One million five hundred thousand miles, riding the wind back and forth (below)

  Red bean porridge, lotus leaf porridge, ginseng stewed white fungus, egg tomato soup, fragrant sesame beef pancake, cumin lamb, crab meat double asparagus, braised duck breast, Sichuan pepper duck palm, five-spice pigeon, steamed perch, sautéed seasonal vegetables, mountain treasure ferns, fermented mushroom box, garlic steamed loofah, smashed cucumber...

  Yunzhu personally made a few dishes herself, while the rest were made by the cooks in the mansion under her guidance.

  Especially the last small bowl of Eight Immortals Soup, everyone ate with relish, the soup had seven kinds of fruit dices such as cherry, apple, lychee and pineapple, plus yuzhu and added a little bit of pomelo to make eight kinds of sweet soup. It was originally intended to take this opportunity to nourish her family's body, she didn't spare any expense, only benefiting Hongli and Chen Hongyi.

  As for Yongzheng, Yunzhu continued to give him special attention. The extra one was the jade lan fruit that condensed the dragon energy, and last year he also used one on his birthday, so Yunzhu transferred a total of three years of Ziwei Dragon Energy from Hongli to him. If nothing unexpected happens, Yongzheng's reign will last for 16 years, and whether to increase it again later will depend on the situation.

  She had long made up her mind not to let Hongli become an emperor for sixty years like in history, at most let him be on the throne for thirty years, otherwise her son would have to wait until his forties to ascend to the throne just like Emperor Yongzheng. That was something she absolutely would not allow.

  After enjoying the delicious food, Yongzheng took Su Peisheng back to the palace. Li Rongbao and his sons were all busy sorting out their thoughts and didn't have the heart to keep in touch with Hongli. So Hongli followed Yunzhu to Xinyi Valley where she used to live.

  Yunzhu thought he would return to the palace, but unfortunately someone had a thick face and refused to leave.

  As soon as I entered the house, I saw two iron trunks and several pots of struggling potted plants. Isn't that a pitaya? Yunzhu blinked her eyes and immediately ran over to take a closer look. What are these other few? Hmm, there's a note, pomelo? Not bad, what about these ones? Ah, sandalwood saplings?! And they're different varieties of purple, green, black, red, and white, great!

  Fu Yu and his fleet set sail from Tianjin, sailed down the coast, passed through the Taiwan Strait, entered the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, Atlantic Ocean to Europe, stopped in more than a dozen countries, they brought porcelain, tea and silk also exchanged for large quantities of goods and precious stones gold.

  "What is it?" Hongli followed, in the past few years, whenever he went out of the capital to do errands, he didn't miss collecting these things for Yunzhu. He and Yongzheng had indeed enjoyed benefits, such as being able to eat fresh lychees to their heart's content every June and July while they were still in Beijing!

  Yongzheng was famous for his fondness for lychees. In the second year of Yongzheng's reign, Governor-General of Fujian and Zhejiang Gioro Manbao and Fujian Provincial Governor Huang Guocai jointly memorialized: Fujian is rich in lychee production, among which small trees with fruit are loaded onto ships to Tongzhou, which will not cause labor for officials and people, nor does it require laborers. It can arrive in the capital within two months before the lychees are ripe and be presented to the emperor.

  I looked at it and said: I like to eat lychees, the Holy Ancestor also knew about it before. Although so, it is just a fruit, not rice or tea, can't fill hunger, although it can relieve hunger, in fact, it's not worth your hard work, along the way, there will be trouble and criticism from others, which is not appropriate. Since you have already set off, try to bring less, no need to carry more. Along the way, just send it as a private item, even if it gets lost or discarded, I won't blame you for it. If you all do it this way, I will consider giving you a chance to survive, if there is some inconvenience, because of this useless food, I won't lose my reputation, will I?

  Pitifully, even eating a piece of fruit requires careful consideration and much thought.

  In the winter, there were even fewer vegetables and fruits to eat. Unfortunately, meat such as mutton, pork, chicken, and duck was abundant, every meal had it, and every time it made Yongzheng, who liked to eat light food, feel full just by looking at it.

  So, Yunzhu's hobby has indeed brought him a lot of good fortune, and as for Hongli, who never belittles himself, it goes without saying.

