Chapter 131: Promoting Simplified Chinese Characters

"My father is..."

The man spoke halfway and then stopped; he likely had a cautionary example in mind, as the son of the Vice Minister of Personnel had once relied on those words, only to cause his father to be impeached.

The man said half of it and then stopped.

"We are waiting here, hurry up and get someone to make them and send them over!"

"Such a big shop, yet you only sell this little every day; are you trying to dismiss a beggar?"

Yan Ning had originally wanted to go over, but she saw a few familiar faces; the Minister of Personnel, the Vice Minister of Justice, and others were all there.

Yan Ning slipped away immediately, worried that if they saw this shop was hers, they would all want to use the back door.

Yan Ning entered from the back courtyard door, where ten women were quickly kneading dough and shaping Mooncakes, finally pressing them with molds into various exquisite flower shapes.

Yan Ning took five boxes and then told them to remind the Manager to hire ten more people.

She said this and left in a great hurry.

When Yan Ning went to the Prime Minister's residence, she even heard people nearby talking about Mooncakes.

"Hey, these Mooncakes are really hard to snatch up. I finally managed to get one, but I ran into a man in luxurious clothing who said he wanted to give me ten taels of silver to buy the Mooncake, but I wasn't short on those ten taels, yet the man forcibly bought it away."

"Do you know what that man's status is?"

"He should be a concubine-born son of the Minister of Rites' family. Sigh, my heart aches for that Mooncake of mine."

After hearing this, Yan Ning silently made a note of it; if the Minister of Rites ever caused trouble again, she would bring up how his son forcibly bought someone else's Mooncake.

Yan Ning sat in the carriage and called out to the driver: "Let's go."

After traveling for about a quarter of an hour, the driver took Yan Ning to the Shang Shu Fu.

Upon seeing that it was Yan Ning who had come, the Prime Minister's eyes lit up.

Yan Ning was wearing a simple goose-yellow dress today, not her official robes, and the Prime Minister said with a smile: "Ningning, you've been so busy lately, why did you still come here?"

Recently, Yan Ning had been earning money, studying, and also helping her father review memorials.

The Prime Minister was worried that the child would be exhausted.

Yan Ning said with a smile: "It's almost Mid-Autumn Festival, and it hasn't been that busy lately, so I came to bring my grandfather some new-style Mooncakes."

Yan Ning took out five boxes of snow-skin Mooncakes and another five boxes of Mooncakes with better flavors.

The Prime Minister looked at the Mooncakes with slight surprise, "How can there be such crystal-clear Mooncakes? This outer layer of skin is truly beautiful."

The Prime Minister's grandson, who was Yan Ning's cousin Ji Jun Hao, spoke up: "Grandfather, these are the snow-skin Mooncakes sold at that newly opened pastry shop; they are so hard to snatch up!"

Yan Ning said with a smile: "If you like them, I will send some more over in a few days."

The Prime Minister hurriedly said: "No need, don't go to such expense."

The Prime Minister had heard that Yan Ning's family did not want servants, had stopped renovations to save money for the imperial palace, had dismissed most of the palace maids, and even only requested three dishes and one soup for meals.

One must know that when Yan Yu and the late Emperor were on the throne, the dishes could cover an entire large table.

The Prime Minister felt sorry for his granddaughter and was unwilling to take the snow-skin Mooncakes no matter what.

He even glared at Ji Jun Hao.

Look at how greedy he was.

Yan Ning said with a smile: "It's fine, that Mooncake shop is one I opened; please don't tell anyone else, as I'm worried they will come to me privately asking for snow-skin Mooncakes."

The Prime Minister was stunned, then burst into hearty laughter: "Hahaha, so that pastry shop was opened by you; I was wondering who could have so many whimsical ideas."

The Prime Minister chatted with her for a while.

He then asked: "Ningning, do you want to go play with your cousins?"

Yan Ning shook her head: "Better not, I have to go back first; I haven't attended class for several days already."

The Prime Minister hurriedly stuffed several rare books into Yan Ning's hands, "These books are quite good, you can read them a few more times; they all teach strategy."

Yan Ning thought there were only a few, but the Prime Minister brought out a large chest, and it was full of books.

The Prime Minister said: "Ningning, you cannot let your studies fall behind; you read these books first, and I will test you later."

Yan Ning felt her head spinning; she still had to memorize books?

However, knowing the Prime Minister meant well, Yan Ning accepted everything and prepared to go home.

When Yan Ning returned to the Eastern Palace, she began to read, but as she read, she felt her eyes getting tired.

To tell the truth, she was half-illiterate in ancient times.

If asked to recognize characters, she basically knew them all, but when writing individual characters, she was always missing limbs or legs, which gave the Grand Tutor and the Grand Preceptor quite a headache.

Yan Ning took out a book and began to ponder again.

She thought that if she used Simplified Chinese Characters like in her previous life, it would be less difficult to get started, and the simplified characters would be easier to recognize and also look better.

Why not...

Directly promote Simplified Chinese Characters!

The more Yan Ning thought about it, the more feasible she felt it was, starting by copying enlightenment texts like the Thousand Character Classic and the Three Character Classic.

This time she didn't even use a brush, but directly took a blank book and started copying.

This time, she didn't even copy vertically, but followed the habits of her previous life and copied horizontally, which looked more comfortable.

Yan Ning copied for an entire afternoon, copying a version of the Thousand Character Classic, the Hundred Family Surnames, the Three Character Classic, and the Standards for Being a Good Pupil.

Yan Ning returned to the Qianqing Palace, and Yan Ze even asked: "Ningning, where did you go today? Why haven't I seen you all day?"

Yan Ning said with a smile: "I went to bring my grandfather Mooncakes, and then I went to copy books."

"Why copy books? Are you still not quite used to traditional characters?"

Yan Ning nodded, "That's exactly it. I was thinking, traditional characters are so difficult and the threshold for learning is high; why not promote Simplified Chinese Characters? That way the learning threshold is lower, and as long as one is willing to learn, learning some simple, commonly used characters won't be a problem."

Yan Ze slapped his thigh: "Why didn't I think of that? Right now, those officials still mock me for writing characters that are missing limbs and legs, causing me to worry every day about memorizing traditional characters."

Yan Ning said to him: "Father, in the future, the Imperial Examination can also use Simplified Chinese Characters. If this rule is added, quite a few people should learn them."

Yan Ze nodded: "Right, that's how it should be. Popularize Simplified Chinese Characters early, otherwise, should I let them all write traditional characters in the Imperial Examination?"

Just as he said it, he said: "No, no, that's not very fair."

Yan Ning said: "Indeed, let's use both traditional and Simplified Chinese Characters. That way, we only need to have the examiners learn Simplified Chinese Characters in the short term."

As Yan Ze spoke, he began to write the Imperial Edict.

The next day, Yan Ning went to the Eastern Palace after court, only to see Grand Tutor Chen and the lecturer staring at the book she had copied yesterday.

The handwriting on it was neat, and Grand Tutor Chen only felt that the characters written on it were very strange; clearly, they had never seen each of these characters before, yet they seemed to recognize them all.

Seeing her enter, Grand Tutor Chen asked: "Your Highness, did you write this?"

Yan Ning nodded, "That's right, I wrote it."

Grand Tutor Chen looked at the characters on it carefully: "These characters look much simpler, but, why is this copied horizontally?"

Yan Ning then asked: "Don't you think writing horizontally is more convenient and easier to read?"

Grand Tutor Chen was a bit curious and copied a short passage horizontally.

His eyes held surprise: "It really is much more convenient."

Grand Tutor Jiang asked: "Your Highness, what are you planning to do with this thing you've created?"