Chapter 214
214
Before Yang Shiming named his little girl, Cheng Yeran first gave her a nickname, Azhu, and said that she was the apple of his eye.
When Ah Zhu was still young, she was raised at home by the two of them. Since they couldn't find a suitable wet nurse, they could only feed her with milk powder temporarily.
"Is it okay to drink this?" Shen Yuntang was a little worried, but this place is not like the capital, where you can easily find ten or eight wet nurses. He looked around here but didn't find one.
"Sure. I grew up drinking milk powder." Before buying milk powder, Cheng Yeran looked up many guides and even joined a group of mothers in a shopping app. He followed the group to see what everyone else bought for their babies, and then he bought the same thing for his baby.
Shen Yuntang looked at him like this, "You really like your daughter."
Cheng Yeran recalled that when Xingxing was born, he found three wet nurses and two old women to take care of Xingxing. Yuanbao Liuya and others also sent gifts to their home every day. Xingxing grew up in the midst of endless love and affection.
Now that he has a little girl, he loves her very much and cares about her affairs, also because Ah Zhu only has the two of them and is not favored by anyone else.
"I also joined the group at that time to look after the children and postpartum care for pregnant women. Look how well I took care of you," Cheng Yeran hugged Shen Yuntang and acted coquettishly, "I am so wronged. You actually blame me for loving my little girl more."
Shen Yuntang patted his back and said, "I don't blame you. You are already a father of two children, but you still cry all the time. How will your children see you?"
As they were saying this, they looked down and found the baby in their arms was looking at them puzzledly, as if he was watching something interesting.
Cheng Yeran raised his hand to cover her eyes, "Xingxing wasn't as gossipy as you back then."
Ah Zhu giggled foolishly, making both of them laugh.
They found that Ah Zhu was very attached to the two of them. She had to pull Shen Yuntang's sleeve to fall asleep, otherwise she would cry all the time. But she would be well-behaved if their sleeves were pulled, and would not cry or make a fuss.
The two of them could only put the baby in the middle of the bed, and the baby rarely woke up at night. When he woke up, Cheng Yeran would rush to feed him or change his diaper, doing it very quietly, trying not to wake up Shen Yuntang.
Shen Yuntang was very busy at the factory and he didn't want to disturb Shen Yuntang.
However, this child is rather clingy in front of the two of them, but is rather socially anxious in front of other people. He is afraid of anyone approaching him. He will feel very uneasy after the two of them leave, and would rather not have anyone in the room, not even maids or old women.
Shen Yuntang suspected that she felt insecure because she had been abandoned once, and was afraid that the two of them were not going to work but giving her away.
Cheng Yeran was worried that the child had autism. Xingxing used to be quiet and didn't like to talk, but he was cold and would speak when necessary. He was never afraid of people, even in front of the emperor when he was a child.
Ah Zhu is very timid and doesn't dare to pay attention to anyone except the two of them.
Cheng Yeran and Shen Yuntang have had a lot of work to do recently. Cheng Yeran remembered a novel about a domineering president that his sister had read before. The domineering president brought his newborn baby to a meeting at the company, and said lovingly that the child couldn't be without people. Then people around him began to praise the president for being a good father. He didn't understand it at the time, and he still doesn't understand it now. There are so many germs outside, and he is not afraid of getting the child sick by taking him outside.
He is so busy now that he has not thought about bringing his children to meetings, so he can only try to bring work home.
The government office is short-staffed, so he plans to select a group of people from the school.
Before the school started recruiting students, he said that students would have to study for at least three years, and then take an assessment after three years. Those who performed well in the assessment could go to work in the government.
The school has only been established for more than a year, but the government is really short of people, so it will first select a group and then recruit new students.
He wrote the examination questions himself. There were many boys and girls who were good at studying. A total of eight girls and two boys took the examination, and all of them passed.
They were the prettiest and smartest children in the family and were entrusted with important tasks. Their family members thought that they would serve Lord Cheng after entering the yamen. They also thought so. However, after entering the yamen, they found that they had to deal with piles of official documents every day. Seeing Lord Cheng meant working overtime again. Their initial expectation of seeing Cheng Yeran turned into an unwillingness to see Cheng Yeran.
