coobybook Chapter 142 3 Princesses
Chapter 142 3 Princesses
There was a war going on on the border, but Shangjing was still as prosperous as ever.
"The girl is really thoughtful. She was afraid of traffic jams on the way to the Spring Examination, so she rented a yard next to the Imperial Examination Hall in advance."
Zhao Fangyu was packing things to send to Zhao Zhirun. When he heard Chunshao say this, he couldn't help laughing.
"The Spring Examination is a big event. This year, there are many more students coming to the capital than last time. It's a bit scary to see so many."
Normally, the number of people taking the imperial examinations is the same every year, but this year many students who did not pass the exam but have wealthy families also traveled thousands of miles to the capital to find famous teachers and make friends.
Especially among this year's students, there is the famous Qinghe Cui Lang.
After all, he was going to take an exam, so Zhao Fangyu made some smoked meat jerky, some long-lasting soy milk cake, and some small flatbreads.
The eldest lady prepared the most, and there was not much that could be put in the examination basket. Apart from pens, ink, paper and inkstone, Zhao Zhihuai also collected a lot of food.
Zhao Fangyu gave dried meat and soybean milk cake, the lady gave Longjing red bean cake, and Zhao Fangyun gave knee pads and cotton socks he made himself.
After getting dressed, Zhao Zhihuai looked at his family members in front of him who looked concerned, and the pressure he felt because of Cui Zimin's arrival was relieved a little.
"I can't compare with Cui Lang of Qinghe, so I'll compare with my elder brother." After saying that, he took off his favorite Chan Gong pendant from Zhao Zhihuai, turned around and went to the entrance of the Imperial Examination Hall.
Zhao Zhihuai said with a smile: "It's not like we won't give it to him, why are you acting so weird?"
When Zhao Fangyu heard about Cui Zimin, he realized that even Cui Zimin would come to this spring examination.
Judging from what Zhao Zhirun said, with Qinghe Cui Lang around, the top spot would be as easy as taking something out of a bag for him.
Border wars have occurred frequently this year. Zhao Fangyu was busy managing his farm in the south of the Yangtze River and collecting cotton for Zhou Qinghe to make winter clothes for soldiers. He did not pay much attention to news from the outside world.
When Cui Lang from Qinghe came to Shangjing, the already established factions of officials in Shangjing would probably fight over the chance to win over this talented son of the Cui family from Qinghe.
After the exam, Zhao Fangyu sat at the desk and looked at the account book.
Zhou Qinghe asked her to borrow some silver to make winter clothes for the soldiers, probably planning to train his own soldiers.
Zhao Fangyu was also worried that some soldiers would really freeze to death on the battlefield. After all, given Zhou Qinghe's reputation, he might not be able to get many winter clothes.
It is still a well-known fact that officials exploit and share profits at all levels. What they are afraid of is that no winter clothes are missing and the things inside are not right, so that the soldiers guarding the border will go to war wearing paper winter clothes.
Zhao Fangyu felt disheartened when he thought about it.
She would still consider the issue of being fat, but she agreed readily to the request for winter clothes.
The peace she enjoyed was also due to the contributions of the soldiers at the border. As for money, she had no shortage of it for the time being.
Zhao Fangyu did not purchase in large quantities from Jiangnan. Instead, he asked the second prince for a few people and sent them to Quanzhou to purchase.
The imperial law stipulates how much cotton each household can plant. Quanzhou is a mountainous area close to the sea.
Therefore, people in Quanzhou would secretly exploit some wasteland in the mountains and forests and plant some cotton. Then the cotton from the entire village would be gathered in one place and sold directly to other areas.
Such cotton does not need to be taxed, is cheap, and large-scale transactions leave no trace.
Once the products are finished and sent to the army in small batches, few people will notice.
The top leaders knew about it, but everything Zhou Qinghe did was for the good of the soldiers, so everyone kept it a secret.
After a two-day break, it was already early summer and the fragrant dew business in the Fourteen States was getting better and better.
The business grew bigger and bigger, and money went out like water and came in like water.
It was easy to make money from women and children, so Zhao Fangyu put more effort into skin care products.
For the sake of the business in the fourteen states, she worked very hard to mix several colors of lip balm.
The colors of the lip balms are similar, so Zhao Fangyu upgraded the raw materials, added some gold foil, and packaged them in the best porcelain. For a while, it sold very well, taking advantage of the popularity of the pure dew.
The pure water that was previously made in the palace for Meng Yanzhen's facial mask was repackaged by Zhao Fangyu and officially put on sale in the Fourteen States.
Due to the limited quantity, among the circles of wealthy ladies, one bottle was sold for hundreds of taels of silver, and yet there was still no demand!
Pure dew is easier to make than perfume, and the profit is also higher. In the early days, in order to hype up his reputation, Zhao Fangyu deliberately kept a lot of it in his hands.
After the lotus leaf pure water from the fourteen states reached Longxi, it began to be supplied in large quantities.
There were also merchants from more remote areas who came to purchase goods in large quantities, and Zhao Fangyu continued to sell them as well.
The sales of hydrosol were so brisk that some merchants came from far away to the capital to purchase hydrosol incense pills. With such a successful business, everyone knew that the second prince had married a golden girl.
Those money-making ideas came one after another and flowed into Zhao Fangyu's pocket like water.
Everyone bet that the Zhao family would be reluctant to give such a profitable business to Zhao Fangyu as a dowry. But the truth was known only to the Zhao family themselves.
"The second brother is so lucky."
The Third Prince's wife touched her increasingly round belly and listened to the servants' report about how much perfume and pure water the Fourteen States had sold today and how much silver they had earned...
If we look at it carefully, the goods sold in the fourteen states of Shangjing City alone can amount to thousands of taels a day, not counting those large-scale transactions.
With such a wife, the second prince never has to worry about money.
Yang Xiaofei was born into a prime minister's family, so she naturally understood what money meant to a military general.
An income of tens of thousands of taels of silver a month... Such a good thing was taken by the second son, which was greatly disadvantageous to her and her husband.
"Songyue, prepare the car and go to Fanlou."
Yang Xiaofei's carriage clanged and sang all the way to Fanlou. Zhao Fangyu was mixing a new lip balm at home. She was studying whether grinding the mother-of-pearl into fine powder and then sifting the powder through a very fine sieve and mixing it into the lip balm would have a different effect.
She remembered that in the 21st century, lipsticks and eyeshadows liked to have shimmers.
This method is not unique in the Fourteen States. Lip balm is mixed with gold foil. Someone bought it home and figured it out after two days of thinking about it. It was originally a trick played while painting or practicing calligraphy.
Zhao Fangyu used it to make lip balm, and unexpectedly the effect was very good. Others also imitated it, but the proportions were not as fine as Zhao Fangyu's. However, Zhao Fangyu had the reputation of being the number one lip balm in Shangjing, so his products still sold well.
"Miss, someone from the Fourteen States reported that the Third Prince's wife has arrived."
The matter was urgent, Chunshao hurried in to report. Zhao Fangyu put down the sieve in his hand, his eyes suddenly became sharp.
"Change clothes and go to the Fourteen States."
Zhao Fangyu changed into a rouge-red jacket with a white peony pattern, a bodice with two-colored double-petaled peony flowers on the chest, a double fish pendant on the waist, and a beige skirt with a bird and flower pattern.
The carriage hurried to Fanlou. Zhao Fangyu remained calm, but Chunshao was a little worried, but she didn't dare to ask. She just pulled the person who came to report into the carriage.