Volume 1 Princess Taiping Grows Up Chapter 11 A Strange Gift
Hearing Li Yuechen's question, Liu Shenwei was subconsciously stunned, touched his beard, and couldn't help laughing.
Just now when I was in Yanying Palace, I saw this little princess staring at me with burning eyes. At that time, I thought there was something on her face that was not wiped clean.
Now you come here to ask this, you actually are interested in medicine.
Normally, it would not be his turn as the imperial physician to personally explain such a small matter as popularizing medical knowledge to children.
But she was a princess after all, and Liu Shenwei thought about it and decided that there was nothing to worry about, so he gave a brief explanation.
"Princess, you don't know that in medicine, the art of observation, listening, questioning and palpation is the most important..."
Li Yuechen listened to his popular science lecture with eyes wide open. On the surface, she seemed to be listening very seriously, but in fact, she didn't care about it at all.
Everything we do now is just to find a reason for future plans.
After listening to Liu Shenwei for a while, Li Yuechen asked, "According to what Doctor Liu said, if I massage Grandpa's hands, can it relieve his fatigue?"
"It's rare that the princess is so filial!" Liu Shenwei stroked his beard and nodded in praise.
In this era, filial children are always welcomed.
"In theory, it is true! There are many acupuncture points on both hands, but in practice, it is not that simple!"
After chatting with Liu Shenwei for almost half an hour, Li Yuechen felt that the time was about up, so he stood up and said goodbye.
After leaving the Taichang Temple, he went straight to the Artisan Supervisor. He had already left enough impression on Liu Shenwei, so even if Li Zhi asked about it later, he would not doubt anything.
Upon hearing that the princess was coming, the chief craftsman hurried out to greet her.
A middle-aged man in his forties trotted to the door and bowed: "I didn't know the princess had arrived. Your humble servant..."
Li Yuechen didn't want to waste time, so he interrupted and said, "No need to be polite, Wang Jiancheng, can you help me find a few blacksmiths to make some tools?"
Wang Jiancheng stood up straight and said, "I don't know what the princess is talking about."
Li Yuechen raised his hand and gestured: "An iron ball of this size."
“Iron ball?” Wang Jiancheng was stunned for a moment, then stroked his beard and nodded gently, “This matter is simple, Your Highness, please follow me.”
After entering the Craftsmen's Office, Wang Jiancheng quickly recruited several blacksmiths.
Li Yuechen told these muscular blacksmiths his requirements: "What I need must be made of pure steel into a sphere with a smooth surface and weighing about one pound..."
Steel actually existed in this era, but it was not as easy to obtain as iron and its cost was higher.
For these blacksmiths, making steel balls is not difficult at all. The craftsmen who can work here are all national-level and their professional skills are absolutely up to standard.
That’s right, what Li Yuechen wanted to make was very simple. It was the health ball that he had seen his grandfather turning in his hands since he was a child in his previous life.
She didn't know in what era this thing appeared, but at least she was sure that it didn't exist in this era.
After discussing the size with the blacksmiths, Li Yuechen took his leave, agreeing that Eunuch Fu would come and pick it up when it was finished.
After returning to Chengxiang Palace, Li Yuechen continued to read and study, and practiced calligraphy at the same time.
Not to mention that Li Zhi and Wu Zetian were both calligraphers, the key point is that in this era, well-written characters could be used as business cards.
In order to become a good baby that your parents love more, it is very necessary to practice good handwriting.
Li Yuechen had never played with a brush in his previous life. It was only in this era that he really started to get in touch with this thing.
But it doesn’t matter. Although he doesn’t understand soft-brush calligraphy, he knows hard-brush calligraphy.
I have copied a lot of hard-pen calligraphy in my previous life. Although I don’t know how big the difference is between hard-pen and soft-pen calligraphy, there are always some similarities.
Generally speaking, the royal family, princes and nobles' children could enter the Imperial Academy to study when they were in their teens.
Although there were no female students in the Imperial College, as a princess of a country, she could still have some privileges if she wished.
But Li Yuechen had no interest in the Four Books and Five Classics or the like. Just reading the Thousand Character Classic as an enlightenment reading made her sleepy, let alone talking to a group of ancient people.
But speaking of it, it seems that the Three Character Classic hasn’t appeared yet in this era?
In the middle of the afternoon, seeing that it was almost time, Xiao He entered the hall holding a bowl of yogurt.
I saw Li Yuechen sitting in front of the desk, muttering something to himself.
After I walked in, I heard a mosquito-like baby voice: "The way of teaching is to be specialized. What's the next sentence..."
