Chapter 22

The carriage slowly returned to the Qin王府, and the servants were clearing the snow from the courtyard. The snow they shoveled was piled on both sides of the path, revealing the middle of the blue stone road.

Li Kuan and Li Lizhi got off the carriage and walked along the path in the courtyard. Li Lizhi, full of energy, skipped ahead, leaving a trail of laughter, like a sprite dancing gracefully in the world.

"Slow down, don't fall!" Li Kuan hurried to catch up, but he couldn't keep up with the energetic girl. He could only call out to her to stop. However, this gave Li Lizhi an excuse to tease him.

"Second Brother, hurry up! Even I, a little kid, am faster than you!" The little girl laughed and waved her small hand at Li Kuan.

Li Kuan let her go, looking at the snow piled by the roadside. He thought about making a snowman but quickly abandoned the idea: he and Li Lizhi were the weakest in the entire mansion. Playing with the cold snow might make them sick again. The little girl had just recovered from a cold, so it was better to give up the idea.

In the end, Li Kuan still didn't catch up with Li Lizhi. On the way, Changsun appeared and took the little girl away. Seeing the unwilling look on the little girl's face as she left, Li Kuan couldn't help but laugh. Changsun was always the most strict about etiquette, clearly distinguishing between the young and the old. The little girl's behavior today had upset her. Thinking of Changsun's unfinished "Rules for Women," Li Kuan silently mourned for Li Lizhi for three minutes.

Back in his courtyard, Li Kuan found a quilt on the bed, which must have been sent back by Changsun. It seemed he would have a good night's sleep. However, upon closer inspection, Li Kuan couldn't help but shake his head and smile bitterly. The quilt had several places where the cotton had been dug out from the unimportant edges. Although it was sewn with high-quality Shu embroidery, Li Kuan couldn't help but feel that his beautiful and wise mother-in-law had a bit too much curiosity.

This morning, he had gone out of the city to meet Li Er, so he had put aside the plans for the heated bed. Now, he needed to quickly draw the design. It was actually very simple: first, build a heated wall, then connect it to the earthen bed in the bedroom. This way, when the heated wall was warmed up at night, the temperature of the bed would naturally rise.

Li Kuan held the brush, unsure where to start. The soft brush wouldn't listen to him, and the straight lines he wanted to draw turned into wavy lines. His left hand, which was supposed to help stabilize, shook even more.

"Really! Even a brush can bully you! What good are you?" When writing lists and such, he could rely on the memories of his predecessor, but this heated wall was something Li Kuan had brought from the future. Although the structure was simple, it was completely new to his predecessor, who had no experience with engineering drawings.

Thinking about why Li Kuan knew about heated walls and earthen beds, it was because he had visited a classmate's home in Northeast China. Otherwise, as a southerner, he wouldn't have known how to survive the winter in the Tang Dynasty.

After drawing for a long time, none of the papers were satisfactory. The floor was covered with discarded rice paper. Li Kuan gave up on conquering the brush and decided to use charcoal to complete his work.

Half an hour later, with black hands, Li Kuan looked at the drawing on the table with satisfaction: "Charcoal is much better!"

After washing his hands, he checked the time and realized it was already afternoon. It was time for lunch! He was the only one in the entire mansion who ate three meals a day. He went to the kitchen and found that the usual hot dishes and soups were missing. It seemed that Li Er's return wasn't a good thing. Previously, Changsun would turn a blind eye, but now that the head of the household was back, the rules couldn't be broken.

He rummaged through the cabinets and found half a cold steamed bun, probably left over from the morning. He ate it with plain water, making a lot of noise.

Li Kuan had one good quality: he didn't pick his food. He would eat anything, like the millet that filled his mouth with grit, or the so-called tea soup of this era, which was more like a poison with mutton fat, tangerine peel, and cinnamon.

After eating until he was eight-tenths full, Li Kuan looked around to make sure no one was around, then slipped out of the kitchen. Soon after he left, a graceful figure appeared, looked at the deliberately left steamed bun, and found it missing, then smiled.

Back in his room, Li Kuan felt exhausted. The morning had been both mentally and physically demanding. He had performed "The General's Order," rethought his worldview, and designed the first earthen bed in the Tang Dynasty. It was a series of remarkable achievements. He decided to get some sleep, or his body, which had just started to improve, would regress. Wrapping himself in the quilt, Li Kuan fell into a deep sleep, not waking up until the sky was full of stars, as if he would sleep until dawn.

