Chapter 213 Xiao Jingkong Debunks Falsehoods

Qin Chuyu brought his friends into the palace with the consent of his sister-in-law, the Crown Princess. She had already taken care of everything for him and would not expose his identity.

The main gate of the palace has three gates. The middle gate is the largest and tallest. Generally, only the Empress Dowager, the Emperor and Empress, and the Crown Prince and his wife are qualified to enter and exit through the middle gate. Ministers go to court through the side gates on both sides.

Qin Chuyu is the legitimate son of the emperor and the younger brother of the crown prince, so he can also enter through the middle gate.

Xu Zhouzhou is one year younger than Qin Chuyu, and is seven years old this year. He has never been to the palace, but he knows that his father goes to court every day through the side gate.

As he entered through the middle door, he instantly felt he could brag about it to his father when he got back.

Xiao Jingkong didn't understand this. He only felt that the palace was huge, even the gate was so big, like a huge monster with its blood-red maw wide open. They walked into the belly of this monster.

Strangely novel.

The carriage drove all the way in and stopped outside the East Palace.

The Eastern Palace is the Crown Prince's residence. Ordinary princes are not qualified to live in the Eastern Palace, but since Qin Chuyu is young, he can live wherever he wants, and the emperor doesn't restrict him too much by the rules.

Qin Chuyu was the first to jump off the carriage, followed by his two friends.

Even before going to pick up his friends, Qin Chuyu had already planned the trip with the help of his sister-in-law, the Crown Princess. They couldn't go to the Emperor and Empress's palace, but they could play freely in the Crown Prince's East Palace. Afterwards, they could play hide-and-seek in the Imperial Garden and go boating on Taiye Pond.

The servants had also been instructed to stay out of the way if possible.

Qin Chuyu walked ahead on the path of the East Palace, proudly saying, "How about it? My home... cough cough! The palace is very big, isn't it? This is the East Palace, where the Crown Prince lives, but the smartest, cutest, and most clever seventh prince of Zhao Kingdom also lives here."

That's me, Qin Chuyu!

The palace servants sweeping nearby twitched their lips. "Seventh Prince, you weren't this arrogant before. Who led you astray?"

"Achoo!" Xiao Jingkong sneezed.

The East Palace is very large, with a main hall, two side halls, and several small courtyards. One of the courtyards is Qin Chuyu's private little world, where the Crown Princess had a swing set, artificial hill, and wooden horse made for him.

Qin Chuyu was already tired of playing with them. Xu Zhouzhou's family also had these toys, and even more variety than Qin Chuyu's. The truth is that in order to prevent the princes from becoming distracted by toys, the palace actually had fewer toys than the common people.

Xu Zhouzhou wasn't too envious.

Little Jingkong wasn't envious at all. The swing his master made for him at the temple could swing from one side of the mountain to the other! And when it came to climbing mountains, he and Jiaojiao climbed real mountains. What's so great about climbing a small fake mountain?

“Let’s build a house!” Xiao Jingkong said.

Recently, Xiao Jingkong has become very obsessed with architecture.

Xu Zhouzhou nodded. Although he was seven years old, he still really wanted to play in the mud.

Qin Chuyu, who actually wanted to take his friends through a fake cave: "...Okay!"

Qin Chuyu went to the small woodshed and got three buckets and three small shovels, then happily went to dig in the mud!

The palace servants' lips twitched. Was it really appropriate for a prince of a nation to be digging in the mud with people?

"Why don't we go and inform the Empress? This is too absurd," said a palace maid.

The young eunuch thought for a moment. The Crown Princess had told them not to interfere with the Seventh Prince, but digging in the mud... was indeed a bit reckless. If the Empress scolded them later, the Crown Princess would be fine, but they, the servants, would suffer.

With this in mind, the young eunuch decided to go to Kunning Palace.

After returning to the palace from the Ministry of Justice prison, Consort Shu immediately summoned several eunuchs and instructed them to prepare a pot of thick glutinous rice soup according to Gu Jinyu's instructions. She also brought a bag of mortar that she usually used for repairing walls.

After mixing the two together, Consort Shu ordered someone to bring several blue bricks and to paste them with glutinous rice mortar.

To compare the effects, Consort Shu also had several blue bricks plastered with ordinary mortar.

"Once it's dry, you can test it with a hammer," Consort Shu said to the palace servants.

