Chapter 1 Opportunity Knocks

Seemingly to soothe Tan Weishi's fluctuating emotions, Ye Tao had recently been giving her some fun little trinkets. To the point that now Tan Weishi would often barge into Ye Tao's well-equipped workshop in the Ye family workshop, which was full of production samples and other creative products, often asking him for some of his unfinished creations, which he indulged. Nothing was more important than keeping the little princess happy. However, on this day, when the second achievement of the dyeing workshop was presented, Ye Tao knew that the opportunity to conquer the little girl's worries had arrived.

A stack of treasured painting albums was taken out by Ye Tao from the bottom of a cabinet. A large box that had been hidden in the porcelain workshop was also retrieved. Then, Ye Tao instructed that the albums be sent to Tan Weishi.

In less than two hours, Tan Weishi came running to the Ye family workshop to find Ye Tao. Her expression was completely different from the gnashing of teeth he had seen in recent days. Now, she looked like she was trying hard to hold back from bursting into laughter.

"Ye Tao, how did you come up with that rabbit? It's so cute!" Tan Weishi couldn't help but ask as soon as she entered Ye Tao's workshop.

The things Ye Tao gave to Tan Weishi were a set of creations based on famous cartoon characters from his original era, a set of albums mainly consisting of four-panel comics. If this were back in his original era, he would definitely be sued to death by those original authors and copyright holders. He probably wouldn't be able to save himself from the inevitable crushing fine, no matter how good his connections were. The six-book set included Snoopy, Garfield, Onion Head, Tuzki, Spoiled Rabbit… Five classic cartoon characters filled with hilarious stories. The creation of these four-panel comics, while plagiarizing the images he was familiar with, had been completely redesigned based on his understanding of this era. And the sixth album was his own original cartoon characters, a pair of ancient-style young boy and girl: Ding Ding and Dang Dang. The modern people's love of being cheeky and sassy remained unchanged in this comic, but the method of being cheeky had changed. After all, the understanding of various things was different in this era. Being cheeky had its own tricks, but it could also reflect the characteristics of the times.

When the albums were delivered to Tan Weishi, she initially flipped through them casually, but then she couldn't put them down and read all six books in one go, laughing so hard she could barely contain herself. She couldn't resist the enormous curiosity to come and ask Ye Tao what was going on.

"Fun?" Ye Tao asked casually, though it seemed hardly a question.

"Yeah, I laughed myself to death," Tan Weishi said, nodding vigorously. "Did you show it to my sister?"

Ye Tao shook his head and said, "This is especially for you, of course, I'd let you see it first. Even if I were to show it to your sister, it would be after you've read it."

Tan Weishi nodded contentedly and said, "I really like it."

"I have more good stuff for you," Ye Tao said in a seductive tone.

Tan Weishi tugged at Ye Tao's clothes and said with a bit of coquetry, "What is it, what is it? Quickly take it out."

Ye Tao took out a sandalwood box and placed it flat on the large workbench. Tan Weishi opened the box. The box was divided into two layers, each finely divided into twenty-four compartments, each compartment containing a small white porcelain figurine.

One set was of Onion Head's expressive figurines, and the other was of Tuzki's expressive figurines, vividly presenting various exaggerated expressions.

While playing with the porcelain dolls, each slightly taller than a finger, and recalling the funny stories and scenes from the albums she had just read, Tan Weishi chuckled. She naturally knew that these things were now almost completely effortless for Ye Tao, for the Ye family workshop. Ye Tao's workshop had a potter's wheel, and Tan Weishi, who liked to play, had used it as a pottery bar several times. But it was important that Ye Tao could put in such effort to make these delicate things for her. Although the little girl was born into the Dongping royal family, she never took the kindness of others for granted and was keenly aware of whether it was sincere or a deliberate attempt to please her. And at this moment, she was extremely enjoying this feeling of being pampered and cherished.

"There's more good stuff," Ye Tao said, showing off. Since the little girl liked the albums and porcelain figurines, that was great, and his real trump card hadn't been taken out yet.

Ye Tao stroked the top of Tan Weishi's head, who was focused on playing with the porcelain figurines, trying to make her face show such exaggerated expressions, then turned around and took a few steps, taking out two equally large things from a huge cabinet.

The sudden furry feeling on her face startled Tan Weishi, and then she saw a large ball of white fluff stuck to her cheek. Tan Weishi turned her head and saw that it was a giant rabbit face, with that flattering expression that made her laugh just looking at it.

"What is this?" Tan Weishi asked, carefully touching the super-giant cute thing.

"Just a little toy, give it to you to play with, as a pillow or cushion, you can hit it when you're angry... your hands won't hurt, and this thing isn't that easy to break." Ye Tao shrugged, saying casually.

Plush toys… He remembered mentioning this kind of thing to Tan Weixin several months ago. But why was this seemingly simple thing so annoying? The difficulty of this thing was no less than building a dyeing workshop in a short period of time, and even no less than designing a more complex piece of military equipment involving numerous variable calculations. He originally thought he could solve the surface touch problem with a weaving method similar to carpets, but it wasn't like that at all. Materials, processes, methods, adjusted countless times before finally making this era, under the constraints of current technology and material conditions, produced something that was almost indistinguishable from modern plush toys in terms of touch. Although all the materials now seem to be all-natural materials, and not many things can be synthesized artificially, even those synthetic dyes are still based on natural materials, but this product, which only has entertainment value, is really too expensive. If he hadn't spoken so much in front of Tan Weixin in the first place, he would have given up on the research of this type of plush toy long ago.

