That damned Tianmoji—why did she teach Xiao Ya such things when she had nothing better to do?
Yun Ye spent considerable effort explaining to Xiao Ya that a dragon’s son wasn’t called a turtle. He emphasized the difference between Baxia, who carried stone tablets, and turtles—these two were completely different. One was a divine beast, the other was food—there was no comparability.
After hearing her brother’s explanation, Xiao Ya excitedly ran to the Yongzhou government office to see Baxia. Before long, she came back crying bitterly, saying aggrievedly to her brother: “They’re still the same!”
Xiao Ya’s crying alarmed Grandmother, who tottered over and gave Xiao Ya a sound slapping. Yun Ye quickly shielded Xiao Ya behind him and said apologetically to Grandmother: “Grandmother, this grandson took it upon himself to handle Xiao Ya’s matter. Please don’t be angry.”
“What am I angry about? You’re the elder brother. With your parents gone, arranging a marriage for your younger sister is exactly what you should do. What’s more, His Majesty personally spoke up. Xiao Ya will marry as the principal consort, not a concubine—this is a great joyous occasion. What Grandmother is angry about is that you’ve spoiled this girl. In such a major matter, where does she have any place to interrupt? If she marries over like this, it will be the Yun family who loses face.”
After finishing with Yun Ye, she sternly said to Xiao Ya: “What turtle? Grandmother has also met young You—he’s a very well-mannered child. His appearance isn’t bad, and he’s read many books. In what way is he unworthy of you? If you dare speak nonsense again, I’ll tear your mouth apart. Starting now, you begin preparing your wedding clothes. Have Moji teach you palace etiquette. Next year when we return to Chang’an, we’ll arrange the wedding early.”
In the whole family, Xiao Ya only feared Grandmother. She argued and quarreled with Xinyue without any fear at all, unlike Xiao Dong, Xiao Nan, Xiao Xi, and Xiao Bei, who were quite afraid of Xinyue.
Xiao Dong was betrothed to Xu Jingzong’s second son and would marry when they returned to the capital. Xiao Nan was actually the most gentle among the sisters—mild-tempered, keeping everything in her heart without speaking. Xinyue said Xiao Nan seemed to have taken a liking to a student at the Academy. Xiao Xi and Xiao Bei were still carefree, planning to continue eating off their brother at home.
With Grandmother stepping in, Xiao Ya had no temper left. She carefully followed Grandmother toward the back courtyard, pitifully looking back at her brother, wanting him to plead for her. At this time, Yun Ye could only harden his heart and watch her be dragged away by Grandmother to learn etiquette.
“Not one of the young ladies at home gives me peace of mind. If Xiao Ya marries into the imperial palace like this, she’ll be the mistress of Prince Qi’s fief in the future. Husband, do you think it will harm her?”
“What His Majesty values is precisely Xiao Ya’s wild nature. Prince Qi You has an unstable temperament, poor ability to discern people’s hearts, and soft ears besides. Marrying Xiao Ya is best. Consort Yin also means this. When the man of the house doesn’t measure up, there must be a capable mistress to manage the household—just like when I married you, only then could the family business flourish.”
Xinyue most liked hearing Yun Ye speak this way. Every time she heard words praising herself, she would lean her body against her husband. This time she couldn’t—their two-year-old son was pulling her hair, demanding her attention.
How could Yun Ye possibly be unfamiliar with something like frying fried dough sticks? Adding alum to flour could produce fragrant, crispy fried dough sticks. In the kitchen, Yun Ye would immediately shed the increasingly formed dignity of a superior and become a homemaking husband. In the kitchen, he generally didn’t like cooks helping. Previously, Grandmother also wouldn’t permit cooks on site—she would personally help rather than have outsiders present, believing this damaged the family head’s dignity. However, these past few years as she aged, she had become more open-minded. Her grandson liked going to the kitchen to make a few pastries never seen before to honor her—this was the child’s heartfelt intention and couldn’t be considered shameful.
Yun Mu followed Li Rong and ran off without a trace. Li Anlan was in Guangzhou handling affairs with her daughter. That Na Rimu came in dressed like a fairy, with Lingdang following behind holding a child.
Xinyue most disliked how Na Rimu liked to dress gaudily. Whenever she saw the seductive Na Rimu, she wanted to lose her temper. Today, seeing her husband in good spirits, she wouldn’t add to the aggravation.
Yun Ye took Yun Xiang and kissed her. The child, already over a year old, had two sparkling, beautiful eyes. The pearl-diving woman craned her neck to curiously look into the kitchen—she had never seen the dignified marquis personally cook.
The cooking fumes from frying fried dough sticks were choking. Yun Ye chased Lingdang and the children out, telling them to wait outside the door. When they were fried, he would give them some to eat. Lingdang most loved the foods her husband made, holding the child full of anticipation.
Li Tai was like this—he seemed to have grown a dog’s nose. Whenever Yun Ye planned to cook, he would arrive as expected. The fried dough sticks had only been fried for about a dozen pieces when a servant reported that Prince Wei had arrived.
At the Yun household, Li Tai never had the self-awareness of being a guest. The servant reported in front while he spoke from behind. In the end, he even kicked the servant aside. Xinyue glared at Li Tai resentfully, then took the fried dough sticks and led Na Rimu and Lingdang to Grandmother’s place to taste them. Such small strips of dough fried to become this big—they must be delicious.
“Your wife doesn’t seem to like me much.” Li Tai watched in amazement as the fried dough sticks expanded in the oil pot while complaining.
