Tang Dynasty: Father, if you don't rebel, I will!

The next day.

Li Zhi, who had just arrived at the First Official Academy, walked into the classroom.

I spotted him immediately; he was almost always the first one to arrive at the classroom every day.

When he cautiously approached his seat, looking at Wu Zetian across the table, almost clearly separated from him by a line, he saw her.

He couldn't help but cautiously bend down to try and see the other person, occasionally putting the rattan cane into the drawer.

"What are you doing?"

A cold voice suddenly rang out, startling Li Zhi so much that he instinctively shuddered, but he quickly took two steps back and raised his hand to defend himself.

Noticing Wu Zetian's strange look, Li Zhi quickly coughed.

He tidied up his clothes.

"No, nothing... Can't I just stretch?"

Wu Zetian snorted coldly, ignored him, and looked down at the book in front of her, which was thicker than her palm.

The dense text, combined with charts and graphs.

Li Zhi only glanced at it, but he could already smell that familiar scent of government affairs.

"What are you looking at...?" He leaned closer curiously.

The contents of the paper made his expression freeze instantly.

"Detailed Statistics of Industries of the Top 500 Chambers of Commerce in the Tang Dynasty", "A Feasibility Study on Refining Industry Commercial Tax Collection", "Records of Commercial Loan Interest Rate Adjustments in the First Year of Zhenguan"...

"You, you're looking at these? You can understand them?"

Wu Zetian looked at her strangely and asked, "You don't understand?"

Li Zhi: "......."

Is this guy really Wu Shun's sister-in-law's biological sister?

Why is it that you can always say such hurtful things from the most difficult angles?

Li Zhi took a deep breath to calm himself down, snorted coldly, and sat down in his seat.

A short while later, Murong Yu appeared in the classroom as usual, carrying a brocade box that she couldn't tell if it contained snacks or candies.

Upon seeing her beloved Zhinu brother, her bright eyes immediately lit up.

"Brother Zhinu~"

Li Zhi coughed twice.

At this time, besides the three students in the back row, there were already some other students in the classroom, although everyone seemed to have gotten used to it.

However, Li Zhi was still not used to Murong Yu's morning greetings, which emphasized strangeness and were even somewhat affected.

"Xiaoyu, keep your voice down!"

Murong Yu approached and noticed Wu Zhao reading a book, looking deep in thought. Her face immediately fell.

"Hmph, hypocrite! Always putting on an act!"

She muttered something sarcastic in a low voice, then sat down on the other side of Li Zhi and instantly put on a smile.

"Brother Zhinu, try this! It's a mille-feuille pastry that Xinmifang on Shengwu Street just made today, ah~"

Li Zhi: "......."

Seeing Wu Zetian's hand holding the pencil suddenly tighten, and the veins on the back of her delicate hand seemed to be throbbing, Li Zhi was instantly startled and broke out in a cold sweat.

"Ahem, Xiaoyu, be mindful of your behavior!"

Before Murong Yu could react, he suddenly moved closer to Wu Zetian and chuckled twice.

"Wu Zetian, why are you suddenly learning these things? Are you preparing for the imperial examinations?"

Wu Zetian glanced at him indifferently, noticing Murong Yu glaring at her from behind, but completely ignoring him.

"These things aren't tested in the imperial examination system..."

She noticed the embarrassment on Li Zhi's face, gave a soft hum, and seemed to feel much better instantly.

With her chin slightly raised, her delicate yet youthful face was filled with pride.

"I'm going to do something big!"

Murong Yu pouted from an angle that Li Zhi couldn't see.

A big undertaking? How big does a big undertaking even have to be?

Can any other house be as big as ours?!

Murong Yu looked disdainful, but Li Zhi looked at Wu Zetian at this moment, a glint of light flashing in his eyes.

"Oh? What are you planning to do? You're not going to take the imperial examinations, so you're probably not in a hurry to enter officialdom, then it can only be..." He glanced at the books on Wu Zetian's desk.

Are you planning to go into business?

