Li Tai really couldn’t bear it any longer. Seeing the Yun father and son sneaking around watching from afar, eating while pointing and gesturing at this place, he also jumped up from his reclining chair and walked over to Yun Ye’s side. He grabbed a handful of potato strips from Yun Shou’s plate and chewed vigorously. After eating until only two strips remained, he held one in each hand and compared them before his eyes, asking Yun Ye oddly, “How does your family manage to make potato strips that are all uniform in size and thickness? Also, the flavor is different from what my family’s chef makes. How do you get the seasoning to penetrate into the potato strips? They taste better than what my family’s chef fries.”
“My family’s potatoes are carefully selected premium potatoes.”
“So are mine. Tell me, how exactly is it done? I really want to know.”
“My family’s chef has superior skills…”
“Get lost! Your family’s chef and my family’s chef are brothers. There’s no reason the senior apprentice should be this much better than the junior apprentice.”
“Can’t you just not ask? This is a craft. If my descendants turn out to be worthless in the future, they’ll still have better business selling potato strips than others. Can’t you be a little considerate? Your mother is troubled because the hot air balloon won’t fly, and you don’t have a shred of filial piety. Instead of scheming to steal my family’s secret recipe, you’d be better off helping Empress Mother solve her problem.”
Li Tai’s face twitched. He said to Yun Ye, “If my mother were willing to listen to me, the hot air balloon would have flown up long ago. It might have even landed already, and the fate of that goat—whether auspicious or ominous—would have been determined. Right now, I just want to know why your family’s potato strips are so distinctively styled. If you’re unwilling to tell me, then go help my mother get that balloon to fly. If this continues, I’ll vomit blood and die.”
Yun Ye would never invite trouble upon himself. A menopausal middle-aged woman was extremely terrifying. If this menopausal middle-aged woman’s identity was that of an empress, it would be enough to achieve the effect of keeping all living beings at bay.
There was someone who wasn’t afraid. Yun Shou stuffed the plate in his hands to Li Tai and ran over to Zhangsun to whisper in her ear. Miraculously, Zhangsun walked over furiously, snatched the plate from Li Tai’s hands and casually flung it away, then pinched Yun Shou’s chubby face hard twice. Looking at Yun Ye and Li Tai, she said to Yun Shou, “In this world there are always some ungrateful wretches. Only my dear grandson thinks of Grandmother wholeheartedly. Grandmother hasn’t doted on such a good child in vain.”
The ungrateful wretches referred to Yun Ye and Li Tai—this was very clear. Yun Ye and Li Tai hastily bowed to receive the instruction. Zhangsun dragged Yun Shou to the garden entrance and loudly commanded Concubine Na Rimu and Aunt Hypatia to remove the excess sandbags.
Thus, the balloon flew up. All the women were jubilant, jumping and shouting to see off the floating balloon. However, when Zhangsun saw the goat still tethered to the flowering tree, her expression inevitably became dazed for a moment. But she quickly became happy again. At worst, she would just make another balloon—it wasn’t troublesome!
Although three Great Tang elites had been killed by the large balloon, the noble sons who wanted to go up in the balloon still came in an endless stream. This time, the ones who came were warriors from the Zhangsun Family. Because the balloon was the creation of his empress younger sister, regardless of what sentiments were involved, Zhangsun Wuji was unwilling to let this achievement be seized by others. Even if someone had to die, it should be people from the Zhangsun Family who died. Only if Zhangsun Family members died would Empress Sister not suffer even the slightest criticism. If they succeeded, Empress Mother’s merit would be immeasurable. If they failed, Empress Mother would likewise have bestowed virtue upon all living beings. She would rather grieve herself than transfer the pain of losing loved ones to the common people.
The large balloon flew up again. There wasn’t even a trace of wind on the ground, but seeing the rapidly drifting white clouds, Li Tai reminded his three illegitimate cousins that they absolutely must not throw away all the sandbags, lest they fly too high and encounter danger.
Zhangsun Wuji, who had come to the Yun Family estate to watch the balloon launch, snorted at Li Tai with dissatisfaction, believing this was Li Tai’s pettiness at work. In this regard, Yun Ye did very well, encouraging the three brave warriors of the Zhangsun Family to be bold and careful, resourceful and composed, and do their utmost to develop all the capabilities of the hot air balloon.
The hot air balloon flew very high. The people on the ground quickly released all the tethering rope. When the balloon hung in mid-air, held by the rope and no longer ascending, Li Tai discovered the rope suddenly fell from the sky. Just as he was about to cry out in alarm, he saw the hot air balloon, freed from its restraints, rapidly ascending. The three idiots on the balloon hadn’t listened to his advice and had casually cut the tethering rope. The hot air balloon, relieved of nearly two hundred pounds of weight, quickly drilled into the clouds and disappeared from sight…
Zhangsun closed her eyes dejectedly for a moment and asked Yun Ye in a low voice, “Do the three brothers still have any possibility of survival?”
“I don’t know. The wind is strong up there. I don’t know where the three of them will be blown to. Right now, the east wind is blowing. If you want to find them, you should search in the direction of the Eastern Capital Luoyang!”
Yun Ye himself riding a hot air balloon was like forcing a duck onto a perch, so he held a welcoming attitude toward all people who liked to ride hot air balloons. Anyone who didn’t make him get on a hot air balloon was a good person and absolutely needed encouragement. At this moment, even if Ludongzan got on a hot air balloon, Yun Ye would caringly send him his family’s bearskin cloak to keep warm. The temperature drops by 0.6 degrees for every hundred meters the hot air balloon ascends—this was the only bit of knowledge Yun Ye had about the atmosphere.
