Chapter 52 Chapter 52 Rewards
Wu Tianyue wanted to tell Daiyu about Jia Huan, but was interrupted by Baochai.
Later, when Lady Jia was not feeling well again, Daiyu went to visit her. He had no choice but to return to the Yihong Courtyard by himself. He did not call Jia Huan to come, but just told someone to let him go back by himself.
Jia Huan stayed in the study room of Yihong Courtyard for half a day, but no one came. After dinner, a little maid sent him out. He was confused for a moment, but it was late, so he had to return to his residence.
The maids in the house didn't expect him to come back suddenly and were terrified. Later, seeing that he didn't beat or scold them, one of them served her carefully while the other went to report to Tanchun.
Tanchun and Daiyu had just returned to the garden after visiting Lady Jia. Seeing Jia Huan's maid coming in, she asked, "What are you doing in such a hurry?"
The little girl panted and said, "Master Huan San is back."
Tanchun frowned and thought for a moment, then ordered, "Come back if you want and serve him well. If he wants to attack, just come find me."
"The Third Master didn't do anything." The little girl shook her head and thought for a moment before saying, "The Third Master... looks different than usual."
Daiyu, who was listening, suddenly remembered what Wu Tianyue had left unfinished that afternoon, and advised Tanchun, "He only comes back once every few months. As your sister, it wouldn't hurt for you to go and see him."
She was indebted to Tanchun. After hearing her words, Tanchun said to the little girl, "I'll go and take a look."
It was not convenient for Daiyu to go, so she just told Lu Chen: "It's getting dark, you go with the third lady." Lu Chen went with Tanchun, and when he came back he told Daiyu everything.
When Daiyu heard that Jia Huan had been completely transformed, she immediately understood what reward Wu Tianyue was talking about and cursed him with a low laugh, "Fool."
Afterwards, he pondered for a long time, took a copy of "Spring and Autumn" from the bookshelf, and asked Lu Chen to send it to Yihong Courtyard: "Just say that I know everything, there is no need to cancel each other out."
Lu Chen was confused by what he heard, but he still took the book and handed it over.
Wu Tianyue was writing a plan in his room to show the prince tomorrow. When he received the book, he knew that Daiyu was alluding to the part in "Romance of the West Chamber" where Zhang Sheng approached Cui Yingying. Although he felt a little disgusted with Zhang Sheng, he was very happy that Daiyu had this intention.
After hearing what Lu Chen had said, he was overjoyed. After thinking for a moment, he handed the Book of Han to Lu Chen and said, "If it doesn't cancel it out, I'll go ask your daughter for it tomorrow."
Lu Chen returned to Xiaoxiang Pavilion inexplicably as usual. When Daiyu saw the book, she recalled the story of Jia Wu and Han Shou in the Western Jin Dynasty. Her face flushed and she cursed, "Shameless."
After cursing, she picked up the pen and wrote a few words. Just as she was about to have it delivered, she put it away again when she thought of his jealous look today: "I'll spare you this time."
After saying that, he put the "Book of Han" at the innermost part of the bookshelf, blushed, washed up, and went to bed.
The next day, Wu Tianyue got up early and learned that Lady Jia was not well yet. Daiyu had also gone to pay her respects to Lady Jia, so he packed up and went there as well.
The imperial physician took the patient's pulse and left. Wu Tianyue sat with the sisters for a while and then returned to the garden together.
Wu Tianyue followed Daiyu back to Xiaoxiang Pavilion and said with a smile, "Didn't my sister say there would be a reward today?"
Daiyu blushed, sent the maid away, and asked, "What reward do you want?"
Wu Tianyue's eyes lit up: "Anything is fine?"
"Of course..." Daiyu dragged out her voice, "No!"
Wu Tianyue curled his lips: "Then why are you asking me?"
"I asked casually, and you can answer casually." Daiyu smiled, "but it's up to me whether to give it or not."
"You just lied to me." Wu Tianyue muttered, then asked, "So what reward have you prepared?"
Daiyu stiffened for a moment after hearing this, and said, "I'll tell you later."
Seeing her ears turn red, Wu Tianyue felt hopeful again and urged, "What kind of reward is it?"
