The Great Ming Demon Pill: Your Majesty, please address me as the Crown Prince!

The hall remained quiet for a while.

Yang Rongcai coughed lightly and addressed Wulubo.

"This is His Highness the Prince of Jiyang of the Great Ming Dynasty."

Ulugh Beg sighed.

"Your Highness is truly a child prodigy!"

Zhu Zhanjun rolled his eyes at Yang Rong.

That old bastard is messing things up.

He addressed Ulugh Beg.

"It is impolite not to reciprocate."

"Since the Kingdom of Harle has asked this question, and now that I have answered it, I also have a question I would like to ask Your Highness."

Ulugh Beg immediately said.

"Please give your instructions, Your Highness Prince Jiyang."

Zhu Zhanjun cleared his throat, a sly smile playing on his lips: "My question... well, it's simple. It's an interesting thing that happened to me a few days ago."

He paused, and seeing that everyone's eyes were on him, he slowly said, "That day, I and a few brothers passed by a brothel!"

The group looked at each other in bewilderment.

Zhu Zhanjun chuckled and continued, "I'm walking along now. Maybe it's because I'm too handsome."

Suddenly, several girls upstairs laughed and threw a few sachets at me.

"The sachets varied in size, fabric, and embroidery; some were bulging and stuffed with spices, while others were light and airy."

"But strangely enough..."

"These sachets, which are of different weights and sizes, fell from the same height, but landed on the ground in front of me almost at the same time."

"I was puzzled at the time. Logically speaking, shouldn't heavier things fall faster?"

"Why did these sachets, regardless of their weight, fall to the ground almost simultaneously when there was no wind?"

Upon hearing the question, the hall fell silent for a moment, and everyone looked at each other in bewilderment.

"Isn't it natural that heavier objects fall faster?"

"Yes, stones fall faster than feathers, even children know that."

"But His Highness Prince Jiyang said he saw it with his own eyes—several sachets fell to the ground at the same time..."

"Could it be that His Highness is too young and misjudged? Or was there a wind at the time?"

"..."

The civil and military officials whispered among themselves, most of them looking puzzled, feeling that the question itself seemed to contradict common sense.

On the side of the seating area, Zhu Yi, Liu Zhong, and others scratched their heads and muttered to themselves, "What kind of question is that, squad leader? The heavier ones should land first!"

Beside the throne, scholars such as Yang Rong and Huang Huai stroked their beards in deep thought, their brows slightly furrowed.

They were well-versed in the classics and knowledgeable in history, philosophy, and literature, but they never delved into the reasons behind such seemingly ordinary phenomena as "falling objects."

Zhu Di stroked his beard, looking quite interested.

Zhu Gaochi, Zhu Gaoxu, and others also fell into deep thought.

Zhu Zhanji was extremely jealous.

He should be the one to perform miracles in front of others.

When Ulugh Beg first heard the question about "brothels" and "sachets," he thought it was somewhat frivolous, but after listening carefully, his expression gradually became serious.

He loved studying astronomy and mathematics from a young age and was very interested in natural phenomena.

Thinking back on it now, it seems... something really is wrong.

He never specifically observed or experimented with it.

He hesitated for a moment before cautiously replying, "Your Highness, Prince Jiyang, normally speaking, heavier objects should fall faster. The sachets you saw landed at the same time... perhaps it's because they are similar in size? Or perhaps they fell from a relatively low height, with such a short time difference that it was difficult to distinguish with the naked eye?"

Zhu Zhanjun shook his head and smiled, "What the prince said is a deduction based on common sense."

"But I have personally witnessed and tested several times that as long as they are released from the same height at the same time, sachets, pouches, and even small pieces of wood of different weights and sizes, as long as they are roughly the same shape, and ignoring the influence of a breeze, they will hit the ground almost at the same time."

"If the prince does not believe it, he can take a wooden ball and an iron ball of similar size and, in the absence of wind and other influences, release them simultaneously from the high building of the pavilion. They will definitely land at the same time with a loud clang, without any difference."

Upon hearing this, Ulugh Beg cupped his hands in greeting.

"I will certainly verify what Your Highness says."

Zhu Zhanjun stood with his hands behind his back, his dark eyes darting around, and then continued, "Let's leave aside the matter of the sachet for now."

"There is another interesting story, which I experienced myself. Right under the old locust tree next to that brothel, I was resting. It was summer, and the tree was full of green locust fruits."

Suddenly, with a loud thud, a ripe locust fruit hit me squarely on the forehead.

"I rubbed my head and looked up. The fruit was clearly growing on the tree, so why was it falling down instead of flying up?"

Upon hearing this, the people in the hall were first taken aback, then burst into laughter.

Duke Zhang Fu of England stroked his beard and laughed, "Your Highness is joking. Fruit ripens and naturally falls to the ground; this is the law of nature. Why ask why?"

Several civil officials, including Yang Rong and Huang Huai, shook their heads and smiled wryly.

Zhu Zhanjun replied seriously, "Your Excellency makes it sound so easy."

"But who set these rules of nature?"

Why do all things fall to the ground instead of rising to the sky?

"If 'heavier things sink,' then why don't the sun, moon, and stars fall from the sky?"

"If 'light things rise,' then why can cooking smoke drift away with the wind?"

He turned to Ulugh Beg, his eyes gleaming: "Your Highness is well-versed in astronomy and mathematics; do you know the reason for this downward fall?"

Ulugh Beg was stunned.

He had studied astrology and arithmetic since childhood, but never thought about the reason behind such a "natural" phenomenon.

Fruit falling to the ground and heavy objects sinking are as ordinary as sunrise and sunset in everyone's eyes, so who would ask why?

He opened his mouth, and after a long while, he managed to say with difficulty, "Your Highness's question... touches upon the very foundation of heaven and earth."

"Your humble servant only knows that all things have their own nature; the heavy tend to descend, and the light tend to rise; this is the natural order of heaven and earth."

"As for why this order exists... perhaps it is a law ordained by God?"

Zhu Zhanjun shook his head.

"If everything is attributed to God's will, what need is there for people to pursue knowledge?"

"The fruit falls down perhaps because the earth has an invisible force of attraction to all things, just like a magnet attracts iron."

He paused, then said in a clear voice, "This power may be omnipresent, binding everything firmly to the ground."

"The reason why the sun, moon and stars do not fall is either because they are too far away, and the force is weak, or because they are spinning rapidly, which barely offsets the downward force."

After he finished speaking, the entire hall fell silent.

The civil and military officials looked at each other, some frowning in deep thought, some disagreeing, but none of them could immediately refute them.

Yang Rong and Huang Huai exchanged a glance, both seeing the astonishment in each other's eyes.

What the King of Jiyang said was absurd, but upon closer examination, it actually made perfect sense.

"Ulugh Beg murmured."

"As Your Highness says, could it be that there truly exists a power beyond mortals in this world, controlling all things in heaven and earth?"

Zhu Zhanjun glanced at him and said indifferently.

"Ten years can be seen as spring comes and autumn goes."

"A hundred years can prove birth, aging, sickness, and death."

"The rise and fall of dynasties over the past thousand years is a lamentable story."

"Over ten thousand years, one can witness the shifting of stars and constellations."

"If a mortal tries to understand the world over millions of years with the perspective of a single day, wouldn't they be like a frog at the bottom of a well?"

hiss!

Upon hearing this, Ulugh Beg's eyes widened suddenly, his scalp tingling from the shock of those words.

The entire hall fell silent.

Zhu Di and the others were all shocked.