"The latter part of the story is not finished yet," Yun Shu explained with a bright smile.
"This final entry is different from the others. The previous ones were all real events that I personally witnessed during my outing yesterday. But this last one is a story I made up."
"Why make up a tale like that?" asked the Emperor, displeased. He glanced again at the earlier article titled Capital's Most Devoted Husband: Young Master Cao Loves Deeply, and could not stop himself from voicing his concern.
"Do you mean to say, Shu'er, that you like the kind of consort described in that tale?"
"Of course not!" Yun Shu replied without hesitation.
Yet before the Emperor could breathe a sigh of relief, she added cheerfully, "That consort is not a good man."
The Emperor froze. "If he is not a good man, why would you let the princess marry him?"
His heart, which had just calmed, now rose again with frustration. He sighed in disappointment. "A princess of the realm deserves only the finest match."
"But sometimes, people can deceive you," Yun Shu said seriously, resting her chin on her palms at the edge of the imperial desk.
"Even a princess can be fooled."
Two veins throbbed at the Emperor's temples. His tone grew impatient. "How could she be fooled? Can she not investigate the man's family eight generations back before agreeing to marry him?"
"Since when does a princess have that kind of authority?" Yun Shu gave a soft laugh, as if amused by the very idea. Then she waved her hand and decided to move on. "Anyway, it's all fictional. That part doesn't matter.
What matters, Father Emperor, is whether you found the Capital Weekly interesting. If a new issue came out every few days, would you look forward to reading it?"
The Emperor raised a brow in surprise. "You truly intend to do this regularly?"
He glanced down at the small booklet. "This one already has quite a few entries. And your new Grand Preceptor begins lessons tomorrow. You will no longer be able to leave the palace freely, nor will you have time to write this much. How do you plan to publish a new issue every few days?"
"That's exactly why I need it," Yun Shu said, her tone steady and full of reason. "Once lessons begin, I won't be able to go out and see things for myself.
But with the Capital Weekly, even if I remain inside Fengyang Palace day after day, I can still learn about all the amusing and curious happenings in the capital. And I believe I'm not the only one who would enjoy it. Others in similar positions might like it too."
"You mean to have someone else write it?" the Emperor asked, now understanding her intention.
It was not a difficult matter. After a brief pause, he nodded. "Have you already chosen someone suitable?"
"I haven't picked anyone specific, but I've already drafted a full plan," Yun Shu replied eagerly.
Seizing the moment, she continued, "As for the content of each issue, aside from sending someone to walk the city every few days, we could also open it up to citizen reports.
We could establish a drop-off point, where anyone may bring in real stories. Then our staff would sort through them and select which ones are suitable for publishing. And if someone's submission is used, they can even receive a small reward."
"Mm," the Emperor nodded again. That too was no great hurdle.
He had just opened his mouth to formally approve the idea when Yun Shu went on.
"In addition to that, we will need a small estate to house the printing staff…"
"Printing?" The Emperor's expression shifted slightly.
He was, of course, no stranger to the term. He had been pushing the Ministry of Works to advance printing techniques. But books were different from a constantly changing publication like this Gazette.
"Your Capital Weekly changes entirely each time. Do you intend to carve new printing blocks for every issue?
Do you understand how long that takes? Or are you thinking of having them carved from radishes again?"
"Radishes wear out quickly. You can only get a few prints before they fall apart. It's better to use lead blocks," Yun Shu replied smoothly. Clearly, she had thought through this issue.
"And since the content is always different, we should not carve entire pages. Instead, each character should be carved individually. That way, we can rearrange them to form new pages each time."
"Do you even realize how many Chinese characters there are?" The Emperor chuckled, half amused, half exasperated.
"It would take ages to find the right ones for each page. Unless you offer a very generous wage, I doubt any scholar would waste their time on such work."
In this era, scholars were highly valued. Those from common families were often seen as the sole hope of their household.
If they did odd jobs to supplement their income, it was usually copying books, which also served as practice.
But sorting characters for a gossip gazette? No self-respecting scholar would agree to such a task.
The Emperor shook his head. "I cannot imagine any of them accepting such work."
But to his surprise, Yun Shu had already foreseen this.
"I never intended to hire scholars in the first place."
The corners of her eyes crinkled as she explained, "I want to hire ordinary women. It doesn't matter if they're literate or not. The characters are already carved. They only need to match the shapes, like assembling a puzzle.
As for the problem of there being too many characters, we can sort them first by radicals, then further categorize them by stroke count. Once everything is sorted, it will be much easier to find the right ones."
Radicals and strokes.
Using her method, what initially sounded overwhelming now seemed quite manageable.
The Emperor blinked. "Who would have thought this little rascal could be so thorough in her thinking?"
He was genuinely pleased. Only one last question remained.
"Why only hire women?"