Youthful Glory

Apart from moments of intimacy, Jiang Xu was usually very proper. So when he suddenly did something improper, it was no wonder Ming Tan was so flustered that she walked ahead alone, covering most of the street before stopping.

Jiang Xu glanced at the sugar figurine in his hand and followed her at a leisurely pace.

As dusk fell, Ming Tan reached the end of the street and suddenly remembered their original purpose. She looked around and realized she had gone the wrong way. She paused, about to turn back, but was drawn by the commotion nearby.

At the intersection of two streets, a crowd had gathered in layers, whispering among themselves.

Jiang Xu caught up, the sugar figurine now either eaten or discarded—Ming Tan didn’t notice. She craned her neck toward the crowd and murmured curiously, "Is it a street performance?"

"This is impossible!"

"I think that little bird can’t be taken out at all—it’s just a scam."

"Exactly! If the head comes out, the wings won’t; if the wings come out, the body won’t. How can that make sense?"

...

The two approached, listening to the lively discussion among the onlookers.

Ming Tan noticed a few women in the crowd and asked one, "Miss, what’s going on here?"

"It’s a puzzle stall," the girl replied without looking away, enthusiastically explaining. "This man says a master craftsman stayed at his home one night and left him a mechanical contraption as thanks—that thing over there."

Following her gaze, Ming Tan saw a small wooden cage on the stall, inside of which was a tiny wooden bird. Beside it, crookedly written, were the words: "Fifty coins per try, half an incense stick’s time."

"Honestly, the craftsmanship is quite intricate. The man set it up as a challenge—if anyone can get the bird out of the cage without breaking it, they can keep it. Fifty coins per attempt, limited to half an incense stick’s time, and you have to deposit five taels of silver first. If the contraption gets damaged, the five taels are forfeited!"

The bowl nearby held a few hundred coins, meaning several people had already tried and failed.

"Why is everyone just watching and not trying? Is there some trick to it?" Ming Tan couldn’t help but ask.

The girl finally turned to look at her, thinking she hadn’t heard clearly earlier, and held up five fingers. "You have to put down five taels of silver—who can afford to try so casually? Even if someone has five taels, who knows if that wooden thing might break with the slightest mishap? Losing five taels for nothing—who wouldn’t be upset?"

Was five taels a lot? Ming Tan hesitated for a moment, then glanced at Jiang Xu.

Jiang Xu lowered his head and asked, "Do you like it?"

"...It looks very intricate. It’s not something just anyone could make."

Jiang Xu nodded and stepped forward, placing a silver ingot on the stall.

Seeing that it was ten taels, the stall owner didn’t even ask for the fifty coins first, quickly offering a flattering smile as he handed over the wooden cage mechanism with both hands. "Sir, please, go ahead."

When Jiang Xu took the mechanical birdcage, his gaze focused for a moment. Ming Tan, standing beside him, couldn’t hide her surprise.

Noticing her reaction, Jiang Xu asked, "You recognize it?"Ming Tan nodded and hesitated before speaking softly, "This must be a mechanism crafted by Master Yun Yan? Back in my maiden days, I read his Treatise on Mechanisms , though I’ve never seen a real one before. But I’ve heard all his works bear cloud-pattern engravings."

The base of the wooden birdcage mechanism before them was indeed adorned with exquisitely carved cloud patterns, identical to those printed in the Treatise on Mechanisms .

The person who set up this stall to challenge passersby likely didn’t recognize Yun Yan’s work, offering it for a mere five taels. To him, the mechanism was worth no more than that. Yet, if taken to the capital and sold to connoisseurs, five hundred taels wouldn’t be out of the question.

Yun Yan was a master craftsman during Emperor Gaozong’s reign. It was said that before the emperor’s passing, he commissioned Yun Yan to design mechanisms for his mausoleum to deter grave robbers. After Gaozong’s death, Yun Yan vanished into seclusion, leaving behind few surviving works.

Jiang Xu studied the mechanism for a while before attempting to solve it.

The wooden cage had only two small, immovable circular holes and was enclosed by five vertical bars. The bird’s wings could move up and down, but the rest of its body remained fixed.

Clearly, the bird could only be extracted through the gaps between the bars. However, its round head fit snugly within those gaps. Turning it another way, its feet could emerge first, but its wings would then get stuck. Adjusting the wings to slide them out sideways would trap its body instead...

No matter how one maneuvered it, freeing one part would inevitably leave another lodged between the bars.

Jiang Xu had initially thought it simple, but after fiddling with it for some time, he still hadn’t succeeded. His expression grew focused as he carefully controlled his strength, wary of accidentally destroying the delicate mechanism.