The first batch of clothes has been produced by Shen Yuntang's factory. The first batch of clothes was designed by Shen Yuntang himself. After the design was completed, Yuanbao was asked to be the model, and Yang Shiming drew the pictures. He illustrated the heroine of the most popular serialized novel of Yang's cousin magazine, and also placed soft advertisements in the text.
After doing all this, a fashion magazine also did a special issue on the heroine’s outfit, which was a series of clothes designed by Shen Yuntang, using the advertising method of major brands in Future magazines.
The advertisements and clothes are put on the shelves at the same time, for fear that after the advertisements are released first, someone will find a tailor to make the clothes themselves.
Women and boys of this era still don't go out to try on clothes. Some people imagine how they will look in the clothes, and buy them if they think they look good, just like online shopping in later generations. They look at pictures of models online, imagine how they will look in the clothes, and buy them when they are excited. Some people are relatively wealthy.
Whispering Wind
, will specially ask someone to send clothes to their home to try on.
These clothes are not cheap, and only young ladies from wealthy families can afford them. They are made into high-end brands first and then evaluated. They let the young ladies from wealthy families buy these clothes first, and ordinary people will follow suit. Or some ordinary people who buy clothes of this brand will mistakenly think that they can squeeze into that class by wearing clothes of the same brand.
Shen Yuntang read many books on fashion design, and later compiled a set of teaching materials to teach school students how to design clothes. Those who were good at learning would help him and participate in the design.
The first batch of clothes consisted of one thousand pieces of each style, which were shipped to the capital and several more prosperous cities. All the store opening matters were left to Yuanbao, who particularly loved opening new stores.
When he left, he took with him a batch of clothes and perfume bottles. Seeing that Cheng Yeran and Shen Yuntang were so busy and yet they still had to take care of such a young child, he hesitated for a long time and asked them, "You already have a child and four adopted sons, why don't you give the little daughter to us? Yang Shiming and I originally planned to adopt a child."
When Cheng Yeran heard this, he didn't hesitate for a second and said, "No, that's my biological child. If you want to have sex with him, you can go to the orphanage."
Shen Yuntang was reluctant to leave, especially since Ah Zhu was so attached to him. Cheng Zhao also loved this sister. The first thing he did after school every day was not to go home to play football, but to run to his sister's room. Although his sister mostly ignored him and was very afraid of him, he still liked this sister very much.
Yuanbao also likes Ah Zhu. This little girl is pretty and always looks at people with her beautiful big eyes. She is also very clingy. Although the one she is clinging to is not him, he still thinks this is his ideal child. "Since my cousin won't give it to me, then forget it. Even if we can't be father and daughter, she is still my niece. I will love her like my own child in the future."
Yuanbao rubbed Cheng Zhao's head again and said, "Remember to write to me, remember to miss me."
Liu Ya also said, "And me, don't forget, you can't be partial and only write to your uncle Yuanbao and forget to write to your uncle."
"I won't forget." Cheng Zhao was reluctant to let them go and wanted them to stay a little longer, but he was not the kind of kid who would act like a spoiled brat to get others to stay. He was looking forward to returning to the capital as soon as possible. Before leaving, he said he would write letters to the Fourth Prince and the Fifth Prince, but he wrote back twice and the other party did not reply to him, so he stopped writing.
He wanted to go back and ask them why they didn't write to him. Did something happen, or did they forget about him?
After Cheng Yeran sent Yuanbao and the others away, he went to the government office to revise the village rules. He removed those rules that could result in life-threatening punishments, such as immersing people in a pig cage, and added a few more rules, such as prohibiting domestic violence and beating one's own children to death.
He called several village heads over and handed the new village rules to them. "Take a look. Do you have any questions?"
The village chief reviewed the village rules and did not make any changes to the areas that they did not care about, but changed all the areas that they did care about.
But there were yamen runners standing next to them. If they said no, they might be beaten to death in minutes.
Several village heads wiped the sweat off their heads and said, "We can't make a decision on this. I'm afraid we have to go back and discuss it with the villagers..."
"Do you agree?" Cheng Yeran asked them.
"We, of course we agree." They nodded desperately, fearing that Cheng Yeran would beat them to death with sticks.