"Your Highness, how about some yogurt?"
"Well, put it down."
Li Yuechen shook his head and said, forget it, he still couldn’t remember.
There is really not much I can remember about the liberal arts, and the rest I have basically returned to the teacher.
If I had known that one day I would travel back to the Tang Dynasty, I would have memorized all the Tang and Song poems in advance.
Forget it, I'd better just copy the Thousand Character Classic to practice my calligraphy.
Seeing Li Yuechen picked up the pen again after drinking the yogurt, Xiaohe hurriedly helped to grind the ink.
Li Yuechen has been practicing calligraphy for several months, but this calligraphy... still feels a little hard to describe.
This is mainly because of the habit I got from writing hard-tip calligraphy in the past, and I always like to pause.
However, there is a difference between the pause method of a hard pen and the pause method of a soft pen. When a soft pen is used, the starting point, corners, hooks and strokes appear a little thick, while the connecting points between the strokes are light, so they are as slender as a knife blade.
The words written in this way have a sharpness that can be seen with the naked eye.
The popular fonts of this era were regular script and cursive script, but flying white script was also popular among the royal family.
Mainly because Emperor Taizong Li Er liked it, his stepfather Li Zhi was also good at it when he was a child under his influence. And his mother Wu Zetian also practiced it carefully before she was born in order to attract his attention.
So both husband and wife are quite good at it.
As for Li Yuechen... come on, he can’t even write ordinary cursive script, let alone Feibai.
After copying a thousand-character essay, Li Yuechen picked it up and looked at it carefully, frowning slightly: "Why does it feel a bit like the thin gold style of Lao Zhao that I saw on the Internet before?"
In fact, it is far from it. It’s just that it has been so long since he traveled through time, and Li Yuechen’s memory of the pictures he had seen on the Internet has become vague.
However, because the brushwork is similar in many places, there is indeed more or less the shadow of Slender Gold style in it.
As the sun was about to set, the light inside the palace began to dim. Xiao He was already asking people to light the lamps, so Li Yuechen put down his brush.
In order to protect her eyes, she would never read or write in poor light.
I happened to have nothing to do, so I planned to go and play with my two sisters. Now they all live in the same palace, which is a lot more convenient than before.
Life in the palace was actually quite boring, and the two sisters had just finished their studies and were planning to take a break.
Li Yuechen originally planned to go out and make a snowman, but considering that she was still young, it would be very troublesome if she caught a cold, so she gave up.
Why not wait for a couple of days when it stops snowing and then ask someone to make two shuttlecocks for us to play with.
After playing with her two sisters until sunset and having dinner , Li Yuechen, who was still a child, began to feel sleepy.
After yawning, she raised her little hand to wipe her tears, said goodbye to her two sisters, and returned to her bedroom to sleep.
Early the next morning, before the sun came out, Li Yuechen had already woken up.
After getting up and doing a set of yoga in the palace, I went out for a few brisk walks, ate something, rested for a while, and then started practicing.
I have memorized all the moves Liu Rengui taught me, so I don't need to go there today. I can just practice in the palace.
In fact, people of this era eat two meals, one around ten o'clock in the morning and the other around four or five o'clock in the afternoon.
However, there are almost three meals a day in the palace. After all, people are really hungry when they wake up early in the morning!
I practiced martial arts for the whole morning, had lunch at noon, and then continued reading and writing in the afternoon.
When the sun was about to set, I went to play with my two sisters and chat with them.
The day passed quickly, and when it was almost time for dinner, Eunuch Fu came back carrying a cloth bag.
"The utensils your highness requested have been prepared. Please have a look."
Li Yuechen agreed and asked him to open the bag, then took out one and looked at it carefully.
Eunuch Fu next to him couldn't help but be a little surprised. He had just weighed the steel ball and found that it weighed almost one pound. He didn't expect that the little princess could hold it easily in her hand.
It was nothing for a three-year-old child to be able to lift it, but he was surprised that he could grab it so easily with one hand.
You have to know that her hands are very small and she can't hold a ball with a diameter of nearly six centimeters.
Now Li Yuechen is holding a basketball in front of his eyes and looking at it carefully, just like an ordinary person holding it with one hand.
Of course, she herself did not realize that a pound in the Tang Dynasty was about 670 grams more than a thousand years later, so her current actions seemed a little incredible to Eunuch Fu.
He picked up one with his left hand and touched it lightly. There was a clang sound, accompanied by a slight echo.
And in terms of its roundness, at least to the naked eye it looks like a very standard sphere.
