Special Thanks to these patrons for their support!
S T E L L A R C L O U D
[Azurixa] [Celeste S.] [Christine G.-L.]
O R A N G E S T A R
[J Jean] [K.Rom] [Smurfinbatik] [Tori D.] [Ziana K.-P.]
Y E L L O W S T A R
[Leticia P.] [Maria P.] [Nicole]
G O L D S T A R
[Cindy] [Nanashi D. Y.] [Reece P.]
R A I N B O W S T A R
[Amanda] [Book W.] [Britnae M] [Caroline] [Christigale M.] [DetectiveGeek421] [Hlau V.]
[Ine O.] [Kiiayame] [kuroneko_chan] [Liznel M.] [Mich.e.l.le K.] [onepiece] [Oushna]
[Quae] [Ray] [Scorpion Princess] [Sweetlove] [Victoria]
Qin Chuyu brought his friends to the palace with the consent of his sister-in-law, the Crown Princess, who had arranged everything for him so as not to have his real ident.i.ty exposed.
The main entrance of the palace had three gates, the middle gate being the largest and tallest one. Generally, only the Empress Dowager, Empress and Crown Prince were ent.i.tled to enter and leave through the middle gate. As for the officials going to court, they would go through the side gates on both sides.
Qin Chuyu was an imperial prince born to the Empress, the blood younger brother of the Crown Prince, thus he could enter through the middle gate.
Xu Zhouzhou was one year younger than Qin Chuyu. He was seven years old this year. Before this, he had never been to the palace, but he knew that his father went to court every day through the side gates.
When he entered through the middle gate, he instantly felt that he could brag about it to his old man when he returned home.
Little Jing Kong had no understanding of these things. He only thought that the palace was so huge, even the gate was so big, just like a huge monster with its mouth wide open, and they just walked into the belly of this monster.
It was strange and novel.
The carriage drove all the way in and stopped outside the East Palace.
The East Palace was where the Crown Prince lived. Ordinary princes were not qualified to stay in the East Palace, but who made Qin Chuyu young? He lived wherever he liked, and the Emperor never restrained him much with rules.
Qin Chuyu took the lead in jumping out of the carriage, and then his two little friends also hopped off the carriage.
Qin Chuyu had already planned this trip with the help of his sister-in-law, the Crown Princess, before picking up his little friends. Even though they were not allowed in the Empress’s palace, they were free to play in his brother Crown Prince"s East Palace. After that, they could go to the imperial garden to play hide and seek and go boating in Taiye Lake.
People also got the instructions early that they should not get in their way as much as possible.
Qin Chuyu took the lead in walking along the path of the East Palace and proudly said, "How about it? My home... Ahem! Is the palace very big? This is the East Palace, where the Crown Prince lives, but the smartest, cutest and cleverest Seventh Prince of the State of Zhao also lives here."
That"s me, Qin Chuyu!
Not far away, the palace maid sweeping the ground couldn’t restrain the corner of her lips from twitching. Your Seventh Highness, you weren’t such a smelly fart before. Who was it that made you crooked?
"Achoo!" Little Jing Kong suddenly sneezed.
The East Palace was very big, with a main hall, two side halls, and several small courtyards. One of the small courtyards was Qin Chuyu"s exclusive little world. The Crown Princess had people make a swing, rockery and wooden horse for him there.
Qin Chuyu himself had long gotten tired of playing with these. Xu Zhouzhou"s family also had these, in fact, he had even more playthings than Qin Chuyu. The truth was that the toys in the palace were actually less than those of the common folks to prevent the princes from having excessive attention to trivial things, sapping their will as a result.
Thus, Xu Zhouzhou didn’t covet the things here.
Little Jing Kong was even less envious. The swing that his Master made for him in the temple could swing from one end of the mountain to the other! There was also mountain climbing. He and JiaoJiao climbed real mountains together back then, so what was a small rockery?
“Let"s build a house!" Little Jing Kong suggested.
Recently, Little Jing Kong was obsessed with architecture.
Xu Zhouzhou nodded. Although he was seven years old, he still liked playing with mud.
Qin Chuyu, who actually wanted to take his friends to enter the fake cave, "...Okay!"
