Chapter 24: Prying for Secrets; Want to Learn? Work First!

Just as he was feeling irritable, a sudden cool breeze blew in from the entrance of the hall.

A genuinely cool breeze.

Xiao Sizi came skipping in, still clutching a half-eaten peach in her hand.

This little girl was unusual today. While everyone else was wilting from the heat, she was full of energy. Her rosy little face did not have a single drop of sweat, radiating a refreshing chill instead.

“Daddy!” Xiao Sizi lunged forward, crashing straight into Li Shimin’s embrace.

Li Shimin instinctively went to push her away, worried about overheating the child.

Yet the moment he caught her, she felt completely icy cool to the touch!

This little meatball was practically a walking block of ice, radiating a chill from head to toe. Clinging to him, it felt unimaginably comfortable.

Li Shimin was stunned. He ran both hands across his daughter’s back; it was chilled to the touch.

“Sizi, you… where did you go to escape the heat?”

Xiao Sizi let out a watermelon-scented burp, proudly pointing to the stray smudge of pink milk residue at the corner of her mouth. “I went to big bwother’s place to eat ice!”

“Ice?” Li Shimin glanced at the pitiful bit of water in his own basin. “Where did he get ice from?”

“Big bwother conjured it up!”

Xiao Sizi explained animatedly, gesturing with both little hands. “Big bwother took a pile of rocks and threw them in the water. Splash! And then the water turned into ice chunks! Really, really big ice chunks!”

“He even poured goat milk and watermelon juice on top! It was red and sweet, and one bite froze my whole head!”

As Xiao Sizi spoke, she licked her lips, savoring the memory.

Li Shimin listened, dumbfounded.

Throwing stones into water turns it to ice?

How did that not sound like some charlatan’s parlor trick? Yet looking at the cool, refreshed daughter in his arms, he had no choice but to believe it.

Her body temperature could not lie, nor could that distinct refreshing chill that only came after eating ice.

“You mean… he can turn water into ice on command?” Li Shimin’s voice tightened slightly.

If this was true, what did that mean?

It meant the Great Tang would never lack ice in the summer ever again! It meant wounded soldiers in the army could use ice to numb their pain, and it meant commoners might even be able to afford this sacred tool to beat the heat!

More importantly…

It meant that he, the Emperor, would not have to sit here in Liangyi Hall rolling his eyes like a salted fish baking in the heat!

The sour jealousy in Li Shimin’s heart was overwhelming.

A cook, hiding in a woodshed enjoying a cool breeze and eating shaved ice, living far more comfortably than the Emperor himself.

“Where is Lizhi?” Li Shimin asked in a low voice.

“Big Sister is still eating over there. She said she’s having one more bowl before coming back.” Xiao Sizi ratted out her elder sister without a shred of guilt.

“…”

“Sizi, go call your sister back.”

…

A quarter of an hour later.

Li Lizhi reluctantly set down her empty bowl, looking back with every step as she left that cool paradise.

The moment she stepped into Liangyi Hall, a wave of heat hit her face.

Li Shimin sat behind his desk with a dark face. Seeing his daughter’s satisfied and contented appearance after eating and drinking her fill, he felt even more disgruntled.

“Enjoyed yourself?” Li Shimin asked in a cool tone.

Li Lizhi blushed and hurriedly bowed. “Your daughter… your daughter only went to inspect the Imperial Kitchen…”

“Inspected a belly full of ice?” Li Shimin snorted. “Let me ask you, can that master truly make ice with stones?”

Li Lizhi straightened her expression and nodded solemnly. “It is absolutely true. Your daughter saw it with her own eyes. A basin of boiling water froze into ice in just a matter of moments. This method… is simply unheard of.”

Li Shimin tapped his fingers on the desk.

Since it was not an illusion, it was real skill.

Daoist alchemy certainly had its closely guarded secrets.

This saltpeter ice-making method was likely one of them.

“Lizhi.”

Li Shimin put on an earnest, heartfelt expression. “The weather is blisteringly hot, as you can see. Your Imperial Grandfather is advanced in years and cannot withstand the heat. Your Imperial Mother is frail and also needs ice to keep cool.”

“If this ice-making method could be brought under the imperial court’s control…”

Li Shimin gave his daughter a knowing look.

Li Lizhi instantly understood what her Imperial Father meant.

He wanted her to “steal his craft.”

“Imperial Father, this… is his secret technique, after all.”

