Chapter 65
“The entire city has been under strict security recently. I couldn’t come during the day, so I had to disturb the young lady at night.”
Li Heng was courteous and polite. From the moment he entered the courtyard, his expression softened.
The tension of recent days and his father’s tests, seemed to dissipate in an instant. Only here could he obtain a moment’s respite.
Shen You nodded understandingly. Never mind this hour – if there was big business coming to her door, she’d have no problem getting up at dawn to open the shop.
Li Heng said he was staying at the temple tonight, which was how he could avoid prying eyes and come to the shop.
He also mentioned the Great Qi’s National Preceptor who had left the palace. Whether it was the original one or a descendant was unclear, but his father seemed both fearful of and trusting toward this person.
At this point, Li Heng looked toward Shen You, observing her expression.
For some reason, he always felt that that person resembled the man from the temple fair, and that Miss Shen might know him.
However Shen You didn’t show much emotion, treating it merely as learning about ancient circumstances.
Li Heng’s subtle probing was something she had also detected.
After chatting for a few sentences, Li Heng got to business.
“In some time, the borderlands will enter winter. I wanted to ask if you have anything useful here.”
“That’s not difficult, but you need to tell me about Great Qi’s border conditions first, as well as your cold-weather preparations. That way I can better find suitable items.”
Then thinking that this content might involve secrets, she added, “You don’t need to be too detailed.”
Li Heng nodded and agreed.
After hearing his description, Shen You generally understood. Great Qi hadn’t yet popularized cotton cultivation, and like the Song Dynasty, cotton textiles were quite valuable.
Even relatively wealthy families only had one or two pieces for winter. Common people’s homes had none at all, with clothes made entirely of hemp cloth.
Originally, Great Qi had a warm climate, but recent years had grown increasingly cold. Conditions in the harsh borderlands were even worse.
Not everyone could wear thick cotton clothing, and there weren’t even enough cotton quilts.
Shen You took out her tablet and found thermal underwear with round collars and pictures of fleece-lined autumn pants and shirts for the elderly to show Li Heng.
Li Heng stared at the miniature model photos in the glowing tablet, stunned for several seconds.
He had known before that this shop contained many miraculous items, like that thin rectangular object on the counter with small keys that resembled printing blocks.
He couldn’t understand the symbols on it, but had seen Miss Shen use it to access information.
But now this device looked extremely portable yet could contain people inside.
The small box beside it even had people talking, introducing the clothes.
Even more bizarre, the people inside had somewhat blurred faces, as if they had been worn smooth, with pointed faces and unusually large eyes.
The etiquette he had learned since childhood prevented him from speaking directly about this in front of Shen You.
But he had never seen people with such appearances. Miss Shen looked perfectly normal.
After a long pause, he finally said, “Why are they inside this tablet? And why do they look somewhat different from you and me? Do they have Western Region blood?”
Looking at Li Heng’s face, which showed an expression that was both pure and foolish, Shen You fell silent for a moment.
It was difficult to explain livestreaming and beauty filters to ancient people.
“They aren’t actually inside the tablet. This uses a special method to transfer the images of them speaking to my location, so I can see product introductions without meeting face to face.”
Hearing this explanation, Li Heng seemed to understand somewhat.
“What method could accomplish such a thing? Is it immortal magic?”
He had always scoffed at his father’s pursuit of alchemy and immortality, thinking that faith was just a handy tool for consolidating imperial power.
But after witnessing various things impossible for ordinary people in this shop, he couldn’t help but have some doubts.
“No, no, no.”
Shen You shook her head, worried about leading this person astray as well. Setting aside other considerations, Li Heng actually had the makings of a wise ruler.
So she explained, “It’s not immortal magic, but science. The principles are complex. Simply put, this tablet connects to a network, which is a channel for transmitting information, like your intelligence networks. You use people and messenger birds to transmit information, while I use something else here.”
This was the best explanation she could think of. She wondered if Li Heng could understand.
“Can this thing be used in Great Qi?” Li Heng asked earnestly.
He didn’t understand what it was that could transmit images so quickly and completely.
But he knew that if Miss Shen was willing to give this to Great Qi, urgent military intelligence could be transmitted directly to him in the future.
No need for eight-hundred-li express messengers, and no possibility of interception along the way.
He understood better than anyone what this meant. The borderlands and armies stationed outside the capital could be completely under his control.
Shen You sighed and shook her head again. “You can’t use it. Building the network I mentioned isn’t something one person can accomplish. I can’t do it, and Great Qi can’t do it either.”
Although she said this, hearing that it was something humans could achieve, Li Heng felt somewhat regretful.
There was also relief that something capable of overturning kingdoms couldn’t be used in Great Qi.
It was then that he really understood what she had meant when she said that their worlds were different.
The position of Crown Princess that noble families pursued so eagerly – what did it mean to her?
The conversation returned to clothing. Shen You continued her introduction. “These clothes aren’t expensive and can be worn underneath without affecting your ability to wear regular clothing over them.”
She had also worn super-thick thermal underwear under her hanfu during New Year. She had tested it personally and found that it was effective!
For the harsh conditions at the borders, outdoor mountain-climbing gear would definitely be best, but that was too expensive and buying so much wasn’t realistic.
Thermal underwear plus down inner vests were much better than hemp cloth and grass.
“Good, these clothes then.” Li Heng decided immediately. “Miss Shen, please calculate the price.”
Shen You switched from the shopping app to wholesale software.
Bulk fleece-lined thermal underwear could be as cheap as forty-plus yuan per set. Down inner vests were more expensive, at least fifty-plus yuan.
Better quality would probably cost more.
For large quantities, she could negotiate directly with factories, which shouldn’t be too expensive.
A set of thermal underwear plus a down inner vest, budgeting at one hundred yuan each, twenty thousand sets would only cost two million yuan.
She could also cooperate with Liu Zheng and sell another batch herself.
“There are also sleeping bags – portable and with good cold resistance.” Shen You found a video link in the recommendations and showed it to Li Heng.
“This is excellent!” Li Heng said with delight.
Shen You began discussing prices. “Two thousand taels of gold, with the remainder paid in palace artifacts, porcelain, and golden nanmu wood if available would be even better.”
“No problem.” Li Heng agreed readily without any hesitation.
For normal military supply procurement, this amount was nothing, considering all the layers of embezzlement that usually occurred.
Moreover, the items those people usually procured were far inferior to what Miss Shen’s tablet introduced.
“For the deposit, five hundred taels of gold.” Shen You thought of something and continued, “However, preparing these items will take time, so I may need to deliver them to you in batches.”