Zhangsun Wuji and his men dared to sympathize with Wei Zheng, but no one dared to laugh at His Majesty. He even persuaded His Majesty to let Li Yuanying in with a smile: “What will it look like if people hear this yelling? You might be accused of having scandals.”

Li Er had someone let Li Yuanying in.

As Yuanying came in, he saw Wei Zheng and others. He sat next to Wei Zheng and asked Li Er why he is not invited to Taihe Palace, and whether he is trying to steal his pavilion!

His Majesty scolded: “Did I allow you to build it?”

Yuanying felt that his brother is more shameless than even himself. He says yes, yes, yes to everything he wanted to do at the beginning, and now he is changing his words. Not only did he not praise him, but he gathered an army of people to question him!

Yuanying answered angrily: “You agreed! You said that as long as the Treasury did not need to fund it and if I had a plan I can do it myself! I came up with the plan?”

He continued to pester older brother about the reason for not including him on a visitation to Taihe Palace.

Li Er chose to ignore him.

Zhangsun Wuji stepped in and tried to give an explanation on the Emperor’s behalf: “Your Highness, you are included in the namelist. You’ve been busy taking exams and playing with your friends, how were we supposed to inform you?”

Yuanying immediately realised his mistake and changed his tone. He quickly found a spot next to brother and started acting obedient.

“You guys should continue with important affairs. I will just stay here taking care of my brother! Don’t worry about me, I wouldn’t understand your conversation topics anyway.”

Shameless boy… thought the group of officials together.

Others might not know but this group had already read Li Yuanying’s proposal. Although no one would agree to establish such a ruthless supervisory agency, the existing censor department should take this opportunity to make some changes to the way they direct criticism. Let’s not pay too much attention to private matters, and focus more on incidents at court, especially to avoid someone called Li Yuanying.

After all, even if you criticize Li Yuanying, His Majesty will not listen to it. It is a waste of time. We will need to wait until the Emperor favors his younger brother less before finding fault with him.

It is much easier to criticize other aspects. There’s a procedure that involves the Ministry of Justice and other departments and they will collaborate to find out the truth. The censors will only have the right to report, but not judicial power to act. With the cooperation of multiple parties, the verdict will be fair and just, and everyone can feel more at ease!

Li Yuanying came up with such a detailed plan and now dare claim that he understands nothing?

But His Majesty didn’t drive him away so the smart group didn’t say anything. Let him just listen to their conversation; why should they be afraid of him spreading it?

After they were done discussing government affairs, Zhangsun Wuji asked how Yuanying did in his exams and whether he is confident to rank first.

“If getting first place is so easy then the Imperial College sucks. Anyway, I just need to pass the exam.”

Yuanying was relaxed. After all, if he needed to rank first, he can utilize his system to check on all kinds of information and scriptures at will. But what’s the point in that? He didn’t have to be rank first!

Zhangsun Wuji choked on Yuanying’s reply and did not probe further.

Before the group left for Taihe Palace, the exam results came out. Compared to the external Autumn exam, the imperial examination were much more lenient. As long as you get a passing grade you qualify to take the Spring exam. Therefore, not many cared about ranking except for the few who always did exceptionally well.

Yuanying was excited and pulled his friends to check out the ranking list. As they got there, the whole place was crowded and they couldn’t enter.

Li Yuanying didn’t squeeze in, but just called to the people in front: “Am I on the list?”

“Yes!”

“Is my sister Shu there?”

“Yes!”

Yuanying asked one by one, and all his friends were on the list. When he asked who was first, the crowd answered that it was Tang Xuan. Yuanying was overjoyed and turned to Tang Xuan: “You’re first, it’s your turn to treat us today!”

Tang Xuan was a good student and often receive scholarship money. He lives frugally and his family supports him financially too. This makes him quite rich and he readily agreed to take his friends out for a meal.

Yuanying, who was the secret owner of Feng Thai Restaurant didn’t think about taking care of his own business.

“We often eat at Feng Thai. Let’s try another place!”

Naturally, the others had no objection.

The girls sat together and didn’t join the drinking session. Wei Shu quietly asked Wu Mei: “Mei Niang, are you still suppressing yourself in the exam?” For such an important exam, she felt that the results were hard to predict. If she overdo it wouldn’t it backfire?  

Wu Mei smiled but didn’t answer.

Her rank was slightly higher than usual, which mean she took a little more time and effort writing her article. It’s hard to be outstanding, but isn’t it easy to be mediocre?

When Wu Mei smiled, Wei Shu understood. Wei Shu weren’t stupid herself but she still admired Wu Mei’s extraordinary talent. Wu Mei lays the groundwork step by step, she must have been scheming since the beginning!

If Wu Mei far surpassed the scholars who studied hard for many years, everyone’s face would be very interesting!

Yuanying passed the exam. Although his rank was not very high, he still reported the good news to everyone.

Two days later, Princess Yan’s group set off for Xiangzhou. His Majesty was rather cruel. After Li Tai was banished, he wasn’t allowed to come back to pick up his family.

Yuanying knows that the Emperor is hurt and upset about failing to instill good brotherly relationship in his children but there was nothing that could be done about it. Just like his conversation with Li Zhi much earlier, if brothers from ordinary families could fight over a few acres of land, what more those born in the Imperial family?