"Tch..." Murong Yu chuckled softly from behind.

Wu Zetian, contrary to her usual behavior, showed no anger and instead gently closed the thick book in her hands.

"Your Highness Prince Jin, you're only half right. It does qualify as business, but to be precise, it's not quite..."

After that, no matter how Li Zhi inquired, Wu Zetian refused to elaborate.

Meanwhile, Murong Yu, standing to the side, smiled and gently swayed one of her braids.

"If you encounter any difficulties, Wu Er, for the sake of your brother Zhi Nu, this princess would not mind helping you out."

Wu Zetian sneered.

"Your Highness, you're only half right. You will indeed give me the money in the future, but it won't be me begging you; it will be you begging me!"

"you!"

Murong Yu's almond-shaped eyes widened, and she was about to get up and teach the other person a lesson in anger.

But then Wu Zetian revealed the same vine whip that had made her body stiffen.

"Humph!"

Taiyuan Prefecture, Foreign Affairs Department.

"What are you humming about?! You're not happy?!"

Kong Yingda glared angrily, and despite having two burly Tibetan attendants behind him, and being the imposing Gardonzan himself, his aura was no less imposing.

Gardonzan's face was extremely grim.

Waving the document in his hand, he roared angrily, "Lord Kong, this is completely different from the price we agreed on before! We clearly agreed that three adult male slaves could be exchanged for a fine steel weapon, and ten for a set of armor..."

"What you've brought out this time, let alone half, isn't even a third!"

"Don't you have even the slightest bit of credibility?!"

"boom!"

Kong Yingda slammed the document in his hand into Galdonzan's face.

Under the incredulous gaze of the other party, the old man moved swiftly, grabbing his collar before even giving his servants a chance to react.

"You dare to bully me? I think you Tibetans don't want to leave my Great Tang territory alive!"

Gardonzan's eyes widened.

Bullying you?!

Who the hell is bullying whom now?!

You withheld 10,000 slaves that should have been exchanged for 1,000 sets of armor from us, and that's fine.

The remaining 25,000 slaves still haven't paid us the full amount for the goods in the transaction.

And now they even have the nerve to accuse us of bullying you?!

"you......"

Galdonzan was about to retort in anger when an old man's fist suddenly and rapidly enlarged in front of him.

"boom!"

"what!"

"Great Minister! (Tibetan language)"

The two Tibetan attendants were shocked. They never expected that this old man from the Tang Dynasty would be so bold as to take direct action, and they never expected that he would be so cunning.

A fist landed squarely on his master's eye socket.

One bead sent a piercing pain through him, while the other eyeball saw the two people about to attack Kong Yingda. Gardonzan was terrified.

"Stop! All of you, stop!" (Tibetan language)

He gritted his teeth, covered one eye, grabbed the arm of the servant beside him, and stood up.

"I will go to see your Crown Prince and ask him to uphold justice for us!"

Kong Yingda smiled dismissively.

"Go ahead, don't say I didn't tell you. His Highness the Crown Prince led a group to Yanmen County for inspection yesterday, and it will take at least ten days to half a month for him to return."

Gardonzan's pupils immediately contracted.

Just then, a slightly shy voice came from the entrance of the Foreign Affairs Department.

"Master Kong..."

The three words, spoken by Nalingdeva, were particularly difficult to pronounce.

With a nervous yet embarrassed smile on his face, he looked more like a poor student humbly seeking knowledge than a prince of a nation standing at the door.

Seeing the strange expressions on the faces of the attendants around Gardontsen, his expression changed.

Walk closer quickly.

"Gardonzan, what are you doing?! This is the Tang Dynasty! (Tibetan language)"

Seeing the other party's wariness, it was as if they were standing directly between them and Kong Yingda.

He was so angry that his teeth chattered.

Another guy who tries to frame Tibet right off the bat!

He gritted his teeth, staring at Kong Yingda at that moment, and spoke slowly and deliberately in the Tang language.

