Chapter 588 [Three Updates] 588
Liu Tan felt that Chen Ajiao might have really misunderstood Liu Che this time. According to normal logic, he, the queen's "biological" son, was thrown into the Northern Border Kingdom to shine. Now the seventh prince is at most the queen's adopted son. What use can he be?
Even if Liu Che wanted to be on guard, it would be against him. But now neither Liu Che nor Liu Ju seemed to think he was dangerous. The seventh child... was not even two years old yet.
He coughed lightly and said, "Mother, I am still here. It is not the Seventh Brother's turn."
Chen Ajiao's eyebrows moved slightly: "Then why does he ignore this child so much?"
How could Liu Tan know? If he knew, he wouldn't have been so often troubled by Liu Che. But now that the emperor and the empress were not about to divorce, he could only do his best to mend the rift between them. He smiled and said, "Father seems to have been very upset by the officials who came back to report on their work recently. When I went to see him just now, he looked unhappy. The closer it gets to the New Year, the more things will happen. It's normal for him to forget. If it really doesn't work, Queen Mother, please give the seventh child a nickname first."
Chen Ajiao rolled her eyes at him and said, "You only know how to speak in your father's favor."
Liu Tan immediately looked aggrieved: "Your son is wronged. This is not a big deal."
Chen Ajiao waved her hand: "Okay, I don't know you yet?"
Liu Tan deeply felt that it was really difficult to deal with a lady when she was unreasonable, and... he also felt a little guilty. It was true that he seemed to be better to Liu Che and also cared about Chen Ajiao, but it seemed not as good as Liu Che.
It seems to be a sequelae left over from the beginning of the journey.
Liu Tan coughed lightly and said, "The New Year is coming soon, mother, please don't be unhappy. I will prepare something fun for you during the Lantern Festival."
Chen Ajiao asked, "Has your cat finally finished tossing around in Shihe Garden after so long?"
Liu Tan nodded and handed her a map, saying, "Look, mother, by the Lantern Festival, you'll be able to overlook the entire Chang'an City."
Chen Ajiao's heart skipped a beat after hearing this, but she still snorted and said, "It's obvious that this was made for your father."
Liu Tan immediately said, "How could that be? Your Majesty can also play, and I have also made some beautiful things for you."
Chen Ajiao immediately widened her eyes with curiosity and asked, "What is it?"
Liu Tan put his index finger to his lips and smiled, "Keep it a secret."
Chen Ajiao then pinched his face and said with a smile: "You are so mysterious all day long. Okay, I get it. You have been tossing and turning for so long. Go back to the bedroom and rest."
After hearing this, Liu Tan said shyly, "Your son...your son has to leave the palace today."
Chen Ajiao looked surprised: "What are you doing outside the palace?"
But before Liu Tan could answer, she immediately reacted and said calmly, "Oh, are you going to see that little Kunmi?"
Liu Tan advised: "Mother, he is now the King of Wusun."
Chen Ajiao snorted: "It doesn't matter what it is. You've been here for so long and you didn't even come into the palace to take a look. You're so ignorant."
Liu Tan whispered, "He was injured before, and I won't let him move around. Besides, it's not good for a man like him to enter the harem without permission. I'll bring him in tomorrow."
Chen Ajiao stretched out her index finger and tapped his forehead and said, "You only know how to speak to him in his favor. They say girls are extroverts, and I think your son is also very extroverted."
Liu Tan held her hand and smiled sweetly. Chen Ajiao couldn't bear to criticize him, so she just waved and said, "Go quickly."
Chen Ajiao was very calm about the matter between Liu Tan and Lu Xuan. It didn't matter if they were young and foolish. They would grow up eventually. When they grew up, they would understand. It wouldn't be too late then.
Before, she would worry that these two people would harm their bodies if they messed around together, but now... they might not even be able to spend three months together in the whole year, so what is there to worry about?
After Liu Tan left the Pepper Room, he rode back to the palace at top speed. Without waiting for Lu Xuan to say anything, he immediately ordered Miao Rui, "Hurry up, go find some skilled craftsmen who can make models. The best!"
After hearing this, Miao Rui ran out without saying a word.
Lu Xuan helped him take off his cloak while asking in confusion, "What's wrong? You just got back, why are you in such a hurry to drink some water and calm down?"
Liu Tan said with a bitter face: "Hey, you don't understand how it feels like my parents are both tsunderes."
Lu Xuan: ???
Liu Tan found his bewildered expression so adorable that he couldn't help but reach out and rub his face. He explained, "I made a hot air balloon. I wanted to take my father and mother to see the lanterns in the sky during the Lantern Festival. But my mother insisted I made it just for him and that I'd forgotten about her. Well... I can only say I didn't forget and I prepared a gift for her."
