She looked at Yun Chuhuan as if seeing him for the first time, her gaze full of curiosity as she examined him from head to toe. After a moment, she suddenly asked:
"I heard you mention earlier that you wanted to include a rotating shaft, vertical gears, and horizontal wheels in the design. Why?"
Ah—this part again...
This was exactly the section where he had stopped understanding anything Xiao Yuanzi said!
What should he do now?
Could he just make something up and hope to bluff his way through?
"Well…"
How had Xiao Yuanzi explained it again?
Yun Chuhuan scratched his head, trying hard to recall at least a fragment.
"Because the water… it flows, and then…"
"Heh."
Yun Shu curled her lips slightly, smiling as if her suspicions had been confirmed.
"Come now. Just tell me—who really came up with this idea?"
"…"
So he'd been seen through after all.
Yun Chuhuan stomped his foot in frustration, then quickly shuffled over to her side, tugging on Yun Shu's sleeve and falling into a well-practiced act of playful pleading.
"My man came up with the idea. So what difference is there between that and me thinking of it myself? Fifth Sister, you only told me to find a solution—you never said I couldn't get help, right?"
"Don't worry, I'll still give you your ten thousand taels."
She could see right through what he was really after, and let out a low snort of amusement.
"But first, you'll need to let me meet the person who actually came up with the plan."
"No problem! Just one meeting? If you want, Fifth Sister, I can even send him straight to your palace!"
So long as that ten thousand taels landed in his hands, anything was negotiable.
Yun Chuhuan perked up at once and leaned in.
"Then, Fifth Sister, how about…"
"Ting Xue," Yun Shu said, already grasping his meaning, "bring five thousand taels in silver notes."
"Yes, Princess."
"Wait—hold on!" Yun Chuhuan yelped as Ting Xue turned to leave. "We agreed on ten thousand! Why is it five now?"
"Half up front," Yun Shu replied lazily, waving a hand to signal Ting Xue to ignore him. "Once the thing is properly built and proven to work, I'll pay the rest."
"…Fine."
Five thousand taels up front wasn't bad either.
Yun Chuhuan sighed. After Ting Xue handed him the silver notes, he didn't linger long in Fengyang Palace. With the remaining five thousand still on his mind, he rushed back to Yaohua Palace to personally push Xiao Yuanzi into working faster.
And with him gone, Yun Shu could finally lounge in peace at her villa.
Now this was how a person ought to live!
She let out a long breath of satisfaction and stretched across the plush couch.
If only these rest days could last forever.
It was a simple, heartfelt wish Yun Shu made as she closed her eyes, basking in leisure.
But no matter the era, holidays always slipped away in the blink of an eye.
The first day back to rising at three in the morning for study nearly defeated her. If not for Ting Xue's tireless persistence, Yun Shu would have missed the mark entirely. In the end, she barely managed to enter the study hall alongside Yun Chuhuan—who had also overslept.
Only to be greeted with news that there would be no class that morning.
Yun Shu: "?"
Couldn't they have said so earlier?
Why had she bothered waking up so early?
"Grand Preceptor Ye was summoned by His Majesty just moments ago," Cen Yiyi explained. "It seems something urgent came up, and the Emperor called him into court."
"What kind of emergency would require Grand Preceptor Ye?" Yun Chuhuan looked doubtful. "Isn't his rank still too low to attend court?"
"But it was Eunuch Li himself who came to fetch him," Cen Yiyi replied.
"I saw it too," Liu Ziming added. He had arrived early and now chimed in to support Cen Yiyi's words.
"Even if Eunuch Li came personally, that doesn't necessarily mean he was summoned for court! Maybe…"
Yun Chuhuan trailed off in thought, then suddenly gasped.
"What if Grand Preceptor Ye committed some offense and is about to be punished?"
"No way!" Cen Yiyi and Liu Ziming exchanged glances, instinctively shaking their heads.
"Why would Grand Preceptor Ye commit any crime?"
"When Eunuch Li came to fetch him, he was still extremely respectful!"
"Eunuch Li is respectful to everyone! Every time I upset Father Emperor and got ordered to crawl over for a scolding, Eunuch Li still came with the most polite 'please' imaginable!"
Yun Chuhuan's rebuttal, rather than reassuring him, only deepened his suspicion. The more he thought about it, the more he felt he might have stumbled upon the truth.
He turned to ask Yun Shu's opinion—only to find her already sprawled across the desk, dozing off again.
"Fifth Sister!"
Yun Chuhuan rushed over and gave her a gentle shake.
"How can you still sleep at a time like this? Aren't you worried about Grand Preceptor Ye? If something really happened to him and he gets replaced, no other preceptor would ever be so lenient—they'd definitely make us do actual schoolwork!"
"I'm not worried. Nothing will happen."
She brushed his hands away, flipped over, and closed her eyes again.
The others might be in the dark, but Yun Shu could already guess what had happened.
The so-called seven-day New Year holiday in the Tian Sheng court wasn't truly seven days. On the last day, any urgent memorials could already be submitted to the palace.
Grand Preceptor Ye had been fixated on the issue of commercial taxation these past few days. Most likely, he finally submitted his memorial yesterday.
But because there had been a backlog of documents accumulated over the break, by the time her Imperial Father reached Grand Preceptor Ye's report, it was already late at night and the palace gates were locked.
He couldn't very well send someone out just to rouse the preceptor from his bed and tell him to attend court the next day. So instead, the Emperor simply waited until morning and summoned him directly from the study hall.
If her guess was correct, today's court session would see no small amount of uproar over the commercial tax debate.
She could safely catch up on sleep for the rest of the morning.
And so Yun Shu drifted off without a care.
Meanwhile, in Xuan Zheng Hall, Ye Qing'an—holding the rank of sixth-grade official—stood boldly in the imperial court. After presenting his proposal on commercial taxation, just as Yun Shu had predicted, the court immediately erupted.
These days, which aristocratic family didn't dabble in business?
Even officials like Tang Yuanlin—who had risen from humble origins and lived an admirably frugal life—still had two shops back home to support the household. Let alone the rest of them.
If this so-called commercial tax were actually implemented, how much silver would they stand to lose each year?
Calling it a bone-scraping tax would not be an exaggeration.
Without so much as twitching an eyelid, the Left Prime Minister made a discreet hand gesture toward his faction.
Moments later, an official stepped forward to voice his opposition:
"Your Majesty, I must protest. What Grand Preceptor Ye proposes is utterly unrealistic!
"Merchants are too numerous to count across the land. If we truly intend to tax them, then every last account book would have to be examined in detail.
"But that is simply impossible!"