"Yes!" The two eunuchs responded and hurriedly took out their hammers. After the mortar in the blue bricks dried, they swung the hammers and began to smash them.

The result was that glutinous rice mortar was indeed more durable than ordinary mortar.

Whether it has more or longer-term benefits is currently unclear, but in terms of durability, glutinous rice mortar is far superior to ordinary mortar.

Consort Shu was not a sheltered woman; after all, she had been in the palace for so many years. How could she not understand how much benefit this mortar would bring to the Zhao Kingdom once it was introduced?

Leaving aside distant examples, the recent unrest at the border was caused by torrential rains that caused several sections of the border walls to collapse.

The walls of Zhao Kingdom are too fragile. They need to be rebuilt every few years, and even so, they are still prone to collapse.

The Turks were eyeing the border with hostility, and had repeatedly invaded under the guise of bandits. If this continued, the border would inevitably fall into an even greater crisis.

The State of Zhao is not a military power. Several years ago, a battle with the State of Chen had already severely weakened Zhao. If they were to fight again now, the cost would be extremely high.

The imperial court is discussing how to repair the city wall as soon as possible. If we had this special mortar, wouldn't we no longer have to worry about the city wall collapsing?

This achievement is no less significant than that of the bellows!

A flicker of excitement rose within Consort Shu's heart; she couldn't wait any longer: "Where is the Fifth Prince? Hasn't he come yet? What has he been doing?"

A eunuch said, "The Fifth Prince has left the palace, saying he's arranged to compose poetry with friends. He'll probably return tonight. Eunuch Li has already gone out to look for him. But I wonder—"

I don't know if I can find it.

The Fifth Prince is the master, and he cannot disclose his whereabouts to his servants. Eunuch Li can only try his luck by following the routes the Fifth Prince usually takes.

Consort Shu thought for a moment and realized that it didn't matter whether he was present or not, as long as it was something he did.

"Where is His Majesty?" Consort Shu asked.

The eunuch said, "It's in Taiye Pond."

Consort Shu adjusted the tassels in her hair: "Oh, why didn't His Majesty go to the Empress's place today?"

The eunuch chuckled, "Perhaps His Majesty is tired of staying in the Empress's palace and has come out for some fresh air. His Majesty can only stay here with the Empress."

If we're talking about the most favored concubine in the harem, it has to be Consort Shu. She has never lost favor since she entered the palace. It's just that after His Majesty returned from Jiangnan, he became obsessed with alchemy and stopped being close to women for a short period of time. Before, His Majesty would spend five or six days a month in her palace.

Consort Shu smiled faintly upon hearing this: "Alright, let's go."

"Yes!" The eunuch gave a wink to the servants and took a bucket of glutinous rice mortar to Taiye Pond.

The weather is fine.

When Consort Shu arrived at the pavilion by Taiye Pond, the other imperial concubines had also arrived.

There's nothing surprising about it. His Majesty hasn't visited the inner palace in so long, so the sudden appearance of anyone is like a fly swarming over the crack in an egg.

To Consort Shu's surprise, the Empress and Consort Zhuang were also present.

These two women don't need to compete for the emperor's favor in the harem. Besides, His Majesty has been visiting the Empress's Kunning Palace these past few days, so why would she bother to come out at this time and compete with the other concubines for the emperor's attention?

Consort Shu was not here to vie for favor, so she didn't mind the large crowd.

She stepped forward and bowed to the Emperor and Empress Xiao: "Your Majesty, Empress."

Empress Xiao seemed to be in a good mood, and glanced at her with a smile.

The emperor raised his hand: "Rise."

Consort Shu then greeted Consort Zhuang.

Consort Zhuang rose and returned the greeting slightly.

Afterwards, Consort Yu and the other concubines all bowed to Consort Shu.

Consort Yu voluntarily gave up her seat, and Eunuch Wei went to bring her another chair.

Consort Shu did not rush to sit down, but stood in front of the emperor and said with a smile, "Your Majesty, I have something to offer you."

"Oh?" The emperor paused in his tea-drinking motion.

Consort Shu had the eunuchs bring up several pieces of blue bricks that had been separated and glued together.

Everyone looked at these blue bricks with surprise.

The emperor looked completely bewildered: "Consort Shu... is she going to offer me bricks?"

Consort Shu covered her face with her handkerchief and laughed: "It's not the brick, it's the mortar inside the brick."

