Chapter 91: Common Sense of the Food Chain

Lin Xuan walked to the TV cabinet and pulled open the bottom drawer.

He took out a half-meter-wide household magnetic whiteboard and then produced a black marker.

"Come here."

Lin Xuan placed the whiteboard on the coffee table and pulled over two low stools.

Xiao Sizi, slippers dragging, walked over and sat down.

Her eyes were still red, her gaze fixed on the blank board surface.

Lin Xuan pulled off the marker cap.

The marker drew a cluster of simple lines at the bottom of the whiteboard. Daily reading experience is great, ttk. tw is awesome

"This is called grass, and it also represents crops."

"It grows by basking in the sun and drinking rainwater, absorbing energy through photosynthesis."

The pen tip moved upward.

He drew a slightly abstract insect with antennae.

"Locusts." Lin Xuan drew an arrow next to the insect, pointing to the grass. "They hatch from eggs; to survive, how do they live?"

Xiao Sizi sniffed, already interested.

Like a student answering a teacher's question, she raised her hand.

"Eat grass!"

Lin Xuan was pleasantly surprised and satisfied with her state, patting her small head.

And appropriately giving a reward, he took out a small red flower sticker and stuck it on Xiao Sizi's forehead.

"That's right, answered very well!"

Xiao Sizi covered her forehead, spinning around in joy.

Lin Xuan coughed lightly twice and tapped the whiteboard to regain attention.

"Alright, continue listening to my science lesson."

"In past years, the Great Tang had favorable weather; frogs were in the fields, and birds flew in the sky."

Lin Xuan drew birds and frogs above the insect.

"These things naturally eat insects."

"Insects eat grass; birds eat insects."

"Quantities are maintained within a circle; no one can grow too numerous."

Lin Xuan drew a large circle around the three shapes.

"This is called ecological balance."

"All things in heaven and earth are linked ring to ring; this is a food chain."

"But if the environment suffers a great drought."

Speaking, Lin Xuan erased the frog and bird drawings.

"The riverbed dries up; frogs cannot survive, and flying birds will also die of thirst."

"Then the natural enemies that catch insects are gone."

Next to that insect drawing, Lin Xuan quickly drew dozens of overlapping circles, representing countless insect eggs.

"Dry yellow earth is most suitable for locusts to lay eggs."

"With no natural enemies, all the eggs hatch." Lin Xuan dropped the eraser and pointed at the whiteboard.

"Sizi, you should have heard a famous saying from Taoism, right?"

"One begets two, two begets three, three begets all things."

"The reproductive ability of locusts is even more terrifying; one thousand can become ten million, or even hundreds of millions!"

"When the grass in the fields is not enough to eat, they gather into swarms, fly into the sky, and seek new pastures."

"This is simple ecological imbalance; it is the instinctual feeding of insects to survive."

"Then... how do we save it?" Xiao Sizi gripped her clothes tightly and asked.

Lin Xuan picked up the pen and drew a duck above the sea of insects.

The protagonist of today's science lesson.

An arrow from the duck's beak pointed directly down at the locusts.

"If a link is broken, we artificially add a link."

Lin Xuan wrote four characters next to the duck—biological control.

"Drive the starving poultry into the fields to fill the position of natural enemies, because ducks are also natural enemies of insects."

"Insects eat crops; ducks eat insects, continuing the energy transfer."

"Once the drought passes, the ecosystem can slowly self-regulate and restore balance."

The pen tip moved across the very top of the whiteboard.

An oval plate took shape.

Inside the plate, he drew a steaming roast duck.

Lin Xuan capped the marker and threw it on the table.

"Finally, we eat the fattened ducks, turning them into a plate of meat on our table."

Lin Xuan patted Xiao Sizi's head.

"As long as we find the right natural enemy, this calamity that blocks the sky is high-protein feed given freely by nature."

Great Tang, the royal altar outside Taiji Hall.

The scorching sun hung directly overhead.

Waves of heat roasted the bluestone steps.

Wei Zheng knelt prostrate below the altar, holding a roll of bright yellow silk high above his head with both hands.

Listed on the silk were dozens of "charges": reckless warfare, excessive slaughter, violation of human ethics...

Each one represented a signal from the great aristocratic families forcing the imperial power to yield.

Using Heaven's will to suppress imperial authority.

This was the open scheme that Confucian officials and powerful clans had tested without fail for thousands of years.

Most were just watching the spectacle, using the chance to vent in their hearts the resentment they usually suppressed when punished.

