Traveling through the Gaowu Tang Dynasty, Li Kuan and Li Shimin became the second sons of the Prince

"Ahem..." Hu Shang was also a smart man. Seeing Feng Jiaojiao's reaction, he knew he should get down to business. "What price would you like to offer for this 'Old Pit Black' statue of mine?"

"What? Isn't this stone green?" His Royal Highness the King of Chu thought his eyesight was pretty good.

"My lord, you don't know that the green color on this stone was specially painted by me, and then I used my connections to get it from the Kingdom of Pyu as stone. As long as the paint is washed off, the original color of the stone will come out." Hu Shang was already speaking very standard Tang Dynasty official language at this time, and this was his cleverness - he wanted His Royal Highness the King of Chu to understand that he had already known from his accent that the other party was from Chang'an.

The people of Chang'an were generous, and in the eyes of the Hu merchants, they were generally described in six words: "good customers, very rich."

"Do you think these are enough?" King Chu knew that Dongfang was the "god" in charge of colored glassware - so he didn't care about the price at all. He took out a small cloth bag from his pocket, which contained a dozen colored glass sculptures of various shapes - those were the toys he originally prepared for Sizi and Zhinu, each of which was only the size of a quail egg, but when King Chu found out that Zhinu was going to stuff the new toy into his mouth as soon as he got it...

Although our His Royal Highness the Prince of Chu was quick-witted and finally managed to snatch the drool-worthy glass duck from his brother's hands, this incident still left him with fear.

Therefore, these exquisite little ornaments have been discarded by King Chu, but fortunately, they are now useful again today.

"Enough! Enough, enough!" The Hu merchant took the bag, opened it and checked it, then quickly closed it. Then he smiled and said, "Sir, you are really generous. What do you think? Should I send someone to deliver the goods to your house now, or should I cut the stone on the spot?"

"Let's cut the stone first." Upon hearing this, His Royal Highness the King of Chu said without hesitation: "If a pile of waste is found, I will just pretend that this incident never happened, right?"

"Your Excellency's words make sense." The Hu merchant nodded, then shook his head, "But my Excellency, I am very sure that there must be good stuff inside this huge stone."

"You really deserve this money." His Royal Highness the King of Chu smiled when he heard this, and then said to Feng Jiaojiao beside him: "Jiaojiao, what do you think?"

"I..." Feng Jiaojiao glanced at the warehouse cautiously after hearing this, and then whispered in Li Kuan's ear: "There are indeed people smuggling jade materials in Pyu Kingdom, and their methods are similar to what the Hu merchant said, but... one must have a background in Lingnan to dare to do this..."

"Oh..." His Royal Highness the King of Chu nodded thoughtfully, but then he chuckled and said, "Jiaojiao, if you have time, can you embroider a sachet for me?"

"Hmm?" Feng Jiaojiao was stunned at first, then she shyly stretched out her little hand and pinched Li Kuan's arm: "You really are... Didn't Sister Lian'er embroider it for you?"

"Then I don't care." The King of Chu stiffened his neck when he heard this. "I am Lian'er's future husband. Am I not your future husband? Moreover, according to the etiquette... (According to the "Six Codes of the Tang Dynasty", the princes of the Tang Dynasty could marry twelve wives.)"

“Alright, alright…” Feng Jiaojiao knew she couldn’t win an argument with the shameless King Chu, so she could only helplessly say, “The sachet… I’ll give it to you in two days.”

"This time I want a dragon and a phoenix to appear." Upon hearing this, King Chu proudly crossed his arms over his chest and said, "At worst, a unicorn stepping on the clouds will do."

"Sir..." At this moment, the master who was in charge of cutting the stone suddenly whispered, "Where do you think is the best place to cut this big piece of stone?"

"Oh, I don't quite understand this. You can do it yourself." His Royal Highness the King of Chu took out another silver ingot from his arms and handed it to the stone cutter: "This is your hard work fee. After you finish solving the stone, no matter whether the result is good or bad, I will still reward you!"

Since King Chu was so generous, the group of stone-cutting masters and their men were naturally very motivated.

