Chapter 12

Liu Cheng, this tenacious little guy, finally managed to struggle to the palace and personally handed the blood-stained secret letter to His Majesty. After roughly recounting how he was injured, he closed his eyes, kicked his feet, and fainted in a most tragic manner.

When he fainted, what Liu Cheng thought about was not whether he could come back to life, but that his son, who had a broken leg, could now live the rest of his life without worry.

On the dragon desk lay two secret letters, one from Liu Cheng and one from Qin Shubao. The wax seals on both letters were intact, but they were covered in Liu Cheng's blood.

As a secret agent of the Hundred Riders, Liu Cheng was undoubtedly the most qualified. Even with such severe injuries and on the brink of death, he still struggled to crawl to Chang'an and deliver the secret letter to His Majesty.

Emperor Li Er frowned as he looked at the two secret letters on the desk, his face as dark as water. Hearing about the "world traveler" from Liu Cheng again undoubtedly shocked him. If it was just a guess before, now it was confirmed beyond doubt!

However, Li Er also heard some unexpected information from Liu Cheng: a traitor from the Hidden Sect! Could it be that the boy had escaped from there?

A sharp light flashed in Li Er's eyes. If he could confirm that the boy had indeed escaped from there, he would deliberately take in the boy, not only take him in, but also grant him a high rank and title!

He wanted to see how those high and mighty people would feel when they saw their disciples and grandchildren kneeling before him with lowered heads every day.

Thinking of this, Li Er in the side hall suddenly couldn't suppress a mad laugh. The laughter in the deep night of the palace was grating and unpleasant, scaring the eunuchs outside the hall so much that their faces turned pale and their scalps tingled.

First, he opened Liu Cheng's secret letter, which detailed Zhao Chen's every word and action since he entered the mountains. Building a wooden house, making a gold panning sluice, drawing diagrams, playing chess, rubbing General Qin's legs to relieve pain, cooking meals—Liu Cheng recorded everything in great detail.

Li Er frowned as he read the information about Zhao Chen in the secret letter, his expression changing frequently. He suddenly realized he had underestimated this boy. Looking at what the boy had done in this period, especially the gold exploration technique, which was like finding a dragon's lair, made Li Er feel amazed and unheard of.

Liu Cheng wrote in the secret letter that the gold vein found contained a huge amount of gold. If all of it were mined, it would be an astronomical figure.

Li Er's face turned slightly red at this point. The treasury had been emptied by the Turks, and the domestic rebellion had not been completely quelled. The two strategic regions of Hexi and Shuofang needed to be quickly brought under control, and all of this required a large sum of money!

Years of warfare had long impoverished the people, and the common folk urgently needed tax relief and a period of rest and recuperation. Unfortunately, the treasury had just been emptied by the Turks, and the entire court was looking at him expectantly. Now he was in dire need of money.

But now it was all good. With this gold mine, his financial problems would be solved. The people could continue to rest and recuperate, and the army could continue to suppress the rebellion. Those who were waiting in the shadows to see the show could finally be put to rest.

Li Er's mood suddenly became exceptionally pleasant. This boy had solved so many problems for him in one go!

He then opened Qin Shubao's secret letter. Compared to Liu Cheng's cold and detached narration, Qin Shubao's letter was undoubtedly more human, with ups and downs, and a detailed account of his time with Zhao Chen.

It was more like a letter praising an excellent nephew to the emperor rather than a secret letter to the emperor.

"Since I entered the mountains, I have been with Zhao Chen day and night. I believe that although he is young, he is exceptionally talented, especially in mathematics and natural philosophy, a genius of the world..."

"Over the years, I have seen many young geniuses, but most of them are arrogant. Zhao Chen, in my view, is not only exceptionally talented and wise, but also has a rare pure heart!"

"Heh, what a pure heart!" Li Er finished reading Qin Shubao's secret letter, slapped it on the table, and laughed angrily, his voice sinister.

Sending Qin Shubao to the deep mountains was partly because the gold mine was crucial to the state, but also to have this experienced old general observe Zhao Chen.

However, who would have thought that Qin Shubao would send him such a letter, full of praise for the boy, almost to the point of wanting to adopt him as a son.

And he still has a pure heart! Li Er thought about this and became furious. On the banks of the Wei River, he had rolled around, and in the Taiji Palace, he had been obsequious and fawning, a complete face of a treacherous and deceitful person, and Shubao still said he had a pure heart!