  "Some fruit tree seedlings." Yunzhu looked at the seedlings planted in pots that barely maintained their lives, thinking about how to give them some vitality, and said to Hongli: "You go wash up first, I'll take a look at what my brothers have brought me."

  Guo's aunt and Su Wen had already prepared a change of clothes for the two, Hongli nodded and left. He was also shocked today, taking a bath to calm down would be good too.

  Yunzhu opened two boxes, one of which was filled with various polished gems such as emeralds, rubies, sapphires, cat's eye stones, diamonds, crystals and so on. The smallest were the size of a thumb, while the largest were half a foot square. There were also some unpolished raw stones. Yunzhu thought for a moment before sweeping them all into her storage space.

  Another box was filled with all sorts of seeds, each wrapped in oil paper and labeled: there were passion fruit, hazelnuts, pistachios, figs, dates, olives, grapefruit, cotton seeds, breadfruit seeds, jackfruit (also known as guanabana), coffee beans...and dozens of still-moist rambutan seeds. Yunzhu was both surprised and delighted - rambutan seeds take seven to nine years to first bear fruit after planting, and require high temperatures to grow, unable to survive below 5°C or above 37°C. She didn't dare say whether they could be successfully planted elsewhere, but space and time were no issue here.

  After some thought, she divided the seeds into two portions and put one portion into an empty metal box. Then, she scooped water from the water pool in space and poured it separately onto the potted plants.

  Hongli looked at Yunzhu still fondling the seeds and seedlings, feeling very jealous, pulled her up: "Every time I go on a business trip, I bring back many seeds for you, why don't I see you so happy?!" After returning to the Fu Mansion, he abandoned him, really making people angry.

  Yunzhu smiled and kissed his chin, saying: "How could I not be delighted? It's because of these that I know your intentions towards me. Going out on a business trip is already hard work, and you even went to the trouble of searching for these. These are after all not native to Qing, but rather novel, and my silver savings were mostly spent here...I think, if we could find something like corn, potatoes, or sweet potatoes that would benefit the common people and solve their food problems, that would be great."

  Sweet potatoes and corn were widely planted in China as early as the end of the Ming Dynasty, while potatoes had been introduced to China during the Shunzhi and Kangxi reigns. They are suitable for growth in high-altitude areas with low grain yields, so they only spread in northern provinces such as Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, and Shaanxi. Hongli understood more about people's livelihood over the years and roughly recognized these crops. Upon hearing this, he thought it made a lot of sense.

  He shares the same idea as Yongzheng, thinking that Yunzhu has a bit of divine luck in planting, and her estate is envied by many nobles in Beijing for its abundant fresh fruits and vegetables. Although others may imitate her in every way, from site selection to farming steps, they cannot match the quality and quantity of her produce, let alone those fruit trees that are only suitable for growing in the south.

  However, the effect is still there. Now in winter, most people in Beijing can also eat fresh vegetables, unlike before when they could only have pickled and dried vegetables such as cabbage, radish, and various fermented vegetables.

  "But where are you going to plant so many seeds, Zhuangzi? You can't always go out..." He hugged her, feeling a little guilty that she couldn't fully enjoy her hobby after marrying him. Hadn't she given up a lot by becoming his wife? Although she had gained a more noble status, he knew this wasn't what she valued most.

  "Is there anywhere in life that is perfect and smooth? I just choose the ones I like and plant a few at home, and let the farmhands take care of the rest. If they succeed, it's great, if they fail, it's normal."

  Hongli couldn't help but smile, his Xi Yunzhu, always had such a good attitude. In comparison, he seemed to have more worries and troubles, fortunately it was only related to her, he was willing to endure.

  "Alright, go take a bath and get settled in early, I think you have a lot on your plate tomorrow." He didn't know that among the dozens of ships that had arrived, a large portion of the goods belonged to his beloved wife. It was unknown where she got such great confidence from, investing so much silver all at once.

  "Oh, Yunzhu has also remembered,"Those will be handled by our fourth brother, a wife has something and the husband takes care of it, I still have to deal with these things." She's not interested in those miscellaneous things.

  Laughing so sweetly, with a flattering look like a little fox, it's obvious that you want to be lazy.

