Chapter 162: Chapter 108: Shocking!! Madam Zhao and the Nephew Were Heard Making Such Sounds at Night!

With that, he turned, mounted his horse, and rode off toward the Government Office.

Gu Gaoxu then turned to Lu Yuan, who stood behind him with a strange expression, and grinned.

"Let’s keep things separate.

Brother Lu, you have a way of dealing with the Liu Family, but I’m afraid that will take some time.

But this matter is urgent. We can’t wait. No matter what, we have to get the officials out here to protect the Zhao Family’s estate first.

Don’t worry. Whatever happens, you and I are in this together.

If you need any help, Brother Lu, just say the word. If I can help, I absolutely will!"

Lu Yuan blinked as he listened to Gu Gaoxu.

’Heh... this kid.’

’He’s actually quite the stand-up guy!’

’If I didn’t know what this kid was going to pull later, I’d actually want to be his friend.’

But he didn’t say anything more for now.

Lu Yuan led Gu Gaoxu into the carriage, and they headed straight for the factory outside the city.

...

The carriage entered the factory, which was now brightly lit.

After they disembarked, Gu Gaoxu looked around curiously, taking everything in.

This was Gu Gaoxu’s first time inside.

He had tried to get in before, but the Zhao Family Travelers guarding the factory wouldn’t let him.

Peering through the windows, he saw a series of brightly lit workshops.

Gu Gaoxu was stunned.

’This is the first time I’ve ever seen a large workshop operating like this.’

To Gu Gaoxu, everything was a novelty.

While Gu Gaoxu was looking around, Lu Yuan grabbed someone, asked which workshop Song Meiqin was in, and then headed straight there.

Gu Gaoxu had a million questions.

However, seeing how rushed Lu Yuan was, he knew it wasn’t the time to talk.

He just trailed along behind Lu Yuan.

Soon, Lu Yuan reached the third workshop building.

A small workshop had been sectioned off inside.

As soon as he entered, Lu Yuan saw a large group of people gathered around a lathe.

Song Meiqin was there, too.

One look at Song Meiqin told Lu Yuan she hadn’t slept all night, and his heart ached for her.

He walked up behind Song Meiqin, no longer caring about her title of Director.

He pulled Song Meiqin into his arms.

Song Meiqin was startled and began to struggle, but as soon as she turned and saw it was Lu Yuan, her body went limp.

"How’s it going? Is it finished?"

Lu Yuan asked, holding Song Meiqin as he gazed at the large lathe before them.

Song Meiqin nodded repeatedly, her voice soft.

"It’s finished. We just ran a test, and there were no problems. Now we’re on to the final assembly."

Hearing this, Lu Yuan nodded.

"Come on, let’s go to your office."

With that, Lu Yuan left in a hurry, his arm still around Song Meiqin.

This display caused many people in the workshop to stare.

To the factory workers, Director Song was practically a goddess.

Seeing the goddess of their dreams in another man’s arms left many of them feeling rather disgruntled.

But it also made them size up Lu Yuan with even greater curiosity.

’So this is the Zhao Family’s young nephew, huh?’

When they all arrived at Song Meiqin’s office, Lu Yuan immediately sat down and picked up a charcoal pencil and some paper.

Song Meiqin found Gu Gaoxu, who had been following them, a bit strange.

’She’d never seen this man before.’

But Song Meiqin didn’t ask any questions. Instead, she hurried to pour tea for her man and the stranger.

After accepting the teacup, Gu Gaoxu bowed slightly with great courtesy.

"A pleasure to meet you, sister-in-law."

His words made Song Meiqin blush.

’We’re not even married yet~’

She simply nodded, but hearing him call her ’sister-in-law’ gave her a favorable impression of the stranger.

Then, Song Meiqin placed the tea on the desk in front of Lu Yuan.

Not daring to disturb Lu Yuan, she just watched curiously from the side.

While drawing, Lu Yuan said:

"Aunt Song, go tell the deliverymen.

When they’re making deliveries to the major cities, tell them that no matter what they hear on the road or see with their own eyes...

...if it’s an interesting or recent event, they can report it back to us.

If we use their story, they’ll get a thirty Wen submission fee."

Huh?

’What on earth is this?’

Both Song Meiqin and Gu Gaoxu, who was standing to the side, were completely baffled.

They had no idea what Lu Yuan was talking about.

Of course, they both knew Lu Yuan was planning to deal with the Liu Family.

’But this??’

’How is this supposed to work?’

