In the Rong Marquis Mansion, Rong Enqing helped his wife up. He was really happy. He was going to be a father again. He thought he could only have one son in his life. He said carefully: "Whether it is a boy or a girl, they are both treasures given to us by God."
Yao Yao has been in a trance and still doesn't believe it, "Is it true that I am pregnant?"
"Yes, it's been more than two months. This time it's all fetal. You need to rest in bed."
Yao Yao grabbed her husband's hand and said, "I still want to investigate the cause of mother's death. My brother got married for me. I said I would take good care of him."
Rong Enqing sighed. If he became a monk and stayed at home for the rest of his life, he might still have a chance to survive. But he could forget about having children. If he did not become a monk, he might not have any chance of survival at all. This was the only thing he could do for his wife.
Fortunately, the child was smart and became a monk cleanly and neatly.
In the palace, he knew what the emperor had done to Rong Enqing, and asked his subordinates, "Is Master Yao's body really ruined? Was the drug administered?"
"Yes, his foundation has been destroyed. Even if he doesn't continue to be given the weakening medicine, he won't live long. The medicine that will make him exterminate his descendants was also given when he wasn't paying attention."
The emperor said: "Leave someone to watch over you in the temple. Since you have become a monk, you don't need to come out."
The emperor and others went out, turning the bracelet, "I want to see how far Yao Yao can go. After a few days, I will hand over the cause of Bai's death and the evidence to Madam Ronghou."
Eunuch Liu lowered his head and said, "Yes."
At Zhou’s house, Zhulan was holding the blueprint of the house bestowed upon the Zhou family by the emperor. This was the final drawing. The address of the Rong family had been divided up these days.
Zhulan could clearly see the place allocated to the Zhou family. There was a large artificial lake and the buildings were designed according to the Jiangnan style.
Xuemei stood beside her mother and said, "Mom, this house is too big."
Zhu Lan said cheerfully, "Yes, it's too big. Now we can only look at the blueprints. We have to wait a few months before we can go to see it."
Xuemei felt that there were too many corridors on the blueprint, and she would get lost without someone to guide her. "It would cost at least several hundred thousand taels to build such a house."
Zhulan said happily: "Well, these are just some materials and only cost the cost. If the emperor hadn't paid for all the expenses, our family wouldn't be able to afford it."
The emperor took too many things from the Rong family, but he didn't stingy with this silver. The emperor still has some dignity.
Xuemei helped her mother roll up the blueprints. After she put them away, she said, "Mom, have you heard that the price of glass has dropped? I'm thinking of replacing all the windows in my house with glass."
Zhulan had naturally heard about it. Economic prosperity promoted development. Foreign glass technology was already advanced, and our dynasty had also improved the technology and conducted continuous experiments. As the technology matured, the production volume increased, and the price of glass naturally dropped.
Zhulan thought about the new house. Zhou Shuren said that the windows also needed to be replaced with glass ones, and she was quite looking forward to the new house.
At Zhang Jinghong's home, Yao Xin finally contacted her mother, but her mother didn't want to come out. Looking at the letter her mother wrote, tears kept falling. Her mother didn't want to be a burden to her.
Yao Xin was crying and hiccuping while writing the reply letter quickly. She was not afraid of the burden.
When Zhang Jinghong came back and saw the letter, his heart skipped a beat. His mother-in-law not only didn't want to be a burden to his wife, but also didn't want her to have any contact with Yao Houfu. Holding the letter, she finally said, "Your mother is determined to die. As long as she is here, you still have contact with the Houfu. Only when she is gone can you completely cut off contact."
Yao Xin was completely panicked, "What should I do? What should I do?"
Zhang Jinghong looked at the sky and said, "I'll send the servant to guard the Yaohou Mansion."
Yao Xin fell to the ground. The letter had arrived several hours ago, but she hadn't even noticed it. She fell to the ground and cried bitterly.
Time passed little by little, and the servant came back soon with the news of the aunt's death.
Yao Xin, "I just want to take my mother out. I don't want to force her to die. I want her to live well."
Zhang Jinghong hugged his wife, but his mother didn't think so. The ship of Yaohou Mansion was already broken, and his aunt didn't want to implicate his wife when the ship sank. His aunt committed suicide out of her motherly love for his wife. "Mother hopes you can be safe."
Yao Xin didn’t understand before, and kept muttering, “I was very ignorant when I was a child. I looked down on my aunt’s status. I was not good. I was not worthy of her dying for me. I was not good, I was not good.”
Zhang Jinghong locked his wife's arms and said, "You are doing well. You have been taking care of Mom for the past two years. She knows it well. You are doing well."
Yao Xin was wrapped in endless guilt. She was not a good daughter and ended up being the cause of her mother's death.
Zhou Shuren said, "Today, a Western envoy presented the emperor with a self-ringing clock, which was made based on the scenery of Jiangnan."
Zhu Lan asked quietly, "This is the best publicity for the emperor. Just wait and see. The foreign merchants' shops will be sold out of their self-ringing clocks tomorrow."
Zhou Shuren, "It's too expensive. I asked, and the cheapest ones cost over a thousand taels, and the most expensive ones cost several thousand taels. In fact, the first people to invent clocks were the Chinese. I remember that the first mechanical timer created by Su Song in the Northern Song Dynasty was more than 300 years earlier than foreigners used it. There was another person whose name I forgot, who also made mechanical clocks more than 80 years earlier than foreign countries."
Zhulan, "Although the past and present dynasties are imaginary and history has taken a turn, the history of the Northern Song Dynasty does exist. We can ask the Ministry of Industry to find the information and make it ourselves. I am not going to buy foreign products now. They are too expensive. I would rather buy domestic products."
Zhou Shuren burst out laughing, "I haven't heard of buying domestic products for a long time. I miss it. You are right. Let's buy domestic products. I will go to talk to Lord Fang tomorrow. If it doesn't work, ahem, let's follow the example and buy some and dismantle them."
Zhulan was happy, "Yeah."
The next day, Zhulan couldn't help her curiosity. She didn't buy anything. She just went to the foreigner's shop to take a look. She also brought her younger son with her, giving him a holiday. Of course, she also sent him a private message, hoping that her son would have more knowledge and be better able to accept foreign things.
When the carriage arrived, there were a lot of people in the foreigner's shop. The shop employed people from Beijing. The shopkeeper could speak foreign languages. Rows of self-ringing clocks were constantly taken out and put on display for sale.
Changzhong's eyes widened because he was shocked by the price. He felt his purse and found that the money he had saved was not enough to buy a pair of legs.
Zhulan denied it all, saying that they were all works of art. Finally, after listening to the shopkeeper's offer, her evil hands that wanted to spend money retracted, saying that they were too expensive, so she left without buying anything and took her son away.
The mother and son went to the glass shop and bought some glass cups before returning to the carriage.
Zhulan asked her son, "What do you think?"
Changzhong had too many ideas. "Mom, I think if we master the technology, the foreigners will not ask for exorbitant prices. Scarcity makes things valuable. If they are not scarce, the price will come down."
Zhulan touched her son's head and said, "You're right. Any other ideas?"