So, without the leading master even calling out the orders, everyone came to the warehouse in groups of three or five, and then more than a dozen people worked together to carry the boulder into the yard. Because the stone was so large, after discussion, everyone decided to open a palm-sized "window" at the head and end to see the quality of the stone inside.

"Sir, it may take a long time to cut this stone. Why don't you and this young lady go sit in the front hall first?" The Hu merchant saw that the guys were already busy cutting the stone, so he took the initiative to invite Li Kuan and Feng Jiaojiao to the front to take a break - of course, he didn't dare to have any bad thoughts here, after all, he had never seen or heard of a rich young man who could easily give away a bag of exquisite glass ornaments.

His hospitality simply hopes that everyone can "make money through harmony" - that they can continue to have dealings with each other in the future.

"Forget it, forget it." His Royal Highness the King of Chu waved his hand and said, "The things you have here... are just so-so. Let's go shopping somewhere else."

"Well... our store hasn't provided good hospitality to you, sir. Please remember to come over in the evening." Upon hearing this, Hu Shang smiled and bowed to Li Kuan, then asked the shopkeeper beside him to see the guest off.

"Understood." His Royal Highness the Prince of Chu nodded and took Feng Jiaojiao's hand. After walking out of the jewelry shop, the two suddenly smiled at each other and continued to stroll around the market.

No words were spoken for half a day.

It was not until the evening that His Royal Highness the Prince of Chu finally witnessed what the saying "women walking on the street are as powerful as warriors on the battlefield" meant - of course, His Royal Highness the Prince of Chu was much more powerful than a real warrior on the battlefield, so he could naturally deal with it easily.

However, when they returned to the jewelry shop, they found that there were many horses parked outside the store, and there were several soldiers with swords guarding the door.

"Oh?" King Chu raised his eyebrows when he heard this: "What's going on? Is that Hu Shang planning to use a torture trick? Does he think I'm a fat sheep?" After saying that, the arrogant King Chu planned to go in and see the world.

"Your Highness, let's wait and see." Hearing this, Feng Jiaojiao hurriedly pulled Li Kuan back: "The current situation... no matter how you look at it, the other side has more people and more power."

"Jiaojiao, don't be afraid." Upon hearing this, His Royal Highness the King of Chu gently squeezed the other's soft little hand, and then whispered: "With me by your side, there is no such thing as 'strength in numbers'. Even if there is, we are the one with more people and more strength."

While His Royal Highness the King of Chu was speaking, a burst of crying and begging for mercy suddenly came from the jewelry shop, as if the Hu merchant was pleading with someone: "Little Governor, please, this is the raw stone that was bought by a distinguished guest. It no longer belongs to me, so you can't take it away. In this way, you can take all the other things in my shop that you like, as my apology to you, how about that?"

"Who the hell wants this piece of crap? Don't you know my grandfather's birthday is in ten days? It's just right. I can use this jade to carve a Maitreya statue for him. How festive..."

While they were talking, a group of soldiers commanded the shop assistants who were beaten black and blue in the face to carry a large piece of black material with two windows cut in it and a emerald green cut out of the door and onto the street.

Behind them, the red-haired Hu merchant was still struggling to follow a young man in a black robe, begging: "Little Commander... Little Commander... You can't do this, you can't do this!"

"Pa!" Perhaps because he thought the Hu merchant was too annoying, the young man swung the whip in his hand and whipped him in the face.

"Ah!" In an instant, a red mark appeared on Hu Shang's face, and the whole person began to howl uncontrollably because of the intense pain.

But when the young man saw this, he laughed and said, "Hahahaha... I thought you were so strong-willed, but it turns out you can't even stand a whip..."

"Hahahaha..." The group of soldiers who were not next to the young man also laughed.

At this time, pedestrians passing by on the long street stopped in their tracks. Some people would rather turn around and take a detour than to offend this person.

But just at this moment, a not very harmonious voice sounded on the long street: "Why, he can't stand it, but you can? It seems that you and your group of lovers... usually have a lot of fun..."