Volume 1 Princess Taiping Grows Up Chapter 69: Work Begins
The people in Dongdu City took out their prepared paper lanterns of various shapes early this morning.
The streets are also filled with various pillars, hung with lanterns of different shapes and full of beautiful meanings.
As long as it is lit at night, the entire street can be illuminated.
Li Zhi and Wu Zetian finished dealing with memorials early in the afternoon and planned to go up to the city wall with their children in the evening to watch the people celebrate the festival.
At the same time, he asked Zhang Chengxin to send someone to call all the children over, planning to have hot pot together at Renshou Hall tonight.
After receiving the notice, Li Yuechen and her two sisters packed up and went over.
Although I will go up to the city wall today as well, there is no need to dress up since no one can see me at night anyway.
The people also knew that the emperor might go up to the city wall to watch the lanterns, and generally would not go to the front of the city wall.
When we arrived at Renshou Hall, several brothers had already arrived.
When Li Yuechen walked into the hall, everyone's eyes couldn't help but shift over.
Li Yuechen's outfit today is not much different from usual, both of them are bright red men's suit.
The only difference is that she has two ponytails on both sides of her head.
But just this tiny change makes her look even cuter than usual.
Especially when she has a smile on her face, her two dimples are faintly visible, making her look like a porcelain doll.
"Chen'er, come here!" Li Zhi was the first to react and waved at her, "You look really good in this outfit today!"
Li Yuechen came over, and the moment Li Zhi bent down, she jumped up and hugged his neck and hung on him: "Grandpa, did you miss me?"
"I do! How can I not want to?" Li Zhi smiled and put his forehead against his daughter's and twisted his neck.
Li Yuechen chuckled and helped him comb the golden hairpin on his head: "Grandpa looks good too!"
"That is!"
Hearing his daughter's praise, Li Zhi became excited: "It's a pity that you haven't seen it, Chen'er. When I was young, I was so beautiful!"
Li Yuechen tilted her head from beside him and looked at Wu Zetian behind him: "Mother, you must have seen him before, right? What did Grandpa look like when he was young?"
" That's true." Wu Zetian nodded with a smile, "When your majesty was young, you were really fair-skinned and beautiful, with eyes as bright as stars... But after growing a beard..."
Having said that, she did not continue speaking, but instead shook her head with some regret.
The children nodded to show that they understood. It seemed that in their mother's mind, Li Zhi looked better without a beard.
"This..." Li Zhi was a little confused when he heard this, "I can't shave my beard, right?"
"Don't worry about it, I was just saying that." Wu Zetian smiled.
Then Li Yuechen ran to Wu Zetian's chair and gave her a big hug: "Mother, do you think I look good today?"
"You look beautiful. You always look beautiful!" Wu Zetian smiled, stretched out her finger and lightly touched her head.
Li Yuechen chuckled, kissed her on the face, and then turned around and started playing with his brothers.
Among the other children, only Li Lun dared to go a little too far, but he didn't have the courage to kiss someone on the cheek.
It was impossible for Li Zhi and Wu Zetian to directly say something like "Come and kiss me", after all, the authority of parents still had to be displayed.
Only Li Yuechen would not be scared by them.
The sun had just set and the hot pot was already set up. Looking at the soup gradually bubbling inside, Li Yuechen thought that he should make a bigger hot pot next time and try lamb ribs.
The family sat together and chatted, but they didn't drink too much. They just sat together and chatted more.
Li Yuechen is like a detector. Whenever she finds that the topic is about to become awkward, she will immediately change the subject or stand up to attract attention.
After dinner, we played the criminal-chasing game for a while, and only set out for the city wall when it was completely dark.
Fu Lai was already waiting at the foot of the steps leading to the tower. When he saw the group coming, he quickly saluted: "Greetings to the Saint, the Queen, and all the princes!"
"No need to be so polite." Li Zhi raised his hand.
Li Yuechen had already run to Fulai and stretched out his hand.
Fulai quickly took out a rabbit ear hairpin and handed it to her, placing it in her hand.
Li Zhi behind him was a little curious: "Chen'er, what is this?"
"hey-hey……"
Li Yuechen grinned and took one and put it on his head: "Grandpa, do you think I look like a rabbit?"
"Hahaha... they do look a bit alike!" Li Zhi laughed, feeling that his daughter was becoming more and more adorable.
