Red Mansion Huacai

Chapter 158 Interpretation
  Li Weijian has been busy recently, vulcanizing rubber and setting up factories, so he has no time to take care of the big and small affairs in Rongguo Mansion. I only listen to what Hongyu says every day, and if I see anything that is not important, I put it aside.

I went to the inner palace for two days in a row, but I wanted to see King Zhongyong but couldn't. In the early morning of the third day, Li Weijian had just left Rongguo Mansion when he saw one or two carriages coming from the east side of Ningrong Street.

The carriage stopped in front of the Ningguo Mansion, the curtains were opened, and a Kun Dao came out holding a whisk in his hand, but it was none other than the Yuanling Palace Jinghuan Zhenren whom he had not seen for a long time.

Li Weijian was suspicious and thought to himself, could it be that Qin Keqing was ill again?

The disciple Yu Liu happened to be nearby. Li Weijian waved, and the disciple came over diligently.

"Fourth Master, what are your orders?"

Li Weijian raised his chin and pointed at the Jinghuan Master in the distance: "I heard that the Ningguo Mansion has been occupied by both monks and Taoist priests these days. Are they doing some rituals?"

Yu Liu said with a smile, "I'm afraid the fourth master asked the wrong person. How did I know about this matter in Ningguo Mansion?" After a pause, seeing Li Weijian glance over with a smile, Yu Liu hurriedly said, "But I just listen to you, little one." Talking about it, it seems that Uncle Zhen from Dongfu is preparing for the birth of Master Jing."

How can Li Weijian believe it? Jia Jing's baby was born in September, and it's only July now. Even if he was ready, he couldn't even prepare it two months in advance.

I'm just afraid something must have happened in Dongfu. Even if he thought about it, it had nothing to do with him. He immediately got on the carriage and urged Wu Haiping to rush to the inner palace.

Today, it was a coincidence that Li Weijian had just arrived at the inner palace and caught up with King Zhongyong and his entourage. Li Weijian hurriedly invited him to see him. When Doctor Liang ushered him into the second hall, he saw that King Zhongyong had a sullen face and looked quite tired.

Li Weijian saw the ceremony, and the Zhongyong King just waved his hand casually to let him sit down, and then said: "Resurrection, what's the matter with me?"

"Exactly." Li Weijian said: "The Armed Forces Academy has now taken over the imperial armaments and cannot spare many manpower to build steam engines. The student then thought that it would be better to set up a steam engine factory and gather the world's most skilled craftsmen in the capital. There is no shortage of craftsmen.”

King Zhongyong nodded slightly.

Li Weijian continued: "In the future, all iron and coal mines in the factory will be sourced from the inner government. This will also create a source of revenue for the inner government. In addition, the students want to ask the inner government to take shares, so they can be taken care of."

King Zhongyong frowned and said, "How much money do you need to invest in shares?"

"Twenty thousand taels."

King Zhongyong immediately became happy: "It's only twenty thousand taels. I'll just ask Doctor Liang to take care of it. Is this why Fu Sheng came to look for me for several days in a row?"

"Yes." Li Weijian observed his words and said, "Your Majesty also knows that the students are alone. Without the government's participation, there is always no confidence when setting up a factory."

"I know, it's easy for the King of Hell, but it's hard for the devil to deal with. I have learned this lesson in my early years." After a pause, King Zhongyong turned to say meaningfully: "The coal mine stocks raised more than one million yuan in a few days after they were sold. Compared with the water affairs But it’s far from it.”

Li Weijian chuckled and said nothing. He knew in his heart that the water company must have increased the appetite of King Zhongyong and even Emperor Zhenghe, so he looked down upon the millions of dollars raised by the Xishan Coal Mine.

When King Zhongyong saw that he didn't respond, he had no choice but to say: "Forget it, wait until after the resurrection and autumn, and we will talk about other things."

Li Weijian immediately held up his hands and said with a smile, "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your understanding."

King Zhongyong nodded slightly, as if he was absent-minded.

Now that the internal government has taken a stake and there are sufficient funds, the matter of setting up the factory will naturally speed up. In the past few days, Li Weijian and Cao Yunsheng searched for several areas of land to be used as factory sites.

Shuntian Prefecture governs Chang'an and Wannian, and the places are naturally chosen at will. However, they are far away from the capital, making travel inconvenient. Li Weijian concentrated on selecting the place in the outer city and visited several places. Finally, he heard that there was a large open space between Anhua Temple and the Yuying Hall, so he and Cao Yunsheng hurriedly went to take a look.

This place is located in the southeast corner of the outer city. It is the most remote, but it is better than the vastness of the place. After an inspection, Li Weijian made the decision to locate the factory here.

After that, the land was leveled and the factory buildings were built, which was managed by the big shopkeeper who was transferred from Cao Yunsheng. In a few days, a group of wealthy businessmen gathered nearly a hundred craftsmen.

According to Li Weijian's expectations, it will be divided into various workshops, including casting, forging, cold working, processing, assembly and other workshops.

