As the night gets deeper, Luoyang City is slowly sinking into darkness and tranquility.

There is no one to see in the bustling East and West cities and major streets during the day. Even in each yard, it becomes deserted. Only a few lonely lamps flash in the darkness, reflecting the stars in the sky.

Some of these lights and candlelights come from the spacious and luxurious study room near the imperial city in the north of the city. When ordinary people talk about Lu Zhen, the most mentioned is how he gained the trust of the emperor and how he held great power. However, few people will know how busy he is as the prime minister of the government affairs hall.

Since he sat in this position for eight years, Lu Zhen has never slept before the third day, and sometimes he stayed up all night. Then, when it dawned, he rushed straight to the imperial city with great energy to handle the government affairs of all and big day in the new day.

Today is naturally no exception. Lu Zhen’s desk is still stacked with a bunch of documents that have been reviewed and processed, but there are still five or six documents waiting to be decided. The news about the possible abnormal movement of Luo Tian Sect in Jiangnan made him frown his two black and white eyebrows and whisper: “What a group of thieves who can’t kill them…”

The knock on the door made his thoughts slightly cut off, but he still responded casually: "Come in." Lu Zhen knew very well that the one who could come to disturb him at this time must be his confidant, Lu Yuan, the old housekeeper who had served him for many years.

Sure enough, the door opened, Lu Yuan brought a tray into the house, quickly put a bowl of ginseng soup in front and behind his master, and whispered: "It's too late, it's better to take a break earlier. You should put your body first."

As if it was the effect of this sentence, Lu Zhen really coughed twice. While holding the soup bowl and drinking Huang Chengcheng's ginseng soup in small sips, he said with a wry smile: "It's really time is unforgivable. In this blink of an eye, you and I are almost over 60 years old. Thinking about it, even if you don't sleep for three or five days, it was nothing, but now, you are so busy in the middle of the night, you can't bear it. You can't accept your old age!"

"The master is not old yet. Even a villain, he still wants to continue to serve the master for ten or twenty years..."

"Haha, you can really talk about it for ten or twenty years, but you're afraid that the people below can't wait." Lu Zhen smiled and shook his head, then put the drank soup bowl on the table, "By the way, is there anything interesting in Luoyang City recently?"

This has been a habit for many years for his master and servant. Whenever the night is late, Lu Zhen, the prime minister who is busy with political affairs in the court all day, would chat with this loyal old servant and learn about the latest news among the people.

"If you want to talk about interesting things, there are really some of them in the past two days. The famous courtesan Su Yue was recently ignored by the guests. There was also a thief in the west who was stealing something in someone's house and was overwhelmed by the cabinet. He could only ask for help, but was taken down on the spot..."

Listening to the old servant talking about the various interesting stories in Luoyang City, Lu Zhen first looked interested, but at the end he felt a little confused: "Do you, an old guy, often go outside to inquire about various news recently? How could you know so many things?"

"I still have to take care of the affairs in the mansion from time to time, so I don't have time to find out what's available or not." Lu Yuan smiled and shook his head, "Actually, this is all the credit of the Zongheng Monthly Report."

"Zongheng Monthly News, what is that?" Lu Zhen looked puzzled. He had never heard of such things.

"It's a piece of paper that gathers all the news about the messy news in various cities. They call it newspapers. And, there are novels and other things on it, which are interesting. Not only old slaves, but many literate people in the mansion will read it when they have time."

"Oh? There is also such a thing, but who created it? Let me take it for me to see it." Lu Zhen suddenly became interested and immediately ordered.

"Master, today is too late, it's better to tomorrow..."

"Hey, looking at these things is considered a rest. I promise you to rest after reading them."

Seeing that his master said this, Lu Yuan couldn't hold on anymore, so he quickly took a newspaper and sent it to Lu Zhen. Lu Zhen looked at the rough newspaper and frowned slightly: "This thing is really a savings of money." But after reading several articles in the first page, especially after savoring the half of the poem, he even showed praise. "The content is interesting, and this poem is particularly outstanding, but it is not like ordinary brothel women can write..."

Although he said that, he did not spend too much effort on this issue. He quickly browsed other pages. While watching, he exclaimed again: "There are some things in this monthly newspaper, which are indeed attractive enough. As long as you can read and read, you will definitely find something you are interested in from this newspaper... the newspaper. In this way, it seems that it is not easy to create this newspaper. Do you know who he is?"

