Chapter 1218: Admit Defeat

With The Lily Times taking the lead, the distribution of ‘The Great Qi Children’s Journal’, ‘The Great Qi Sinology Journal’ and ‘The Great Qi Geographical Journal’ went very smoothly. Little Treasure and Little Bear, who were far away in the north, sent congratulatory letters in advance. Mu Yangling was in high spirits, as were the staff at the newspaper office. Seeing that there was no trouble, the ministers in the court were also somewhat happy.

The commoners were also happy to watch the commotion, but Little An and the others weren’t feeling as cheerful.

When they took their money to the newspaper office to place orders, they were told that they were out of stock. Because The Lily Times printed more copies after the initial print run sold out, too much paper had been used up, so many orders had been compressed. Those who came late like them simply had their orders refused.

The three children were dumbfounded. Wouldn’t they be defeated without a fight then?

Tiger Head shouted, “That’s not fair!”

Little An and Little Lion nodded solemnly. Without printing paper, how could their sales compare to The Lily Times?

Seeing that the eyes of the young masters were red, the guard behind them suggested, “Why don’t we transfer paper from other places and get the staff at the newspaper office to work overtime to print more copies?”

Little An shook his head slowly and said, “It’s useless. The paper used to print newspapers is a specialized type of paper that’s different from ordinary paper. Even if there’s paper available in other paper factories, they won’t be able to use it.”

Because there were very few newspapers in this world, in order to print more content, the paper used for the newspaper was very big.

In this era, there was no need to write on such a large piece of paper. Though the rice paper used for paintings was quite suitable, Mu Yangling wouldn’t be so dumb as to use rice paper considering a copy of newspaper was sold for merely five copper coins.

In order to save money, the paper used for newspapers was not of very good quality. Made from wheat straws, the type of paper used was extremely cheap.

Other than selling this kind of paper to the newspaper office to print newspapers, there weren’t other uses for it. Therefore, the paper factory only produced as much paper as was ordered by the newspaper office. Even if there were some extra papers stocked for emergencies, there wasn’t a lot of it.

One could only blame The Lily Times for like hotcakes. As a result, it kept printing and printing. Even if the paper factory worked overtime, they could not supply enough paper.

Hence, there wasn’t even a need to compete. The sales of the three newly released newspapers were lower than The Lily Times’ just based on this reason alone.

Little An and the others could only enter the palace dejectedly and admit defeat.

Mingzhu blinked and looked at them, wondering if she had forgotten to tell them about wanting to call off the bet.

Li Jinghua found their dejected expressions amusing. Just as she was about to explain, her daughter grabbed her and coughed lightly. “If one participates in a gamble willingly, one has to bear all the consequences of losing. Do you admit defeat now?”

Tiger Head snorted. “We can’t accept this. We only lost because the paper factory ran out of paper. Do you know how much money we raised?”

“When horses lose their footing in war, could you also tell the enemy that it doesn’t count and get everyone to go back and prepare their horses before resuming the fight?” Mingzhu raised her head proudly and said, “In short, if you lose, you lose.”

Tiger Head tilted his head and thought that it made sense. He looked at Little Lion and Little An. The two of them nodded and admitted defeat, too. “Then when do you want us to start working?”

When Li Jinghua saw that the children were getting along just fine, she couldn’t help but smile. Hence, she simply let them be and went to deal with the palace matters first.

Thus, when Qi Xiuyuan brought his two youngest sons to the imperial garden to play, he saw Little An and the other three carrying pruning shears as they pruned the flowers and plants. Meanwhile, his precious daughter was standing at the side and instructing them to work. The Third Prince and Fourth Prince were running around happily while supervising them to work faster.

Qi Xiuyuan couldn’t help but smile. He led the Fifth Prince and Sixth Prince over and even asked Eunuch Wan as he walked, “I heard that the children made a bet and the loser has to trim the imperial garden?”

Eunuch Wan lowered his head and smiled. “That’s right. I heard that Princess Mingzhu accosted the young masters at the entrance of the Royal School early in the morning, dragging them to the imperial garden as soon as they finished school. She told them that they’re not to the palace tonight if they don’t finish trimming the garden by today.”

