Ning Chen thought it over. If he returned to the palace now, he would most likely be in for a beating. Changsun was in the middle of her fury—wouldn't going back now be asking to be beaten?
All of a sudden, Ning Chen recalled something Li'er had told him two days ago. His eyes darted about, and he walked over to Qing Ling, whispering, "Sister Qing Ling, I need to tell you something."
Qing Ling frowned. "Speak."
Ning Chen leaned close to Qing Ling's ear, breathing in the orchid-and-musk fragrance around her. After reining in his jumbled thoughts, he solemnly told her several things.
"Is this true?" Qing Ling's expression turned grave as she asked seriously.
"One hundred percent." Ning Chen nodded with certainty.
"Fine. I'll return and report it first. As for your request, I cannot decide that myself. It depends on the Empress Dowager's wishes."
The matter was of great importance, and Qing Ling needed to hurry back to the palace. After taking two steps, she stopped again, glanced at Ning Chen, and warned, "Stay here. Don't even think about running."
"Of course, of course." Ning Chen hurriedly nodded, pretending to be obedient. Yet inwardly, he wondered whether he ought to flee at once. Waiting for Changsun's decree seemed far too unreliable.
Qing Ling left, and Ning Chen dragged the already-stunned Li'er toward the rear hall.
"Who exactly are you?" Li'er jerked free of Ning Chen's hand, took two steps back, and asked with reddened eyes.
"Keep your voice down." Ning Chen looked left and right warily.
"Don't treat me like a fool. Anyone could tell that girl wasn't ordinary, and you kept mentioning the Empress Dowager. Don't tell me that's just a name." As she spoke, tears pattered down Li'er's face, impossible to stop.
Ning Chen had no choice. He could not just watch the little girl cry in the street—that would be too beastly. Helpless, he could only give her a rough account of everything from entering the palace to leaving it.
Naturally, he concealed the matters concerning the Fake Eunuch and Mu Chengxue. He tactfully "embellished" the process of entering the palace, and he could say even less about running away. He described it as leaving the palace under orders, only to botch the task and become too afraid to return.
It was not that he deliberately wished to hide things from her. These matters involved more than himself, and once the east window was shattered, everyone who knew would meet no good end.
"Then why did she go back by herself just now?" Li'er had become so absorbed in the story that she forgot she was still angry, asking between sobs.
Ning Chen rubbed the little girl's head and softly said, "Didn't you tell me two days ago that the Zhenji Kingdom's envoy had posed Great Xia a difficult problem? I offered to exchange the answer for the favor of leaving the palace."
By the end, Ning Chen's mood had soured somewhat. The feeling of having no control over his own fate was hard to bear, yet reality was just that cruel. As he was now, he was still far from being able to command his own future.
"Did you really solve the Zhenji Kingdom envoy's problem?"
Li'er did not hear the helplessness in Ning Chen's words, but she was deeply astonished by the answer. In her eyes, the problem posed by the Zhenji Kingdom's envoy was simply impossible to solve.
Ning Chen gathered himself and smiled faintly. "There are no perfect people or perfect things in this world. Anything flawless is a deception waiting to be cracked. The Zhenji Kingdom envoy's question seems to have no solution, but in truth, it is riddled with holes. Anyone can do it."
"I can't do it." Li'er pouted stubbornly.
"That's because you're stupid." Ning Chen teased with a smile.
After arriving in Great Xia, the Zhenji Kingdom envoy spent nearly half a month haggling before finally stating his purpose. He had come to seek the hand of a Great Xia princess for the ruler of Zhenji Kingdom.
This should not have been a major matter. There were many marriageable women among the Imperial Clan Relatives; normally, all the Xia Emperor needed to do was bestow the title of princess upon one and marry her off. Yet the Zhenji Kingdom envoy demanded that the bride must be the Xia Emperor's own blood-related princess. That was no longer a trivial matter.
The Xia Emperor had many children, but only one princess truly of marriageable age: Ninth Princess Xia Xinyu. After the Imperial Noble Consort gave birth to the Ninth Princess years ago, she unfortunately passed away. Her young son and daughter had no one to depend on, and Changsun could not bear it, so she personally raised them as her own.
