"Father Emperor is wise beyond compare!"
Yun Shu had braced herself for a long-winded debate with Emperor Xuanwu. She had even prepared to argue back and forth for days if needed. Yet to her astonishment, the Emperor had agreed with surprising ease.
Overjoyed, she almost forgot the person still waiting expectantly by her side—Yun Chuhuan, who stared at her with pitiful eyes.
Thankfully, just as she was about to take her leave, a glance from the corner of her eye caught that gloomy figure lingering behind.
She hesitated, then cleared her throat awkwardly. "About that... Father Emperor, there is still one more matter. Your daughter promised someone today to plead for merit on their behalf."
"There is another?"
Of course, it was Xiao Wu.
Had it been anyone else, they would have fled after witnessing the Emperor erupt with fury while punishing the Crown Prince. To stay put, much less bring up unrelated requests, was nearly suicidal.
Yet she had the gall to treat requesting commendations as if she were haggling wholesale.
Even Emperor Xuanwu felt exasperated. "Speak. Who else?"
"The Sixth Prince."
Yun Shu put on an expression of sincere innocence. "If not for Sixth Brother, this daughter would never have thought to search beneath the tree where Tang Bingfu buried his evidence."
She paused, then added gently, "Father Emperor, might you consider letting Sixth Brother's merit offset his punishment? Perhaps he need not deal with those cement piles outside the Imperial Study?
When your daughter came in earlier, she saw them. Judging by Sixth Brother's posture, it would take him at least a year or two to chip them away.
You may be punishing him, but having a cement block standing at the library's entrance cannot be convenient for you either."
"Exactly, exactly!"
At long last, his Fifth Sister was speaking up for him. Though it was far from the grand praise and flowery words he had imagined she'd deliver on his behalf, as long as it got him out of smashing cement piles, he could live with it.
Yun Chuhuan nodded furiously, like a pecking bird. "Yes, yes, Father Emperor, please have someone else deal with the cement! What if you trip again? That would be a disaster!"
Yun Shu: "...?"
What in the world was this move?
She had seen people digging pits for others, but this was the first time she saw someone enthusiastically digging one for themselves.
Had she known he was this eager to court death, she never would have intervened.
Who could possibly save him now?
Yun Shu shut her mouth quietly.
Unsurprisingly, she heard Emperor Xuanwu let out a cold chuckle. "So, what you're saying is that you were doing it out of concern for Us? Should We now offer you a word of praise?"
"…That won't be necessary."
Even someone as daft as Yun Chuhuan could hear the sarcasm in the Emperor's tone. He quickly tried to plaster on a flattering smile.
"Father Emperor, just as Fifth Sister said, may my faults be canceled by this merit!"
"Wouldn't that be letting you off far too easily?" Emperor Xuanwu had only just been publicly embarrassed by this foolish son. A mere smile was not going to pacify him.
He curled his lips into a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Since you are so eager to serve Us, let's do this—Xiao Wu!"
"Your daughter is present!"
Yun Shu's heart sank. Surely she would not be dragged down by this oaf?
She quickly began strategizing in her mind. If she were implicated, how might she talk her way out of it?
Emperor Xuanwu's voice turned chilling. "The state treasury is running low. While your cement factory was established for a worthy purpose, trying to pry funds from that stingy old man at the Ministry of Revenue will be a futile endeavor.
Save yourself the trouble. Go straight to the Sixth Prince.
We are certain he will be most willing to pay to ease Our concerns."
"...Understood."
All was well. The Emperor was still a reasonable man.
Yun Shu managed to suppress her laughter and bowed her head to give her assent.
Yun Chuhuan, on the other hand, stood frozen on the spot.
The cement factory.
The sum originally meant to come from the national treasury.
There was no way that would be a small amount!
"Fa—"
"Out."
Emperor Xuanwu cut off Yun Chuhuan's lament before he could even finish the first syllable. "Speak one more word, and We shall fine you another hundred taels of gold."
"..."
The words caught in his throat. Yun Chuhuan did not even dare utter the customary "Your son takes his leave." Clutching his mouth, he slunk out of the room alongside Yun Shu.
Only when they had left the Imperial Study and walked a good distance away—far enough that the Emperor could not possibly overhear—did Yun Chuhuan finally come to a dead stop.
With the expression of a man facing execution, he turned to Yun Shu. "Fifth Sister, just tell me straight. How much silver does this cement factory need?"
"It's not too much," Yun Shu said gently, as though offering comfort.
"Since it's only a temporary setup, the initial phase shouldn't be too costly. About the same as if you spent two full days chipping away at that cement pile outside the study."
"...Only twenty thousand taels? That's wonderful!"
That was far lower than he had feared.
Yun Chuhuan had just begun to breathe a sigh of relief when a terrible thought struck him.
"What do you mean initial phase? There's more to come?"
His voice trembled. "How much is it in total?"
"The total cost..." Yun Shu gazed at him with deep sympathy.
"Roughly equivalent to chipping away four cement piles at the entrance."
Four cement piles.
Yun Shu's phrasing had been far too gentle. Yun Chuhuan didn't understand right away. Only after a moment of calculation did the horror dawn on him.
One cement pile took two days and cost twenty thousand taels.
Four cement piles meant eight days.
That was eighty thousand taels!
And he had already been fined fifty thousand taels by Imperial Father earlier.
In total, that meant one hundred thirty thousand taels.
For the next year and a month, not a single copper coin of allowance would reach him.
The mere thought of it left Yun Chuhuan gasping for air.
Grabbing Yun Shu's sleeve with despair, he pleaded, "Fifth Sister, can't you lower it just a little? What kind of mud costs eighty thousand taels?"
"It cannot be lowered."
Yun Shu gave him a perfectly relevant example from recent events. "The last person who embezzled funds for a flood embankment? We confiscated his entire estate just today."
Yun Chuhuan: "..."
He had only just managed to pay off his last debt and enjoy a brief moment of peace.
Now, he was once again a walking mountain of debt.
Completely crushed, Yun Chuhuan shut down.
And Yun Shu had no time to console him.
Lady Liu, the Noble Consort, was surprisingly swift in providing an advance for Yun Chuhuan's annual allowance.
Compared to Minister Yan of the Ministry of Revenue, who clung to every coin as if it were his lifeblood, she was magnanimous beyond compare.
With the funds secured, preparations for the cement factory could finally begin.
As always, Yun Shu placed a recruitment notice in the Capital Weekly. Within a single day, word had spread throughout the entire capital.
Princess Sheng An was hiring a large number of workers to make something called cement, which would be used to build flood embankments.
Though few understood why mud needed special craftsmen, none of them cared.
After all, silver was silver.