"Lord Kong, please be lenient... I have offended you greatly before, and I am willing to apologize to you!"

Kong Yingda scoffed, not even glancing at the other person.

Instead, he looked at Lingdeva, who was blocking his way, with admiration.

"This must be His Highness the Prince of Nepal, right?"

Nalingdeva couldn't understand the Tang language, but fortunately, Sujiga, who had already obtained a Tang official title and was serving as a minor official in the Foreign Affairs Office of the Court of State Ceremonial, was temporarily assigned to his side.

As Sujiga translated, Nalingdeva quickly bowed respectfully to Kong Yingda.

He waved and hurriedly presented the gifts from the Kingdom of Nipo to his attendants.

A jade thumb ring.

"Greetings, Lord Kong. I've heard you're in charge of the Tang Dynasty's newspaper and book compilation; you must be the wisest person in the Tang Dynasty. I've come to pay you a special visit today." (Mud Woman's words)

Upon hearing Su Jiga's translation, Kong Yingda burst into laughter, stroked his beard, waved his hand, and repeatedly expressed his humility.

In no time at all, the two were chatting quite familiarly.

Gardonzan's teeth itched at the sight.

He knew perfectly well that his previous rejection of the Confucian classics from the Central Plains had offended Kong Yingda, a Confucian scholar of the Tang Dynasty.

Suddenly being put in charge of the Foreign Affairs Department was clearly a deliberate attempt to make things difficult for him.

Shortly after he and his men left the Foreign Affairs Office, carriages loaded with weapons and armor drove out from among them.

Beside the convoy were the envoys from the Kingdom of Niwa, their ears practically splitting from laughter.

Gardonzan: "...Inhale... Exhale..."

"Prime Minister, what should we do next?"

Gardontsang snorted coldly: "What else can we do? We have to think of a way! We can't just give up like this! The Tsangpo will definitely not let us off the hook!"

That evening, Kong Yingda hummed a little tune as he rode back to his residence in a carriage.

Just then, he saw his son, Kong Zhiyue, who was ordered to study medicine and compile the "Pharmacopoeia of the Tang Dynasty" all day long. He saw the way Kong Zhiyue looked at him, as if he were a mouse seeing a cat.

He immediately snorted coldly: "Stop!"

Kong Zhiyue, with a bitter expression, turned around and bowed, saying, "Father, you're back..."

"Hmm~"

Kong Yingda squinted his eyes: "What a coincidence. Since we've run into each other, I have a favor to ask you."

Kong Zhiyue nodded respectfully.

But the next moment.

"Tomorrow, send someone to demand a bribe from the Tibetans!"

Kong Zhiyue: "Huh???"

He pointed blankly at himself, his bewildered face even revealing a hint of doubt about his deceased mother.

"Father, what did you say? I... solicited a bribe? Huh?"

Kong Yingda snorted coldly: "What? Is what I'm saying so hard to understand?!"

What you said is not hard to understand, but your behavior makes me feel like you're not my biological child.

Kong Zhiyue opened his mouth, momentarily at a loss for words.

Kong Yingda took a deep breath and snorted coldly.

"Another bookworm who's gone mad! Once you're out of here, don't tell anyone you're my son! I ask you, what else did the Tibetans bring to our Great Tang this time besides slaves?"

Seeing Kong Zhiyue's blank expression, Kong Yingda became angry again: "Gold and silver jewelry! You fool!"

Kong Zhiyue trembled, as if he understood something, but also as if... his mind was completely blank.

"Father, do you mean I should go and ask them for money? Will they give it to me?"

Kong Yingda immediately kicked the stupid son in the leg.

"Who the hell told you to just go and ask for it?! Don't you even know how to embezzle or solicit bribes?"

"Tomorrow, just pick any place, whether it's a brothel for free or a gambling den where you can run naked, let those Tibetans know that you're short of money, really short of money!"

Kong Zhiyue's mind, which had just begun to grasp a little, suddenly went blank again.

No?

Father! You shameless old man!

I can't be shameless like your son!