Chapter 17: Wood is beautiful in the forest

People pray to heaven for good things to happen, but this kind of wish is often not fulfilled. People pray that disasters will not fall on them, but this kind of wish is also often not fulfilled. The more you pray, the more disasters will come.

Heaven does not like to do what people hope for, and the son of heaven, Li Er, is no exception.

Yun Ye clearly hoped that Li Er would forget about himself at this time, but the great emperor stood in front of him.

“Come back to the palace with me.”

“I’m sixteen this year, it’s not convenient to go to the palace, is it?”

“You’ve grown up, you know. You trampled on other people’s houses, and you conspired with Li Gang to write a bad poem for me, which made me sad. You don’t have the talent to write poetry. Tell me honestly, who wrote it, Li Gang or Xin Yushan?”

“Your Majesty has a discerning eye. You can tell at a glance that this poem is not from me. I don’t know which of the four scholars wrote it either.”

With a bang, he got a kick in the leg. “Good skills. It’s been less than three months since you got together, and you’ve already become friends with four great scholars. Li Gang is famous for being a lonely minister. Except for a few friends in the study, he never deals with court officials. Getting his petition for mercy is not an ordinary face. Even if you are guilty, I will forgive you for the sake of his lifelong hard work for the Tang Dynasty.

Yun Ye didn’t care about money, and he valued sincerity as much as his own life. He had only given them papaya, and they had repaid him with jade. For his little trouble, he had broken his own long-standing precepts, and his caring heart was unmistakable.

A strange scene appeared in the palace. Yun Ye was escorted by the emperor to the empress. As long as he walked a little slower, Li Er would kick Yun Ye in the butt with his big foot. The palace servants were amused and surprised. Seeing this scene, they all lowered their heads and left quickly.

Changsun came out to greet the emperor. Seeing this strange scene, she couldn’t help but cover her mouth and laugh.

“Greetings, Your Majesty.” Yun Ye was finally relieved to see the empress appear.

“This bold and reckless kid is in the hands of the empress.” He then turned to Yun Ye and said ominously, “Hey, in another year, you will be in my hands.

“Stand here and reflect.” The empress ignored him and just made him stand.

He quietly moved two steps to the shade, looked around to see if anyone was there, then leaned against the railing for a moment.

He had slept too late last night and got up too early today. The warm sun on his head made him fall asleep without realizing it.

Yun Ye was sleeping soundly when he was suddenly woken by the sound of chattering. He was startled. This was the imperial palace. How could he have fallen asleep? It seemed that he had just been punished by the empress for standing there.

First, keep your eyes closed and don’t open them until you judge the situation.

“Sister, look, he’s drooling. It’s disgusting.” The voice was a little familiar. It was a little girl’s voice.

“Mr. said that only horses sleep standing up. Is he a horse?” Huh? Another little girl.

“Yun Hou, wake up, Yun Hou, wake up, this is not a place to sleep.” It was another soft voice.

When he opened his eyes, he saw several little girls standing in front of him, ranging in age from ten to five. He looked up at the sky and saw that it was already noon. The princes and princesses in the palace were all out of school at this time. The biggest one in front of him was his former classmate, Princess Xiangcheng. She was busy trying to stop her younger sisters from harassing Yun Ye, especially Princess Lanling, who was only five years old and had just been holding a flower stalk in her hand to scratch Yun Ye’s nostrils.

“Yunyu has seen all the princesses.” He was an old acquaintance, so there was nothing embarrassing about it.

“Why did General Yun fall asleep outside the Empress’s chambers? Xiangcheng has always been gentle, even her speech is soft. Seeing her, Yun Yue couldn’t help but think of the woman who almost killed him. They were both Li Er’s daughters, but the difference was too great. One was gentle as water, and the other was violent as fire.

He shook his head to get rid of the messy thoughts in his head and smiled and said to Xiangcheng, “I accidentally made a mistake and was punished by the Empress to stand in the corner.”

Lanling looked at Yun Ye, saw that he had no food on him, and said with a pout, “Standing punishment from the Empress? You were obviously sleeping. I’m going to tell the Empress and have her punish you severely, unless you promise to bring me the kind of bones you had last time.”