"Second Brother, is this really okay?" a voice asked softly.

"What's not okay? Didn't you say this boy must be hiding secrets? Besides, we won't harm him; we just want to see what's going on." Another voice replied calmly, though it was deliberately lowered, it still had a firm tone.

"Since he was seriously ill last time, the imperial physicians even prepared for his funeral, but he survived. He has changed a lot since then, and I feel like he's a completely different person." The first voice seemed to be lost in thought.

"Guanyin, tell me in detail. Your letter was quite vague, and I've been busy all day. Now, tell me everything. I don't believe I, the commander of the Heavenly Strategy Army, can't uncover the secrets of a six-year-old child!" The authoritative voice came again.

These two were Li Er and his wife. They were now in Li Kuan's room. It seemed they had their doubts about Li Kuan and were acting secretly. After confirming that Li Kuan was asleep, they sneaked into his room to look for clues. They couldn't entrust this task to the servants, as even the slightest rumor could cause a storm.

"After Li Er woke up, at first, he seemed to have forgotten everything, even me. Later, he became very sharp, nitpicking the mistakes of Li Chengxun and the others, linking them to the fate of the Tang Dynasty. This was why Father summoned Second Brother back in such a hurry." Changsun recalled the scene, which had even frightened her, as accompanying the emperor was like being with a tiger, and no one knew what decisions Emperor Li Yuan would make.

"What happened next?" Li Er listened quietly, his brows furrowed, clearly puzzled.

"Next, I tested him with the affairs of the mansion. I didn't expect him to manage everything so well, even discovering many bad debts and unnecessary expenses. He used a new counting method, which he called 'Arabic numerals,' and punctuation marks to separate sentences, all of which were unique and very practical, and not too difficult." Changsun was also amazed at what her sister's child could do.

"Is that so? It seems that my second son has extraordinary support behind him, perhaps even a school of thought! I don't believe in sudden achievements, as anything that develops perfectly must have the sedimentation of time. Just like building a capable army, it can't be done without countless battles and the sacrifice of countless lives. These things must have been provided by the forces behind Kuan. They knew you were testing him, so they revealed these things to show their presence." Li Er analyzed, his brows furrowed even more.

"Then, are they friends or enemies?" Changsun asked urgently, not wanting her sister's child to become an enemy in the future.

"From what I can see, they don't seem to have any ill intentions. By revealing these things, they are giving us a response, indicating they don't intend to oppose us. They must also see potential in Kuan, or they wouldn't use him. For now, be at ease. When the time is right, they will reveal their true intentions, and that's when we can distinguish between friends and enemies." Li Er was also helpless, as the information was too limited, all coming from Li Kuan, so it was still a mystery, like a cage that couldn't be opened or grasped.

"Also, Kuan brought out a quilt called a 'cotton quilt.' The current silk quilts can't compare to it. I kept some of the edges, but I don't know what they are made of." Changsun took out a piece of cotton from her sleeve.

Li Er took it, held it in his hand, and said, "This is white cotton, which is abundant in Gaochang. This has been specially processed, as ordinary white cotton isn't this soft. It seems this school of thought might come from the Western Regions." Li Er's heart grew even darker, as the Central Plains were still unstable, and now a Western Region school of thought had emerged, bringing uncertainty.

"By the way, how is Third Sister's injury?" Seeing her husband's furrowed brows, Changsun felt a pang of pain. She knew what he was thinking and, looking at the sleeping Li Kuan, felt sad: would the worst-case scenario really happen? To prevent the situation from getting worse, she quickly changed the subject.

"The situation is not optimistic. When the winter in the borderlands was approaching, it was so cold that even cattle and sheep could freeze to death. It would have been better to end it quickly than to let her suffer there. We rushed her back to Chang'an, but the journey was bumpy, and her wound couldn't heal. Moreover, her wound couldn't be exposed to the wind, and the carriage was stuffy, causing the wound to become infected." Li Er's brows furrowed even more, as one unpleasant thing after another was making him restless.

Changsun's eyes filled with tears, and she dared not speak. She didn't expect that changing the subject would make her husband even more burdened. She silently cursed herself and walked to Li Er's side, resting her head on his shoulder without a word.

Li Er understood his wife's thoughts and patted her shoulder. "Guanyin, these things won't defeat me. I, Li Shimin, will never bow down. Even if the sky falls, I will hold it up. Besides, I have your support! I'm telling you this to appeal to the forces behind Kuan, hoping they have a way to save Third Sister! The imperial physicians are at a loss!"