The three carriages had no royal insignia, and the guards of the Eastern Palace were all dressed in civilian clothes. They quietly descended the mountain through the side gate of the Northern Palace, unnoticed by anyone.

Ye Jingchen only said he would take them down the mountain to play, but he didn't have any specific plans for what they would do.

After the carriage entered the village, Ye Jingchen discovered that the houses at the village entrance were actually quite well-built, with grand gates, red walls, and green tiles, no less impressive than the houses in the imperial city.

Moreover, the road at the village entrance has clearly been repaired; although it cannot compare to the official road, it is wide and flat.

This is a good thing; having spare money to repair roads shows that the people here are relatively well-off.

However, after the carriage traveled a little further into the village, the grand courtyards turned into large brick and tile houses.

With no yard blocking the view, we could finally see people here.

The houses at the village entrance were well-built, but the carriages passed by quietly, without making a sound.

Moreover, in broad daylight, every household had its doors tightly shut, as if no one lived there.

Upon arriving at the gate with its blue bricks and large tiles, although no adults were in sight, children were playing, and the sounds of roosters crowing and dogs barking made the village seem instantly come alive.

The three carriages also caught the attention of the children who were playing, and they curiously approached the carriages.

The children in the carriage also peered curiously through the windows at their peers outside.

The children were all dressed in linen clothes, with their hair in small buns. They were a little dirty, but they seemed to be in good spirits.

Ye Jingchen did not stop the carriage. He wanted to see how big the village was and what the living standards of the people here were.

The carriage continued on its way.

Gradually, Ye Jingchen noticed that the further the carriage went into the house, the simpler it became.

After some brick and tile houses, mud-brick houses began to appear, and later even thatched huts.

In one village, the wealthy and well-dressed families lived in the front, close to the main road, while the poor lived in the back, making it seem like a scam.

Moreover, the houses in front were mostly spacious and neatly laid out, but inside they were messy, dilapidated, and small. The gaps between the houses were also small, and the roads were full of potholes, making it impossible for a carriage to move forward.

In the same village, the gap between the rich and the poor is so huge, and it's not just one or two families that are poor, but the vast majority of families.

There's something wrong with this village.

The carriage could not move forward, so Ye Jingchen got off the carriage first and made the other children get off as well.

Several palace guards took some food and water that Fangfei and the others had prepared beforehand, and the group continued on their way, leaving only three coachmen and one palace guard to watch over the carriage.

"The road ahead is difficult, so please look out for each other," Ye Jingchen said to them.

Where would princes, princesses, dukes, and nobles, who were pampered and privileged, ever come to such a place? Not only were the roads full of potholes, but the village also raised poultry and livestock, and various kinds of excrement could be seen everywhere on the road, along with some indescribable smells that lingered in the air at all times.

"Royal brother——"

"Elder sister, you can call me brother or by my name when we're out," Ye Jingchen reminded her.

"Why is there such a place in Dayuan? Why did we come here?" Ye Jingshu asked, puzzled.

For the past ten years, all she had seen was glamorous and dazzling; she had never witnessed such a scene before.

"Elder sister, this is the real Dayuan, this is where ordinary people in Dayuan live," Ye Jingchen said to her.

Ye Jingshu looked incredulous. "Ordinary people really live such a hard life?"

There were several other little ones who shared the same expression as her.

"This is not the worst part. At least this place is near the capital, right under the emperor's nose, and the land is fertile."

As houses and roads became more crowded, more children began playing in front of and behind houses.

However, compared to the children who were only a little dirty but whose clothes were still decent and complete, the children we encountered later had clothes that were so dirty that their original color was no longer visible, some were patched up, and some were simply tattered and barely covered.

"Aren't there many rice paddies here? When we came here, we saw that they stretched as far as the eye could see. Since there are so many rice paddies, why do they still live such a hard life?" Ye Jingshu asked in confusion.

"Do you know why?" Ye Jingchen didn't answer the question directly, but asked the other kids instead.

"Could it be because rice is worthless? But people need to eat, how could rice be worthless?" Ye Jingyu guessed.

However, his guess was quickly overturned by another of his doubts, which made him even more confused.

"When you're a little older, I'll take you to see the prices in the capital. Right now, ordinary rice costs ten copper coins per dou (a unit of dry measure)," Ye Jingchen told him. (Times and units of measurement differ, and grain prices varied across dynasties; please don't nitpick!)

"Brother, how much is ten coins?" Ye Jingyu was even more puzzled by Ye Jingchen's mention of 'ten coins', because he usually saw gold the most, and even silver was rare, let alone 'coins', such an insignificant and tiny unit.

“In Dayuan, one tael of silver can be exchanged for a thousand coins, while one tael of gold can be exchanged for ten taels of silver. Do the math yourself,” Ye Jingchen said to him.

Ye Jingyu then counted on his fingers as he walked.

"One tael of gold can actually be exchanged for ten thousand coins, and ten coins are a peck of rice. That means one tael of gold can buy a thousand pecks of rice. How cheap!" he exclaimed.

"With rice so cheap, wouldn't it be impossible to make money growing paddy rice?" he asked.

“But rice is something everyone has to eat. If it’s too expensive, many people won’t be able to afford it,” Yun Shu said.

"Brother, is the yield of rice high? How much rice can grow in a paddy field? After the rice is husked, how much rice is left?" Ye Jingming asked.

This question stumped Ye Jingchen. In their time, through the continuous efforts of generations, the yield of rice per mu had reached a thousand jin, and even higher in some places. But in this era, he had not conducted any investigations, so how would he know how many jin per mu the yield was?

"Does any of you know?" Ye Jingchen looked at the other kids, especially Xie Chang'an.

If there's anyone among these little brats who could possibly know the yield per acre of rice, it would only be Xie Chang'an, the reborn one.

But when faced with his gaze, Xie Chang'an just sneered and turned his head away.

Well done!

Ye Jingchen made a mental note of it.

"Since none of you know, why don't we go ask the local people?" Ye Jingchen said with a smile.

"Don't you know either, Big Brother?" Ye Jingyu asked bluntly.

Ye Jingchen: ......

He genuinely didn't know, but if he admitted it, wouldn't he lose face?

But actually, saving face isn't important; what's important is that it will damage the image he's built up in front of these brats.

He has painstakingly built up the persona he has in their hearts through subtle influence, and he cannot let it crumble because of such a simple question!

His public image absolutely cannot collapse!