253. I Am a Good Emperor (13) (1/2)

Zhao Shuqing agreed happily. It took several months for the department store to open from the beginning. After all, he still had modern knowledge in his mind. In addition, he had a photographic memory. Even if he didn't think about it normally, he could call it up from the corners when he needed it.

Since the lazy ancient emperor ordered three years ago that if the craftsmen could make something that he thought was good, they would be rewarded with silver and released to good official positions, the spirit of the craftsmen who used to do whatever Zhao Shuqing said was completely different. Now, they often competed to make the remaining nine steps as soon as he said one step.

Although he knew that the reason why these people worked so hard was because Wei Mingyan had caught a carrot before, Zhao Shuqing had to admit that with the full help of these craftsmen and their hard work, it was indeed much easier for him to improve Liu State than he imagined.

As the Minister of Revenue, Zhao Shuqing strictly maintained the good habit of not arriving early or leaving late, and his subordinates were almost assimilated into the same temperament.

You can work as hard as you want, but after work, it's time to relax.

But on this day, when the time came, Zhao Shuqing did not leave as usual. Instead, he stopped everyone who was about to leave, picked up a stack of hard paper from the table, and distributed it to them.

Some people took the hard paper in their hands, with surprise and hesitation in their eyes, "Sir, is it okay to give these to us?"

Zhao Shuqing sent out the last coupon, his expression was still cold, and he said in a light voice, "The department store has always been busy with our Ministry of Revenue. It's just distributing a few coupons, which is nothing."

He was sending out coupons for the newly opened department store today, because the department store is backed by the court, and all kinds of goods are naturally complete. Some shops that were originally thought to have to wait were already swept away by merchants the day after the news was released.

This is a legitimate property of the imperial court. As long as they pay the rent, they will enjoy the protection of the government. Moreover, anyone with a discerning eye can see that this department store will definitely become a lively place in the future. After all, like now, it has oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, rice, seasoning, clothing, food, housing, transportation, and even toys that children like to play with. There are also yamen runners patrolling all the time. Other cities are not so bad, but the people of Kyoto will definitely come here to buy anything in the future.

The business that was originally the most unpopular, renting shops to merchants and collecting rent from the imperial court, on the contrary, made the imperial court a lot of money.

Now, the people who were still stubbornly opposing in the end shut up.

No matter what, it is worth it to make more money in the treasury.

Today is the first day of opening, and the mall will also launch a lottery service. For every ten taels of silver spent, you can get a lottery service. The highest prize is two thousand taels, the second prize is a random selection of goods worth five hundred taels, and the third prize is the coupons distributed by Zhao Shuqing to his colleagues.

Buy 100 taels and get 20 taels off, buy 200 taels and get 40 taels off, and there is a smaller discount of 1 tael off for 10 taels.

Although these discounts are not much, for ordinary people, saving one tael of silver is enough to make them happy for the whole day.

Just for the officials of the Ministry of Revenue, those who have property at home are fine, but those who don’t have property at home and live on their salaries are struggling to maintain exchanges between colleagues. This coupon of 20 taels is definitely not a small amount of money for them.

Some officials took the coupon and thanked them and put it in their arms, thinking about what to buy later, while others hesitated and asked them repeatedly whether this would be reported to others.

After all, although the department store was built by their Ministry of Revenue, it is also a national treasury property. This coupon was given to them...

"It’s okay, I’ll talk to His Majesty."

Mr. Zhao, who was in his twenties and was considered a young man in the court but had already sat on the position of Shangshu, had a cold expression, but his words warmed the heart of the person asking the question.

"Just use it. Not only our Ministry of Revenue, but also other ministries have it. You have been busy for these months, so you deserve some rewards. If you don't have enough, just come to me."

The officials present felt warmer after hearing this.

In this court, only Lord Zhao would think about his subordinates like this.