Everyone raised their heads to look at the sky. A black dot the size of a fist shuttled through gaps in the clouds. Li Tai was so envious he was about to drool. He really wanted to see what was above the clouds.
Yun Shou also had a face full of longing, pulling at his father’s sleeve and continuously shaking it—he also wanted to fly up.
“Son, we’ll fly sooner or later. But before that, let others fly first. Just like the knowledge we’ve learned—it’s all good things that our ancestors carefully selected, meticulously annotated, and thoroughly understood. We can easily distinguish which knowledge is beneficial to us and which knowledge is harmful to us. Collecting the good things and throwing away the bad things—this is an effective learning process.”
“Riding in a hot air balloon and flying is the same. We need these brave people to continuously try and continuously summarize experience. After all the various drawbacks of hot air balloons are fully revealed, then we’ll go ride them. As long as we don’t touch those taboos, it will be very safe. Of course, summarizing experience will definitely require paying a price. The more wonderful something looks, the greater the price paid when trying it. This is an unchanging principle.”
“A while ago, the three guys who rode the hot air balloon were burned into charcoal. That’s right, your Uncle Yuwen and the others. When we attended the funeral, you saw how miserably Little Kai cried. His father wanted to try it, and as a result, something happened. In the future, if you don’t want Father to cry like Old Master Yuwen, and your children to cry like Little Kai, then don’t rashly try new things. If you really want to try, then let others help you achieve your goal. Don’t do it personally yourself. This is the way our family operates. You must remember this.”
Yun Shou’s head bobbed like a chicken pecking at rice. He pulled at his father’s sleeve, unwilling to let go. He had attended the funeral of Yuwen Huaji’s family with his father, and the sorrowful gloom of the Yuwen Family at that time had terrified Yun Shou. He hated that atmosphere of despair.
“You can live a thousand years!” Zhangsun sighed. Having finished listening to Yun Ye teach his son, although these words were being told to Yun Shou, they were actually also being told to herself and Li Tai. A gentleman does not stand beneath a dangerous wall—this was a principle proven since ancient times. She had been muddle-headed, and for the sake of a bit of empty fame, had caused three Zhangsun Family descendants flying in the sky to have uncertain fates.
Knights galloped across the earth. The hot air balloon in the sky raced through the air. The turbulent airflow at high altitude shifted unpredictably between east and west, and the knights on the ground followed in circles. The Zhangsun Family descendants were indeed extraordinary. Though clearly in extreme danger, they still refused to abandon their mission. Now they only needed to reduce the flame, and they might still be able to slowly descend to the ground. They seemed to have no intention of returning alive. Bright red small parachutes were continuously thrown down, with sturdy bamboo tubes hanging beneath them. Yun Ye believed these were preparations the Zhangsun Family had made to obtain the secrets above the clouds. Only at this moment did Yun Ye realize that the dozen or so teams of Zhangsun Family knights running chaotically on the ground were not searching for their own family members, but rather searching for those bamboo tubes thrown down from the hot air balloon.
Among the three people who had boarded the hot air balloon, Zhangsun Hui was from Yushan Academy. He should have been an elite member of the Zhangsun Family. In recent years, it was said he had gradually begun to take control of the Zhangsun Family’s actual power in Zhao Province. If not for his truly humble origins, he might even have surpassed Zhangsun Cheng to become the Zhangsun Family’s spokesman in Chang’an.
What was above the clouds? Who would know more clearly than Yun Ye? He had even ridden on airplanes. Apart from a brilliantly shining sun, there was nothing. If one wanted to see anything miraculous, going to space would be more appropriate. Was it worth it for the Zhangsun Family to pay such a great price just to look at the sun?
It seemed it was worth it, because whether it was Zhangsun or Zhangsun Wuji, both were very satisfied with the information in the bamboo tubes. When Li Tai wanted to take a look, he was scolded by Zhangsun. This was the Zhangsun Family’s secret, not the Li Family’s. If there was any achievement, it also needed Zhangsun Wuji to claim it. Zhangsun had married into the imperial family, so in principle she was no longer a person of the Zhangsun clan but had become a person of the Li Family. Zhangsun Wuji’s willingness to share the secret with his younger sister was loyalty and affection. Without Zhangsun Wuji’s permission, she absolutely would not mention this secret to the Emperor. This was the rule. The Emperor would not ask either. As for Li Tai, he had even less qualification to inquire.
“Ye-boy, we brothers also went up to the sky, though we flew rather low at the time and didn’t see the immortals above the clouds. Tell me, if we had flown through the cloud layer back then, would we have encountered the Dragon King of the North Sea distributing snow?”
“As a dragon descendant, if I went to greet my own ancestor and pay respects to the old man, he wouldn’t take offense, would he?”
“How is snow formed? I remember the Academy has experiments on this. Have you forgotten? What’s the matter? Feeling a bit depressed because they won’t let you see the information? If you want to know what’s above the clouds, ask your brother here. I know much more clearly than they do.”
“You know?”
“Yes! Very clearly. No one in all of Great Tang knows more clearly than I do, including those three people in the sky.”
“Then why didn’t you stop them from going up to the sky?”
“I was originally worried about whether His Majesty would make me go up to the sky to investigate the movements of the immortals. At this time, your cousin jumped out wanting to go. Why would I speak up unnecessarily?”