Chapter 40

Bai Yang helped the Great King open a new world of fishkeeping; besides selling fish, he could also, from his older brother Bai, get fish tanks and oxygen tablets to sell together, and even sell sand, stones, and ornaments.

Bai Yang showed him pictures of a beautifully decorated underwater world tank, and the Great King himself wanted to set one up right away.

With white sand, green water plants, and multicolored small stones as the base, inside were placed a dragon palace, a stone bridge, and a fake mountain. This miniature underwater world would be more than enough to impress unsophisticated ancients.

The Great King asked Bai Yang to procure a batch of underwater decorations; as for sand, bottom stones, and aquatic plants, You Prefecture has plenty.

At dawn, the Great King ordered Tong Chen to personally lead people to the seaside to haul a cart…

"The sand should preferably be white, washed clean. Nice-looking stones washed by seawater can be any color or shape. Of course, they can't be too big; they need to fit in a tank over a meter long—too big won't do. Understand? If you do, go ahead and come back soon."

Tong Chen accepted the task, left in a daze; he understood what was said, but he couldn't make sense of the task.

Outside, he met his master Zhao Bao: 'Master, I need to leave the manor right now; please have He Guang come over to guard His Highness for me.'

"His Highness sent you out on an errand?"

"His Highness told me to go to the seaside to pick up stones for the cart; Master, I still have to hurry on, so I'm leaving first."

Zhao Bao: ……

While the Great King was studying and trying to make his first fortune, news came from the Front Hall that You Prefecture's autumn harvest this year had failed.

Upon hearing the definite news, although he was mentally prepared, the Great King still felt sorrowful for the time it takes to burn half an incense stick. Then he picked up his brush to write letters to his father emperor and his maternal uncle.

His maternal uncle might not have grain, but his attitude must be proper.

This time the Great King didn't write a memorial to the throne; who knows if his father emperor, who dislikes court, would just toss it to the ministers to read, so he switched to a family letter.

The pen flew like divine, swoosh writing three pages, two and a half pages were flattery to his father. Actually what he wanted to say summed up was: Father Emperor~ Youzhou suffers a great drought, the harvest is disastrous. The son will soon have nothing to eat! Father Emperor, if you don't want your son who guards the border for you to starve in his fief in the first year, losing face of Your Majesty the Emperor, you had better send him something to eat before winter arrives. Love Father Emperor, miss Father Emperor~

At the bottom there was also a note: there is another letter for his uncle; please have Father Emperor send someone to forward it.

He didn't even bother with a courier to the southwest, planning to freeload. By doing so, once the court learns he's corresponding with his maternal family, they'll start speculating and later find ways to trip him up.

Upon seeing this family letter, the Ningde Emperor burst out laughing in anger; his flowery son had changed tactics this time, actually threatening me?!

He indeed found another sheet of paper inside the envelope; upon taking it out he saw it was just one page, casually folded it, and wrote on the outside: 'Forward to uncle.'

He's not on guard at all!

Not knowing why, the Ningde Emperor opened it, took a glance, then felt as if scorched, and immediately closed it again.

Prince You really… has no propriety!

It seems after going to his fief, his studies have not improved.

That so-called letter contains only one sentence: 'Uncle, food food, hungry hungry! — Bai Li Jing.'

The most sincere part of the writing is the big, flamboyant signature at the end, Bai Li… The emperor suddenly felt that this signature made him lose a bit of face.

That day the Ningde Emperor was in a good mood; he glanced at the two letters on the desk and felt that Prince You was mainly still hoping for this father of his (the Emperor), so sending the letter to his uncle was just a formality. Whether the heir of Wei Tinghou, who is not accustomed to Prince You's way of speaking, could understand it was another matter.

Far fragrant, near stinky—the emperor at this moment again thought of the good points of this cheap son; being too far away, he couldn't get angry at him.

The Second Prince had just gotten into a fight with an official's son, causing the previous dynasty to impeach him; the previous dynasty's harem had been arguing about this for days, making him very annoyed. Now looking again at this third son who can't get enough to eat, the emperor rarely felt a bit of pity.

Although the Great Jin is not that affluent, yesterday the northwestern border army just urged for grain and fodder, but… what if Wei Tinghou gives some?

Is this father of mine even worse than the maternal family?

He asked the attendant Zhang Daban beside him, 'Youzhou suffering a great drought—have you heard about this, attendant?'

"Your Majesty, before the autumn harvest, the Yunhui commander of Shangguan Pass mentioned it, saying that Youzhou and Fuyang Commandery are both suffering great drought, and asked Your Majesty to allocate grain and fodder early to settle the troops' hearts."

Ningde Emperor nodded after hearing; after all it's his own son, and he still has three thousand personal guards to feed. He waved his hand: 'Let the Yin Shao fu allocate some grain and send it to Youzhou; Your Highness Prince You won't have food to eat! Also, tell him this is not to be made a precedent; next year manage Youzhou well.'

The attendant serving beside him also joked with the emperor a few sentences before going out to deliver the order.

Actually the king didn't really expect his father to show anything; he just wanted to delay Youzhou's tribute, first strike hard by crying poor. Besides, he doesn't need to exaggerate misery; Youzhou is truly poor.

After finishing the letter, he dove into the koi sales business; the first batch of underwater scenery sent by Bai Yang simply opened the king's eyes.

This has a glittering gold dragon palace, and also a transparent one flashing blue light like a crystal dragon palace made of ice and snow.

There are those ancient, rustic withered vines, old trees, and crows; also there are pavilions, terraces, and towers comparable to his family's garden; the small ones are as big as his little chubby paw, extremely cute.

There's even lush green fake grass—can you believe it? The grass has to be fake!

Everything is ready, start work!