222, another cold winter
222, another cold winter
By the end of winter, their new workshop was finally built, and they hired a group of people to work there. His father also selected suitable people from among them and hired them to be managers of the two new workshops and to be responsible for external sales.
These two new workshops were not exclusively owned by their family. According to the original investment ratio, his adoptive father held 20%, Zhang Lingxuan and Ye Zhuoran each held 10%, and their family alone held 60%.
Zhang Lingxuan and Ye Zhuoran invested the money and only took the dividends. Therefore, the primary responsibility was still their family, with his adoptive father also taking on some responsibilities.
Lu Mingfei had originally asked two friends to invest in their new workshop because they were short on cash. Thinking they might have money, he approached them, and they immediately offered to invest in their new workshop.
Of course, although they have a good relationship, the two parties still signed a cooperation agreement, which clearly stated the initial investment and subsequent dividends on paper.
However, this was a personal investment by Zhang Lingxuan and Ye Zhuoran, and their families were not involved. As for whether Ye Zhuoran and Zhang Lingxuan's families gave them money to invest in them, Lu Mingfei did not know.
Two months ago, Lu Mingfei had given his father a plan for the new workshop. Since then, aside from helping his family secure two new investors, he hadn't been involved in the rest of the project. He hadn't had much time to leave the city during that time, not even to visit the new workshop.
However, he taught his family the methods of papermaking and pen making, and asked Zhang Qi to go to the new workshop to help and serve as a guiding master.
Zhang Qi had participated in the entire papermaking process with him and knew how to make paper. Since he had nothing else to do recently, Lu Mingfei sent Zhang Qi to help his father.
As for himself, he has been staying at home studying during this period.
He now went back to the Imperial College twice a month to take his accumulated essays back to his teacher for review and to exchange books at the library. As for classes at the Imperial College, he stopped attending them.
In fact, if it weren't for the many people chasing after him and disturbing his studies, Lu Mingfei would have actually liked the atmosphere of the Imperial College. However, studying at home was also good; he could arrange his own time, and without any noise or people disturbing him, he could concentrate more deeply on his studies.
During this period, every ten-day weekend, Zhang Lingxuan, Ye Zhuoran, and their senior brother would come to his place. He had sorted out the exam questions from previous years and made a few mock exams. They would get together and study and practice together.
He also prepared an extra copy of these papers and asked their senior brothers to take them back to their master.
However, their teacher Fu said that he would not participate in next year's provincial examination. In their teacher Fu's words, he felt that he was lucky to pass the provincial examination this time, and he did not have high hopes for the examination next year. He did not want to waste this time and affect his teaching to students.
Therefore, even though several students went to persuade their teacher together, their teacher refused to give in and agree to go with them to take part in the imperial examination next year.
Seeing that they couldn't persuade Teacher Fu, they had no choice but to give up.
Lu Mingfei didn't continue to persuade her because he believed everyone had the right to choose their own life. Their teacher, as an adult with years of experience teaching, must have his own opinions. Since their teacher had made his current decision, it must have been after careful consideration. Because of this, no amount of persuasion would be of any use.
In fact, their teacher opened a private school in Kyoto Prefecture, teaching and educating people. He lived a relaxed and leisurely life without any disputes or conspiracies. It was much more comfortable than being an official in the court.
This year's winter seems to be even colder than last year, and heavy snow has been falling continuously.
Lu Mingfei stayed at home reading all day, but he was not completely unaware of what was happening outside.
In recent years, natural disasters and man-made disasters have continued, and there has been a war in the north. The price of food in the city has risen sharply, and ordinary people have had a very difficult life. Although the adults in his family never said anything in front of him, he also knew that the business of the braised food shop and the pancake shop was not so good now.
However, after winter arrived, the hot pot restaurant they jointly opened was doing quite well. Kyoto Prefecture was already flooded with students taking exams, and most of them were wealthy, often treating their guests to meals at their hot pot restaurant. Compared to larger restaurants, their hot pot restaurant was quite affordable, offering both meat and vegetables, and the food was quite tasty, making it affordable for these scholars.
If it weren't for these candidates, their hot pot restaurant's business would probably be very mediocre.
As soon as the cold winter comes, people die. Some die of starvation, some die of freezing, and some die of disease. It is difficult for the elderly and children to survive such a cold winter.
