My Emperor Father Can Read Minds

Chapter 310: Never-Ending Busyness

While Liu Wenzhou and the others were amazed by everything in Ziyang County, on the other side, Deng Zhengde and Guo Yajun also discussed them.

Regarding the unusual origins of Liu San and the others, Deng Zhengde did not hide anything from Guo Yajun. He laid everything out clearly for Guo Yajun.

“People coming from Great Liang's capital city…”

Guo Yajun pondered, “If they really are sent by the Great Liang Imperial Court, this matter… should be reported to His Highness.”

His Highness definitely needed to be informed, but what about He Andun and the others now?

When it came to political affairs involving the court, Deng Zhengde trusted Ninth Highness’s judgment and wanted to hear Guo Yajun’s opinion.

Deng Zhengde asked, “Madam Guo, in your opinion, what should we do with He Andun and Liu San and the others in the coming days? I imagine they would try to investigate the factory’s details.”

Guo Yajun thought for a moment, “You just said there were also two young masters from the capital who came along?”

Guo Yajun looked at him and smiled, “In my view, as for the arrangements concerning Liu San and the others, there’s no need to trouble Chairman Deng.”

Seeing the smile at Madam Guo’s lips, Deng Zhengde suddenly understood.

He smiled and nodded, “Madam Guo’s words make sense. The two young masters coming from the capital, traveling around, would naturally be glad to meet friends from Great Liang and associate with them. This is quite normal.”

The two looked at each other and laughed, both feeling that they understood why Sheng Hong and Fu Jixiang had come along.

They are people around His Highness.

Who among those working around His Highness is useless? They could leave matters in Yizhou and take a detour to come to the Merchants’ Alliance; it’s clear they also came to investigate Liu San and the others.

Indeed, no wonder they are young masters from the capital — truly sharp-witted!

But what were the two “sharp-witted” playboys actually doing?

They did not disappoint Guo Yajun and Deng Zhengde’s misunderstanding at all. They were continuously working to deepen the mistaken image of being “sharp and clever.”

Since arriving at the Merchants’ Alliance, except for the first day when they couldn’t find anyone, for the following days, the two always stuck close to Liu San, no matter what he did, they followed along.

Such shadow-like surveillance — if not to prevent Liu San's espionage activities, then what else could it be?!

Deng Zhengde felt very gratified.

Good, it should be kept this way, so there’s no need to trouble him further.

—

On the day Deng Zhengde’s letter was received, Wei Yu was at his residence listening to his Fifth Brother rambling.

“I don’t care! The Newspaper Agency was your idea, and you don’t want to handle it yourself but push the responsibility onto me. That’s your fault! You treat Fifth Brother poorly, Fifth Brother accepts that, but at least you have to tell me how to run this newspaper! Otherwise, just look at what the people at Hanlin Academy have drafted!”

A stack of newspapers was placed on the table, slapped loudly by the Fifth Prince.

Wei Yu cracked sunflower seeds, quietly watching his Fifth Brother go mad.

After ranting for a while, Fifth Prince looked at Wei Yu’s indifferent attitude and got angry.

“You’re still cracking seeds!”

Fifth Prince snatched the seed plate, “I’m talking to you about serious business. Are you listening or not?”

With no more seeds to crack, Wei Yu finished the last few, spit out the shells, and sighed, “I heard, I heard.”

Isn’t this just about the newspaper layout and content problem, like how He An arranged it?

Such a small matter should be left to him?

Wei Yu seriously suspected his Fifth Brother was just upset and deliberately looking to annoy him.

Did he not write a detailed newspaper plan? He covered every aspect; anyone with a little brain could understand by reading it. Did Hanlin Academy not have that capability? Yet they still came to bother him…

As it turned out, the people at Hanlin Academy really didn’t know how.

Fifth Prince pointed at the newspapers on the table, “Look at the papers they drafted — they look like government bulletins. Their style of nitpicking words and quoting classics is exactly like imperial examination essays. Which commoner would want to read that? I bet storytellers wouldn’t even buy it!”

When Fifth Prince showed it to his Princess Consort, she glanced once and threw it away.

What rubbish! Worse than those useless scholars’ scripts!

Newspapers are for the common people. If you spend so much effort on a big project and the people don’t support it, that’s a huge loss!

It would just become a laughingstock.

Fifth Prince didn’t want to work, but since he took on the job, he wanted to do it properly.

He couldn’t let people laugh at it!

He didn’t want to admit that the people from Hanlin Academy were useless — after all, if they weren’t capable, the burden would fall on him.

Wei Yu took a copy of the newspaper to read. After a look, he silently stared at the neat “government bulletin.”

One page was divided into left and right halves, densely packed with text, writing a short story. However, the title was blunt and unappealing, and the content was full of classical phrases and formalities. This Story News was worse than having nothing at all!

Wei Yu silently flipped through other newspapers, eventually finding the format and content all about the same — rigid, constrained, with no creativity or freedom!

Wei Yu wondered, “Didn’t I say some newspapers could be written more casually, like informal biographies? Why does the drafted newspaper all look like they were made from the same mold? Fifth Brother, you didn’t just hire one person to write, did you?”

Fifth Prince smiled at him, “Look at the handwriting; are they all from the same person?”

Okay, Wei Yu knew it wasn’t one person writing, but he still wanted to ask since the newspapers looked so much like the same hand’s work.

Fifth Prince complained, “I did instruct Hanlin Academy explicitly; I even showed them the plan you gave me, including how He An arranged things. But look at these newspapers they made… If you want me to buy them, I definitely won’t spend any money. Even your Fifth Sister-in-Law doesn’t want to read them! I don’t know how to fix this, so how do you expect me to tell Hanlin Academy?”

Fifth Prince was not a considerate person. He had often let others run themselves ragged while he just talked, but this time he was dealing with Hanlin Academy officials and had never seen a proper newspaper before, so he really didn’t know how to make newspapers appealing enough for the people to be willing to pay for them, making it difficult to communicate with Hanlin Academy…

Sigh.

Wei Yu, understanding his Fifth Brother’s meaning, felt exhausted.

He sincerely thought that officials in the Great Wei court, regardless of age, really needed to study and improve themselves.

Previously, he was forced to attend literacy training at the Ministry of Works. Later, due to a group of incompetent people at the Ministry of Revenue, his father went on a long journey to deliver a letter to him, making him write a business plan amid his busy schedule. Now, with his economics-related book not yet finished, Hanlin Academy was causing trouble again!

Nonstop busyness.

Truly nonstop busyness.

How can this court function properly without a genius like him?

Wei Yu sighed, “Let’s go, we’ll go to Hanlin Academy.”

He wanted to personally teach those silly people at Hanlin Academy how to be qualified headline writers!

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