When Yun Ye left home in the morning, Xinyue fiercely kissed her husband on the face, then pressed her forehead against her husband’s forehead affectionately for quite a while. Finally, she said with emotion: “My husband looks truly heroic today.”

Whether it was a lie or not, having this sentence could make someone happy all day. So when Yun Ye was organizing and training his troops, he was always smiling. When a young soldier stood in the wrong formation, he didn’t use the whip to strike him but just had his father come out first to teach his son how to stand in formation. Seeing that young soldier’s expression of wanting to commit suicide, Yun Ye was delighted. How wonderful—in his army there were many father-and-son soldiers. The combat strength would definitely be excellent! Hadn’t he heard that saying? When fighting tigers, rely on your brothers; when going to battle, rely on father and son!

After drilling all day, Yun Ye sat in his chair exhausted to death. Those military officers who had been crawling and rolling on the drill ground were even more pitiful to behold. Lai Chuanfeng held a whip supervising those new recruits. In the dead of winter, he wouldn’t let them wear clothes—they had to bare their backs and use wooden mallets to pound stakes. This was hard physical work that every new recruit had to experience. Upon entering the military camp, toughening muscles and bones was the first priority.

Half-squinting his eyes, riding Wang Cai toward home, a fat man in moon-white robes appeared ahead, standing in the middle of the road loudly shouting the highway robbery call of “This mountain was opened by me, this tree was planted by me!”

Liu Jinbao didn’t move, nor did he let the personal guards move. Yun Ye didn’t recognize him at first glance. At the second look, he became delighted. Yun Ye now discovered he had become much simpler—just a little bit of happiness could make him cheerful for a long time. Especially seeing a fellow who was much more handsome than himself turn into a fat man made his heart immediately float to the clouds. That pleasant feeling was truly not something that could be explained to outsiders.

“Xiao Ke, you’ve finally returned! Haven’t seen you for three or four years—I missed you to death! It seems the land and water of Wu truly nourish people. Ever since your fief was moved to Wu, we’ve never met again. You’ve become stout! No question about it—tomorrow I’ll gather the brothers to welcome you, let everyone see Prince Wu Ke’s style!”

Yun Ye happily grabbed Li Ke’s hand and shook it vigorously, never imagining this thick-browed fellow would have such a day.

Li Ke pulled his hand from Yun Ye’s grasp and said with a laugh: “Where did you learn this bad habit? When you meet royalty, you like to grab people’s hands and won’t let go. Did you think I don’t know about the great fame of ‘Song of the Yue People’? When did you start liking the masculine breeze? The matter of you and Qing Que both liking ‘Song of the Yue People’ has long spread across the great rivers and north and south. Look clearly—I’m Li Ke, not Li Tai.”

No matter. As a noble, without a bit of romantic scandal, could you be called a noble? Without doing something to disgrace your ancestors, could you be called a wastrel? Yun Ye had long forgotten about the ‘Song of the Yue People’ incident. In any case, this wasn’t the first time he’d lost face.

“I returned to the capital this time to celebrate my mother’s birthday. Neither Xiao An nor I were here. Fortunately, you often went to see her and helped my mother build such a large greenhouse to dispel her worries. You fulfilled filial piety for us two brothers—this younger brother is endlessly grateful.”

Yun Ye didn’t avoid this bow, nor was there any need. He had done the deed, so receiving his bow was appropriate, lest he always feel he owed a favor.

“This time, to lose weight, I specially rode a horse from Wujun to the capital—truly travel-worn all the way. Tomorrow when we feast together, it’s as it should be. Right now asking you to cook is probably difficult, so tonight just make me a bowl of noodles—I’m craving it to death!”

Yun Ye looked at the panting precious horse beneath his crotch and asked with some concern: “How effective was the weight loss?”

“Heaven knows what’s going on—not only did I not lose weight, I actually gained two jin. But my mother is very pleased. She thinks I was too weak before.”

“A mother’s thoughts are like that—wishing her son could grow as sturdy as a mountain. But speaking of it, haven’t you been practicing swordsmanship and riding horses these past years? How could you get this fat?”

“Ye Zi, you don’t understand. Being fat is good, being fat is good…”

Consort Yang’s birthday was very low-key. Li Er, Zhangsun, and Consort Yin all sent gifts. Yun Ye also sent a gift along with them, but unexpectedly was pulled over by Li Ke to keep him company.

There was no banquet. Consort Yang entertained guests in her own greenhouse. Li Er didn’t know where he’d gone. Zhangsun did come over, and Li Tai also emerged from underground to mooch food and drink. Li Chengqian couldn’t linger because of his status—he sent gifts and left.

Consort Yang proudly showed off her achievements to Zhangsun and Consort Yin. When she reached a proud point, she would actually laugh heartily. This was different from the Consort Yang that Yun Ye knew. It seemed labor truly could transform a person.

Yun Ye discovered strawberries—unfortunately they were wild strawberries, tiny little things. But they looked very delicious, especially in such freezing weather. Looking down on those two brothers chewing cucumbers, he found himself a small bowl and quickly picked a bowlful. He washed them clean in the water jar, but before he started eating, Li Tai snatched them and gave them to the Empress.

Zhangsun took one and gently bit into it. Perhaps the flavor suited her taste, so she invited Consort Yang and Consort Yin to eat together. Yun Ye glared at Li Tai—that clump of wild strawberries only had those ripe ones; the rest were all green and inedible.

