After transmigrating into the book, I helped my mother reconcile with her divorced husband.

Consort Jin died. It is said that not long after returning to Jinxiu Palace, she hanged herself with a white silk ribbon. When she was found, there were obvious signs of rigor mortis on her body. It was the old nanny who had served her for many years who took her down from the beam.

She wore the same clothes she had worn when she entered the palace, and her hair was styled in the same bun as when she entered, but without any hair ornaments. People in the palace speculated that she knew about the Emperor's feelings for her, and, overwhelmed with shame, chose to hang herself because she couldn't face him. Only Lu Zhiyuan understood that she was protecting her two children.

“This servant doesn’t understand!” Liu Ying shook her head: “His Majesty only punished her by confining her to her quarters for a year or two. Why would she want to die? If she’s already dead, how can she protect her two children?”

Lu Zhiyuan tapped her forehead.

"Do you know what it means to enter the palace and never be able to escape its clutches? It's not that the palace is so big, but that the people in the palace are so complicated that if you're not careful, you'll be doomed."

Liu Ying shook her head: "I understand even less!"

Lu Zhiyuan sat up straight: "Arson is a serious crime that is taboo in the palace, and besides, the person she wanted to burn to death was me. The palace servants who participated in putting out the fire that night, and even the others, cannot be kept in the dark. For both moral and legal reasons, His Majesty has to give an explanation to the Xie family and the Pingnan Marquis's mansion. Confinement is only the first step. Next, she will be banished to the Cold Palace. Moreover, His Majesty will use this incident to warn the Fang family and drag the Jiang family into it as well. Don't forget, Fang Zhi married that Jiang Yuntian."

“Yuan’er is right. Lord Fang resigned and returned to his hometown early this morning. As for the young master of the Jiang family, he is probably out of luck for an official career.”

"Second Aunt, what brings you here? Did my second uncle worry about me and specially send you to see me?" Lu Zhiyuan greeted her happily.

"You little rascal, you really are as clever and insightful as your second uncle said." Auntie first handed the things in her hand to Liuying, then pulled Lu Zhiyuan's hand to sit down: "This time, it was your second uncle who pleaded with the Emperor to let you enter the palace. To put it bluntly, he was worried about you and afraid that you would suffer in the palace. The day after the fire at Ronghua Palace, the Emperor summoned your two uncles. At the same time, the Empress also summoned Madam Fang and Fang Zhi."

"Lord Fang's resignation is His Majesty's way of giving the Xie family an explanation."

Second Aunt nodded: "The Emperor originally intended to strip Consort Jin of her title, but since Consort Jin had died, the matter was dropped. Consort Jin was not buried in the royal mausoleum, but instead, in accordance with her wishes, she was buried in the Fang family's mausoleum, and it was said to the outside world that she died of grief."

Liu Ying sighed again upon hearing this, while Lu Zhiyuan remained calm, as if she had already guessed it.

"Consort Jin is intelligent and knows her fate. If she doesn't die, she will become a disgraced concubine in the Cold Palace, which will not only implicate her daughter but also her son. Before she died, she changed into the same clothes that His Majesty first saw her in, hoping that His Majesty would remember their past relationship and take care of her son after he returned to Beiliang."

“A mother loves her son and plans far ahead for him.” Second Aunt sighed, her gaze falling on the charred courtyard wall: “Yuan’er, why didn’t you move to Shuanghua Palace? Has something happened there?”

“Nothing has changed. It was Yuan’er who declined the Empress’s arrangement and chose to live here voluntarily.” Lu Zhiyuan leaned against her second aunt: “Aunt, you know that Yuan’er grew up in a separate courtyard and is used to being alone and quiet. Shuanghua Palace is nice, but it’s too close to the Empress and the Princess.”

She stopped short of revealing her meaning, and her second aunt immediately understood what she meant.

The two didn't dwell on Consort Jin's issue and immediately started talking about other things.

His Majesty and the Empress have both approved the renovation of Ronghua Palace. The hard furnishings will be handled by the Ministry of Works, while she will be responsible for the soft furnishings herself. Her furniture shop is already quite well-established; it can make any kind of furniture as long as there are drawings. She has already measured the dimensions of each room and will have her second aunt take the drawings out to Manager Lu later.

Manager Lu has been promoted to head manager, and in addition to the affairs of the rouge shop, he is also in charge of the accounts of the other three shops.

The batch of sweet potatoes destined for the Northwest has been stored. The cellar was dug according to the method Lu Zhiyuan described. Whether it will work depends on this winter.

“Your eldest uncle asked me to pass on a message to you. He said that the sanitary napkin factory has been built and currently has two workshops. Workshop A is responsible for processing raw materials, and workshop B is responsible for manufacturing. This is the finished product, which is similar to the sample you showed us before.” At this point, the second aunt blushed slightly. “Your eldest aunt, my two cousins, and I have all tried it, and it is indeed better than the ones we used before.”

My second aunt brought over some finished products, all made according to the patterns she had given me beforehand.

These safety shorts are handmade. Considering the stubborn feudal ideas of the ancients, she designed two types. One is similar to the design of modern safety shorts, where the user can decide whether to wear an underpants. The other type is inspired by modern anti-exposure safety shorts, combining the safety shorts and underpants into one. For comfort, the safety shorts and underpants are made of lighter and thinner materials, and are also more expensive.

"As you said before, we put some samples in cosmetic shops, jewelry shops and clothing shops, and the results were quite good. Some people have already placed orders with us."

Who are the people who made reservations with us?

“They come from well-off families.” Auntie sighed. “Girls from ordinary families don’t even dare to look at them. Even if we hand them the items and tell them that they are for trial use and free of charge, they still won’t dare to take them.”

She came from an official family and married a man who was also an official. Before accepting Lu Zhiyuan's commission to get involved in the sanitary napkin business, she had no idea that ordinary people lived such lives.

During my investigation with my sister-in-law, I learned that women from impoverished families couldn't even afford a clean menstrual pad. They used the oldest, most tattered rags and clothes they owned. Because of improper cleaning, or because they were too busy making a living to clean themselves, they would contract all sorts of diseases.

Women are often ashamed to talk about their illnesses, and even if they do, they are often scolded by their families and do not receive timely medical treatment. In the end, minor illnesses become major illnesses, and when they become major illnesses, they are scorned by their husbands' families, ending up being scolded every day and dying a miserable death.

Thinking of what those women had gone through, my second aunt couldn't help but tear up.

"Yuan'er, can you help me think of a solution? It's not about making money off them, but because they need this more. Those from well-off families, like us, will only feel inconvenienced without it; it won't cause them any incurable diseases. Our Xie family isn't short of money; helping them is the best thing we can do. That's what you wanted, Yuan'er, right?"

“I thought it was some kind of difficult problem, but it turns out it’s this. Look how worried my beautiful and kind-hearted second aunt is.” Lu Zhiyuan leaned on her second aunt: “I’ve thought about this before, but I haven’t had a chance to discuss it with my uncles and aunts yet.”

Lu Zhiyuan cuddled with her second aunt and murmured for a long time before her aunt's brows finally relaxed, and she became even more convinced that her little niece was a business genius. Little did she know that Lu Zhiyuan had learned all these tricks from her exposure to modern society.