Chapter 92: Can’t Show Your Wealth

In Smooth Spring Garden, the Emperor looked at the young man who stood there with his head lowered. He felt like this young man’s humbleness wasn’t sincere, but he couldn’t spot any issues. Therefore, the Emperor was slightly frustrated.

Perhaps he had sat cross-legged on the heatable brick bed for too long, the Emperor felt like his legs were numb, so he stood up to stretch.

“A total of 104 people died in the Ministry of War, and there were level 7 and level 8 masters among them. Do you know how many enemies these people could have killed on the battlefield?” the Emperor asked while slowly walking around, making blood flow smoother in his legs.

“Regardless of what the cause is, I can’t pretend that nothing happened, even if you are Royal King Zhong’s disciple. Although I miss him, I wouldn’t pardon him if he broke the law. Great Sui is mine, and I set all the rules. Therefore, I can’t be the one who breaks the rules.”

“Atone for the crime by doing good deeds,” Fang Jie suddenly said lightly.

The Emperor froze for a second before snorting, “You sure have the courage! Tell me! How are you going to do good deeds? What skills do you have to do good deeds? Where are you going to do deeds?”

Fang Jie took out something from his inner pocket and presented it with both hands. “This is what I prepared for the civil portion of the entrance exam of the Martial Arts Academy, and I will hand it to Your Majesty now. Although it isn’t very useful, it could be of help for the students of Great Sui, especially those in towns and counties.”

Su Buwei quickly grabbed the booklet that Fang Jie handed over, then he bowed and delivered it to the Emperor with both hands.

Emperor Yang Yi casually flipped through the booklet before his eyes lit up.

He walked back to the heatable brick bed, took off his shoes, and got onto it.

The booklet that Fang Jie handed over was something that he made himself. Although it was only a few pages, the Emperor read it carefully even though he didn’t understand most of it.

“What is this?” The Emperor raised his head and asked Fang Jie, “I can guess what it is for, but it seems like only you would understand the meaning of these symbols.”

“I call this pinyin,” Fang Jie said, “Using this system, every word could be marked, and students wouldn’t need to memorize each and every word. As long as pinyin is put above each word when publishing books, and the students learn how to pronounce using pinyin, they could read without a teacher guiding them.”

While saying this, even Fang Jie felt a little awkward.

When he was at Fangu, Fang Jie thought about how he could stand out in the entrance exam of the Martial Arts Academy. He thought for a long while and finally decided on two new things; one was pinyin. Pinyin was the romanization of the Chinese characters based on their pronunciation, and Chinese characters were used by Great Sui was well. Since the teachers were inefficient in teaching all the words to students, it meant that pinyin could be used in this world.

“Great,” the Emperor praised and said while beckoning, “Come over and tell me how to use these symbols. If it can be adopted in Great Sui, it would be something beneficial to the people.”

Fang Jie looked at that eunuch, asking for permission with his eyes. After Su Buwei nodded with a smile, Fang Jie walked over to the Emperor and explained everything that he wrote. The Emperor nodded while listening and would sometimes write a word to ask Fang Jie how to put a pinyin on it.

It had to be mentioned that the Emperor was an extremely intelligent person. In about 15 minutes, he had memorized almost all the alphabets used in pinyin and the four tone marks.

“I will bring this up in the morning meeting and ask the grand scholars if this would work. If it does, this would be a big credit.”

The Emperor stretched his body again, and his tone became neutral. The displeasure that he had toward Fang Jie’s insincere humbleness was gone.

When the Emperor stretched his body, Fang Jie felt like he heard the spine crackling a little.

“Your Majesty, sitting for a long time is harmful to the body. You should move around more.” Fang Jie moved back a few steps with his head lowered before saying, “When I was bored in Fangu, I thought of a few simple movements to stretch the body and increase the blood circulation. Doing these movements every day should be beneficial. These movements shouldn’t be count as martial arts but therapy movements instead.

“Show it to me,” the Emperor said while stretching his neck.

In the past, whenever his neck and back felt sore, he would get Imperial Concubine Cen to massage his body.