It would have been fine if he never accepted their gifts in the past. Whenever he came up with something new, he would always be fearless of rumors and insist on distributing it to everyone. Just say that last year's coal was getting colder day by day. If Lord Zhao hadn't found such a good thing, the family wouldn't know how to get through it.

After working together for six years, these officials of the Ministry of Revenue had long known that Lord Shangshu looked cold but actually had a warm heart. They all thanked him and happily took the coupons to plan how to spend them.

And Zhao Shuqing behind them silently looked at their backs, feeling a little guilty in his heart.

Previously, the emperor asked him how to make people feel safe and bold to come to this newly opened department store to shop. He was attracted by the greenhouse and talked about modern luring shopping.

Originally, he just wanted to issue coupons and then attract buyers to work hard to buy the discounted amount.

Unexpectedly, the emperor was more insidious than he thought. He directly organized a lottery. Only those who bought enough 10 taels of silver could draw once, and the prize was this coupon.

The remaining coupons were all issued to officials, so that they would be grateful and contribute to the filling of the treasury. I didn't expect that this ancient emperor was really thoughtful.

In vain, I once thought that although he was playful and a little lazy, he was still kind-hearted at least. He was really chasing geese all day long, but instead barked and pecked him.

Zhao Shuqing resigned from his post, and while sitting in the carriage, wondering if he had been tricked by this hidden emperor, he opened the curtain and looked outside.

When he looked at it, he saw that a carriage was rolling onto the newly painted concrete road, and his eyebrows immediately jumped.

Before he could ask the people in front of him to stop their cars to stop the foreigners who didn't know that they couldn't run over the newly-painted cement, a government official came over and scolded him.

The coachman also noticed the movement behind him. He also knew what his master had been busy with in the past few months. He turned to Zhao Shuqing, who was looking out, and said, "They must be people from Kyoto in the long run. There are more and more foreigners in Beijing these days." More, the villain thought, he should be here to see the department store."

Zhao Shuqing thought about it, and lost interest in looking outside. He lowered the curtain and concentrated on thinking... Well, what was he thinking about just now?

After the Zhao family's luxurious carriage left, the driver in the dusty carriage was lowering his head and accepting the scolding from the government servant. He repeatedly promised that he would never do the same thing again in the future, and then he was let go.

From the beginning to the end, no one on the carriage had the intention to lift the curtain and take a look.

It wasn't until the driver nodded and bowed his head to see off the two government servants, and drove the car all the way to Fan's house, that the woman dressed as a woman in the car got out of the car. After getting in, the maid went to knock on the door, and the woman stood there. Waiting by the door, he should be in his twenties, but he looks as old as thirty.

She was Miss Fan who was hastily married off to be a concubine to the son of a businessman six years ago. However, she was still beautiful at that time and always had a bit of arrogance in her eyebrows, but now she only has a low eyebrow.

Her half-brother has been away from home for a long time because he has been promoted in the army and was given a mansion by His Majesty in recent years. However, Mr. Fan, who has been staying put, ended up drunkenly strolling in the garden for some reason three years ago. He fell into the water. That night, everyone thought he spent the night outside. It was not until the next day that they discovered that Mr. Fan had actually been soaking in the water like this all night.

He had good luck and bad luck. The good luck was that after falling into the water, Mr. Fan actually found a piece of driftwood. Even after a night, he was still alive. The bad thing was that although he was not dead, he was soaked in the late autumn water. I was in bad health that night and almost died of a serious illness.

Later, it was Fan Yuan who asked the imperial physician in the palace and exhausted all the precious medicinal materials to save Master Fan's life. However, even the imperial physician could not make a person who had been poisoned by cold poison become the same as before. From then on, Master Fan became the same as before. He was paralyzed on the bed, his consciousness was awake and his body was still feeling, but he couldn't even say a word.

Fan Yuancai, a filial son, waited at the bedside for a long time. It was not until the war got serious and His Majesty urged him that he reluctantly left his father's bedside and left Master Fan in the care of Mrs. Fan.

