bookcurios Chapter 118 Questions
Chapter 118 Questions
Seeing that the situation had calmed down, the shopkeeper of Yonghe Tower said, "It is Yonghe Tower's fault for disturbing the prince and his wife's meal. The meal fee for today will be waived. I will replace it with a table of hot dishes and hot wine for the prince and his wife."
After saying that, he went to make arrangements.
Pei Yi asked Dan Feng to push him back to the box.
Xie Zhichan looked at Yang Zhuoyan and said, "Mr. Yang, can you come with me?"
Yang Zhuoyan didn't know why the Crown Prince's Consort from Prince Yan's Mansion wanted to see him, but someone had just saved him, so he had to go and say thank you, so he followed Xie Zhichan into the box.
After entering the box, Yang Zhuoyan bowed and said to Pei Yi and Xie Zhichan: "I am Yang Zhuoyan. Thank you, Prince and Princess, for helping me out."
Pei Yi was actually not sure whether Yang Zhuoyan was a candidate this year, so he casually asked, "Young Master Yang, is he a candidate this year?"
Yang Zhuoyan was a little embarrassed, probably because he was embarrassed to say that he failed the exam, so he nodded and said, "Yes."
Pei Yi confirmed his guess and stopped talking.
Xie Zhichan said to Yang Zhuoyan, "Yao Jingyu is a difficult person. He will surely blame you for everything that happened today. We can help you out today, but we may not be able to help you tomorrow. Have you considered other ways to make a living?"
Yang Zhuoyan was also a little worried, and said with difficulty: "To be honest, I am ashamed to say that I don't have any special skills except reading and writing. If that devil comes again, I will ask the scholars I know in the same county if they can recommend other ways to make a living."
Pei Yi frowned and asked, "Do you have any acquaintances in the same county who also failed the exam?"
Yang Zhuoyan nodded, looking worried, "Yes, in fact, in my opinion, Brother Guo Yi's literary talent is far superior to mine, and he should not have failed the exam."
Pei Yi frowned even more tightly after hearing this.
Xie Zhichan knew that Pei Yi had discovered something, but she had other things to do when she went to see Yang Zhuoyan, so she asked him, "I have a job here that only requires reading and writing, which is definitely suitable for you. I will pay you fifty taels a month, plus a 5% profit share. Are you willing?"
After hearing this, Yang Zhuoyan was still worried about his future livelihood, but he didn't expect that things would take a turn for the better. Not only did the Crown Princess give him a job to do, but the monthly salary she offered was even higher than he had imagined.
He made less than five taels of silver a month by telling stories in the Yonghe Building, and fifty taels of silver was almost his annual income.
Reason told him that there was no such thing as a free lunch, but he still chose to believe the Crown Prince's Consort and immediately responded, "I am willing to work for the Crown Prince's Consort."
Xie Zhichan nodded and said, "In that case, follow me back to Prince Yan's Mansion first, and I will tell you what is required."
Yang Zhuoyan got on the carriage with Pei Yi and Xie Zhichan.
Pei Yi was feeling a bit depressed. He finally got to have a meal with A Yuan, but not only did he run into a disgusting guy, but A Yuan also wanted to bring a strange man back home.
He couldn't help but look at Yang Zhuoyan coldly.
Yang Zhuoyan only felt that it was clearly summer, but the carriage in Prince Yan's Mansion was quite cool, and he felt a cold wind blowing past him.
After returning to Prince Yan's Mansion, Xie Zhichan took Yang Zhuoyan to Pei Yi's study. Knowing that Pei Yi was jealous, he had to take him to the study as well.
The three of them entered the study. Xie Zhichan sat down on an armchair and asked Yang Zhuoyan to sit in the armchair opposite him. He then told Yang Zhuoyan his idea: "I want to hire you as my clerk. Now I have three shops under my name. All three shops have been opened and are on the right track. I don't need you for the time being.
In addition, I have recently acquired a hot spring villa in the suburbs of Beijing, named Qianyuan Villa, and I want to turn it into a holiday resort for the wealthy families and common people in Kyoto. I plan to divide it into several hot spring pools, with ten indoor hot spring pools for the use of dignitaries and two open-air hot spring pools for the use of men and women in the common people.
