I’m the Farmgirl You Can’t Mess With
Chapter 872 - Chapter 872 Bribe

Chapter 872: Bribe Chapter 872: Bribe Editor: Atlas Studios It was impossible to find a garden without flowers and plants in Prince Rong’s residence, so they had to remove the plants from the garden.

Mu Yangling got someone to spend two days clearing up a courtyard and ventilating the place to freshen it up.

Only then did she let Little Madam Xia move in.

Seeing that her morning sickness symptoms were slightly relieved thereafter, everyone heaved a sigh of relief.

Imperial Physician Wang said with a smile, “Your Highness, it seems that Madam did indeed feel nauseous because of a certain smell.

It’s just right for her to stay here.” How could it not be good?

It was completely bare outside.

Other than the two big trees in the courtyard that were difficult to remove, all the flowers and plants had been dug up.

Now, other than a faint smell of soil in the courtyard, there was no smell at all.

“But she can’t always stay here and not go out, right?

It’s best to find out what smell caused her morning sickness.” Imperial Physician Wang stroked his beard and nodded.

“I’ll do my best to find out what it is.

Your Highness, don’t worry.

Madam’s condition should improve three months into her pregnancy.” Just as Imperial Physician Wang had said, Little Madam Xia vomited until she was dizzy at first, but after three months, her condition gradually improved.

In less than a month, her face became rosy and her stomach bulged slightly.

Little An pointed at her stomach in front of Tiger Head and Little Lion every day to show off.

“I now have a biological younger brother too.” Brimming with maternal gentleness, Little Madam Xia held the three children and asked, “Do you think this is a boy or a girl?” Nanny Xia rushed in from outside and interrupted them.

“Madam, the Duke has sent the second steward to deliver a letter and a lot of things.

Do you want to go take a look?” When Little Madam Xia first learned she was pregnant, Fan Zijin had just left the city, so he only found out that night.

At that time, he only asked the guard who delivered the letter to pass on a brief message, telling her to focus on her pregnancy and look for Mu Yangling if she needed anything.

He’d also sent a message to Qi Haoran, asking him to take care of his wife and children before taking on his new official duties.

Now that more than two months had passed and a letter had finally arrived, Little Madam Xia naturally had to meet the second steward personally.

Little Madam Xia got the servants to bring the three children out to play before heading to the reception pavilion with the help of Nanny Xia.

The second steward was waiting in the reception pavilion.

When he saw Little Madam Xia enter, he hurriedly stood up and bowed.

After handing over the letter, he waited for Little Madam Xia to finish reading it before saying, “The Duke said that in consideration of Madam’s health, it’s not suitable for you to travel a long distance at this time, so he asked you to rest for a few more days and only set off after five months into your pregnancy.

Fortunately, Guangdong isn’t particularly far from the capital.

Even traveling at a slow speed, you’ll arrive in 20 days.

Because everything is already prepared in Guangdong, you and the Prince can settle down as soon as you reach.

You don’t have to worry about anything.” The second steward paused for a moment before adding, “I also brought some seafood back this time.

The Duke said that you should consider sending some to each family.

There’s no need to keep a portion for Prince Rong and his wife though, because the Duke has specially prepared a portion for them.” Little Madam Xia nodded in agreement.

Seeing the second steward hesitate, she asked gently, “Does the Duke have any other instructions?” The second steward said in a low voice, “Before I left, the Duke added that before you leave for Guangdong, you should ask Old Madam if she’s willing to leave with you.

If she’s willing, the Duke will ask Prince Rong to send her there with you.” When Little Madam Xia thought of the numb Madam Xia, her heart couldn’t help but ache.

She nodded repeatedly and said, “I understand.

Tell the Duke not to worry.

I’ll try my best to persuade Mother.” The second steward heaved a sigh of relief, bowed, and left.

The relationship between the Old Madam and the Duke was strange.

Logically speaking, they should be the closest since they were biological mother and son.

