Yun Ye hid in the back courtyard looking at his five corn stalks. Each grew tall and sturdy, with purple exposed roots powerfully gripping the ground. Corn had already grown on both sides. He remembered it seemed better for each corn stalk to produce one cob, but he wasn’t certain, so he could only let nature take its course.

He shook a corn stalk, and much pollen drifted down from the tassel at the top. Corn was a monoecious plant—pollination was very convenient. Though somewhat perverse, Yun Ye quite liked it. If one didn’t consider the consequences of incestuous marriage, humans should be the same way. Too convenient—what need for finding wives or husbands? Just stick out a big belly yourself and bear children—that didn’t seem bad either.

Marrying a wife cost money, marrying off a daughter cost money—purely spending money to find trouble. Last time he met Li Anlan and fell in love, he nearly got fed to dogs. His anger still hadn’t subsided.

By comparison, Huang Shu was enviable. A plump wife—heard he went from proposing marriage to entering the bridal chamber in just half a day. She was diligent and capable, kept the house clean, and had quite the business acumen. She set up a fermented rice wine stall at the academy entrance. Very popular, with clean utensils all boiled in water, and the fermented rice wine was delicious with an aromatic wine fragrance.

This showed the drawbacks of noble status. Watching Yuchi Dasha take the Huozhu siblings to the stall downing bowl after bowl of fermented rice wine, the Li Tai and Li Ke brothers could only swallow their saliva. Liu Xian firmly refused the brothers’ desire to drink fermented rice wine—if they wanted it, they should have the kitchen cooks make it.

“I don’t want to eat leftovers anymore, never want to eat leftovers again. Every time the steamed buns given to me have been bitten, the thin porridge given to me has been drunk from. I’m a prince, not a dog eating leftovers. Next time anyone dares bite my steamed bun, I’ll bite them.”

This was trouble. Li Ke, who had a cleanliness obsession, immediately exploded. These past days, this child hadn’t had a good mood. Today not being allowed to drink fermented rice wine completely ignited his bad temper. His words came without thinking—didn’t he see Li Tai beside him already covered in black lines? His steamed buns were also often bitten by others, and some even broke them open to taste the filling.

“Third Brother, don’t make the attack too broad. Although I also hate eating leftovers, at worst call us brothers tyrannosaurus rexes eating leftovers and I have no objection. Just don’t mention dogs, okay?”

Ever since Yun Ye had people dig up the area around Rongzhou inside and out, gathering a large cart of stone bones that just arrived yesterday—seeing the huge bones, Yun Ye said they were dragon bones, mutated dragon bones. Didn’t they say dragons bore nine sons, each different? These were dragon bones. Standing inside the skull’s mouth, Li Tai felt the imperial family using dragons as their symbol was truly a brilliant decision.

Look at that mouth—swallowing a whole cow in one bite would be no problem. From then on, Li Tai spoke constantly of tyrannosaurus rex, as if he were that dragon that could swallow a whole cow in one bite.

Arriving with the bones was also a letter of rebuke from Empress Zhangsun, saying Yun Ye was stuffed with nothing better to do, bewitching Rongzhou officials into wasting state funds excavating useless objects. Since he liked bones so much, they were given to him, and by the way, the excavation costs should be settled—two thousand strings!

Empress Zhangsun had never displayed her legendary virtuous empress demeanor before Yun Ye, but rather was as caustic as possible. Even pin-sized matters had to be elevated to the level of character and morality.

Wasn’t it just a dinosaur skull? The government of later ages dug up all the bones in Zigong, built a house to store them, and even let people visit with admission fees collected—quite a lot too. Such a mutually beneficial matter, how could it not make sense here?

Already said dragons bore nine sons, each different—how could she still find fault? So what if the tyrannosaurus rex looked a bit ugly? It had merits too! Look at those two teeth—how big! Both a foot long! Could ordinary things grow such large teeth? Could only be a dragon, must be a dragon. Otherwise the Rongzhou officials would be in deep trouble. Can’t trap comrades, right? Two thousand strings? Small matter. This Marquis was so poor all that remained was money. Copper coins piled up in several rooms—who knew where they came from. Anyway, he could always see Old Granny leading aunts and sisters-in-law piling money inside. Her favorite thing to do was sit on money piles and giggle foolishly. Money wasn’t for piling up—it was for spending. Otherwise it was just a pile of rotten copper.

A spendthrift like Yun Ye—buying bones cost two thousand strings, then building houses all over Yushan. Others built with wood, Yun Ye built with stone. Stonemasons from a hundred miles around all gathered at Yushan, the clanging never-ending. Once refugees arrived in Lantian, without needing to speak, government runners immediately led able-bodied men to Yushan, had them build simple grass huts to live in, distributed the grain given by the court and that was it. Naturally harried stewards came to recruit—men, women, even eleven or twelve-year-old children could take hammers and pound stones.

The tenant farmers’ eyes turned red—never seen so many people coming to take advantage of the master’s household. Aside from elders and children who needed to raise pigs, chickens, and ducks, after using the new plow to thoroughly turn their own land and leave it to bake in the sun, everyone threw themselves into the great enterprise of building houses.

