Echoes of My Heart Throughout the Court

After all these chapters, In the Years When I Was a Father—the heartfelt story of Qi Sheng’s journey—has finally been completed today. Thank you for following along through every twist and emotion. Please support on Ko-fi, every bit helps with translation and maintaining this website. Stay tuned for more heartwarming stories ahead!

Former Prime Minister Dou was completely dumbfounded.

He had just returned to court! And now this? Making an 80-year-old man take a mathematics exam—how is that even remotely polite?!

Xu Yanmiao, I let you play with the Baizu for the past two days for nothing!

What I was going to gift you? Dream on now!

Fuming, Former Prime Minister Dou stormed into the palace. “Your Majesty! Do I, an old man nearing the grave, really have to take a math test too?!”

The old emperor clutched his chest. “Aiyo! Aiyo!”

Former Prime Minister Dou paused. “Your Majesty, what’s wrong?!”

Former Prime Minister Dou hurriedly stepped forward to assist him onto the soft couch. He didn’t feel right bringing up the mathematics issue again. After a moment’s hesitation, he asked, “Shall I summon the Imperial Medical Institute?”

The emperor took a deep breath and waved his hand. “No need, I’ll be fine after lying down for a while.”

Former Prime Minister Dou sat beside him, worried.

The emperor closed his eyes, seemingly genuinely resting.

Meanwhile…

Xu Yanmiao was still in the palace, busy working with the Crown Prince to refine the mathematics examination system.

Every couple of lines, the Crown Prince would glance at Xu Yanmiao with admiration. “This kind of move—offending everyone—and you still dare to push it, Xu Lang, you’re truly fearless like a newborn calf unafraid of a tiger. If you weren’t from the Ministry of Rites, I’d suspect you were boosting the power of the Ministry of Personnel’s Evaluation Office.”

—Currently, the Ministry of Personnel’s Evaluation Office was the only department grinning ear to ear. They were in charge of the annual official performance reviews, and Xu Yanmiao’s proposal was right up their alley.

Xu Yanmiao scribbled a few notes in the memorial about “adjusting exam difficulty by age group,” then said seriously, “It’s not like we’re asking them to use the method of squaring the circle to calculate the side length of a 12,288-gon inscribed in a circle, or the area of a 24,576-gon. Just a basic foundation—how to calculate square roots, cube roots, understand probabilities. If they don’t even know that, aren’t we basically gambling on the conscience of their subordinates?”

The Crown Prince twitched at the corner of his mouth. “That’s… actually true.”

—What Xu Yanmiao described—calculating the side length of a 12,288-gon and the area of a 24,576-gon inscribed in a circle—is, strictly speaking, equivalent to calculating pi to seven decimal places. The Crown Prince just wanted to say: if that was on the test, you’d be killing them. They’d never pass.

Xu Yanmiao continued, “Your Highness, think about it. If officials understand basic math, they won’t be easily fooled by fake accounts, right?”

Xu Yanmiao: “I once read this line: ‘Your eyes will deceive you, your experience will mislead you, your intuition will misguide you. Your family, subordinates, friends, and peers may all lie to you—but math never will.’”

The Crown Prince joked, “Because if you don’t know math, you really don’t know it?”

Xu Yanmiao, deadly serious: “Exactly. If you don’t know math, you don’t know it.”

The Crown Prince paused.

Xu Yanmiao: “Or put another way, if you want to know whether a number is right or wrong—whether it’s even possible—you have to observe and verify it through math. It’s completely objective, uninfluenced by personal feelings. Think about it, Your Highness—haven’t you ever encountered someone who, by all accounts, seems decent and upright, and you’d never suspect of embezzling or harassing others behind the scenes? If you don’t think it’s possible, you won’t even think to investigate. That’s subjective influence. But if you see from his reports that the numbers are clearly off, then you know there’s a chance he’s falsifying data—that’s objective influence.”

Xu Yanmiao: “I believe an official must make every effort to eliminate subjective bias.”

From beginning to end, the Crown Prince had been mentally overwhelmed, unsure of how to feel. Only now did his mind finally break through the fog. He quietly gazed at Xu Yanmiao.

‘Ah.’

