Chapter 296 297. Every action has its consequences, and Lei Li’s retribution is…
Kyoto Morning News.
All that was published was gossip, covering everything from royal family members to wealthy businessmen, good things, bad things, funny things, strange things, absurd things, and even missing persons and found items notices.
Just like the modern entertainment industry, the main thing is the revelations from the "uncle party", true or false, 80% of which are not worthy of being published in public and difficult to be held accountable.
For example, a certain censor liked to eat melon seeds while going to the toilet, a certain general liked to wear red shorts, a certain reviewer liked to eat leftover food, and a certain young man liked to dress up as a beggar and beg on the street, to see who gave him the most money and then say in a noble manner, "I don't want your filthy money."
Because they use code names or official titles instead of real names, and they also use the excuse of "This story is purely fictional, any similarity is purely coincidental" to disclaim responsibility. If you investigate and arrest them, wouldn't that be a case of identifying with the names?
If you catch a "Kyoto Morning 8 Tabloid", there will also be some midday 8, evening 8 and midday 8 broadsheets.
Some ordinary people who are used to taking advantage of others and are not afraid of being caught see that it is so profitable. They only need a few pieces of paper and write some small jokes about the powerful to make a fortune. Why not do it?
"How can we catch all of this?"
Lei Li was quite pleased with himself, then sneered, "Those whose sore spots were hit were furious and wanted to mess with our tabloids, but some were also secretly using the tabloids to smear their opponents."
"If this really happened, and they were caught, and we could trace the clues back to some important figure... well, that would be really interesting."
"Isn't this just the right material for you?"
Zhou Yi smiled, shook his head, and casually opened a tabloid to read.
Seeing that Lei Li's "Morning Eight Tabloid" was doing very well, he found a few copies, but when he took a look at the content, he found it was indeed the shocking style and clickbait headlines that he was familiar with.
For example, [Shocking! A lady from a prominent family secretly met with a married woman late at night?!] turned out to be a small advertisement for a certain opera troupe's performance of an excerpt from a certain play.
Also, [Is this a moral decline or the husband's incompetence? A certain lady actually fought for love...], but it turned out that the lady was just fighting with a concubine for a favorite hairpin, and she accidentally pushed the concubine.
Zhou Yi: “…”
He was so confused that he was speechless.
But for ordinary people who have little entertainment experience and little knowledge, these misleading questions actually make them feel particularly interesting. Sometimes, if they use homophonic puns or allusions, the person who came up with the questions will be praised for his or her cleverness.
"What's with that expression?"
Lei Li snorted, and glanced at him with her peach blossom eyes. "This is the favorite reading material of the noble ladies and noble men in Kyoto. It sells for a lot of money."
The boys and girls in Kyoto are not as free to go out as those in Xiling, especially those in powerful families. The girls raised in Kyoto are proud of not leaving the main door or the back door.
In order to relieve boredom, noble ladies like to buy some storybooks to read. They like to read interesting books like "Morning Eight Tabloid" as much as possible, and naturally they don't want to see "Morning Eight Tabloid" stopped.
It is also because of the protection of these noble people that some people have their defenses broken down after being attacked. They want to use the "Morning Eight Tabloid" as an example to vent their anger, but they think twice before doing so.
As the big boss behind the scenes, Lei Li also secretly supports the "Morning Eight Tabloid". Whoever wants to take action against the "Morning Eight Tabloid", he will expose their secrets, making the other party busy repairing their interpersonal relationships and unable to spare time to deal with the tabloid.
After going through many ups and downs, the Kyoto Morning News finally stood firm and even opened a store called "Kyoto News" on the busiest and most visited street in Kyoto.
Zhou Yi naturally knew that store and said, "I still like your store's Dayou Weekly. The policy essay topics there are also good."
There are many kinds of tabloids in the tabloid shops, including entertainment gossip such as "Tabloid", as well as story books, comic strips, picture books, and even official gazettes from various places, which are compiled into "Dayou Weekly".
It's quite funny that a gossip and entertainment tabloid actually has a subsidiary newspaper called "Dayou Weekly" that covers serious news, and it publishes an issue every seven days.
This also boosted the sales of the weekly magazine, because people who are used to reading entertainment newspapers want to see whether this weekly magazine is serious and interesting.
It turns out that not only are they all about local politics, but they also use the politics as an excuse to ask some very serious policy questions, and welcome readers to write in for answers.
"Dayou Weekly" will put the wonderful replies in the next issue of the weekly, and many students and writers will continue to buy the weekly in order to read these essays and answers.
The weekly magazine was Lei Jingsheng's idea. She liked to organize things, so she simply selected the official reports and bound them into a book.
The name of "Dayou Weekly" was given by Zhou Yi. Seeing that Lei Li was keen on making money, he proposed the evil VIP system, which is the VIP system.
As long as you buy a monthly card, you can become a VIP of "Dayou Weekly", buying a quarterly card will make you a super VIP, and buying an annual card will make you a top VIP.
Not only can you purchase other books in the store at discounted prices, but the new issue of the weekly magazine is also delivered to your door a day in advance, and the quality of the publications is also better.
Lei Li praised Zhou Yi as a profiteer at the time, and then he tried to trick the literati he knew, especially the civil servants in the Hanlin Academy, into writing policy essays for weekly magazines and asking them to predict the future direction of the imperial examinations.