Lu Yuan shook his head and thought to himself that there were actually a few people in the mansion who had privately guessed who was the newspaper. Some people also went to the Zongheng Bookstore, but they still couldn't get the answer.

And just then, Lu Zhen, who had already seen the last page of the newspaper, suddenly laughed: "Haha, it turned out to be him..."

"The master knows who created this newspaper?" Lu Yuan said curiously, "Isn't it an adult in the court?"

"It's also considered an 'adult'," Lu Zhen smiled playfully, "Do you still remember the novel I read in my spare time last year?"

After he reminded him, Lu Yuan remembered the book, and compared it with the title of the book on the fourth edition I had seen before, and couldn't help but exclaim: "Is that Xiaoyaozi?"

"It's him, and he is also the Tanhualang in the palace examination this year. He is now observing the politics of the Ministry of Revenue. If I had expected it well, he would be the only one who could bring these two popular novels in Huaibei to the Beijing newspapers for publication."

As Lu Zhen said, he patted the newspaper with his hand and said, "I really didn't expect that this kid would not calm down after entering the officialdom, so he actually started a newspaper. By the way, is this thing expensive?"

Lu Yuan shook his head: "I heard it was given for free. There were many distributions on the streets before, so many people in the mansion could get it."

"What happened like this? I gave it to others for free? What medicine did he sell in the gourd?" Lu Zhen was a little confused for a while, and had no idea about it for a while, so he could only give up. "Many of this kid's behaviors are often unexpected, so let's take a look. By the way, you can also pay attention to it in the future. If a new issue is released, whether it is for gift or sale, I will leave a copy for me."

"I've remembered it." Seeing that his master cared about the newspaper so much, Lu Yuan naturally did not dare to neglect it and remembered it firmly.

In fact, it is not just Lu Zhen, but many officials in the court have also seen this cheap and strange reading for various reasons. Some are quite interested in the content above, and of course some are disdainful of it, thinking that this is just a fun thing for people to entertain and not worth mentioning.

Of course, in a sense, as time goes by, those thousands of newspapers have entered the homes of many people and become novel things that most scholars in Luoyang City are talking about today. Many people have even begun to look forward to the next issue of "Zongheng Monthly".

...

Since the first issue of newspapers officially came out, Li Ling no longer came to the bookstore to take charge every day as before. Sometimes it did not appear for many days, and sometimes it was the same as today. It was not until dusk that he came to the bookstore to take a walk around.

This made Wan Lang, who was worried that he would affect his career due to the bookstore business, complained a little: "Do you still know how to come here?"

"Why, Mr. Wan is not confident that you can handle the small matter of newspaper distribution? We are not a business, but a free gift. Are you still afraid that you can't deliver it?" Li Ling said with a smile, "By the way, it's been six or seven days, have you sent the newspaper?"

"Of course, it's all delivered, it was delivered two days ago. And..." Wan Lang paused a little, and the complaining look on his face turned into a smile again. "Do you know that in the past two days, many people have come to ask when the next issue of the newspaper will be released. Our Zongheng Bookstore finally showed off his face!"

Li Ling also grinned: "So you want to see me to show off to me, right?"

"It's not all because of this. The main reason is that I'm a little vague about the content of the second issue, because we won't give it away in vain next. If there is no real material, I'm afraid I'll make a fool of myself."

"What, do you have no confidence in my novel?"

"That's not, but not everyone likes to read novels. But other content is what everyone is most interested in..."

"Then spend more time on these things, such as the experiences and experiences of some officials in the yamen. These things cannot be seen elsewhere, but I can get some articles. In addition, the excavation of interesting stories in the city that we hired before cannot be stopped. Brother Wan, I think these things should not be difficult for you, right?"

Wan Lang pondered for a moment and said with a wry smile: "I didn't realize that there was any difficulty when I saw you gathering the relevant articles before. Now I realized that this thing is really complicated. But since I promised to create the newspaper with you, I will definitely do my best."

"That's good. I'm very relieved to have you here. If there is any difficulty, I'll tell the Cao Gang people and let them find a solution."

"What about you?" Seeing that he was like a hand-off manager, Wan Lang said curiously, "Now your yamen is getting busy again? It's not too late to collect taxes, right?"
Chapter completed!