Chapter 1200: Preparation

The next day, Fan Zijin skipped work and brought the children out to see the world. Qi Haoran went to court with his hands behind his back, while Mu Yangling brought the boy-girl twins who were unwilling to stay at home to The Lily Times’ newspaper office.

Little Madam Xia also brought Little Fu out. Seeing Mu Yangling bringing the boy-girl twins, she couldn’t help but look at her and smile. She complained in a low voice, “When this child heard that his father brought his older brothers out to play and didn’t bring him along, he was so mad that he rolled around at home. No matter what, he refused to play with Little Leopard and insisted on coming out with me.”

“It’s fine. Isn’t there a children’s area in the newspaper office? Let them play there. If it doesn’t work, we can always let the nannies take them shopping.”

Right now, the three children could not take their eyes off the people walking on the street.

Little Madam Xia tapped Little Fu’s nose and said, “I bring you out to play every few days and it’s not like I lock you up at home. Why are you acting like this is your first time being out?”

The children ignored their mother and leaned against the carriage window to look out, feeling extremely excited. In any case, they were thrilled to be out.

The staff of The Lily Times had long been recruited, and they were even one step ahead of The Great Qi Times. However, seeing as there had been no news for the past few days, The Great Qi Times’ newspaper office staff thought that they’d dismissed the idea of starting The Lily Times.

If not for the fact that Lin Weide saw his wife busying herself in the study every day, he would have thought so too.

Currently, only The Great Qi Times was being distributed normally every day. The Children’s Journal and the other three newspapers would have to wait until an auspicious day was chosen. However, they were almost done with their preparations and had already informed Mu Yangling of the date. As long as they chose a good day to launch, they could start publishing.

As the behind-the-scenes boss of the newspaper office, Mu Yangling naturally favored The Lily Times with all kinds of resources. Therefore, she stood in front of the ladies and said, “That’s why we have to launch The Lily Times the day before they launch. The selection of the content is very important and urgent. Other than a statement by the Empress, the other articles have to be solicited from the public. Naturally, if you have good articles, you can submit them, too. As long as they pass the Editor-in-Chief’s review, Deputy Publisher Lu and I are fine with it.”

Young Miss Lin’s eyes lit up. She stood up and asked, “I’ve written a few poems. Can I publish them if they pass the review?”

Miss Lin was the youngest daughter of Lin Weide and Mrs. Lin. This time, she ignored her mother’s objections and insisted on approaching Mu Yangling to become an editor at The Lily Times. Mu Yangling quite appreciated her boldness. When she heard this, she nodded and smiled. “If there’s no article more suitable than yours, as long as it passes the review, even if it can’t be published in the first issue, it can be published in a subsequent issue.”

Miss Lin was satisfied.

Seeing that no one had any other questions, Mu Yangling asked everyone to review the articles.

As the Editor-in-Chief, Mrs. Lin also left. Mu Yangling brought Little Madam Xia and Mrs. Hua to discuss other matters. “I’m afraid we can’t take care of the distant areas. However, we can launch on the same day in the Jiangnan area, Guangdong and Guangxi to the south, Hubei and Hunan to the west, and the Huainan area, in order to maximize the impact.”

“Your Highness, since you made it known in advance that The Lily Times is a woman’s newspaper, will not many people buy it?” Lu Jingshu was still a little nervous.

“That won’t happen.” Mu Yangling said confidently, “Since The Great Qi Times’ sales channels have long matured and The Lily Times is using its channels directly, I believe that the sales of The Lily Times’s first issue will not be inferior to The Great Qi Times’. However, it’s hard to say what will happen after that.”

Mu Yangling pointed at the article in front of her and said, “So the articles chosen are very important. At the very least, don’t let people think that The Lily Times is just an outlet for a group of women to talk about jewelry and makeup. We women should also display the heroic spirit of women. This way, the world will know that we also have the ability to help the world.”

Lu Jingshu nodded slowly. “Don’t worry, Your Highness. We’ll review the articles carefully.”

As she had decided to pass the position to Little Madam Xia, Mu Yangling delegated a lot of work to her and went to review the articles herself. This task was also the most arduous and difficult to define at the moment.

It had only been two days since The Lily Times publicly asked for article submissions. However, ever since Mu Yangling spread the news, people kept submitting the articles to the King’s Residence. After the public announcement, the newspaper office was almost buried in manuscripts. There were good articles among them, and naturally, there were unsightly ones.

There were even some old men who wrote admonition letters to oppose The Lily Times’s opening, angering the young ladies so much that they slammed their pens and stomped their feet. The commotion was even greater than The Great Qi Times next door.

When the editors of The Great Qi Times heard the loud bang from next door from time to time, they were very nervous. When they pricked up their ears, they could hear a delicate voice cursing. They immediately shivered and felt that the usually gentle woman seemed to be quite scary.

One time, they even heard Mrs. Lin shout for the first time, “How dare you!”

The way they looked at Lin Weide changed.

Lin Weide’s expression remained the same, but he was also nervous. His wife was already valiant to begin with. Now that she was working under the even more valiant Queen Consort Rong, could she really return to being gentle?

The differing quality among the articles caused the young ladies to review the articles at an improved speed. After a while, Mu Yangling could even tell at a glance if a certain article was worth a deeper read.

Mu Yangling casually threw down a manuscript that was covered in ink and looked like graffiti. When she was about to read the next article, she paused and turned around to pick up the manuscript. With a frown, she carefully identified it.

Rather than saying that this was a manuscript, it was more accurate to call it half a manuscript and half a letter. The writing was childish and the handwriting was ugly. However, Mu Yangling felt like her mood was like jumping musical notes and she immediately cheered up.

Mu Yangling put this manuscript aside alone and planned to write a review for it. Just as she picked up her brush, a delicate cry came from outside and the three children ran in from all directions. The minute they saw Mu Yangling, they pounced over. Little Fu shouted, “Fourth Aunt, it’s time for lunch!”

Little Leopard and Baozhu each hugged Mu Yangling’s leg and looked up, drooling. “I’m hungry, it’s time to eat!”

Mu Yangling could only put down her brush and look helplessly at the clock hanging on the wall. Only then did she realize that it was indeed time for lunch.

“Alright, I’ll pack up and bring you guys to eat.”

The young ladies in the newspaper office looked at the three children with starry eyes and praised, “Her Highnesses’ children are so cute.”

Miss Lin, who had been keeping a straight face, also looked at the three children with starry eyes. She really wanted to go forward and pinch their faces.

Seeing this, Mu Yangling immediately packed her things and brought the three children out. After finding Little Madam Xia, she headed out the door.

She didn’t want her son and daughter’s faces to be covered in red marks later, so she had better leave quickly.

Little Madam Xia asked Little Fu, “Where do you want to eat?”

The three children pointed at Fortune Restaurant at the same time and kept taking deep breaths, putting on an intoxicated expression. Little Leopard took in the fragrance in the air and almost drooled.

Mu Yangling and Little Madam Xia looked at each other and praised with a smile, “You have good taste!”

Fortune Restaurant was their family’s business and had already become one of the finest restaurants in the capital. At this time, it was the peak dining period, so it was very difficult to get a private room. However, as the owners of the restaurant, there was a room reserved for them all year round.

Knowing that they could eat in their family’s restaurant, Mu Yangling and Little Madam Xia happily pulled the three little ones over.

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