Chapter 1214: Bet

Chapter 1214: Bet

Qi Haoran was being discussed outside and looked at strangely by the ministers in the court. In the palace, he still had to be mocked by his big brother and Zijin. He thought that he would be able to get some comfort when he returned home, but Mu Yangling was so engrossed in the expansion of The Lily Times that she had no time to pay attention to him.

As for the children, they were extremely smug at the moment and didn’t even look at him.

Little Lion and Tiger Head walked past him with their heads held high, not at all noticing him. Seeing this, Qi Haoran couldn’t help but put his hands on his waist and roar, “I’m talking. Did you hear me?”

Little An ran over to comfort him. “Fourth Uncle, please repeat yourself. We didn’t pay attention just now.”

It was only upon hearing Little An’s voice that Tiger Head noticed that his father was also there. He jumped over happily and said, “Daddy, my article was selected by ‘The Great Qi Children’s Journal’. The editors praised that my article was well-written.”

Little Lion also came over and said, “My article has also been selected by ‘The Great Qi Geographical Journal’ and is going to be published tomorrow. Daddy, you have to support me when the time comes.”

Little An puffed out his chest and said, “My article has also been chosen by ‘The Great Qi Sinology Journal’. Fourth Uncle, we don’t have high expectations. You just have to support us the way you supported Fourth Aunt and buy a large stack of each newspaper.”

Qi Haoran, who was originally angry, felt a little guilty and asked, “How did you know that I bought a stack of ‘The Lily Times’?”

The three children looked at him disdainfully. “Everyone in the capital knows. You asked someone to buy a lot of newspapers and distribute them to the soldiers in the military camp.”

Feeling a mixture of smugness and worry, Qi Haoran asked, “Does your fourth aunt know?”

Little An thought for a moment and shook his head decisively. “I think Fourth Aunt definitely doesn’t know. Otherwise, her heart will ache. Considering everyone received one copy, it means you spent tens of thousands of copper coins.”

Qi Haoran snorted. “What’s there to feel sorry for her? That’s my private savings. Go and tell your Fourth Aunt about this. If you do it well, I’ll forgive you for not hearing what I said.”

Displeased, Tiger Head and Little Lion said, “It’s rare for us to have a day off and we plan to go to the teahouse to watch the commotion. Can’t you tell Mother yourself when she comes back?”

Qi Haoran glared at his two sons resentfully and said, “You guys are really daft. I truly worry you won’t be able to find a wife in the future.”

Qi Haoran looked at Little An expectantly. Little An patted his chest and said, “Don’t worry, Fourth Uncle. When we go to the teahouse later, we’ll specially go to the The Lily Times’ office to tell Fourth Aunt. As for our newspaper…”

Qi Haoran said righteously, “Don’t have such crooked thoughts. You have to rely on your true strength to excel, understand? Moreover, this newspaper office doesn’t belong to you. What does whether the sales are good or not have to do with you?”

“Of course it’s related. Our article is published in it!” Little Lion shouted.

“There are so many articles on it. Could it be that each of those article’s authors have also ordered thousands or tens of thousands of copies?” Considering Qi Haoran didn’t have much money left, how could he be willing to waste it on the children?

Tiger Head reprimanded, “Then why did you buy The Lily Times and help Mother artificially increase sales? That’s not gentlemanly!”

Qi Haoran snorted. “I’m willing to help your mother with that. If you have the ability, get someone else to help you.”

Not to mention Tiger Head and Little Lion, even Little An looked at him angrily.

Seeing that the children were angry, Qi Haoran instantly felt better. He snorted and left with his hands behind his back.

Tiger Head and Little Lion saw that their father wouldn’t help, so they quickly turned to look at Little An and said, “Brother Little An, your father is the richest. Get him to buy tens of thousands of copies. We made a bet with Sister Mingzhu. If we lose, we’ll have to trim the flowers and plants in the imperial garden for a month.”

All four children had submitted their articles to ‘The Great Qi Children’s Journal’. In their teacher’s opinion, Little An’s article was naturally the best, while Tiger Head’s was the worst.

