Chapter 081.3 – She’s here to buy soy sauce? (3)

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 tting 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 conict. Don’t know if
this kind of state of aairs will aect 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 conict, and Northern Qi suering the war loss, it was temporarily
changed to Feng Ming.

The competition will be held on the rst of the eleventh month. The students will arrive three to
ve 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-nals, and
nals. The rst two are done according to the assigned topic, but in the last two rounds, the
students can freely show o. Moreover, this position can also be transferred. In other words, if
you enter the nals, 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 nished 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 nals, 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 nished 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 denitely 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 lled 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
nally 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 rst 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 suer a loss! I’ve already sent in a request to his majesty to
draw fty 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.