Li Yuanying’s letter stirred up a thousand waves with just one stone.

It didn’t matter how good the painting was. What’s more important is that it featured a list of investors attached. This is equivalent to giving them airtime with the Emperor in advance. This can never happen if you’re a proper but ordinary county magistrate but Li Yuanying is different because he is the Emperor’s favourite younger brother. Even if his spew nonsense, His Majesty will still read his letters.

It is indeed proven that he wrote nonsense because everyone in court had already heard rumors prior to his letter reaching. All that is left in it is about how “Your Majesty is so awesome. Why do the people love you so much?”.  Flattery done naturally.

Everyone who came pass this matter is disgusted by how shameless Li Yuanying is. Words that would make an ordinary person blush in shame the boy wrote it all in his letters. And then he even send names and excepts from the people who spew flattery about how great the Emperor is. And then to make sure the letter shows authenticity, he kept the local dialects intact to show the simple and honest tone of the common people’s praise.

It is fine that Li Yuanying is shameless but the scary thing is that the Emperor loves it. This realization came to Zhangsun Wuji and some ministers. Not only was the Emperor loving it, his imagination went further.

The Emperor once accidentally told Zhangsun: “I wonder if my brother had this idea when he mention he wanted to build a route to Mount Tai.”

This really shocked him. It’s alright to give Li Yuanying the benefit of doubt due to his young age and the possible assumption that he didn’t know the value of money and so did not feel guilty spending other people’s money.  But His Majesty is the King of a country, how can he take advantage of other? He can he ask his citizens to pay for the cost of building roads and bridges all the way to Mount Tai? How many County will need to fork out money? Not all counties are wealthy, how can you expect people to spend huge sum of money without blinking an eye?

Seeing the flaw in this matter, Zhangsun Wuji quickly decided to have a word with the Emperor. He cannot risk polluting the image of a wise king that came with much hard work over money.

Li Er didn’t reply much but simply mention that he has his own thoughts about this matter.

Zhangsun Wuji seriously thinks that the Emperor’s thoughts were a bluff.

So he simply found a reason to look for Wei Zheng and conveniently told him about the Emperor’s scary thoughts.

Wei Zheng slowly replied: “ I have been sick since the beginning of the year.”

“Aren’t you already better?”

“Sometimes good, sometimes bad. It comes with old age, it’s easy to fall sick but hard to fully recover.”

Zhangsun Wuji was seething in anger silently.

Ever since he had a new future grandson in law, the things Wei Zheng does pisses people off.

I also had a daughter that married into Royalty, you don’t see me defending them blindly like this?!

Wei Zheng slowly walked away, leaving an angry Zhangsun Wuji alone. This is not a matter that Wei Zheng wants to get involved with. Li Yuanying is aiming at wealthy households and not ordinary citizen, it is alright in his books. Whether Li Yuanying will take a aim at people like Zhangsun is not Wei Zheng’s concern.

While all this was going on, Li Yuanying forgot about everything once he was done writing his letter. He also didn’t know that his older brother has thoughts about Mount Tai because of his actions.

Yuanying instead spend time observing the people’s customs and sentiments. After the big case at Wu Family Village, the weren’t anymore scandals so he was instead invited by the enthusiastic villages to eat good food everyday until his belly is round.

In the blink of an eye, it was summer. It was extremely hot so he moved the county office to MeiBei Lake where he works by the cooling water every day. If he was in the mood, he would get men to row him out into the lake on a boat.

The renovation work of the Taihe Palace was in full swing. Li Yuanying only recruited people to work on Prince Teng Pavilion for him. The manpower needed for the other buildings will be the responsibility of the investors. While Prince Teng’s Pavilion started renovation first as it was suppose to be a show unit, it fell behind in timeline. While other pavilions were almost done, his was only built till the third floor.

Since Prince Teng’s Pavilion is not completed yet, the other investors were naturally too embarrassed to stop work early. Therefore, workers came up with many new ideas to improve on the pavilions design to make them more distinctive and eye-catching.

And so the craftsmen worked hard, renovating and changing, making improvements to every part meticulously making them exquisite. This was met with no objections, after all money has been spent, lets try to have the best one? Since investors had already spent big bucks, an additional day or two on manpower were no concern. More importantly they must not let others steal the limelight and make them look like they are not dedicated!

