My Emperor Father Can Read Minds
Chapter 46

Corn, potatoes, peanuts, chili peppers, watermelons, grapes…

With every unfamiliar word that came out of Wei Yu’s mouth, Emperor Wei’s breathing grew a little heavier.

His eyes were shining, his chest stirred with emotion. If he hadn’t been worried about making a noise and waking that little rascal up—letting him notice something was off—Emperor Wei would’ve shouted out already!

That little rascal really did have a lot of ink in his belly. If you didn’t squeeze him a little, that lazy bastard wouldn’t open his mouth at all!!!

When Emperor Wei talked about the situation in Yizhou, he was indeed genuinely concerned and speaking from the heart. But to say he was merely venting without another purpose—that was pure nonsense.

He was setting a trap for Wei Yu.

He just wanted to pry more useful information out of Wei Yu’s mouth!

Though this son wasn’t one he’d been close with since childhood, sometimes it really didn’t take long to see through a person’s nature.

Emperor Wei knew Wei Yu was lazy, knew that even though he held precious knowledge, he still acted like someone without ambition.

Though they’d been candid with each other before, Emperor Wei didn’t dare trust this son completely.

He was both angry at Wei Yu’s lack of drive and cautious of him, suspicious, wanting to know if it was all just an act.

But no matter how many people he sent to monitor Wei Yu’s movements or eavesdrop on his thoughts, the results were always the same.

—This son of his, he was useless to the extreme!

—

“Dad, there’s actually a lot of good stuff overseas. Just look at Xiqi, who came knocking the other day—they’ve even managed to make glass. We don’t have that in Great Wei yet.”

As Wei Yu spoke, he saw his dad’s expression improve quite a bit—almost as if he came back to life. Wei Yu couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

“If Dad wants to send people overseas to look for stuff, I could even draw up some ship blueprints…”

“Ship blueprints!”

Emperor Wei’s breathing suddenly grew heavier. He gave Wei Yu a long, deep look. “Draw them. As long as you draw them, I’ll give you one month of vacation!”

Hiss—

Before any annoyance could rise, the moment he heard he’d get a whole month off, Wei Yu literally stopped breathing.

He clutched his chest, eyes glowing, growing more and more excited as he spoke.

“Okay, okay, okay, no takebacks! You said it yourself, you can’t go back on your word! I’ll go back and draw them right now—don’t you dare back out! Just wait, just wait!”

With a glorious vacation waving at him, Wei Yu was already running off as he spoke—he even forgot to kneel and take his leave.

Thankfully, Emperor Wei was too thrilled himself to notice. He was grinning even more than Wei Yu, the wrinkles on his face practically capable of crushing mosquitoes.

The old man stood up, rubbing his hands as he paced back and forth inside the hall.

“Aiya, this really is an unexpected delight! That little rascal can even design ships. Seems like he’s still got a lot more up his sleeve!”

“I’ll have to assign him more tasks in the future…”

—

Wei Yu didn’t remember what he actually came for until he’d returned to his palace, picked up his brush, and was ready to start sketching.

He had completely forgotten the real reason he went to see his dad—to investigate that loan sharking issue!

“Aiyo, my dumb dog brain!”

Wei Yu sighed up at the sky. “Forget it, I’ll just stay up tonight and draw the blueprints. I’ll bring it up tomorrow when I hand them over.”

Drawing blueprints wasn’t the same as doodling on paper.

Blueprints required precision. Although Wei Yu was used to writing with a brush by now, using it to draw fine lines and details?

Ha, way too hard.

So he had Xiao Anzi fetch a few fire sticks from the kitchen to make charcoal pencils.

With vacation on his mind—and still thinking about Liu Er’ya—Wei Yu didn’t sleep at all that night.

In the fifteenth year of Great Wei, it was the first time he lit a candle for the sake of actual work.

Staring at the tablet’s reference materials, Wei Yu sketched stroke after stroke—five-masted warships, six-masted passenger ships, seven-masted grain ships, eight-masted horse ships, nine-masted treasure ships—he kept going even when his right hand started trembling.

Sure, he was working hard for the vacation—but since he’d already decided to draw them, he had to make the best ships that could be built with current capabilities!

Otherwise, wouldn’t that just be a complete waste of resources?

Before becoming a couch potato, Wei Yu once had grand ambitions—he wanted to carve his name in stone, to bring glory to his ancestors, to be remembered in history.

But alas, time didn’t wait for him.

—

As the sky began to brighten, the candle still burned.

In the study, a weary-faced Wei Yu was bent over his desk, fully focused, still drawing with his charcoal pencil.

Xiao Anzi, leaning against the desk leg beside him, head bowed, had already fallen asleep.

Suddenly, his head drooped too far and jerked him awake.

“Hmm? Ah, Your Highness, you’re not done yet?”

Startled awake, Xiao Anzi turned his head and, seeing that Wei Yu was still drawing, rubbed his eyes and got up to refill the oil lamp.

After a night of silence, seeing Xiao Anzi awake brought Wei Yu a sense of relief.

At least he finally had someone to talk to.

He slowly raised his head, wincing at the soreness in his neck. “Yeah—hiss—your master hasn’t done office work in ages. I’m really not used to this kind of grind anymore. Oh god, I’m so sore…”

His Highness often spoke strange, incomprehensible words. Xiao Anzi, used to it by now, just ignored what he didn’t understand. As he yawned and refilled the lamp, he replied, “Your Highness, you didn’t sleep all night. Should I go ask the Grand Tutor for another leave of absence?”

“Mm-hmm. Good thinking.”

After a brief stretch, Wei Yu buried his head back down and continued drawing.

Palace servants were among the earliest to rise.

After waking up, Xiao Anzi didn’t go back to sleep. He left to boil water to prepare for His Highness’s morning wash.

Wei Yu, meanwhile, didn’t finish his blueprints until daylight fully brightened the skies outside.

Looking at the thick stack of papers on the desk, Wei Yu clicked his tongue and slumped in his chair, arms crossed over his belly, like an old man enjoying retirement.

He hadn’t pulled an all-nighter in a long time—damn, he was exhausted.

After resting in the chair for a while and realizing he was still wide awake, Wei Yu suddenly stood up.

No good!

He couldn’t fall asleep!

Since he was still running on adrenaline from working all night, he decided to present the blueprints to his dad while the drowsiness hadn’t set in.

After a thorough wash-up, he brought the drawings to the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

At that hour, Emperor Wei wasn’t in the hall—he was at morning court with his ministers.

Wei Yu wasn’t bothered. He handed the drawings to Su Gaosheng, Li Cheng’s apprentice who was guarding the door, and told him to place them on the Emperor’s desk. Then he left.

Why didn’t he wait outside?

Heh, he wasn’t sleepy while still in his own palace, but the moment he stepped outside and walked a little, drowsiness hit like a truck.

What a troublesome little demon.

Wei Yu rushed back to catch up on sleep—otherwise, if his dad summoned him later, there was a real chance he’d fall asleep halfway through his report.

That’d be a crime.