CHAPTER 825: CHAPTER 823: DID IT REALLY HAPPEN

Jiang Yifan asked in surprise, "What’s wrong? Even if you look across the great men of the Great Xia Dynasty, not many can compare to you, Ah Yan. How could you feel guilty toward His Majesty?"

Upon hearing Ye Xinyan’s words, he realized she was unaware of the Imperial Astronomical Observatory officials visiting. But her words clearly showed that she must have met the Emperor in the past few days, otherwise, why would she say such things out of the blue?

"Sigh," Ye Xinyan sighed, "You don’t know, I recently went to play in Chang Garden with Zhou Biyao and accidentally encountered His Majesty." As she spoke, she sighed deeply once more.

"What about His Majesty? Did he perhaps grant you something?" Jiang Yifan thought that it must be because the Emperor bestowed a favor, and Ye Xinyan had left a significant flaw in the railway project. That’s why she felt guilty and spoke of failing the Emperor.

But as soon as he asked this question, the sorrow and guilt on Ye Xinyan’s face immediately reduced by ninety percent, replaced entirely with indignation: "Where? Those aren’t favors! Real gold and silver, proper things, that is what’s called a favor. But what did he give? A few light words, can that be called a favor?" Absolutely not.

Jiang Yifan immediately understood, Ye Xinyan clearly knew that the Imperial Astronomical Observatory had selected a wedding date for them, and she absolutely did not consider this as a favor.

But the issue is, isn’t this a favor? It’s a genuine favor, no fraud at all. For others, this is something they couldn’t even dream of obtaining. The words of the Son of Heaven are priceless, more than any amount of silver could buy.

But Ah Yan’s money-minded attitude is quite out of place, isn’t it?

Jiang Yifan cautiously inquired, "So, His Majesty gave you a verbal favor?"

Ye Xinyan said indignantly, "Even if it is a verbal favor, it wasn’t for me. He chose a wedding date for Biyao and would convey a message to the Wong Residence so she wouldn’t be bullied there. Tell me, could this be a favor for me?"

Er... Jiang Yifan’s forehead started to sweat a little.

Ah Yan’s words were quite unreasonable. If it weren’t for Ye Xinyan, would His Majesty even know who Zhou Biyao is? Why would he treat her with such favor?

"If His Majesty rewarded you with a hundred taels of gold and ten rolls of silk, and then didn’t stand up for the Second Miss, would you find that acceptable?"

"You have a way?" Ye Xinyan immediately asked.

Jiang Yifan responded rather vaguely, "This... Ah Yan, you know, whether there’s a way or not... we can always give it a try, don’t you think?"

Is that so?

Ye Xinyan’s eyes moved restlessly, thinking it over for a long time, and finally, she waved her hand helplessly, saying, "Forget it, forget it, a hundred taels of gold might be a lot, but with some effort, we can earn it ourselves. But buying the Emperor’s words with a hundred taels of gold is not feasible."

Jiang Yifan immediately laughed, Ah Yan might be money-minded, but she still knew how to weigh the priorities, very good.

Ye Xinyan immediately glared, asking, "Why, do you find me amusing?"

"No, no, how could you be amusing, Ah Yan? That’s not possible. I just think you have a deep sense of justice, which makes me gratified. Didn’t you notice? This is a smile of gratification," Jiang Yifan quickly explained.

Ye Xinyan suspiciously stared at him for quite a while, but all she saw was sincerity. Well then, perhaps it really was a smile of gratification.

"Mainly... I think there are many ways to deal with Lady Zhao. Although having the Emperor’s words would make things easier, even without them, we could still manage with some effort. I really didn’t expect that the Emperor would consider this a favor to me, it feels somewhat unprofitable." This really makes no sense, right?

However, speaking of favors, and the Emperor’s praise, should an accident occur with the rail transport next month or sometime next year... Ye Xinyan genuinely felt guilty.

Jiang Yifan decided to change the subject and talk about something else.

There must be a reason for the Emperor’s favor; without any good reason, why would the Emperor be in such good spirits? He had been in close contact with the Emperor for several years, and His Majesty was not that kind of person.

"When you encountered His Majesty during your outing in Chang Garden, how did the topic of favors come up?" Jiang Yifan asked.

"Biyao and I were originally enjoying ourselves, following the ravines of the rockery to the back mountain. Unexpectedly, upon exiting the mountain pass, we saw the Emperor, Sixth Master, and Lord Prime Minister Han resting in a pavilion behind the rockery in Chang Garden. After a few words, the Emperor called me over to join them at the Qiuyun Mountain House to discuss the advancement of patent legislation..."

Ye Xinyan recounted the situation to Jiang Yifan. Though not verbatim, she used a few simple words to convey her meaning clearly.

Jiang Yifan knew Ye Xinyan’s background and often talked to her about things from later times, making communication much simpler than with the Emperor and Han Yanhui.

After listening to her, Jiang Yifan smiled and said, "Haven’t you already made amends? It’s just a flawed piece of track that can be repaired in the future. With your construction records, repairs will be much simpler. If craftsmen and handcraft industries gain attention, the handcraft and mechanical industries could flourish, significantly enhancing the labor efficiency of the people and all industries. This is a monumental achievement, sufficient to compensate for any guilt spanning several lifetimes."

Indeed, Ye Xinyan felt somewhat pleased.

Moreover, Jiang Yifan was indeed formidable; his words already had the concept of productivity embedded in them.

Ye Xinyan gave him a sidelong glance and said, "Your way of persuading is quite unique, indeed feels like that."

Jiang Yifan smiled in response, stayed silent for a moment, then asked, "Is what you said really true?"

Ye Xinyan paused, "What happened?"

"What you said about foreign tribes developing handcraft and mechanical tools first, gaining enough strength early on to trample the Central Plains?"

Ye Xinyan looked at Jiang Yifan for a long while. How keen this guy was, she had only made an assumption to the Emperor that if other regions industrialized first, it would pose a great threat to the Central Plains, just to give the Emperor a scare.

Yet Jiang Yifan could actually consider whether such things had truly happened.

"Hmm, something like that." The oppression for a hundred years was heavy and shameful.

"Something like that? How much alike? Approximately when?" Jiang Yifan followed up earnestly, his expression becoming solemn.

Ye Xinyan was uncertain about the timing. She seriously pondered, trying to correlate the era she was in with the corresponding dynasties in the world she came from. But after thinking for a long time, she couldn’t grasp it.

In earnest, if one starts from the history with written records, the progress in agriculture, industry, and transportation was not very clear and was quite blurry over the more than one thousand years in between.

Once the industrial revolution began, after over two hundred years of foundational buildup, modern technology started to flourish, progressing extremely rapidly, the phrase "changing with each passing day" was no exaggeration.

In some fields, things imagined as fantasies ten years ago could become reality ten years later.

Ye Xinyan deliberated for a moment and said, "It depends on when people develop industrial awareness. Once there’s awareness for industrial development, the progress will be swift.

In the world I experienced, it took about two to three hundred years from when distant peoples developed industrial awareness to when they sailed large ships armed with sharp weapons, which we called strong ships and sharp artillery, along with various advanced industrial products, invading this land. They trampled the Huaxia ethnicity for decades, followed by years of turmoil, poverty, setback, and humiliation."