By the end of summer, both species of watermelons are ready for harvesting. Initial type grew bigger while the latter ones were smaller. No one dared to cut it them but the growers observed the fruit carefully using Dai Ting’s instruction. Once they were sure it was fully ripe, the watermelon was brought to Prince Teng.

Yuanying was  happy that both melons ripen at the same time. He invited all his friends to cut them together.  Officials working at the county office had spent much time with Prince Teng and were no longer afraid of this rumored little devil. They sent a representative to him with a shy face to ask: “Your Highness, can we watch too?”

“Why not? Join us!”

Since Li Yuanying now lives in a house by the lake and works in a pavilion by the lake, this is the chosen place to also cut his melons. Government servant and normal citizens all surrounded his pavilion and stretched their necks to look inside. They want to see what the melon from the West called watermelon looks like!

Yuanying didn’t expect such a big commotion but he was always happy to see many people. He enthusiastically shared that the melon came from the Western Regions and is juicy and cools your body down. People in the west also call it cold melon! Although it’s no longer super hot now, but since we have successfully harvested this year, we can repeat the same next year. By then, everyone will be able to eat watermelon in the summer and feel comfortable!

Li Yuanying was beaming as he spoke, while the others listened with gusto. As they looked at the two big, round melons, they were drooling!

Li Yuanying didn’t hesitate and cut one of the big round watermelons under everyone’s attention. He applied a little more force and the melon was divided into two halves.

Disappointingly, the melon was not very red, and there were only a few red pieces in the middle. But it was juicy and didn’t look bad!

Li Yuanying knew instantly that these were the melon seeds brought back by Dai Ting. The initial few plants he brought back didn’t grow well and were gone before they managed to ripen. These were later grown from the seeds Dai Ting brought back.Yuanying was not in a hurry to taste it and just smiled to Wei Shu and the others: “This is less red, so let’s call it “little red”.

After naming the first one, Yuanying cut the other melon. Although the first melon was big, it lacks visual impact. Everyone just thought that it was a relatively large melon but they didn’t feel like eating it. But this time, everyone held their breath!

This melon is beautiful!

The flesh  is so red that people fall in love at the first sight. Red flesh, black seed and white and green skin! Not only is the color vibrant, it looks so sweet. Don’t let them flow in vain, let’s give it a try!  

Even if they have never tasted it, everyone already likes it. If there is a chance in the future, they must try it!

The only person who wasn’t envious was Li Yuanying. He was satisfied and named it “fully red”. He cut it into pieces and distributed it to his friends. The extras were given to the government officials standing around.  

“Little Red” was also distributed out. To be fair, if there were no comparison, the melon seeds brought back by Dai Ting tasted great. It was juicy and good for relieving summer heat.

Yuanying instructed Dong Xiaoyi to get his planting team to hone their selective breeding skills with “Little Red” and to set the direction for future planting.

Dong Xiaoyi took his order seriously.

Yuanying’s actions quickly spread throughout the county and the next day,  several large watermelons were sent back to Chang’an. Although the journey was not a long one, Yuanying made sure to send the melons back with their vines intact to ensure freshness!  

While the melons were on the way to the Emperor, Yuanying kept his promise and hosted a banquet at his restaurant to entertain the wealthy households who had invested in his palace renovation project.

Everyone had heard that the watermelons were delicious and were all looking forward to it. This is the only watermelon in the whole of Tang; or at least traveller from north and south have not heard of this watermelon. Plus Li Yuanying mentioned something about teaching them the planting technique, wouldn’t that mean that Hu County is the only region to is able to master this unique business? !

The young prince entertained his guests with performances and great food. When everyone was moving their butts from being impatient, Yuanying clapped his hands. Bring in the watermelons

——

A small piece for everyone

“The little black dots on the melon are the seeds. Be careful when eating them and spit the seeds out.  Bring them home and try to plant them.” (Yuanying)

Everyone was a little confused.

The little devil prince can’t be so shameless as to send them away with such a small piece of melon, can he? Although admittedly this piece of melon looks delicious but they have donated a whole building! A whole building for this piece of melon?!

Seeing his guest all carrying a face that said: “How dare you be so shameless”; Yuanying smilingly added: “Next summer, I’ll teach everyone how to grow some.”

Notes from the author:

Little Prince: “I’m just joking, why so serious!”