Chapter 149

The next morning, Qin Su was shocked to see Emperor Jingxi at breakfast.

"Father, did you hit yourself in your sleep last night?"

Why do I have such big dark circles under my eyes?

Emperor Jingxi said irritably, "Isn't this all because of you?"

Forging iron armor using water power was a major undertaking. He had been busy ever since he returned from Zhu Lao Er's house, only managing to rest for half an hour at dawn.

Fortunately, the result was encouraging.

He told one of the ministers he summoned last night that similar tools already existed among the common people, used for pounding rice. No one had ever thought of modifying them into tools for forging ironware before, but this idea was highly feasible.

Qin Su exclaimed "Ah!" and pulled a memorial from her sleeve, asking innocently, "Father, are you still going to read this one?"

"..." Emperor Jingxi stared at the memorial in her hand for a long while before asking, "What does it say in here?"

Qin Su slowly waved her hand: "It's nothing, just a method to quickly produce large quantities of sugar."

Emperor Jingxi: "..."

Sugar is certainly a good thing, not only because it is a part of our daily diet, but also because it can be sold to grasslands and overseas.

Humans' pursuit of desserts is ingrained in their genes, especially in times of sugar scarcity.

Only modern people can say without restraint that they are tired of desserts and want to eat less sugar or give up sugar. In ancient times, many people did not eat a single piece of sugar in a year, so no one would not love it.

Seeing Emperor Jingxi's complicated expression, Qin Su pushed the memorial in front of him, swung her short legs, and said with a grin, "I'm just kidding, Daddy. This isn't complicated. You don't need to do anything. It's mainly the ministers who can do it."

Emperor Jingxi looked suspicious, opened the memorial and read it from beginning to end. He found that what Qin Su said was true and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

"You deliberately scared your father?" After letting out a sigh of relief, Emperor Jingxi began to settle scores, pinching his daughter's cheek with a stern face. "You're getting bolder and bolder. Do you know that this is the crime of deceiving the emperor?"

"I was lying to my father, what does it have to do with the emperor?" Qin Su pretended to be confused. "I'm very stupid, I only know my father, I don't know the emperor."

She even nuzzled her head forward, rubbing against Emperor Jingxi's chest and wrinkling his clothes.

"Oh, my father is the best father in the whole world. I wouldn't trade him for ten emperors."

This is what Zhu Lao Er said yesterday. He said that if he had a daughter like Qin Su, he wouldn't trade ten sons for her.

Qin Su used what she had just learned to please her father.

Emperor Jingxi's face couldn't remain composed, and a smile appeared between his brows and eyes.

He pressed down on Qin Su's head with one hand to stop her from acting up: "Don't talk nonsense, where are you going to find ten emperors for you?"

Qin Su argued emphatically: "The current emperor is wise and mighty; one emperor is worth ten emperors of other dynasties."

With her hair all messy and disheveled, she added, "And what's most enviable is that the current emperor has such a smart daughter. He's truly a winner in life."

She learned the term "life winner" from Ye Yan.

Emperor Jingxi finally couldn't help but laugh and flicked her forehead: "The Emperor himself said that he doesn't know whether his daughter is smart or not, but it's true that she has a skin as thick as the palace wall and only knows how to praise herself."

Qin Su covered her forehead and said shamelessly, "No way! I'm very shy and easily embarrassed."

Emperor Jingxi was amused by her and burst into laughter.

After having breakfast, Qin Su didn't go to play with Ye Yan. Instead, she lay on the table, staring at Emperor Jingxi with her big, blinking eyes.

Emperor Jingxi: "Speak your mind."

Qin Su: "Actually, I have another suggestion here, which was initiated by Zhu Lao Er."

Emperor Jingxi: "...So you're going to need me this time?"

If he had known his daughter wouldn't be so easy to manage, he wouldn't have only mentioned beet sugar production.

Qin Su gestured a distance with her fingers and said, "It only requires Father Emperor to put in a little effort."

Emperor Jingxi remained noncommittal, but with a hint of apprehension, he reached out and said, "Give it to me, let me see it."

Qin Su took out another folded document and placed it in his palm, then quietly took two steps back.

Even though Emperor Jingxi had some expectations, he did not expect Qin Su to be so bold. The more he read, the more serious his expression became. Finally, after reading it, he closed the memorial with a "snap" and tapped the table, making a rapid thumping sound.

Qin Su shrank back.

Emperor Jingxi asked in a deep voice, "Zhaoyang, do you know what you are about to do?"

In private settings where no one else was around, Emperor Jingxi always called her Su Su. If he used her title, it meant that the conversation was very serious.

Qin Su stopped acting coquettishly and sat upright in her chair, saying honestly, "I know this is going to overturn thousands of years of rules and traditions."

"You want to incorporate mathematics and science into the regular imperial examinations. This is something that has never happened since the imperial examinations began." Emperor Jingxi looked at her, sighed softly, and said, "This is even more difficult than changing dynasties."

It's no exaggeration to say that if Emperor Jingxi had made Qin Su the empress, the entire court might have struggled a bit before agreeing. But if Emperor Jingxi had said, "I want to expand the channels for advancement and give more people room to rise," then it would be considered an understatement if ten ministers were killed by police every day at the palace gates.

The emperor is a position, whether male or female. He is essentially in the same interest group as the court officials. However, Qin Su's proposal is equivalent to sharing the existing pie with more people, which the court officials would never agree to.

The desire to protect one's own class and interests is a universal human failing, both in ancient and modern times.

Qin Su vaguely understood this principle, but since she was not in that position, she could not see as clearly as Emperor Jingxi how significant the implications were.

Emperor Jingxi said with a headache, "This matter should not be mentioned again, and you should also refrain from mentioning that punctuation mark you mentioned last time."

Qin Su previously mentioned that current books are inconvenient to read and suggested adding punctuation marks to all books to facilitate sentence segmentation and reading.

This seems like such a trivial matter, doesn't it?

But in reality, this is very difficult to do.

Because in ancient times, punctuation was essentially a form of cultural monopoly.

In Han Yu's "On Teachers," it is mentioned that "teach them to read and learn how to punctuate." Here, "punctuation" refers to how to break sentences into paragraphs, meaning that a teacher should teach you how to punctuate sentences when you read.

Even the same book can have different punctuation due to different family traditions, and different teachers will teach it differently, belonging to different schools of thought. This is a secret cherished by each school.

Qin Su said that adding punctuation marks to books is tantamount to breaking the existing class monopoly on knowledge.

Emperor Jingxi said no, but Qin Su was unwilling to give up.

She didn't confront Emperor Jingxi directly, but asked in a low voice, "Isn't it possible to settle for second best? We can proceed gradually, for example, by adding an extra exam, separate from the imperial examination, to test special talents."

Emperor Jingxi frowned and shook his head again: "Setting up a separate imperial examination is not just a matter of words. Who will be the chief examiner? Is the chief examiner's identity convincing? Who will set the exam papers? How will the examinees take the exam? Zhaoyang, I know your thoughts, but the matter is complicated and cannot be resolved with just a few words and a decree."

Qin Su had never intended to do this; she only uttered those words as a prelude to what she would say next. Therefore, she was not discouraged when Emperor Jingxi rejected her.

“Then I have another idea, I would like to trouble Father Emperor to hear it.”