Who understands? He traveled through time with a high-spec spatial ability.

It was lunchtime, so they decided to eat at Yi Li Xiang. Qiao Jingjing thought to herself, if they had brought out the modern hot pot earlier, perhaps Lu Yuan would have noticed the clues and met with them sooner.

"You're not bad, you're a second-generation official right from the start. Unlike me, I was dirt poor when I first transmigrated," Qiao Jingjing teased.

Lu Yuan said helplessly, "Don't even mention it. This young master Lu is a real scoundrel. I'm afraid others will notice something amiss and I'll have to imitate his spoiled ways."

He also had maids who clung to me every day. As a upright and respectable young man, I naturally couldn't accept treating women like playthings, so I could only hide from those beautiful women every day.

Qiao Jingjing asked, "What's your father really like? Can you trust his character?"

"To put it simply, apart from being afraid of his wife and having a fondness for drinking, he's pretty good in every other way. He occasionally accepts small favors, saying that sometimes he does it to appease certain people—these are all trivial matters. But he's very principled when it comes to matters of principle."

"What's wrong? Why are you asking about my dad?"

Qiao Jingjing placed her hands on the table, resting her chin on the back of her hands, and said in a muffled voice, "Of course there's good news. Don't you want your dad to get a promotion and a raise?"

Lu Yuan shook his head without hesitation. "I've thought about it before, but not now." He added, "I don't know where I'll be transferred once I get promoted. It's not easy to meet you here, so I'll stay with you instead of leaving."

Qiao Jingjing's eyes lit up. "Really? Aren't you afraid your dad will scold you for being useless?"

Lu Yuan smiled and said, "Let them scold me, I'm used to it anyway. I think things are fine as they are now. I'll be happy to see you often in the future."

Qiao Jingjing felt a warmth in her heart, and a smile appeared on her face. "Don't worry, I won't let your father remain a lowly seventh-rank official forever. There are still two years until the next assessment, and there are plenty of opportunities to manipulate things in between."

Lu Yuan asked curiously, "Is there any good way?"

Qiao Jingjing leaned close to Lu Yuan's ear and whispered a few words. Lu Yuan's eyes widened upon hearing this. "Miss, you have this ability? Is this really possible?"

Qiao Jingjing said confidently, "Absolutely! Trust me!"

Forgive her for not being able to tell him the secret of the space yet.

After leaving Yilixiang, the two parted ways. Qiao Jingjing immediately went to Xinchang Grain Store, then went to the warehouse to store the required quantity before returning to Daba Village.

Lu Yuan returned to the backyard of the county government office and happened to run into Lu Qinbei, who was on his way to the office. Before Lu Yuan could speak, Lu Qinbei scolded, "Stop! You unfilial son, have you caused trouble again!"

"Dad, this is outrageous! I didn't do anything, and you're already accusing me of causing trouble. What did I do?"

Lu Qinbei said angrily, "Tell me the truth, why did that waiter from the Lü family come looking for you! They're suspected of murder, and you're my only son. They're looking for you at this time, and instead of avoiding suspicion, you're rushing to the scene!"

Lu Yuan felt wronged. "I didn't know he was looking for me because of this. Besides, I didn't help him. I even had the constables take him away."

“I warned you before to stay away from the Hu family and the Lü family, but when have you ever listened to me! All you do is eat, drink, and have fun, you have no sense of propriety.” Lu Qinbei looked at him with a face full of disappointment.

Lu Yuan noticed that one of his father's ears was particularly red, which gave him confidence:

"Father, you can't take your anger out on your son just because you were mistreated by Mother!"

"Nonsense! I have important business to attend to. Go back to your room and reflect on your actions. If you dare to run around again, I'll break your legs, even if it means offending your mother!" With that, he disappeared in a flash.

Back in Daba Village, Qiao Jingjing was thinking about finding a business for Lu Yuan that would allow him to earn money, pass the time, and find a sense of accomplishment. Moreover, his independence would benefit her as well. Aside from the secret of his spatial ability, which she couldn't share, Qiao Jingjing was willing to be generous to him about everything else.

As for prohibiting officials and their families from engaging in commerce, this is actually not difficult to resolve. Throughout history, in every dynasty, although merchants had a relatively low social status, the vast majority of upper-class people both despised and envied them.

These people often choose to have their illegitimate or collateral relatives enter the business world to earn wealth, and then hand over the proceeds to the family's public account or to direct descendants.

In this way, they could maintain their image of aloofness, mocking and despising merchants while simultaneously enjoying the abundant material life they provided. This contradictory mentality and behavior perfectly reflects the complex human nature and class consciousness within this feudal society.

There are countless people like this.

Based on what we know about Magistrate Lu's character, his lifestyle is probably not extravagant. Looking at Lu Yuan's attire today, it's not the imposing air of an official's son that Qiao Jingjing had imagined.

This is enough to show that Lu Yuan's life was not exactly wealthy. He was implicated by her and ended up in this dynasty. She had to make amends no matter what, otherwise she would feel guilty for owing so much.

After careful consideration, Qiao Jingjing finally decided to establish a bookstore.

She thought of the many classic literary works she had accumulated in her online space—invaluable resources that formed the foundation of the publishing house! To all the literary luminaries, I apologize; I am merely promoting your works. Please forgive me!

To better understand the current learning situation of the students in Daliang, Qiao Jingjing even went to Qi Ye'an to inquire about relevant information.

This decision seems simple, but it actually requires consideration of many factors, including market demand, readership demographics, and book type. If existing collections of poetry and classical lyrics overlap with her work, it would be a ridiculous situation.

Fortunately, the times are different, and so are the historical figures and works. But strangely, there are the Four Books and Five Classics, the Analects, the Doctrine of the Mean, and the Great Learning. The cultural background here is more like that before the Northern and Southern Dynasties.

Fortunately, most of the works stored in the space are from the Tang and Song dynasties and later, which means that these works have high value and influence.

The Tang and Song dynasties were the golden age of Chinese literature, producing numerous outstanding poets, writers, and artists. Their works are renowned for their profound thoughts, beautiful language, and unique artistic style, exerting a far-reaching influence on later generations.

Therefore, these works have attracted much attention from collectors and academics, possessing high market and research value. It is believed that they can also spark literary inspiration in Daliang.

The most critical issue now is papermaking and printing. While papermaking can be put on hold for the time being, printing is now of paramount importance.

Nanling County has a large population, but the number of students is relatively small. Although there are a thousand students in the county, there are only two bookstores.

There are two important reasons behind this phenomenon. First, paper was expensive, and many families, even entire clans, had to exhaust all their resources to support a student. Therefore, most students did not have enough money to buy books and had to choose to copy them themselves.

Secondly, limitations in printing technology resulted in a limited number of books. This situation made it difficult for bookstores to meet the demand from a large number of students, further exacerbating their need to copy books.

Qiao Jingjing was once particularly fascinated by handicrafts. She followed the account of a craftsman blogger who was very talented. The videos contained no dialogue, only records of his completed works.

The contents include batik, movable type printing, Xuan paper making, donkey-hide gelatin boiling, type sugar making, traditional soy sauce, bark paper, earthenware, etc.

With the help of encyclopedias, it's not difficult to create movable type printing.