The writers who write or answer questions for the weekly magazine can also become famous through the magazine. If they write well and give brilliant answers, they will be sought after by other writers and students, and their reputation will rise rapidly.
Many literati are noble and do not care about money and power, but there are very few who do not pursue fame. Some even demand too much of themselves and even blame their families for the sake of "reputation".
Therefore, some writers privately pleaded with Lei Li and also wanted to appear on "Dayou Weekly" to ask questions and answer them.
This made Lei Li very happy. Many of these literati were censors and literary masters who once sneered at him. Now, one after another, they came to him to ask for help and rely on him to become famous. How could he not be happy?
Of course, this is a later story.
Now the Changning Marquis Mansion is still caught up in the controversy of "whether the sons and daughters can take part in the civil and military imperial examinations".
"You guessed it right."
Lei Li snorted, "Among those old-fashioned nobles who oppose us, some want to use the morning tabloids to smear our Changning Marquis Mansion."
Mainly targeting Lei Li and Lei Zhouzhou.
Because they are brothers but "rebels", one of them rose from a commoner to a marquis, and the other became a royal guard through the back door, which makes people wonder if there is something shameful going on.
Next are Lei Jingsheng and Lei Shengjiang. Lei Jingsheng, as a woman, did not marry a man to take care of the husband and children, but married a boy. Lei Shengjiang indulged in trivial love affairs all day long, and was persuaded by her husband's wife to let her daughter take her husband's surname.
Zhou Yi was also criticized.
Because he was a tall and strong man, but he degraded himself by marrying into a woman's family and living off her, spending all day washing clothes and cooking, and revolving around Marquis Changning. His two children both took Marquis Changning's surname, which was truly a "shame for a man."
Lei Li: “…”
Zhou Yi: “……?”
The rest of the Lei family: “…?”
It has absolutely no lethality at all, and I even feel like I'm being praised and want to laugh.
Zhou Yi did wash clothes, but he washed his own and Lei Li's underwear, as well as the bed sheets. They were dirty and wrinkled, and he felt embarrassed to ask the servants to wash them.
What’s funny is that the rivals used the Kyoto Morning News to smear the people in the Changning Marquis Mansion.
It was equivalent to giving Lei Li a large sum of money, praising his whole family, and also indirectly promoting the "Morning Eight Tabloid", attracting others to place advertisements in the newspaper and allowing Lei Li to make more money.
The "Morning Eight Tabloid" is a purely commercial entertainment newspaper, and anyone can publish it if they pay. So those nobles just finished smearing the Changning Marquis Mansion today, and tomorrow they found out that the tabloid was whitewashing the Changning Marquis Mansion, and then turned around and exposed their gossip.
A copy of the Kyoto Morning News is only the size of a palm, and with ten pages including the cover, it only costs five cents. The content inside is varied and very readable.
Ordinary people with some spare money will buy one to take a look. When they see today's stuff competing with yesterday's stuff, which is commonly known as a "reversal" or "face-off battle", they will be more excited and like to buy it.
Lei Li has so many melons in his hands that any few of them can make people talk about them with relish. Moreover, he doesn't have to spend money to buy space when publishing them.
So Kyoto is bustling with activity every day.
Ordinary people discussed it after dinner, but the focus of their discussion had changed from "Should boys and girls take part in the civil and military imperial examinations" to "Which family in Kyoto has new news."
"For these common people, it actually makes no difference whether their sons and daughters can take the civil and military imperial examinations."
Lei Li said, "Because most people won't spend money to support boys and girls. If they have money, they will prioritize raising men in their families, hoping that their sons and grandsons will be successful and make a name for themselves."
"really."
Zhou Yi nodded and agreed, "Even wealthy families would rather prepare more dowries for their sons and daughters than devote resources to them and train them to become officials. Many sons and daughters also prefer to get married and have children."
"Traditional ideas and systems have oppressed the thinking of the masses, which is reflected not only in the tilt of resources but also in the fundamental contempt of ideas."
"Parents and the world think that young men and women 'can't' achieve anything, and young men and women themselves also feel that they 'can't'. This is a 'can't' that is 'not in accordance with etiquette', not a 'can't' that is 'lack of ability'."
“So we need to follow the example of our superiors.”
Lei Li slowly sipped his tea and said, "The emperor is not interested in women and does not have a harem. Since our sons and daughters cannot enter the palace, they cannot influence them to fight for power and wealth. Now, only Zhou Zhou serves in the palace, and he is the first son to serve in front of the emperor."
"Those old guys in Kyoto are so fiercely opposed right now, it's like digging up their ancestral graves. Once they realize that their brothers and daughters can fight for more rights for them..."
He sneered, "I wonder if they'll continue to fart, or fight to the death for that little piece of land."
"Don't overthink it."
Zhou Yi let Lei Li lean against him while massaging his temples. "We are doing work for the Emperor. As long as we get the job done, everything else will be determined by fate."
Dog Emperor.
Lei Li cursed in his heart, thinking that he had to take all the blame while the emperor had to reap all the fruits.
The dog emperor and the queen had already adopted a young man from their clan and let his daughter take the imperial examination. This was just a prelude for the dog emperor to make the young man the crown prince.
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