Wu Mei held her forehead and sighed repeatedly, feeling helpless and overwhelmed. What kind of son had she given birth to? This... this... this... she could even imagine this!
Wu Mei held the wood in her hand and pondered. This was not something that could be created out of thin air just by relying on her cleverness. She knew in her heart what this thing made by Li Hong meant! This was simply a feat for the Tang Dynasty.
If you think about it carefully, this is much more convenient and faster than the woodblock bookmaking method commonly used in the Tang Dynasty. Moreover, if there is a typo, it is easy to change it. Such small wooden blocks are convenient to store, while if a large woodblock is damaged by a few words, or more words, it will be completely discarded and cannot be used.
Wu Mei held her forehead and sighed. Outside the door, the straight and thin figure was kneeling there, looking a little lonely and pitiful, as if he had suffered a great injustice.
"What's wrong, Hong'er? What wrong did you do to get caught by your mother again?" Li Zhi rubbed Li Hong's head with a smile, and did not let him get up. Instead, he walked past him and directly entered the palace without giving Li Hong a chance to speak.
Li Hong let Li Zhi rub his head and continued to kneel there, his ears perked up, waiting for his father to tell him to get up quickly, the ground was very cold. Unfortunately, everything did not go as he wished, Li Zhi ignored him.
Now Wu Mei is the mistress of the harem, and everything in the harem is decided by Wu Mei. Naturally, Li Zhi will no longer make excuses for Li Hong as he did before, and he still has to give the queen face in public.
"What's going on?" Li Zhi looked back at Li Hong, then at Wu Mei, who stood up and saluted him with her hand on her forehead and sighed as soon as she came in, and asked lightly.
"Alas...I...I really don't know what sin I have committed to give birth to such a person for Your Majesty who makes you worry every day. Take a look." Wu Mei handed the block of wood in her hand to Li Hong.
...
...
Li Zhi took the small wooden block in confusion, turned it over and over in his hand, and asked, "What is this?"
Wu Mei said nothing, then showed him the few words she had just copied on the paper.
Li Zhi looked at the paper and then at the piece of wood in his hand. Although he didn't understand why Wu Mei asked him to look at these, he was very familiar with the handwriting above.
After court today, Shangguan Yi showed him the "Admonitions to My Son" that Li Hong had copied a hundred times as punishment. The handwriting on it was exactly the same as this one. The handwriting on the hundred sheets of paper was so neat that it looked like it was carved from a template.
Li Zhi still remembered Shangguan Yi's puzzled expression. He stroked his beard and shook his head in confusion, saying, "Your Majesty, this... It is well known that the King of Dai is intelligent, but he is so young and has a child's mentality. I punished him to copy the "Admonitions to My Son" a hundred times, and he was able to copy it so neatly. But every word looks too neat."
Li Zhi also said at the time: "Isn't this great? It shows that my son Honger has grown up and his character has gradually stabilized."
"But..." Shangguan Yi thought for a moment and said, "Your Majesty, it's not that I doubt that the King of Dai is very smart and has worked very hard. It's just that the handwriting is exactly the same. It doesn't look like handwriting at all. And you see, with a child's mind, how can he calm down and copy it 100 times? Even if I were to copy it 100 times, I would not be able to make the handwriting on every piece of paper exactly the same."
Li Zhi reached out and took the thick stack of "Admonitions to My Son" copied by Li Hong from Shangguan Yi and given to him by Yang Wu. In one hand he held the paper with a few words given by Wu Mei, and in the other hand he held the complete "Admonitions to My Son". He looked at the handwriting on the two pieces of paper carefully and found that they were exactly the same, as if they were engraved on a woodblock.
"This...is this Hong'er's handwriting?" Li Zhi asked puzzledly.
"Please print this word on the block and see." Wu Mei was really troubled. How could this little guy think of this? Could it be that Wenquxing from heaven had descended to earth? Otherwise, how could a little kid like him actually make such a convenient printing?
Li Zhi followed Wu Mei's wishes and printed a character on a piece of wood that Wu Mei had chosen, and it looked like the right size.
Wu Mei picked up a wooden block dipped in ink, took the paper from Li Zhi's hand, and without hesitation, copied the blank space of the neatly written "Admonitions to My Son".
Li Zhi looked at Wu Mei's behavior in surprise. When Wu Mei raised her jade hand, he was shocked to see the word "husband" written on the place where the wood block had been rubbed.
"Now you understand, why would that little guy take the time and effort to copy the "Admonitions to My Son"? We were all deceived by him. He just made a rubbing of it." Wu Mei said unhappily, glaring fiercely at the little figure staggering at the door.
"Impossible." Li Zhi immediately denied: "If the "Admonitions to My Son" was printed from woodblocks, then what about the "Thousand Characters"? Could it be that Hong'er has two woodblocks?"
"Alas... this is why that little thing gives me a headache, and why I can't guard against it, Your Majesty. The characters he made are all alive. If you need to copy a certain sentence, just find the characters engraved with that sentence, and then arrange them neatly, and then you can copy it."
"No need for engraving?" Li Zhi's voice rose an octave. This... this is incredible. How did the little guy come up with this idea? Could it be Shangguan Yi? Impossible. Shangguan Yi was still confused.