  Hongli stared at her for a long time, somewhat weakly saying: "You didn't want those things, so why did you invest so much money in them initially?" Various spices, foreign mirrors, clocks, gold and silver ornaments, crystal, rhino horn, precious stones, ivory, snuff bottles, and various beautifully crafted gold, silver, copper, and tooth carvings... it seemed that these things were not even comparable to the pile of flowers, grasses, and seeds in front of her. It was worth knowing that any one of them could be sold for tens of thousands of taels of silver, and some fine pieces could even sell for over a hundred thousand taels.

  Those silver tickets are also useless paper, exchanging them for silver would only crush my trunk and take up space. Taking them out is to support brother going out to see the world, and exchange these things. She pointed to two boxes full of seeds and several pots of saplings.

  Speechless.

  "Or, should we let the emperor's mother handle it?" She slightly furrowed her brow, "No need, we have several stores nationwide that specialize in foreign goods, we can just send them there. Hmm, first pick out some good ones and set them aside, then give them to the emperor's mother and my mother during the Dragon Boat Festival and Chongyang Festival."

  He helplessly said: "I'll go deal with it tomorrow."

  Yunzhu nodded, and indeed, she didn't care about this matter anymore. She was truly not short of money, the dowry estate had been making a lot of silver for her every year, and Yongzheng and Hongli were very generous, they would always return to her in kind the things she spent on them as gifts, let alone her own rewards to the servants? Her annual allowance was more than enough for herself, not to mention the outer and inner treasuries of Qianxi's two mansions which she could use at will.

  As the highest-ranking imperial concubine, Xi Guifei Nian Nuolu's grasp of power within the palace deepened with each passing day, and she became increasingly well-informed about news from the previous dynasty's palace. It wasn't long after Yunzhu and the others left the palace that she received news of a young man from the Fuca clan returning from overseas, leading a fleet of ships.

  I heard there were twenty-odd ships full of treasures and rare objects.

  She was both jealous and moved, wondering how much benefit Yunzhu would get from returning to the Fu family this time, and whether she would be filial to herself again. "Go and check carefully again, are those things really all from the Fu family?"

  If it's really Fu Cha's family, I'm afraid they'll have to give up some benefits to appease the other envious nobles in the capital.

  By dusk, the stunning and shocking news arrived: more than half of the twenty-odd foreign cargo ships belonged to the emperor, and the leader was a Han Chinese named Chen Hongyi.

  Chen Hongyi? Never heard of him. How could the Emperor possibly entrust such an important matter to a Han Chinese who is not even in the imperial guard, nor an official appointed by the court? Just as she was filled with doubts, her brother Yitong hastily sent someone into the palace to tell her that Chen Hongyi was none other than the late Hongshi!

  It's so quick to come and report the news, it seems that many people in Beijing are paying attention to this fleet of Fucha family.

  The Empress Dowager felt a momentary numbness in her head, she sat stiffly on the rose chair, and the heart that had been looking down on the six palaces since taking power seemed to have been doused with a basin of cold water. It turned out that many things were not as they seemed, Hongshi was not dead, nor did he let the Emperor abandon him, so would he return to his position as the third prince in the future?

  No wonder the emperor wanted to record Princess Zhihuan under the name of Concubine Li, he was not only for Zhihuan, but also for Concubine Li and for Hongshi!

  What else has the emperor done, and how many things are unknown to her, beyond her calculations?

  Hongshi didn't die, what about Hongyou? Is the Emperor really determined to cultivate Hongli? She couldn't be sure anymore.

  "Don't worry, Your Majesty. It's just like when the previous emperor reinstated the deposed crown prince as the heir. There is no precedent in the Qing dynasty of making a deceased son an heir." Qin Yini said from the side.

  "Yes, you're right." Xi Guifei slowly calmed down, and her head, which had been somewhat dizzy from the struggle for power over the past two years, also cleared up a lot. "You go inform Gao Yatou to suspend those plans first."

  Madam Qin was somewhat surprised and responded: "Yes."

  This is an unexpected delight. In Qin's opinion, the master is currently the highest-ranking in the palace and doesn't need to take action against these low-ranking concubines, just stabilizing himself is enough. The current emperor is extremely clever, sometimes doing more means making more mistakes, isn't the example of Empress Xiao a clear one?

