Chapter 13: The Sure-Win Gamble (Seeking Recommendations and Favorites)

  After yesterday's heavy rain, today surprisingly appeared a rare sunny day. The sun peeking out from the clouds emitted scorching rays of light, bringing a long-awaited warmth and dryness to the wet earth. People on the ground also took advantage of this rare sunny day to start bustling about, farmers working in the fields, merchants opening their doors for business, women busy hanging clothes and bedding to dry, and so on.

  Inside the Guangyang County Prince's mansion, it was also a flurry of activity. With many rooms in the mansion, there were naturally many pieces of furniture and decorations to deal with. The previous month of continuous rain had already caused some items to become damp, and if they weren't dried out soon, they would likely become moldy, rot, or warp. Taking advantage of this rare sunny day, everyone in the entire mansion began moving things out onto the open grounds outside.

  As the king's wife, Cao Ying should be directing everyone at this time and solidifying her position as the mistress of the palace through these activities. However, since yesterday, Cao Ying has been extremely vexed, constantly thinking about Zhao Yan, so she didn't have the mood to direct the people in the palace, instead letting the wet nurse and a few housekeepers take over for her.

  It's a good thing for someone to be clever, because before doing something, they will consider it in detail and avoid making too many mistakes. However, being clever is also a bad thing, as clever people always like to overthink things and even complicate simple matters.

  Cao Ying is a clever woman, but she also makes some mistakes that clever people often make. For example, she was very puzzled by the big change in Zhao Yan's attitude towards her before and after, and Xiaodouya suggested going to ask Zhao Yan directly, but Cao Ying refused Xiaodouya's suggestion after thinking about it for a long time, because she thought Zhao Yan would not easily tell her.

  Unfortunately, Cao Ying didn't know that Zhao Yan was most afraid of others discovering the huge difference between his past and present. He had already thought of an excuse, and if Cao Ying really asked him, he would immediately tell her the excuse he had come up with, and then spread it through Cao Ying's mouth. Although this excuse was a bit absurd, it could explain the changes in him, but he definitely wouldn't reveal that he was a person who had traveled from the future.

  Cao Ying felt annoyed in her heart, and staying in the house made her feel even more uncomfortable. Taking advantage of the rare sunny day, she brought her maid, Xue, to stroll around the inner courtyard, while also keeping an eye on those lazy maidservants.

  Unconsciously, Cao Ying found herself standing outside Zhao Yan's room. If it wasn't necessary, she would never have approached Zhao Yan's room before. Today, perhaps because she was thinking about Zhao Yan in her heart, she ended up coming here unintentionally. This made Cao Ying feel a bit conflicted, unsure whether she should go inside or not.

  "Huh? You're a rare guest, what brings you here today?" Just as Cao Ying was struggling in her mind, she suddenly heard Zhao Yan's voice behind her, with a hint of teasing in his tone.

  Cao Ying's heart skipped a beat, but she quickly regained her composure, turned around with a cold face and said to Zhao Yan: "The weather is fine, I just came to remind Xiaodouya not to forget to take out the things in the room to dry them, lest they breed insects!"

  "Suit yourself!" Zhao Yan raised the wooden box in his hand and went straight into the house. Taking advantage of today's rare sunny day, he also had some very important things to do.

  Since Zhao Yan had seen her, Cao Ying also gave up the idea of leaving and followed Zhao Yan into the room. However, as soon as she entered, she saw Xiaodouya lying on the living room table, struggling to count "one hundred thirty-one, one hundred thirty-two, one hundred thirty-three..."

  "Little Bean Sprout, what are you doing? Why haven't you taken the things in your room out to dry yet?" Cao Ying said unwillingly as she walked over to Little Bean Sprout's side.

  "Fourth sister?" Xiaodouya's brain was already half occupied, and when she heard Cao Ying's words, she immediately raised her head and looked at her with some confusion. Then, she let out a sharp cry, "Ah, I forgot where I counted to again! Now I have to start all over!"

  Xiao Dou Ya finished speaking, and a look of distress also appeared on her face. Originally, the king had only given her such a simple task, but she had counted for almost an hour, yet still couldn't count the number of seeds clearly. Only then did Cao Ying discover that the seeds Xiao Dou Ya was counting were actually some unknown seeds, which looked bright yellow and very beautiful on the outside, about the same size as soybeans, but not as round as soybeans, rather a bit flat. This kind of seed was also seen by Cao Ying for the first time.

  "Little bean sprout, what kind of seeds are these?" Cao Ying asked, picking up a few seeds in her hand.

  "The Duke said this is called corn, and the whole Song Dynasty only has these in front of us. The Duke asked me to count out the seeds of corn, but I counted for half a day and still couldn't finish!" Little Bean Sprout said with a look of distress again at the end.

  "Little bean sprout, don't just talk, if you can't count the corn, go find some sand to fill this box up with river sand!" Zhao Yan said, walking over with the box. He had already tried it out earlier and the box was just the right size, now they needed to fill it up with sand.

