The Emperor of Xiyun immediately inquired, "Jingjing, what brilliant idea do you have? Speak quickly!"
Anjing said, "Our current books are all handwritten, and not only is copying them by hand time-consuming and troublesome, it’s also prone to errors and omissions. Clearly, we know how to use stamps... has no one considered, based on the principle of stamps, engraving the mirror image of a page of text onto a block? Then, after inking it, we could press the paper onto it, wouldn’t that imprint all the text onto the paper? This method could be used for the other pages, and then bound into a book. This way, it is much simpler, neater, and more reliable than handwriting."
About ancient movable-type printing and block printing, Anjing had learned from history textbooks.
Seeing that both the Emperor of Xiyun and Su Chengyu were listening excitedly with shining eyes, Anjing felt amused but continued to say, "This method is actually quite simple. Even if I didn’t mention it, someone would have eventually discovered it; it’s just a matter of time. Father, you could start by having someone develop this. Handwritten books are really too expensive, an ordinary poor family can’t even afford a single book, let alone discuss sending their children to school. Furthermore, the books printed this way could also be sold to other countries, cheaper than hand-copied ones, I’m sure other countries would buy them."
After a pause, Anjing concluded, "Sell cheap and volume will make up for it, we’ll earn this first sum of money before anything else."
The Emperor of Xiyun first lavished praise on Anjing, then entrusted the matter of book printing to Su Chengyu, with the treasury funding it, and the earnings would also go to the treasury.
After Su Chengyu had taken on the task to implement book printing, the Emperor of Xiyun looked at Anjing, then at Xiao Changyi, and finally couldn’t help but sigh, "Yi Er, you and Jingjing are truly a perfect match." Both prodigious talents! A match that couldn’t be more fitting!
Xiao Changyi glanced sideways at the Emperor of Xiyun, "You’re only realizing this now?"
The Emperor of Xiyun was at first stunned, then burst into laughter, "How could that be, I’ve known for a long time, it’s just that I never mentioned it to you."
Xiao Changyi was satisfied, and thus stopped looking sideways at the Emperor of Xiyun.
Anjing felt amused, but her heart was also sweet.
After leaving with the four children from the presence of the Emperor of Xiyun, Anjing pondered for a while and then said, "Husband, if it really is Linghe dragging the Pingjun Prince’s Mansion into treason, in the future, it’s very likely we’ll go to war with Chilin again."
Upon learning of the news that Linghe herself had requested to marry into the Chilin Kingdom, she had felt that Linghe was up to no good. Now, seeing the situation, Linghe did indeed harbour ill intentions, and a future war was more than likely.
Xiao Changyi didn’t say much, only lightly saying, "What is meant to be a blessing is not a curse, what is meant to be a curse cannot be avoided."
Two days later, after severe torture by the Ministry of Justice, that distant relative from the Pingjun Prince’s Mansion confessed, saying one day the Prince of Pingjun invited him to drink, and upon his intoxication, he blurted out everything the Prince asked, including what raw materials were used to make the white paper.
However, the Prince of Pingjun refused to admit guilt, even accusing the distant relative of framing him.
The Pingjun Princess also denied any wrongdoing.
The sons of the Prince of Pingjun were also unwilling to confess.
They were all banking on the fact that as long as they didn’t confess, solely based on the word of a distant relative, there was no way to convict them of treason.
As for the maidservants and slaves of the Pingjun Prince’s Mansion, since they were unaware of this matter, no amount of interrogation could extract any useful information.
But the second daughter-in-law of the Prince of Pingjun was particularly afraid of pain and death; not long into the severe torture, she confessed, saying she had overheard the Prince of Pingjun and the Pingjun Princess plotting to commit treason and defect to the Chilin Kingdom.