However, they were like enemies previously.

Now, things between them had softened a little, but the Duke still didn’t much bother about Old Madam.

Even when he was in the capital, he rarely went to visit her except on the first and fifteenth of every month.

Now that he was offering to bring Old Madam over, it was probably because his heart had softened upon learning of his wife’s pregnancy, right?

The second steward was taken away by the servants of the Prince’s estate to rest.

As he still had to see Prince Rong at night, he did not return to the Duke’s Residence immediately.

At this moment, Mu Yangling was meeting the publishing house manager in the reception pavilion in the adjacent courtyard.

With her eyebrows slightly raised, she asked, “Are you saying that someone bribed our workers to secretly learn our movable type printing technique?” The manager replied with a red face, “Yes.” “But that worker was loyal and immediately reported the matter to me after falsely promising them.” Mu Yangling nodded secretly and praised, “Not bad.

That worker is quite smart.

See if you can promote him later.

Who bribed him?” The manager lowered his head deeply and said in a low voice, “It’s the manager at the helm of the Imperial Court’s publishing house.” Mu Yangling sneered.

“Are you betting on the fact that I wouldn’t dare to go against the Imperial Court?

Go straight to the Capital Patrol Division and get someone to arrest him.

Tell them that he attempted to steal the commercial secrets of our publishing house.” “Your Highness, that’s someone from the Imperial Court after allaEUR|” “Back in the north, when Lin Ke first created the movable type printing technique, I showed it to His Majesty.

At that time, His Majesty didn’t take a fancy to this technique.

Could it be that after a few years, he decided to steal it from his sister-in-law’s publishing house?

Are they planning to frame His Majesty for being unjust, or are they counting on the fact that I won’t dare to blow things up because it’s the Imperial Court?” Mu Yangling snorted coldly.

“I’ve never hidden this technique, and it’s not a secret in the north.

If they want to learn it, they can openly come to me.

Why use such despicable methods?

You just have to report it to the officials and the Imperial Court will handle the rest.” The publishing house manager didn’t expect the Princess Consort to be so unyielding and merciless.

Although he was afraid that the matter would blow up, he still lowered his head and agreed.

Just as he was about to analyze the situation with Mu Yangling, he heard her say, “Even though we price our books slightly lower than other publishing houses, our profits are higher all thanks to our low cost.

At this moment, I’m afraid many people are covetously eyeing our publishing house.

In the past, the books sold were similar.

Those old publishing houses have an extensive collection of printing blocks, so their printing cost isn’t considered high.

Furthermore, their printing volume was far above ours.

Therefore, since our publishing house wasn’t prominent back then, those people naturally wouldn’t see the benefits of movable type printing.

But now that we are publishing so many new books, even the established publishing houses are affected.” Seeing that the Princess Consort understood the implications, the manager heaved a sigh of relief and hurriedly said, “I think so too.

Although we have many branches, we’re still considered newbies in the business and have limited power.

If the other publishing houses join forces, I’m afraid our publishing house won’t be able to handle it.” The Prince’s estate might not care about the profits from the publishing house, but as the publishing house manager, the flourishing of his career depended on the fate of the publishing house.

Therefore, he operated the publishing house as if it was his life, and couldn’t watch their publishing house make enemies everywhere.

However, Mu Yangling sneered and said, “Do they think I’ll hide this technique?

Let it be known that we’ll sell the movable type printing technique for 500 taels to each publishing house.

Stipulate in the contract that if anyone spreads it privately, we’ll report them to the authorities.” “Your Highness,” the manager exclaimed, “then our publishing house will lose its competitive advantage.” “Our Prince’s estate doesn’t care for that bit of money.

Moreover, we began adopting the technique a few years earlier than them.

How can we not have any advantage over them?

Since this technique was invented by Lin Ke, send all the money you received to Zhu Liang and ask him to send it to Lin Ke in the north.”