The most beautiful package in the wooden box was carefully sewn with lake blue silk cloth. It was embroidered with elegant orchids. You didn't need to look at the name to know who made it.

Zhao Hao carefully opened the package with scissors and saw three handwritten books and a letter with the fragrance of orchids inside.

He opened the envelope, took out the letter and began to read.

Ma Xianglan's calligraphy, like her personality and paintings, is elegant and beautiful, without any sense of worldly air.

'My dear Master Taijian:

I am deeply grateful for your kindness and will never forget it. The young master asked me to print a book before he left. With the help of Mr. Tang, I have purchased a bookstore. The shopkeeper Xin is very helpful. Yesterday, I copied the young master's manuscript. I hope I will forgive my mistakes. I am sending it to you with this letter. I wonder if it suits your taste? Are there any omissions? I am very worried.

Recently, I wrote a practice piece imitating Xu Weichuang's "Thoughts in the Room". I hope you will give me some advice on it. I look forward to your reply.

It is bitterly cold in Yan, and I wish I could get more clothes for you by the fire. My feelings are evident to you on your face.

Ma Xianglan, the student at the door, bowed with all her might.

Then there is a five-character quatrain, titled "Fu De Zi Jun Zhi Chu Yi"——

'Since you left, I'm afraid to hear the maid singing.

The song enters the ears of the parted person, and tears well up on his green shirt.'

The so-called "fu de" refers to picking up completed sentences of ancient people as the title of the poem, for example, "自君之出矣" in this poem is from "室思".

'Since you left, the bright mirror has become dark and cannot be cleansed. My thoughts about you are like flowing water, so how can I spend my time?'

Later, many poets used the sentence "Since you left" as the title and wrote many poems imitating the format of the original poem.

This can be considered a very good basic skill exercise, so it is quite reasonable for Ma Xianglan, who loves poetry, to write one.

Well, that makes perfect sense, there is no other meaning to it.

Zhao Hao blushed and carefully put away the letter, then picked up the three books.

Before he left Jinling in late October, he gave Ma Xianglan three manuscripts. Before the first month of the year, she had already transcribed and revised them all into sample books. She was really hardworking.

You know, this is a sample book prepared for woodblock printing, it doesn't mean you can just copy the manuscript.

The layout needs to be adjusted repeatedly based on the opinions of experts. In the end, it must meet the requirements of the woodblock print and present the original text perfectly.

To do this job, carefulness and patience are both essential, but Zhao Hao definitely can't do it.

He thought that it would be good enough if Ma Xianglan could produce a sample book before the imperial examination next spring, but he didn't expect that it would be delivered to him before the New Year.

Well, I love Sister Ma...such a good employee.

Zhao Hao happily flipped through the three books - one "Mathematics Enlightenment", one "Literacy Textbook", and one "A Brief Knowledge of Nature".

This is the first-grade textbook compiled by him and his two disciples for Caijiaxiang Primary School.

Among them, "Mathematics Enlightenment" is the simplest addition and subtraction within 100, as well as the multiplication table and simple division within 10.

Hua Shuyang also provided a variety of application questions to make it easier for children to understand and apply them.

The biggest breakthrough of this book is that it changes the writing method from top to bottom and from right to left to a horizontal writing method from left to right.

Arabic numerals and modern mathematical symbols were also introduced...but given Zhao Hao's shameless style, he naturally would not call them "Arabic numerals" anymore, but instead called them "scientific notation symbols."

As for the "Chinese Characters Textbook", there are a total of 1,000 characters on it, all of which come from Sanbaiqian. And the elementary school also teaches Sanbaiqian, but it does not require memorization and comprehension. You only need to be able to dictate more than 80% of the 1,000 characters at the end of the school year to pass.

Zhao Hao flipped through the third book "A Brief Knowledge of Nature", which mainly introduced common knowledge about nature such as animals, plants, directions, magnetism, weather, and four seasons. It did not contain any taboos such as the earth being round. It was the kind of popular science book for children that anyone could read without fear.

However, those seemingly ordinary and interesting experiments in the book are subtly instilling scientific observation and measurement methods in children, guiding their interest in science...

