HNYWEF -Chapter 150 Seizing the Initiative

When the carriage stopped at the entrance of the Marquis’s residence, it was already completely dark.

Li Shimin got out first, followed by Empress Changsun. Old Chen at the gate saw them and froze for a moment before quickly coming forward to greet them.

“Your Majesty—”

Li Shimin waved his hand dismissively.

“Is Zhou Yi here?”

Old Chen replied, “The young master is inside. As for the Marquis… he—”

Before he could finish, someone already walked out from behind the screen wall.

Zhou Xiong.

He was wearing that slightly worn robe again, holding a teapot. When he saw Li Shimin, he paused for a moment.

Then he walked over.

“Li Er!”

His voice was so loud it startled Old Chen into stepping back.

Li Shimin stood still and looked at him.

Zhou Xiong stopped right in front of him.

His face showed no expression at all, but his mouth was already opening.

“You came at the right time. Let me tell you—the iron from the Ministry of Works is no good!”

Li Shimin froze slightly.

Zhou Xiong continued, “Too soft! Soft as hell! I could pick up a piece of ore from the iron mine and it’d be better than that scrap metal! What can you even do with that stuff?”

He shoved the teapot into Li Shimin’s hands.

“Hold this. I’m talking serious business.”

Li Shimin held the teapot, unsure what to say.

Zhou Xiong went on, “And the firewood! It’s wet!”

His brows furrowed, his expression full of disgust.

“All wet wood! It smokes like crazy when it burns, you can’t control the heat at all! No wonder they can’t forge anything decent. With wet firewood, what can you even make?”

He spoke quickly, one sentence after another, not giving anyone a chance to interrupt.

“And the meals!”

Li Shimin’s eyes flickered.

Zhou Xiong said, “The craftsmen’s meals! I saw it myself the other day—just a bowl of thin porridge and two steamed buns! Is that food for humans? That’s what you feed livestock!”

He stepped closer.

“Do you even know how many hours those craftsmen work? From dawn till night, hands full of calluses, backs bent—and that’s what they eat?”

Li Shimin opened his mouth.

Zhou Xiong didn’t let him speak.

“I told them to eat better, and they said they weren’t hungry. Not hungry? You’re not hungry because you’ve been starving so long you don’t know what hunger is anymore!”

He took a breath.

“Your Imperial Workshop—what kind of place are you running? The iron is bad, the firewood is bad, the food is bad! Everything is bad!”

Li Shimin stood there, slightly overwhelmed by the barrage of words.

He had originally come to see Zhou Yi.

But now he was blocked at the gate, listening to Zhou Xiong rant about iron, firewood, and meals.

He looked at Zhou Xiong’s eyes.

Chaotic.

Completely chaotic.

But the words coming out were sharp, logical, one after another.

For a moment, Li Shimin almost forgot why he had come.

After a pause, Zhou Xiong seemed about to speak again—

Li Shimin snapped back to reality.

“What you just said, I’ll note it down. I’ll have people investigate later.”

Zhou Xiong looked at him.

“Investigate? Investigate what? Go check it right now! Go see what those craftsmen are actually eating!”

Li Shimin didn’t move.

He stood there, looking at him.

Zhou Xiong looked back.

Then Li Shimin spoke.

“I came today to see the child.”

Zhou Xiong’s expression changed instantly.

All that earlier noise—the rambling complaints, the rapid-fire speech—vanished.

There was no expression left on his face at all.

But his eyes grew colder.

He stared at Li Shimin for three breaths.

Then he raised his hand and pointed inward.

“That way.”

Just one word.

After speaking, he turned around, carrying the empty teapot, and walked inside.

His back disappeared behind the screen wall.

Li Shimin stood at the gate, looking in that direction.

After being bombarded by Zhou Xiong’s words, he had almost forgotten what he came for.

Empress Changsun walked over and stood beside him.

“Go in,” Li Shimin said with a nod.

The two of them walked inside.

They passed the screen wall, went around the corridor, and reached the inner courtyard.

Someone was standing under the veranda, waiting for them.

Zhou Yi.

He wore a casual robe, standing beneath a hanging lantern, his face completely unreadable.

The lantern light fell across his face, making that young countenance flicker between light and shadow.

Li Shimin walked up to him and stopped.

They stood three steps apart.

Zhou Yi did not bow.

He just stood there, looking at him.

Li Shimin looked back.

This fifteen-year-old boy stood before him, staring straight into his eyes.

Not with reverence, not with anger—just looking.

As if waiting for him to speak first.

Li Shimin opened his mouth.

He had prepared many words.

He wanted to ask how his father had been these past few days, whether he had encountered any difficulties, whether the things he said during the family banquet were still on his mind.

But now that he stood here, looking into those eyes, all those words suddenly failed to come out.

He fell silent for a moment.

Then he spoke.

“Did you hear everything your father said earlier?”

Zhou Yi nodded.

“I heard it.”

Li Shimin waited a breath.

“Has he… been like this these past few days?”

Zhou Yi thought for a moment.

“Sometimes good, sometimes bad. When he’s good, he can work and talk. When he’s bad, he just squats in the corner smoking. Today counts as a good day.”

Li Shimin said nothing.

Zhou Yi looked at him.

“Your Majesty, what did you come here to ask?”

Li Shimin froze slightly.

Looking at Zhou Yi, he suddenly realized he had been cornered by that question.

He had come to ask what exactly the boy’s father wanted.

But what Zhou Xiong had said earlier had already answered it.

He wanted better iron, drier firewood, and better food for the craftsmen.

That was all.

He stood there in silence for a long time.

Then he spoke.

“I… have nothing more to ask.”

Zhou Yi looked at him.

Li Shimin turned around and walked away.

After a couple of steps, he suddenly stopped.

Without turning back, he said,

“Take good care of your father.”

Zhou Yi stood still, watching that figure.

Li Shimin continued forward.

His footsteps gradually faded into the night.

Zhou Yi remained under the corridor, motionless.

Empress Changsun did not immediately follow.

She walked up to him and looked at him.

That young face still showed no expression.

But she saw it—his eyes were slightly red.

She reached out and gently patted his arm.

“Good child.”

Zhou Yi looked up at her.

Empress Changsun said nothing more.

She turned and walked toward the direction Li Shimin had gone.

Her footsteps also faded away.

Zhou Yi stood alone under the corridor.

The lantern light fell on him, stretching his shadow long across the ground.

He stood there for a long time.

Then he turned around.

And walked toward his father’s room.

The lamp in that room was still lit.

A figure was reflected on the window paper, sitting by the window, completely still.