“This kind of time is actually the best time for enhancing marital feelings. We were being tenderly affectionate and you burst in. If it were me, I wouldn’t like you either. However, that woman of yours isn’t bad. When I left there was no movement, and when I returned you had already had a daughter. Now her belly seems big again. When you go home next year, you’ll have both sons and daughters.”
Speaking of this matter, Li Tai proudly blew on the hot air, picked up a fried dough stick to eat, and said to Yun Ye with laughter: “The south is fire in the Heavenly Stems system—good for men. With strong fire energy, bedroom affairs become frequent. When bedroom affairs are frequent, hehehe, offspring naturally come. Mr. Sun said my body has been repaired by the south’s fire energy. Previously in Chang’an, hiding in Wude Hall without seeing daylight, my body had cold energy. Now it’s gone.”
Yun Ye chuckled and continued using the long bamboo chopsticks to poke at the fried dough sticks in the oil pot. Ever since Li Tai learned that Li Chengqian hadn’t walked the worst path and his father had also achieved great victory in Liaodong, his entire person immediately recovered his spirits. His life was extremely carefree. When a person’s spirits are up, appetite follows suit. He ate three fried dough sticks in succession, his eyes still fixed on the fourth one in the oil pot.
“This thing is fine for eating at breakfast. Paired with tender tofu and a small dish of pickled vegetables, the taste is very good. Eating it at other times actually doesn’t accord with the way of health preservation. Fried foods are delicious but easily cause internal heat.”
“Internal heat is good! Perfect for having a few more children. My mother empress used to say I wasn’t prosperous in offspring and worried about me very much. Now it’s fine—there are already three children, and one more in the belly. With four children, Mother Empress surely won’t complain anymore.”
“Speaking of serious matters, I sent away the Phoenix, and also sent away that ship of yours that’s so beautiful it’s unreasonable. Do you think my mother empress will like it? I always feel that since we can’t go back for her birthday celebration, isn’t that somewhat unfilial?”
“No. Filial piety kept in the heart is enough. We’re forced by circumstances to flee ten thousand li away, not having disputes with our own relatives—that’s the greatest filial piety. Qing Que, in another year, we’ll return to Chang’an. Have you thought about what you’ll do?”
Li Tai pulled out a piece of paper from his bosom and waved it at Yun Ye, saying: “During the half year you went to Liaodong, I wasn’t idle either. With nothing better to do, Hipatia and I tinkered with this thing. Take a look.”
Yun Ye wiped his oily hands on his apron, called the cook over to help, and he himself came with Li Tai to the shade of the trees. Opening the paper and looking once, he was stunned. This was Archimedes’ principle—it shouldn’t be anything novel.
Li Tai rubbed his hands and said: “After I determined density, when Hipatia was correcting documents, she inadvertently told me about ancient Western sages. Among them was this philosopher from eight hundred years ago, Archimedes. He could distinguish the gold and silver content without damaging a crown. This is very remarkable.”
“However, I’m not interested in these things. What interests me is the buoyancy theory he proposed. After sitting on ships at sea for so long, I developed an aversion. I remember you said before that steel could also float on water and did experiments with a copper chamber pot. Indeed it was so. Then I thought, both air and water have buoyancy—it’s just that one is large and one is small. If the water surface can support steel, then by extension, can air also support steel?”
“A copper block naturally cannot float on water, but made into a copper basin there’s no problem. Since air also has buoyancy, as long as I roll this copper block thin enough and make a copper basin large enough, won’t it also be able to float up?”
Although this argument was only half correct and the understanding of air was ridiculously wrong, Yun Ye had no intention of mocking at all. He couldn’t imagine the scene of himself floating around the world sitting in a copper basin in the future. But since Li Tai had developed an interest in flight, he would walk down his own line of thinking. Although he took the wrong path from the start, Yun Ye believed that through correction after correction, he would arrive at the correct path.
“Qing Que, go do an experiment. You forcefully pump air into a thin glass bottle, then make a balance scale with both sides maintaining equilibrium. Then open the bottle stopper and see what changes occur with the balance. Then find a pig’s bladder and do the same experiment—see what’s different.”
Li Tai looked up at Yun Ye and said: “You mean air has weight? You’ve said before that everything in the world can be expressed with numbers. Could it really be so? What’s the purpose of me doing this experiment?”
“After you do it, you’ll know. If I tell you, it would seem too straightforward. Young man, on the path of physics, you still have a long road to walk. What are your views on light? Don’t mention Mozi’s pinhole imaging—what are your views on the macroscopic world and microscopic world? Do you know how lightning is produced? Do you know what principle forms the compass? Why can it always point north and south? Qing Que, exhausting your entire life on the study of physics is far from enough. Ten lifetimes wouldn’t be enough. You’ll be busy.”
Regarding Yun Ye’s rhetoric, Li Tai scoffed. With his own financial resources, his own manpower, his own wisdom, he would always reach the pinnacle. He didn’t want to argue with Yun Ye about this matter. Suddenly remembering something, he said to Yun Ye: “There’s a wine reception you absolutely must attend—they’ve already sent an invitation.” Saying this, he laughed wildly and handed an invitation to Yun Ye.
Completely baffled, Yun Ye opened the invitation only to discover it was Hipatia’s invitation. On it, written crookedly with brush characters, were the words: “Respectfully invite Marquis Yun Ye of Lantian to attend Hipatia’s menarche celebration.”
How old was she to only now have her first period? Cold sweat came down from Yun Ye’s forehead!