Before handing it over to Mrs. Fan, he kindly told his stepmother that Mrs. Fan was raising an aunt outside, and that aunt had given birth to a son who was only one year younger than the younger brother in the house.

After receiving the news, Mrs. Fan took more care of her husband.

Master Fan lived like this for three years.

Miss Fan went to Beijing and had no choice but to go to Beijing.

She gave her body to her current husband because she wanted to marry His Majesty. Once she learned the truth, Miss Fan refused to accept this fact and ignored her husband. He was also a good-natured man and kept coaxing her. She was fine as she was, but when she had to follow her husband to Jinling and actually entered his room as a concubine, she suffered a lot.

Although Miss Fan is the daughter of an official family, she only has some banknotes given to her by Mrs. Fan, no real dowry, and her temper is extremely arrogant. Initially, her mother-in-law and the bride-in-law were a little afraid of her family background, but when they found out that Miss Fan had married After that, no Fan family members came to visit in Kyoto, and they didn't have the temperament to tolerate her anymore.

Her mother-in-law set the rules, her wife was sarcastic, her husband, who had some affection for her at first, found a new favorite, and she had nothing to do. Miss Fan truly lived a hellish six years.

At first she was not willing to give in. She cried and asked the maid she had married to deliver a letter to Fan's house, but nothing came of it.

Until later, she had completely abandoned her former self-esteem, dressed up in gaudy clothes, and lured the businessman's son to her room again. Unexpectedly, she had just been favored, and the businessman and his son went to escort the goods together and encountered bandits. The two died together in the mountains, leaving the woman alone with a family crying and crying but not knowing what to do.

The principal wife has a son, but Miss Fan has nothing to do. When she was favored before, she often squeezed the principal wife. Now her supporter has fallen. When she was in a panic and didn't know what to do, suddenly the maid next to her came running. They said that there were many debtors coming to the house, and the old lady was so angry that she fell ill. Now the wife of the wife is in charge of the house, and she is about to sell the servants and a bunch of concubines in the house to pay off the debts.

Miss Fan didn't even have to think about where she would be sent after being sold.

She immediately panicked, took her usual savings and jewelry, and hurriedly ran out with the maid while taking advantage of the chaos.

Even if the family refuses to associate with her for six years, it is still better than being sold to a dirty place like that.

What reassures Miss Fan is that although the Fan family has long been no longer the Fan family, Mrs. Fan is still her biological mother. Seeing that her daughter has become so vicissitudes in just a few years, Mrs. Fan cried a lot. Son, he welcomed his daughter back home nicely.

It's not that she didn't think about contacting her daughter at first, but Master Fan said that having such a sister who was a concubine for a businessman was not good for her son. After crying, she chose her son. But now that her daughter came to her in such a miserable way, even in her heart No matter how much she loved her son, Mrs. Fan's heart still softened.

Miss Fan returned home, only to find that this home was no longer the home she was familiar with.

There were no longer as many servants in the house as before, but only a few in each courtyard. Even her mother was no longer wearing silk and satin, and looked very ordinary.

She had previously known that her father was paralyzed on the bed and could not move, but because Fan Yuancai's reputation had spread to Jinling, she thought that Fan Jiajian was in the emperor's heart. On the way back, she thought of finding a good husband based on her status as Fan Yuancai's sister, but nothing happened. I thought that my home was so shabby.

When her daughter asked about this, Mrs. Fan's smile became a little ugly, "There have been constant wars in the past few years. Your eldest brother was given a house by His Majesty. He is not in Beijing all the time. I can't see him for a month." His once."

Miss Fan was immediately surprised and asked, "Didn't my eldest brother always respect my mother? Didn't he take the initiative to show filial piety?"

There was a hint of bitterness on Mrs. Fan's face, "Your eldest brother is no longer what he used to be."

After many years of war, he was no longer the young man who was easily fooled and admired her.