I hope you can write a few stories about Qianyuan Villa for the dignitaries. They should be attractive and spread quickly to attract them to go and soak in the hot springs."
Yang Zhuoyan has never done this job before, but it sounds like it's similar to adapting storytelling scripts?
Seeing that he was troubled, Xie Zhichan gave a few examples and said, "For example, if you are targeting a noble lady, you can write a story about how she got pregnant after taking a hot spring bath. If you are targeting a rich lady, you can write a story about how she became more beautiful after taking a hot spring bath. And so on. Do you understand?"
Yang Zhuoyan understood everything now, and asked again: "But Princess, can soaking in hot springs really have these effects?"
Xie Zhichan nodded calmly and said, "Of course."
At most, she could just add some medicine into the hot spring, which wouldn't harm her body.
Offspring, beauty, these things that money cannot necessarily buy, she has given them all for free. So it’s acceptable for the ticket price of the hot spring pool to be a little higher, right?
The indoor hot spring pool will charge fifty taels of silver per time, and the outdoor hot spring pool will charge ten copper coins. The number of people allowed to enter will be limited each day to avoid chaos caused by too many people.
She thought about it in her mind, and made an appointment with Yang Zhuoyan to submit the manuscript, and then asked Dan Feng to arrange a carriage to take Yang Zhuoyan back.
After waiting for ten days, Yang Zhuoyan came to Prince Yan's Mansion again and brought his masterpieces, three stories of different styles.
The stories about noble ladies giving birth have a touch of the fox fairy's Liao Zhai flavor, the stories about rich girls' beauty have a touch of sweetness and ambiguity, and the stories about noble men have a touch of eroticism.
In short, it is interesting and vivid, and fully grasps the psychology of the corresponding group of people.
Xie Zhichan accepted the work with great satisfaction, and asked Xiao Liuer to give fifty taels of silver to Yang Zhuoyan.
Yang Zhuoyan was so excited that he felt like he was not dreaming for the past ten days. He immediately said that he was willing to serve the Crown Prince's Consort for the next three years.
After Yang Zhuoyan left, Xie Zhichan took the three storybooks and read them again with great interest. After finishing, he handed them to Pei Yi for review and said suspiciously, "I'm very curious, how could a talent like Yang Zhuoyan, who is so talented in writing and not bound by the shackles of old-fashioned ethics, fail the exam?"
Pei Yi finished reading the three booklets in his hand, put them down and said, "This year's chief examiner of the Enke is the Minister of Rites, Dou Yushan. Dou Yushan's father, Dou Kangnong, is the current tutor of the crown prince."
Xie Zhichan understood that this matter might be caused by the obstruction of Crown Prince Li Er.
She continued Pei Yi's thoughts and said, "I'm afraid we need to get all the papers and take a look at them to figure it out. I remember that according to the official system of the Jin Dynasty, the Secretariat was responsible for collecting all the candidates' papers and recording them in historical records. Do you know who is currently in charge of historical records?"
Pei Yi looked at Xie Zhichan with a strange expression: "You don't know?"
Xie Zhichan shook his head.
Pei Yi's expression clearly said "I don't believe it", and he said lightly: "Lu Xiuzhu. I just don't know if he is willing to help us if we go to him."
Xie Zhichan rolled her eyes at Pei Yi. Was she really going to care about her ex-fiancé's position in front of her current husband?
She stood up and walked towards the bathroom: "You can go and talk to Lu Xiuzhu about this matter. We are both scholars. I think he should be willing to do this for the sake of the world's candidates."
When he reached the door of the bathroom, he turned back and said, "If he doesn't want to, then you can let him know. If it is found out that the Crown Prince was responsible, it will be a good blow to the Crown Prince's party, and the Princess's Mansion will not be immune."
Pei Yi's face darkened and he asked, "Aren't you going?"
Xie Zhichan had already entered the bathroom, and only her voice could be heard: "I'm busy with the opening of the hot spring villa and taking over as the president of the Chamber of Commerce. How can I have time?"
The jealous person dug a pit, and the pit was full of vinegar, so she would not jump into the pit.