The factory site occupies a vast area, and just leveling the land would take a lot of time. Because Li Weijian was just like a few days ago, he would go out early and come back late every day, either writing and drawing, sketching various mechanical equipment; or boiling latex with Yan Fengzhen and trying various formulas.

Time flies, the heat is gradually gone, and it’s autumn in the blink of an eye.

On the back floor of Jia Mu's courtyard, Daiyu and Baochai were sitting around, talking. Baochai would always come to Daiyu to talk to her during these days, and would often give her some food. Daiyu felt grateful, and the two naturally developed a friendship.

Baochai then said: "Brother Bao is the same. I just made a few friends and soon I stopped going to school for a few days. If the master finds out about this, he may not be able to use him as a raft."

There was a gap between Daiyu and Baoyu one after another. As soon as the vague thought came up, it was cut off. Now he just regards Baoyu as his brother.

Hearing what Baochai said, Daiyu smiled and said, "He is born to be naughty. He can't control or persuade him, so he has to let him go."

Baochai smiled and said: "My sister's temperament of not getting involved in anything is really enviable."

Daiyu retorted, "I don't care about anything, but Sister Bao pays attention to everything."

Daiyu snickered, Baochai was speechless. It looked as if Daiyu had abandoned Baoyu, but Baoyu came to play with Daiyu on weekdays, and she never refused, so Sister Bao couldn't guess what Daiyu was thinking.

So he turned around and said, "Speaking of which, Fourth Brother Jian has been leaving early in the morning and coming back late recently. It's been quite some time since I've seen him."

Daiyu smiled and said: "I just said that you pay attention to everything, and sure enough, I mentioned fourth brother Jian. He is busy with things, and the autumn is coming, so he often doesn't see people."

Sister Bao glanced at him and said warmly: "Sister, you haven't seen Fourth Brother Jian recently?"

Daiyu said: "I haven't seen him for about ten days. I bumped into him last time in the small garden. After a brief exchange of words, Fourth Brother Jian hurried away. He looked very busy."

Sister Bao nodded and was about to say something else when she saw Ying'er walking over quickly with a book in her hands: "Miss Lin, miss, this book talks about word testing, and it's very accurate."

Baochai said: "What book? Bring it to me and take a look."

Ying'er hid the book behind her back with her hands, tilted her head and said, "No, no, if the girl has read it, then it's not allowed."

Baochai and Daiyu looked at each other, and Daiyu said: "You and I are also passing the time, so let's take a test."

Xue Yan immediately took out the pen and ink. Sister Bao paused while holding the pen. She didn't finish writing for a long time. She peeked and saw Daiyu writing the word "Wang" on the paper.

Baochai thought for a moment and wrote the word "Shou".

Just as he was about to ask Ying'er what the word Ying'er meant, he suddenly saw Tongxi coming over in a panic, and shouted from afar: "Girl, it's not good, the uncle has been beaten!" "Ah?" Baochai was so shocked that the pen and ink fell on his face. On the paper, an ink stain appeared. He quickly stood up and said, "Sister, I'm going to see my brother."

"Sister Bao, just go."

Baochai left in a hurry. On the way, he learned that Xue Pan had gone to Jinxiangyuan with Jia Rong and Jia Qiang this morning. He had been away for several months, so the fan who had been with him before naturally had another financial sponsor. By chance, two groups of people gathered together, and the pink-headed clone was unable to do anything, so the two groups started to quarrel.

Xue Pan felt that he was no longer involved in the lawsuit, and saw that the other party was only wearing fine cloth clothes and did not look like a noble son, so he stepped forward and pushed him twice. It turned out that the group of people were not vegetarians, so they took the dishes and smashed them. By chance, the wine cup smashed Xue Pan's head.

Jia Rong and Jia Qiang saw that the other party had a large number of people, so they had to drag Xue Pan back and ran back. As soon as he entered the door, he saw Xue Pan's head and face covered with blood, and the manager was shocked. This was what happened.

Baochai didn't mention it when he went to see Xue Pan. Let's say that Daiyu sat idle for a while, because Baochai mentioned Li Weijian in his mouth, Daiyu's heart moved, and after a while, she headed towards the small garden to look for him.

At the same time, Li Weijian had just entered Rongguo Mansion from Jiaomen.

Although he looked a little tired, he was in high spirits. Yu Liu looked surprised, and stepped forward to compliment him, saying, "Fourth Master, you'll do good things just by looking at me." This made Li Weijian laugh, and casually threw away a piece of silver.

No wonder he was in a good mood, boiling the latex for more than twenty days, and finally got results in these days. Latex is [-]% and sulfur is [-]%. When boiled over low heat, soft rubber can be obtained. Latex is [-]% and sulfur is [-]%, which is semi-soft and semi-hard rubber. As for the hard rubber, it must be boiled with [-]% sulfur. Match it out.

He was in a good mood, and with the rubber ratio in hand, he was one step closer to tires and seals.

Walking along the windy road, just after crossing the hall, I bumped into Siqi.

"Fourth Lord!"

Si Qi suddenly felt happy, then a little resentful. At least last month when she was taking a bath, Li Weijian still took a day to spend with her. This month has been good. Not only have I no longer been with you during bathing time, but I have rarely even gone to see the second girl recently.