  The author has something to say: The following is the main text:

  Red bean porridge, lotus leaf porridge, ginseng stewed white fungus, egg tomato soup, fragrant sesame beef pancake, cumin lamb, crab meat double asparagus, braised duck breast, Sichuan pepper duck palm, five-spice pigeon, steamed perch, sautéed seasonal vegetables, mountain treasure ferns, fermented mushroom box, garlic steamed loofah, smashed cucumber...

  Yunzhu personally made a few dishes herself, while the rest were made by the cooks in the mansion under her guidance.

  Especially the last small bowl of Eight Immortals Soup, everyone ate with relish, and the soup contained diced meat of seven fruits such as cherry, apple, lychee, and pineapple. Yunzhu added a Yulan fruit to make eight kinds of sweet soup. It was originally intended to take this opportunity to nourish her family's body, and she did not hesitate, only benefiting Hongli and Chen Hongyi.

  As for Yongzheng, Yunzhu continued to give him special attention. The extra one was the jade lan fruit that condensed the dragon energy, and he also used one during his birthday last year, so Yunzhu had transferred a total of three years of purple micro-dragon energy from Hongli to him. If nothing unexpected happens, Yongzheng's reign will last for sixteen years, and whether it will be increased again later remains to be seen.

  She had long made up her mind not to let Hongli become an emperor for sixty years like in history, at most let him be on the throne for thirty years, otherwise her son would have to wait until he was in his forties to ascend to the throne, which was absolutely unacceptable to her.

  After enjoying the delicious food, Yongzheng took Su Peisheng back to the palace. Li Rongbao and his sons were all busy sorting out their thoughts and didn't have the heart to keep in touch with Hongli. So Hongli followed Yunzhu to Xinyi Valley where she used to live.

  Yunzhu thought he would return to the palace, but unfortunately someone had a thick skin and refused to leave.

  As soon as I entered the house, I saw two iron trunks and several pots of struggling potted plants. Isn't that a pitaya? Yunzhu blinked her eyes and immediately ran over to take a closer look. What are these other few? Hmm, there's a note, pomelo? That's right, what about these ones? Ah, sandalwood saplings?! And they're different varieties of purple, green, black, red, and white, great!

  Fu Yu and his fleet set sail from Tianjin, sailed down the coast, passed through the Taiwan Strait, entered the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, and arrived in Europe. They stopped over in more than a dozen countries, exchanging porcelain, tea leaves, and silk for large quantities of goods and precious stones and gold from these countries.

  "What is it?" Hongli followed, in the past few years, whenever he went out of the capital to do errands, he didn't miss collecting these things for Yunzhu. He and Yongzheng had indeed enjoyed benefits, such as being able to eat fresh lychees to their heart's content every June and July while they were still in Beijing!

  Yongzheng was famous for his fondness for lychees. In the second year of Yongzheng's reign, Governor-General of Fujian and Zhejiang Gioro Manbao and Fujian Provincial Governor Huang Guocai jointly memorialized: Fujian is rich in lychee production, among which small trees with fruit are loaded onto ships to Tongzhou, which will not cause labor for officials and people, nor does it require laborers. It can arrive in the capital within two months before the lychees are ripe and be presented to the emperor.

  I, the Emperor, have taken a look and hereby decree: I enjoy eating lychees, and my late father, the Sacred Ancestor, was also aware of this. However, although it is so, they are merely fruit and not rice or tea that can fill one's belly. Although they may be able to quell hunger, in reality, they are a waste of your efforts. Moreover, along the way, there will inevitably be trouble and criticism from the crowd, which would be distracting and not in line with my wishes. Since you have already set out, try to bring fewer lychees and do not need to carry too many. Along the way, just send them as you would your personal belongings. Even if some are lost or discarded due to mistakes, I will not blame you for it. If you all follow these instructions, I will consider showing mercy and giving you a chance to redeem yourselves. If there is any minor inconvenience caused by this useless food, will I suffer damage to my reputation?

  Pitifully, even eating a piece of fruit requires great caution and consideration.

  In the winter, there were even fewer vegetables and fruits to eat. Unfortunately, meat such as mutton, pork, chicken, and duck was abundant, every meal had it, and every time it made Yongzheng, who liked to eat light food, feel full just by looking at it.