With puzzled expressions, they both looked down at the paper Lu Yuan was drawing on with his charcoal pencil.

It wasn’t a design for a lathe.

Instead, he was drawing straight lines, sectioning it off into block after block.

After he finished the front, he immediately started drawing on the back.

When he was finally done drawing...

Then, at the very top center of the front page, Lu Yuan picked up a writing brush and wrote two large words.

Shenling Daily

Song Meiqin and Gu Gaoxu, of course, couldn’t understand it.

But...

any well-hung Earthling would know exactly what Lu Yuan was up to.

After writing the words *Shenling Daily*...

Lu Yuan turned the large sheet of paper over, and in the bottom-right corner, began to write: A, B, C, D.

’English?’

’No, no, no.’

’The correct pronunciation was *a*, *bo*, *ci*, *de*.’

The literacy rate during the Ming Dynasty was among the highest of all the great dynasties.

Basically, one in every three or four people was literate.

Otherwise, why would three of the Four Great Classical Novels have been written during the Ming Dynasty?

However, that was only from the Yongle period onward.

Right now, it was only a little over a decade into the Empire’s founding.

This period was the transition from the end of the Yuan to the beginning of the Ming.

The great chaos that had engulfed the world had only just been quelled.

In this era, there still weren’t many literate people.

They were mostly city dwellers. In the surrounding villages...

...a village of several hundred people would be considered impressive if it had three to five literate individuals.

So, he had to use pinyin.

Lu Yuan’s newspaper wouldn’t just be for the city; it had to be distributed in the countryside as well.

’So how could he popularize pinyin?’

’Could he just write out *a, bo, ci, de* and call it a day?’

’People can’t even read basic characters, how would they learn this?’

"Aunt Song, go talk to the factory workers.

Tell them that if they have children between the ages of five and ten, they can send them to our factory.

Our factory will provide free room and board, and we’ll even teach them how to read."

Lu Yuan said quickly, his head bowed as he continued writing the alphabet.

Of course, Lu Yuan’s plan wasn’t to teach the children first and then have them teach the adults.

His goal was to teach them songs!

Or to be more precise, catchy rhymes!

It was just like that ’crave sour for a son, crave spicy for a daughter’ saying that his own wife believed without a doubt.

Or like what was said last night—that Aunt Zhao’s big rear meant she could bear sons.

These were all just catchy rhymes.

This kind of thing spreads incredibly fast!

As long as what you’re saying is catchy, its spread can only be described as explosive.

Things like this have appeared many times throughout history.

For example, "The Blue Sky is dead, the Yellow Sky shall rise."

Or "Great Chu will rise, Chen Sheng will be king."

Or "Liu Bang slays the white serpent."

All of these random things were spread through the mouths of children.

It wouldn’t take long. In just three to five days, it would be known all around Taiping City.

In half a month, it could cover half the province.

Lu Yuan’s successive moves were completely overwhelming Song Meiqin and Gu Gaoxu.

Gu Gaoxu wanted to ask, but seeing how busy Lu Yuan was, he felt it wasn’t the right time to interrupt.

As for Song Meiqin, though her mind was filled with question marks as she watched Lu Yuan...

...she felt an inexplicable sense of calm.

Her man’s plans, one following the other, each link connected to the next...

...were incredibly reassuring.

Song Meiqin truly loved this feeling.

The feeling that when trouble strikes, her man is there to protect her, to stand in front of her and shield her from the storm.

It was a completely different feeling from the one she got from her younger brother.

Right now, Lu Yuan was both mysterious and focused.

It made Song Meiqin adore him completely.

Song Meiqin didn’t ask any more questions. She nodded quickly and went out to make the arrangements.

After Lu Yuan finished writing out the pinyin alphabet...

He looked at the empty newspaper layout.

’He pondered for a moment.’

’Everything’s ready. All I need now is some eye-catching content.’

’So, what kind of content is the most captivating?’

’Since ancient times, it’s always been gossip.’

It’s the most fascinating stuff, the kind of thing people love to discuss.

Take the various unofficial histories, for example.

They’re essentially just gossip.

Sometimes, these unofficial histories are more appealing than the official records, more likely to get people talking and paying attention.

For the first edition of his newspaper...

Lu Yuan pondered for a moment.

Then, he put brush to paper.

In the most prominent section in the middle—the so-called headline!

Lu Yuan used his brush to write out a massive headline.

SHOCKING!! The Sounds Coming from Madam Zhao and Her Nephew’s Room at Night!!