She recounted in detail how the Fifth Prince had come up with the idea of ​​using glutinous rice to make mortar the previous night.

After saying this, she stood there, unable to hide her smile, waiting for the emperor's praise.

However, the emperor did not.

An eerie silence suddenly fell over the pavilion.

Everyone, including Empress Xiao and the other concubines, looked at her differently.

Consort Shu was confused and looked at Empress Xiao, Consort Zhuang, and the others: "What... what's wrong with you all?"

Empress Xiao frowned slightly.

Consort Zhuang covered her face with her handkerchief and chuckled.

Consort Shu looked at Consort Zhuang with a serious expression: "What are you laughing at, Consort Zhuang?"

Consort Zhuang couldn't help but chuckle, pointed to a bucket at Consort Yu's feet, and asked, "Are you talking about this kind of mortar?"

Consort Shu was taken aback.

That color clearly indicates it's made with glutinous rice paste!

how so?

She looked back at the eunuch she had brought with her. Sure enough, the bucket of mortar was in his hands. So where did this bucket of mortar come from?

Just as the thought crossed my mind, I heard a soft "oh, oh" sound.

She turned around and saw three little kids squatting on the wooden bridge of Taiye Pond, mixing mortar!

The three of them were having so much fun that they were completely unaware that they were being watched by the emperor and his concubines.

The incident began when a eunuch from the Eastern Palace secretly reported to Empress Xiao that Qin Chuyu was playing in the mud.

Upon hearing that her beloved son was squatting on the ground rubbing mud like a wild country boy, Empress Xiao nearly fainted.

She stormed off to find her son, only to discover that the three of them were no longer in the East Palace. After searching for a long time, she finally found him near the Hall of Diligent Governance.

At that time, Qin Chuyu and his friends were carrying small buckets to wallpaper the emperor's walls.

Empress Xiao nearly collapsed on the spot when she saw the dragon-patterned stone wall of the Hall of Diligent Governance covered in a mess: "What...what are you doing?"

Xiao Jingkong was using a small brush to paste the wall when he turned around and said to her, "The wall is cracked, let's paste it."

Gu Jiao always helps her neighbors repair their roofs and plaster their walls, and Xiao Jingkong has been itching to do the same for a long time.

But there are no walls at home to paste on.

There are many broken walls here, and he wants to plaster them.

Empress Xiao: That's not cracked! It's a pattern! It's a relic of history! It's a boulder passed down from Emperor Taizu, said to have protected him from a landslide!

Therefore, it is also known as the Panlong Stone!

Even more tragically, they not only plastered the stone wall with the dragon design, but also the emperor's watchtower wall. The three of them plastered every wall they saw along the way.

Empress Xiao didn't faint on the spot only because of Xiao Jingkong's good looks.

Empress Xiao had no time to scold her son and his playmates; she hurriedly ordered people to scrape off the mortar from the dragon stone.

Mortar is usually easy to pry off; you can just use a dagger or shovel to pry it off. However, for some reason, this time the mortar just wouldn't come off no matter what I did.

Empress Xiao realized that her son had committed a terrible crime and was thinking of finding someone to take the blame if things got really bad, but then the emperor arrived.

The three were caught red-handed!

Empress Xiao was terrified!

To everyone's surprise, the emperor did not punish the three children.

The emperor was naturally reluctant to punish the little doctor's younger brother, even though he was also heartbroken looking at the ruined dragon stone.

But he soon discovered that something was wrong with the mortar; strictly speaking, it was not simple.

How could there be such a strong mortar?

Xiao Qi didn't have that kind of brain, so the emperor skipped over Qin Chuyu and asked Xiao Jingkong and Xu Zhouzhou, the youngest son of the Minister of War: "Where did you get your mortar?"

Little Jingkong tilted his head and said, "We made it ourselves!"

The emperor was quite surprised: "You can still make this?"

Xiao Jingkong said earnestly, "Jiaojiao does it all the time! I've learned it!"

The emperor looked at Xiao Jingkong, then at the covered-up dragon stone, and suddenly laughed like a fool.

Empress Xiao strongly suspected that he had gone mad from the shock.

And then comes the present.

The three little ones ran out of mortar, so they came back to make a new one.

The glutinous rice soup was something Qin Chuyu asked the imperial kitchen for; they simply added this ingredient to the mortar, which was largely consistent with the method described by Consort Shu.

(End of this chapter)