Chapter 1 The Prince's Perspective

What the Crown Prince saw was this: Princess Zhaohua, Tan Weixin, was sitting in a comfortable rocking chair, swaying gently while reading a book. But seeing her hold the book almost to her forehead, she was clearly not reading seriously. A round table stood beside the rocking chair, on which were placed a teapot, teacups, and a fruit plate. And Ye Tao, at that moment, had moved a chair to sit beside the round table, peeling oranges. When Tan Weixin turned her head, seemingly joking, Ye Tao expertly placed a slice of orange into the Princess's mouth. So skilled, it wasn't the first time, perhaps not even the hundredth time...

Suddenly hearing someone call the Princess "Sister," Ye Tao was startled and quickly stood up to face the Crown Prince. In these past few days, other than addressing her as "Your Highness" upon arrival each day, he had mostly neglected matters of etiquette. Although, formally, one was the child of a merchant and craftsman, while the other was the daughter of the ruler of a powerful kingdom, a very influential Princess, the modern sense of equality in their bones still dominated. In these days, calling the Princess "Xin'er" had already become incredibly natural. Now, suddenly, the Princess's younger brother, a prince of sorts, had appeared, and although somewhat unwilling, he had no choice but to prepare to kneel and pay his respects.

Unexpectedly, upon hearing that the Crown Prince had arrived, Tan Weixin immediately said, "Stand properly, you are not allowed to kneel. He is just my younger brother. If he wants you to kneel, let him wait until he becomes the ruler of Dongping."

Ye Tao felt somewhat awkward. On one side was the Crown Prince glaring fiercely at him, and on the other was Tan Weixin, unhurried, seemingly not worried at all. He couldn't help but sigh inwardly: Miss, I am just a commoner.

However, since the Princess had instructed him, he feigned awkwardness, bowed deeply to gloss over the situation, and respectfully said, "This humble one, Ye Tao, greets His Highness the Crown Prince."

The Princess's command changed "kowtow" to "greet," and the Crown Prince, Tan Weiming, was taken aback for a moment. Perhaps already accustomed to his headstrong sister, he touched his nose and waved his hand, saying, "You may dispense with the formalities!"

Seeing that Tan Weixin had no intention of standing up, Ye Tao tactfully stood aside. And the Crown Prince sat in his previous seat, doing what he had been doing—placing a slice of orange into Tan Weixin's mouth.

Even the siblings of the most prominent family in Dongping should be different from ordinary families, even in Ye Tao's imagination, with their relationship perhaps being polite to the point of rigidity. However, looking at the way these siblings interacted, looking at this peaceful and intimate scene, Ye Tao felt like smiling.

With Ye Tao present, Tan Weiming felt somewhat uncomfortable and glared at him again. Ye Tao wasn't oblivious either, and quickly bowed, saying, "Your Highness, Princess, this humble one takes his leave."

Tan Weixin chuckled and said, "Ye Tao, you can go back now, come back tomorrow… Hmm, I feel like eating mustard green soup. How about bringing me some tomorrow?"

Ye Tao said, "It shall be done." Then, with a bow, he walked out of the quiet room.

This was the first time in these days that he hadn't stayed at the Chunnuan Residence until dinner. Ye Tao felt somewhat relaxed, but also somewhat melancholic. After all, that intimate time with Tan Weixin had been interrupted. Jealousy? It wasn't that. Tan Weiming was, after all, Tan Weixin's younger brother, the current Crown Prince, and the future ruler of Dongping. And from Tan Weixin's seeming lack of urgency to return to the capital, yet attracting the Crown Prince, Ye Tao naturally sensed that there was likely something fishy going on. Tan Weixin's health determined that there were many things in this world she couldn't do, but with her intelligence and her knowledge far surpassing this era, Ye Tao had no doubt that with such a mind, she could do many things that others wouldn't dare to imagine.

The Crown Prince's arrival also reminded Ye Tao of one thing: Tan Weixin was about to return to the capital. And he had already promised her that he would establish an "IKEA" branch in the capital as soon as possible. As for the Yi Zhan Lou (Chess Battle House), because Tan Weixin was so interested, Ye Tao also agreed to let Tan Weixin invest in it in her personal capacity. In terms of rule-making and development planning, Tan Weixin would have 40%, which included funding the establishment of a specialized institution to formulate and evaluate rules, improve the military chess game, especially the Da Bo Sha (Grand Melee) gameplay, and more complex gameplay algorithms, simplify the calculation process, including her ability to promote the popularity of military chess and other gameplay on a larger scale, and more importantly, she also had a modern heart that was familiar with and loved games. The Yi Zhan Lou in the capital could be regarded as the first franchise store of the Ye family's military chess business, right? And the first phase of investment in this franchise store would be half from the Ye family and half from Tan Weixin personally, and subsequent additional investments would be calculated one by one.