He suddenly realized—

Everyone had always talked about how Xu Yanmiao was too naïve when it came to worldly affairs, frustrated that he couldn’t catch hints or read between the lines. They even joked that he had unwittingly created chaos in the court multiple times. But… they had all unconsciously overlooked one thing:

Xu Yanmiao possessed the most unique insights in the world, the longest foresight, and the clearest vision.

—He always revealed a level of cognition that surpassed this era.

The Crown Prince smiled faintly. “What you’re saying is…” right.

[Speaking of which… if only the emperor had to take a math exam too.]

The Crown Prince immediately panicked: No no no! That’s not right!

—Because, he might actually become the emperor ( )

—And he really does have a cow! (shocking sound)

Back in the distant Wuying Hall, the emperor—who had been lying with his eyes closed, feigning rest—suddenly felt the malice of the universe. He nearly couldn’t keep up the act.

Sensing his brother-in-law’s worried yet faintly thoughtful gaze nearby, the emperor stubbornly kept his eyes shut, refusing to break character no matter how uncomfortable he felt.

“Making him learn arithmetic? Impossible! Absolutely not!”

——“But having the Crown Prince learn it is still on the table. After all, earlier we said all the imperial sons needed to be tested, and the Crown Prince, as heir, isn’t technically included in that group.”

In just one breath, the old emperor made a snap decision: throw the heir under the bus! Let Xu Yanmiao stop focusing all his attention on him, an almost seventy-year-old man.

After all, the heir is a future emperor too. If he learns arithmetic, it’s basically paving the way for his own reign!

Feeling pleased at this logic running through his mind, the old emperor opened his eyes, ready to call someone.

[After all, if they don’t learn, how can we guarantee that officials won’t cook the books? Even if someone is trustworthy at the beginning, who’s to say they can resist greed forever? Especially if both the emperor’s sons and the emperor himself can’t do math.]

Xu Yanmiao had just dropped an inside joke only he understood.

But the old emperor didn’t know it was a joke—he nearly leapt up from the couch.

“You can’t do math! Your whole family can’t do math! Xu Yanmiao, stop slandering me!”

Even the Crown Prince, for some reason, was emotionally overwhelmed: “Beeep—”

“Beeep—”

“You’re the one that’s beeep—!”

No one knew what exactly these censored inner thoughts were masking.

From the outside, Xu Yanmiao looked as obedient and well-behaved as ever. No one would guess he was in his heart making rumors about the emperor himself.

[Sigh, but I still value my life. This kind of thing, I can only gently knock on the drum’s edge. I don’t dare say it outright.]

The old emperor was silent for a moment, his chest heaving violently. Then, he let out a heavy breath and roared: “BULL—SHIT!”

“When did this little bastard ever value his life!?”

After venting, the emperor furrowed his brows and began to recall the things Xu Yanmiao had “said” in his heart.

“Tsk…”

Come to think of it, he really did need to learn arithmetic.

Former Prime Minister Dou hesitantly tried to interject: “Your Majesty, regarding my side of things…”

The emperor snapped: “Shut up! All of you will learn! If I have to learn it, you think you can slack off?”

Prime Minister Dou’s face dimmed, but as he bowed his head, he struggled to suppress the grin forming at the corners of his mouth.

——If it couldn’t be avoided, at least knowing the emperor fell into the same pit made it all easier to accept.

Meanwhile, the Crown Prince took a deep breath and forced a smile: “Lord Xu, you’re absolutely right. Arithmetic is incredibly important—it’s just a shame that something so vital is only now being truly valued.”

Xu Yanmiao smiled: “It’s not too late yet.”

[After all, the time when foreign powers batter down Daxia’s gates with their iron ships and cannons hasn’t arrived yet. So no, it’s definitely not too late.]

…What?

In the Eastern Palace, the Crown Prince suddenly gripped his brush tightly.

At Wuying Hall, Prime Minister Dou’s expression immediately changed.

And over at the soft couch, the old emperor sat up with a jerk, eyes bloodshot.

A wave like a tsunami slammed across every government office, leaving hundreds shocked, thousands glaring, and tens of thousands in stunned disbelief.

