"Very well," Tang Yuanlin nodded.
He personally led Yun Shu to a small, unused room in the rear courtyard of the Ministry of Works.
"This room was used for similar experiments in the past. The efforts did not succeed, but the tools and equipment remain. If Your Highness requires anything, simply give the word."
"Then I must trouble you to find me a reliable assistant," Yun Shu said without hesitation. "Also, I'll be drawing a simple design shortly. It's nothing complicated, but I'll need your help finding a blacksmith to forge it."
"This old official will see to it at once."
Her requests were far from unreasonable, and Tang Yuanlin moved quickly to fulfill them.
Not long after, a familiar figure entered.
"Grand Preceptor Ye? Why is it you?"
"Lord Tang said Your Highness needed someone trustworthy, so I volunteered," Ye Qing'an replied with rare eagerness showing in his usually composed features. "I heard Your Highness may have discovered a method to produce low-cost paper?"
"Possibly. Whether it succeeds depends on today's results."
Yun Shu directed Ye Qing'an to fetch the bark she had requested the Ministry to soak in advance two days earlier. She then took out her feather quill and drew a simple diagram before handing it to Tang Yuanlin.
"This is what I mentioned just now. I'll need four of these forged today."
"This is no trouble," Tang Yuanlin agreed readily.
At first, he had half-wondered whether Yun Shu was about to produce some ground-breaking invention that needed secrecy. But one look at the drawing showed only a small curved piece of iron.
Such a thing, he thought, could be made by even an apprentice blacksmith.
He didn't ask what purpose the piece served, simply took the drawing and departed.
Ye Qing'an returned carrying a bucket of soaked bark. He caught a glimpse of the drawing in Yun Shu's hand, enough to see that it was some kind of design, but not enough to understand what it was.
Curiosity sparked in his gaze.
"Your Highness, besides the low-cost paper, have you invented something else?"
"Nothing novel—just four little shoes," Yun Shu said casually.
"Shoes?" Ye Qing'an blinked, then gave it no further thought. He assumed she had simply sketched a dainty shoe pattern and wanted someone to make her a pair.
He had no particular interest in such things and didn't ask further.
Instead, it was Yun Shu who recalled something Tang Yuanlin had mentioned earlier. She turned the conversation.
"Grandfather said that whenever you have spare time lately, you're always working on strange and curious inventions?"
"Yes."
Ye Qing'an looked slightly embarrassed.
"Before I entered government service, my teacher once asked me why I wished to do so. I answered that I hoped to serve the people. He then asked what, precisely, I believed I could contribute."
He paused, then sighed.
"To my shame, I thought long and hard but never found a satisfactory answer."
"Why not?" Yun Shu asked, puzzled. "Surely Grand Preceptor knows his own strengths?"
"Yes—and no," Ye Qing'an replied with a weary smile.
"I felt that everything I could offer, others could also do. Whether judging unjust cases, providing relief during disasters, or administering a province—none of these tasks required me specifically."
Yun Shu was silent.
Clearly, this was a level of introspection that her leisurely soul had never considered.
"But then, on the first day I came to the study hall to teach Your Highness and the Sixth Prince, something Your Highness said struck me."
The melancholy in Ye Qing'an's eyes vanished, replaced by a spark of something else—pure, unfiltered curiosity. The kind of passion only a true scholar felt toward the unknown.
"Your Highness created the feather quill and introduced movable type printing, bringing immense benefit to the common people. It made me realize… perhaps my true purpose lies not in conventional service, but in innovation. If I devote all I have learned to creating tools and knowledge that improve daily life, then I too may serve the realm in a way that others cannot."
"No wonder Father Emperor holds Grand Preceptor Ye in such high regard," Yun Shu said with admiration. "He once said you are unlike any other official at court."
Such clarity of purpose.
Such a perfectly suited laborer and scapegoat!
Yes. It would be him.
Now that she thought about it, any future inventions of hers could simply be "refined" by Ye Qing'an. She wouldn't need to overextend herself, and Imperial Father wouldn't suspect her of being overly capable—thus sparing her from even more responsibility.
Her expression brightened with approval and satisfaction.
"Grand Preceptor Ye."
"Yes?"
"This bark looks soft enough now. We'll need to sort through it and discard the inferior pieces."
"Understood."
The papermaking process itself was not particularly complicated, but several steps required time and patience.
The two of them worked for over four hours. By the time they finally produced several damp sheets of paper, the sun was already setting.
There was no time to wait for the paper to dry completely. Yun Shu handed off the task to Ye Qing'an.
"Whether this batch is usable will depend on how it performs after drying. But there's less than an hour before the palace gates are locked. I must return now."
"I will see to it personally," Ye Qing'an said firmly. "I shall stay here tonight and make absolutely certain that no errors occur in the final steps."
As a scholar from humble beginnings, Ye Qing'an understood deeply what it would mean if low-cost paper, combined with printing and the feather quill, became widely available.
If all went well, the cost of education could drop to an astonishingly affordable level.
And then...
The more he thought about it, the more exhilarated he became.
He accompanied Yun Shu to the gate. Just as he was about to return and check the drying paper, Tang Yuanlin approached with four oddly shaped iron pieces in hand.
"Your Highness," he said, holding them out. "Are these what you requested?"
"Yes, these are perfect!" Yun Shu said, taking one and weighing it in her hand.
"Where is my horse? Bring him at once—I shall put these shoes on him immediately."
"For… your horse?" Tang Yuanlin echoed.
"Shoes?" Ye Qing'an added, equally baffled.
Then recognition dawned on Ye Qing'an.
"Your Highness… the four little shoes you mentioned earlier… are these?"
"Of course," Yun Shu said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Just today, I learned that once a horse's hooves wear down too much, they can no longer carry their rider. So I had these shoes custom-made for my pony. This way, when he runs, the wear will be on the shoes, not his hooves.
And when the shoes wear out, I'll simply replace them with new ones!"