Li Xian took two steps forward and said, "Yuechen was born in the second year of Linde, and is an ox. Why doesn't he make an ox ear?"
Hearing this, Li Yuechen's face turned black: "So, second brother, do you think I look better wearing rabbit ears or cow ears?"
"This... naturally the rabbit ears look better!" Li Xian nodded.
"Don't worry about these, as long as it looks good." Li Hong said with a smile.
Li Yuechen nodded and handed over a rabbit ear hairpin with a smile: "That's right, come on, brothers, try it on!"
Li Xian and Li Lunmei didn't think too much and reached out to take it.
"Nonsense!" Li Hong frowned and lectured, "As princes, how can we wear such things in front of the people?"
"Don't worry, big brother. The common people won't cross the Tianjin Bridge and won't see us." Li Yuechen said with a smile, "Besides, big brother, don't you want to give it a try?"
"This..." Looking at the rabbit ears on Li Yuechen's head shaking gently, he seemed to want to try it too.
Princess Xuancheng and Princess Yiyang took one and put it on their heads without any hesitation, and helped each other to adjust it.
This is the good thing about women in the Tang Dynasty: they were generous and not very pretentious.
Li Yuechen ran to Wu Zetian again and handed one to her: "Mother, do you want to try it?"
"As the queen, how can I wear such a toy on my head?" Wu Zetian asked back.
However, Shougui said, he still reached out and took one, turned his head and smiled at Li Zhi, "When there are no outsiders around, you can try it."
In the end, several brothers still did not wear it, only Li Yuechen and two sisters wore it.
But you know what, the twin ponytails and bunny ears do make her look cuter than usual, like a little elf in a cartoon.
A group of people climbed up the city wall and saw that the whole Luoyang city was brightly lit!
On the Luo River that runs through the city in front of them, there are already sporadic river lanterns floating along the water, and the flames are dancing like elves as they slightly jump.
Tall wooden lantern poles were erected with lanterns of various shapes hung on them, illuminating almost the entire street.
Perhaps because of the royal family, among these lanterns of various shapes, carp shapes are always the most common.
Li Yuechen, standing on the city wall, looked out through the window, his eyes full of regret. Now let alone leaving the palace, at least he could have a telescope to take a look.
Unfortunately, the glass has not been finished yet, so this plan has to be put on hold for the time being.
Fortunately, the air in this era is very fresh, which not only improves people's vision, but also magnifies the light of the stars and the moon in the sky.
It even seems that you can vaguely see the Milky Way directly!
Under the illumination of this light, the Luo River turned into a deep sea-like blue, gently supporting the dancing river lanterns on the water surface and flowing slowly...
The Milky Way across the sky and the brightly lit Dongdu below were reflected in Li Yuechen's dark eyes.
Li Zhi accidentally glanced at his daughter and saw the starry sky in her eyes...
At midnight, a large number of sky lanterns slowly float up to the sky, forming a picture of a thousand-year-old city that can be used as a wallpaper.
…
The next morning, before dawn, Li Yuechen had already woken up due to the influence of his biological clock.
After stretching, he muttered to himself: "The holiday is over, it's time to go back to work!"
Of course, the work she was referring to was not herself, but the workers in the soap workshop!
The morning time is still the same as usual, practicing and eating.
After lunch, Li Yuechen took Fulai and Xiaohe on a carriage and left the city for Jixianfang, intending to officially start work.
Jixianfang is basically empty now, with only a few beggars and gangsters living here.
As for the soap workshop, they didn't have the courage to approach it, after all, the people in charge were soldiers holding real guns and swords.
The carriage stopped at the door, Li Yuechen jumped off, and the soldier guarding the door immediately saluted.
Li Yuechen waved her hand to let them not formalize, said Happy New Year, and walked in.
After this period of construction, the dormitories and toilets have been completed, and the slaves can also eat and drink enough.
Among this group of slaves, Chunmei, the Silla maid, is the only female, the rest are male, so currently she has the entire dormitory to herself.
Seeing Li Yuechen coming in, Chunmei hurriedly saluted: "Greetings, Princess. Happy New Year, Princess !"
"Well, Happy New Year." Li Yuechen nodded, "No need to be polite. How are you training those two Kunlun slaves?"
Chunmei straightened up and replied, "Your Highness, please forgive me. I have only taught them some simple things for now."
