Section 18: Digging hard

Yun Ye did not stay in Chang’an. As soon as he left the palace, he rode fast to his fiefdom.

Chen Shuda’s situation was not something he could interfere with, and he didn’t want to add to the misery. With Li Er’s temper, Chen Shuda’s hope of getting out of this alive was just a dream. The large-scale distribution of titles at the founding of the dynasty had already made the titles of the Tang Dynasty less valuable than those of the former Sui Dynasty. Since he ascended the throne, he has only promoted the titles of six of his trusted ministers, but has stripped twenty-one of them. The two branches of the Prince Li Jiancheng and the Prince Li Yuanji have all fallen. Since then, the distribution of titles in the Tang Dynasty has become extremely cautious.

This has nothing to do with Yun Ye. He only knows that if his family is humiliated, he will take it back. There are no complicated political relationships, only hatred, not faction. This is Yun Ye’s simple view. As for teaming up, he will firmly hold Li Er’s thigh and follow him.

The horse galloped on the official road, the trees and flowers on both sides of the road receding in unison, the wind whistling in the ears, and the horse under his crotch seemed to know that Yun Ye was anxious to go home, and it whinnied and sped up. Zhuang San, who was behind him, and the others all shouted “good,” and they sped up and followed closely.

The old lady was waiting at the mouth of the village with her whole family, her heart pounding with anxiety, not knowing what kind of crisis her grandson would encounter in the palace. She could do nothing to help, except pray to the Buddha over and over again, hoping that her grandson would return safely.

When a cloud of dust rose in the distance, her heart was in her throat, and she prayed that this time she would not be disappointed.

It was her grandson who had returned. The old woman’s eyes flew open. Sure enough, her grandson’s horse swept across the land like a gust of wind, and the crops in the fields seemed to welcome his return, rising and falling like waves. The little girl lifted her skirt and ran over to her brother, her laughter as clear as a silver bell.

“Grandma, I’m back.” Yun Ye spoke as if he had just gone for a walk and then returned home to say hello to his grandmother, relaxed and natural.

“It’s good that you’re back. Go wash up. You’re all dirty like monkeys.” The old lady also acted as if nothing had happened.

Xiaoya rode on the horse’s neck, and Daya and Xiaoxi rode on the horse’s back. Zhuang San stopped a few times to see the Marquis, and hurriedly let the horse ride for the family’s young ladies. They led the horse back home all the way laughing.

Qian Tong wiped away tears and brushed the dust off the master’s body over and over again.

“That’s enough, enough. If you keep brushing, the clothes will tear.”

Li Gang was sitting in a chair reading a book, Mr. Yushan was playing chess with Mr. Lishi, and Mr. Yuanzhang was watching the game, occasionally criticizing Mr. Yushan for making a bad move and not behaving like a true gentleman who observes the game without saying a word.

Yun Ye came in with a smile, and before he could say anything, Li Gang said, “It seems that everything turned out as you expected. It was a close call!”

“If the kid had something happen, it would be a disgrace to your good name, since you wrote that poem.”

Li Gang was about to nod in satisfaction, but he asked anxiously, “Who said that poem was written by me? It was obviously written by you. I just copied it. Why is it being blamed on me?”

“His Majesty once asked about the origin of this poem and said that it was absolutely impossible for a man like me, who is ignorant and uneducated, to write it. The boy thought it was reasonable and had to say that it was your masterpiece.”

“Oh my god, I have been cautious all my life, although I am not worthy of the high reputation, I am still innocent. I don’t want to end up in my old age, and my reputation is ruined by you, you bastard. I will kill you…”

Happy lives are always similar. After escaping the old man’s clutches, Yun Ye lay comfortably in a rocking chair and let out a long sigh.

That night, the Yun family held a banquet, and the old gentlemen were drunk. Li Gang actually bragged to his old friends about how good his “Coal Seller” was.

He made his three old friends sober up.

At this time, in the low, damp dungeon of the academy, Huang Shu lay on his bed with his eyes closed, moving his wrists in boredom. His mind was empty, without any thoughts, like a dead man.

