Living leisurely in Tang Dynasty

Chapter 114:

Li Yuanying’s logic is as such: since people are already making a fuss about him finding some dragon bone, he should display this huge fossil with even greater fanfare.

The Sunflower Garden has gradually been developed into a small town and it was able to be self-sufficient. However it would be a loss still if they do not open it up for tourism like Xiangcheng Palace. Of course, the number of visitors should be limited so that the garden is not ruined!

Since it is going to be open to outsiders to see the “Dragon Bone”, Yuanying naturally had to seek his brother’s blessing first. Therefore he actively lobbied for the Emperor to visit it together. As long as the Emperor has seen it first, no one will dare say that it is auspicious or bad luck!

Li Yuanying tried his best to list out why they should visit: Now it’s corn season, whichever corn you want someone will grill it immediately. It’s great! Peanuts are also ripe for harvesting.  The freshly pulled peanuts are especially sweet when eaten raw, and also delicious when cooked!

Li Yuanying consistently blabbered into Li Er’s left ear and then when he’s done move on to the right ear to blabber some more. In the end, he was successful and the Emperor decided to bring his family along to see the “dragon bones”.

Early the next morning, Li Yuanying gathered his friends early and waited for for the Emperor before setting off together.

Wei Zheng had some comments about this.

It’s mainly because Li Yuanying is really obedient when studying at the Academy but once he is out and back at the palace he kicks up a fuss and always influences the Emperor to leave the palace for leisure.  

There are many problems when the Emperor travels. Having a delay in governmental affairs is secondary; safety is the most important thing! Many GaoChang people are now living at the Sunflower garden, who knows if any would still hold a grudge against the Tang Empire for turning GaoChang into a vassal state?

Wei Zheng blocked the group from leaving. He started lecturing about how a King should never stand behind a dangerous wall. How could you listen to your younger brother’s instigation and visit dangerous places? If something were to happen to you, what will become of the country and who is going to be responsible for the turmoil?

Li Er had a headache after hearing this, looks like this trip is no longer possible.

Li Yuanying and his group of little radish heads all stood behind the Emperor whilst Wei Zheng went on and on criticizing him. Soon they realized that Wei was scolding all of them too.

Seeing that Li Er is not supported, the plan at the Sunflower Garden will then be in vain. Li Yuanying quickly rolled up his sleeves and join in.

“What you say is not right, Anxi Protectorate is already now a part of Tang Dynasty and the previous GaoChang citizens are now all Tang citizens. You don’t personally know them how can you tell that they are harboring bad intentions?  If the lands under the mighty ruler is considered “Dangerous Walls” then were can my dear brother go?

Wei Zheng was dumbstruck by this statement.

“Lord Brother has been working so hard since he became the Emperor and is always thinking about how to make the country better and  how to give citizens a better life. But now you are saying that it is not safe for him to travel to a place slightly north of Chang’an. Doesn’t that also imply that the Emperor cannot even govern Chang’an properly?”  

Wei Zheng didn’t know how to respond. He now regret teaching this kid the <<Book of Rites>>, he taught him how to read the book and the meanings behind it. Now the disciple is killing the master!

Seeing that Wei Zheng was so furious that his face turned green, the Emperor was secretly happy. When Wei Zheng starts his lecture he goes on and on. Li Er could only let him continue and listen attentively. He could not fight back but Li Yuanying can. As the boy is not an official, he didn’t give face to Wei Zheng and was brutal in his comeback.

Seeing that Wei Zheng was pushed into a corner and couldn’t respond, the Emperor laughed and graciously invited him to join them: “Minister Wei, do join us for this trip.”

What can Wei Zheng say? He quietly followed behind the group.

Since Wei Zheng is now onboard, Li Yuanying openly said that he is going to pick up the Wei siblings.

Wei Zheng agreed to it with a black face.

After everyone is present, the group left the city.

Only after they have arrived at Sunflower Garden did Wei Shu ask  Yuanying why grandfather was in such a bad mood.

He told her what had happened and said that her grandfather might be in a bad mood because he lost in the verbal argument. These adults take pride too seriously and would not be happy if they failed to win. After they finished muttering, they looked towards Wei Zheng.

Li Yuanying successfully noticed that Wei Zheng’s face was darker than before.

Li Yuanying sighed in his heart, this old Wei is really moody!

Li Yuanying decided to ignore the faults of adults and enthusiastically led them to see the dragon bone fossils.

Passing through the cornfields whose leaves have begun to turn yellow and bypassing the vineyards covered with grapevines, there lies a green river. On the other side of the river, houses are built side by side with a huge waterwheel that continuously delives water to the backyards of every house.

Within the short 1-2 years, every home in this area is oozing with the strong essence of life – Corn hanging outside homes fresh from the harvesting season, some with just the seeds left and some with just the stalk left but every home look festive. From a distance, yards surrounded by fences had clothes of all sizes hanging on them to dry. Although not made of high quality silk or satin, people here were not lacking in life necessities. At the very least the whole family had purchased necessary clothing for the season.

As you get closer, you can hear clucking of chickens in the distance that are raised by the residents here. Since Li Er likes cockfighting, he really wanted to see if there was any brave and good fighting rooster that he could take home.

It’s a pity because on second thought with Wei Zheng here, no chance!