However, only Tiger Head’s article was accepted in the end. In the words of the editors of the children’s newspaper, “Only Tiger Head’s article is the most suitable for children. It’s interesting to read…”

Tiger Head instantly became smug in the Royal School. The other three were not convinced, so they copied three copies of their article and submitted them to the other three newspapers. Other than The Great Qi Times who ignored them, the other two newspapers replied.

‘The Great Qi Sinology Journal’ adopted Little An’s article, while ‘The Great Qi Geographical Journal’ adopted Little Lion and Qi Wensu’s articles. They had already been informed.

As tomorrow was the launch day of the other newspapers, the children had been so smug yesterday that they had forgotten their manners. When they were in the Palace of Earthly Tranquility, they were extremely smug. Coincidentally, when Mingzhu did not hear back from The Lily Times regarding the article she’d submitted, the children quarreled.

In the end, the topic changed to a bet. Which of the four new newspapers was the best? Mingzhu naturally firmly supported The Lily Times, while the four children stood with the newspaper which accepted their respective article.

The moment the team split up, Little An felt that something was wrong. This way, their forces would be scattered and they might even become enemies. He immediately roped in his friends and said, “We can’t be controlled by Mingzhu. We have to be united. The three newspapers will combine together.”

“But we’re betting on which newspaper has the highest sales, not three against The Lily Times,” Little Lion said with a frown.

Smiling, Little An said, “If we draw in a high volume of sales, we’ll split it equally between the three newspapers. If it’s small, we’ll put it all on ‘The Great Qi Children’s Journal’. This is because going forward, we’ll still be mainly submitting our articles to ‘The Great Qi Children’s Journal’. Thus, the more famous it is, the better.”

The four smug little fellows immediately formed an alliance, and Mingzhu brought her four younger brothers to fight them.

The Fifth and Sixth Princes were still young and still spoke stutteringly, thus they could only use their actions to support their elder sister.

They took out their pocket money!

Mingzhu held their hands and said affectionately, “Don’t worry, little brothers. I won’t let you down. With your mentality, you’ll definitely find a wife very easily in the future.”

The two children looked at their sister in confusion, not understanding what she was saying.

However, the Third Prince and Fourth Prince understood and excitedly went back to retrieve their pocket money, alarming their respective Mother Consorts.

The Royal Consorts grabbed their money chests and asked, “What are you doing with so much money?”

The two children answered in unison, “It’s for marrying a wife. Mother Consort, don’t worry. We’ll definitely marry a very, very good daughter-in-law to serve you.”

As the two Consorts watched in a daze as their sons walked away, they said in confusion, “My son is already old enough to marry a wife?”

After receiving a pile of money, Mingzhu hurriedly sent someone to the newspaper office to place an order and then went to the Empress to get sponsorships. The Empress looked at her in amusement and said, “What a silly child. A newspaper costs only five copper coins. Where are you going to send so many newspapers considering you’re asking for so much money?”

“I’ll keep them!”

“Then it’d just be a pile of waste paper.” Li Jinghua looked at her daughter disapprovingly and said, “Your big brother can’t wait to split a copper coin into two. But you, on the other hand, are splurging so much money just to spite Little An and the others. Your big brother might just punish you when he comes back.”

Mingzhu pouted. “But Little An and the rest are too despicable. Just because their articles merely got selected by the newspapers, they’re insufferably cocky!”

With a laugh, Li Jinghua said, “Then work hard for your article to get chosen by the newspaper office, too. When the time comes, you, too, can hold your head high.”

“Didn’t you say that my writing is still immature? How much longer will I have to work hard for?”

“To ‘The Lily Times’, your writing is indeed a tad immature still, but it’s just right for ‘The Great Qi Children’s Journal’. Didn’t you see that Tiger Head’s article was chosen by ‘The Great Qi Children’s Journal’?” Li Jinghua guided her daughter. “However, I think the most important thing for you now is not to think about writing articles. Instead, you should think about how to resolve the order you placed with the newspaper office.”

Princess Mingzhu opened her mouth wide and looked at her mother accusingly. “Royal Mother, you’re so mean. Why did you only tell me after I placed the order!”

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