Priceless: A widow with a baby asks the prince to marry again

The next day, Liu Rusi went to the porcelain factory to observe the production of bottles, and took Xiao Qinhao, Caiyun and Xuefei to play in the mud.

Of course, it must be Chu Shiyu who led the team.

When they left the city gate early in the morning, Liu Rusi and his party saw the scene of porridge being distributed. On the left side of the city wall, there were many large pots with steaming porridge stewing in them.

Ropes were pulled around the area, marking a large area. Only women and children were allowed to enter that area, and they could only eat within the area. They could eat as much as they wanted, but they were not allowed to take the porridge away or give it away.

Liu Rusi was amazed at these things and her eyes stayed on the right side of the city gate, where there were many pots but no ropes.

There is a white banner hanging next to it, which reads: Raw water carries dead air, boiled water brings vitality, bring your own container and get boiled water for free.

Liu Rusi's face showed surprise and she stared blankly for a long time.

She turned to look at Chu Shiyu, but didn't know what to say for a moment. She just stared at him without blinking, as if trying to see clearly what he looked like.

Her look was so complicated that Chu Shiyu couldn't tell whether it was good or bad, although rationally speaking it shouldn't be a bad look.

"I think what you said before makes sense. Boiling water is a costly and laborious task for ordinary people, but compared to a major epidemic, boiling some water for disaster relief doesn't take too much time." Chu Shiyu couldn't help but explain.

"It's just that we can't force people to drink boiled water, so we mainly encourage people to drink it by providing it for free and publicizing the benefits of drinking boiled water. Moreover, many types of jobs are needed to achieve work-for-relief, and the water boilers in the morning and evening alone can provide hundreds of jobs."

After listening to him finish explaining his reasons and thoughts, Liu Rusi smiled softly and said, "You are really nice."

It's good to be praised, and it should be a good thing, but Liu Rusi's eyes were too complicated, and Chu Shiyu discerned a trace of guilt and sadness in them, which made his heart wrench.

"What are you thinking about?" He needed to know what she was thinking, otherwise how would he respond?

Liu Rusi was silent for a while, then looked at the stall selling gourds next to the boiling water point and asked curiously, "Did you arrange for those gourds to be sold?"

Chu Shiyu would not fall for such a low-level trick to change the subject. He asked again: "Rusi, what were you thinking about just now?"

Her bright almond eyes turned red for some reason, reflecting the light of water, and she said softly: "You deserve better."

Before Chu Shiyu could react to her words and tears, she asked again: "Did you arrange those gourds?"

Chu Shiyu wanted to immediately retort with some bullshit "deserves better", but the watery light in those almond-shaped eyes was like a seal blocking his throat, making his words stuck.

The two of them were in a stalemate for a long time, their Adam's apples rolling, and another insignificant sentence was said in a somewhat hoarse voice: "The gourds were originally arranged by a minor official. Someone in his family made gourds. Seeing that many people wanted to get boiled water but did not have a suitable container, he took the initiative to sell them nearby."

"At first, the price was several times higher than the normal price. Later, Sun Zhizhao asked someone to communicate with him and let him sell it at the market price. Later, he realized that he could sell more at the normal price, which also attracted other water container manufacturers and sellers to follow suit."

"This has a certain effect on restoring commerce in Xingzhou City. Firewood and other sales have also been adjusted in this way. Especially in the later stages of disaster relief, more needs to be done to restore the economy. The grain merchants in the outer cities will spontaneously meet the demand here."

After these words, Liu Rusi returned to normal, gently patting the horse and continuing to walk out of the city, while chatting naturally and asking: "Has the grain price been adjusted? At present, it seems that the most important thing is the grain price."

Chu Shiyu kept guessing what she was thinking, but he answered calmly, "Daxia itself has a granary to stabilize grain prices, but the granary has long been in deficit due to corruption."

"As for what we have, firstly, the victims may not have money to buy food, and secondly, the disaster relief funds have not arrived yet, so we have been distributing food directly to alleviate the plight of the victims who are hungry first."

"But now the Zhang family's silver has arrived, so we can use the silver to replace part of the grain as compensation. Once the value of money and grain reaches a balance, the disaster relief should be over."

Liu Rusi kept nodding her head, not sparing any appreciation on her face. After listening to him for a while, she suddenly asked, "You have so many things to do. Wouldn't it take up time if you took us to the porcelain factory?"