Although Imperial Concubine Cen didn’t have a great background and wasn’t the prettiest among all other imperial concubines, her unique massage technique made the Emperor think of her frequently. It was rare for the Emperor to frequently think of most imperial concubines. Many of them wouldn’t even get to sleep with the Emperor in their lifetime.

Fang Jie nodded and performed the radio calisthenics that all students in China are required to do in the morning on campus.

While performing the radio calisthenics, Fang Jie smiled bitterly and thought, “I didn’t get rich off of the professional information from Earth, but I’m using the basic stuff from elementary school to save myself.”

“Su Buwei, what do you think?” the Emperor asked.

Su Buwei looked at Fang Jie and replied after a moment of silence, “These movements are simple, but the entire body would be used. These movements do increase the circulation of blood. However, if some of the movements are modified, the effects would be greater.”

“Interesting.” The Emperor smiled and pointed at Fang Jie. “What else do you know? I know that you can’t cultivate, but even Royal King Zhong is fond of you. You must be capable of more things. If you surprise me with something else, I will delay my judgment on the incident at the Ministry of War.”

“I…” Fang Jie knew that all the things that he prepared for the entrance exam of the Martial Arts Academy would be spent here.

“I have some simple understanding of math.”

“Speak!”

Fang Jie felt like he was a low-level con artist. First, he used pinyin which was something basic that he learned in preschool and fooled the Emperor of Great Sui once. Then, he used Grade One math to fool the Emperor again.

As someone who came here from Earth, Fang Jie didn’t feel proud but helpless.

He felt helpless since he wasn’t a qualified dimension traveler.

He used some of the business principles from Earth to make money in Fangu, but now he was using knowledge from kindergarten and elementary school.

Fortunately, pinyin and basic math were useful. At least the Emperor decided not to kill him now.

Fang Jie explained the Arabic numerals and the elementary-school-level math operations to the Emperor.

Although Great Sui’s math knowledge was good, people were using characters to spell out the numbers, making the math operations much more complicated.

Therefore, the Emperor was quite interested in what Fang Jie said, and he decided to let Fang Jie stay in Smooth Spring Garden for another day to get more out of this young man who his seventh brother liked.

For some reason, Royal Guard Captain Luo Weiran and Mr. Zhuo created a lie, saying that Fang Jie was the man in cyan’s disciple even though they only met once.

Of course, only Fang Jie knew what happened between him and the man in cyan. Perhaps Luo Weiran and Mr. Zhuo both believed that the legendary Royal King Zhong accepted Fang Jie as his final disciple and only disciple.

At his current level, Fang Jie didn’t know how talented Royal King Zhong was, but he could tell that the Emperor greatly valued Royal King Zhong, Yang Qi.

Fang Jie didn’t know what Yang Qi did after leaving Chang’an more than ten years ago, but the Emperor must know what was going on. On top of that, Yang Qi exited the government, making the Emperor feel guilty. It was this sense of guilt that helped Fang Jie temporarily dodge this disaster.

What was the relationship between the Emperor and Royal King Zhong? It could be roughly seen through the punishment that Royal King Yi received after he expelled Beckon of the Red Sleeve.

When Beckon of the Red Sleeve returned to Chang’an, the Emperor even said those words to Royal King Yi in front of several important officials.

If the Emperor didn’t say those words, most of those influential figures wouldn’t have shown up when Beckon of the Red Sleeve opened for business. Royal King Zhong wasn’t around anymore, and about 11 years was enough time for people to forget many things.

Those big figures only showed up after hearing what the Emperor said on purpose; he was trying to get the word out through those few important officials.

In the entire government, not many people realized that even though the Emperor didn’t do anything obvious, he was protecting everyone related to Royal King Zhong.

Through this experience, Fang Jie guessed many things inside the room that temporarily belonged to him inside Smooth Spring Garden.

When he was in Fangu, he had no idea that Beckon of the Red Sleeve belonged to Royal King Zhong, and the man in cyan was Yang Qi. He also didn’t know at the time that he would only survive in Chang’an by relying on the name of this legendary figure.

Just these coincidences could make a great story, but Fang Jie didn’t know that the influence Royal King Zhong had on him far exceed this.