  So, Yunzhu's hobby has indeed brought him a lot of good fortune, and as for Hongli, who never belittles himself, it goes without saying.

  "Some fruit tree seedlings." Yunzhu looked at the seedlings planted in pots that barely maintained their lives, thinking about how to give them some vitality, and said to Hongli: "You go wash up first, I'll take a look at what my brothers have brought me."

  Guo's aunt and Su Wen had already prepared a change of clothes for the two, Hongli nodded and left. He was also shocked today, taking a bath to calm down would be good.

  Yunzhu opened two boxes, one of which was filled with various polished gems such as emeralds, rubies, sapphires, cat's eye stones, diamonds, crystals and so on. The smallest were the size of a thumb, while the largest were half a foot square. There were also some unpolished raw stones. Yunzhu thought for a moment before sweeping them all into her storage space.

  Another box was filled with all sorts of seeds, each wrapped in oil paper and labeled: there were passion fruit, hazelnuts, pistachios, figs, dates, olives, grapefruit, cotton seeds, breadfruit seeds, jackfruit (also known as guanabana), coffee beans...and dozens of still-moist rambutan seeds. Yunzhu was thrilled and amazed - rambutan seeds take seven to nine years to first bear fruit after planting, and require high temperatures to grow, unable to survive below 5°C or above 37°C. She didn't dare say whether they could be successfully planted elsewhere, but space and time were no issue here.

  After some thought, she divided the seeds into two portions and put one portion into an empty metal box. Then, she scooped water from the water pool in space and poured it separately onto the potted plants.

  Hongli looked at Yunzhu who was still fondly examining the seeds and seedlings, feeling very jealous. He pulled her up: "Every time I go on a business trip, I bring back many seeds for you, why don't I see you so happy?!" After returning to the Fu Mansion, he ignored him, which really made people angry.

  Yunzhu smiled and kissed his chin, saying: "How could I not be delighted? It's because of these that I know your intentions towards me. Going out on a business trip is already hard work, and you even went to the trouble of searching for these. These are after all not native to Qing, but rather novel, and my silver savings were mostly spent here...I think, if we could find something like corn, potatoes, or sweet potatoes that would benefit the common people and solve their food problems, that would be great."

  Sweet potatoes and corn were widely planted in China as early as the end of the Ming Dynasty, while potatoes had been introduced to China during the Shunzhi and Kangxi reigns. They are suitable for growth in high-altitude areas with low grain yields, so they only spread in northern provinces such as Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, and Shaanxi. Hongli understood more about people's livelihood over the years and had a general understanding of these crops. Upon hearing this, he thought it made great sense.

  He shares the same idea as Yongzheng, thinking that Yunzhu has a bit of divine luck in planting, and her estate is full of fresh fruits and vegetables. Although many nobles in the capital are envious of her estate, no matter how they imitate her in terms of site selection and farming steps, the quality and quantity of their produce cannot compare to hers, let alone those fruit trees that can only grow in the south.

  However, the effect is still there. Now in winter, most people in Beijing can also eat fresh vegetables, unlike before when they could only have pickled or dried vegetables such as cabbage, radish and various preserved vegetables.

  "But where are you going to plant so many seeds, Zhuangzi? You can't always go out..." He hugged her, feeling a little guilty that she couldn't fully enjoy her hobby after marrying him. Had she given up a lot by becoming his wife? Although she had gained a more noble status, he knew this wasn't what she valued most.

  "Where in life is everything perfect and smooth? I just choose the ones I like, plant a few at home, and let the farmhands handle the rest. If they succeed, it's great, if they fail, it's normal."

  Hongli couldn't help but smile, his Xi Yunzhu, always had such a good attitude. In comparison, he seemed to have more worries and troubles, fortunately, it was only related to her, and he was willing to endure them.

  "Alright, go take a bath and get settled in early, I think you have a lot on your plate tomorrow." He didn't know that among the dozens of ships that had arrived, a large portion of the goods belonged to his beloved wife. It was truly unknown where she got such great confidence from, investing so much silver all at once.

  "Oh, Yunzhu has also remembered,"Those will be handled by our fourth brother, a wife has something and the husband takes care of it, I still have to deal with these things." She's not interested in those miscellaneous things.

  Laughing so sweetly, with a flattering look like a little fox, it's obvious that you want to be lazy.

