At this moment, Xu Qinghuan's mind was racing, flipping through the setting collection of the original novel she had once read.
This shabby dress, coupled with the unique skill of tasting poison and identifying medicine on the arena at the West Market, his identity was already clear.
The Valley Master of Luoxia Valley, Su Mu.
When reading that novel back then, Xu Qinghuan had specially bought the physical book's peripheral artbook.
In the artbook, her old man Xu Youde was a smiling fatty, and the First Prince was a tall "reckless man" who looked full of "righteousness".
In this Great Qian Dynasty, the real people were exactly the same as those drawn in the artbook.
The Su Mu in front of her was the same.
The book described him as a knowledgeable but penniless technology maniac, plus a chatterbox constitution that could talk the dead back to life.
He appeared in chapter 137 of the original work, officially joined the protagonist's camp in chapter 208, was good at medicine, proficient in mechanisms, and skilled in astronomy. His nickname was "Walking Encyclopedia", and his personality trait - talkative.
Very talkative.
So talkative that readers in the original comment section had specially counted that the average word count of the chapters where this person appeared was two thousand words more than other chapters, all supported by his mouth.
Xu Qinghuan silently nodded to herself in her heart.
She didn't rush to tell him to get up.
Reaching out to pick up the pastel teacup at hand, she slowly scraped the floating foam on the surface of the tea soup with the cup lid.
Su Mu was not annoyed, just kneeling honestly, without even changing his posture.
After leaving him hanging for half a cup of tea's time, Xu Qinghuan put the teacup on the table.
"Get up, take a seat."
"Thank you, Imperial Envoy!" Su Mu answered crisply.
Su Mu first patted the dust off his knees, then walked to the armchair at the lower seat, and sat on only half of the chair very properly.
Xu Qinghuan leaned against the back of the chair, looking him up and down.
"I heard from Li Sheng that you have been asking about my whereabouts all over the city these past few days."
"Today, you stood up for those pedantic scholars on the arena at the West Market and won the second round of medicine identification competition."
"You, an outsider, ran to this dusty North Suppressing City, what are you after?"
Su Mu had just touched the edge of the chair. Hearing this, he immediately stood up again, clasped his hands, and made a deep bow.
"Commoner Su Mu, from Jiangnan."
"This commoner came north this time, not for fame or fortune, but only to see the true face of the Imperial Envoy with my own eyes!"
Xu Qinghuan raised her eyebrows, following his words.
"Oh? From Jiangnan? That's not a short journey."
Hearing this, Su Mu's chatterbox opened instantly.
His eyes lit up, his hands gestured in front of him, and he spoke very fast, like pouring beans.
"Your Excellency is right! The journey is indeed long and arduous, but this commoner walked it willingly!"
"When this commoner was in Jiangnan, I heard that Your Excellency had made a loom that could produce a thousand bolts of cloth a day in the Lingering Garden, forcefully smashing the cloth price of the prominent families in Jiangning to the bottom! A business genius indeed!"
Su Mu took half a step forward.
"Later, Your Excellency set rules in the Hundred Flowers Pavilion, letting those women from the inner courtyard straighten their backs, spend money to order dances, and turn over to become masters."
"That's not all. Your Excellency went north to the capital, and the poem 'Thoughts on Reading' left in front of the Imperial Academy is now regarded as a masterpiece and the standard in the circle of scholars in Jiangnan!"
"'For there is living water coming from the source', these words woke up so many stupid things who only read dead books!"
At the beginning, Li Sheng stood silently behind Xu Qinghuan, his hand originally resting on the hilt of the sword at his waist, always guarding against this person violently hurting people.
But as he listened, Li Sheng's brows furrowed tighter and tighter, his mouth slightly open, and he was completely dumbfounded.
Could this kid be a crazy madman? Who would run to the Imperial Envoy's temporary residence, not asking for errands, but only reciting books?
Su Mu completely ignored Li Sheng's reaction, swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and continued to talk endlessly.
"This commoner originally thought that Your Excellency was only proficient in business and literature. Who would have thought that Your Excellency could use the method of boiling meat with quicklime to make Xu's meat bricks, saving the lives of three thousand disabled soldiers!"
"Arriving in North Suppressing City, you cured the strange night blindness in the wounded soldier camp with mutton soup, and you also had a good eye for talent, promoting Lin Siniang to open up wasteland and drain salt in Hetao!"
Su Mu became more and more excited as he spoke, waving his hands vigorously in the air.
"Each and every one of these, which one is not a great undertaking to govern the country and benefit the people!"
"This commoner has memorized Your Excellency's deeds by heart, like enumerating my family's valuables."
"Being able to see your true face today, it is really the fortune of three lifetimes, and I can die without regrets!"
Xu Qinghuan sat quietly in the main seat, looking at the flushed and high-spirited young man in front of her.
She sneered in her heart.
Hehe, this lip service, it's really a waste of talent for him not to go storytelling under the overpass.