He actually had a lot to miss, such as the woman in Xinfeng who smiled sweetly at him. This was the first time a woman didn’t care about his ugly appearance, even if she was a seller of fermented rice.

He didn’t know why he sat down at the woman’s stall. He didn’t like to drink moromi, he only liked to drink wine, but that time he really wanted to try it. He noticed that the woman’s hands were very white, and there were a few shallow pits at the base of her knuckles. He hesitated for half a day before taking the moromi with the dried fruit from the woman’s hands. It was very sweet, just like the woman’s smile.

That afternoon, he did nothing but sit at the stall and drink the moromi. He drank six bowls of it, and the woman looked at him worriedly. He shook his head and said that he just liked to drink moromi.

From that day on, he developed a habit of going to Xinfeng to drink moro.

A grave robber shouldn’t stay in one place for too long, or something bad will happen. He made up his mind to leave several times, but the smiling face of the woman always appeared before his eyes.

The woman was not very beautiful, not as beautiful as the women he had slept with in the brothels, and she did not have the sweet fragrance of those women. She was just very clean, making him feel comfortable from the bottom of his heart. She must be a widow, otherwise her family would not let a woman go out to do business, and she is not a Hu Ji who is exposed to the skin.

Of course, if she wasn’t a widow, he, Huang, would make her a widow. Who said grave robbers didn’t kill? He had killed no fewer than ten people. There were ways to make a person die without any illness or disaster.

The terrifying marquis had shattered the most beautiful dream of his life. Whenever he thought about the past, no matter how beautiful the memories were, they would end with a basin of crimson blood. He always felt exhausted, and his arms were not as strong as they used to be. He blamed it all on the marquis, who had drained too much blood from him.

The little fat man who was curious about himself didn’t come today, perhaps because it was raining. He had been underground for many years, and he knew from the slight changes in the walls of his cell that it was raining heavily outside.

The footsteps outside the door gradually faded away, as the Yun family guards went to rest on the ground. An iron spoon slipped from his sleeve and, with a twist of his wrist, he held it in his hand. He slowly moved away from the bed, and a hole large enough for a person to pass through appeared in the wall. He skillfully crawled into it and dug with the spoon, which had been sharpened to a point. Fortunately, there were not many rocks here.

The lights in Yun Ye’s room were still on. The old gentlemen had drunk too much wine and were not suitable for walking at night, so they were arranged to stay at the Yun family and returned to the academy to sit in. As soon as they returned, they were stopped by the studious Li Tai to ask for help with math problems.

“Yezi, if a room eight feet wide and six feet long needs to be filled with soil, how many catties of soil will it take?”

“This problem can’t be solved.”

“Why can’t you calculate it? Didn’t you say that everything in the world can be measured?”

“Of course it can be measured. The question you asked lacks the necessary conditions. Can you tell me how much a piece of earth three feet long, three feet wide and three feet high weighs? Only when you know this condition can you solve your question.”

“Doesn’t this mean that to solve this type of problem, you need to know the weight of many things in a fixed size?” Li Tai looked at Yun Ye with his eyes wide open.

“Qingque, I have to admit that you really have a way with learning. You have a reputation for being smart since you were a child, and I dare not say that I can be your teacher, but I can lead you to the door. I believe you will be much stronger than me.” These are a few of Yun Ye’s few honest words. An eleven-year-old child has only derived the concept of density from a seemingly simple earthwork problem, which makes Yun Ye have to admire the power of the Li family genes.

“If I can measure everything I see, then it will be much easier for others to solve similar problems in the future, right?” Li Tai looked at Yun Ye carefully and was sure that he was not being sarcastic, so he asked again.

“With this alone, Qingque, you can make a name for yourself in the field of mathematics.” Yun Ye said with certainty.

Li Tai nodded proudly.

“Yezi, if I know these things, can I use them in the cylindrical calculation you mentioned?”

“Of course, I only mentioned the calculation of the cylinder in general to give you an idea. It’s still too early to learn it, except for you, of course. By the way, Qingque, when did you become interested in earthwork and cylinders?

“Since I discovered yesterday that the floor in the tomb raider’s cell was an inch higher…”