Chapter 118: Traitorous High Priest
The sprouts of the baby beans have emerged.
This was extremely good news for Yun Ce, proving that his planting method was correct. He dug up the soil, took out a sprouted baby bean, with two plump leaves growing on top, making this little thing look even more like a little baby with a white body and green hair.
He replanted this baby bean, and Yun Ce stood up to look at his home that he was continuously improving.
As long as there is labor, even the messy and filthy chicken farm eventually turned bit by bit into the form Yun Ce hoped for, and of course, also the form E Ji desired.
E Ji was leading people to plant Yi Trees again. She felt that the more of these trees planted, the better. The tree bark could be washed to make grain for fodder to bake flatbread, the tree bark fiber could be used to weave cloth, and now, the tree bark fiber had an additional use: to make white and beautiful paper.
Poor people won’t starve or freeze if they have Yi Trees; this was E Ji’s most straightforward cognition of Yi Trees. Moreover, with food to eat and clothes to wear, the paper made from Yi Tree fiber could sell for a lot of money, which was enough for a poor person.
E Ji also said that those officials were all idiots. Grain in Chang’an City was sold at such high prices, so why not plant more Yi Trees in front of and behind houses to solve the food and clothing problems for people in Chang’an City.
“They won’t eat grain for fodder, nor wear Yi Tree cloth clothes. They want to eat the best grain in the world and wear the most luxurious clothes. What you think is being full and warm is merely the minimum requirement for being alive. The people of Chang’an demand to eat well and dress well.
If you make them eat grain for fodder and wear Yi Tree cloth clothes every day, they might as well die.”
E Ji completely couldn’t understand Zhang Min’s explanation, so she turned her head and asked Yun Ce, who was eating a soft flatbread of grain for fodder wrapped with vegetables: “Young Master, is it true that some people would seek death just to avoid eating grain for fodder and not wearing Yi Tree cloth clothes?”
1 Yun Ce bit off a large piece of flatbread, swallowed it, and then said casually: “Oh, that’s because they haven’t died before.”
1 E Ji nodded and rolled another flatbread for Yun Ce: “Yeah, as long as one can be alive, who would want to die? You said it right, Zhang Min?”
1 Zhang Min said thoughtfully: “Yeah, if dying were such an easy thing, why would I have struggled back to Iron Enclosure Pass with a body full of scars back then.”
1 Grain for fodder soft flatbread wrapped with vegetable and meat, paired with the simmering, thick bean porridge—such meals made Yun Ce feel he would never tire of them, especially with a big handful of egg shreds added. There was no meal in the world more heartwarming than this.
1 “By the way, how is Peng Zeng doing?” Yun Ce suddenly thought of Peng Zeng.
1 “He’s prospering now, already an official doctor with seven qing of pasture and seven houses, with an annual salary of three hundred shi. He has no work on ordinary days; he just needs to draw two jin of blood every two months to complete his task.”
1 “Draw blood?”
1 “Yeah, draw blood for medicine. The healers at Panxing Tower said that medicine formulated with his blood is more than three times as effective as medicine without it, especially the trauma medicine made with his blood, whose healing speed is more than ten times that of ordinary trauma medicine.”
1 “Is he satisfied himself?”
1 Zhang Min chuckled and said: “Does it matter if he’s satisfied or not?”
2 Yun Ce nodded. Everyone was doing it for being alive; no matter the method of being alive, who could claim to be nobler than whom?
2 Lin Weizhou came again, but this time it was completely different from any previous visit: pink lapel robe, embroidered collar inner layer, pure black gauze hat with a pot-sized lotus flower slanted in it. When the wind accidentally blew up his outer robe, Yun Ce saw the matching pink underpants.
2 The whole person looked like a peach blossom that was about to wilt.
2 Yun Ce couldn’t figure out why he dressed like this. After all, when he previously wore green robe, though simple, he had a scholarly elegance.
2 A few days ago, Yun Ce thought Lin Weizhou was going to die; now, Yun Ce thought he might be exterminated along with his nine clans.
2 Even an idiot knows not to steal a woman from the Emperor; this guy was deliberately doing it knowing full well.
2 Yun Ce turned to ask Zhang Min: “In the Great Han, are there many idiots like that Liu Chengfeng who was exterminated seven clans deep and still said no regrets?”
2 Zhang Min jerked her mouth toward Lin Weizhou: “Here’s another one.”
2 Many people had probably advised Lin Weizhou, but even if Yun Ce and Zhang Min chirped about him right in his face, he didn’t care at all.
2 Yun Ce sighed and said: “Found your peach blossom wife?”
3 Lin Weizhou smiled: “Before parting, she asked me to thank you on her behalf. I think this thing is very suitable.”
3 With that, he gave Yun Ce a token of green money, inscribed with Chang’an Morning and Evening Pass.
3 “With this token, enter Chang’an in the morning, leave Chang’an in the evening.