Every day, there were several porridge stalls in the city and outside the city, and many people lined up there waiting to get a bowl of porridge. One day, when he was out and about, he passed by and saw that the porridge was all water, with only a few grains of rice in a bowl. How could the victims be fed?
But despite this, there are still many people queuing up to get a bite to eat.
As for the imperial court, there have been no measures to provide relief to the victims recently.
It’s said that the imperial court has no money, but I heard that life in the palace is no different from before. Today is the emperor’s birthday, and tomorrow is the empress dowager’s birthday, and both are celebrated with great grandeur.
The wealthy families in Kyoto still live a luxurious life.
But that was money in other people's pockets, and they couldn't demand that others use their money to help the victims. But the emperor and the ministers were different. This world belonged to the Zhao family, and the people outside the city were the people of Dayan. The ministers could ignore the victims, but the emperor had to.
However, as mere scholars, they could not influence the king's behavior or demand what he should do regarding the affairs of the court.
The only thing they can do is to recruit as many people as possible to work in the workshop.
Because their family has little money now, the refugees they recruited later have not been paid yet, but they will be given food, which is better than the free porridge outside.
Many elderly, weak, women, and children were sent to the mountains behind their village to reclaim wasteland and grow mushrooms. They also grew vegetables indoors during the winter. However, the winter harvest was too low. Therefore, they didn't dare take too many refugees back, fearing they wouldn't have enough food and would starve to death.
If it were spring, it would be fine. These people would be able to survive on their own with just a hoe.
It was snowing outside at night, so Lu Mingfei stayed in his room, warming himself by the fire and reading.
He was in the house and seemed to hear someone opening the door outside the yard, and then footsteps came to the door of his room.
“Knock knock—”
Without thinking, Lu Mingfei knew who would come to his house at this time.
He quickly got up and opened the door, letting the person outside in. As he closed the door, he glanced at the falling snow outside and asked the person who came in, "It's snowing so hard outside, why did you come out?"
Zhao Lang handed the cloak he took off to Lu Mingfei and looked at Lu Jieyuan without saying a word.
"Why are you staring at me? Go sit over there and warm yourself by the fire." Lu Mingfei took the cloak from the young master and hung it on the wooden rack in the room. He asked the man, "Have you had dinner yet?"
"...Not yet." Zhao Lang stood in front of the fireplace, warming his hands, and turned sideways to look at the young man standing beside him.
"Wait here for a moment. I'll go to the kitchen and get some food." Lu Mingfei knew that this man must have been busy somewhere so late, and he was still running to his place in the middle of the night. He couldn't just go to the kitchen and get some food just because he saw this young master's belly.
Zhao Lang grabbed Lu Mingfei's hand and stopped him from going outside. "It's cold outside. Stay here and let the people outside bring it in."
"Okay, I'll tell the people outside."
Lu Mingfei asked Zhao Lang to let go of his hand. He walked to the window, pushed it open a little, and said to the people outside: "Guard Sun, go to the kitchen and get some food. It's warming up on the stove. Just get whatever you want." He was studying at home. His mother was afraid that he would be hungry while studying, so she had someone send food here twice a day.
The food that was delivered was kept on the stove, and he would take it and eat it when he was hungry.
Zhang Qi recently went out of town to help, so here he and Guard Ma were the only ones left. Guard Ma wasn't the kind of person who could take care of others, but luckily he wasn't a child who needed someone to take care of him.
"Yes." Upon hearing this, the guard outside went to the kitchen opposite to find food.
After a while, there was a knock on the door.
Lu Mingfei came over and opened the door, took the tray in, placed it on the low table in the room, and called to the people who were still standing by the fire, "Come and eat."
Hearing this, Zhao Lang turned around and walked over, sitting down on another empty recliner.
"There's not much food today, so just eat a little and fill your stomach." Lu Mingfei placed the bowl and chopsticks in front of Zhao Lang, signaling him to eat. He turned around and fetched the copper kettle on the fireplace, poured himself a cup of hot water, and sat down to drink it slowly.
Neither of them spoke, and the room was silent for a while.
After Lu Mingfei put down his teacup, he continued reading a book beside him. Suddenly, he heard Zhao Lang ask him, "If I go back to Beijun in the future, will you go with me?"
After realizing what Zhao Lang had asked him, he looked up at the person who asked him the question.
When Zhao Lang looked at him, he did not answer the question Zhao Lang asked him immediately.
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