This boy, indeed, was from that place. His ability to bewitch people was truly remarkable. Shubao, an experienced old general with a lifetime of military service, had seen countless people, but in the end, he was bewitched by this boy and lost his judgment.

Sitting in the side hall, Li Er was angry for a while, then he took a deep breath, ordered the eunuch to brighten the oil lamp, and unfolded the several diagrams brought by Liu Cheng.

Li Er frowned as he looked at the diagrams, just like when Old Qin first saw them, showing a look of confusion. He then took out Liu Cheng's secret letter and directly jumped to the part explaining the diagrams. He looked at the letter, then at the diagrams, and finally understood the markings for soil, sand, and underground rivers.

However, he didn't understand the other things at all, like the water level, latitude, and altitude. The entire diagram was like a book from heaven, making Li Er frown deeply.

But these were not important. What Li Er really wanted to see was the gold vein found. Unfolding the last diagram, it was clear that this diagram was not drawn by Liu Cheng, the rough man. The paper was clean, the lines smooth, and the handwriting, written with an unknown pen, was strong and elegant, very pleasing to the eye, but he had never seen such handwriting before.

With the foundation of the previous diagrams, Li Er easily found the position of the gold vein on this diagram. It was huge! Just as Liu Cheng's secret letter described, the gold vein was much larger than Li Er had imagined.

The entire gold vein was like a giant python lying dormant deep underground, making Li Er's eyes heat up. He gently rubbed the gold vein on the diagram, wishing he could dig out all the gold below in a moment.

After a while, Li Er suddenly called an eunuch to grind ink, took a brush, dipped it in ink, and wrote three characters in beautiful feibai script in the upper left corner of the diagram—Jinmaishan (Gold Vein Mountain).

An unnamed mountain was thus named by Li Er, a name as vulgar as the one given by the wealthy landlord of Li Family Village.

He stamped it, ordered the eunuch to frame it, and hung it on the wall to the left of Li Er. After admiring it for a while, he returned to his seat, picked up Qin Shubao's secret letter, and read it from beginning to end again, still feeling that Qin Shubao had been bewitched by Zhao Chen.

Thus, he angrily cursed Qin Shubao, finally getting so angry that he crumpled the secret letter and threw it away.

He took a sip of tea from the table, took a deep breath, and then ordered the eunuch to pick up the letter, carefully smooth out the wrinkles, and neatly fold it back into the envelope.

Li Er, a great emperor, could not fail to see that Qin Shubao was pleading for Zhao Chen in his letter. But precisely because he understood this, Li Er became extremely angry.

He had already mentioned Zhao Chen's identity as a "world traveler" to Qin Shubao, and Qin Shubao was well aware of the implications, yet he still pleaded for the boy!

Li Er began to doubt whether sending Qin Shubao was the right decision! Knowing that the people from that place had some extraordinary means, as evidenced by this boy's ability to bewitch people, anyone who had contact with him in a short time had no reservations about him.

Cheng Chumu, after just one meeting, dared to defy him. Hu Lu, the innkeeper of the Chang'an inn, was even worse, eagerly taking out his salary to serve the boy meticulously.

Even the carpenter He San, Zhuang Feng, and the cook, Liu Cheng's letter had less hostility towards the boy, something Liu Cheng himself might not have noticed!

Shubao, with a lifetime of military service and a body full of scars, had been tormented by illness for years, losing the courage and decisiveness of his youth. After being bewitched by the boy, it was inevitable that he would feel sympathy!

"Truly a menace!" The great Emperor Li Er, with his preconceived notions, forced a logical conclusion, and thus angrily labeled Zhao Chen as a menace.

Since he was a menace and he didn't plan to cut off the menace's head, Li Er decided it was better to keep the menace under close watch.

Thus, he wrote a decree, ordering the Ministry of Works to quickly draft a plan. He wanted to establish a College of Natural Philosophy, temporarily under the Ministry of Works.

Qin Shubao praised the boy as a genius in mathematics and natural philosophy, so he would be ordered to obediently go to the College of Natural Philosophy, and he wouldn't believe the boy could rebel!

After that, he wrote another decree to Qin Shubao, ordering him to immediately leave the gold mine and bring Zhao Chen back to Chang'an. This decree was to be delivered personally by an old eunuch from the palace.

Li Er didn't forget the madman who almost killed Liu Cheng. According to Liu Cheng, the madman might go to the gold mine. With the madman's skills, if he went mad, even Qin Shubao might find it hard to escape unscathed!