Ye Youlan's daily life of traveling through time

Chapter 196: Battle of wits

Ye Youlan looked at the princes who were sitting in a row away from the queen. She smiled and called the ninth prince over. The little guy was chubby and about six years old.

Ye Youlan whispered a few words in his ear, and the little guy hunched back to his seat, then raised his hand and said that he knew the answer.

Everyone looked over and the emperor gave him an encouraging smile.

The little guy said in a baby voice: "The old man picked up a piece of paper at random and ate it, and the remaining nine pieces all had the word 'death' on them."

Can this be done?

It turns out this is possible.

Yeah, why didn’t I think of that.

The Ninth Prince is really smart.

The envoy from Jingnan Kingdom smiled and said, "You got it right." Then he asked the attendant beside him to pass the prize over. It was a night-shining pearl the size of a quail egg. The other princes looked at him with envy.

Here comes the second question.

The messenger said, "There are eight small sticks. Take one stick at a time and place it next to another stick, two sticks apart. Then the two sticks will become one stick. You are only allowed to take one stick four times. At the end, two sticks will form a pair, making four pairs."

The messenger was afraid that he couldn't explain it clearly, so he picked up a toothpick on the table and gave a demonstration.

The palace servant asked the palace maids to get a lot of toothpicks and distribute them to each person, and asked them to demonstrate on the table.

The people of Chu were demonstrating, while the people of Jingnan were leisurely eating and drinking.

If the emperor wasn't sitting here, he would also want to give it a try. He has been doing Sudoku every day for the past few days, and he feels that his brain is getting better and better.

He looked at the Seventh Prince and Ye Youlan. His younger brother kept picking up food for the princess and seemed to have no interest in solving the problem.

Li Zong adjusted the position a bit, realized he was wrong, and rearranged it again. He muttered quietly, "Wouldn't it be nice to just have a good meal? Why do you have to do this?"

Qin Yurou warned him while arranging toothpicks: "I just want to embarrass Da Chu, did you just find out?"

Chen Xiaoling was also concentrating on arranging the toothpicks, and Chen Su would put some food into her mouth from time to time.

Ruoyun and Miaoyu just pretended to pose for a few times before giving up. This type of question was not suitable for them. Li Chuang and Zhang Liang, both from the military camp, didn't seem to be good at it either. It would be better for them to concentrate on eating something delicious.

"Aunt Wang, Aunt Wang."

Ye Youlan heard someone calling her, she turned around and saw that it was the eldest prince, her eyes fell on his desk, he seemed to have arranged three pairs, one in his hand and one on the table, but it was obvious at a glance that he had arranged them wrong, because there were three pairs of toothpicks between the one in his hand and the last one.

Ye Youlan asked softly, "Do you need my help?"

The eldest prince nodded. Just now, the ninth prince had become famous with the help of Aunt Wang. How could he, the eldest prince who might become the crown prince in the future, fall behind?

Ye Youlan motioned him to come over, put it on the table, and asked him if he understood it.

"understood."

The eldest prince stood up with eight toothpicks and said he had arranged them. He walked to the middle of the hall and put the toothpicks on the ground, but many people could not see clearly, so the eldest prince returned to his seat and took the chopsticks from his younger brothers.

Demonstrate with eight chopsticks so everyone can see clearly.

Everyone saw that the eldest prince moved very slowly, just to make it easier for more people to see clearly.

After watching the eldest prince's demonstration, everyone followed his example and succeeded, praising the eldest prince for his cleverness.

The prize given to the eldest prince by the servants of Jingnan Kingdom was two night-shining pearls.

Ye Youlan complained: "Is Jingnan Kingdom a wholesaler of night-shining pearls?"

"Their country is rich in night-shining pearls, so they like to give them away wherever they go."

The messenger was about to ask the third question, but Jingwu made a gesture to stop him. He said, "Just now, I saw the two princes talking to the princess before answering the questions. I wonder if they got any guidance from the princess?"

Ye Youlan was drinking tea. Hearing what he said, she was suddenly startled. She put down her teacup and said with a smile, "The two princes are very talented. I'm just afraid that if they answer incorrectly, it will bring shame to the Great Chu. I'm giving them some encouragement. Besides, you only asked if they could answer it, but you didn't say that we can't discuss it."

Jing Wu smiled but said nothing. The envoy was about to ask the third question when Ye Youlan stood up and said, "We can't always be the ones asking the questions. We from Great Chu should also ask one. This way we can relax and have a bite to eat. Otherwise, we will not be able to appreciate the delicious food prepared by the imperial chef."

Jingwu indicated that it was okay.

Ye Youlan said, "Then let me show you my ugly side. Here's an appetizer. There are three adults, each taking a child across a river. There's only one boat on the shore. All three adults can row, but only one of the three children can. Adults can't take other children boating. When rowing, they have to make sure their children aren't bullied by other adults. There's no bullying between adults or children. So, what can we do to get all six people to the other side of the river? Listen carefully, the boat can be used back and forth, and those who can row can row back and forth."

Ye Youlan smiled and said, "The cultural delegation from Jingnan Country should be of very high level. Don't rush to give us answers. Let's finish our meal first."

So the people of Jingnan lowered their heads and began to serve, while the people of Dachu looked at the opposite side while eating and laughing. The emperor smiled without saying a word, feeling particularly happy.

Ye Youlan whispered to the Seventh Prince, "When they answer the question, prepare a prize."

"Give me a Dongzhu."

Li Zong saw Ye Youlan and the Seventh Prince laughing and talking with their heads down. He said to Qin Yurou in annoyance, "When will Ye Youlan change her habit of wanting to be in the spotlight?"

Qin Yurou was still thinking about how to cross the river. After hearing what Li Zong said, she sneered, "Don't you want to be in the spotlight? If I could come up with the answer, I'd be eager to stand up and answer it."

Li Zong murmured in dissatisfaction: "I'll also ask a question later."

But Li Zong never got the chance to ask a question, because when everyone was about to finish their meal, the cultural envoy of Jingnan Kingdom had not yet come up with an answer, and they were so anxious that sweat broke out on their foreheads.

Jing Wu smiled and said, "I didn't expect that the question asked by the Princess of Great Chu would stump us. We are ashamed of ourselves. Please announce the answer, Princess."

Ye Youlan stood up and explained with a smile, Jingwu nodded, so that's how it was. However, many people were still confused as to why the adults went over, the children came over, and went over and over again.

The envoy was dissatisfied: "You call this a simple question? You are deliberately trying to embarrass our Jingnan Kingdom."

Jingwu gave him a look: "If you lose, you lose."

Ye Youlan smiled: "Prince Jing has a good vision. It's not shameful to lose, but it's shameful to be afraid of losing."

The messenger said, "Then I will give you another one."

Ye Youlan nodded: "Okay."

"A man from Chu was chopping wood and went to the river to sharpen his axe. He accidentally dropped the axe into the river. He jumped into the river and went upstream. A group of people on the bank shouted to him: You are wrong, man from Chu, you are so vulgar."

Everyone understood that he was not asking questions, he was scolding people.

Qin Yurou nudged Li Zong and said, "It's your turn."

Li Zong was intimidated: "How can I fight back?"

Everyone looked sullen and very angry.

Jing Wu stood up, clapped his hands, and laughed, "The Chu people are confused. They should have gone downstream to look for it. Why are they going upstream?"

The other envoys thought they had let out some vent and started laughing too, and the emperor looked very unhappy.