Li Ke was very busy, extremely busy. He couldn’t even find time to drink water, so he had no time to lose his temper. Yun Ye told him that building houses was his final exam—how to reduce costs to the minimum, how to use the least materials while still ensuring the houses were well-built. If either aspect went wrong, he’d get a zero. Yun Ye said he really would cast an iron zero and hang it around his neck, then parade him through the streets.

The precocious twelve-year-old, upon receiving this assignment, went weak in the knees. Thinking of the terrible consequences, he took over a dozen guards and ran back to Chang’an that very night, pounded on the palace gates, and complained to his father, requesting help—he didn’t want to wear a zero and parade through the streets.

His father said no comforting words. After pondering for a long time, he suddenly laughed, only giving him a few officials from the Ministry of Works. Finally, patting his son’s shoulder, he said if he got a zero and paraded through the streets, he would bring Consort Yang to watch. These words made Li Ke break out in cold sweat down his back.

He left as one person, returned with a large group. Consort Yang, afraid her son would parade through the streets, also enlisted several former Sui ministers to help her son.

The blueprints were drawn by Yun Ye—just exterior view drawings with nothing inside. The Ministry of Works officials cursed heaven and earth in fury, saying building houses by stacking stones was the height of absurdity. Who could lift two-thousand-pound stones over ten feet high? And complete it in three months—this was making things difficult. Three years wouldn’t be enough. The Prince’s zero was set in stone.

Li Ke smiled bitterly as he brought them to the construction site. Under the Ministry of Works officials’ dumbstruck gazes, Li Tai very impressively used a pulley system to hoist the huge stones, appearing leisurely. Someone beside him helped change the crane arm’s direction, easily placing the stone on the pillar. There were many such crane arms—each house had one, busily working nonstop.

The Ministry of Works officials nearly knelt down, demanding blueprints, wanting a crane arm to take back and study. Li Tai cursed them soundly, saying this was his final exam question. If you take it away, should I wear the zero? If the Emperor sees it, won’t he beat me to death?

Li Gang was also very busy. Dozens of letters went through postal relay to all directions, very much like a bandit chief calling friends together.

In distant Jinyang, two middle-aged scholars leisurely played chess, you one move, I one move, playing most happily. A servant boy poured wine for them—the warm wine going down, breathing out, extremely comfortable.

“Brother Wenjie, you must have already read Teacher Li’s letter. What do you think?” the white-robed scholar asked the blue-robed middle-aged man.

“When Teacher Li summons, naturally I’ll go. You and I have wasted years for some time. In a blink we’ve reached the age of knowing destiny. How much more time is there to waste? This elder brother came specifically to bid farewell to Worthy Brother Jinzhu. In three more days, this elder brother will depart for Yushan.”

“Younger brother has the same intention. In his letter, Teacher Li depicted Yushan as a paradise—how could one not go? Moreover, this time Teacher Li actually prepared residences and household items. He said we need only bring luggage to move in, and needn’t worry about settling-in matters—others will arrange everything. Younger brother is very curious where that young Marquis got Duke Tao Zhu’s abilities. Throwing out several thousand strings without batting an eye—if not for Teacher Li saying so, if others said such things, younger brother would certainly consider it nonsense.”

“Since that’s so, three days hence shall we two travel together?”

“Excellent.” Such conversations took place not only in Jinyang, but also in Chuzhou, Chuzhou, and even the most distant Yangzhou.

Just as Yun Ye frantically built stone houses, there was an even more fanatical monk who wanted to use iron to construct buildings. The name was already chosen—Iron Tile Temple. For a time it shook the realm. Yun Ye didn’t know how this master achieved rust prevention measures and decided to find an opportunity to ask him about it.

Watching the household’s money being carried away basket by basket, Old Granny’s heart ached like a knife was cutting it. At dinner she ate half a bowl less of rice, saying in a drawn-out tone: “Getting old. Better save half a bowl of rice to eat later when hungry at night.”

Auntie secretly laughed below. A chopstick flew over and rapped her forehead—she immediately quieted down.

“Grandma, money is for using. If you don’t use it, it’s just a pile of waste copper and scrap iron taking up space. Only money spent is money. Think about it—our family spends ten thousand strings, which means these ten thousand strings were all earned by disaster victims. They’ll use it to buy grain, then the money goes to wealthy households. Our family then sells perfume to the wealthy households, sells them various odds and ends. This way doesn’t the money return to our family storehouse? What increased in the middle? A great academy never before seen in history. The state gained tax revenue, disaster victims gained grain, wealthy households gained perfume. Everyone got what they wanted, yet our family lost nothing and gained an academy. With this academy, if you old lady want to pass down the Yun family for however many generations, you can. This is our family’s foundation—not those useless copper coins. If you like, grandson will go to Chang’an tomorrow and get you lots and lots of copper coins, fill the rooms, pile money all over your bed. Would you like that?”

Old Granny felt somewhat embarrassed.

“You’re the best grandma under heaven. Grandson doing this has his reasons. Money—you can’t bring it when born, can’t take it when you die. Seeing disaster victims everywhere, you don’t like it either, right? In the past you admonished me that accumulating virtue was better than accumulating money. How come in the end you feel distressed?” Yun Ye asked Old Granny with a smile. He had to untangle the old lady’s knot. She always wanted to save money—this was hoarding wealth. Besides the imperial family, no one could wear the hat of being the wealthiest under heaven. Whoever wore it died.