Pampered Consort of the Fragrant Orchard Chapter 81 part3

She's here to buy soy sauce? (3)

T/N: Chapter sponsored by Nilk! Thank you for sponsoring!

The horse carriage brought the four to Sui Yuan. When they arrived, Du Yun Han also just happened to be there too. Seeing Du Xiao Li and them entering, he waved at Du Xiao Li, and once they got close, he asked, "Have the matters on that side been taken care of?"

"Already taken care of. The Grand Empress Dowager has already returned to the palace, and grandma Meng and the others also returned. Shifu and senior brother also left for the Medicine King Valley this morning." Du Xiao Li replied.

"Everything lately must have tired you out." Du Yun Han looked to the weariness under Du Xiao Li's eyes and said in concern.

"It's alright." Du Xiao Li shook her head, then thinking of the competition, asked, "Father, is there anything that still needs to be changed here?"

"The layout here is designed very well. Overall, there isn't any need for changes. Moreover, it has just opened for business, so still very new, and only need to be slightly altered. And the items used in those rooms also just need to be arranged according to the various countries' customs." Du Yun Han already had Sui Yuan's situation understood in its entirety, and for this, made the most fitting arrangements.

"Then you don't need me to do anything?" Du Xiao Li asked.

"En, you can just supervise from the side." Du Yun Han said, "Everything else, just leave it to your father to arrange."

"Alright." Du Xiao Li nodded, replying with a smile, "However, I'll still help father from the side. After all, this place was designed by me, I'm still rather knowledgable of the place."

"Alright!" Du Yun Han cheerfully agreed. He originally was worried that Du Xiao Li would be too tired, thus thought of doing everything himself, but if his daughter is willing to do it together with him, then he very much looked forward to it.

At noon, while eating lunch, Du Yun Han had the competition's overall situation explained to Du Xiao Li. 

The countries participating this time are mainly, from the north, Northern Yuan and Northern Qi, from the east, Eastern Li, and also the host country Feng Ming.

Although there were also some small countries in the south, they won't participate in this kind of competition. And Northern Lan is prevalent in the grassland culture, and not adept in these talents and poetry, thus won't be participating either.

When Du Xiao Li heard Northern Yuan, she recalled previously hearing Han Ming Yi mention that this time, he was able to return in advance due to Northern Yuan's internal conflict. Don't know if this kind of state of affairs will affect their competition or not.

This kind of competition is usually held once every three years and will avoid one's own county's imperial examination, and moreover, the countries will take turns hosting. Last time, it was at Eastern Li, and this time, it was originally suppose to be held in Norther Yuan, but because of Northern Yuan's internal conflict, and Northern Qi suffering the war loss, it was temporarily changed to Feng Ming.

The competition will be held on the first of the eleventh month. The students will arrive three to five days in advance, so Du Xiao Li and the others only have ten some days' time to prepare right now. 

Each country's students will soon enter Feng Ming's borders, but Du Xiao Li and them had just received news and began preparations. The twist and turns within, even Du Xiao Li, who didn't care about politics much, all understood!

The contents of the competition is mainly split into the male and female competitions. The male side focuses on contest between song verse and poetry essay, of course there was also a talent portion, but the former was the highlight. And on the female side, it was mainly a talent contest, and the song verse and poetry portion are much simplier.

The process of the competition is very simple, preliminaries, second round, semi-finals, and finals. The first two are done according to the assigned topic, but in the last two rounds, the students can freely show off. Moreover, this position can also be transferred. In other words, if you enter the finals, you can have this place given to someone else during the competition, letting someone else take your place in the competition. 

When Du Xiao Li heard this news, she cried out in surprise, "There's actually even such a rule?"

"Yes, this rule has already existed previously." Du Yun Han said.

"Then wouldn't it be very easy to cheat?" Du Xiao Li finished eating and used the handkerchief to the side to wipe the grease from her mouth, "If I were to use second-rate talented people to participate in the competition, then in the finals, let the most outstanding person go compete, since everyone doesn't know this person, wouldn't his probability of winning be much higher?" 

"In the past, there were similar circumstances like this, but doing something like this now is already meaningless." 

"Why?" Du Xiao Li puzzlingly asked.

Du Yun Han also finished eating and left the dining hall together with Du Xiao Li. As they walked, he explained, "Because people with outstanding talent, their reputation, would've long been known to outsiders. This way, everyone all have some sort of understanding towards the other countries' candidates. Furthermore, those that are truly talented wouldn't need to use someone else's ranking, unless in the previous rounds, something happened and couldn't continue. For example, having gotten sick or something, and when they recovered, came back using someone else's place to continue competing."

"True, if this kind of situation was encountered, the countries would definitely let the outstanding person go for a higher chance at winning. In any case, winning is for the country's glory, so it doesn't matter who wins." Du Xiao Li said in realization. 

"We don't have much time right now, but two days ago, I've already ordered someone to go prepare the new furnitures and daily necessities. I reckon the day after tomorrow, we'll be able to have everything here all changed. Once the competition is over, you don't need to return them either. Just treat is as freebies for lending the site." Du Yun Han said, not thinking this is defrauding the country's property in the slightest. These will just be treated as fees for the hard work!

Towards Du Yun Han's brazen actions, Du Xiao Li helplessly laughed. She knew Du Yun Han was trying to help her vent!

"However, fortunately, a lot of the things here at your place are all a complete set, saving us quite a bit of trouble. Else, even your father, I, wouldn't be able to have everything prepared in such a short amount of time." Du Yun Han said, looking to Du Xiao Li with eyes filled with pride and satisfaction. But suddenly seeing the directly approaching Han Ming Yi, his two eyes slightly narrowed. He had such a good daughter, yet such a good white cabbage was about to be eaten by a pig!

Du Xiao Li once said, when knowing one's own daughter is about to get married, parents will all think the white cabbage they planted for so long is about to be eaten by a pig. And parents that learn that their son have someone they like will think, the pig they raised for this many years finally knows how to eat white cabbage!

(T/N: This is the weirdest marriage analogy I've ever heard--------)

And seeing Han Ming Yi right now, Du Yun Han had this kind of feeling!

"Big brother Yi, what are you doing here?" Du Xiao Li asked, when she saw Han Ming Yi walking over.

"I brought some people over from the military barracks, letting them take care of the security during this period. Bringing them over now to assign their patrol routes, and also let them help with the decorations." Seeing Du Xiao Li, Han Ming Yi's mood was rather good.

Du Xiao Li looked to the hundred some people behind him, all wearing civilian clothes, "Just these people, is it enough?"

"These people were all personally brought up by me. Their abilities are all without problems." Han Ming Yi said, "Moreover, this is just the first batch. Later, I'll bring some more people over."

"En, with this many more mouths to feed, you all better pay me living expenses. Seeing that you all are serving the country, I'll exempt the lodging fee for you all." Du Xiao Li said with a sly smile.

"You ah! Don't worry, I won't let you suffer a loss! I've already sent in a request to his majesty to draw fifty thousand taels of silver from the national treasury for you. It'll be able to come down in the afternoon." Han Ming Yi looked to Du Xiao Li amused.

"Ha, not bad, not bad! That's right, have you eaten yet? If you haven't eaten, I can let the kitchen make you a bit of something." Hearing that there was going to be money, Du Xiao Li's eyes smiled into crescents.

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