Of course, it was impossible to avoid delays completely. Liu Rusi obviously wanted him to spend his time on business, but he would rather be an idle prince who could travel with her every day...

"The direction has been controlled, and I have enough people under my command. They don't need me to come out at this moment." Chu Shiyu was confident.

In the city of Xingzhou behind him, Sun Zhizhao hurried to the government office with the documents in his hand. Seeing that there was no one in the yard, he grabbed a servant and asked, "Where is the prince?"

"The prince...seems to have taken Madam Liu out for a trip."

"Going out for fun? Don't be ridiculous. How could the prince go out for fun at this time?" Sun Zhizhao didn't believe it, but he couldn't find anyone for the time being, and the problem of repairing the city wall was not very difficult, so he decided to handle it himself.

The group rode their horses and soon arrived at the porcelain factory.

The reason why this place is called the Porcelain Factory is that there are not only official kilns here, but also many private kilns. Many workers and vendors have formed a small town here who make a living by selling pottery and porcelain.

Little Qinhao usually sat on Chu Shiyu's horse, and at this moment he was looking around with curiosity.

When they arrived at the largest gate, a group of people were already waiting there. They all knelt down and saluted in unison, and then welcomed the group into the workshop.

There are many steps in making porcelain. The first step they can see is throwing the clay into the desired shape.

Since the drawing given by Liu Rusi was square, it was a bit troublesome for the wheel throwing master, as he could not shape it by rotation.

Watching the master busy building up the mud strips one by one, Liu Rusi also became eager to try. Who doesn't like playing with mud?

He immediately applied for some mud on the spot and started playing with the two girls and a child.

This activity naturally couldn't exclude Chu Shiyu, but most of Chu Shiyu's memory was still running on the previous events. When the clay under his hands turned into a lump again...

"Godfather, you may not be good at this kind of delicate skill." Little Qin Hao said as he held up the clay cow he had molded on a wooden board and showed it to everyone. It can't be said to be lifelike, but you can definitely tell it's a cow.

Chu Shiyu was speechless for a moment. Why is this kid becoming more and more annoying?

"Well, Haohao's sculpture is good, but it's still a little worse than mother's." Liu Rusi also sculptured a cow. When she placed the cow she sculptured next to Qin Hao, everyone could see the huge difference.

"Mom!" Little Qin Hao felt awkward. On the one hand, he was unhappy, but on the other hand, he felt that his mother was so awesome!

Although he was rescued again, Chu Shiyu was not too happy. He couldn't help but think of the conversation between the cow and the horse, and the cow represented Qin Lie.

After Liu Rusi finished making the clay dolls, she began to learn how to make porcelain bottles. She watched the master make them and imitated him.

After trying for a long time, she couldn't help but admire that the skills that others have practiced for more than ten years, how could a beginner compare with his dexterity? Besides, who can become a master of making pottery without dexterity?

The bottle she needed was not big, but it needed to be thin and light. However, no matter how hard she tried, the porcelain blanks she made were not as uniform and thin as those made by her master.

Glass bottles are certainly better, but in the current era, it is impossible to make transparent and thin glass. If it is just melting sand, Daxia would have already done it. Glazed tiles and glazed bottles have been circulated among the rich and powerful, and there are even some nearly transparent bottles as royal collections, but without a complete chemical industry chain, it is basically impossible to copy.

After finishing a bottle with difficulty, Liu Rusi thought she should try something else. She turned around and saw her son still improving his cow, Caiyun was trying to make a flower, and Xuefei was seriously making a bowl.

When she looked at Chu Shiyu, she found that his face was full of concentration.

There was already a horse with its head raised and neighing on the plate in front of him. Chu Shiyu was carefully using a carving knife to dig out the mud under its legs and outline the lines of its hind legs.

"Your Highness, if you make the horse legs according to the actual proportions, the clay block will not be able to support itself." Another master appeared beside him and whispered instructions to him on how to do it.

"Then it must have legs." Chu Shiyu continued to shape the muscle texture according to his understanding of horses.

“We usually leave some decorations at the bottom for support, such as grass or waves.”

Chu Shiyu thought of the torn note again, but he had already escaped from the flood, so the disaster should have passed, right? After it was over, it became a unique experience with her...

"Then it should be waves. It can't be too ugly, and the four legs should be visible."

So the master began to tell him how to arrange the waves to make them look good, and discussed how to make the legs visible.

We are all just playing around, but you are the only one who is so serious...

Liu Rusi took a look at the cow she had sculpted earlier, then took it back and began to polish the details.