Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 388: The Duties of a Subject

"That's the way it is. What do you think, Daosheng?"

Xia Lin sat at the table. The prince fanned himself and described his ideas to him, while Jinlian looked at Xia Lin with a smile in her eyes, like a gentle sister-in-law.

In fact, Xia Lin knew who came up with this idea, but since it was approved by the Crown Prince, it meant that His Highness must have the same idea in his mind.

To use the words of my godfather, being in a high position but having nowhere to display one's abilities, one naturally has to find ways to prove that one can be of great use.

Xia Lin was actually neither sure nor against this idea, because once this so-called "cultural building" was opened, it would definitely promote the cultural development of the entire society and usher in a literary heyday. But this thing is also a double-edged sword. After the opening of the cultural heyday, the next thing that will happen is the rise of an extreme strategy of emphasizing culture over military power.

Your Highness, have you forgotten who carried you into the Golden Palace? They were those warriors who could not read a single word and could not tell a single word when the carrying pole fell down.

"Daosheng, what do you think?"

His Highness asked again, and Xia Lin finally came to his senses. He smiled, stood up, bowed, and said, "Then I will do it."

He didn't answer yes or no. Maybe his persuasion was useful, but he persuaded the Cultural Building today, and tomorrow this guy might persuade the entire Tiger and Leopard Room.

Let’s just call it the Cultural Building. Regardless of anything else, Xia Daosheng still holds a leading position in the literary world. With the addition of Lao Zhang, it’s still unclear whether it will be the Cultural Building or the May 5th Youth Center.

"What about the location? Daosheng, where is the location?"

The prince's life in the court was not always smooth, except for Xia Lin, where he could get all kinds of satisfaction. No wonder everyone said that he was a capable minister and there was nothing he couldn't accomplish.

"I think it is in the Humble Administrator's Garden that is being built."

"Humble Administrator's Garden... Humble Administrator's Garden..." The prince pondered over the word "Humble Administrator's Garden" and clapped his hands, "What a good name! It's really a good name."

After saying this, he turned back and smiled at Jinlian, "Look at my capable ministers, they are rare in the world."

Jinlian smiled with her lips pursed, not saying anything but her eyes were still shining brightly when she looked at Xia Lin. Although she followed the Crown Prince now, she had been thinking about Xia Lin since the first time she saw him. The more she heard about Xia Lin from the Crown Prince, the happier she was. In short... she just felt that only in front of Lord Xia could she be the weak little woman who knew nothing.

"Then your highness, I will go and do my work."

"Go ahead, go ahead. There will be a dinner party in the palace tomorrow night. Would you like to come along? You are my brother-in-law after all."

"Then I will be disrespectful to refuse it."

Xia Lin said a few polite words and turned to leave the East Palace. After he went out, he strolled to a restaurant and started the first round of the "Competition with Lao Zhang" series by eating meatballs.

"If I could eat meatballs like this in Luoyang, I would never come out no matter what."

After the meal, the two of them ate two pots of thirty-nine meatballs in total. In the end, Lao Zhang won by a narrow margin with one meatball. But no matter who it was, they could not move after eating more than three pounds of meat. They just leaned there and gasped for breath. They didn't even dare to breathe too hard because the food had reached their throats and would be vomited out if they moved the slightest.

"What are you going to do later?"

After hearing what Lao Zhang said, Xia Lin wanted to turn over but couldn't move: "Don't talk...Don't talk, I want to vomit."

Judging from the battle situation on the scene, Lao Zhang might be able to squeeze in a few more but Xia Lin has no room left. In other words, Lao Zhang did not win narrowly against Xia Lin in this match, nor did he lose narrowly. This was a crushing match. However, Lao Zhang might not have an easy time tomorrow, because tomorrow's match is "Rice wine drinking competition with Lao Zhang", and Lao Zhang can't drink much, so he might be able to win back a round.

After lying there for an hour, he finally felt a little better. Xia Lin supported himself on his knees with his hands. He felt like he was reborn from the ashes, but he definitely couldn't eat dinner tonight.

"What does His Highness want you to do today?"

"Ask me to give him the entire cultural building."

"Cultural Building?"

Seeing that Lao Zhang was asking, Xia Lin roughly explained to him what a cultural building was. After listening, Lao Zhang frowned and said, "Isn't this nonsense? This is not just a waste of time, this is shaking the foundation of the country."

"You persuaded him. If you persuaded him today, he will go to the Cat and Dog Building, the Tiger and Leopard Building, and the Coquettish and Slutty Building tomorrow. You may be able to stop him once, but you can't stop him a second time. And the first thing he thought about when he came here was to discover talents from the folks instead of playing the Twelve Beauties of the Red Chamber. This is already very good for him."

"Hey... the high-spirited little prince from back then is still likable."

"Same look." Xia Lin sneered: "He hasn't changed from the beginning to now. Don't forget how I became an official."

Lao Zhang slapped his thigh and said, "Yes, you became an official because of your poetry..."

"So I am also responsible for this. He just thinks I am very useful and wants to dig out more Xia Daoshengs." Xia Lin shook his head and said, "I think he should be a knight-errant and is suitable to be a knight-errant. He travels around and meets people from all corners of the world. His political wisdom has not improved at all."

"So what are your plans?" "Let's keep the status quo. Even if he has no ability at all, as long as he doesn't mess around, he can at least keep the world peaceful even if he can't revive it."

