It was none other than the Crown Prince, who had received top-tier education since childhood.
Caught off guard by the sudden "massive" workload, Zhao Hong spent less than half an hour in dejection before he got up from the ground and silently began to tidy up the random items in the courtyard without a word.
A massive workload might be a joke, but the tedious and grinding little tasks were indeed abundant.
Firstly, deciding which items should be put away and which should be thrown out was a problem.
Secondly, how to arrange those items that need to be stored was another problem.
Among them, there were also some heavy and hard miscellaneous items like stone mills and stone rollers...
Yang Ge had stated that he was not allowed to seek help from others.
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Zhao Hong stubbornly held his breath, refusing to ask others for help, and worked day and night alone against that not-so-large courtyard.
For three whole days, he managed to break apart those immovable stone mills and rollers with a hammer and iron chisel, moving them out of the inn piece by piece...
Then, he fell ill, lying in a small dark room with a high fever, vomiting and having diarrhea, his arms swollen like pig trotters.
Yang Ge, true to his word, had said he would not inquire about anything concerning him for a month and had never asked him anything since.
Whether Zhao Hong was smashing with hammers and iron chisels in the courtyard, making a loud clanging noise,
Or if he was screaming in pain with his hands wounded...
Yang Ge never asked a single question.
Even when Zhao Hong later fell ill, scaring Zhao Miao into a frantic panic like ants on a hot pan, Yang Ge still turned a blind eye.
It was as if there was no Zhao Hong in the inn!
Fuming, Zhao Hong lay in the small dark room for five days. Food and water were brought to his bedside by Zhao Miao, and even with the piss pot half full... he didn’t get to see that detested dark face push open the broken door to glance at him.
He finally became certain this was no double act; that Yang Erlang was truly treating him, the Crown Prince, like a dish; he felt that even if he died in this small dark room, Yang Erlang might not even come to look at him once...
So, on the morning of the sixth day of his illness, he pushed open that door, silently walked out, and returned to the courtyard. He picked up the hammer and iron chisel he had dropped six days before and continued to "clang clang clang" chisel away at the stones.
It was from that day on that he finally learned to speak properly to people and how to ask for help.
It was also from that day on that he gradually discovered that the Yuelai Inn did not harbor so much malice towards him. As long as he was willing to speak nicely, most people did not mind lending him a hand or offering advice...
The only exception was that dark-faced Yang Erlang; no matter if he starved or exhausted himself to death, he would never bow down to that scoundrel!
Yang Ge respected his wish and continued to treat him as if he was invisible...
Afterward, Zhao Hong realized the work he had initially found daunting wasn’t so difficult after all.
What, just a tea room?
The King had seen no less than a hundred different kinds!
How could such a task defeat the King?
Zhao Hong grew more and more confident as he worked, and the more confident he felt, the smoother things went. His vast and complex knowledge and experience once again took hold of his intellect, turning into a part of him as food transforms into nutrients.
He remembered the eternal charm of the flow of cups along a winding river, the vista at every step in the royal gardens, and the concepts of "housing strategies" in capturing the essence of wind and breathing in the qi...
In half a month, Zhao Hong finally had the entire courtyard in order.
He not only cleared all the miscellaneous items from the courtyard but also re-leveled the ground, laid tiles, and planned spots for fish ponds, greenery, and a service passageway, taking into consideration all weather conditions including sunny and snowy days.
After tidying up the courtyard, he pleaded with Zhang Erniu to take him on a chaotic tour of Lu Ting, to the flower and bird market for greenery, to the carpentry shop for tables and chairs.
He was very aware of his ignorance regarding the common market prices, his mind tightly focused on the need to keep costs down. Initially, he just roamed aimlessly, too cautious to talk or inspect items, just watching how other customers selected goods and how they negotiated with the sellers...
Once he thought he had learned enough, he boldly sought prices, but due to his lack of proficiency, he often revealed his bottom price to the sellers after a few words. While the price of the goods already exceeded the market value, the sellers would reluctantly act as if they were making an exception, ’Well, I’ll just take a loss to make you a friend,’ fooling him into thinking he got a great deal. Several times Zhang Erniu had to pull him back from paying!
It was during this process that he belatedly realized... how naive his former self was!
...
They say that the player is blind, the spectator sees all.
Zhao Hong did not notice the changes in himself,
But to Zhao Miao, the observer, Zhao Hong seemed like a completely different person!
The previous Zhao Hong always had his eyes half-open, spoke with an indifferent tone, and walked at a leisurely pace... It wasn’t that he was listless or lifeless, but no matter what he said or did, there was always a detached, carefree air about him!
She was all too familiar with that dead demeanor... her own father was the same!
To be precise, everyone in the palace who was served by others, including her former self, all exhibited that dead demeanor!
But the current Zhao Hong always had his eyes wide open, and his gaze looked sharp and spirited; his words came out like firecrackers, talking non-stop and hardly giving you time to react; even his walking seemed tighter; his cloth shoes made a thumping sound...