"What nonsense are you talking about!"
Seeing Zhu Ying yelling in shock and anger, Zhang Shou smiled and said, "Yingying, stop arguing."
He didn't even look at the old man who turned his head and glared at him. He walked straight to the emperor, bowed deeply, and then said calmly: "I don't know this old man, but when I heard him talk about magic just now, I really couldn't help but speak out. If using a water tank to test the purity of an object and whether it is hollow is a magic trick, I have many more magic tricks."
As Zhang Shou spoke, he glanced at several other acquaintances around him, including Zhou Xun, the Imperial College's chief academic officer, Lu Wan, the Minister of War, Chu Ying, who had obviously come to join in the fun, Qi Jingshan, and other officials he didn't know very well. Then he looked at his teacher Ge Yong and said, "Teacher, may I ask if there are any eggs and salt at home?"
Ge Yongzheng was furious because of the word "demon magic". Hearing Zhang Shou's unreasonable question, he couldn't help but feel a little puzzled. After thinking for a moment, he gestured to a mute servant beside him without saying a word. As the man ran away quickly, he said coldly: "You are educated after all, but you are yelling about demon magic like those fools in the folk. You are just a dog!"
The white-haired old man immediately became angry and said, "Ge Yong, others are afraid of you, but I, Zhang Huaili, am not afraid of you! It's all because you were blind and accepted disciples without thinking. How could he deceive the people with his lies..."
"Puh, puh, puh!" Ge Yong was so angry that he rushed forward and spit all over the man's face.
"You are blind, and your heart is blind too! You think you are able to become the Minister of Revenue at such an old age because of your ability? It's because my favorite disciple has gone to mourn, otherwise it would be your turn! You can't even see the tax figures clearly, let alone remember them. Every time you report to the emperor, you have to stutter for a long time. If I were you, I would have resigned in shame long ago!"
"You... you old bastard who speaks foul language is disrespectful to society!"
Zhang Shou ignored the low-level verbal exchange over there. Seeing that the mute servant had come back with two eggs in one hand and a bag of salt in the other, he was about to step forward to take them, but Zhu Ying got there before him, then turned around and handed them to him with a smile.
He took one of the eggs from the eldest lady, showed it to the others with a smile, then came to the small wooden basin that had been used for density tests on gold, silver, copper, etc., and put the egg in it.
"Look, everyone, the egg has sunk to the bottom."
Seeing everyone gathered forward and confirming the result, Zhang Shou took the egg out of the water and returned it to Zhu Ying. Then he took the salt from Zhu Ying's hand, poured a lot of it into the wooden basin, and then rolled up his sleeves and stirred it with his hands.
He didn't put the egg back in until he felt it was almost dissolved. In front of everyone's eyes, they saw the oval egg swaying for a while after falling into the water, and then it floated up!
Seeing a large group of officials around him, some frowned, some were amazed, while the emperor looked calm, as if he had expected it. Ge Yong had already left Zhang Huaili, the Minister of Revenue, who was kneeling on the ground, and came over. Seeing this situation, he was gently pulling his beard and said indifferently: "It's the same water, but the egg sank to the bottom at first, and then floated up. Is this also a magic trick?"