Lao Zhang waved his hand: "I'm asking about the Cultural Building."

"Of course I will build it. Not only will I build it, but I will also build it in a grand manner, and even allow the Imperial College to move in, so that all the scholars in the world will be happy. After all, talent and learning are useful."

After listening to this, Old Zhang stroked his chin and pondered for a long time, then suddenly said, "I think it would be better to build an experience hall for the Twelve Beauties of the Red Mansion, spend some money to go in and try it out, two hundred taels for Xue Baochai, three hundred taels for Wang Xifeng, and one thousand five hundred taels for Lin Daiyu."

"Isn't that a brothel?"

"What do you mean by brothel or not? That's ugly. It's better to say that there are beautiful women in books."

"You don't look like a good person, you bastard."

Lao Zhang sneered: "Just tell me if you want to try it."

"To be honest... it feels quite interesting." Xia Lin smacked his lips, then his face straightened: "Okay, you really want to send someone to clear out the emperor's entourage, right? Come with me to the Royal Gardens later, and give me a design plan."

"You have to pay more." Old Zhang patted his chest and said, "Zhang Zhongchun is no longer the Zhang Zhongchun you could manipulate. Now Zhang Zhongchun is the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel!"

"How much?"

"At least fifty taels of silver, no, eighty taels!"

Xia Lin rolled his eyes and said, "If you are short of money, then you are short of money. Look at how stingy you are."

"That's not what I meant. You know my worth, right? My worth!"

"Your worth is not even as good as Xue Baochai's worth of two hundred taels."

"Actually, Xue Baochai's value is a bit low. I think it should be about the same as Daiyu's, both worth 1,500 taels."

"Okay, stop nagging and go!"

Xia Lin dragged Lao Zhang out. Lao Zhang clung to the door frame and said, "Hey, hey, hey, don't scratch me, don't scratch me. You asked me to go take a poop. I didn't feel anything just now, but now that I've stood up, I realize that the thousand-mile dam is about to collapse because of an ant hole..."

"Damn it, every time I ask you to do some work it's either windy or rainy, hurry up."

Old Zhang is a stickler for doing things, but he is actually very capable. When he was dragged to a large construction site that had already started construction, he only stood there for a while and had already drawn up all the design sketches, including the style of pavilions, where to place ponds and rockery, what trees to plant, and he even planned what color the trees would be in all seasons.

However, since this guy actually took the money, he naturally couldn't just get away with it. So Xia Lin insisted on forcing Lao Zhang to produce a plan view, a top view and a perspective view for the eighty taels of silver. Lao Zhang was reluctant and insisted on increasing the fee from eighty taels to one hundred and fifty taels before he reluctantly agreed.

It’s just that Lao Zhang can tell whether a work is good or not with just one move. Nowadays, Zhang Sang has actually earned the reputation of being the best painter in the world. When others were still drawing line drawings, Lao Zhang had already started drawing three-dimensional character diagrams. When faced with a garden design drawing, Lao Zhang could naturally pull it off with ease.

In less than two days, the prototype of this magnificent royal garden built in the center of the old city was completed.

Then Xia Lin did something particularly groundbreaking. He asked someone to replicate Lao Zhang's bird's-eye view directly on a huge board of about five meters by five meters, and it stood magnificently outside the construction site.

Such a super beautiful picture can be regarded as a dimensionality reduction attack for people today. Even if that place is still a large construction site now, such a magnificent picture standing here is equivalent to telling everyone that this place will look like this in the future.

Not only are there pictures, but there are also a lot of descriptive texts next to them, which really makes people gasp after reading them.

"Who can read? Read it to me."

Some of the onlookers were anxious, so they called out. At this moment, a scholar who looked like a scholar cleared his throat and began to read: "This is the Humble Administrator's Garden, a garden specially approved by the royal family. The garden contains the Imperial Academy Building. Nearly half of the area will be open to the public after completion, and the second half will be used to train national talents. It can accommodate nearly a thousand people to study here. Those who pass the assessment can study for free and can also study with famous scholars, national masters and imperial masters..."

Otherwise, how can we say that Xia Lin is capable of doing things? If he directly built a royal garden, the people would complain that it was a waste of money and labor. But if this garden was transformed into a place for learning, and the prince's cultural building was changed into a place where talented people could study for free, the meaning and flavor would be completely different.

The previous waste of money and labor has turned into the prince's wisdom and bravery, and the method of selecting talents that may even cause dissatisfaction among military officers does not seem to be eye-catching now. Instead, it has become a measure that has been carefully thought out for the prosperity of the Wei Dynasty.

Moreover, the higher-ups clearly stated that there are talents everywhere, which means that it is still a place that can break the monopoly of aristocratic families on studying, but it is not a place that conflicts with aristocratic families, because no matter how talented the people are, the exams are still the same. This move calmed the emotions of the three parties. How could such a Xia Daosheng not be liked by the leaders?

In just one day, the land prices around the originally abandoned land soared, including the ten acres of land that Xia Lin was holding tightly in his hands.

The most exaggerated thing is the one acre of land split from the original royal garden. Although it has not yet been put on the market for auction, the secret price has already soared to seven million taels. The Dugu family even said that this piece of land is in their pocket, and anyone who wants to compete can come forward.

(End of this chapter)