“What does he mean by ‘foreign powers battering down Daxia’s gates with their iron ships’?! Is it what we think it means?!”

For three days, this sat like a heavy stone in the hearts of the emperor and his ministers. Finally, the Crown Prince “coincidentally” bumped into Xu Yanmiao and casually asked: “Xu Yanmiao, what do you think about overseas nations?”

Xu blinked. “What do you mean, ‘what do I think’?”

The Crown Prince gripped the armrest so hard that veins bulged under his sleeves. Trying hard to contain his anxiety, he carefully chose his words:

“After the Grand Marshal and Lord of Luoxian went out to sea, the court began developing overseas territories, linking islands with ships and fortresses. But I’ve always been worried—what if some foreign nation bears hostility toward Daxia?”

Xu Yanmiao instinctively checked his system and scanned the latest international gossip:

[We’re fine for now—no need to worry for at least 50 years. The West hasn’t started colonizing yet. The Renaissance just began, and they’re still under the shadow of the Middle Ages. If Daxia starts valuing commerce and mathematics now, and eventually industry, there’s still time.]

Wait. We need to care about industry too?

Prime Minister Dou, moving faster than most eighty-year-olds, rushed to the table, grabbed brush and paper, and casually jotted down a few characters containing the word “industry”—disguised as part of calligraphy practice.

Meanwhile in the Eastern Palace, somehow induced by the Crown Prince, Xu Yanmiao’s inner monologue continued pouring out:

[Huh? Population? Who goes around counting populations for fun… But I guess Daxia has more people? Like twice the population of the next biggest country…]

Prime Minister Dou’s serious expression relaxed a little. He jotted down a coded acrostic poem with the characters for “population,” adding a sly “First Place” score at the bottom so even if Xu read it, he wouldn’t notice the hidden meaning.

[Military? That’s even more impossible to gauge! The generals haven’t fought any big nations, only crushed a few tiny ones. But that was one-sided—the truth is, at this point in time, Daxia’s firearms and military are absolutely top-tier.]

Prime Minister Dou mentally logged that one too—for later.

Several military officials quietly let out a breath of relief.

Top-tier is fine, at least we can still fight now…

But—how did Daxia rot so badly in the future that foreigners overtook it?

That question had no answer. All they had were more of Xu Yanmiao’s thoughts:

[Copper mines? No one could possibly know that right now—it’s not like we live in a big data era… But I vaguely remember from high school geography that Chile was called the Kingdom of Copper. Where’s Chile again? Oh right! That newly discovered southwest part of the New World found by the Marquis of Xiexian and the others! So we found South America first. I guess we’ll eventually discover the copper mines there… probably?]

Prime Minister Dou quickly memorized that too—but just in case, he casually dog-eared a travel journal in the corner to remind himself later.

[Do we really need to ask about shipbuilding too? Seems like they had the tech to circumnavigate the globe.]

Prime Minister Dou lowered his eyes.

He knew what this implied—that all global resources were up for grabs by other nations too. They had ships too. Even the lands Daxia discovered might not belong to Daxia forever.

[How far have other countries progressed technologically?]

[Let’s see…]

[Using peat to enrich soil counts. So does straw-and-mud techniques to retain fertility.]

[They found that plowing a field three times could boost yield two to threefold.]

[They used crop rotation with three-field systems, boosting yield another 50–66%.]

[Water mills were basically medieval steam engines—there were windmills too.]

[Oh! And they replaced oxen with horses for plowing! Lots of regions do that!]

“What! That’s impossible! Absolutely impossible!!!”

The agriculture officials completely lost it, throwing away rationality and objectivity in shock.

Horse-plowing was better than ox-plowing. One horse could do the work of three or four oxen—but the cost was also three or four times higher.

If a country widely used horse-plowing, it meant massive wealth, vast fields, and massive food output. Otherwise, they couldn’t afford it.

Foreign nations… really were powerful.

They couldn’t afford to keep lying to themselves.

Anxiety spread among Daxia’s court. Everyone felt the urgency. Some even woke from dreams in cold sweat, their hair falling out in clumps.

Even Xu Yanmiao was stunned: “Is math really that painful?”

He’d already seen several officials with visibly receding hairlines!

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