Chapter Twenty-One: The Master

Li Zhi chuckled and said, "You? A master? Really?"

"What's wrong... Do I not look like a master?" Li Lizhi spun around indignantly.

"Fine! You're a master!" Li Zhi laughed awkwardly and rolled his eyes.

To be honest, teaching the Nine Swords of Dugu to Li Lizhi and Luo Tong wasn't impossible. But before passing it on, he needed to master it himself. Otherwise, Li Lizhi and Luo Tong would learn it before he did.

Li Zhi said, "If you want to learn swordsmanship, it's not out of the question, but you'll have to do something for me first!"

"Tell me, tell me..." Li Lizhi's face lit up with delight.

She could hardly believe it was so easy to get Li Zhi to teach her swordplay.

But the challenge Li Zhi set for her was far from ordinary. It was purely to make things difficult and keep her quiet.

"If you want me to teach you swordsmanship, then you must master cooking... Prepare meals for me every day. Once I'm satisfied, I'll teach you an invincible sword technique!"

"What?" Li Lizhi stared, dumbfounded. "I have to learn to cook too?"

"I'm a princess, after all. Cooking is beneath my dignity..."

Li Zhi had only casually thrown out a difficult task. But thinking about it, Cheng Yaojin refused to let his son learn cooking largely because he looked down on the profession. As a nobleman of the Tang Dynasty, he couldn’t afford to bring shame upon himself. But if Li Lizhi learned to cook and received Li Shimin’s praise, perhaps it would change Cheng Yaojin's view? After all, Li Lizhi’s status was far more distinguished than his son's. If even a princess became a chef, what reason would he have to object?

"Sister..." Li Zhi switched to a smiling, persuasive tone. "Please trust me, learning to cook is wonderful. You can eat whatever you like, and even honor Father and Mother."

"Don't try to fool me... Father would never like it!"

"Nonsense! Last time Father praised me, didn't he?"

Li Lizhi said, "That was because... your cooking was so delicious, Father didn’t have time to scold you. There are clear rules in the palace: princes are forbidden from entering the kitchen! That includes me!"

Rules?

When had this little girl become so obedient?

Empress Changsun called from the sitting room, "Changle, Zhi’er, what are you two discussing?"

"Mother, Zhi bullied me!"

"What?" Li Zhi looked at her, surprised. "When did I bully you?"

"You say you didn't, but you won’t teach me..." She left her sentence unfinished.

Empress Changsun instinctively believed Li Lizhi was being bullied. Among her children, Li Zhi was the cleverest and would never be bullied himself.

She said, "Zhi’er, how can you bully your sister?"

"I... To be bullied by someone older than me—how shameful!" Li Zhi didn't dodge the question. If he was accused of bullying, so be it. After all, he was the youngest.

Li Lizhi, seeing Li Zhi's shamelessness, decided to lay things out plainly: "Mother, I want to learn martial arts! Zhi knows a sword technique, it's amazing, even Luo Tong can’t defeat him. Please make him teach me!"

"If you want to learn martial arts, learn to cook first!"

"I won’t!"

Empress Changsun finally understood: these two little troublemakers paid no heed to palace rules, daring to argue about martial arts and cooking right in front of her.

"You two, stand straight! You are a prince and princess, not generals charging into battle, nor mere cooks. If anyone disobeys again, I will punish them severely!"

Li Zhi was speechless!

It was all Li Lizhi's fault for blurting out the truth!

Now they couldn't play anymore.

"Your Highness, Your Highness..." At that moment, Dong Fu, a craftsman from the Ministry of Works, came running excitedly from the back courtyard. "Your Highness, Your Majesty!"

He greeted them both.

Li Zhi asked urgently, "Did something happen in the back courtyard?"

"No, Your Highness..."

"Then why are you so anxious?"

"Reporting, Your Highness, I think I've mastered the phonetic system! Just now, I searched for the required characters by their phonetic initials. Every time I looked for the first letter, I found the right character immediately. I arranged hundreds of characters in the time it takes to burn half a stick of incense—my speed has increased exponentially!"

Li Lizhi and Empress Changsun listened in confusion.

Li Zhi, on the other hand, breathed a sigh of relief. "Good heavens, you finally learned it... You fools! Even finding phonetic spellings needs my personal guidance? It's an insult to my intelligence!"

"Yes, Your Highness, I am slow-witted!"

"Since you’ve learned it, my help is no longer needed. I’ll give you three days to complete the task I assigned. Can you manage?"

"Rest assured, Your Highness, we only need two days!"

He had already calculated it.

Shortening the sorting process sped things up immensely.

With Li Zhi’s assembly-line concept, the workers in the back courtyard labored day and night, never stopping for a moment. At every hour, freshly printed volumes of the Records of the Historian were produced.

Within two days, Dong Fu was confident he could print a thousand copies!

"Zhi’er, what are you talking about?" Empress Changsun was still bewildered, unable to grasp what Li Zhi and the Ministry of Works crew were doing in the back courtyard.

"Mother, don’t worry! When I finish, I’ll show you!"

Li Zhi found an excuse to leave.

Just because Empress Changsun forbade Li Lizhi from learning martial arts or cooking, did she really obey? Li Lizhi was not so compliant! Nor would Li Zhi give up!

In the blink of an eye, the two gathered together.

After a round of negotiations.

Li Lizhi, being a child, was no match for Li Zhi. She was quickly outmaneuvered and agreed to learn cooking first, then martial arts.

She also pledged to earn Li Shimin’s approval.

Without delay, they set to work.

In the kitchen, they learned to make cured meat fried rice.

This dish (or rather, meal) could showcase the essence of stir-frying to the fullest and surpass even the delicacies of the imperial kitchens. Once mastered, there was no need to learn anything else.

Just this one dish would be enough to win over Li Shimin!

Two days later.

Li Shimin arrived at Lizheng Palace.

He wanted to check the progress of the Records of the Historian being copied.

Just then,

Dong Fu came to report: "Your Highness, thanks to our efforts, we have printed and bound one thousand copies of the Records of the Historian!"

"Show me at once!"

"Yes!"

They went to the small room in the back courtyard.

There, five large chests stood in the corner, filled with brand-new books.

Li Zhi picked one up at random.

He examined it.

He was thoroughly satisfied.

"You’ve all worked hard. Go back to the Ministry of Works. I’ll ask Father to reward you for your service!" Li Zhi said.

"It is our honor to serve Your Highness!"

The group left one after another.

Li Zhi ordered Luo Tong, "Pretty boy, move these chests to the sitting room. I want Father and Mother to see what I’ve accomplished these past days!"

"Yes!"

Back in the sitting room,

Li Shimin was tasting the cured meat fried rice Li Lizhi had made for him.

Though the heat was a little off and the seasoning incomplete, the flavor was still superb!