Although this trip to Duke Chen's mansion was a bit twists and turns, it was still beneficial overall. After all, most of the generals in the northern part of Jin are the disciples of Duke Chen, and if you can get along well with the Ye family, Li Xin will have a much smoother path to military officers in the future.

After saying goodbye to Duke Chen's mansion, Li Xin left Yonglefang and returned to Datongfang.

At this time, the advertisements on Deyilou have been put out, but the specific Zhurong Wine has not started to be sold yet. It will be seven or eight days later when the bidding is on. Before that, Li Xin has something else to be busy with.

That is to prepare a gift to Emperor Chengde.

It is June 5th now, and there are only two days before the emperor's birthday. At that time, it will be the Changchun Festival of the Great Jin Dynasty, and all officials will come to the palace to celebrate the emperor's birthday.

The princes and princes also need to prepare gifts and enter the palace to present them to the emperor. At that time, Li Xin will probably follow the Ninth Princess to enter the palace together.

It was almost afternoon that Li Xin returned to Datongfang.

At this time, he didn't have to stay at the princess's house to work every day, so he simply went home.

In his own yard, the little girl Zhong Xiaoxiao was still reading and writing in her room. Li Xin went to see her for a while, then turned around and returned to his room, and began to think about what to give to the noble emperor.

The emperor doesn’t say that he is not favored by the precious gifts, but he must be inconspicuous among the vast number of gifts.

The most important thing is that Li Xin can't afford the valuable things.

So far, Li Dawei's property is only more than 1,000 chunks. Although this money is enough for a middle-class family to live for more than ten years, it is really inconspicuous in the top circle of the capital.

Li Xin sat in his backyard, thought for half an hour, and finally found out the easiest thing to do right now among countless solutions.

But this thing...is very expensive.

With Li Xin's financial resources, he would definitely not be able to complete it. He greeted Zhong Xiaoxiao and went out to head towards Princess Qinghe's mansion not far away.

Li Xin has not returned to Princess Qinghe's Mansion for a day or two, so when His Highness Ninth Princess saw him, he was quite unhappy: "Where have you been these days?"

Li Xin smiled and said, "Didn't you help Your Highness prepare the gift?"

The Ninth Princess sneered: "You were clearly called by the people from Deyilou. I think I don't know?"

Li Xin coughed and chose to avoid this topic. He smiled brightly at the Ninth Princess: "Your Highness, I thought of a gift that will surely please Your Majesty."

Ji Lingxiu frowned: "What's it?"

"Your Highness, do you have…Shuiyu here?"

The so-called water jade is the crystal of later generations. This kind of thing was originally quite precious and was an extremely precious gem until the advent of glass.

In this era, there is naturally no glass. Even if Li Xin wants to make the glass, it will take at least one or two years or even longer, which is obviously too late.

Crystals with extremely high transparency are very similar to glass to some extent, but this kind of top-quality crystal is rare among the people. They are sold in the market as inferior products and are very expensive.

Even if it is a inferior product on Xishi Street, Li Xin can't afford it now.

Such top-quality things are usually in the hands of nobles, especially in the hands of royal families.

The Ninth Princess glanced at him and gritted her teeth and said, "There are a few objects made of water jade, but most of them are rewarded by the father. You can't give them back to the father, right?"

"Your Highness will take it out and I'll take a look?"

Princess Ninth nodded and returned to her room and found a lot of things, including pendants made of crystals and pendants made of crystals. They are all superb products with extremely high transparency, but most of them are colored crystals.

Colored crystals are more popular.

Li Xin turned his attention to a pair of crystal fishes the size of a palm. The pair of crystal fishes are made of transparent crystals, with excellent quality and look almost the same as the glass of later generations. The craftsmanship is also of high level. A pair of chubby fish are carved to lifelike.

Li Xin pointed at the pair of fish and smiled and said, "Your Highness, how about this pair of fish give me?"

Ji Lingxiu glanced at Li Xin and curled her lips: "This is my birthday last year, and Brother Qi gave it to me. My father and the others know that if you transfer it to your father, you will be laughed at."

Li Xin lowered his head and said, "Don't worry, Your Majesty will never see it at that time. This is still the pair of fish."

Originally, this large piece of crystal was often divided into many parts, which were easy to be made into jewelry and worn, but these two pieces of crystals had no impurities, and the craftsmen could not bear to divide them, so they made a pair of fish, symbolizing surplus every year and looking for auspiciousness.

However, such a big thing cannot be worn on you, so you can only be placed at home as a gift. Ji Lingxiu didn't like it very much, so she nodded generously: "Okay, you can take it."

These two crystal fish are more expensive than Li Xin's whole body.

Li Xin carefully put them into the box and smiled at the Ninth Princess: "Your Highness, I will send the finished product back tomorrow to show you, so you will be satisfied."

Ji Lingxiu nodded.

"Okay, the morning after tomorrow, you will go to the palace with me to celebrate your father's birthday."

Li Xin hugged his fists and was about to retreat.

The Ninth Princess blinked and said softly: "That... I made a grape-scented ice food. Do you want to taste it?"

Inspired by Li Xin's last time, the Qinghe Princess has now figured out various ways to eat it and is very busy every day.

Li Xin smiled bitterly and said, "Your Highness, you were having a stomachache two days ago, why are you eating again?"

……………………

The two of them had a conversation. Li Xin walked out of the princess's mansion with two fish made of water jade, and he went to Yonglefang again.

Yonglefang is the place where high-ranking officials and nobles live in the capital. There are no peddlers selling or even begging for food. The most common are study, teahouse, and antique and jade stores.

Several jade shops in the capital are all in Yonglefang.

It was almost evening when Li Xin found a jade shop called Liangyufang in Yonglefang and took out two crystal fishes the size of a palm in his arms.

"Shopkeeper, I'm going to round these two things."

The store owner is an old man in his forties or fifties. He first looked at the goods, then looked up at the young Li Xin, and smiled and said, "Customer, this is a finished object, and the craftsmanship is also carved by top-notch masters. Do you want to destroy it?"

Li Xin nodded and said, "Just do what I said."

The store lowered its voice: "Customer, seeing you like this, it's probably because this thing is not clean and you want to destroy the stuff and produce the material. Otherwise, you don't have to destroy it and sell it directly to the small shop. The small shop will charge you twice the amount of the material you give."

Li Xin glanced at the shopkeeper helplessly.

This bastard treats himself as a thief!

Li Xin reached out to show his Yulin Guard waist card.

"Shopkeeper, if you don't sell this thing, hurry up and do what I said. If you waste time, no one can afford to be guilty."

The shop's eyes rolled and said, "It turns out that it is the official of Yulin Guard. The shop will do the same. Why don't you come to pick it up tomorrow?"

Li Xin narrowed his eyes and said, "I'm just waiting here, when will I get ready and when will I leave?"
Chapter completed!