The more he urged her, the more Daiyu ignored him and said, "Wait a moment, I'll ask Zijuan to do something."
As he said this, he opened his mouth to call Zijuan.
Wu Tianyue refused and tugged at Daiyu's sleeve, saying, "Sister, just tell me."
"A real man should behave like this all day long." Daiyu pulled back her sleeves and said with a smile, "It's shameful."
Wu Tianyue said with a grin, "It's not shameful in front of you."
Seeing his indifferent attitude, Daiyu suddenly felt playful and said with a smile, "Then don't run away later."
"Why would I run?" Wu Tianyue laughed. "Are you going to scare me with some weird thing?"
Before he could finish his words, Daiyu suddenly grabbed his collar and pulled him towards her.
Wu Tianyue was suddenly pulled over and lost his balance, so he fell towards Daiyu. Afraid of crushing her, he quickly supported himself on the armrests on both sides of the chair where Daiyu was sitting. By the time he reacted, he had already half-hugged Daiyu in his arms.
Daiyu tilted her head slightly, her neck and face all red. Her eyes, which usually shone with tears, were now unusually firm. Reflecting Wu Tianyue's somewhat panicked reflection, she chuckled softly and said, "How about this reward?"
Wu Tianyue didn't expect Daiyu to be like this. He looked at her slightly trembling eyelashes and felt her breath on his face as she spoke. The breath with a faint medicinal fragrance was like an invisible thread, vaguely brushing against his lips and nose, and entwining around them.
Seeing Daiyu getting closer and closer, Wu Tianyue suddenly felt panicked. He took a deep breath and stepped back in embarrassment, knocking the ornaments on the shelf to the ground.
Wu Tianyue didn't dare to look at Daiyu again. He turned around staggeringly and ran out of the door with his hands and feet trembling.
Zijuan heard the clanging of bells outside and got up to go inside. She happened to run into Wu Tianyue and saw him panicking. She hurriedly asked, "What happened?"
Wu Tianyue shook his head and coughed twice before he regained his voice. He simply said, "Your girl is looking for you."
After saying that, he lowered his head and ran out.
Zijuan looked at him doubtfully for a few seconds, then walked in and asked Daiyu, "What's wrong with the prince?"
Seeing the mess on the ground, he was surprised and asked, "Did they have a fight?"
Daiyu's heart was pounding. His actions had indeed been too bold. But seeing the usually fearless Wu Tianyue running away like a frightened deer, she found it amusing. When Zijuan asked, she smiled and said, "Do you think he dared to do that?"
Then he continued, "I'll ask someone to clean up later. First, go to the storehouse to find some cloth and herbs, and then pack twenty taels of silver and take them to the old lady's room for Granny Liu. She might be leaving today."
Seeing that she didn't say anything, Zijuan stopped asking and nodded in agreement. She went out to ask someone to clean up, and then went to the warehouse to find the things as Daiyu asked and took them over personally.
Wu Tianyue didn't know that Daiyu was laughing at him. After he stumbled back to Yihongyuan, he sat in the study for a long time in a daze. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that his behavior of running away was too shameful. He had clearly taken the initiative to kiss her before, so why was she scared just now?
Lan Ye saw that he hadn't come out for a long time, and worried that he would be late for the Prince's Mansion, so she knocked on the door and said, "The old lady of the Jia family is ill today, and Granny Liu may be saying goodbye and going home. Your Highness, please think about what to send her."
Wu Tianyue came back to his senses: "Just give it to me as you see fit."
Then he asked, "What time is it?"
"It's almost noon." Lan Ye replied, "Do you want food?"
"No need." Wu Tianyue shook his head, "I'll go to the Prince's Mansion to eat."
After saying this, he shook his head to dismiss the previous scene, stood up, took what he had written last night, and went to the Prince's Mansion.
The Crown Prince and the Crown Princess were preparing to have dinner. Seeing him coming, they smiled and said, "You really know how to find time."
"I'm just lucky." Wu Tianyue said with a smile, "I rushed to show it to you as soon as I finished writing it."
After saying this, he paid his respects to the Crown Princess who was standing beside him.
The Crown Princess ordered the dishes and chopsticks to be prepared, and said with a smile, "If you have anything to say, talk after you finish eating."