Qi Xiuyuan’s mood lifted upon hearing that. He felt that these boys had been too smug lately and deserved it. However, he said with a smile, “It’s good to exercise. Otherwise, their bones will harden if they keep sitting in the study.”

Eunuch Wan smiled and agreed, not exposing the Emperor’s thoughts. Not to mention the fact that the young masters were playful, it was impossible for them not to exercise every day since they rode horses and had archery and martial arts lessons and so on every day. How could their bones possibly harden?

But when Qi Xiuyuan turned the corner and saw the flowers and plants that Little An and the others had trimmed, the smile on his face could no longer be maintained.

He clutched his chest and pointed at the flowers and plants. “What are those?”

Eunuch Wan’s mouth was also wide open. After looking at Tiger Head and Little Lion, who were trimming the flower and plants with their qinggong, the corners of his mouth twitched as he comforted the Emperor. “Your Majesty, the young masters only trimmed this area…”

In other words, it wasn’t too late.

However, the eyes of the Fifth and Sixth Princes lit up. They broke free from their Royal Father’s hand and ran over while shrieking. Eyes shining with admiration, they looked at their two cousins who were jumping up and down with qinggong.

Seeing that his cousins were looking at him, Tiger Head immediately leaped onto a branch. The pruning shears in his hand quickly cut off the branches and leaves that were overgrown. Then, he gently jumped onto a higher level on the branch and cut off the branches and leaves which he found an eyesore.

The Fifth and Sixth Princes immediately clapped and cheered for Tiger Head.

Unconvinced to let Tiger Head received all the attention, Little Lion simply climbed up the tree trunk quickly with his qinggong. As he walked, he trimmed the tree and flew up parallel to the ground. Underneath, the children saw that branches and leaves fell wherever Little Lion passed.

This time, even Third Brother and Little Leopard, who were running around the tree, stopped. The four little ones cheered for the two of them.

Mingzhu was also so excited that her face turned red. However, when she saw that this flower tree was different from what she had imagined, she shouted, “You trimmed it wrong. I wanted something that’s shaped like a rabbit. Who asked you to trim it randomly? Look, you’ve botched it!”

Only then did Qi Xiuyuan realize that those strangely-shaped flower trees were his daughter’s idea. His expression changed a few times, but in the end, he couldn’t help but roar, “All of you, come down. Look at what you’ve done to the imperial garden. Where are the people serving you?”

Only then did everyone see the Emperor standing far away with the eunuchs and guards behind him.

Mingzhu happily stepped forward and said, “Royal Father, I’ve sent them away. Don’t you think the imperial garden looks much better now? I spent the entire night coming up with this design.”

Tiger Head simply stood on the branch and didn’t come down. With the pruning shears in hand, he looked down and said loudly, “Royal Uncle, we trimmed it according to Mingzhu’s instructions. This has nothing to do with us.”

Little Lion also squatted on the tree trunk and did not go down, his body still hidden behind the leaves. When he heard his brother’s words, he shouted, “That’s right. We’re willing to accept defeat and merely trimmed according to Mingzhu’s instructions.”

Mingzhu stomped her feet. “I didn’t ask you to trim it randomly. I asked you to trim it into the shape of a little rabbit!”

Little Lion crawled out from behind the leaves and shouted at her, “It’s inevitable that we made a mistake since it’s our first time doing it. Anyway, there are still so many flower trees. Surely one of them will meet your requirements. Don’t be anxious.”

At the thought of how big the imperial garden was, Mingzhu was no longer anxious.

However, Qi Xiuyuan was so angry that he fell backward. It was not enough that they had messed up so many flowers and trees, but they even wanted to mess up the entire imperial garden?

There were many rare flowers and trees in his garden!

Looking at the two children trimming, Qi Xiuyuan was relieved. Fortunately, the two brats obviously wanted to show off their qinggong, so they chose a tall cotton tree. Although the result was ugly, it was not expensive which meant he hadn’t incurred a big loss.

He pointed at Little Lion and Tiger Head and said, “The two of you, come down. If you dare to attack my imperial garden again, I’ll get your mother to enter the palace to beat you up!”

Qi Xiuyuan looked around and saw that Little An and Wensu, who he had seen just now, had disappeared. He immediately had a bad feeling and asked, “Where’s Little An and the Second Prince?”

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