Li Yuechen couldn't help but nodded, he was indeed a skilled craftsman employed by the imperial court.
Originally she was a little worried about whether she could achieve the desired effect, but now it seems that the ancients' handicraft skills are definitely not bad.
"Where are grandpa and mom now?" Li Yuechen put the two balls in his hand into the bag.
"Your Highness, they are still in Yanying Palace!"
Li Yuechen raised her little hand and waved it gently: "Let's go! Take this with you!"
Eunuch Fu didn't know what they could be used for. Anyway, he brought back six in total. Four of them were slightly larger, and the other two were smaller. He had no idea what they were used for.
They arrived at Yanying Palace. The eunuch outside the door saw the princess coming from afar and hurried in to report.
When Li Yuechen walked to the door, Zhang Chengxin had already come out: "Greetings, Your Highness."
"Eunuch Zhang, I'm here to see Grandpa and Mom."
"The Saint said that when His Highness comes, you can just go in!"
Li Yuechen nodded and walked in with Eunuch Fu: "Well, thank you, Eunuch Zhang."
"Don't dare!"
Li Yuechen said thank you because it was a habit from his previous life, but in this era, it always surprised the servants for a long time.
When I entered the hall, I saw my mother Wu Zetian still sitting at the desk, reviewing memorials with a pen, and Li Zhi sitting next to her.
I guess he is just bored and is making tea for himself.
Seeing Li Yuechen coming in, a smile immediately appeared on his face: "Chen'er is here! Come and sit next to brother!"
"Greetings, Grandpa and Mom." Li Yuechen held back his smile and simply bowed.
The main thing is that the fact that the old man called himself "brother" is really funny in the eyes of souls in later generations.
Even after so many years, it's still the same and the funny point has not disappeared.
She came and sat down next to Li Zhi, stretching out her little hands to warm them up by the small stove.
Wu Zetian, the old lady beside him, was reviewing memorials while asking casually, "Chen'er, I heard that you went to the Imperial Medical Bureau and the Craftsmen Bureau yesterday. What was that about?"
Li Yuechen blinked his eyes and said, "I saw that you two work hard every day, so I went to ask Dr. Liu if he has any way to relieve fatigue. However, the medical skills are profound and I don't understand them. But I heard Dr. Liu say that massaging the hands is effective. I can't be by your side all the time, so I went to the craftsman's supervisor to make a substitute."
"oh?"
After hearing this, Li Zhi seemed to be interested: "What kind of artifact is it?"
Li Yuechen waved to Eunuch Fu, took the bag, found a pair of large iron balls and handed them to Li Zhi: "Grandpa, please take a look."
Li Zhi stretched out his hands, took one in each hand, weighed it, and asked with a questioning look on his face: "How do I use this?"
Li Yuechen stretched out his hand and placed both iron balls on his left hand, explaining: "I think that rotating them in my hand like this may have a massage effect."
As he spoke, he controlled his hands to make the two iron balls slowly rotate.
Li Zhi was about 1.80 meters tall and had big hands, so his hands were just enough to hold it.
With her reminder, he quickly understood how to play this thing. Although he didn't know if it was effective, he still smiled: "Chen'er is thoughtful."
Li Yuechen took out a smaller one and said, "Mother has one too!"
Wu Zetian seemed a little curious about this thing, so she picked it up and tried it, but she didn't hold it and dropped it to the floor.
“It’s still a bit heavy!”
"I think it would be better if it had a little weight."
It wasn't a very difficult thing to do, and the two of them quickly got the hang of it. Then they started chatting with Li Yuechen while playing with it in their hands.
Half an hour passed in the blink of an eye, and Li Yuechen stood up to leave. After all, there were obviously still a lot of memorials on the table that he had not reviewed yet.
After his daughter returned, Li Zhi smiled and said, "Although it is just a toy, it is also a token of Chen'er's filial piety!"
"Maybe this thing is really effective." Wu Zetian replied.
"Oh?" Li Zhi raised his head. "Why do you think so?"
Wu Zetian smiled and said, "Your Majesty, didn't you notice? You haven't stopped working for more than half an hour!"
Li Zhi looked down and saw that the two iron balls in his left hand were spinning slowly. He had never put them down when they were chatting just now.
"Hiss—" Li Zhi, who was slow to react, reacted this time, "It seems that this thing is really extraordinary! Chen'er is really smart!"
Wu Zetian was a little confused and rubbed her head with her hand: "I just don't know how she could have thought of this... When Liu Shenwei comes to inspect Your Majesty again in a few days, I will ask him about it in detail."
