Gasp! She's a Time Traveler Using Modern Tech to Improve Ancient Life-Chapter 594 - 592: Step by Step

This morning, Lin Wanwan woke up a little later than usual. Fortunately, she was living in Xiao Yixun’s Bamboo Garden, a person exempted from morning and evening rituals, and currently still under house arrest.

Lin Wanwan leisurely got up with the help of the maids. There are more and more maids proficient in etiquette now at home, and the ten slaves gifted by Li Shimin were all trained to be impeccably disciplined by palace rules, among whom Cui Ying and the former Liang Dynasty palace maids Ji Yue and Cai Yun, were particularly outstanding.

Lin Wanwan promoted them to first-class maids, and naturally, they were more diligent in serving, fearing to make any mistakes.

Because of their presence, Yun Shang felt a strong sense of crisis and also joined in to serve today.

Hong Yan was also more attentive than usual, with her hairstyle styled in a high difficulty that could participate in modern film and television styling awards.

Only the simple-minded Hua Nong seemed indifferent, as her culinary skills are irreplaceable.

The recipes for frying, stir-frying, and many others were all guided by Lin Wanwan bit by bit. In Great Tang, a place that knows only to fry tea with oil, these recipes have no second master.

After grooming and enjoying the breakfast prepared meticulously by Hua Nong, Lin Wanwan was ready to go out.

Little Qingyu was already escorted by Cui Ying and others to study at the Xiao Family’s private school, while Xiao Yixun, sitting cross-legged in the inner hall, stared at Lin Wanwan with slightly reddened eyes as if accusing her of going out again.

Lin Wanwan gave a cheerful smile at her solemn little face and coaxed, "Yixun, be good. I’ll bring you something delicious when I return."

Xiao Yixun immediately showed a look of disdain: "I’m not a sister."

Lin Wanwan laughed out loud, this little snowman’s expression was too adorable.

Once out of the Xiao Mansion’s gate, Lin Wanwan headed straight to the broker; she needed to hire a slightly more skilled architect to build workshops on her newly acquired land and also renovate the dilapidated manor that originally existed there.

Meanwhile, the time for spring plowing was tight, so Lin Wanwan instructed Sun Chuyao individually to bring sweet potato vines and potato seeds, as well as corn seedlings, to distribute to the village attached to that piece of land.

After taking care of these matters, Lin Wanwan turned her steed towards Guangde Square where Old Sun was located, only to be informed by the boy that Old Sun was not there today, having gone to Qinling for herbs.

Lin Wanwan was not disappointed, left some finished alcohol, and left. She had originally not sent an advance notice, so missing him wasn’t surprising.

Alcohol with only 75% concentration has the best disinfection effect, so Lin Wanwan brought modern finished alcohol as a reference for Old Sun.

She believed that even if the concentration couldn’t be accurately described, with Old Sun’s wisdom and Huaxia craftsmen’s ingenuity, they could explore a relatively accurate process for making alcohol.

Many things, without theoretical summation, people might know the how without knowing the why, but this doesn’t pose much of a challenge. As long as experience is passed down through generations, accuracy can be assured.

This is something Huaxia craftsmen understand best, creating those highly sophisticated things with their wise hands that even modern machines cannot achieve.

Life went on just as this, without more palace drama, with everything modern remaining calm as well.

The excuse of enrolling in the Chinese medicine advanced training class that Lin Wanwan mentioned offhand was not mere talk; she truly spent money and time to study.

Modern society is wonderful indeed; if one wants to learn, there’s an abundance of training classes and advanced places to choose from, as long as one can afford the fees, indiscriminate of social class.

Unlike in ancient times, where learning was difficult, one may not even find a place to study having money, as it was monopolized by influential families, where ordinary merchants were deemed unworthy of higher education.

From the Imperial College to private schools, background served as the first hurdle before academic pursuit.

Chang’an City’s architectural level is higher than Wang Dulei, the one Lin Wanwan found in Mao County, not to mention Li Lizhi later learned of this matter and specially assigned master craftsmen from the palace for Lin Wanwan.

Apart from the wealthy, Chang’an City is filled with various types of poor people, among whom registered numbers affiliated with the Minor Mansion, Construction Supervision, Military Equipment Supervision, and Ministry of Industry are as numerous as oxens.

This group of craftsmen, being right under the emperor’s nose, although they receive wages monthly, when compared to the living expenses in Chang’an City, these wages are simply not enough to cover household costs, and since they don’t own land, they can only seek work elsewhere to earn a living.

Their families work for wealthy households to earn money, and they themselves squeeze time for outside work.

Therefore, for matters of building workshops and renovating manors, Lin Wanwan lavishly spent money, employing numerous people to swiftly accomplish the task, finishing quickly yet well — perhaps predisposed for infrastructure frenzy is etched into Huaxia genes.

On this day, Lin Wanwan led Little Qingyu and Xiao Yixun, who chose to ignore the house arrest order, along with a convoy of servants, impressively exiting through Tonghua Gate, heading towards estates northeast of Chang’an City.

She intended to inspect the achievements. If the environment is adequate, she planned to move out from Xiao Mansion and live outside the city as a minor landlord.

Li Shimin granted Xiao Chong’s county baronial land of five qing, equivalent to five hundred Tang mu.

During the Zhenguan period of Great Tang, land was vast with sparse population across ten paths, with only three million registered households of good-mannered people, meaning the equal-field system had adequate lands to grant, considering mere averages.

But in reality, due to differing fertile arable lands in various places, average figures couldn’t simply be looked at.

For instance, Mao County, as Ta Mountain Dam has yet to be completed, sea water often flooded the land, where lands are largely saline-alkali or mountainous, highly unsuitable for farming, categorized as narrow region, so full land distribution is unfeasible.

Meanwhile, the area where Chang’an City is located, while part of Guanzhong Plain with relatively flat terrain and plentiful arable lands, is home to numerous influential families and wealthy individuals, where most good lands belong to noble houses, leaving nothing for civilians, not even minor officials.

Also, only Xiao Chong, hailing from Lanling Xiao Family, could timely exchange the reward for such a large piece of land near Chang’an City. If it were an ordinary citizen rewarded land for meritorious service, no one would know where the Ministry of Revenue might assign it within some remote mountainous ditch.

Annually, one wouldn’t speak of yield; merely not owing taxes would be considered fortunate.

Xiao Chong directly registered these lands under Lin Wanwan’s name, under the guise of a bride price — of course, typically, bride price wouldn’t be presented this way, but given his rebellious reputation, who could say something!

After all, since the situation was fixed, Duke Song Mansion folks could only grudgingly accept.

Even Xiao Chong’s act of petitioning for a marriage grant was a move first, report later approach, and Xiao Kai didn’t expect him to obey.

As for his fill-in wife, earlier when Xiao Chong was a child, there was a desire to manage it (Xiao Chong hardly survived initially). But now she has lost all children, left without reliance, lacking maternal backing deep as Gu Family, with Xiao Chong already robustly established, she had to keep a low profile.

Actually, recently, this fill-in wife shifted strategy, starting to arrange maidservants for Xiao Kai, as long as one can bear a child or two, it guarantees her status as a safeguard, allowing her to stir things up again. But unfortunately, nothing has come of it so far.