When Master Fan was paralyzed on the bed, he could do the evil thing of starving his own father for three days, and he never avoided Mrs. Fan. Even though he was sure of her, he still hoped that his youngest son would grow up safely.

Thinking of the few times her daughter had tricked Fan Yuan, she quickly pulled Miss Fan and warned her carefully, "When you come back, stay well. Mother will find your husband's family for you, but don't bother your elder brother."

Miss Fan agreed verbally, but she disagreed in her heart.

In her heart, Fan Yuancai was still the person who could run to the Prime Minister's Mansion regardless of his reputation and make a fuss with just a word from her. As long as she begged in front of him, she would surely get a good marriage.

What she was more concerned about at the moment was Zhao Shuqing, who had made an engagement and was now a minister, but had never married.

Why has he always refused to marry a wife?

Is it for her?

On the night when Miss Fan returned home, the department store opened, and the people who had been waiting for a long time gathered around cautiously. They held money in their arms but looked at the government officials standing by the door with long knives in their hands. Dare to go in.

The officials who had received the coupons issued by the imperial court were the first to go in. Seeing them really choosing and hanging out inside, the common people walked in with a little excitement.

Speaking of which, they could be considered shopping with the officials.

The lottery draws outside the door never stopped, and the excitement continued at night.

The next day is the Lantern Festival.

Zhao Shuqing took the opportunity to launch the Lantern Festival event in the mall, offering buy one get one free for items of one or two.

Of course, before putting up this sign, each merchant raised the price first.

Suddenly, the shopping mall became more lively.

On this day in Kyoto, there are stars everywhere. People hold lanterns and walk among the crowd, wandering around looking for fun.

Wei Mingyan was also walking around. As he was walking around, he saw a man with a child riding on his neck. The father and son passed by them smiling.

He closed the folding fan in his hand and enthusiastically suggested to Zhao Shujiu, who was dressing up as a man next to him, "When our child is born, I will try this too."

Although she had long been accustomed to his lack of tone, Zhao Shujiu couldn't help but blush on her fair cheeks, and reminded her in a low voice, "This... I'm afraid it's not very elegant."

"It doesn't matter if it's unsightly. As long as it's not written in the law that you can't do it, I can do it."

After Wei Mingyan finished speaking, he smiled at the people beside him, "Unconsciously, it has been eight years since you and I made the engagement. In the first year, we went to Jiangnan, in the second year, we went to Miaozhou, and in the third year we arrived Let’s take a look at Xucheng and see if there’s anything else we can add.”

Zhao Shujiu really thought about it seriously and suggested, "I heard that the scenery around the city is famous."

"Okay, then add You Cheng."

The emperor agreed very happily. Anyway, it was not fun to go anywhere.

After the two of them discussed it, they happily went shopping together. In the past few years, they were used to hanging out together. They were familiar with each other, eating, drinking, and having fun together until late at night, when everyone was almost gone. Then he walked to the Prime Minister's Mansion very reluctantly.

Zhao Shujiu was still feeling pity on the way, "If we had known that it would disperse so quickly, we should have eaten vegetarian food first."

"It's okay. I'll leave the court early tomorrow and we'll have dinner together then."

"And the clear water surface of Jiang Ji."

"We'll eat Qingshui Noodles the day after tomorrow. I heard from Zhang Yuan today that there's a new bun shop in the back street. It tastes good. Do you want to go there the day after tomorrow?"

Zhao Shujiu was about to happily agree, when he suddenly thought of something and paused, hesitantly touched his round belly from what he had eaten today and his face that was still slightly round even though he was almost eighteen years old, hesitantly said , "I seem to have gained some weight these days."

"You're still young, you're just growing fat."

Zhao Shujiu was immediately amused. At this moment, there were no pedestrians on the street except for their guards, and they no longer avoided any names. "Your Majesty, please don't tease me. I'm so big, how can I still grow taller?"

