Tang Dynasty: Starting at Xuanwu Gate, this prince is better off not being one.

"I have no choice but to come to you!" Yan Lide said anxiously, "Only you can understand what you've calculated..."

"How come I remember writing the numbers down clearly? Could I have calculated them incorrectly?"

Li Yu sat up from the recliner, and for the first time began to doubt his own arithmetic abilities.

"Your calculations are certainly accurate, but..." Yan Lide said, "It's just that this humble subject is incompetent and cannot understand your calculation process. If officials from the Ministry of Revenue come to investigate in the future, I will not be able to give a clear explanation!"

"No!" Li Yu frowned deeply. "Isn't there a single person in the Imperial Workshop who understands mathematics? Even if you just work backwards from my calculations, you could deduce the same thing, right?"

Upon hearing this, Yan Lide chuckled and replied, "Your Highness, we in the Imperial Academy do not have many people who are proficient in mathematics. Usually, I trouble the old master of the Fu family, Fu Yi, to do the calculations for me."

"Then go find him!" Li Yu said, somewhat annoyed.

"Hehe!" Yan Lide said embarrassedly, "His health hasn't been very good lately. I heard that they invited Mr. Sun over, but it didn't help much, so..."

"Enough, enough!" Li Yu waved his hand to interrupt.

He opened the documents on the table, picked up a pen, and wrote down the calculation process on a piece of white paper. However, he did not write down the equations he used.

After finishing writing, he returned the document to Yan Lide.

Yan Lide took the document, glanced at it, and instantly beamed with joy.

He first clasped his hands in thanks to Li Yu, then took out a stack of documents and pushed them in front of Li Yu: "Your Highness! Thank you for your help with these as well!"

"..."

Holy crap!

Upon seeing this, Li Yu immediately burst into a tirade of curses, leaving Yan Lide extremely embarrassed, yet he still refused to leave.

"Please calm down. It is our incompetence that is the fault of us. You mustn't get angry and harm your health..."

Yan Lide tried to comfort Li Yu, who was so angry he almost fainted.

"You bastard!" Li Yu glared at Yan Lide and said angrily, "Summon all your officials from the Imperial Workshops here. I'm going to teach them arithmetic!"

"this……"

Yan Lide was stunned; he truly hadn't expected Li Yu to pull such a stunt.

"Go quickly!" Seeing his hesitant look, Li Yu urged him impatiently.

"Your Highness..." Yan Lide hesitated, "Mathematics is indeed a very complex subject. The officials of the Imperial Workshop are skilled at repairing palaces. Is it too much to ask them to learn mathematics...?"

"Stop your damn nonsense!" Li Yu roared. "Repairing the palace is the craftsmen's job. What does it have to do with them? If you can't even understand math, you might as well go home and farm!"

After saying that, he loudly ordered Laifu, "Laifu, if those officials don't come tomorrow, you take some men and go to their homes to invite them yourself! This is utterly ridiculous..."

"..."

Yan Lide, his face contorted with bitterness by Li Yu's insults, could only slink away from the Ministry of Works, intending to return to the Directorate of Works to inform the unfortunate officials in advance...

.........

After the snow, the sky cleared and the earth was bright and clear.

In order to be a hands-off manager, Li Yu summoned the officials of the Directorate of Works to the Ministry of Works' office early the next day. He treated everyone equally, from the Director of Works' assistant to the clerk, and began to teach them arithmetic.

However, Li Yu's domineering teaching methods drew the ire of these officials. The four supervisors in the lead were better off, as they had already been informed by Yan Lide and knew Li Yu's identity.

The clerks and registrars, having received no prior notice, only a cold, impersonal notification, naturally didn't want to pay any attention to Li Yu's words. If their superiors hadn't ordered them to be present today, who would want to bother with this inexperienced young official?

Besides, what right does a sixth-rank official in the Ministry of Works have to manage the people in the Imperial Workshop?

"1 corresponds to 壹, 2 to 谮, 3 to 僄... Remember that?"

Seeing that only the people in front responded, Li Yu slammed his hand on the table and pointed to a clerk at the back: "You, yes! I'm talking to you, what are you looking at? Grab some paper or notes?"

"Me?" The man pointed to himself, then chuckled, "Reporting to my superior, I am of dull talent and truly cannot learn these miscellaneous things."

Upon discovering that the other party was a troublemaker, Li Yu raised an eyebrow and, instead of being angry, laughed, "Since you can't even learn all these miscellaneous things, then you are indeed dull-witted."

He chuckled and said, "Since you're so dull-witted, this position of registrar must have been forced upon you by some blind fool!"

Upon hearing Li Yu's words, the officials present fell silent. It was common knowledge within the Bureau of Works that this registrar had indeed risen through connections.

But this young official dared to say it in public; if he wasn't a stubborn fool, he must be a noble young master.

Given that he was able to enter officialdom at such a young age, the latter is obviously more likely. It's best for those of us with minor official positions not to provoke him.

Thinking of this, they all picked up their pens and wrote down what Li Yu had written on the paper.

Only the registrar was enraged by Li Yu's words, but because Yan Lide was present, he could not retaliate. So he threw down his pen and walked straight to the door.

"stop!"

Li Yu's smile vanished, replaced by a cold expression. "Although I am not your superior in the Imperial Workshops, your superior is sitting right here. Do you dare to leave without permission?"

"Heh, who do you think you are!"

Upon hearing Li Yu's words, the registrar snorted coldly and continued walking out, completely unconcerned.

"Hold!"

Li Yu was instantly enraged by this troublemaker, and even vented all the frustration he had suffered at the Ministry of Works over the past few days. He shouted at Lai Fu, who was guarding the door, "Lai Fu, stop him and beat him to a pulp!"

Since the young master became a prince, Laifu has listened to almost only Li Yu. So, after receiving the order, he knocked down the clerk with a single punch, followed by a beating.

The registrar was no match for Laifu and could only curl up, clutch his head, and scream in agony.

After a while, Li Yu saw that the beating had gone on long enough, so he stopped Lai Fu, who still hadn't had enough, and walked over himself.

"I can't control how you act arrogantly because of your parents, but since you've offended me, don't blame me for hitting you," Li Yu said condescendingly.

"You..." The registrar's face was bruised and swollen, and his speech was somewhat slurred: "You wait, my ancestor was personally appointed by His Majesty as the Prefect of Yongzhou, and now he is also the Acting Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel. When he sees me like this, he will definitely make you pay!"

"Heh?" Hearing the registrar's threatening words, Li Yu laughed in anger: "Then do you even know who my grandfather is?"

.........