Chapter 110 Preparing for the New Year
Not only people in Yongcheng were vying for it, but people from surrounding counties were also looking to buy it.
By leveraging the fame of Chunyu Yue and Han Fei, Zhao Yuanxi spread the reputation of the newspaper and gradually received submissions from some people.
However, the quality of those articles varied greatly and someone had to review them. After much deliberation, Zhao Yuanxi decided to let Zhang Cang temporarily take over the position of editor-in-chief.
Although Zhang Cang's experience is not enough now, his cultural literacy is unquestionable. In addition, he has advantages that others do not have. Although he is a Confucian, he studied under Xunzi like Han Fei and Li Si. He has dabbled in both sides, which makes it less likely for him to make mistakes.
Obviously, this matter could not be concealed from Ying Zheng.
He asked someone to buy those issues of the newspaper and spent several hours reading them all.
Putting aside those strange stories, the content on it really makes this piece of paper worth a fortune.
In particular, Ying Zheng's fingertips slid across the thin piece of paper and landed on the two words in the corner. His eyes flickered, hiding emotions that were difficult to understand.
He suddenly laughed out loud. It was no exaggeration to say that Han Fei's value was equal to that of the entire Kingdom of Korea. It was indeed better to keep him than to kill him.
Even Ying Zheng regretted giving him to the Queen Mother. If the Queen Mother had the patience to use Han Fei for her own purposes, why couldn't he?
However, he did not want to be rejected by Han Fei again, so he planned to seize the Kingdom of Han first and then make plans slowly.
Yuanxi College, Ying Zheng muttered to himself.
The Queen Mother would cry poor to him from time to time, but she was willing to spend a lot of money on this place just to raise more Qin children.
Ying Zheng initially thought that she just couldn't bear to see those people freeze to death in the dead of winter, but now Ying Zheng felt that her plan was far more than that.
The Queen Mother was not the only one who opened private schools. Many nobles and officials also opened private schools in order to give their children the best education. However, the people who could benefit from such private schools were limited to that family and its vassals. No one was willing to teach the children of the common people.
Ying Zheng thought of the so-called enlightenment teaching materials that the Queen Mother had sent him.
He couldn't help but sneer. When she raised a bunch of pedantic Confucian people, she would know how wrong she was.
"Lü Le, put these newspapers away." Ying Zheng leaned back, rubbed his eyebrows and said slowly.
"promise!"
"My king, why don't you go and rest for a while while I prepare some food for you?"
The king did not get a good rest last night. This morning, the ministers argued for a long time at the court meeting, and then he reviewed memorials for almost three hours. After finally getting a break, the king spent so much time reading these newspapers again.
Lu Le felt that he could not hold on any longer, let alone the King of Qin who had put in so much effort.
"Can!"
Only then did Ying Zheng feel that his stomach was empty and he was a little hungry. It seemed that people did get hungry faster in winter than usual.
Ying Zheng couldn't help but sigh as he stirred the bamboo shoot soup in the bowl. He felt that the soup had no taste and was too bland. He suddenly remembered the soup he had drunk at the Queen Mother's place. The soup she made seemed quite good!
It is winter now, the time to eat winter bamboo shoots. Ying Zheng felt that the Queen Mother would definitely not miss this opportunity to taste the winter bamboo shoots.
Seeing the king take two or three sips, Lu Le put down the bowl and asked carefully, "Isn't this soup to your liking? Is there anything else your Majesty would like to eat? I'll have it prepared right away!"
"No need!" Ying Zheng waved his hand, "Have someone bring today's memorial."
Lu Le glanced at the rising moon, sighed in his heart, lit the candle in the hall, and picked up the wick to make the candle brighter.
The king will probably have to stay up late again tonight.
He resisted the urge to yawn and moved the memorials delivered today over.
Nowadays, memorials are all written on Yong paper, which is no longer as difficult as using bamboo slips. Even so, Lu Le still picked up a large pile of them and placed them on the desk to the right of the King of Qin.
The candles in the Xianyang Palace remained lit until four o'clock in the morning.
It is now the end of December and the weather is getting colder. Zhao Yuanxi doesn't want to go out at all. He has been hiding in the house these days, living a leisurely life with his grandchildren.
Zhao Yuanxi counted the days and couldn't help but sigh, "It's almost Chinese New Year!"
You was sewing a sheepskin coat for the empress dowager at the moment. When she heard this, she asked curiously, "What is the New Year?"
Zhao Yuanxi took a sip of hot tea and explained with a smile, "It's a festival for family reunion."
The Qin Dynasty celebrated the New Year by offering sacrifices, while the modern New Year is when families gather together to eat New Year’s Eve dinner and stay up all night together.
Unfortunately, neither Zhao Yuanxi, Fusu, nor Ziying ever enjoyed the feeling of family reunion.
Fusu was lucky, at least his parents were still alive. It was his father who didn't care much about the father-son relationship. Zhao Yuanxi and Ziying were in the same boat, so the two orphans were put together.
It was rare for someone to accompany her during the New Year this year. Zhao Yuanxi's eyes lit up, "How about we celebrate the New Year together this year?"
You didn't know what the Queen Mother was so happy about, but it was obvious that she was very interested, so she agreed, "The Queen Mother wants to celebrate the New Year, so let's celebrate it. But I don't know what the New Year's customs are."
Zhao Yuanxi really didn't know much about the New Year's customs. Her parents passed away early, and she was raised by relatives and friends before she was eighteen. Although they never bullied Zhao Yuanxi, they just treated her as a guest, and they considered it their duty to provide her with three meals a day as usual.
After turning eighteen, Zhao Yuanxi lived alone. She learned to cook and take care of herself. During the holidays, everyone in the laboratory would go back, but she would still stay in the laboratory.
The only difference is probably during the Chinese New Year, because the security guards have to go home, she has to go home early as well. In order to have a festive atmosphere, she will buy a lot of her favorite food and bring it home, and then learn from her neighbors to light a string of firecrackers at midnight.
The firecrackers popped for a long time, and the surroundings were extremely lively.
Zhao Yuanxi didn't find it difficult to adapt to such a life. She had always lived like this. Now that there were so many people around her, it felt a little strange.
Although it was strange, Zhao Yuanxi didn't hate it, and was even looking forward to this year's New Year's Eve.
"We can prepare a sumptuous dinner and call Fusu and Ziying over," Zhao Yuanxi pondered, and then said, "We can also prepare some bamboo in the yard and experience real firecrackers."
Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty changed the Taichu calendar and took the first month of the first lunar month as the beginning of the year, New Year's Eve was set at the end of December. On that night, people would use the crackling sound of burning bamboo to drive away the legendary beast Nian.
Zhao Yuanxi became more and more excited as she spoke, and even took out a pen and paper to start thinking about what they would eat that night. She wrote a long menu, listing almost all the dishes that could be found in this winter.
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