My house's electrical wiring dates back to the Tang Dynasty.

Li Mingbo started swearing.

Lotus has no home; she is merely the Empress's maid. If you want to propose marriage, you should do so to the Empress.

Lianhua was about to say something when Li Mingbo stopped her.

"Come on, let's go for a walk in the garden and dry our hair," Li Mingbo said. "I'll help you."

This mansion is nice. There is a pond inside. I came here in the evening and the lotus flowers in the pond were in full bloom, with a chorus of frogs.

The two sat close together in the pavilion.

Lotus gently leaned on Li Mingbo's shoulder, and Li Mingbo embraced the beauty with both arms.

When I was in college, every weekend I would see couples on campus and I would secretly vow that if I ever had a girlfriend, I would cherish her and take her to the park and the movies.

Now my wish has come true.

"My lord, this shampoo is really good. My hair is smooth and smells nice. My head feels much lighter."

"That's natural, otherwise why would it be called Pantene?"

"To be with my beloved, I would die content in this life."

"Don't talk nonsense, this is just the beginning, the best days are yet to come." Li Mingbo gently stroked the beauty's cheek and couldn't help but kiss her.

……

"My lord, get up quickly. Aren't you going to the Duke of Yi's mansion today? Breakfast is ready."

Li Mingbo heard the sound of lotus flowers, followed by a gentle swaying.

I opened my eyes and saw a delicate and beautiful face looking at me with gentle, tender eyes.

Lotus has changed her hairstyle; her long, black hair is styled in an updo, making her look more mature and feminine.

"I slept really well last night." Li Mingbo realized it was dawn. "What time is it?"

Li Mingbo took out his phone from beside his pillow and saw that it was 8:45 a.m.

"It's Chen Shi (7-9 AM)," Lotus said.

"When did you get up?" Li Mingbo asked. "I don't even know."

"I got up at dawn, but you were sleeping soundly, so I didn't dare to disturb you."

"It's just the two of us at home, so you don't need to get up so early anymore. Sleep a little longer, or you won't look pretty." Li Mingbo stroked the beauty's snow-white cheeks.

The two fell asleep in each other's arms last night.

"No one does that; they'll be laughed at by outsiders."

"And nobody knows."

After another sweet moment between the two, Li Mingbo finally got up.

I had a simple breakfast.

The two headed towards Qin Shubao's Taipingfang.

The two were taking a walk, or as Li Mingbo put it, to familiarize themselves with the route.

"Damn it, it's so inconvenient to go out. There's no taxi or anything," Li Mingbo thought to himself.

The two first went to the East Market.

There was no other way; it was too far to walk, about 3 kilometers, which would take at least an hour. Besides, Lianhua had just become a woman, so long walks were not convenient for her.

The only option is to go to the East Market and buy a horse-drawn carriage.

As for the small amount of money, that's nothing.

With Lotus leading the way, the two arrived at a pawnshop.

Chang'an has two trading markets: the East Market in Wannian County and the West Market in Chang'an County.

Within the East City, there are two parallel east-west streets and two north-south streets, each about thirty meters wide. The four streets intersect in the middle to form a grid, dividing the entire East City into nine rectangular districts.

The East Market was the "high-end luxury goods market" of Chang'an during the Tang Dynasty, while Wannian County was home to high-ranking officials and nobles. The West Market of Chang'an County was mainly frequented by wealthy merchants, such as Turks, Tibetans, and Persians.

The tall camel slowly carried the heavy load, its long, thick, pink tongue lolling out as it walked, as if it were holding a piece of pork belly.

A wealthy Persian merchant with a high nose and deep-set eyes, dressed in a round-necked foreign-style robe, with curly hair, and speaking fluent Chinese, walked along a street thirty meters wide.

There were also dark-skinned, thick-lipped, curly-haired Kunlun slaves carefully carrying heavy loads and following closely behind their masters.

The East Market was filled with a dazzling array of goods, including vegetable stalls selling peppers and bamboo shoots, silk fabric shops, taverns, taverns run by women from Central Asia, and even coffin shops and pawnshops.

There are also new businesses selling valuable goods.

A wide variety of products are available, everything you could want.

Li Mingbo had a short haircut, no turban on his head, a white short-sleeved shirt, gray trousers, and colorful sneakers. This strange outfit made him stand out from the crowd, compared to the Tang suits of Han people and the foreign clothes of foreign merchants. Many passersby turned around to look at him.

However, they did not point fingers like modern people do.

"Are Persian merchants the richest in Chang'an?" Li Mingbo asked his girlfriend, Lianhua.

"My lord, among the foreign merchants, the Persian merchants are the wealthiest."

There is a poem from the Tang Dynasty called "Incongruous" which goes like this: Poor Persians, thin men wrestling, sick doctors, old men entering brothels, butchers chanting sutras, and fat new brides.

That speaks volumes.

In the eyes of the Tang people, there were no poor Persian merchants, just as there were no fat brides.

The bride is the woman who has just married into the family.

Why were there no obese brides in the Tang Dynasty? The brides of ancient times were different from those of modern brides.

In ancient times, after a bride married into her husband's family, she went from being a young lady from her maiden home to a wife. She had to take on all the housework, which was very hard work, and she would lose weight. So there were no obese brides.

Persian merchants made a fortune by selling pepper, rock honey, and glass, which were scarce in the Tang Dynasty.

"Go, find the Persian and sell him the glass."

I randomly asked a passerby for directions and arrived at the Hushang Jewelry Street.

Both the East and West cities have management agencies, namely the City Government and the Equalization Administration.

West City Government Office.

It was subordinate to the Taifu Temple. The Taifu Temple was the central government agency in the Tang Dynasty that was in charge of finance and markets. The various market offices were responsible for the daily management of all markets, which was equivalent to a combination of the modern "Market Supervision Administration and Industry and Commerce Bureau".

Department of Justice.

It was subordinate to the Taifu Temple and the Pingzhun Bureau, and its main functions were to stabilize prices, stockpile materials, and manage government-run handicraft industries.

It is equivalent to a combination of the modern National Development and Reform Commission and the State Reserve Bureau, and is in charge of "macroeconomic regulation".

Li Mingbo walked with his beautiful girlfriend on a street about 30 meters wide, and felt the generosity and magnanimity of the Tang people.

The main street leads into a narrow alley, which the Tang people called "Xia Xie". Go further in.

Merchants from the Central Asian region, wearing Central Asian hats and clothing, stood in front of stalls filled with jewelry, stroking their beards and calling out their wares.

"Young master, how about a pound of the best grapes from the Western Regions? Fresh ones, please." A merchant with a protruding belly, seeing that Li Mingbo was dressed differently from himself, beckoned to Li Mingbo and said.

Fresh grapes?

The grapes of Chang'an were transported from the deserts of the Silk Road by merchants from the Western Regions via camels, the "ships of the desert."

Even someone as historically illiterate as Li Mingbo knows this.

Li Mingbo frowned, stopped, and walked over.

When I picked it up, I saw that it was covered in dust.

The freshness mentioned here is not the freshness found in modern supermarkets, but rather in comparison to raisins.

Li Mingbo asked curiously, "How do you keep things fresh all this way?"

Keep in mind that at that time, there were no refrigerators or freezers for food preservation.

"This is a secret, we can't tell you," Hu Shang said, looking at Li Mingbo with his shrewd eyes.

"Tch." Li Mingbo put it down and scoffed.

Confidential?

Is there anything that I, a Baidu user, don't know?

If that's not enough, add a steamed bun.