Li Yuechen could understand it. After all, the time was very short and there was no translator, so many things were extremely troublesome to teach.
"No problem, we can take our time with this matter, as long as it doesn't cause any trouble or slow down the progress."
“Yes!”
Seeing that all the materials and tools were now available, Li Yuechen clapped his hands and called them to start working.
The two Kunlun slaves were assigned to do some simple physical work, and the rest of the people were basically given different tasks.
Following her instructions and after preparing all the materials, Li Yuechen officially began to teach them how to make soap.
Chunmei and a few others who were too young to do physical work were assigned to pedal.
This was their first time producing, so Li Yuechen guided them throughout the process and asked them to remember everything.
Chunmei stepped on the pedal hard, and the stirring rod rotated rapidly in the porcelain basin.
Li Yuechen was instructing the worker who was responsible for breaking the porcelain basin: "You move too, turn around slowly."
Then he told Chunmei and the person who was in charge of pedaling next to him: "If you get tired, change people quickly. Don't slow down!"
And now that we have entered the level of a production workshop, we cannot be as casual as Li Yuechen did the first time. We must standardize the entire process.
This group of workers worked very hard. After all, Li Yuechen had never let them go hungry during this period and had ensured that they had enough to eat every day.
And because it was the Chinese New Year during this period, he asked Fulai to buy two pigs for them to eat.
It can be said that in this era, this is a rare owner.
In addition, there are soldiers outside watching here day and night, so these workers must give 100% effort to work hard.
We were busy from noon until dusk before the first batch of soap was poured into the molds.
After covering the wooden board, Li Yuechen got on the carriage. Today's task was completed. All he had to do was wait for a few days to make them remember it thoroughly.
On the way back to the palace, the number of people decreased rapidly. The curfew was about to begin, and pedestrians were rushing back quickly.
Li Yuechen didn't need to be in a hurry, as the carriage was still moving back slowly.
It was a little dark in the carriage, so Fulai lit a candle to brighten the interior a little.
Li Yuechen, leaning against the car body, was playing with a sealed porcelain bottle in his hand, thinking about something with an expressionless face.
Fulai saw the fire reflected in her eyes flickering slightly, and turned his head and made a "hush" gesture to Xiaohe.
What Li Yuechen was holding in her hand was glycerin, a byproduct of making soap this afternoon.
During the experiment in the palace, the process was much simplified, so glycerin was not extracted at all.
Today, because all the steps are standardized, glycerin can be extracted.
Of course, its concentration cannot be compared with that of glycerin in the future, but it should be sufficient for making skin care products.
But there is a problem. In this era, skin care products are definitely not something that ordinary women can afford.
As for the royal family and powerful women, the skin care products of this era were actually quite good.
For example, my mother, Wu Zetian, had all kinds of Chinese medicine, spices, and other random things in the water she used for washing.
She doesn’t know whether it’s scientific or not, but at least the effect is really good!
Now I am almost fifty years old, but the wrinkles on my face are still very light and I have almost no white hair!
Let's talk about shampooing. The royal family used various Chinese medicines and natural shampoos such as tea bran to wash their hair.
Even more than a thousand years later, this thing is still used by people in Jiangxi and Guangxi, and its effect is really much better than most chemically synthesized shampoos.
Li Yuechen has even seen many elderly people in their seventies and eighties who still have black hair.
The only drawback of this thing is that it is troublesome and difficult to use when washing your hair by yourself.
However, the rich and powerful have servants to help them wash and brush their teeth, so this doesn't seem to be a disadvantage...
Having said that, compared with these Chinese herbal medicines, the only advantage of glycerin that Li Yuechen can think of at the moment is “convenience”.
Yes, it’s convenient!
Glycerin plus some water, or something like honey, can make the simplest moisturizing cream.
Just apply a little of this stuff before going to bed at night and you can go to sleep directly without having to wash it off again. It's very convenient.
From this perspective, it is also a good product.
And as long as my mother Wu Zetian is willing to help with the advertising, it seems that there will be no worries about not being able to sell it.
Moreover, its price is also superior to that of Chinese herbal medicine, and the two products do not conflict with each other!
Thinking of this, Li Yuechen smiled slightly: "Xiao He, help me find ten palace maids tomorrow!"
"Yes!" Xiao He agreed.