As half an incense stick’s time neared its end, Ming Tan glanced at her husband, whose aura had inexplicably turned frosty, and felt a faint awkwardness stir within her.

Earlier, the young girls watching had whispered among themselves, remarking how handsome and confident this gentleman looked—surely he’d solve the puzzle. She had thought so too, eagerly anticipating her husband’s triumphant display and the gift of Master Yun Yan’s mechanism.

"Sir, half an incense stick’s time is up," the stall owner cautiously reminded him.

Without lifting his gaze, Jiang Xu replied, "Another half."

"Ah, right away, right away!"

...

As the second half of the incense stick burned low, the crowd buzzed with murmurs that the puzzle was a scam—impossible to solve.

Having observed Jiang Xu’s prolonged efforts, Ming Tan began to discern the trick. She tugged at his sleeve and ventured softly, "Husband, perhaps let me try?"

Jiang Xu paused briefly before handing it to her. "It’s quite difficult."

She didn’t rush to manipulate it. Instead, she examined it closely, confirming her suspicions. Then, she rotated the cage, swiftly nudging it left and right before pressing the bird’s head inward—

Out it came.

So soon? It was really out?

Even Ming Tan was momentarily stunned.

The onlookers fell silent in disbelief. Several others had failed to solve it, yet she had freed the bird in mere moments—utterly inconceivable.

"Miss, have you played with this before?"

"Yes, how did you do it so quickly?"“It really can be opened! How was it done? Did you all see clearly? I was completely dazzled just now.”

Perhaps the others didn’t catch it, but Jiang Xu, standing beside her, saw it clearly.

In fact, from the moment she changed the way she held the wooden cage, he had noticed the previously overlooked details and figured out the solution to this mechanism.

At first glance, the five wooden bars on the cage appeared evenly spaced, but in reality, the gaps between them had subtle differences. The gap where the wooden bird could be removed was slightly wider than the others. Of course, the sequence and angle of removing the bird were also crucial—one wrong move and it wouldn’t come out smoothly.

The crowd buzzed with discussion, and even the vendor was curious if she had played with this mechanism before. Ming Tan said no, but no one believed her.

Yet Jiang Xu knew she couldn’t have. Master Yun Yan’s works were all one-of-a-kind, and this particular piece wasn’t recorded in Treatise on Mechanisms , meaning it was crafted after the master had retreated from the world. There was no way she could have known the solution beforehand.

Delighted, Ming Tan won the “Bird in a Cage” mechanism from the vendor. She didn’t ask for her ten taels of silver back and even told the vendor about the mechanism’s origins, offering to pay him extra.

But the vendor was honest, insisting that the rules had been set from the start. He already felt guilty about not returning the ten taels and firmly refused Ming Tan’s additional payment.

Ming Tan thanked him and, overjoyed with her prize, walked a good distance before suddenly slowing her steps. She gently tugged Jiang Xu’s sleeve and asked with exaggerated caution, “Husband, are you angry?”

Before her marriage, the palace maids had come to instruct her: a married woman must always prioritize her husband, especially in the imperial family. She must never outshine him. She had studied this earnestly, but her husband indulged her, and after marrying into Prince Dingbei’s Manor, she had already broken more than a few rules.

“Angry about what? That my Consort is smarter than me?”

Ming Tan nervously and sincerely explained, “I’m not smarter than you! It’s just that I’ve loved solving puzzles like the Nine Linked Rings, Kongming Locks, and Luban Locks since I was little… I only tried because I saw you fiddling with it for so long and had already figured out the trick. I didn’t expect it to go so smoothly. With a little more time, you definitely could have done it too.”

Jiang Xu was about to reassure her that she didn’t need to be so cautious—he wasn’t the petty type.

But Ming Tan dangled the mechanism in front of him, blinking mischievously. “If you’re angry, I’ll give this to you, okay? A Tan will try her best to hide her cleverness and not outshine her husband.”

At the words “hide her cleverness,” Ming Tan couldn’t keep up the act any longer. She burst into laughter, skipping ahead with the prize in hand, muttering to herself, “How am I so smart?” “I’m practically a genius.” “Wisdom like this really can’t be hidden…”

Watching her retreating figure, Jiang Xu paused. He must have lost his mind to think his Consort would ever be timid enough to fret over stealing his spotlight.

As dusk fell, lanterns began to light up the streets.

Jiang Xu stepped forward, ruffling the hair of his smug little Consort before taking her hand and pulling her aside to avoid a speeding carriage.