She suddenly remembered that in the past few years, every time His Majesty coaxed her to go out to play, he told her to eat more to keep healthy, although she did like to eat those things.

"In life, eat, drink and be merry."

"But if you get fat, you will be laughed at by others..."

The man who was still handsome even though he was about to turn thirty naturally stretched out his hand and pinched the flesh on her face. His eyes were serious and gentle that Zhao Shujiu was not used to, "Just like it, don't worry about anything else."

"My queen, why do you need to care about other people's opinions?"

Zhao Shujiu's face heated up, "Your Majesty..."

"His Majesty."

Zhao Shuqing, who happened to be back at this time, saw this scene as soon as he came over. His eyes widened a little on his usually expressionless face. He walked forward quickly and crossed between the two of them.

Under his rare angry gaze, Wei Mingyan chuckled and slowly retracted his hand, "Why is Shuqing returning home now, but it's too late?"

Zhao Shuqing's face seemed to darken again, and every word he spoke seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth, "I need to take care of the shopping mall, but it is not like His Majesty who can go around and have fun."

"You can just leave these matters to the people below, so why do you have to show up in person." The emperor seemed not to notice Zhao Shuqing's dark expression at all, and still said with a smile, "Look, don't I just worry about everything?" Have you given it to me?”

Thank you very much!

"Okay, isn't it good that you've been busy for a while? In this way, you can have a good rest tomorrow. The Lantern Festival will be lively for a few days, so you don't have to worry about anything and have fun."

That's pretty much it.

After getting a holiday, Zhao Shuqing's depression was immediately relieved.

Although he thought that his sister would marry the man in front of him soon, but seeing that they got along well and that the ancient emperor really insisted on not having another woman for eight years, the injustice in his heart slowly disappeared again.

Although he has been complaining behind his back, I have to say that as an ancient person, this emperor was a little lazy, a little playful, a little self-motivated, a little cheeky, a little shameless, a little whimsical, and other things. not bad.

At least it's nice to be given a vacation.

Zhao Shuqing slept soundly that night, and happily waited until the next day. When he got up early, he looked at this pot of flowers and then at that pot of flowers. Then he put on his coat with satisfaction and prepared to go to the shopping mall greenhouse to continue admiring his flowers.

As soon as he went out, he didn't know how he bumped into a woman. Seeing the woman squealing in surprise, she was knocked to the ground. Zhao Shuqing, who obviously didn't touch him much, flashed the idea of ​​touching porcelain in his mind. word.

Oh, no, this is modern time, there is no old lady touching porcelain.

The woman was still on the ground clutching her ankle and screaming in pain, with no one around her. Zhao Shuqing, as a good person trained in modern times with comprehensive development of moral, intellectual, physical, artistic and labor, naturally had to extend his kind hand.

"Come on, get up quickly."

Miss Fan on the ground couldn't help but blush when she heard this voice that was faint but sounded extraordinarily gentle because of her appearance. She stretched out her hand timidly and placed it on Zhao Shuqing's palm.

When she managed to stand up, Miss Fan relaxed slightly and thanked her softly, "Thank you, sir."

"You're welcome."

Zhao Shuqing asked very kindly, "Mom, if you are in severe pain, why don't you take me to a medical clinic?"

Big, aunt?

The shyness on Miss Fan's face immediately fell, and she looked at the handsome man in front of her in disbelief.

When I saw the innocence on his face, the grief and anger in my heart became even deeper.

She took back her hand and ran away crying with tears. The maid who was hiding on the side quickly followed, leaving Zhao Shuqing alone standing there with a confused look on her face.

"My lord, what are you looking at?"

The boy behind him finally found his lost master and hurriedly came up to him.

Zhao Shuqing frowned and turned around, "Nothing."

This lady can run so fast even though her foot is sprained.

The author has something to say: The first ten little angels have given out red envelopes and are ready to finish. Good night everyone.