It wasn't long before the number of people peering over the pond's edge grew from two to a whole crowd.
As the saying goes, "Great rewards breed brave men." With a one-hundred-tael bounty hanging in the air—and now that the Sixth Prince had been spending time with Princess Sheng An and had stopped beating and killing palace staff on a whim—the eunuchs and maids of Yaohua Palace were unusually enthusiastic.
However, the suggestions they offered...
"Your Highness, what if we just assigned someone to stand here permanently and fetch water?"
"Great idea. Then we could form a relay line to pass the buckets all the way to Fifth Princess's palace, right?"
Yun Chuhuan let out a dry laugh, then his expression turned thunderous.
"How completely idiotic! If it were that simple, would We have called you all here to brainstorm? What We want is for the water to come up from the pond by itself!"
The servants fell silent.
If water could climb out of a pond on its own... wouldn't that be a spirit or a demon?
Terrified by Yun Chuhuan's outburst, the maids and eunuchs clammed up in fear. Only one remained crouched beside the pond, lost in thought—Xiao Yuanzi, the newest among them.
Unlike most palace eunuchs, who came from impoverished families and were sold young to be castrated, Xiao Yuanzi had a different background.
His father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had all been skilled carpenters. If you traced the family line back far enough, there were even rumors that one of his ancestors had apprenticed under a Mo School master.
Whether or not that was true, Xiao Yuanzi did remember a tattered old book from his childhood. Though he couldn't read the words, the curious diagrams and strange contraptions inside had fascinated him more than anything else.
His father had called it Mo-style engineering. Noticing his son's interest, the man had even crafted a few small mechanical toys with him.
Had life gone as planned, Xiao Yuanzi would've inherited the family trade, become a decent craftsman, married, and had children of his own.
But when he was ten, his father took on a job at an estate beyond the city walls—and was killed by bandits on the road.
With the family's pillar gone and Xiao Yuanzi too young to take over the workshop, things fell apart. He had five younger siblings to feed, and a mother who wept all day.
Left with no options, he gritted his teeth and sold himself into the palace.
After five years in service, he had nearly forgotten the joy of tinkering with gadgets and designs.
Until today.
When the Sixth Prince had summoned him and made a seemingly impossible demand, something stirred in his mind—a faint spark of an idea.
Maybe... he could earn that hundred taels.
"Your Highness," Xiao Yuanzi said, rising to his feet, "I think I may have a solution—but I'll need some wood, and a large number of bamboo tubes."
"Just wood and bamboo?"
Having just heard a truly absurd proposal moments earlier, Yun Chuhuan was skeptical. He narrowed his eyes and gave Xiao Yuanzi a measured look.
"Explain your plan."
"Please look here, Your Highness. My thought is to place a structure here... then if we connect it like this... in that case..."
As he began to explain, a light returned to Xiao Yuanzi's eyes. At first, it had been a rough concept, but the more he spoke, the more fully formed it became.
Yun Chuhuan could follow along at first. But as Xiao Yuanzi spoke faster and faster, falling deeper into his excitement, his words started to sound like an entirely different language.
By the end, it may as well have been a Taoist scripture.
Yun Chuhuan: "..."
"Did you understand a word of that?" he asked, glancing sideways at Xiao Anzi.
The other eunuch shrank back and shook his head. "This servant is too dull..."
"And the rest of you? Understand anything?"
He turned to the others. Not sure why they were being questioned, the entire group shook their heads in unison, looking like a row of rattling bells.
"Reporting to Your Highness, we did not!"
Excellent. None of them understood. That meant it wasn't his fault.
Yun Chuhuan felt much better.
He clapped Xiao Yuanzi's shoulder with an air of importance and nodded knowingly.
"Though these fools may not grasp what you said, We understood it perfectly. Admittedly, your design has room for improvement, but as it stands now, it's at least worth a try.
Wood and bamboo aren't exactly rare or expensive. I shall have someone send them over shortly. Do not disappoint me!"
"This servant is most grateful to Your Highness!"
Xiao Yuanzi could hardly believe it. He'd entered the palace thinking he'd never touch such things again—and now here he was, being given the chance. He bowed deeply, brimming with gratitude.
As for Yun Chuhuan, he trotted off gleefully to find his Fifth Sister.
"What brings you here?"
When Yun Chuhuan arrived at Fengyang Palace, Yun Shu had only just returned from outside the palace gates.
She'd finished assigning tasks to her staff and was about to return to her villa to play a round of her game, when the boy came crashing in like a whirlwind.
Yun Shu paused mid-step and clicked her tongue.
"Weren't you supposed to find a way to divert the water from Yaohua Palace to mine? It's only been three days. Don't tell me you've already given up?"
"Give up? Never! Fifth Sister, you wound me."
Yun Chuhuan lifted his chin proudly, like a peacock fanning its feathers, clearly waiting for praise.
"I've already figured it out!"
"You're sure?"
That fast? He hadn't even come to her for hints. Had she misjudged him? Could he truly be a genius?
Yun Shu gave him a skeptical look. "Go on, tell me."
"That look says you don't believe me!" he huffed.
He'd rushed over the moment the idea took shape just so he could brag—but now that Yun Shu was actually asking, he suddenly wanted to play coy.
"Don't tell me you never believed I could come up with a plan in the first place? Was the ten thousand taels you promised just to string me along?"
"..."
Why was it so hard to tolerate smug children?
"Are you telling me or not?"
Yun Shu raised a brow. Her tone was perfectly calm, yet Yun Chuhuan immediately felt the weight of ancestral pressure in her gaze.
His prideful expression froze, and he gave in without a fight.
"First, we build a structure beside the pond..."
He recounted everything Xiao Yuanzi had explained earlier, doing his best to replicate the details.
When he finished, he beamed and tilted his head.
"Well? Pretty clever, isn't it?"
"Not bad at all. Worth a try."
A waterwheel.
He had actually come up with a functioning waterwheel?
Yun Shu raised her eyebrows in surprise.