And now, finally, this thing came in handy. Although it was a bit expensive to win a smile from a beauty, he could afford it now. And the curious and longing look on Tan Weishi's pretty little face was the best reward.

Plush toys, especially those that were almost as big as real people, were very easy to want to hug, even in this era where there was no habit of hugging.

Tan Weishi, like a timid kitten, carefully poked and touched the super-big Tuzki, finally removed the fear in her heart, and hugged the big guy tightly in her arms. In this season, the warm and soft touch was really too comfortable.

"So comfortable. I want to sleep with this guy tonight," Tan Weishi said with determination.

Ye Tao chuckled. Indeed, that was included in the functions of plush toys.

Now that the little girl had completely let go of her emotional defenses, becoming so soft and gentle, and her mood was at its best, Ye Tao felt that the time had come to try to put an end to the war between the two princesses.

"Little Princess, your sister has been busy lately and is determined to get a good ranking in the Yi Zhan Chess Open, would you be willing to go and help your sister?" Ye Tao asked. This was one of the solutions he and Tan Weixin had discussed, using a bunch of small things that Tan Weishi could do to entangle her. Although she was a bit willful, as long as she agreed, she would definitely find a way to do it well. Just like every time Tan Weixin asked her to drag Ye Tao to accompany the girls' team in practice, Tan Weishi would definitely pester him until Ye Tao had to obediently put down his work and follow her.

Tan Weishi looked at Ye Tao inquiringly, without speaking. She buried her head deeply in the plush rabbit's belly once again.

It seemed like she had some other ideas. Ye Tao thought so.

"...I'm not going. It wouldn't make much difference if I went to help my sister. Don't you always team up with my sister to deal with me, I'm not an idiot. They have dozens of people there, what can't they do?" Tan Weishi said reproachfully, "...By the way, when does your open competition start? Didn't you say there was still registration?"

Ye Tao said helplessly, "You've been having so much fun lately, haven't you noticed even after coming to Yi Zhan Tower every day? Recently, many players from all over have come, many of whom have registered and are preparing for the competition. It's starting next month."

Next month? Tan Weishi suddenly cheered up. She stood on the chair, actually forgetting herself and pulling the plush rabbit, jumping and cheering: "Finally, there's a chance to clean up that girl!"

Ye Tao was shocked. Was he providing a "battlefield"? "Aren't you bullying her? Although I heard that Princess Yaning is also playing military chess now, she's only been playing for a little while, how can she be as good as someone like you who hangs out with experts all day long?" Ye Tao said with a smile, trying to persuade her.

"Experts?" Tan Weishi scratched her head and asked, "Where are they?"

"Me? Am I not an expert?" Ye Tao said without shame, because as the designer of this game, he was indeed an expert.

"Bah," Tan Weishi scratched her face and said, "Bragging, aren't you ashamed?" She paused and then said, "If you want to talk about unfairness, that girl dragged me to compete in calligraphy and painting, didn't I go? She even dragged me to compete in embroidery, which I can't do at all, didn't I still have to accept the challenge? Who's bullying who in the end!"

The more Tan Weishi thought about it, the more she felt that it was a great idea. She jumped off the chair and said, "It's settled then. I'm going to find that little girl to issue a challenge! Then I have to hurry back and gather a team."

Tan Weishi didn't pay any attention to Ye Tao's persuasion. Instead, she asked Ye Tao to send all those fun albums, porcelain dolls, and plush toys to Tan Weixin's place first, saying that she would go over to find them after she had issued the challenge. When Ye Tao asked in confusion, "Why are you taking the things I gave you to your sister?" she even retorted strongly, "That's for you to clarify the facts, aren't you afraid my sister will be jealous if you give things to other women besides her? Brother-in-law!" Then she realized the loophole in her words and said, "Um, your Xiao Qiuyan doesn't count."

This way of expressing herself almost made Ye Tao suspect that this little girl was also a time-traveler.

Sure enough, things were settled just like that. Another hour passed, and Tan Weishi rushed excitedly into Tan Weixin's study, loudly reporting to them that Chang Huaiyin had accepted the challenge. And none of the opposition she had expected appeared. Ye Tao had already prepared a full set of utensils and sent them to her mansion, and by the way, he lent her two Yi Zhan Tower apprentices who had received relatively strict basic mathematical training. He even promised that as long as her team was finalized, as long as she wanted to play practice matches, he could arrange a strong lineup at any time, including So Zheng, the chairman of the open competition's judging committee. And Tan Weixin even made many suggestions to her, such as where to find better chess players, who would be more suitable to command, what to pay attention to in recruiting people and training... which made Tan Weishi very puzzled.

After all, the little girl was still a little girl. She couldn't see through the minds of the two guys whose psychological age gap with her was far greater than the actual age gap. Just now, after complaining fiercely about Ye Tao's partiality for not taking out fun things, satirizing Ye Tao's determination to carry out piracy to the end, and incidentally making Ye Tao promise to update this series of albums under duress, the two of them had slightly discussed and found that it seemed that letting Tan Weishi participate in this open competition according to her own wishes could better eliminate the somewhat inexplicable tension between her and Chang Huaiyin. As a large strategic gameplay team organizer, there were too many things to do, and too much need for overall consideration and a calm attitude. When she could solve such things one by one with such a mentality, her somewhat anxious mood would have calmed down long ago, and she would have had plenty of time to discover what the problem between her and Chang Huaiyin was... Then, as long as these people around them mediated a little, these two beautiful and cute little lolis would definitely be able to reconcile as before.

...The initial stage of a conspiracy was probably like this.