195: Chapter 193: Blowing up the Street 195: Chapter 193: Blowing up the Street Finally, amidst such an atmosphere, the moment Lin Yi had designated arrived.
Accompanied by the announcement that the auspicious hour had come, Lin Yi immediately stepped outside the door.
Looking at the crowd around him, at the officials who had been arriving one after another, Lin Yi’s lips curved slightly upwards, showing a warm and friendly smile:
“This fine day marks the occasion, right now, at this very moment, the Imperial Family’s Royal Glaze officially opens for business!”
Following Lin Yi’s impassioned proclamation, he pulled down the red silk in front of him with force.
Subsequently, under the gaze of everyone, the red cloth covering the signboard was also instantly pulled away.
As the red cloth fell, everyone’s gaze immediately turned in that direction, and they saw the words “Royal Glaze” emblazoned on the signboard underneath!
This revelation was beyond the expectations of many people.
But it was also within the expectations of many people.
For example, the surrounding crowd gazed on in shock and awe.
After all, everyone understands what the word ‘glaze’ signifies: high-end luxury.
Moreover, the word ‘Imperial’ is placed in front of it—what does that imply?
Could it be that this shop specializes in making glaze exclusively for the Emperor?
However, this doesn’t seem quite right either.
If it’s just for making glaze for the Emperor, why would they open a shop here?
Such were the thoughts of the surrounding crowd.
But for the officials, it was a long sigh of relief in their hearts.
Just as they had guessed, this shop was indeed for selling glaze from overseas.
At the same time, they also instantly thought of the delegation members.
Perhaps those people had been silenced by Eunuch Lin?
However, what they had never expected was that the word ‘Imperial’ would appear in front of the shop’s name.
To ordinary people, these two characters were shocking, and they were no less so in the eyes of the officials.
After all, this was the first such occurrence in history.
Never before had the word ‘Imperial’ adorned the name of a shop.
History has always classified society into four classes: scholar, farmer, artisan, and merchant.
Hence, commerce was considered lowly.
Yet, the scholars who rank first, are the court officials serving the Emperor.
But clearly, even those at the top, the scholars, do not hold greater power than the Emperor.
This means the authority of the Emperor is the most supreme, whereas commerce is at the very bottom.
Combining these two things, people simply could not believe it to be true.
However, there were some officials whose eyes recognized at first glance the glittering gold characters.
The handwriting was so familiar—it might not have been previously, but over time they had become all too well-acquainted with it.
The script was none other than that of the current sovereign.
How could this revelation not shock them?
They could never have imagined that the Emperor would get involved in such disreputable commercial pursuits.
For a moment, the Imperial Censors and the other officials even started contemplating whether they should use this matter to admonish the Emperor in tomorrow’s court assembly.
Not just the Imperial Censors, even the Princes began to stir, realizing they had grasped a means of leverage over the Emperor.
And they had already thought of the words to confront the young Emperor with in the court: “How could the Emperor possibly vie with the common people for profit?”
This sentence was bound to render the young Emperor speechless.
However, just as their minds were racing and everyone was in disbelief, Lin Yi suddenly waved his hand, and the windows on the second floor flung open.
Immediately, guards extended their flints out of the windows.
Seeing this strange behavior, the crowd below grew even more perplexed, wondering what they were up to with those flints.
Surely they weren’t intending to set the shop on fire?
Otherwise, there was no other conceivable explanation for their actions.
But while the crowd was still puzzled by the guards taking out flints, they saw them swiftly ignite a long row of bamboo nodes laced with an unknown fuse at the window.
Initially, the crowd was also puzzled by these bamboo nodes, yet they quickly supposed they must be for decorative purposes.
But to everyone’s astonishment, the guards now used the flints to ignite these objects—what could this possibly imply?
While such murmurs swirled, and under the shroud of this atmosphere, the flints still managed to light the twine at the base of the bamboo nodes.
What followed was a series of loud bangs and pops.
And the noise burst forth so suddenly that the crowd, like dumplings in boiling water, instantly became frantic.
The look of horror on everyone’s faces appeared genuine, and amidst the noise, all of them knelt to the ground, knocking their foreheads against the earth and murmuring prayers to the heavens.
At this moment, Lin Yi had already retreated into the shop.
After all, the shockwave produced by the explosion of those devices was significant, and the sight of bamboo shrapnel flying around was dangerous; he feared getting hit.
The caution tape Lin Yi had previously pulled was to ensure the safety of the surrounding commoners and officials.
At the very least, he was certain that by the time the bamboo splinters reached them, they would have lost their lethality.
However, looking out through the glass windows at this moment, it was shocking to see that people were all kneeling on the ground.
Lin Yi couldn’t help but stand there dumbfounded, but he quickly came to his senses, realizing these people must have mistaken the fireworks for heavenly thunder.
But this was also good, it was the effect Lin Yi desired.
The reason why Lin Yi had gathered all the officials together this time, and why he did not immediately research powerful weapons after inventing this gunpowder but instead turned it into fireworks to present before everyone, was precisely to have a certain deterrent effect.
Of course, to truly deter these officials, this was not enough.
But no worries, Lin Yi had a follow-up plan in preparation.
And he believed that once his ultimate move was revealed, these people would immediately tuck their tails between their legs.
But let’s not dwell on those possibilities.
Let’s just say, at this very moment in the arena, as all the people knelt down, they muttered and prayed to the heavens,