Qin Chuyu went to the small woodshed to get three buckets and three small shovels, and happily went to dig up mud!
The people of the palace felt the corner of their mouth twitching. Was it really fine for an imperial prince like you to dig up mud with others?
“Why don’t you go and inform the Empress? This is too ridiculous." One palace maid said.
The little eunuch thought for a moment. The Crown Princess told them not to interfere with His Seventh Highness, but digging up mud... This was indeed simply making mischief. On second thought, if ever the Empress blamed them later, the Crown Princess would be fine, but they, the servants, were going to suffer.
At this point, the little eunuch decided to go to the Kunning Palace.
Meanwhile, it was said that after Imperial Concubine Shu returned to the palace from the Ministry of Justice’s prison, she immediately summoned several eunuchs, asked them to boil a pot of glutinous rice soup according to the method Gu Jinyu told them, and brought a bag of mortar normally used to repair the wall.
After mixing the two materials evenly, Imperial Concubine Shu ordered someone to bring some gray bricks and bind them with the glutinous rice mortar.
In order to compare the effect, Imperial Concubine Shu also had some gray bricks pasted with ordinary mortar.
"In a while, after the mortar has dried, try smashing them with a hammer." Imperial Concubine Shu said to the palace servants.
"Yes!" Responded the two eunuchs. They each took a hammer, and after the two different mortars in the bricks dried, they raised the hammer and smashed them at the same time.
As a result, the glutinous rice mortar indeed had a higher impact resistance compared to the ordinary mortar.
Whether there were more and longer-term effects was still unknown for the time being, but in terms of firmness, glutinous rice mortar was far better than ordinary mortar.
Imperial Concubine Shu, after all, wasn’t just an ordinary boudoir woman. She had experienced many ups and downs in the palace for so many years. How could she not understand how much good this mortar would bring to the State of Zhao once it came out?
Not to mention, it was said that there had been some unrest in the border area recently. The reason was that the border walls had been hit by torrential rain, and several sections of the walls had collapsed.
The walls of the State of Zhao were so fragile that they had to be rebuilt every few years. Even so, it was still easy to collapse.
The Turkic people had been eyeing their land covetously, pretending to be a group of horse-mounted bandits and invading several times. In the long run, the border was bound to fall into an even greater crisis.
The State of Zhao wasn’t a powerful country. As early as a few years ago, the first war with the State of Chen had already weakened the State of Zhao. If they went to war again at this time, they would have to expend a lot of resources and money.
The court was currently discussing how to repair the border walls as soon as possible. With this special mortar, did they still have to worry that the border walls would collapse?
This contribution wasn’t less than the bellows!
A trace of excitement was faintly rising from the bottom of Imperial Concubine Shu"s heart. She asked, almost unable to wait any longer, "Where"s His Fifth Highness? Haven"t you found him yet? What is he doing right now?"
An eunuch responded, "His Fifth Highness has gone out of the palace, saying that he made an appointment with a friend to tackle poetry, estimating that he would come back in the evening. Eunuch Li has already gone out to look for His Fifth Highness. Just don"t know—"
They just didn’t know whether they could find him.
His Fifth Highness was the master, and it was impossible for him to explain his whereabouts to his servants. Eunuch Li could only try his luck according to the route that His Highness usually took.
Imperial Concubine Shu thought for a moment. It made no difference whether he was present or not. In any case, this credit already belonged to him.
"Where is His Majesty?" Imperial Concubine Shu asked.
The eunuch answered, "At the Taiye Lake."
Imperial Concubine Shu held up the ta.s.sel decorating her hair worn in a bun and said, "Hm, why didn"t His Majesty go to the Empress’s palace today?"
The eunuch said with a smile, "Perhaps His Majesty felt bored staying in the Empress’s Palace and went to get some fresh air. In this case, imperial concubine can also stay with His Majesty there."Raz P."s Thoughts
To read advance GSPW chapters! Updates 7x a week (daily).
You can read up to 20 advance chapters in our patreon so you should go check it out. ^^
No patreon but want to support us? Then,
OR if you can"t support us in money, you can always support us emotionally -just hope into . Hehehe~