"Guess who I ran into when I went out today?" Zhou Xiya poured Li Mu a cup of tea and watched him eat.

"Who? What other acquaintances do you have in the South? ”

"Li Aoxue, I saw her in the temple, she said that she was going to marry Xiao Jingqing, let me go to her wedding banquet." Zhou Xiya said casually.

"Really? I said, when I saw Xiao Jingqing today, I saw her brother, and it seems that both of their brothers and sisters have defected to Xiao Jingqing. Li Mu nodded.

"But she's hostile to me, and I guess the last thing she wants to see at a wedding is me." Zhou Xiya smiled self-deprecatingly.

"Then you should stay away from her, and be careful when you go out, I have seen that girl, she is a scheming person, and such people rarely come and go." Li Mu reminded uneasily.

"I know, am I suffering from the pond fish?" Zhou Xiya was very helpless, Li Aoxue wanted to get Xiao Jingqing, so she worked Xiao Jingqing, what was the matter with her.

"It's because she's too unconfident, a smart woman will attack a man, if that man has her in his heart, no matter how many women outside, if a man has a lot of thoughts, he can't prevent it." Li Mu smiled, I have seen a lot of such things, three wives and four concubines were allowed in ancient times, but modern monogamy is not the same as three times, this is the root of men's inferiority, thousands of years, it is not so easy to change.

"Do you have that flowery mind?" Zhou Xiya looked at Li Mu with a smile.

Li Mu suddenly felt a chill on his body, and hurriedly raised his hand to assure, "I am absolutely wholeheartedly devoted to you, as long as you are a woman in this life." In the future, as long as you accompany me in my coffin, it will be too crowded if there are more others. ”

"Hmph, believe you for the time being, if you dare to do something sorry for me, I will divorce you, take your children to marry, and let your children call someone else's father." Zhou Xiya threatened.

"Are you willing?" Li Mu smiled, Zhou Xiya's words were not threatening at all in his opinion.

"Of course I am willing, there is a large forest outside, why do I have to hang yourself on a tree with a crooked neck." Zhou Xiya was not convinced.

"Wait until my side of the matter is taken care of. I'll take you out for a good walk. After that, we will leave Yingtianfu and take you to find your uncle, I already know his whereabouts, and I should be able to find them if I go. Li Mu changed the subject.

"Okay. But how is your business going? Zhou Xiya couldn't stop nodding. I was finally able to see my uncle and aunt. I don't know how the two are doing now.

"It's still talking, such a big deal of business can't be negotiated at once, Marquis Xiao prepares the army. It is impossible to expand the army all at once, after all, the new emperor has just taken the throne, and when he has not made any big mistakes, how can Marquis Xiao raise the anti-flag. Li Mu sneered, if Zhou Guangxun hadn't told him about this matter, he wouldn't have known that these families were actually making such arrangements.

"Could it be that these people are still forcing the new emperor to do something wrong?" Zhou Xiya was taken aback, although she didn't like the third prince and knew that he would not be a good emperor, but if you lead an emperor to do something wrong, then this energy is too great, and who in this country has the final say.

"What's wrong with this, the lifeblood of the country is controlled by these big families, seventy percent of the officials of the imperial court come from the family, and even the people who serve around the emperor are also bought by the family, if they lead the emperor to do something, it is not easy, when the time comes, the infamy will be carried by the emperor, and they secretly take advantage, which is one of the reasons for the frequent replacement of dynasties in the past hundred years, because the emperor is their agent, if the emperor harms the interests of the family, they will pull the emperor off the horse, The family has a large amount of food, even weapons, and an army in their hands, they are not afraid of the imperial court, and they don't care who is the emperor. Li Mu is familiar with history, so he naturally knows these situations, and the original intentions of many emperors are good, but when the decree is promulgated, it has changed and become a policy to bring disaster to the country and the people, and the reason is not because the people below do it, because good policies damage their interests.

"Indeed, how can this be changed?" Zhou Xiya frowned, she also knew in this situation, taking their family as an example, the father and brother in the family were all officials in the imperial court, because they were from a family, so it was easy to arrange a position, even if it was a worse family, a small position could be arranged, which was much easier than the promotion of the children of the poor family, the children of the poor family did not know how many years to stay up to a high position, and the children of the family could easily get it.

"The family has books in its hands, it has talents, this is the foundation of the family, and the plan for today is to vigorously cultivate more readers, so that the cold family can rise, and impact the foundation of the family, but this is not something that can be done overnight, which emperor knows, but he can't do it." Li Mu flipped through the books on the table, without books, how can he train more readers, the current paper is too expensive, and the printing technology is not good, this is the biggest problem.