Li Lizhi felt conflicted. That man had a peculiar temperament; if she asked outright, he might not agree. Besides, for an esteemed imperial princess to sneak around trying to learn a cook’s craft would sound terrible if word got out.

“What secret technique!”

Li Shimin glared. “Under the wide heavens, all belongs to the emperor^[1]. Besides, I am not telling you to take it by force.”

He lowered his voice, a sly, fox-like look of calculation crossing his face. “You go over there often to inspect. Watch more, ask more. Since that master dared to demonstrate it right in front of you, it means he does not view you as an outsider. Once you figure it out, come back and tell me, and I will have the Ministry of Works^[2] make it.”

“This is not just for my own appetite, but for the sake of the Great Tang’s state!”

Li Shimin laid on the grand justifications thick.

Helpless, Li Lizhi could only comply. “Your daughter… will do her best.”

Even as she spoke, she was still savoring the memory of that bowl of shaved ice.

If learning it meant she could enjoy that divine delicacy every day from now on, then she might as well learn it.

After all, that man never hid his cooking from anyone. She had already peeled garlic and washed dishes for him, so learning how to make ice did not seem… like that big of a deal, right?

“Oh, right.”

Li Shimin called out just as his daughter was about to take her leave, rubbing his hands together rather awkwardly. “Since you are going to learn it… remember to bring a larger food container when you go tomorrow.”

“Bring back a bowl of that… watermelon goat-milk ice for me as well. Add extra honey.”

Li Lizhi: “…”

Imperial Father, your little scheme is written all over your face.

…

…

Su Mu had just dragged a burlap sack of “special crops” freshly issued by the system into the shade when he heard a noise and went to unbolt the door.

The moment the door opened, the two VIPs, one big and one small, were standing there once again.

This time, the food container in Li Lizhi’s hand was a completely different size, standing half a person tall and looking distinctly heavy.

Today, she wore a crisp, narrow-sleeved court dress. Sweat still beaded at her temples, and her gaze wandered evasively, not daring to meet Su Mu’s eyes, betraying a distinct sense of guilt.

Xiao Sizi, on the other hand, was completely unpretentious. Still clutching the bamboo dragonfly Su Mu had made for her yesterday, she started sniffing around with her little nose the moment she stepped through the door, just like a hound searching for food.

“There’s no smell at all?”

The little girl mumbled in disappointment, her little face instantly falling. “Big bwother didn’t make food?”

Su Mu stepped aside and pointed toward the pile of unhusked big fellows resting at the base of the wall.

“Want to eat? Work first.”

Li Lizhi set the heavy food container down on the millstone and rubbed her sore wrists. Before she even had the chance to ask about the ice, Su Mu’s words cut her short.

She looked in the direction Su Mu pointed.

It was a pile of strange objects.

They looked like wooden laundry clubs, roughly one chi long, wrapped in layered green leaves, with a messy tuft of reddish-brown silk hanging from the top, resembling a beast’s tail that had not finished shedding its fur.

“What is this?”

Curiosity won out, and Li Lizhi temporarily forgot the mission her imperial father had given her to “steal the ice-making technique.”

“Good stuff.”

Su Mu picked one up from the pile and tossed it casually to Li Lizhi.

Li Lizhi caught it instinctively.

It felt heavy in her hands. The outer husk was rough, carrying the fresh, grassy scent unique to plants.

“This is called cor… cough, baomi.”

Su Mu had nearly slipped up. In this era, the word for corn did not exist yet. This batch of seeds given by the system was called “Golden Jade No. 1,” bearing large, plump cobs that were at the perfect stage for a fresh bite.

“Baomi?”

Li Lizhi weighed it in her hands. “Can you eat it?”

“Whether you can eat it or not, won’t you know once you peel it open?” Su Mu pulled over a small folding stool for himself, sat down, picked one up, skillfully tore open the husk from the tip, and pulled it down firmly.

Riiip.

The green husk peeled away, revealing what lay beneath.

It was not the smooth melon or fruit she had imagined, but neat, tightly packed rows of golden-yellow kernels, like countless tiny beads of gold inlaid upon a cob, glistening with a rich sheen in the sunlight filtering through the tree shade.

Li Lizhi stared in amazement.

This thing looked simply too… too orderly.

Every single kernel looked as if meticulously carved by an artisan, lined up tight like soldiers in formation, radiating the joyful spirit of a bountiful harvest.