Wang Chao sat quietly in the corner of the tea room, listening to the merchants gossip about Young Master Wang, thinking to himself: These people must be from the remote and wild lands of the northwest—nothing like the shrewd and cunning imperial merchants of Yingjing. To actually claim they’d obey an imperial decree but not comply with Young Master Wang’s orders? If they dare to speak so boldly in front of my master, they’ll soon find out just how many ways there are to write the word ‘death.’
As Wang Chao listened to the fools speculate about Young Master Wang’s friend, Wan San, and even suggest that Wan San should fund the projects, he nearly burst into laughter. To stop himself from giving away his amusement and drawing attention, he bit into a slice of watermelon. The desert-grown watermelon was, indeed, exceptionally sweet.
The middle-aged man in the jade-adorned melon-skin cap, who had spoken first earlier, suddenly turned to Wang Chao and said, “Young man, from what that girl said earlier, you’re from the Wang household in Yingjing, aren’t you?”
Wang Chao continued eating his watermelon and ignored him.
Not giving up, the man pulled out a small piece of silver from his sleeve and held it out toward Wang Chao. “If you’re willing to share some insight—anything about Young Master Wang—this silver is yours. What do you say?”
Wang Chao squinted his eyes and smirked. “I’m just a servant from the Wang family’s outer stables. I’ve never even met the young master in person, so I have nothing to say to you.”
Refusing to be dismissed, the man snatched the watermelon rind from Wang Chao’s hands and forcibly pressed the silver into his palm. “Even if you haven’t met him, surely you’ve heard about his character while working in the household. Don’t hold back; tell us what you know.”
Wang Chao casually tossed the silver onto the table, treating it with the same disdain as the watermelon rind, as if it were worthless trash.
Unable to hold back any longer, he began with a disclaimer: “I’m just speaking nonsense here, so don’t take anything I say seriously.”
The merchants nodded, signaling that he was free to speak without consequence.
Feeling reassured, Wang Chao started: “Let’s not talk about distant matters. Let’s discuss what’s right in front of us. This very building, the ‘Mirage Pavilion,’ is my young master’s creation. Can any of you tell what materials it’s made of?”
The woman in the snow fox fur hesitated before replying, “It’s… made of sand? But sand is loose and unstable—it can’t be used to build houses or towers.”
Wang Chao chuckled. “You’re not wrong, but you’re not entirely right either. A year ago, the young master wrote to the master of the Wang household, asking for two things for an experiment: volcanic ash and marine asphalt. These two materials come from vastly different places, but they have similar properties. When mixed with sand and water, they form a thick, sticky mud that hardens into sturdy bricks after drying. After much testing, the young master found that while marine asphalt bricks deformed in the hot and dry desert climate, bricks made from volcanic ash and sand became even more durable under such conditions.”
The elderly man with the jade thumb ring scoffed dismissively. “Experimenting with building materials isn’t particularly remarkable.”
Wang Chao shot him a glare before continuing. “And what about this tower, which stands tall in the middle of the desert? Is that not remarkable? The four supporting pillars beneath us are made of volcanic ash mud wrapped around giant bamboo stalks—specifically, a species called ‘Golden Thunder Dragon Bamboo.’ This bamboo was personally cultivated, grafted, and bred by my young master. Each stalk is as hard as iron, over a foot thick, and more than ten zhang (approximately 33 meters) long. With the bamboo as the frame and volcanic mud as the bricks, it’s like combining steel bones with solid flesh. I’m not exaggerating when I say that even an earthquake or lightning strike couldn’t topple this ‘Mirage Pavilion.’ It’s an architectural marvel, unprecedented and unrivaled.”
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