Lanling’s words resonated with the sisters, all staring at Yun Ye with wide eyes waiting for his answer.

Li Er’s family, for some reason, were all pure carnivores. The last time he brought a large pot of braised ribs to Cheng Qian, he didn’t eat many pieces, and they were all wiped out by his sisters.

It is no wonder that the family is named after a dragon. Yun Ye now feels that the surrounding people are not cute little lolis, but young carnivorous dragons from the Jurassic period with drooling mouths. Xiangcheng was a little embarrassed and changed the subject, asking, “What exactly did Yun Hou do to make the empress angry?”

“Nothing, just taking a few dozen people and riding horses to smash someone’s house to pieces.”

Oh? The little girls were full of admiration. They had never done anything like that before, so they kept asking why.

Yun Ye told them the whole story, emphasizing his noble sentiments of not fearing violence and avenging the weak and elderly. He then used a trick to describe how he used a large hammer to open the door of the evil merchant’s house with one blow, and how he fought the evil merchant for 300 rounds, finally breaking the evil merchant’s thigh with the last blow, venting the anger of the weak and the world.

Xiangcheng looked down on him with contempt but said nothing, Lanling opened his eyes wide and fell into a fantasy, and Nanping’s small mouth opened and closed as if there were thousands of words of worship to be said.

“So not only can I not punish you, I have to reward you. Right?”

“Yes, yes, a young hero like me…” When did the empress come out? These little girls didn’t say a word, and looking at their gloating smiles, Yun Ye knew that he had been tricked again.

“You are so young, but you are extremely ruthless. Last time it was a rogue, this time it is a vicious merchant, and it also involves Jiang Guogong. You are really getting bolder and bolder. I don’t know what trouble you will cause next time.” The empress was angry. Yun Ye felt that the empress was really angry this time, and her words carried a strong sense of hatred for iron that could not be tempered.

“For the sake of a moment of pleasure, you don’t want to think about the consequences. If Li Wenji doesn’t plead for you and tell the truth this time, you will suffer greatly.”

“Your Majesty, since I have been bestowed with a title by Your Majesty, I will cherish it, but I really can’t stand vermin that harm the interests of our great Tang Dynasty.”

“I’m afraid you can’t stand to see the farmers in your village suffer. You’re so protective of your family, you’ve learned a lot from Cheng Zhizhang.” He paused and said, “Qingque told me that you have a plan to get rich, but is it true?”

“Your Majesty, I was just joking. I have a salary, so I don’t need to go around looking for money.” He quickly tried to distance himself from the matter, but he had mentioned it to Li Tai, and he had actually told his own mother.

“It’s best not to. You’re too smart. Once you focus your mind on a certain place, there will be amazing changes that are hard to defend against. So you have to be careful, don’t go too far, handle Yushan Academy well, and let a group of people as smart as you are your way to success. Otherwise, the wood that is too showy in the forest will be destroyed. You understand this principle.” Empress Changsun was somewhat earnest.

Perhaps it was a problem brought about by later generations, Yun Ye was not good at dealing with women, especially not good at dealing with beautiful women. In front of Li Er, he could still resist a little, and even fight back a little. In front of Changsun, he could only surrender.

This is probably why Li Er let the empress deal with Yun Ye.

As Yun Ye walked out of the palace, he was still thinking about the queen’s words. “Wood is beautiful in the forest.”

Yes, I am different from everyone in the Tang Dynasty. It is as obvious as a wild boar in a flock of sheep. Many people think that Lord Yun is smart, but only I know if I am smart. If I take away my extra knowledge, who am I smarter than? Thinking of this, I felt a great sense of depression.

Lingdeng saw Yun Ye coming from afar and was very happy. Her rabbit teeth were showing and she was ready to hide behind the rockery to scare him. She found that Yun Ye was not coming to the Tingtao Pavilion, but was walking straight to the road out of the palace.

She was a little disappointed, and then a little aggrieved. Big tears were in her eyes, but she was strong and didn’t shed them.