3 Alright, I’ve done what the wife instructed. Now I’ll continue to wait at the wife’s door.”
3 Watching Lin Weizhou hurriedly ride away on the Thunder Smoke Beast, Zhang Min asked Yun Ce again: “You really didn’t fall for Imperial Consort Yu’s poison?”
3 Yun Ce smiled: “If you hadn’t asked and Lin Weizhou hadn’t come, I would have almost forgotten about that Heng Ji.”
3 With Lin Weizhou’s pearl and jade in front, Zhang Min finally believed that Yun Ce was a normal person, not some dog’s slave at anyone’s beck and call.
3 Feng An and Liang Kun were now completely useless. To be precise, ever since paper was invented, these two became useless.
3 It wasn’t that they became crippled, but the two had turned into tireless book-copying monsters. Every time they finished copying a book, they madly dismantled the cowhide-woven wooden slips and bamboo slips, and even ordered An Ji to burn them as firewood in the shortest possible time.
3 It showed how much hatred the two had for the ancient bamboo slips and wooden slips.
4 The content on a thousand jin of bamboo slips could be copied onto less than one jin of paper. Every time they thought of this, Feng An and Liang Kun would shed tears.
4 Under their sleepless efforts, the tens of thousands of jin of books in Yun Ce’s study finally turned into light, thin volumes that didn’t even fill one bookshelf.
4 And yet, Yun Ce had previously boasted that his family’s books were enough to make the cows sweat and fill the hall.
4 The court’s paper hadn’t yet hit the market, but Yun Family Manor’s paper, under Lin Weizhou’s lax governance, finally became known to scholars. Every day, people came incessantly to the Yun Clan to buy paper, and even with Steward Qiu and others making paper sleeplessly, they couldn’t supply so many people.
4 This created an opportunity for E Ji that she had never even thought of before.
4 That’s right, E Ji raised the price of paper, and it was three price hikes a day. After the previous hike, she swore that the Yun Clan was an honest merchant, taking no advantage of young or old.
4 But seeing even more people queuing after the price hike, E Ji had no choice but to wield the price increase stick again and again, sweeping away all demons and ghouls. To shut others’ mouths, she even preemptively said, ‘I’m just a little woman, not a gentleman, not a real man.’
4 Zhang Min was very worried about E Ji’s such barbaric behavior, but Yun Ce didn’t care. The secret recipe had already been offered to the Emperor. If the Emperor wouldn’t even share this bit of profit with the Yun Clan, that would be too much.
4 In the Great Han, Yun Ce always encountered some bizarre people, like Miss Hong, like Duke Yu, like Peng Zeng, like Zhang Min, like Heng Ji, and like this old gentleman with a pair of childlike clear eyes.
4 The old gentleman came to the Yun Clan to buy paper. After Yun Ce personally took this wise, immortal-like elder to tour the entire papermaking workshop, he greatly admired that Yun Family Manor could produce such a divine object.
5 And after trying the Yun Clan’s newly made paper on the spot, this thin and old man let out a long whistle that could be heard ten li away.
5 The last person this awesome was one Yun Ce read about in a history book, named Wang Yangming, who was meditating in the barracks and suddenly whistled long, also heard ten li away, nearly causing a camp panic.
5 An old man with knowledge who could also practice qi gong—Yun Ce felt he absolutely couldn’t afford to offend him. Seeing it was noon, he invited the old gentleman to eat a meal of braised pork.
5 After just one piece of braised pork, the old gentleman seemed to have the impulse to whistle again, but Yun Ce suppressed it with a bowl of clear broth mutton.
5 In the old gentleman’s eyes, everything at Yun Family Manor was good: the newly built green brick and tile houses were nice, the mutton slices brought by that pretty young lady were delicious—she was a good child; Feng An and Liang Kun, who were diligently copying books to the point of looking ghostly, were also good children.
5 Seeing the farmland reclaimed by Yun Ce, the neat field ridges, and the various crops already growing lushly, the old gentleman couldn’t help but whistle long again.
5 That day, the Great Han Dragon God Palace High Priest Liu Changsheng whistled three times at the Yun Family Manor.
5 This old gentleman was really too good. Though very old, with only skin left on his hands, these hands felt very soft, very dry, very warm when touched, just like hands that had been warmed by the fire pit for a long time.
5 Yun Ce felt the old gentleman really clicked with him too much. When parting, he gave the old gentleman a lot, a lot of paper, as well as new things unique to the Yun Clan.
5 The old gentleman didn’t give Yun Ce anything in return, just smiled and pointed at Yun Ce’s chest with his warm fingers: “Young man, having flame in your chest is a good thing. Protect your flame well, and never let it be extinguished.
6 And don’t let others discover it.”