"Since you have agreed, pass my meaning over there. If anyone disagrees, tell him to come to me." Cheng Yeran observed their expressions while speaking. It was just as he guessed. These people were afraid of him on the surface, but in fact they were just perfunctorily trying to please him. After they went back, he would still do what he had to do.
They nodded repeatedly and said that they would go back and inform everyone of Cheng Yeran's newly revised village rules. Anyone who disagreed could go find Lord Cheng.
But they thought to themselves, Lord Cheng doesn't live in the village, so how can he know what is happening in the village.
As a result, Cheng Yeran said that he would find someone to watch them. If they did not follow the village rules, there would be punishment. For example, if they killed people at will according to the village rules, they would have to pay with their lives.
When Cheng Yeran said the word "pay with one's life", he was so scared that cold sweat broke out and he felt like his head was no longer his own.
Before, Cheng Yeran had killed several county magistrates and even the governor, let alone these few small village chiefs.
Especially now that Cheng Yeran controls the economic lifelines of several of their villages, if they make Cheng Yeran unhappy, they will continue to live a hard life in the future. If it weren't for this, they might not agree to Cheng Yeran, but since it's linked to money, they have no choice but to listen to Cheng Yeran.
…
In just three years since Cheng Yeran came here, he has turned a poor place into a prosperous one. The sugar, clothing, and glass here are sold all over the country. Merchants who come here to do business see the flat concrete floor and find Cheng Yeran and say they want to buy some cement.
This is exactly the effect Cheng Yeran wanted. The cement factory had a lot of inventory, and now it has all been sold. The workers have to work overtime every day to supply the buyers.
Cheng Yeran set a rule for several factories in the city that overtime must be paid three times the overtime pay. People here have never had such treatment before, and they are all vying to work overtime just to earn more money.
Many princes, nobles and wealthy families used cement to pave the floors of their homes. One day, Cheng Yeran received news from the palace that the imperial palace was also going to have cement roads paved.
When Cheng Yeran heard the news early in the morning, he felt it was very magical. The imperial palace also had to be paved with concrete? Am I not awake yet?
The emperor requested a large amount of cement, not only for the imperial palace, but also for his villas and summer resorts, which required cement floors.
We used floor tiles before, but they would wear out every year and had to be replaced at any time. However, cement is smooth and cheap. After it wears out, you can just apply another layer and it will be almost the same as before. It is more convenient.
Cheng Yeran thought that it was actually not convenient. If you reapply it after it gets worn out, it would easily cause a different color, cracks, and a series of other problems.
The requirements for road surfaces in small cities are not that high, but the imperial palace requires beauty, so the roads may have to be dug up and repaved frequently.
However, the emperor is rich and doesn't care about labor costs. Cement is indeed cheaper. He can make money from the emperor, so there is no need for him to say too much to the emperor.
In order to provide cement to the emperor, Cheng Yeran immediately opened a branch factory and recruited people. If the local staff were not enough, he could recruit from other places. After people from other regions heard about the wages and benefits here, many people came.
The branch factory produced cement specifically for the emperor, while the original factory continued to sell it to others.
After using cement, the emperor felt it was very good, and issued an imperial decree to Cheng Yeran, asking him to open cement factories all over the country and strive to pave roads with cement in every city in the country.
Cheng Yeran read the emperor's edict, which should mean that the cement factory should be state-owned, similar to the model of the previous sausage factory.
In addition to being used in urban construction, the cement factory still sells cement to the outside world, and the money earned is used to build urban roads.
From this perspective, Cheng Yeran has no way of making money from the cement factory.
Cheng Yeran: "This has cut off my source of income."
However, the emperor later said that the cement factory would be built by officials from all over the country. After it was completed, he would go to inspect the situation and then return to Beijing. If this matter was done well, there would be a generous reward.
The emperor said that he would reward him and would definitely not treat him unfairly, and he also mentioned that he could return to Beijing after this matter was settled. Could it be that this was to allow him to return to Beijing and resume his original position?
He felt that judging from the emperor's tone, he would not only be reinstated but might even be promoted. He was going to take away such a profitable cement factory, so he couldn't just get rid of him casually.
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