Chapter 250 Conversation
The cold wind carried the hustle and bustle of the West Market, which gradually faded away behind them. They actually walked around the West Market.
Zheng Qinghe looked at Gu Jiayue's hair blown by the wind and asked, "Why don't we go to a teahouse and sit down?" He subconsciously tightened his clothes and lowered his voice unconsciously, as if he was afraid of disturbing some subtle atmosphere.
"Okay." Gu Jiayue naturally wanted it. After all, what she wanted to say was not suitable for public discussion on the street.
As you step into the teahouse, the carved wooden windows let in scattered sunlight, cutting the bluestone floor into a grid of light and dark.
Zheng Qinghe skillfully requested a private room by the window. The moment he pushed open the carved window lattice, the panoramic view of West Market unfolded before him like a picture scroll—the clamor of hawkers, the swaying shoulder poles of porters, the dust kicked up by children chasing each other, all bathed in the warm winter sun.
He opened the door again.
Seeing Gu Jiayue's questioning look, the tips of his ears felt slightly hot. Luckily, he'd been tanning recently, so it wouldn't be easy to notice. "Don't get me wrong, Miss Gu. If others saw you and me here, they'd definitely think too much. It's better to be open and honest with them so those gossipers can't make up stories."
Gu Jiayue thought it made sense. "Mr. Gu has thought it through."
Before he finished speaking, the waiter came in quickly carrying a vermilion lacquer tray.
The sweet fragrance of osmanthus wafts faintly through the white mist rising from the celadon teacup.
Gu Jiayue lowered her head, her gaze suddenly fixed on the plate of lotus cake. The snow-white cake, dotted with a few bright red wolfberries, was exactly the same as the signature dessert from Zuixianlou in Kyoto that she remembered.
"Try this lotus cake. Does it taste like the one from Zuixianlou in Kyoto?" Zheng Qinghe's voice was filled with subtle anticipation. His slender fingers pinched the edge of the porcelain plate.
"Thank you, Mr. Zheng. Let's talk about business first." Gu Jiayue lowered her eyes to avoid his gaze, her fingertips unconsciously stroking the corner of her clothes.
Zheng Qinghe paused his hand, which was frozen in mid-air, and slowly put down his chopsticks. He still maintained a gentle smile on his face, but the fire that had just ignited in his eyes dimmed instantly. "Miss Gu, you say."
Gu Jiayue told about her protection.
For Zheng Qinghe, there was nothing to hide about these plans, because Gu Jiayue had also mentioned these things in the plan she had written to him before.
Although he felt sad, Zheng Qinghe still listened carefully to what Gu Jiayue called the "Five-Year Plan for Taohua Village".
When Gu Jiayue began to talk about the planning of Taohua Village, Zheng Qinghe sat up straight unconsciously.
He thought his idea was already very bold, but he didn't expect Gu Jiayue's idea to be even bolder. It could even be described as crazy.
He didn't dare to imagine what Taohua Village would become if everything Gu Jiayue said could succeed.
A village with a highly developed economy?
Zheng Qinghe's soul trembled. It was a desire, a desire to be recorded in history.
He couldn't imagine how great an achievement it would be if he could build such a village. History books would record him.
The city sounds outside the window gradually faded away, but his pupils widened as she spoke, and his Adam's apple rolled up and down several times.
No one would refuse the opportunity to be written into history books, not even someone as proud as Zheng Qinghe.
"How much land do you need? I can sell it to you." He almost blurted it out, and his voice was filled with an eagerness to make a lasting effort, as if he had already grasped the opportunity to become famous forever.
However, Gu Jiayue's slight shake of her head was like a basin of cold water poured on his burning heart.
"Do you know what the fundamental reason for the demise of the previous dynasty was?" Gu Jiayue's voice suddenly became cold, and her fingers unconsciously slid across the edge of the teacup, leaving a circle of water marks.
Zheng Qinghe opened his mouth to answer, but was pinned to the spot by her next words.
"The ruler is incompetent and treacherous, while corrupt officials are in power."
"Well, what else?"
besides?
There were many reasons for the fall of the previous dynasty, and he had analyzed them before, but he didn't think they had anything to do with what they were discussing now.
"There is also serious land annexation." She looked out the window. The city wall in the distance cast a long shadow in the sunlight, like a shackle pressing on the people.
"Most of the land was monopolized by landlords and nobles, while the common people either became refugees because they had no land, or became tenants in order to survive."
Her voice was eerily calm, but every word was like a heavy hammer, striking Zheng Qinghe's heart.
He suddenly remembered the refugees huddled in the dilapidated temple when he passed by the outskirts of the city the day before, and the skinny children with pale faces grabbing his clothes to beg for food. At this moment, his memory overlapped with Gu Jiayue's words.
Most of the land was in the hands of landlords and nobles, while the common people either became refugees because they had no land, or became tenants in order to survive.
Years of oppression have caused them to explode and want to overturn the mountains on their shoulders.
So they thought of rebelling.
The current emperor is a great founding emperor, and now he is the awe-inspiring ruler. Who would dare to believe that he was just a cowherd in a landlord's family at the beginning?
Gu Jiayue pressed her fingertips hard on the table, causing ripples in the water in the teacup.
Zheng Qinghe looked at her eyes which were as sharp as an eagle at this moment, and suddenly felt that this girl who always had a faint smile on her face had something harder than a city wall in her bones.
"If all these lands are held by the rich, and the common people have no land, the Great Development will not go far. It will not be long before we will follow the same old path of the previous dynasty." Gu Jiayue's voice seemed to be squeezed out from the depths of her chest, with unquestionable certainty.
Zheng Qinghe's back instantly straightened, as if someone had lifted up his gorgeous brocade robe, revealing the festering abscess inside.
Of course he knew that most of the land was in the hands of nobles and wealthy businessmen, because he was one of them, and even a small group at the top of the pyramid.
He had long taken for granted the ever-increasing numbers of acres of land in the account books and the humble figures of the tenants bending over.
"Then what should we do? Seize all the land and give it to the people?" He heard his own dry voice, and his throat felt like a handful of hay was stuffed in it.
Gu Jiayue suddenly smiled, that smile carrying the desolation of someone who had seen through the world: "If I asked you to give all your family's land to an unrelated person, would you be willing?"
These words were like a sharp blade, accurately dissecting the contradictions deep in his heart.
Zheng Qinghe stared at the lines on his palm, where there were still marks from carrying the bamboo basket this morning.
He remembered his father's serious expression when he taught him that "land is the foundation of the family", and his mother's satisfied smile when she counted the land rent, but now they all became shackles that entangled him.
"It seems he's unwilling." Gu Jiayue was not surprised. After all, people are selfish.
"So the land cannot be handed over to the people. The people cannot keep it." Gu Jiayue stood up and walked to the window. The sunlight stretched her shadow very long, almost extending to the rows of roofs in the distance.
Zheng Qinghe finally found his voice. "Who should I give it to?"
"Leave it to God, the supreme God." She looked up at the blue sky, her hair was messy in the wind, but at this moment she looked particularly solemn.
Zheng Qinghe looked at her back and suddenly felt that a door he had never seen before had opened in front of him. Behind the door was an unknown world that he was both afraid of and eager to step into.
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