Lu Xuan couldn't help but smile when he heard this: "But you didn't actually prepare any gifts, right?"
Liu Tan couldn't help but let out a long sigh: "Alas, parents are all debts."
Lu Xuan rarely saw him acting so mature and couldn't help laughing. "So what are you going to do now?"
Liu Tan frowned, "It's not long until the New Year's Day, so it's definitely too late to do anything else, so we can only do something simple."
Lu Xuan was a bit curious. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that what Liu Tan had prepared for Liu Che was truly astonishing. Before this, who would have thought that humans could fly? Even if the height wasn't high enough, it was still flying, right?
What could possibly compare to a hot air balloon?
In fact, in Liu Tan's opinion, there are not many things that can compare with hot air balloons. Even what he is going to make is really not as good as a hot air balloon, but anyway, they have never appeared, and Chen Ajiao's hobbies are obviously different from Liu Che's.
Liu Che liked all kinds of strange things, while Chen Ajiao liked all beautiful things.
So Liu Tan came up with something that is currently the easiest to make - ice sculpture.
The ice sculptures sparkle at night, so they must be beautiful, right?
However, even if it is called ice sculpture, the sculptor cannot really carve on a large piece of ice. It is not about whether it will be cold, but no one has the skills to do so now.
Ice is different from any jade. The strength required to carve it is different from that of other jades. It is probably impossible to practice it for more than ten days, so Liu Tan can only take a shortcut - using a mold to make ice sculptures.
Anyway, he had made these things before. When he sent Princess Danyang to marry into the Wusun clan, he had made sugar sculptures. The principle was actually the same. In fact, sugar was even more difficult to manipulate than water.
However, at that time he thought that ordinary sugar sculptures could produce spectacular effects in Da Wusun, but their size and height would be too small in Chang'an.
There is no problem in making such a high mold, but the problem is that so much water is poured into it. If there is a problem with the mold, it will be a major accident.
Moreover, Liu Tan didn't want anyone to see it, otherwise if the news got to the palace, Chen Ajiao would be arrogant again - she started doing this after leaving the palace, and it was obvious at a glance that she didn't have it originally, and it was only after she asked Liu Tan to make up for it.
Being discovered doing this is more painful than not doing it in the first place.
So Liu Tan came out of the palace not only because he wanted to see Lu Xuan, but also because he wanted to give clear instructions!
Miao Rui was very quick. Knowing that Liu Che wanted to make something to please the queen, he directly brought nearly thirty craftsmen to work for him.
During this process, Liu Tan had already figured out what he wanted to do - to create a theme of "A Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix".
Even in this period, the phoenix had not been given such a high status. The bird with a truly high status was the Zhai bird. But it didn't matter. Liu Tan didn't say that the phoenix represented the queen.
Moreover, the appearance of the phoenix in later generations is completely different from that of today.
The so-called "Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix" means that in an open field, in the middle of the field, there is a phoenix standing on a paulownia tree with its wings spread out, ready to fly, while other birds are circling around the paulownia tree.
To be honest, it's not easy to make the birds float. You have to have a fulcrum for these ice sculptures, right? Otherwise, they can't really float in the air.
If there was enough time, Liu Tan would definitely be able to think of a better way to hide those fulcrums, but now... there was no way, he could only use wire for support in a simple and crude way.
As long as the wire is thin enough and extends out from the sycamore tree, it shouldn't be easy to be seen. Even if it is seen, it doesn't matter. Anyway... he really tried his best.
The focus of the entire ice sculpture is on the paulownia tree and the phoenix. These two need to be designed by Liu Tan himself, while he lets them freely express themselves with the other birds.
He even imagined the effect of seeing this group of ice sculptures in mid-air.
The hot air balloon is currently set at a height of about twenty feet. It should take off from the Star-Picking Platform in the palace, so the height will be close to forty feet, or about twelve or thirteen meters. This height is roughly between five and six stories high.
Liu Tan imagined the feeling of looking down from that height, and it seemed that ice sculptures didn't need to be particularly large.
However, in order to make it look better, he finally decided that the height of the phoenix tree ice sculpture should be at least five meters, and the height of the phoenix should be at least two meters. The height of the other birds could be anything, as long as they did not exceed half the height of the phoenix.
Although it doesn't sound very high, it is actually quite troublesome, because the paulownia tree... needs branches and leaves, it's not just a bare stick. The branch where the phoenix rests must be especially thick.
However, the good thing about ice sculptures is that they can be "assembled". As long as the various parts are made in proportion, they can be "glued" directly with water when needed. There is no need to even calculate the problem of perfect fit.
According to Liu Tan's habit, he must make a small model at the beginning to see the effect.
After it was finished, he stood on it and looked at the ice sculptures below, and always felt that something was missing - this piece of white could only barely be seen as birds, and the various details made by the craftsmen were completely invisible!
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