In order to make it easier for children to remember, Zhao Hao also provided rich illustrations.

When he looked through the illustrations, his eyes widened. He saw that the scribbles he had drawn had become decent and exquisite after being renovated by Ma Xianglan.

Zhao Hao couldn't help but think of Sister Xianglan sitting under a red candle, holding her cheek and pondering over his weird drawings. What on earth did this young master draw?

What he didn't expect was that she didn't make any mistakes in the drawing!

It's really hard for Sister Xianglan, I'm going to take this secretary...

~~

After looking at Ma Xianglan’s package, Zhao Hao took out a large and heavy box from the wooden box.

When I opened it, I saw it was filled with small and colorful cakes and pastries.

Sweet osmanthus cake, curling cake, Ruyi cake, green rice cake, water chestnut cake, red bean paste rice cake...they are all Zhao Hao's favorites.

Needless to say, he also knew that these were all pastries made by Qiaoqiao herself, and only she knew what flavor he liked.

He couldn't wait to open a package, and while tasting the sweet but not greasy, glutinous but not sticky hometown pastries, he picked up a plain white envelope sprinkled with gold.

Without looking at the cover, Zhao Hao knew it was a letter from Xuelang just by looking at the cover.

I turned it over and saw that it was true. I opened it and saw that the content was not very nutritious...

First, I want a masterpiece. Xuelang said that he felt that Mr. Zhao was a little quiet. Why didn't he publish any new works? Was it because Beijing was too cold, freezing your creativity? You should hurry back to Jinling and write poems and lyrics. I hope you will come back soon.

In addition, Xuelang told him that the construction of Arhat Hall had begun, and what the monk had promised him could finally be fulfilled.

Zhao Hao was stunned for a moment before he remembered that it was the golden statue of Arhat that he had promised to him.

Xuelang told Zhao Hao that he was ready to give him a blueprint. I wonder which pose you like? There are eight hundred poses of the Eight Hundred Arhats for you to choose from.

Finally, with the efforts of everyone, especially Zheng Yanru and Qi Jingyun, the number of members of the Red Mansion Poetry Society has exceeded 200. Every gathering is overcrowded. We are planning to split into two branches, poetry and lyrics. What do you think, Mr. Zhao?

"I don't care if you die..."

Zhao Hao rolled his eyes, threw Xuelang's letter aside, and then read Tang Youde's letter.

In addition to the cheesy expression of the author's longing for the young master and his worry that everyone had forgotten him, the letter also reported to Zhao Hao the progress of the Xiaocangshan project.

Tang Youde told Zhao Hao that before he wrote the letter, the dredging of Furong Pond had been basically completed, and several thousand carts of pond mud and more than 20,000 kilograms of wild fish had been cleared out. He ordered people to pile all the pond mud on the hillside to dry, so that when planting flowers and trees in the spring, there would be no need to buy fertilizer.

As for the fish caught in the lake, Fatty Tang distributed them all to the migrant workers, so that he didn't have to give them New Year's goods during the Spring Festival...

"She's so damn virtuous..." Zhao Hao saw that everything Fatty Tang did was to his liking and he really wanted to kiss him hard twice.

But when I thought of that greasy fat face, I couldn't help feeling nauseous.

Then, Fatty Tang reported on the expenditure of funds.

Thanks to his careful budgeting, this year's project not only did not go over budget, but instead saved more than three thousand taels... because apart from the men from Caijia Lane, he basically did not hire any local people from Jinling.

He asked Yu Jiachang to hire a lot of refugees to work for him... The refugees could endure hardships, and the wages they asked for were only half of the wages of the local laborers. Such high-quality and cheap labor would be wasted. Anyway, with County Magistrate Zhang's protection, there was no need to worry about any trouble.

Seeing this, Zhao Hao began to think thoughtfully. Speaking of refugees... it seems that there are quite a few in Beijing as well.

ps. The fifth update is here. More updates will be added if there are 6700 votes. Please give me your monthly votes and recommendation votes~~ I also recommend a book "Crown of the Ming Dynasty".