Yuanying was quite glad that he was born late and in Da’an Palace. The late Emperor had already abdicated and everyone knew he was too young to participate in any coup. Therefore, he lived happily from childhood to adulthood and was not dragged into bad things.

Yuanying sighed and felt nostalgic as he personally sent Little round ball off. Little round ball was afraid that young uncle would forget about their agreement, so he made him promise again to come visit and play with him.

Yuanying watched the carriage leave and then rode back to the palace.

Then he became busy again; busy notifying people from Hu County to rush to Taihe Palace on time. The ceremony was about to begin. Don’t cry if you miss it!

This is the chance to meet the Emperor!

I thought Li Yuanying was just drawing a pie in the sky, I didn’t think it would actually come true. Suddenly he came to inform that the Emperor would be visiting Taihe Palace soon, and their plaques were all prepared, with unified specifications and styles, and would be hung up in unison!

Those who contributed were all grateful to Prince Teng for keeping his promise.

Two groups left for the same location. The Hu County people reached first and made preparations to welcome the Emperor.

So did the Emperor actually turn up? Of course he did. Not just the Emperor but also Zhangsun Wuji, Fang Xuanling, Wei Zheng and the rest of the ministers. It was a grand affair as if they bought something and got a hundred freebies back.

The group all came forward to pay respect to the Emperor.

Li Er had a headache when he saw some of them dressed like merchants. Li Yuanying only cared about money, so naturally there were many merchants. When he saw them, His Majesty immediately recalled the “good things” that Li Yuanying had done and glare at him. He finally turn back with a calm face and told the people to forgo formalities.

The People here all contributed to your palace restoration, you can’t be cold and indifferent to them.

After meeting the citizens, Li Er led the ministers towards Taihe Palace.The facade of the entire palace had been completely renewed, and the outer wall rebuilt and painted beautifully.

I wonder where did Li Yuanying find and transport plum trees from. From a distance, they look higher than the palace wall and the greenish yellow branches stretched out. If spring came, it would definitely be beautiful in the garden.

Li Er has been here before and by just looking from the outside, Taihe Palace was completely different from before! Yuanying had never seen the Palace but he simulated a 3D rendering in his system, and they look identical so he was satisfied.

Yuanying pulled Li Er inside with great interest.

Inside, everything was brand new and every part exquisite and elegant. If one wanted to choose the most eye-catching one among the many pavilions and towers, it’s of course Prince Teng’s Pavilion. Li Er also liked this place, and climb up to look into the distance. Chang’an was vaguely visible in the distance, surrounded by mountains and green waters, as if in a fairyland.

Looking down again, the entire Taihe Palace was in full view.

Needless to say, the scenery with wide hunting ground and neat and uniform horse sheds were very much to the taste of His Majesty. If he didn’t have to attend the ceremony organized by Li Yuanying, he would have gone hunting immediately!

Li Er was satisfied with this palace. He felt that since it had been renovated to the point that the Emperor himself could not remember the original one, it should be renamed. He announced on the spot that it was to be renamed as Cuiwei Palace.

Next, the investors from Hu County had the honor of meeting His Majesty for the second time. After His Majesty’s praises, they took their own plaques and hung them with great excitement. It was a proud moment and they felt like their walk carried wind!

Li Yuanying had accomplished a great project for the first time and was more excited than the investors. Looking at the huge Cuiwei Palace, his heart surged. He remembered when they went hunting in Yique last time, His Majesty ordered Cen Wenben and Chu Suiliang to write an inscription. Although he thought it was boring before, he felt that it was necessary to do it now!

Li Yuanying ran to  Li Er with a shameless face and said, “Brother, on such a good day, shouldn’t you ask someone to write a poem to commemorate it and carve a monument?”

When His Majesty saw Li Yuanying coming over asking shamelessly, he wanted to withdraw his intention. Fortunately, he was very happy today and wasn’t bothered by Li Yuanying’s antics. He just told Cen Wenben, a professional writer to write a poem to commemorate this event.

Cen Wenben received the instructions and wrote it quickly.

Yuanying also got the original manuscript written by Chu Suiliang as he wished!

He  happily invited everyone to take a seat and toasted drinks with everyone like a little adult. Then, while everyone was in high spirits, he instigated His Majesty to make everyone write poems. His Majesty started first, followed by Zhangsun Wuji, Fang Xuanling, Wei Zheng…

Li Yuanying decided to name the article that Cen Wenben had just written <<Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng>> and publish it together with these poems praising Cuiwei Palace! This is to praise the Pavilion that he built and the renovation of the Palace. Everyone must have a copy for memories.

Li Yuanying shamelessly made a decision and wrote down all the poems recited by everyone, preparing to have them typeset and printed later.

After the banquet, His Majesty wanted to go hunting, and Yuanying found an opportunity to stay with Wei Shu and the others to tell them about his great plan. We do good things and leave our names behind! Do great things and make sure others know about it!

Li Yuanying finished talking about his plan, then changed his mind excitedly: “It can’t be called <<Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng>>, it should be <<Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng in Cuiwei Palace>>. I will repair the Pavilion when I go to my fiefdom later, so I have to distinguish them well!”

Notes from the author:

Little Prince: I am a visionary person!