Leaning on the bedframe, Fang Jie carefully thought through all the things that he prepared. Then, he got paper and inkbrush from a small eunuch outside his door. He wrote down the most basic math knowledge, and it took him four hours. He even felt a sense of achievement when looking at that stack of paper.

Not long after he finished, a small eunuch knocked on his door and said, “Mr. Fang, His Majesty is summoning you.”

“Mr. Fang?” Fang Jie murmured to himself and smiled. Then, he took a 100-tael silver certificate from his sleeve and stuffed it to the small eunuch.

“Thanks for the paper and the inkbrush. Also, thank you for calling me Mr. Fang.”

That small eunuch was surprised, and he looked down at the silver certificate as his hand shivered; he hesitated and wasn’t sure if he should accept it. After glancing at the value which said 100-tael, he looked around and quickly put it into his sleeve.

Fang Jie thought, “Only 100 taels of silver could make a small eunuch feel thankful, but 500 taels of silver couldn’t make that Su Buwei spare another glance. This is the difference in levels.”

Fang Jie confidently walked into the Royal Study with the product of his four hours of work. However, he was stunned when he entered. There were several old officials who had white hair, and the person sitting closest to the Emperor even had a white beard.

This room full of grand scholars looked scary.

…

Until the night, Fang Jie was still answering these grand scholars’ questions tirelessly, and he sometimes had to make calculations on papers with charcoal pens.

He didn’t drink any water and didn’t sit down at all. Even though he felt like he could spit fire due to his dry throat, and his legs were sore, he didn’t show any signs on the surface and fooled these grand scholars who were about 500 years old if their ages were added together.

“If this kid comes to the Imperial Academy, the academy will have another grand scholar in two to three years! The youngest grand scholar in the history of Great Sui!” an old official who had wrinkles all over his face bowed and said to the Emperor, “Your Majesty, please allow Fang Jie to come to the Imperial Academy. I need to confirm many things with Fang Jie in terms of math!”

“Belvedere of Literary Profundity plans to create a book based on pinyin and spread it to all the schools in the towns and counties. Your Majesty, Fang Jie should work for Belvedere of Literary Profundity first,” Grand Scholar Niu Huilun bowed and suggested.

“Stop it,” the Emperor said with a smile as he waved his hand, “His aim is in the military; he is going to participate in the entrance exam of the Martial Arts Academy in a few days.”

“Huh?” Grand Scholar Song Chuangzhen who was a professor in the Imperial Academy sighed, “A talent is going to be ruined.”

Grand Scholar Niu Huilun of Belvedere of Literary Profundity sighed, “A bright pearl is going to be covered in dust.”

“If Principal Zhou hears your words, he is going to hit you with his shoes!” Huai Qiugong, the Head of the Ministry of Rites, said with a smile.

The Emperor laughed, “He comes from a military background, so it makes sense for him to enter the Martial Arts Academy. If he doesn’t get in, you guys can talk about this.”

Grand Scholar Song Chuangzhen pulled Fang Jie’s hand and said, “Don’t make it into the Martial Arts Academy!”

Grand Scholar Niu Huilun tried to teach Fang Jie. “Except for the martial tests, don’t write anything for all other subjects.”

“How about you pretend to be sick?” another senior tried to entice Fang Jie. “I have hundreds of rare books in my home, and you can read them all you want.”

Clearly, Fang Jie wasn’t enticed by hundreds of books; he liked hundreds of taels of silver more. He politely declined all the offers and thought, “These seniors are all so straightforward and passionate.”

“Mingxu, you said that you have hundreds of rare books?” The Emperor’s interest piqued, and he pointed at that grand scholar and said, “Bring them to me tomorrow and let me have a look. Don’t worry; I will return them after I’m done.”

Huai Qiugong laughed after seeing the expression on that grand scholar’s face.

Since when had the Emperor returned books that he borrowed?

“Can’t show your wealth,” the Emperor said with a smile as he opened a booklet on the table, crossed out a name on a page, and wrote this name on the page prior.

Fang Jie peeked and saw the name of this booklet – the Talent Ledger.

He didn’t know what it was and what it meant to have a name on earlier pages.

However, Huai Qiugong who was the closest to the Emperor knew everything, so he took another look at Fang Jie subconsciously while pondering.