"No need." Wu Mei sighed, "That kid called this 'movable type printing'. With it, if you want to print a book, you just need to carve the words on this block of wood. You don't need to keep so many engraved blocks like before. If any word is broken, you can just replace it with a new one."
Li Zhi had completely understood it at this moment. His face flushed with excitement. He stood up quickly and paced back and forth, "Great, great! Hong'er has done a great deed for our Tang Dynasty. Yes, in this way, wouldn't it be very easy for us to preserve and print any books? We no longer need to waste time, effort and materials on carving plates. No matter how many words a book has, with Hong'er's movable type printing, it will be more convenient than anything else!"
Wu Mei smiled and watched Li Zhi walking around excitedly. Her eyes showed bitter helplessness towards Li Hong, as well as a mother's pride and satisfaction for her son.
"How did he do it?" Li Hong stopped and asked.
Wu Mei smiled and shook her head, her red lips parted and she said slowly: "I don't know, maybe this little thing was forced out by Shangguan Yi."
The two smiled at each other and looked outside the door together, only to see a small figure kneeling there and sleeping, with his butt raised high, half of his face pressed against the ground, and drool flowing from his mouth onto the ground.
Wu Mei's face turned cold, and her gaze like a sharp sword frightened Xia Zhi and Mang Zhong. They hurried to the door and hugged the sleeping Li Hong.
"Put it in the dormitory and wait until he wakes up before taking it away." Wu Mei said as she glanced at the scenery outside the door.
Wu Mei still felt distressed when she saw Li Hong falling asleep after kneeling for a while. She thought that he did not sleep well last night, otherwise he would not be so sleepy today and could fall asleep while kneeling.
Li Zhi looked at Li Hong who was sleeping soundly as he passed by. The blush on his face due to excitement had not completely subsided. Looking at Li Hong's well-behaved appearance while he was sleeping soundly, he couldn't help but reach out his hand and gently pinched Li Hong's little face. Then he watched Li Hong being carried into the dormitory by Xia Zhi.
"My son is truly a child prodigy. In recent days, there have been rumors that my son is the god of literature who has descended to earth. It seems that it is true. Haha... He has accomplished such a remarkable feat. Queen, how should I reward him?"
Wu Mei looked at her husband who was in high spirits, with a hint of worry between her brows. She slowly opened her mouth and recited: "Last night, the rain was sparse and the wind was strong, and I couldn't sleep off the hangover. I asked the person who rolled up the curtains, but he said the crabapple tree was still the same. Do you know, do you know? It should be green and fat, red and thin."
"Huh? Is this the Queen's new work?" Li Hong asked, attracted by Wu Mei's reciting poetry.
Wu Mei smiled bitterly and shook her head: "It was the little thing in the dormitory who did it."
Li Zhi repeated it several times in a low voice, his brows gradually wrinkled, and he couldn't help but shake his head and sighed: "This seems to be a metaphor. Did Honger not sleep well last night?"
Wu Mei lowered her head and adjusted her clothes. Red and green have always been her favorite colors, especially her underwear, which were basically green or red. As for the outer shirts and skirts, when she first entered the palace, she often wore light green shirts and skirts.
"I will test him one day to see if he wrote this poem." Wu Mei walked up to Li Zhi, stood shoulder to shoulder with him, and said with a smile.
The two of them tacitly skipped over what happened in the harem last night. No one wanted to talk about those depressing things at this time.
Li Hong inside had already woken up the moment Xia Zhi picked him up. He listened to Wu Mei reciting the Ru Meng Ling that he had recited this morning, and silently said in his heart: "Do you know, do you know, it should be to depose Wang and establish Wu."
As for why his mother knew the poem he had recited this morning, Li Hong was not surprised at all. It would be strange if his mother did not know. Although he had the memory of nine lifetimes, his child's body could not consume too much of his thoughts, and he fell asleep again without realizing it.
When he woke up again, Li Zhi had left his mother's bedroom and returned to Ganlu Palace. Wu Mei sat on the bed and looked at Li Hong, whose eyes were rolling around. She pinched his nose and said, "Little thing, are you awake?"
The palace maid next to him hurriedly brought a wet towel to wipe Li Hong's face, and then after Li Hong woke up, she began to serve Li Hong and the Queen meal.
Li Hong ate a few mouthfuls in a hurry, and teased Li Xian in Wu Mei's arms again, making him cry. He wiped his mouth and said, "Mother, I'm leaving now. I have things to do when I go back."
"You little thing..." Wu Mei hurriedly coaxed Li Xian, who was crying because of Li Hong, in her arms. When she wanted to slap him, she saw the little figure had already walked out of the door, and Xia Zhi and Mangzhong followed closely behind, slowly disappearing from her sight.
The moist air in the early morning has been evaporated by the scorching sun. The high temperature of the sun and the lifeless air combine to create the sultry heat that has persisted this summer.
While walking on the path in the back garden, he suddenly heard a little head hidden among the flowers shouting at him: "Li Hong, come here."
Li Hong stopped and looked at the black head next to the flowers. A golden hairpin on the bun was shining brightly, gleaming with a dazzling light.
"What's the matter? Don't hide it. The hairpin on your head has already betrayed you. You are so stupid." Li Hong said unhappily.
Yi Yang is like this, no matter big or small, he always likes to act mysterious, as if he is doing underground work.
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