The skies above the city of Danzhou darkened suddenly. The thick heavy clouds that hung over the heads of the people looked like patches of wet, dirty wool, or maybe burned cotton candy.
The shore-dwelling inhabitants there were so accustomed to the weather that they knew it would still be a while before rainfall, so no one panicked. It was unlike previous years when the weather looked like it was about to take a turn for the worse and the handsome illegitimate son of Count Sinan’s house could be found shouting from the neighboring rooftops at the entire city, "It’s about to rain; bring in your laundry."
The only main street in Danzhou Harobor was filled with food and trinkets. Seeing a pretty boy in the crowd, one of the merchants tried to make conversation. "Master Fan, why don’t you tell us to bring in the laundry anymore?"
Fan Xian smiled shyly and said nothing. He grasped his maid's hand with one hand and held some tofu with the other.
Nobody was surprised that he helped the servants. Everyone knew that the illegitimate son of Count Sinan’s house was unlike any other noble child in that he loved helping those beneath his station.
In the six years since Fei Jie left Danzhou Harbor, Fan Xian had grown to be a fetching young boy who emitted a sense of reliability.
Back at the house, he handed the tofu to the servants before greeting the Countess and picking up a piece of paper next to her. Returning to his study, he placed a letter from his little sister next to the piece of paper on his desk and the expression on his face immediately lit up.
This year, the emperor of Qing Kingdom made some changes to his reign title and year to reflect the name of the country; a peculiar move that nobody anticipated. Although it might have seemed that the civil servants were fine with the change, they complained when nobody was around. During those days, it didn’t matter if you were a scholar at the Ministry of Education or a congee-drinking novel writer, if you were with the new language party or the old one; you still had to pay the Eighth Bureau of the Overwatch Council to review a report. This topic was heavily covered by sour old scholars.
After the emperor’s reign title was changed, next on the list was pushing new laws. These new laws were nothing new and only served to reorganize pre-existing ones. The only thing the public found refreshing was the introduction of newspapers at the start of the new year.
Newspapers? No one had any idea what they were until the first issue, after which a collective "Oh" marked the end of the public's interest.
The newspapers were produced by the imperial palace and every issue had to be approved by the emperor himself before publication. This prevented the possibility of any problematic articles that could incite backlash.
The following issues cost the expensive price of a silver coin and were bought by those attracted to their novelty. Some of the higher status people began to suspect it was a ploy set by the emperor and wondered if he was planning on building a new garden.
Included within the thin paper were pieces of useless information. These ranged from landmarks to historical figures, but the main feature of the paper was articles covering the private life of government officials, like how the general was beaten by his wife or why the Commander of Defense in the capital was missing a tooth.
There were even peripheral articles related to their neighbors, the Northern Qi Kingdom and the Dongyi City. However, the government officials only paid attention to their own close circle. In the beginning, they laughed at the articles, but soon became embarrassed when it was their turn to be featured in the newspaper. Knowing that the emperor was behind the newspaper, nobody dared to complain.
The newspapers were printed in scarce numbers and the entire city of Danzhou had only two copies, one of which could be found in Count Sinan’s house, as they were subscribers.
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