Wu Tianyue sat down without any hesitation: "I'm hungry."
After the three of them had their meal, Wu Tianyue went to the study with the prince.
Before he could say anything, the Crown Prince said, "I sent someone to investigate yesterday. The people's starvation is firstly a natural disaster, which is beyond our control. Furthermore, the weather has been good for the past two years, and the harvests have been decent. Secondly, the Ministry of Revenue has its own tax arrangements, and His Majesty has reduced or exempted them from time to time. We have no need and cannot interfere."
"As for what you mentioned," the prince paused and sighed, "it could be done, but the Ministry of Revenue already has people responsible for selecting high-quality seeds for the people to plant every year. There's no need to repeat this. As for sending people to teach the people planting techniques, that's feasible, but it would be faster and better for the court to do it."
Wu Tianyue listened and explained, "Your Highness is right. I asked someone and they found out that the Ministry of Revenue does select seeds with plump grains from the best-yielding and healthiest crops every year to be planted the following year. However, most of these seeds are grown on the imperial farms, and ordinary people get very little. If we could plant these seeds together and get more seeds to distribute to the people, wouldn't that be better?"
After that, he moved on to the second question: "As for teaching planting techniques, it would be better if court officials could do it. However, how many people in the court now understand this? Even if they were to read books from the previous dynasties, they wouldn't understand the meaning without actually planting. Moreover, the retired emperor and the second prince are watching closely, so His Majesty probably doesn't have the time to arrange this."
After hearing this, the prince fell silent. Even if he had submitted the memorial himself, without his father's arrangement, those officials would not have given up their comfortable lives to farm in order to please him. There would not be much benefit if they did it.
Seeing he didn't object, Wu Tianyue continued, "Why don't we find some people? First, have them read all the agricultural books from the previous dynasty, and then have them divide into several teams to farm separately. Of course, we'll also have to pay farmers to teach them. Besides that, we'll post a notice asking farmers to share their own farming techniques. If their methods yield a good harvest, we'll reward them handsomely. But we need someone to keep an eye on this to prevent the people below from pocketing the spoils."
Seeing that he was trying so hard to hint at him, the prince said with a smile, "Don't think you are going to use this as an excuse to have fun."
"Even if I'm just having fun, I won't delay this." Wu Tianyue said with a smile, "After all, this is my suggestion. If I don't do it well, wouldn't it be a slap in my face?"
"What you said is not impossible, but there is one thing," the prince said. "I have had people check. Although the seeds selected by the Ministry of Revenue over the years have a higher yield, it will not increase it significantly. Moreover, such high-quality seeds are limited and cannot solve the problem of low yield."
"This brings us to another point." Wu Tianyue handed the item in his hand to the prince and said, "Besides selecting seeds, we can also buy them. The country is so vast, there must be some places that have some that others don't, and some places that have some that we don't have here. It just so happens that the Xue family has a caravan. Although it has declined, it can still be used. Instruct them to buy some local seeds when they travel around to sell goods, and have people try to plant them outside the city. If they can really grow, then we can distribute it to the people and let them try it. If not, then that piece of land will be wasted."
Then he smiled and said, "If you can really find high-yield seeds, and report it to your superiors, wouldn't that bring you wealth and fame?"
The prince frowned and said, "This is for the people, how can we involve these mundane things?"
Wu Tianyue looked at the light in the prince's eyes, and secretly complained in his heart, but smiled and said, "You don't need it, but I do."
"You're still short of these?" The prince scolded him with a smile, then lowered his head to look at the plan again. He felt that every aspect had been taken into consideration and it was indeed feasible. He nodded and said, "Let's do as you say. I have a farm outside the city with fertile farmland. I'll give it to you, and I'll also provide you with a group of people later."
Wu Tianyue then asked: "Then..."
The prince glanced at him and said, "Don't worry, I'll pay for it, just do your job well."
Wu Tianyue said happily: "Thank you, Your Highness."
The prince waved his hand and said, "Go ahead. I'll give you the money and the people tomorrow."
Wu Tianyue withdrew with satisfaction.
As soon as I entered the Yihong Courtyard, I heard someone say, "The prince is finally back. The young lady has sent people to ask about him many times."
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