"Master Gao, Master Zhang, please stay..."
Zhu Ping'an bowed and said goodbye to Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng who were seeing him off, then turned and walked towards his office.
I visited Gao Gong today and the result was ideal.
When entering the door, Zhu Ping'an knocked twice but no one answered; when leaving, Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng saw him out.
Reject at first and then send.
From the comparison of the attitudes of Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng before and after, it can be seen that Zhu Ping'an's visit was quite effective.
When Zhu Ping'an came out of Gao Gong's office, it was already past half past the hour. The welcoming banquet would begin in about half an hour. There was not enough time to visit other colleagues in Prince Yu's Mansion, and his own office was not cleaned up yet, so after Zhu Ping'an came out of Gao Gong's office, he went straight back to his own office.
As for other colleagues, it won’t be too late to visit them after the welcoming banquet.
Zhu Ping'an returned to his office with familiarity. After returning to the office, he found that there was a lot more greenery in the office.
There are eight potted plants of different sizes in the room. The tallest one is a Podocarpus, which is placed on an old trunk with twisted branches. Its branches and leaves are swaying, and it looks ancient, delicate and charming. The other potted plants are smaller, mainly different varieties of chrysanthemums and black bamboo.
A gentle breeze blew, and the room was filled with green, which was very pleasant.
"I don't know what kind of bonsai you like, my lord. I have selected some for you based on the preferences of most people in the mansion. If you don't like any of them, I will have someone replace the bonsai for you." Steward Liu asked, bowing aside.
"No need to change it, it's very good, I like it very much. Thank you for your trouble, Manager Liu." Zhu Ping'an looked around with satisfaction and bowed to thank Manager Liu.
"You are too polite, sir." Manager Liu said quickly.
Then, Manager Liu arranged for someone to move a few furnishings and some daily utensils into Zhu Ping'an's room.
"My lord, please take a rest first. I will not disturb you any more. If you find that you are still missing something in the future, whether it is the four treasures of the study or daily necessities, please send someone to tell me and I will buy them for you as soon as possible." Manager Liu said before leaving.
"Haha, thank you very much, Manager Liu. Please don't think I'm troublesome in the future."
Zhu Ping'an agreed with a smile and did not hesitate to be polite. After all, the property belonged to Prince Yu's mansion and he worked for Prince Yu, so it was neither moral nor logical for him to be polite. Besides, the emperor had deducted so much of his salary, so it was reasonable for him to pay off his father's debts.
"How can it be a trouble? It is my blessing to be able to serve you, sir." Manager Liu quickly shook his head.
"Haha, it should be Ping'an's blessing." Zhu Ping'an said with a smile.
"You are joking, sir. Please take a rest first. I will come back to inform you when the welcoming banquet starts."
Manager Liu bowed and left, closing the door behind him.
"Thank you."
Zhu Ping'an watched Manager Liu leave, then slowly walked around the office's outer and inner rooms.
The area is sufficient, the functional divisions are excellent, the office supplies are complete, the daily necessities are complete, the sun is bright and the greenery is abundant.
This is my first independent office in my life, I am very satisfied with it.
The lounge was very tidy, so Zhu Ping'an didn't do much cleaning and adjustment. He mainly cleaned up the outer room. He rearranged the desk according to his own habits, sorted the books on the bookshelf, and then wiped the table, chairs and other items with a wet rag... ...
It took about twenty minutes.
After cleaning up, Zhu Pingan opened the doors and windows for ventilation, and sat down at the desk, setting out his writing brush, ink, paper, and inkstone. He took a copy of the Lanting Preface from the bookshelf and opened it on the desk. He recited silently while practicing calligraphy:
"In the ninth year of Yonghe, in the year of Guichou, at the beginning of late spring, we gathered at the Lanting Pavilion in Shanyin, Kuaiji, to hold a purification ceremony. All the wise men and women came, young and old. This place..."
"Lanting Preface" is Wang Xizhi's masterpiece when he was 51 years old. It is the first piece of running script in Chinese. Zhu Ping'an discovered this copy of "Lanting Preface" when he was tidying up the bookshelf. The calligrapher's vigorous and elegant calligraphy made Zhu Ping'an fascinated. So when he was practicing calligraphy, he opened this copy of "Lanting Preface" and tried to imitate it.
There are twenty zhi characters in the main text of Lanting Preface, plus one in the signature, totaling twenty-one zhi characters in the whole post. Twenty-one zhi characters, twenty-one brush strokes, twenty-one aesthetics, each with a different form and aesthetic, no one is repeated, the reputation of the calligrapher is truly unworthy.
Zhu Ping'an had just finished copying the "Lanting Preface" and had just put down his pen when Manager Liu came in to inform him that he was invited to a banquet - a welcoming banquet prepared by His Royal Highness Prince Yu.
After washing his hands and tidying up his clothes, Zhu Ping'an followed Manager Liu to the welcoming banquet location.
The welcoming banquet of Prince Yu's Mansion was held in the garden, right next to the lotus pond. The servants of the palace built a huge pergola to block out the sunlight. Although it was called a pergola, its design was not vulgar at all. It was designed in the style of a pavilion, exuding elegance and nobility everywhere.
The pergola is made of high-grade Xiangfei bamboo, which can be rolled up and unfolded for ventilation. Curtains are hung around the pergola, which can block the sun on the one hand and leave gaps for ventilation on the other hand. The curtains are also made of spotted bamboo and Xiangfei bamboo, with exquisite landscape patterns on them, which are very elegant.
There are eight refrigerators lined up in the middle of the pergola. The refrigerators here are not modern refrigerators, but ancient versions.
The refrigerator placed in the shed is similar in style to a large tripod, made of bronze, with four legs standing more than 20 centimeters above the ground. There is also a base underneath, and a dragon-head copper ring on each of the four waists for easy transportation. The lid of the refrigerator is made of a thick jujube wood board, with a bronze brick pressed on the board. There are 9981 small holes drilled on the board, and the cold air emitted by the ice cubes drifts out through the small holes to achieve the effect of cooling. Of course, compared with modern air conditioners, this is more than a million miles away.
The ice cubes in the refrigerator were specially purchased from outside by the steward of Prince Yu's Mansion today.
In fact, the imperial family had a special workshop responsible for the royal family's summer ice. Every winter, the workshop had special ice collectors who were ordered to collect ice from the Imperial River, cut the ice in the Imperial River into cubes of specified sizes, and pull them into a royal ice cellar outside the Western Garden for use by the royal family in the summer.
As a prince, Prince Yu could receive ice directly from the Imperial Household Department.
However, just like Prince Yu's welfare benefits were blocked by the Ministry of Revenue and other departments, so was Prince Yu's ice allowance. Every time someone from Prince Yu's mansion was ordered to go to the Imperial Household Department to collect ice allowance, the Imperial Household Department would block it with various normal or abnormal reasons, such as the key was broken, the ice cellar was under repair, the day for distributing ice allowance had not yet arrived, the official in charge of ice allowance had gone to the Western Garden to deliver ice, etc...
The amount of ice that Prince Yu's Mansion received from the Imperial Household Department every ten days was less than one in ten. The amount of ice that was received was barely enough for Prince Yu and the concubines in the backyard. As for the large-scale banquets in summer, Prince Yu's Mansion had to spend money to purchase ice from outside.
The ice used in this welcoming banquet was specially purchased by the steward of Prince Yu's Mansion.