Li Weijian looked around with a smile, then approached and said, "I'll give you a good thing. Take it and touch it so that others can see it."

Si Qi said resentfully: "I still keep the money that Fourth Master gave me last time. I just need to buy things myself if I need them."

"Eh? How can this be the same?" Li Weijian said with a smile, "I can't buy this thing even if I give you money."

As he spoke, he shook his sleeves, took out a long object wrapped in a brocade handkerchief and handed it over: "Put it away quickly, I'm leaving. After Qiu Wei next month, there will be a good one for you."

Si Qi's heart skipped a beat, biting his lower lip as he watched Li Weijian walk away quickly. Seeing no one around, she quietly unfolded the brocade handkerchief, and then her eyes widened.

Inside is a Mr. Jiao who is about half a foot tall! This...eh? This horn is half soft and half hard, which is strange.

Xiu Ju caught up behind him: "Si Qi, did you see the Fourth Master just now?"

Siqi was so frightened that he quickly put the things into his sleeves and said in a panic: "Ah? Have you seen the fourth master? Why didn't I see him?"

Xiuju said suspiciously: "That's not right. The fourth master wants to go back to the northeast to go to the courtyard, so he can only take this way... Could it be that the fourth master climbed over the wall and came in?"

Si Qi was stubborn and said, "Who knows? Anyway, I didn't see it. Let's go. I've been dragging out my money for a month now, and I don't know what the second mistress is thinking."

Li Weijian happily rushed back to his small courtyard, where his four maids were all present. The personal deed was transferred from Rongguo Mansion to Li Weijian's name, so there was no need to collect the monthly silver from Rongguo Mansion.

In Li Weijian's excitement, he touched one and kissed the other, which made the four maids jealous for a while. His good mood made the four maids happy. Xiu Ying repeatedly asked Li Weijian what good thing he had done. Li Weijian opened his mouth and shook his head.

Even four maids couldn't understand the rubber thing. Not only them, I'm afraid no one in the world can understand the importance of rubber.

After laughing for a while, Hongyu said: "Fourth Master, I just saw Miss Lin heading towards the small garden."

"Sister Lin went to the small garden?" Thinking that he had not seen Daiyu for a long time, Li Weijian changed his clothes and headed towards the small garden with only the ruby.

Turning around the shade of the tree, I saw Daiyu squatting on the ground, carefully observing the poppy. There is a feather shuttlecock on the ground beside it.

Li Weijian walked over with his hands behind his back and said, "Sister, are you here to enjoy the flowers again?"

Daiyu stood up and returned the greeting: "Brother Jian. I may not be here for a long time. It seems that this poppy has grown taller."

"I have indeed grown taller." Li Weijian said, but his eyes fell on Daiyu. When I saw Daiyu in the first month of the year, she only reached the crook of Li Weijian's arm, but now she had jumped up a bit and vaguely reached Li Weijian's upper arm.

Although her body is still slender, she is faintly slim and has the grace of a girl. Li Weijian secretly wondered, could it be the effect of his recipe?

"Where did my sister get the shuttlecock?"

Daiyu picked up the shuttlecock and said with a smile: "It's just a thing to pass the time. It rains a lot in summer, so it's not good to go for a walk when it rains. Zicuckoo then came up with an idea, saying that if it rains, it's better to kick it in the room a few times. Shuttlecock, just treat it as digestion food.”

"That's a good idea." Li Weijian smiled and nodded.

Zijuan on the side was silent, but Xueyan said: "Fourth Master Jian, the girl and Miss Bao were trying to test the words just now. Unfortunately, just after they wrote the words, Miss Bao left because she had something to do. I don't know why... No Fourth Master Ruojian, can you give me an explanation?"

Daiyu said angrily: "I just wrote down a word randomly, why bother Fourth Brother Jian?"

Li Weijian smiled and said: "It doesn't matter, after all, I also stayed in Maoshan for two years. What did my sister write?"

Daiyu leaned over, picked up a branch and wrote the word "Wang" on the ground, paused, and then wrote the word "Shou". Said: "This is written by Sister Bao."

"Yeah." Li Weijian nodded and thought for a moment: "Let me talk about the word "sister" first. My sister's heart is looking outside, but her confidant is hard to find, and she keeps her body inside. Sister Xue is just different, but her heart stays inside, and her body Ask for help from outside."

Daiyu's smoky eyebrows were filled with crystal clear eyes that looked like weeping but not weeping. She looked at Li Weijian for a moment, then turned her head and said, "Fourth brother Jian really learned his skills in Maoshan."

"It was just a ridiculous thing when I was young." As he spoke, Li Weijian shook his sleeves, took out something from his sleeve and handed it over: "Give me something for my sister, I guarantee it will be unique in the world."

Daiyu reluctantly took it, but saw that it was neither gold nor jade. It was smeared with paint. She looked so naive that she didn't know whether it was a duck or a goose. Her hand was slightly soft, Daiyu squeezed it slightly, and there was a sudden "squeak" sound, which made her shiver.

"Brother Jian, what is this?"

(End of this chapter)