“Kunlun purple melons!” Li Ke picked one and started eating. Perhaps his tastes differed from others—he ate eggplant with great satisfaction. Yun Ye found several watermelons, knocked on them, and regretfully shook his head. Not one was ripe. The Yun family had already harvested one crop.

This year’s winter was rather cold. Many bamboos had frozen to death. The Academy was quite worried now—the pandas’ feed for next year had become a problem. It was impossible for pandas not to eat bamboo.

Unexpectedly, Consort Yang would actually plant bamboo in the greenhouse, and quite a lot of it. In the small bamboo grove was a very small wooden cabin. When Yun Ye wanted to look, Zhangsun slapped him back. A thin little girl walked out from the wooden cabin, calling out to Zhangsun “Mother Empress” like a kitten.

So it was Princess Si’s boudoir. No wonder Zhangsun had slapped him. Yun Ye clasped his hands behind his back and looked Princess Si up and down. Not bad, just terribly thin. Sun Simiao wanted her to control her weight in hopes of reducing the burden on her heart.

This was a very shy little girl. Even though everyone present was a very familiar relative, she still rarely spoke. Unless the pandas were harmed, she would never get angry.

This year’s winter was too cold, so Li Er had brought her back to the palace from the Academy. Who would have thought she’d actually be living in the greenhouse? Although it was warm here, it was also very humid. What suited plant growth didn’t necessarily suit human habitation—this was common sense. Weren’t any of the imperial physicians in the palace objecting? Yun Ye’s brow immediately furrowed.

Li Tai nudged Yun Ye with his shoulder and said quietly: “You think letting Princess Si live in the greenhouse is inappropriate?”

“Indeed inappropriate. It’s too humid here. It’s better to have her live in the palace to the north. As long as attention is paid to warmth, it’s much better than here. This place belongs to plants. When Consort Yang labors here, naturally it can cultivate body and mind. Princess Si is different—she needs special care, especially more sun exposure.”

“Simple. With so many rooms in the palace, we’ll definitely find a suitable one for Princess Si.” Li Ke interjected.

As the three were talking, Yun Ye felt someone tugging his sleeve. Turning his head, he discovered Princess Si standing right behind him, saying quite loudly: “Brother-in-law, the bamboo the pandas eat is all freezing to death! What should we do? There’s too little bamboo here!”

“Don’t worry, pandas can also eat meat. That creature might like eating meat.” Yun Ye answered very irresponsibly.

Princess Si was obviously stunned. She was just physically weak—her mind wasn’t poor. On the contrary, she was quite clever. Hearing Yun Ye was brushing her off, tears immediately began swirling in her eyes.

Yun Ye said helplessly: “What can be done about this? This year’s winter is terribly cold. I heard the Yellow River has frozen solid. Now what’s running on the river aren’t boats but sleds. Bamboo by nature isn’t very cold-resistant. Freezing to death is unavoidable. However, there’s still very much bamboo in Shu and quite a bit in Hanzhong too. As long as you ask your several brothers to find a way, they’ll definitely get you very much bamboo. I guarantee not one of your pandas will starve to death. Before that, we’ll feed the pandas meat and grain.”

Zhangsun originally wanted to scold Yun Ye for not being able to exhaust the people and drain resources just for a few pandas. But seeing Princess Si’s pleading eyes, she gritted her teeth and said: “First look for bamboo in Guanzhong. After the remaining bamboo in Guanzhong is eaten up, Mother Empress will have the inner palace stewards transport bamboo back. We can’t have your brothers mobilize corvée laborers—that wouldn’t be good.”

Li Tai grabbed his little sister’s hand and said: “It’s a small matter. Brother happens to have nothing to do these days—I’ll help you look for bamboo. We are imperial nobles—what’s the big deal about a few bamboo stalks? There seems to still be living bamboo at brother’s residence. Tomorrow I’ll have it cut down to feed the pandas.”

Seeing Li Tai speak so heroically, Li Ke also came over and said: “A couple days ago brother ate noodles at Yun Ye’s house. The bamboo at his place is growing quite well too. When the time comes, we’ll cut it together. I looked—enough for the pandas to eat several meals.”

Seeing Princess Si become happy, Consort Yang tenderly pulled Princess Si to her own hall. Since Yun Ye said Princess Si wasn’t suitable for recuperating here, it was better to take Princess Si away early. If something happened to Princess Si, Li Er would definitely become extremely crazy. It wouldn’t be good to implicate others.

When Yun Ye came out of the palace, it was already afternoon. Li Ke seemed to have something to say.

“Whatever you want to say, just say it. Don’t hem and haw—it’s hard to watch. Is there anything we can’t say to each other?”

“Do you know why I became this fat?”

“Apart from eating your way to it, I can’t think of any reason.”

Tears suddenly flowed from Li Ke’s eyes as he choked out: “You don’t know—someone divined my fate, saying I have a dragon’s neck and phoenix shoulders, incomparably noble. Then someone told me that as long as I ate myself fat, I could avoid calamity.”

Yun Ye looked into Li Ke’s eyes and asked: “Do you want to become incomparably noble?”

“I don’t. I only wish to peacefully live out this life.” Li Ke spoke decisively.

Yun Ye nodded, finally understanding why he had met Yuan Shoucheng, and why only Li Ke came for Consort Yang’s birthday while Li An didn’t come. This was too much. Li Er was planning to have Yuan Shoucheng see exactly how Li Ke was incomparably noble.

But this idea of getting fat was quite wonderful! Yun Ye couldn’t help but think of another fat man, Li Yuanxiang. He felt that fat men nowadays should not be underestimated.