Beautiful Peasant Girl: The Young Marquis's Beloved

The workshop in Linhe Village is called Qiqiaofang. The reason why it took so long to build is because the catkins are so big. In addition to producing pig hair brushes, they also produce chicken feather dusters and children's building blocks.

Since she was going to do it, she naturally wanted to do it well. The inspiration for the children's toys came to her one day when she saw the toys her uncle bought for her younger brothers.

There are too few toys for children in Dongsheng Kingdom. They are either rattles or knives and swords, which are boring.

Liu Xu drew a picture and asked Liu Dalin to help her make building blocks, tangrams, and some picture-based word recognition blocks.

Afterwards, it was handed over to Liu Qixing and taken to the workshop to be made into samples.

Liu Qixing was very inspired after seeing it, and actually came up with many different shapes for the building blocks, as well as the ability to recognize words by looking at pictures.

Liu Xu gave him some start-up capital, so he took the money and hired someone to help him with painting and writing.

What surprised Liu Xu was that this person turned out to be Liu Dongcheng.

It was only now that she realized that although Liu Dongcheng's academic performance was average, his painting skills were not bad. However, the teacher felt that his paintings lacked any artistic conception and were full of vulgar and rustic things.

Liu Qixing and he had studied in the same school, so he knew something about it. He felt that Liu Dongcheng was very suitable to draw this kind of picture.

Originally, Liu Dongcheng was worried that Liu Xu would stop him, but Liu Xu said nothing and directly offered him two taels of silver per month. He was only required to produce sixty pairs per month, and the excess would be calculated at two cents per pair.

Liu Dongcheng was very grateful and said that he would do a good job.

A painting and a calligraphy are only four inches square. They don't need to be complicated. They are simple and real. You can recognize the words next to them at a glance. This is very simple for Liu Dongcheng. It is easy to paint ten or so paintings a day.

As for the simple building blocks, Liu Qixing handed them directly to Village Chief Zhang.

Manager Zhou was the one who negotiated for the goods of Qiqiaofang, and they supplied the goods to various grocery stores in Qinghe County. He was even planning to negotiate for the goods in the provincial capital this month.

I heard that as soon as the brushes were launched on the market, they were loved by both ordinary people and wealthy country gentry.

"Miss, the rich people in the county asked us to make the handles better and distinguish them from those used by the common people."

Manager Zhou had been to the Liu family compound once, but this was his first time to the West Courtyard. Even though he often went out, he was still amazed by the West Courtyard.

Although our young lady lives in the countryside, her food, clothing, and manners are no worse than those of the rich girls in the county town. This is a truly wealthy family.

If Liu Xu knew he was thinking this way, she would complain that he was overthinking.

"Well, it's OK. You can discuss this with Uncle Qixing. It doesn't have to be too expensive, and it doesn't have to be too much. As for the pattern, just ask Liu Dongcheng to draw it. It doesn't matter if it's some elegant pattern or one with good meaning."

This thing is simple and people will learn it quickly. You can only make a little money, just enough to pay the workers. The main source of income comes from toys.

After all, from ancient times to the present, money from women and children is the easiest to earn.

Manager Zhou agreed upon hearing this.

Liu Xu thought for a moment and said, "Uncle Zhou, I remember we have a small store not far from the home textile store, right? Is it still vacant?"

"There is one. It used to sell groceries. For some reason, the owner suddenly quit. It has only been vacant for a few days."

"Then don't rent it! I'll draw a plan and you can find someone to decorate it. In the future, it will be used to sell toys made by Qiqiaofang and some other small ornaments." She was going to open the first toy store in Dongsheng.

"Yes, miss!"

Soon, the man left with the drawings.

Liu Xu then took Han Duoduo and the maids to the new courtyard.

The watermelon has been fruiting for almost a month. In previous lives, it was almost ready to eat. I wonder if the watermelon in ancient times would have changed.

When they arrived at the greenhouse, Liu Xu knocked on the seemingly ripe melons one by one, but found that none of them were ripe, which made her feel disappointed.

"Junior sister, can't you eat at this age?" Han Duoduo swallowed and asked.

"It's still early. We are all greenhorns. Hey, judging by the sound, it will take at least ten days."

Han Duoduo was a little confused when she heard this, "You can tell if it's cooked just by tapping it like that?"

"Yeah, Jayne told me. If the sound is crisp, it means it's cooked. If the sound is muffled, it means it's green." Liu Xu seriously fooled her senior sister.

"Oh, then I'll knock on it every day. Maybe it will be cooked one day!" Han Duoduo nodded as if making a promise to herself.

Liu Xu was startled when she heard that and quickly stopped him, saying, "That's not necessary. Just let Uncle Gui and the others keep an eye on him and report back when they've gotten to know him well."

Liu Xu thought to herself: How much weight do you have on your hands? Don't you know how to count? I turned around and got beaten to pieces with one punch. I have no place to cry.

"Okay then!" Han Duoduo replied dejectedly.

Willow catkins: “…”

Now that the weather is good, the greenhouse shed is basically open during the day, and the corn has already filled with grain, which all depends on photosynthesis. If the felt is not lifted, there will be a big loss.

When Liu Cheng and others saw them, they hurriedly greeted them.

"Uncle Gui, take them to shave off all the yellow leaves at the bottom, and also cut off all the flowers to prevent them from getting infested with insects. Use the chopped leaves to feed the horses and donkeys."

"Yes, miss!"

After two months of feeding, these guys have finally become much stronger. When they are ready for slaughter in August or September, there will probably be more than 200 of them!

After the stroll, Liu Xu went to Liu Cheng's wife to get some dried peppers, and then went to pick some peppers, preparing to make some chili sauce in the evening.

At the same time, bells rang in the capital!

Without being reminded, everyone knelt on the ground.

In the Purple Palace, the eunuch shouted in a shrill voice, grief-stricken: "The emperor has passed away!"

"The Emperor has passed away!

"The emperor passed away..."

The eunuchs spread the news one by one, and soon everyone inside and outside the palace knew about it.

In the Zichen Palace, the Empress, Imperial Concubine Shu, several princes, and several regents were all in the room.

At this moment, everyone was crying. No matter whether it was sincere or fake, they were all kneeling on the ground sobbing.

Mu Jingfeng came back too late after all. Even though he brought Mr. Shen with him, he still only managed to wake Emperor Jing up.

Elder Shen said that Emperor Jing's body was already riddled with holes due to overwork, and the poison had been in his body for half a year, and the dosage had been increased recently. Even if there were a miracle doctor in the world, it would be powerless to save him.

Emperor Jing seemed to have expected this, so he didn't say much. He just let Mr. Shen give him acupuncture and tried his best to make himself look like he was gradually recovering.

He wanted to clear some obstacles for his successor.

Xu Mingli also secretly told Emperor Jing about Liu Xu's discovery of a new crop variety, but he did not say the yield was that high, only that it was about 1,000 kilograms per mu.

The old emperor was so excited that he almost died on the spot, but he ordered Xu Mingli not to make it public and to announce it to the world after the new emperor ascended the throne.

The number of people that Mu Jingfeng brought back was only 10,000 on the surface, but in fact, there were another 40,000 people who were divided into small groups and hid in private houses in Beijing.

In case the old emperor cannot survive and something unexpected happens when the new emperor ascends the throne.

Similarly, during the half month since Emperor Jing woke up, he was also making final arrangements for his successor.

With the sound of the bells, the sky in the capital changed!