  "Oh, I'm going now!" Xiaodouya was really fed up with these corn grains and immediately agreed to go as soon as she heard that she didn't have to count the corn anymore. She rushed out, leaving only Zhao Yan and Cao Ying in the room, along with the little maid Muxue.

  "What is corn and why do you want to let the little bean count the number of corn grains?" Cao Ying turned around to ask Zhao Yan, if it were in the past, she wouldn't care what Zhao Yan was doing at all. However, since she discovered the huge change that had taken place on Zhao Yan's body, it had already made her feel a bit curious about Zhao Yan, and her intuition told her that Zhao Yan must be doing something very important.

  When Cao Ying asked, Zhao Yan also looked at her with some surprise, but finally replied: "Corn is a grain crop, similar to wheat, soybeans and rice. The yield of corn is very high, reportedly up to over 2,000 pounds per mu, of course that requires special care. Generally, the yield of corn is not so high, I estimate it's good if one mu can produce 700-800 pounds."

  "Can the highest yield be over 2,000 catties? Generally, it can also reach 700 or 800 catties?" Cao Ying heard Zhao Yan's words and sneered continuously, "Your Highness, the Duke, really knows how to talk nonsense. Do you know what the grain yield per mu is in the Song Dynasty?"

  Zhao Yan detected the sarcasm in Cao Ying's words and saw that she didn't believe her own words, but he didn't get angry. Instead, he calmly replied, "I indeed don't know the yield of grain per mu in Great Song Dynasty. Does this princess know?"

  Zhao Yan thought that Cao Ying was born into a wealthy family and had probably never been in contact with agriculture, so he asked such a question. However, this time he miscalculated. Cao Ying coldly smiled again and said: "In the Southern Song Dynasty, the climate is different between the south and the north, and the crops planted are also different. In the south, rice is mainly planted, with a slightly higher yield, but the yield per mu is not enough to reach 400 kilograms. In the north, wheat and soybeans are mainly planted, with a yield of only over 200 kilograms per mu. The king's estate in the suburbs had a good harvest last year due to sufficient rainfall, but the yield was only 250 kilograms per mu, using the best wheat variety. Where in the world can you find a yield of 1,000 kilograms of grain per mu?"

  Cao Ying was extremely angry, and even had a hint of heartache. Originally, she thought that after Zhao Yan was struck by lightning, he would really change his ways and no longer be the reckless and arrogant person he used to be. But unexpectedly, he was still deceiving her. Although she didn't know what Zhao Yan's purpose was in deceiving her, it definitely wasn't anything good.

  When Zhao Yan heard Cao Ying's words, he didn't plan to argue with her either. He also knew that whatever he said now would be useless, as Cao Ying wouldn't believe him anyway. So instead of explaining, he took a pumpkin out of his pocket and smiled: "What's the big deal about 1,000 jin per mu? This thing in my hand is called a pumpkin. If you plant it in the ground in spring and let it grow for a year, the yield can reach as high as 7,000 jin per mu! Even if you only plant it for half a year, the yield can still reach 5,000 jin per mu. While ordinary people may not be able to achieve such high yields, getting 2-3,000 jin per mu is still quite easy!"

  "Deceitful words!" Cao Ying's faint hope for Zhao Yan had completely vanished. In her eyes, Zhao Yan was not only a hypocrite but also a liar, and anything he said couldn't be trusted. Thinking this, Cao Ying felt she didn't need to stay here anymore and turned to leave.

  "Wait a minute! I knew you didn't believe me, but are you daring enough to make a bet with me?" Zhao Yan saw Cao Ying turn around and want to leave, but suddenly smiled and called out to the other party. As for the yield of corn and pumpkin, he was absolutely confident, so why not take this opportunity to win some benefits for himself.

  "What do you want to bet on?" Cao Ying heard Zhao Yan wanting to make a bet, and couldn't help but stop in her tracks. Although she now had the power to supervise Zhao Yan, once Zhao Yan's body recovered, the entire Wang Fu would still be under Zhao Yan's control.

  "Everyone is smart, I know you don't want to marry me and even dislike me very much. Now I'll give you a chance. If the corn and pumpkin yields don't reach what I said today, then in the future I'll give you freedom and won't touch you for the rest of my life. But if they do reach it, then in the future you'll have to listen to me, and do whatever I tell you to do. How about that? Isn't this condition very reasonable?" Zhao Yan said with a smile, these days he had been supervised by Cao Ying, not only was his food and drink restricted, but even finding someone to talk to wasn't easy. He wasn't usually a magnanimous person, if there was an opportunity, he wouldn't mind taking double revenge on the other party.

  Cao Ying heard that if she lost, she would have to listen to Zhao Yan's everything, which made her hesitate for a moment. However, when she saw Zhao Yan's detestable smile, a surge of anger suddenly rose in her chest, and she gritted her silver teeth and nodded: "Good, it's settled!"