The original book wrote that this guy was a chatterbox who could talk the dead back to life, and today she finally experienced his real kung fu.
This lung capacity and memory, coupled with the emotionally full singing, reciting, acting, and acrobatic fighting, it would be a disservice to his mouth if he didn't take the imperial examination and become the top scholar.
However, Xu Qinghuan was clear in her heart.
Luoxia Valley was a folk technology organization established by the Great Qian's founding emperor in his early years, specifically gathering skilled craftsmen from all over the world.
Unfortunately, passed down to this generation, the relationship with the imperial court had long been cold, and the valley was so poor that they couldn't even afford coal for iron smelting.
This dignified Valley Master, running to North Suppressing City to pretend to be a down-and-out scholar and memorizing his achievements fluently, was eighty percent likely here to beg for alms.
And incidentally inspect whether she, the Imperial Envoy, was qualified to be the backer of their Luoxia Valley.
Want to treat me as a sucker?
Xu Qinghuan knocked her fingers twice on the armrest of the yellow rosewood chair.
She pushed the teacup forward, forcefully cutting off Su Mu's momentum to continue speaking.
"You came all the way from Jiangnan to this northern border, taking so much trouble, just to sing praises to me face to face?"
Xu Qinghuan's words carried a somewhat casual teasing.
Su Mu was choked by this sentence.
He blinked, then immediately changed to that frank smiling face, nodding repeatedly.
"That's natural! This commoner's admiration for Your Excellency is like the surging river water, endless..."
"Enough."
Xu Qinghuan raised her hand to interrupt him.
"Young Master Su has worked hard all the way, coming specially to tell me this, I feel deeply honored."
"Li Sheng, go to the accounting room to draw ten taels of silver to give Young Master Su for travel expenses, see the guest out."
Li Sheng had long been impatient listening, and immediately strode forward, making a gesture of invitation towards the door.
"Young Master Su, please."
Now it was Su Mu's turn to be dumbfounded.
Su Mu had prepared a bellyful of rhetoric, one trick after another, just waiting for the Imperial Envoy to be overjoyed by his praise, and then conveniently ask him what he wanted.
Who knew that this Lord Xu didn't play by the rules at all, and directly wanted to send him away with ten taels of silver.
Su Mu quickly moved a step to the side, avoided Li Sheng's hand, leaned forward, and lowered his voice.
"Eh! Your Excellency, wait! This commoner hasn't finished speaking!"
Xu Qinghuan leaned against the back of the chair, looking at him leisurely.
"Speak."
Su Mu put away his fanatical appearance from just now, and the smile on his face became somewhat unpredictable.
"This commoner is untalented, but in medicine and pharmacology, machinery construction, astronomy and geography, and even agriculture and all trades, I have dabbled a little bit in all of them."
"At the West Market, this humble commoner also heard of Your Excellency's grand ambition to establish the Bureau of Hundred Crafts."
Su Mu cupped his hands in a respectful salute once more, his tone becoming exceptionally sincere.
"Your Excellency is currently in need of capable people here in the Northern Frontier, where a thousand things wait to be rebuilt."
"I make bold to seek a position under Your Excellency's command, to offer what little strength I have."
"I wonder if Your Excellency would be willing to take me in?"
Up to this point, his tone remained casual and understated.
It was as if he truly were just a destitute scholar at the end of his rope, looking to scrape together a living.
Li Sheng snorted coldly from the side.
"What arrogance! You know a little bit about everything? Do you think you are an immortal descended from the heavens! Our Lord needs craftsmen with real skills, not a pedantic scholar like you who only knows how to flap his lips!"
Su Mu turned his head and smiled at Li Sheng, explaining with an exceedingly mild temper.
"Please do not be hasty, General. Though I may be dull-witted, I will absolutely not slack off in my work. As long as I am given a bite to eat and a place to shelter from the wind and rain, that will be enough."
The main hall fell quiet.
Xu Qinghuan looked at Su Mu's earnest face, her mind reading his little calculations with crystal clarity.
First, play poor and act pitiful; next, demonstrate his value; and finally, beg to be taken in.
With this flawless sequence of moves, any other official would probably have been thoroughly bamboozled by now, happily taking this all-around talent under their wing.
Unfortunately for him, the person he met today was someone who already knew the script.
Xu Qinghuan took a sip of warm tea to moisten her throat.
Then, she spoke in a slow, deliberate manner.
"Proficient in everything..."
Xu Qinghuan paused for a moment, scrutinizing Su Mu.
"If these words were spoken by anyone else, I would certainly charge them with the crime of arrogance and deception, and have Li Sheng beat them out of here with sticks."
The superficial smile on Su Mu's face had not yet faded, and he was even preparing to open his mouth to offer a few words of modesty.
Xu Qinghuan did not give him the chance, delivering the second half of her sentence.
"But if the person speaking these words is the Valley Master, then naturally, it is a completely different story."
The air in the main hall seemed to freeze in that very instant.
That facade of effortless composure crumbled inch by inch upon hearing the title of Valley Master.