Ye Tao was somewhat curious. He knew that this era lacked entertainment. The spread of military chess from its creation to the present, the popularity of military chess in Yicheng, and even the booming business of Yi Zhan Lou and Yi Zhan Xiao Pu (Chess Battle Kiosk) all proved this point. But this was originally out of Ye Tao's idea of missing modern entertainment methods, and it was beyond his expectation to be able to develop to this point today. He was wondering what exactly made Tan Weixin so confident in expanding military chess into an entertainment industry.

Ye Tao never brought attendants with him when he went out, and a white horse carried him around. There were tens of thousands of wealthy households in Yicheng, and no one would attract onlookers on the street. And the security in Yicheng was incredibly good. Although it seemed that one could not yet achieve a state where people didn't pick up lost items and doors were not closed at night, the difference was limited. Just as Ye Tao was thinking wildly, he had already returned to the Ye family's courtyard in Qingyun Lane.

"Young Master, why did you come back so early today?" The old servant Zhang, who had been with the family for years, took Ye Tao's horse and asked. Lao Zhang was a shop assistant in the shop of Ye Laogeng's master when he was learning his craft. Because his right hand had been injured, he couldn't learn carpentry well, so he could only do odd jobs and earn a salary. Later, the master passed the shop on to Ye Laogeng, and Lao Zhang also watched Ye Laogeng manage the small shop, earning enough money to buy a courtyard. At that time, Lao Zhang felt that he was old and could not even do odd jobs in carpentry, so he asked Ye Laogeng to let him be a servant in the Ye family's courtyard. In fact, according to Ye Laogeng's original idea, he was going to let Lao Zhang manage things in the shop, without having to do any work, but Lao Zhang said that he had no work under his hands and couldn't manage people in a carpentry shop. Although Ye Laogeng treated him as a junior fellow apprentice, he had to agree to Lao Zhang coming to the Ye family's courtyard to help. Although he was a servant, everyone knew the past, and no one really treated Lao Zhang as a servant. And the only people living in the Ye family's courtyard were the Ye family and a few of Ye Laogeng's unmarried disciples. Everyone was quick with their hands and feet, and there wasn't much work for Lao Zhang to do.

"Uncle Zhang, is my father in?" Ye Tao asked.

"The master went to the workshop in the morning, but I guess he should be back soon," Lao Zhang said.

"Uncle Zhang, when my father comes back, ask him to go to the Huan Chao Ge (Returning Tide Pavilion), and let a few senior brothers go with him. I want to invite Uncle Dai, young master Du, and the others to talk about something."

Lao Zhang said, "Is the young master going out again? Then this horse?"

Ye Tao smiled and said, "It's just a few steps around, I won't ride the horse. Uncle Zhang, please feed this little fellow."

Lao Zhang smiled and agreed, leading the horse away.

Suddenly remembering something, Ye Tao walked back to his courtyard. Since he became the person in charge of the Ye family, and his status among his brothers gradually increased, his father had moved him to a two-story building in the small garden. For the previous owner, this small building might have been just a place for the family to gather and enjoy the scenery and compose poetry in the warm spring. But for the Ye family, who bought the courtyard, it was too extravagant to have a building empty in the small garden. Ye Laogeng and his wife and Ye Tao's brothers felt that it was lively to live together in the front, similar to a courtyard house, but Ye Tao, who needed quiet, needed to consider various issues, and needed to quietly carve some precious products, was given special care.

The maid Sophie was napping. Although she was a maid, Sophie's habits were quite aristocratic. She could only fall asleep in complete silence, or when she was so tired that her head was dizzy. But to be honest, although she was a maid, there wasn't much she needed to do. Ye Tao, who was already a well-known figure in Yicheng, only had a few clothes, and the set of work clothes that got dirty the fastest was always thrown in the workshop with the workers' clothes and washed by the first-year apprentices. And the most cluttered room in the house was precisely the one where Ye Tao strictly prohibited anyone from moving anything around, which was full of various imaginative patterns and manuscripts, or some scaled-down models to see the effect. The work that took up most of Sophie's time was only those manuscripts that Ye Tao took out of that creation room and asked her to copy, or the patterns he asked her to trace and sort out. As for the rest, it was probably just waiting.

The 13-year-old Sophie watched the one-year-younger Ye Tao calmly instruct, letting them, girls who had no control over their future destiny, choose the life they wanted. Perhaps it wasn't an easy life, and they needed to worry about their food, clothing, housing, and transportation. Perhaps that's what they thought themselves. If these girls didn't have any skills to support themselves, Ye Tao would at least ensure that they could live peacefully. But when they saw the Ye family's business expansion, which, although the profits were not very generous, was full of whimsy, and saw those exquisite and delicate things, and saw the path that Ye Tao pointed out for each apprentice, each worker, and even each person serving the Ye family in IKEA and Yi Zhan Lou, they were moved. Was this a better life than serving men with their bodies? Perhaps it was somewhat different from what they, the dancers whose life trajectory was destined from the beginning of being selected, had been instilled with all along.

