtain talented students and nurture them was every famous teacher’s aspiration, but unfortunately there was another kind of talent in the world called “pervert,” specially born to torment teachers. For example, Li Tai before his eyes was one. Drawing inferences from one instance was no longer sufficient to describe this fellow’s aptitude. He was like a submersible pump with an enormous diameter—he wouldn’t give up until he had squeezed dry and exhausted all the knowledge in his teacher’s belly.
Yun Ye had no such worries. If within his lifetime he could see Li Tai build a nuclear submarine, that would be the greatest happiness.
“Qing Que, why did you abandon your research on the loom, wandering around idly all day with nothing to do? Is this also your principle of doing things?”
Li Tai’s eyes stared at the two hemispheres in the corner, answering absent-mindedly: “Father Emperor said not to research this thing for now, told me to take it slowly. He said building it now would be harmful without benefit, so I stopped and tried my best not to think about it. Sir, why is it that you pulled open this iron ball so easily, yet I exhausted all my strength and couldn’t do it? I know there must be new knowledge inside that I don’t know about. Please resolve this puzzle for your disciple.”
“I was born with enormous strength, my two arms have the power of nine oxen and two tigers. People can stand on my fists, horses can run on my arms. How can you common mortals compare?”
Li Tai could no longer conceal his contempt and said loudly: “I saw you loosen the thin rope tied to the cow tendon tube. The secret must be right there, but I didn’t see anything else inside. What method did you use to make the two hemispheres stick together so firmly? There’s lard on top—clearly lard doesn’t have such great adhesiveness. What’s really going on?”
By the end Li Tai began roaring: “Don’t make bets with me, and I won’t bet with you either. I’ve already fallen for this trick countless times and won’t suffer this loss again. Tell me quickly!”
This fellow was already going crazy now. He had completely acquired all the potential qualities of a mad scientist. Regarding the matter of his fief, he hadn’t bothered with it for a long time. Immersed alone in his own world, he looked at everyone else as if they were idiots. Of course in his world, only Yun Ye was a hairless monkey, while the rest were all covered in thick fur picking fruit to eat in trees.
He couldn’t tease him anymore. Yun Ye invited Gongshu Mu to drink another cup of tea and said to Li Tai: “I’ve said before that our world is very wondrous. There are some invisible forces controlling everything in the world. Why do fruits that ripen definitely fall down rather than fall up to the sky? What force makes us necessarily plant our feet on the earth rather than fly all over the sky? This iron ball can explain one of these forces. Very magical, right? Now I’ll show you another manifestation of it. Watch carefully—I’ll only do this once.”
Under the gaze of Li Tai and his teacher, Yun Ye filled a tea cup with water until it almost overflowed. He took a piece of paper from the table and slowly covered the tea cup’s opening, then turned the tea cup upside down.
Li Tai couldn’t understand why that piece of paper could block the cup full of water from flowing out. Why?
He lightly touched that piece of paper with his hand. The paper was punctured, and the water in the cup splashed all over the floor.
Li Tai wasn’t confused but was like a child who had discovered a new toy. He went off to the side by himself, took a large stack of paper, a basin of water, and a tea cup, and began his own great journey of discovery.
“Marquis Yun, what is the reason for this?” Gongshu Mu had spent his whole life researching the mysteries of heaven and earth. Seeing such a miraculous thing, he naturally found it difficult to conceal his curiosity.
“Sir, this is the power of air.” Yun Ye had no way to explain to him what atmospheric pressure was, so he could only say this.
Gongshu Mu fanned the air back and forth with his wide sleeves, saying thoughtfully to Yun Ye: “Does this mean air is also a kind of obstruction? Wind is one type? It can push giant boats to sail on great rivers, and can also hinder pedestrians holding umbrellas?”
“Sir is absolutely correct. Air also has weight. When we walk through air, it’s actually not much different from walking through water—it’s just that one has greater resistance and one has lesser resistance. That’s all.”
“I’ve already weighed one hundred sixty-one different things at the same volume. Don’t tell me I still need to weigh air? Good heavens! I need to first create a sufficiently precise scale, then I need to place the same volume of air on the scale to weigh it. How should I isolate the air? How do I prevent it from affecting the accuracy of the weighing?”
“Last time I divided one hour into seven thousand two hundred parts. Now must I divide one jin into ten thousand parts too? You’re bullying people. This is precision work. Last time I used an hourglass to divide time. Now what should I use to divide weight?”
“Our weights originated from the weight of millet grains, but it’s still very large—it can’t weigh air.” Li Tai sat down dejectedly on the ground, looking very dejected. He really wanted to perfect his density table, but unfortunately it was too difficult.
Seeing that his words just now seemed to have dealt him too great a blow, Yun Ye spoke gently: “Qing Que, the great ones of the world all came through cutting through thorns and thistles from hardship and suffering. If you’ve found the path, you should boldly hypothesize, carefully verify, and finally find the truth. Perhaps the human world will even change because of you.”
Li Tai rolled his eyes. This fellow now only had one expression—contempt. “You think I’m disappointed, or that I’ve retreated? Saying some nonsensical gibberish to comfort people?”
“Am I the kind of person who needs comforting? Just now I was only a bit dejected, letting myself relax. Once I’ve prepared my mood I’ll go do this thing.”
“Don’t think you did things watertight just now. The iron ball and the cup have one thing in common—you chased away all the air. One used a reversed bellows to pump out the air, one used water to squeeze out the air. I only need to figure out why you must definitely chase away the air. To put it plainly, I just need to do the experiment a few more times and I’ll definitely find the pattern. You still can’t bluff me. Hahaha!” Li Tai walked out laughing heartily with his hands behind his back, seeming very confident about his research prospects.
Yun Ye looked at Gongshu Mu. The two of them smiled bitterly and shook their heads together.
“Master Gongshu, I now thoroughly understand your suffering. This is a demon.”
“This old man will definitely have a shortened lifespan. This is my fate—heaven is punishing me, making me both miserable and joyful.” Parting despondently, cupping fists to bid farewell with care, Gongshu Mu now greatly had the tragic air of parting at the Yi River.
The Li family produced nothing else but only produced prodigies. He kicked and punched away Li Ke who came to report on money house matters. Opening a broken money house, it had already evolved remittance business. If things continued this way, would there still be room in this world for other families to get by?
One constantly thinking about how to promote his cheap gold, silver, and copper coins throughout all of Great Tang. One always pondering how to make common people deposit all their money into the money house, to make everyone in the world become the Li family’s debtors.
Most infuriating was the third one, constantly demanding truth from heaven, wanting to peek through all the secrets of the human world.
With these three chariots in motion, if Great Tang couldn’t prosper for several hundred years, there would truly be no justice.
Now the throne held not a bit of attraction for Li Tai and Li Ke, because both of them understood clearly that it was a position that would absolutely make them tie their own hands and feet. Even Li Chengqian now preferred galloping in all directions on horseback, riding across the world, no longer regarding the throne as his only choice.
The one who was perhaps depressed was Li’er. Having exhausted all his efforts to seize the throne, now his three most outstanding sons—none of them took it seriously, giving him a kind of empty, disappointed feeling.