Xia Xinyu had just turned sixteen that year. She had inherited the Imperial Noble Consort's peerless beauty and grown into a graceful young woman, the most dazzling pearl of Great Xia.
The Zhenji Kingdom envoy's demand enraged the Xia Emperor, but beneath his fury was a measure of helplessness.
Great Xia currently faced grave threats from without. The Ancient Mongol Royal Court in the north might send troops at any time, while the Eternal Night Divine Cult in the west had always been waiting for a chance to once again set its fingers upon the Central Plains. Though Great Xia was powerful, it could not bear fighting on three fronts.
What the Xia Emperor found even more unbearable was that while seeking the princess's hand, the Zhenji Kingdom envoy also demanded that the Xia Emperor cede the Bairuo Plains along the border between the two nations as part of the princess's dowry.
Everyone knew that the Bairuo Plains were Great Xia's most important source of iron ore. The iron used in the weapons and armor of forty percent of Great Xia's soldiers came from there. Once the Bairuo Plains were ceded, Great Xia would be severing its own lifeline.
Naturally, the Xia Emperor would not agree. He refused outright.
Of course, the Zhenji Kingdom envoy was not foolish enough to think the Xia Emperor would agree to such an unreasonable demand. That had never been his true purpose.
After a round of bargaining, both sides took a step back. The Zhenji Kingdom envoy offered twenty thousand warhorses as the wager and set three challenges concerning courage, wisdom, and luck. If Great Xia lost, it would not need to cede the Bairuo Plains, but it would have to surrender the right to use them for three years.
The Zhenji Kingdom envoy had chosen his tactic of advancing by retreating at exactly the right moment. He had seized upon Great Xia's unwillingness to go to war lightly and deliberately spread word of the wager throughout the land, all to pressure Great Xia. So long as he handled his advance and retreat properly, Great Xia would have no choice but to compromise.
As expected, the Xia Emperor agreed, while adding one condition: if Zhenji Kingdom lost the wager, Great Xia would decide which princess would be married off.
The Zhenji Kingdom envoy had no objection. Their goal was the Bairuo Plains; seeking a princess's hand was merely an excuse to demand them.
The Xia Emperor had his own calculations as well. The reason Great Xia feared the Northern Mongol Royal Court so deeply was, ninety percent of the time, because of the Northern Mongol Royal Court's cavalry. Though Great Xia was powerful, it possessed one fatal weakness.
Great Xia had no horses!
It was not that it lacked ordinary horses, but warhorses. The Northern Mongol Royal Court lived by nomadism; its people were fierce by nature and skilled at riding and archery. Its unique Akhal-Teke Horses were an exceptionally rare breed, with an extremely high rate of producing warhorses. Great Xia lagged far behind in this regard. Less than one in ten horses could be used in battle, and their numbers were severely limited.
Twenty thousand warhorses were nearly more than half of Zhenji Kingdom's reserves. They would greatly ease Great Xia's shortage of warhorses.
Yet what the Xia Emperor had not anticipated was that Great Xia would be defeated in the very first contest of courage.
It was not that Great Xia lacked loyal and valiant men. The problem was that the challenge posed by the Zhenji Kingdom envoy was not something an ordinary person could accomplish.
Retrieve a needle from boiling oil, and the person retrieving it had to be chosen by the opposing side.
This was not a matter of courage, because no one could use a ruined hand to fish out an embroidery needle as fine as a strand of hair.
Great Xia's officials had tried countless times, but it was simply impossible.
Great Xia did not lack clever people. They had tried adding water, wine, and even vinegar to the oil, but all ultimately failed.
The Zhenji Kingdom envoy had given Great Xia only three days. Tomorrow was the final deadline, which was why Qing Ling had hurried back to the palace after receiving Ning Chen's promise.
In Weiyang Palace, Changsun had not closed her eyes for two days and two nights over the matter of the Zhenji Kingdom envoy. When she saw Qing Ling return, she was in no mood to ask about Ning Chen.