Sophie was not called Sophie at the time, her name was Fleur. When some of the dancers who had been sent to Ye Tao together entered the store as clerks, some chose to continue learning skills such as bookkeeping and embroidery, and Cassandra, the youngest, was actually accepted by the Ye family's workshop as a special apprentice, Fleur didn't know what her path was. She didn't know if the noble bloodline that the trafficker had boasted about when she was sold to Muhammad was true. Years of wandering and trekking had completely washed away her childhood memories. If she couldn't become a noble, then become the other side, Sophie thought at the time, so she tried to ask Ye Tao, who was one year younger than her, "I want to serve you. Is that okay?"

She still remembered the look in Ye Tao's eyes at the time. At first, it was a bit strange, a bit surprised. When Ye Tao's eyes stayed on her for a while, the look in his eyes revealed something like discovering something, calculating something, expecting something, and later, almost a kind of fanatical look was poured on her face and body. Fleur was a little worried, was her decision correct? Then, she heard the 12-year-old Ye Tao say to her, "Then okay. From now on, can I call you Sophie?"

From that moment on, Fleur became Sophie. She thought that her days after that would be monotonous, like every ordinary, humble servant. But she soon discovered that she seemed to need to learn more than those dancers who had chosen to learn certain skills. Ye Tao taught her to read those magical three-dimensional views, taught her to identify and draw various symbols, taught her to use those exquisite drawing tools, make and copy those drawings, and sometimes even allowed her to enter the room that anyone rashly entering would make him very angry, to assist him in sorting out drawings and materials. Sophie felt that she didn't seem to be a maid. Sophie, who had once wandered in various countries, felt that the job she was doing should be called "secretary." In some countries, being a secretary for some big shots was an extremely remarkable thing.

She didn't know why she would become such a special maid, instead of what she was told she would become. Having lived under the same roof with Ye Tao for two years, perhaps Ye Tao, the young master that everyone loved and trusted so much, hadn't grown up yet, and he hadn't touched her. However, Ye Tao would occasionally look at her face very intently, carefully studying every detail, and sometimes comment that she had grown up. Was Ye Tao waiting for her best time, or was he hoping that she could become beautiful enough, beautiful enough for him to finally be unable to resist? Sophie didn't know. Sometimes, when Ye Tao praised and teased her, there was some loss in his eyes. Sophie knew that she was not the most beautiful of those dancers, not Wei Zhi, who was now the assistant accountant of the Ye family, the Iberian girl who was enjoying the wonderful feeling of being pursued and hovering on the edge of love. If Ye Tao was really greedy for beauty, then why did he accept her? She had never been able to figure out this question.

The creaking of the door axis awakened Sophie. She opened her sleepy eyes and saw Ye Tao walking in from outside and turning into the room he called the "creation room," rummaging through something inside.

Sophie patted her face and immediately got up. While twisting her neck and stretching her hands, legs, and shoulders, she walked towards the entrance of the creation room.

"Young master? Are you looking for something?" Hearing that Ye Tao had been rummaging for a long time without finding it, Sophie asked.

"The drawing of the arc-shaped hall that I asked you to sort out and redraw last time... Oh, you're awake." Ye Tao then responded. Ye Tao had always been unvigilant towards people he was familiar with and close to.

"The drawing cabinet is full. You rolled up the drawing that day and put it in that new toolbox," Sophie reminded.

"Found it!" Ye Tao said gratefully, "Thank you, Sophie."

"Young master, are you going out again?" These days, Ye Tao went to buy food every noon and then sent it to the Chunnuan Residence to please the young lady from the capital, and then spent the afternoon chatting and playing chess with that young lady. She had heard about these things many times. Because she was just a maid, and not a candidate to become Ye Tao's wife in the future, people didn't avoid her much when talking about these things, just teasingly reminding her. A girl's heart was not so easy to break, but she felt a little uncomfortable.

"Going to find Uncle Dai, and young master Du and the others... By the way, Sophie. I need you to do something these days," Ye Tao suddenly said.

"What is it? Just tell me," Sophie responded.

"Please sort out, pack, and classify all the drawings, manuscripts, and models in this room. Pack related things together. Don't miss anything, not even a single piece of paper. If possible, please help me make an index," Ye Tao said.

"Are we moving? Are we going to the Chunnuan Residence?" Having been with Ye Tao for two years, Sophie still understood Ye Tao very well. For Ye Tao, those clothes and supplies were insignificant, but everything in this creation room seemed to have extraordinary significance for him. Ye Tao's clothes could probably be packed in one box, but the various things in this creation room, in total, might not be packed in ten boxes. Ye Tao said this, which was obviously preparing to move the creation room.

"No... further away. We're going to the capital. It probably won't be long," Ye Tao shrugged and said.