And the loyal ministers who felt pity for the Emperor always remained a minority.

Li Shimin stood at the highest point of the altar, a trace of green remaining on his fingers.

That was the mark left by him crushing a locust.

He accidentally glanced down, and his mind automatically conjured up that fishy stench again.

It caused his stomach to churn violently.

He had already yielded.

He was preparing to hold his nose and swallow this humiliation, finishing the recitation of that "Edict of Self-Blame."

But the Sky Screen happened to be playing Lin Xuan's popular science lesson on ecological chains and biological pest control for Xiao Sizi.

The lie of the cycle of Heaven's justice was completely stripped bare by modern biological common sense.

It turned out this actually had a scientific basis.

Li Shimin looked at the hundred officials kneeling prostrate below the altar. He looked at the "Edict of Self-Blame" in Wei Zheng's hand.

"The Mandate of Heaven..."

His mouth twitched, and suddenly he burst into loud laughter.

"Your Majesty?" Wei Zheng raised his head, his face showing shock.

He did not understand why the monarch was laughing.

In a disaster year where corpses of the starving littered the fields, such wild laughter violated the dignity of a ruler.

Li Shimin snatched the yellow silk held high by Wei Zheng.

Gripping both ends of the silk with his hands, he tore it in two with sheer force.

Seeing this scene, the hundred officials gasped in shock.

Li Shimin flicked his hand.

The two torn pieces of cloth fluttered to the ground like waste paper.

"Heaven sends punishment?" Li Shimin pointed at the shattered Edict of Self-Blame on the ground and shouted fiercely at Wei Zheng, "Wei Xuancheng! Explain to me, why would Heaven's punishment be swallowed whole by a few ducks!"

Wei Zheng's lips moved.

The Four Books and Five Classics in his stomach could not find a single word to refute that "food chain" argument.

Li Shimin stepped over Wei Zheng.

He walked toward the center of the altar.

There stood a heavy three-legged bronze incense burner.

Inside the burner were three sandalwood sticks as thick as a wrist.

Blue smoke rose straight up.

This was a ritual vessel used by the Great Tang Imperial Family to revere Heaven and pray for forgiveness.

Li Shimin stopped before the incense burner.

He recalled how, just moments ago to act out this play of admitting fault to Heaven, he had forced himself to endure nausea to catch live insects.

He felt it was utterly ridiculous and extremely ironic.

"To hell with Heaven, and to hell with your damn Mandate!"

Li Shimin let out a street-level curse, then immediately kicked out with his foot.

The bronze incense burner, weighing hundreds of pounds, rolled over and fell, its three legs pointing to the sky.

Scalding incense ash flew into the air everywhere.

Sacrificial offerings like roasted pigs, whole oxen, melons, and fruits tumbled to the ground with a clatter.

The entire court of civil and military officials turned pale with shock and shrank back one after another.

The Minister of the Ministry of Rites' legs went weak, and he collapsed to the ground.

"Your Majesty, calm your anger! Destroying ritual vessels is a grave act of disrespect!" the Minister of the Ministry of Rites cried out in a shrill voice.

Li Shimin stood amidst the flying incense ash; though he had not drawn his sword, his posture was like a blade.

Empress Zhangsun, present at the scene, covered her mouth with a silk handkerchief to prevent others from seeing her upturned lips.

A thought suddenly flashed through her mind: Shimin's waist is a blade that takes lives.

Li Shimin's eyes were like lightning as he roared, "So what if it is disrespectful!"

"If Heaven does not protect the people of Great Tang, then I will not respect this Heaven!"

His index finger, sharp as a blade, pointed at the aristocratic officials below the steps.

"Put away those pedantic writings of yours that use Heaven's punishment to fool me!"

"From this day forward, Great Tang will not bow to Heaven, nor fear Heaven!"

The aristocratic officials all lowered their heads.

Their greatest political weapon for balancing imperial power—the resonance of the Mandate of Heaven—suddenly stopped working?

Li Shimin stomped on a sacrificial apple that had rolled to the ground, crushing it.

"Issue the order: tear down this altar for me!"

"From the information on this Sky Screen today, I have understood one thing."

"Disaster is not divine punishment... it is prey!"

"Great Tang, prepare to hunt!"

If one were to read only one historical novel in a lifetime, it might be 'Xiao Sizi Knocking on the Door While Sick and Frail, I Became the God of Ten Thousand Dynasties'.