It was the first time Qing Ling had seen Changsun since leaving the palace five days ago. When she saw Changsun's haggard face, her heart could not bear it. Knowing what Changsun worried over, she stepped forward and tactfully relayed Ning Chen's words.
Bang!
After hearing this, Changsun slammed her palm onto the table. Fury rose to her brows as she shouted sharply, "At a time like this, he is still bargaining with me? Go bring him back. If he resists, knock him out and carry him back!"
"Yes!"
Qing Ling answered, not daring to delay. She immediately set off toward Lingyan Pavilion.
At the same time, after returning to Lingyan Pavilion, Yue Hanyi went straight to the rear hall, found Ning Chen, and stated that she had come for the method of making soap.
Ning Chen looked at Li'er beside him. Along with surprise came a tangled, indescribable feeling in his heart.
"I won't tell you." Ning Chen refused without hesitation, leaving no room for discussion.
"Ten percent of the profits will belong to you, young master," Yue Hanyi promised earnestly.
Ning Chen remained unmoved, silent.
"Twenty percent."
"Thirty percent."
Seeing that Ning Chen still did not budge, Yue Hanyi's willow brows furrowed. She said in a low voice, "Forty percent. There cannot be any more."
Ning Chen gave a cold laugh and said word by word, "Same answer as before. I will not tell you!"
Yue Hanyi narrowed her eyes at first, then smiled in relief. "Since you are unwilling, young master, this little woman cannot force you."
Beside them, Li'er grew anxious. She could not understand why Ning Chen was being so stubborn. Secretly, she tugged Yue Hanyi's sleeve, her eyes filled with pleading.
Yue Hanyi sighed. "I know that you hold quite a few grievances against Hanyi, young master. If this little woman has not guessed wrongly, you believe Lingyan Pavilion has imprisoned these women's freedom. That is why your attitude toward Hanyi changed so drastically."
"But do you know how many pleasure quarters there are in the imperial city, and how many women belong to the slave registry? Compared with those places, at Lingyan Pavilion, they can at least choose whether to sell their bodies."
At this point, Yue Hanyi looked at Li'er. A trace of tender affection flashed across her beautiful face as she continued, "For girls like Li'er, sold into places of pleasure as children, with no one to rely on—where could they go after leaving Lingyan Pavilion?"
Li'er's eyes were red. She walked over to Ning Chen, tugged his arm, and timidly apologized, "I'm sorry. I only wanted you to make up with Sister Hanyi, so I gave the soap to Sister Hanyi."
"Be good, Li'er. I'm not angry."
Ning Chen raised a hand and rubbed the little girl's hair. Then he looked up at Yue Hanyi. "I can give you the method for making soap. And it will not be the sort you learned about from Li'er, but the true method for making soap. However, I have one condition."
Yue Hanyi and Li'er were both startled upon hearing this, especially Yue Hanyi. She had seen far more than Li'er and naturally understood the value of that soap. From Ning Chen's words, it seemed he had been holding something back.
"Don't be surprised. I only made that bar of soap to make Li'er happy. It is fine for making as a toy, but if you make it in large quantities, there will be many problems that cannot be resolved."
Having said that, Ning Chen explained the real process for making soap: how to burn stone into quicklime, make slaked lime, refine caustic soda from it, and finally use caustic soda and lard to make soap. By the time he finished, Yue Hanyi and Li'er were both dazed, understanding only half of it.
Seeing this, Ning Chen asked for paper and brush, wrote down the process in detail, added diagrams where necessary, and handed it to Yue Hanyi.
After studying it for a long while, Yue Hanyi finally grasped the gist of its mystery. She could not help sighing. "Young master is truly an extraordinary man."
"An empty reputation."
"Young master is too modest."
"You flatter me."
Though his words were modest, Ning Chen had nearly raised his head to the heavens. His expression plainly said: Praise me. Keep praising me!
Yue Hanyi found it amusing. He was still a young man after all. Once his awkwardness had passed, he was foolishly rather adorable.
"Ning Chen, come. Return to the palace with me."
Just then, a cool and graceful figure approached. In only a few steps, she had arrived before them. She seized Ning Chen by the shoulder and leapt away...
Before you continue