The little princess' mind was read, and the court and harem were eating melons

After Prince Lin passed away, Li Qingyi lived an orderly life for a while.

Her students each have their own things to do.

Li Zhu was transferred to a less busy department by the emperor. Apart from clocking in at the yamen on time every day, he was thinking about how to make merit and save some money for himself so that his elderly grandmother would not worry about Li Zhu's life after she was gone.

Not to mention Wang Xuan and Chen Qicong, these two are even busier, but they can still find time to learn some arts such as music, chess, calligraphy and painting to cultivate their sentiments. They really deserve to be called masters of time management.

Also because they were too busy, neither of them had time to take care of other things. Anyway, Li Qingyi occasionally paid attention to them, but couldn't tell whether there was any progress between the two.

After Lu Ping'an left Beijing, he would report his safety in the team chat every day. But after he left the area, there was no movement. Judging from the time, he should have returned to the Hu family and started to get busy.

Not to mention Liu Daming, he came to Beijing to take the imperial examination, a serious scholar. Except for the period when he first arrived in Beijing to familiarize himself with the environment, he participated in some literary and poetry gatherings with his fellow townsmen or senior brothers and had a few meals there. Later, as the weather turned colder, he stayed in his small piece of land and concentrated on preparing for the exam.

Li Qingyi...Li Qingyi is not idle either, or rather, she does not allow herself to be idle.

I study literature in the morning and martial arts in the afternoon, and follow the courses arranged by teachers and masters every day. Once I concentrate, time passes like flowing water.

It was not until heavy snow covered the entire capital that Li Qingyi suddenly came back to her senses from her studies. In the early morning, she sat by the half-open window and let the palace servants help her comb her hair.

Li Qingyi: "It's snowing so heavily."

Fang Xin handed a cup of warm honey water to Li Qingyi, watched her drink it, and then said, "The snow has been getting heavier these days. The Queen said a few days ago that the new clothes she made for the little prince this year are much fresher than in previous years. The patterns were provided by Miss Wang outside the palace. They were delivered yesterday and she wore them today."

Li Qingyi is wearing new clothes today. The style... is indeed quite new nowadays, but it is not considered very new to Li Qingyi. It is indeed beautiful.

In fact, Wang Xuan had a sudden idea and took out the modified Ming Dynasty winter clothes. The color matching and patterns are fresher than the current popular ones, and the overall look is very new.

"Such a heavy snow..." Li Qingyi withdrew his gaze from the window and looked at Fang Xin: "I wonder how the honeycomb briquettes are selling this year?"

She actually wanted to ask whether such heavy snow would cause a snowstorm.

But when the words came to his lips, he swallowed them back.

Fang Xin: "Well... I heard that when the first snow fell this year, many people in and outside the city started buying honeycomb coal. Now, as long as everyone in the city is not too poor to afford food, they will have some at home."

"As for other places besides the capital, I heard that the sales are also good. There are also merchants coming from far away to buy large quantities of honeycomb coal and transport them to other places to sell."

Li Qingyi: “Is that so?”

she mused.

Fang Xin asked: "Is there anything that your Highness is worried about?"

Li Qingyi thought about it and shook his head: "No."

After meeting the queen, the mother and daughter were intimate for a while. After everyone else left, Li Qingyi expressed her concerns: "Mother, do you think that those merchants who bought large quantities of honeycomb coal at a low price in the capital will pay the same price when they transport it to the local areas?"

After a pause, Li Qingyi continued, "There will inevitably be some losses in the round-trip transportation, plus the manpower and material resources. I can understand that the price is a little higher than that in the capital, but I am afraid that they will raise the price arbitrarily, and turn a good thing that was originally beneficial to the people's livelihood into, into..."

The Queen patted her back gently and said gently, "Yier, are you worried that unscrupulous merchants will take advantage of this to make huge profits, just like in the past, deliberately raising the price of charcoal to a level that ordinary people cannot afford?"

Li Qingyi nodded.

Whenever the weather is bad, it is inevitable that the prices of the corresponding in-demand items will increase, the only difference is the extent of the increase.

And many times, businessmen will not do charity work and only increase the price a little bit. Most of the time, they will double or even several times the price, and people in need have no choice but to grit their teeth and buy it.

The queen smiled and said, "Don't worry. Those merchants had already signed a contract before purchasing the honeycomb coal. It was clearly stated in the contract that the price of honeycomb coal cannot exceed half of the price of ordinary charcoal."

Li Qingyi: “Huh?”

Queen: "Although this has caused some merchants to give up purchasing these honeycomb coals, the areas near the capital are still profitable, so many people still choose to make this deal."

"As for places further away, the south is not as cold as the capital; to the north... the imperial court has already transported a large amount of supplies for the soldiers at the border, including honeycomb coal."

The Queen lowered her head slightly and gently rubbed Li Qingyi's forehead: "Don't worry, Yi'er. Even if someone may still do similar things, as long as the court supervises in place and punishes those merchants who violate the contract, there will be no big problem."

Li Qingyi blinked and nodded.

In fact, she knew in her heart that, considering the conditions of the time, it was already very good for the court to achieve this.

——————————————————————————————

The snow had been falling almost non-stop, and the entire capital city was covered in silver, looking vastly white, which was quite artistic.

Li Qingyi had seen similar scenes painted by some painters before. At that time, she thought the artistic conception was extremely beautiful. She thought it would look great if she took a photo in such a scene.

But when he was really in the situation, Li Qingyi just silently wrapped himself in a thick cloak, but his heart was full of worry.

Crown Prince Li Yu went to provide disaster relief again, but this time he did not go far, just to an area near the capital, and could return in one day on horseback.

Even with honeycomb briquettes, this winter is still cold and scary for many people.

"Your Highness."

Li Qingyi turned around when she heard the voice and looked at Fang Xin who was walking towards her with something in her hand. She asked, "Aunt, what are you holding in your hand?"

Fang Xin smiled and said, "This is the invitation from Miss Wang Xuan, inviting you to a banquet in three days."

Li Qingyi was puzzled: "Attending the banquet?"

In the blink of an eye, summer has turned into winter. Now, except for the scholars waiting for the imperial examinations, many of the envoys who had gathered in the capital before have already returned after meeting the emperor, bringing with them gifts and words from the Daning Dynasty. Only a few envoys from vassal states closer to the Daning Dynasty are still staying in the capital.

They will wait until they attend the grand court meeting in the first month of the year before returning.

During this period of time, Wang Xuan had done a lot of big business with envoys and merchants who came from afar. After winter came, she said mysteriously that she wanted to prepare a surprise for Li Qingyi and asked Li Qingyi not to ask the system. Li Qingyi agreed.

Now...is the surprise ready?