Li Er could only ask Li Yuanying regretfully: “Where is the dragon bones?”

Li Yuanying pointed in the direction of the waterwheel.

Before the fossil can be seen, a wooden model about the same height as the giant waterwheel caught everyone’s eyes. The “dragon” is several times taller than a human, with a long neck and a huge body. It is bending its head as if drinking water. Although it is only a skeleton frame, it looks decent from a first glance!

“Originally, I wanted assemble the bones according to its original size but it’s too dangerous to build it so high. So this is the maximum we can do.”

For the group of little radish heads, this wooden model was already big enough. They can’t fathom how much bigger the real “dragon” was.

Little Round Ball and Li Xiang were following Li Yuanying while their other hand were being held by an aunt. They walk towards the model with their short legs. When they arrived in front of it, everyone raised their little heads to look at the big head of the “dragon” that is bending down.

Little Round Ball exclaimed: “Wow, it’s so big.”

Li Xiang also said: “Its mouth seems like it can hold several people!”

Li Yuanying commented objectively: “I can fit several of you (Li Xiang) in it, but I can’t fit in several Little Round Ball .”

His Majesty raised his hand from behind and whack Li Yuanying on the back of his head.

Did Little Round Ball provoke you?Why are you always calling him round!

Little Round Ball didn’t realize that YaoYao was making fun of him and actually felt quite proud.  He puffed up his chest and said, “I won’t fit!”

Li Xiang compared their body shapes and had to nod in agreement: “It really won’t fit.”

Li Yuanying turned his head and smiled proudly at Li Er.

Li Er couldn’t be bothered to pay him any attention.

The real dinosaur fossils were placed in an open space not far from the wooden model. The entire skeleton took up an area of more than ten square meters after being put together. This was after Dong Xiaoyi’s order to remove the corners of stones that did not have bones in it, otherwise a small mountain would have been moved here!

Due to aging, the skeleton has lost a few pieces but fortunately these missing pieces have symmetrical pieces for replication. With that, Li Yuanying’s “system” can easily complete them through the Myriad Realm Library.

That’s right! The system is now giving Li Yuanying a task for the first time in a long time: collect as many dinosaur bones as possible.

After Dong Xiaoyi brought back all the fossils available, Li Yuanying visited Sunflower garden to scan the fossil into Myriad Realm Library which triggered a steep increase in points. There isn’t anything that they can do about the missing pieces as it’s impossible to make them out of thin air. Also Tang Dynasty is the earliest era that the Library is currently connect to, therefore although they had a false news scandal previously, people still visited. Most who do so are professionals, so why wouldn’t they be able to distinguish real or fake fossil?

In the end, Li Yuanying successfully completed the task and obtained the corresponding dinosaur model drawings.

It was precisely because of this drawing that they boy thought about attracting visitors to the Sunflower Garden to see the “Dragon Bone”.

Since you’re already here, shouldn’t you buy something too? He then ask carpenters to make small replicas of the dragon and sell them. You can now see and play with dragon bone, that’s so awesome! We also have corns and peanuts and sunflower seeds and so on that can be tasted. The Emperor had already cultivated ample of seeds so Yuanying can no longer sell them in three per packet!

Li Yuanying is confident about the Garden’s latest development. He led his group of little radish heads to surround the fossil and pointed out to them which was the head, which was the tail, and roughly how long and how big it was!

The group of little radish heads  screamed in excitement when they heard about it and regretted that they couldn’t see the creature alive.

His Majesty Li Er was shocked when he saw such a behemoth.

Li Yuanying turned to speak to his older brother after awhile: “Brother, why do you think such a big guy disappeared?”

No one has seen such creatures, so they wouldn’t know why they went extinct. But Li Er would rather die than to admit that he didn’t know something. He pondered and expressed his opinion: “Sometimes being big doesn’t necessarily mean being powerful. For example an elephant is huge but isn’t it still hunted for its ivory and had to listen to its handlers?”

Yuanying nodded in agreement: “Yes, they are big. If they encounter an enemy, they won’t have anywhere to hide!”

With an answer to his curious question, regardless of whether it’s right or wrong, Yuanying stopped worrying and happily took the children around to play.

After half a day, the “accident” that Wei Zheng feared so much did not happen. On the way back, Yuanying came close to him: “Look, nothing happened, right? The Emperor is also human, how can he be locked up in the palace all the time? If it was you, you will not be happy staying in the same place every day. The old wise man once said that we should judge others by ourselves, their hearts by our hearts, and their emotions by our emotions!”

This was said by Han Ying in the Han Dynasty.

Wei Zheng felt that such noble words by wise scholars but when used by Li Yuanying, it felt very unpleasant.

As soon as the Emperor left, Dong Xiaoyi started to publicize to the world that the garden will now accept reservations and welcome people to hold parties here. It will be best to bring the whole family for an autumn outing. Have you seen Dragon Bone before? If you haven’t then come play at Sunflower Garden! Not only can you see the unique fossil, but you take home a small dragon replica!

The Emperor has visited this place in person and there is absolutely no suspicion of violating the prohibition. It is suitable for all ages, young and old, and we look forward to welcoming you all!

Notes from the author:

System: You may not believe it, but this is a system article.

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