Rise From the Humble

"Master Gao, Master Zhang, please stay."

Zhu Pingan said goodbye to Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng who were sent out the door, and turned towards his office room.

I visited Gao Gong today and the effect was ideal.

When entering, Zhu Pingan knocked twice but no one answered; when leaving, Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng walked out the door.

Refuse in advance and send in later.

It can be seen from the comparison of the attitudes of Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng that Zhu Pingan's visit was quite effective.

When Zhu Ping'an came out of Gao Gong's office, it was already past half hour. The reception banquet would start in about half an hour. There was not enough time to visit other colleagues in Prince Yu's Mansion, and his own office had not been tidied up yet. So after Zhu Pingan came out of Gao Gong's office, he went directly back to his office.

As for other colleagues, it is not too late to visit them after the reception banquet.

Returning to his office with ease, Zhu Pingan found that there was a lot more greenery in the office.

There are eight more potted plants of different sizes in the room. The tallest potted plant is Podocarpus, which is placed on the old stems. The branches and leaves are whirling, old and delicate, and the posture is moving. The other potted plants are smaller, mainly Different varieties of chrysanthemums and black bamboo.

The breeze blows, and the greenery in the room is slightly rippling, which is very pleasant.

"I don't know what kind of bonsai you like, so I chose some for you based on the preferences of most people in the house. If you don't like any of them, I will have someone replace the bonsai for you." Liu The steward bowed to the side and asked.

"No need to replace it. It's good. I like it very much. Thank you Manager Liu for taking the trouble." Zhu Ping'an looked around with satisfaction and thanked Manager Liu.

"You're welcome, sir." Manager Liu said quickly.

Then, Manager Liu arranged for someone to move several furnishings and some living utensils to Zhu Ping'an's room.

"My lord, please rest first, and I will not disturb you. If you find that there is still something missing in the future, whether it is the four treasures of the study or daily necessities, etc., you will send someone an order, and I will buy everything for you as soon as possible." "Manager Liu said before leaving.

"Haha, thank you very much, Manager Liu. Manager Liu, please don't find me troublesome in the future."

Zhu Pingan agreed with a smile and was no longer polite. After all, it was something from Prince Yu's palace, and he worked for Prince Yu. There was no need to be polite because of circumstances and reasons. Besides, the Holy Father had deducted so much salary from him, so what could he pay for his father's debt? Yes, that makes sense.

"Why is this troublesome? Being able to serve adults is a small blessing." Manager Liu shook his head quickly.

"Haha, it should be the blessing of peace." Zhu Pingan said with a smile.

"My lord is joking. Please take a rest first. When the feast begins, I will inform you later."

Manager Liu bowed and left, closing the door behind him.

"Thank you."

Zhu Pingan watched Manager Liu leave, and then walked slowly around the outside and inside of the office.

The area is sufficient, the functional partitions are excellent, office supplies are complete, daily necessities are complete, and the sun is bright and green.

My first independent office, full of satisfaction.

The lounge was very organized. Zhu Pingan didn't tidy up too much. He mainly tidied up the outside room. According to his own habits, he rearranged the desk, classified the books on the bookshelf, and then used a wet rag to clear the tables, chairs, etc. The items were wiped down.

It took about twenty minutes.

After cleaning up, Zhu Ping'an opened the doors and windows for ventilation. He sat in front of his desk and put pen, ink, paper and inkstones on it. He took a copy of "Lanting Preface" from the bookshelf and opened it on the desk. He recited silently and raised it by his wrist. The pen started to practice calligraphy:

"In the ninth year of Yonghe, when I was in Guichou, at the beginning of late spring, I gathered at the Orchid Pavilion in Shanyin, Kuaiji, to do the wedding ceremony. All the virtuous people have arrived, and the young and old have gathered together. This is the place."

"Lanting Preface" was Wang Xizhi's proud pen when he was 51 years old. It is the first calligraphy in Chinese cursive script. When he was just organizing his bookshelf, Zhu Pingan discovered this copy of "Lanting Preface". Zhu Pingan was fascinated by the calligraphy sage Qiu Jian and elegant calligraphy. , so when I was practicing calligraphy, I opened the volume "Lanting Preface" and tried to imitate it.

There are twenty zigzags in the main text of Lanting's preface, plus one zigzag in the signature, making the whole post a total of twenty-one zigzags. Twenty-one characters, twenty-one brushwork, and twenty-one aesthetics, each with a different body and aesthetics, none of them are repeated, and there is no empty scholar under the great reputation of the calligraphy sage.

Zhu Pingan had just finished copying the "Preface to Orchid Pavilion", and as soon as he put down his pen, Manager Liu came in and announced that Zhu Pingan would be invited to a banquet - a reception banquet prepared by His Royal Highness King Yu.

After Zhu Ping'an washed his hands, tidied up his clothes, he followed Manager Liu towards the address of the Jie Feng Banquet.

The reception banquet of Prince Yu's Mansion was placed in the garden, next to the lotus pond. The servants of the Prince's Mansion built a huge pergola to block the sun. It was said to be a pergola, but in fact the design was not vulgar at all. The pergola was designed to look like a pavilion. The style is full of elegance and nobility.

The pergola is made of high-grade Xiangfei bamboo and can be rolled or unfolded for ventilation. Curtains are hung around the pergola. On the one hand, the curtains can block the sun, and on the other hand, they can also leave gaps for ventilation. The curtains are also made of mottled bamboo and Xiangfei bamboo, with exquisite landscape patterns woven on them, which is very elegant.

There are eight refrigerators lined up in the center of the pergola. The refrigerators here are not modern refrigerators, but ancient refrigerators.

The refrigerator placed in the pergola is similar in style to a large tripod. It is made of bronze and stands on four legs, more than 20 centimeters above the ground. There is also a bottom bracket below and a dragon head copper ring on each waist for easy transportation. The lid of the refrigerator is made of a thick jujube wood board. There is also a bronze brick pressed on the thick board. Ninety-nine and eighty-one small holes are drilled in the thick board. The cold air emitted by the ice cubes flows out through the small holes. Achieve cooling effect. Of course, compared with modern air conditioners, this is far behind.

The ice cubes in the refrigerator were specially purchased from outside today by the steward of Prince Yu's Mansion.

In fact, it is said that the royal family has a special production office responsible for the royal family's summer ice routine. Every winter, the construction office has specialized ice harvesters who are tasked with picking ice from the Yuhe River. They cut the ice in the Yuhe River into cubes of specified sizes and pull them into a royal ice cellar outside Xiyuan to wait for summer. For royal use.

As the prince, King Yu can receive the ice order directly from the office.

However, just as King Yu's welfare benefits for the prince are stuck by the Ministry of Household Affairs and other departments, so is King Yu's ice routine. Every time someone from Prince Yu's Mansion is ordered to go to the Manufacturing Office to collect ice certificates, they will be stuck by the Manufacturing Office for various normal or abnormal reasons, such as the key is broken, the ice cellar is being repaired, the day for issuing ice certificates has not come, etc. The official in charge of ice regulations went to Xiyuan to deliver ice and so on.

Prince Yu's Mansion receives less than one ice cube from the production office every ten days, and can only receive one point for every ten pieces of ice. The ice cubes received were barely enough for Prince Yu and his concubines in the backyard. As for ice for large summer banquets and other places, Prince Yu's palace could only spend money to purchase it from outside.

The ice used for this reception banquet was specially purchased by the steward of Prince Yu's Mansion.