"Now books are too expensive, books are less paper expensive, it is not easy to train a reader, the average family can't afford it at all, but the family has strong financial resources, they have more books in their hands, and the talents they have cultivated are indeed better than those from poor families, which is undeniable, because their starting point is high, and they treat people and things differently, they understand the rules of officialdom, and they also have funds in their hands, and it is easier for them to do things, and the funds and connections are their capital, and these are the most lacking in the children of the poor family, It is definitely not so easy for the children of the poor family to rise, their foundation is too weak, they can't withstand the coercion and temptation of the family, and many outstanding talents finally join the family to serve it, this is a vicious circle, and it is really not easy to change this situation. Zhou Xiya shook her head, she has seen a lot of such things, the strategists beside her father are from a poor family, but where is it so easy to enter the court as an official, although she is only eight buckets, she is not a strategist by her father's side in the end, which is still lucky.

"It's man-made, it's not that hard to break out of their cage, how about reading this book?" Li Mu handed the book in his hand to Zhou Xiya.

Zhou Xiya flipped through it casually, and found that the paper of this book was not the same as what they usually used, it was more fine, and it was more comfortable to touch, but I didn't see anything printed on it, "Is there anything strange about this book?" ”

"This is the new paper produced in my workshop, this paper is finer than the current use, and the price is one-fifth of the current paper, if the large quantities are listed, the price will be lower, this is not the most important, the important thing is the words on it, this book takes movable type printing, not a stereotyped way of printing, this way of printing will be more convenient, as long as there is enough paper, you can print as much as you want, and greatly improve the efficiency of printing, you can print more books, instead of a brush of a book as it is now, First to engrave a set of stereotypes and then print, as long as there are more books, back to train more readers, so that after ten years, twenty Chinese New Year's Eve, or even more time, these readers rise, there is the power to compete with the family, as long as the imperial court controls the army, masters the readers, the family wants to pull the emperor off the horse like now, it is not so easy. Li Mu was a little proud, he couldn't come for nothing, he had to do something.

"You're so powerful, if you put these things on the market, the family will hate you to death, and they will definitely get rid of you quickly." Zhou Xiya's eyes couldn't help but widen.

"So I'm not going to put these things on the market now, especially when the situation is unstable now, I'm waiting, and I can take advantage of this time to continue to improve the process, and actually use this technology in exchange for greater benefits." Li Mu's eyes were full of calculations, he was not as selfless as a grand duke.

"Are you going to trade this technology for an official position?"

"There are such plans," Li Mu did not deny.

"I know that you are very ambitious, and you will not be satisfied with being a businessman." Zhou Xiya smiled bitterly.

"No matter what I do, I'm still me, Li Mu who will always be good to you." Li Mu touched Zhou Xiya's cheek and said comfortingly.

Zhou Xiya just smiled, she was very uncertain about the future.

Within a month of the emperor's death, the new emperor wanted to ascend the throne as the emperor, announcing to the world, because the first emperor died suddenly, so the mourning was very short, and he was buried soon.

Zhou Xiya stood in front of the window, looking at the heavy rain outside, "The new emperor has ascended the throne".

――――――――

In the palace, the previous three princesses became queens, Zhou Xiwan, the side concubine, now became concubines, and the other concubines of the three princes became lower-level concubines.

Early in the morning, Zhou Xiwan, supported by the palace maid, came to the queen's bedroom to ask for peace and entered the palace, and the rules in the palace were stricter than when she was in the palace.

"See the queen's mother" The concubines saluted.

"Get up," the queen smiled slightly, looking at the woman standing below, she was full of pride.

"The emperor's funeral is in the past, but His Majesty wants to give the emperor a year of filial piety, within this year, everyone in the harem must be cautious in words and deeds, concubine, you are the only concubine, but also to set an example for the sisters, in order to show respect and remembrance to the emperor, you must not wear bright clothes, the jewelry on your head is taken down by the palace, concubine, look at your appearance, what you know is the concubine, and you don't know that you think it is a woman in the dust, Your Majesty is doing filial piety, what do you wear so fancy." The queen scolded Zhou Xiwan.

"The concubine knows her mistake, and she will change her clothes when she goes back, the concubine is just because she is overly sad because of the death of the emperor these days, and she thinks that wearing some bright clothes can make her feel better, since the queen said no, the concubine will change, the concubine can rest assured, the concubine will also help the concubine urge the sisters, so that everyone can wear plain" Zhou Xiwan spoke in a circle.

"Hmph, let's go, follow the palace to greet the Queen Mother, the Queen Mother is in a bad mood these days, remember not to upset her old man, take care of your mouth." The queen glared at Zhou Xiwan, put her hand on her grandmother's arm, and walked out slowly. (To be continued......)

PS: It's snowing heavily, the weather is very cold, you have to wear more clothes when you go out, the road is not easy to walk, the idea of travel is safe, it's really cold outside, it's almost frozen into a dog, my puppy has never seen snow, I love to play in the snow on a cold day, people are about to freeze into dogs, but dogs are not afraid of cold......