What a delightful surprise.
Should she go burn down Yaohua Palace now? Would that count as an even greater surprise?
Yun Shu waved aside the young eunuchs huddled in the corner of the courtyard, and finally got a good look—at a distance—at the thing still spraying water all over the place.
A length of bamboo pipe, sticking up from the ground.
"This wasn't your idea, was it?" she asked Yun Chuhuan, pointing at the bamboo.
"Did you make this?"
"Xiao Yuanzi was the one who drew water up from the pond," Yun Chuhuan began. "He said we could connect bamboo pipes together and run them all the way to Fengyang Palace.
To keep people from stepping on or kicking them by accident, he suggested burying them underground.
Then I got to thinking…"
He stole a glance at Yun Shu's expression and began subtly shifting blame.
"I figured it'd be more fun to let you see the result yourself and be properly amazed, so I didn't say anything ahead of time.
Father Emperor called you to the Imperial Study today, and the ice in the Yaohua Palace pond just happened to finish melting.
I thought it was perfect timing, so I had people finish connecting the last length of bamboo to Fengyang Palace.
I only meant for you to see how the water sprayed out—then stop it right away.
But maybe the two palaces are farther apart than we thought, and Xiao Yuanzi didn't know how long the water would take to reach us… or maybe… he assumed there was a pond here too, so he didn't pay it much mind?"
Yun Shu said nothing.
Never mind the outrageous fact that Fengyang Palace had been flooded—just the fact that someone had managed to build an underground water pipeline was impressive enough.
This Xiao Yuanzi was definitely a talent.
She cast a sidelong glance at Yun Chuhuan.
"And where is Xiao Yuanzi now?"
"He should be arriving soon!"
Yun Chuhuan, thinking he had successfully redirected her wrath toward the eunuch, let out a breath of relief and returned to his usual breezy tone.
"I already sent Xiao Anzi back to Yaohua Palace to cut off the water flow, and told him to bring Xiao Yuanzi with him on the way back."
"Mm."
Without a change of expression, Yun Shu turned and headed toward the small rear gate of Fengyang Palace.
"When he arrives, have him taken straight to the side hall. And as for you—your remaining five thousand taels are gone."
"No! Wait!"
To him, those five thousand taels were a massive—massive—fortune.
He couldn't afford to lose them!
Letting out a tragic wail, Yun Chuhuan chased after Yun Shu.
"Fifth Sister, come on, can't we talk about this? This was clearly Xiao Yuanzi's fault!
How about I give him to you instead? Please, I really need that money!!"
Xiao Yuanzi, unaware that he'd already been sold out before even showing his face, was brought into the side hall of Fengyang Palace feeling both anxious and hopeful.
Hopeful, because the Sixth Prince had told him before that Princess Sheng An thought highly of him.
And he'd heard plenty of stories about her too—how formidable and favored she was, and most importantly, how kind she was to the palace staff.
But… he had just flooded her courtyard.
Head down, Xiao Yuanzi stepped into the hall and bowed nervously.
"This servant, Xiao Yuanzi, pays respects to Princess Sheng An and the Sixth Prince."
"Rise."
From the moment he walked through the door, Yun Shu had been observing him closely.
She'd figured he couldn't be very old—any eunuch named Xiao Yuanzi serving Yun Chuhuan was unlikely to be—but the reality still caught her off guard.
This boy, who had built both a waterwheel and an underground pipeline, looked to be no older than fifteen or sixteen!
If trained properly, he'd be limitless.
Compared to Yun Chuhuan, wasn't this scapegoat far more reliable?
A faint smile of satisfaction curved her lips as she studied her promising new candidate.
"I've heard that everything used to channel water from the Yaohua Palace pond to this side—was your design?"
"Answering Princess Sheng An: this servant's family once ran a carpenter's shop…"
Xiao Yuanzi didn't dare conceal anything. With the princess questioning him personally, he quickly confessed everything, even tracing his ancestry several generations back.
He also mentioned the old tattered book he'd read as a child.
"The ideas came from that book, Your Highness. There was a diagram—not about drawing water, but about lifting a heavy object from a low point to a higher one.
This servant made some adjustments to that diagram and from it, created the waterwheel."
"That book sounds quite intriguing. Would you allow Us to take a look?"
Mo School?
In her original timeline, the Mo School's mechanical wonders were practically legendary.
She'd once seen netizens online claim that a Mo School disciple from their village had built a perpetual motion machine that spun endlessly without any external force—until someone dismantled it and no one could figure out how to rebuild it.
Another post claimed that a Mo School craftsman once made a wooden bird that could fly for three days and nights without landing.
The most ridiculous of all claimed the craftsman had created a self-moving wooden cart. His mother got curious, climbed aboard, and the cart sped off into the distance with her in it—never to be seen again.
Though later, every time she tried to verify those stories, the names kept tracing back to Lu Ban instead.
In short—fascinating, but likely nonsense.
After reading so many unreliable tales, encountering a real mechanical prodigy was rare and precious.
Naturally, she wanted to see it with her own eyes.
Unfortunately, Xiao Yuanzi shook his head.
"Forgive this servant, Your Highness. It is not that I will not, but rather that the book is… gone."
"Gone?"
"Yes."
Afraid she wouldn't believe him, Xiao Yuanzi explained:
"When this servant was nine, my younger brother—barely more than a year old—got hold of the book.
For some reason, he thought it was fun to tear it up… and ripped the entire thing to shreds."
"…I see."
Well, there was no helping that.
Yun Shu let out a soft sigh of disappointment.
"Then we'll leave it at that."
"However…"
Sensing her regret, Xiao Yuanzi spoke up carefully.
"This servant still remembers some of it. If Your Highness would like, I could try recreating a few of the designs."
"By all means!"
Yun Shu agreed immediately, then paused, her expression shifting as another idea struck her.
"But before that… there's someone else who may need to meet you first."
"To meet… this servant?"
Xiao Yuanzi blinked.
"May I ask who Your Highness means?"