  Hongli stared at her for a long time, somewhat weakly saying: "You didn't want those things, so why did you invest so much money in them initially?" Various spices, foreign mirrors, clocks, gold and silver ornaments, crystal, rhino horn, precious stones, ivory, snuff bottles, and various beautifully crafted gold, silver, copper, and tooth carvings... it seemed that these things were not even comparable to the pile of flowers, grasses, and seeds in front of her. It was worth knowing that any one of them could be sold for tens of thousands of taels of silver, and some fine pieces could even sell for over a hundred thousand taels.

  Those silver notes are just waste paper if left, and exchanging them for silver would only crush my trunk and take up space. Taking them out is to support brother in going out to see the world, and also to exchange for these things. She pointed to two boxes full of seeds and several pots of saplings.

  Speechless.

  "Or, should we let the emperor deal with it?" She slightly furrowed her brow, "No need, we have several stores across the country that specialize in foreign goods, we can just send them there. Hmm, first pick out some good ones and set them aside, then during the Emperor's birthday and the Empress Dowager's birthday, we'll present them as gifts."

  He helplessly said: "I'll go deal with it tomorrow."

  Yunzhu nodded, and indeed she didn't care about this matter anymore. She was truly not short of money, the dowry estate had been making a lot of silver for her every year, and Yongzheng and Hongli were very generous, they would always return to her in kind the things she spent on them with rich rewards. As for her own rewards to the servants? Her annual allowance was more than enough, not to mention the outer and inner treasuries of Qianxi's two mansions which she could use at will.

  As the highest-ranking imperial concubine, Consort Xie of the Nara clan, as she wielded greater power in the palace, she became increasingly well-informed about news from the previous dynasty's harem. Almost as soon as Yunzhu and the others left the palace, she received news that a young man from the Fuca clan had returned from overseas, leading a fleet of ships.

  I heard there were treasures from twenty-odd ships.

  She was both jealous and moved, wondering how much benefit Yunzhu would get from returning to the Fu family this time, and whether she would be filial to herself again. "Go and check carefully again, are those things really all from the Fu family?"

  If it's really Fu Cha's family, I'm afraid they'll have to give up some benefits to appease the other envious nobles in the capital.

  By dusk, the stunning and shocking news arrived: more than half of the twenty-odd foreign cargo ships belonged to the emperor, and the leader was a Han Chinese named Chen Hongyi.

  Chen Hongyi? Never heard of him. How could the Emperor possibly entrust such an important matter to a Han Chinese who is not even in the imperial guard, nor an official appointed by the court? Just as she was filled with doubts, her brother Yitong hastily sent someone into the palace to tell her that Chen Hongyi was none other than the deceased Hongshi!

  It's so quick to come and report the news, it seems that many people in Beijing are paying attention to this fleet of the Fu family.

  The Empress Dowager felt a moment of dizziness, she sat stiffly in the rose chair, her usual haughty heart seemed to have been poured a basin of cold water. It turned out that many things were not as they seemed, Hongshi was not dead, and he had not been abandoned by the Emperor, so would he return to his position as the third prince on some day in the future?

  No wonder the emperor wanted to record Princess Zhihuan under the name of Concubine Li, he was not only for Zhihuan, but also for Concubine Li and for Hongshi!

  What else has the emperor done, and how many things are unknown to her, beyond her calculations?

  Hongshi didn't die, what about Hongyou? Is the Emperor really determined to cultivate Hongli? She couldn't be sure anymore.

  "Don't worry, Your Majesty. It's just like when the previous emperor reinstated the deposed crown prince as the heir. There is no precedent in the Qing dynasty of making a deceased son an heir." Qin said from the side.

  "Yes, you're right." Xi Guifei slowly calmed down, and her head, which had been somewhat dizzy from the struggle for power over the past two years, also cleared up a lot. "Go tell Gao Mama to suspend those plans first."

  Madam Qin was somewhat surprised and responded: "Yes."

  This is an unexpected joy. In Qin's opinion, the master is currently the highest-ranking in the palace and does not need to take action against these low-ranking concubines, just stabilizing himself is enough. The current emperor is extremely clever, sometimes doing more means making more mistakes, isn't the example of Empress Dowager a clear one?