Little Sizi came to my house and became the family's darling, and Li Shimin got anxious.

"If you want to get rich, build roads first." Li Yinxun threw out these six words.

Li Shimin stood beside her with his hands behind his back, "How could I not know the reason? The Tang Dynasty has already developed cement, and the materials for road construction have been secured, but the national treasury..."

He shook his head and didn't continue.

During the years that Li Shimin reigned, he reduced taxes and burdened the people with a lax approach to domestic affairs, while also conquering the Turks and pacifying the surrounding regions. Each of these endeavors was incredibly expensive.

The national treasury is meager; maintaining daily operations is already a challenge, let alone large-scale road construction. It's unthinkable.

Guo Qian chimed in, "Brother-in-law, the Tang Dynasty has no shortage of wealthy merchants; perhaps we can leverage their resources."

Upon hearing this, Li Shimin shook his head slightly. "Merchants are driven by profit; they won't get up early for nothing. Building roads isn't like opening a shop. Without immediate income, who would be willing to open their wallets for this?"

"What if we give them a title?" Li Yinxun asked.

Li Shimin turned to look at her. "What title?"

"Reputation," Li Yinxun said, playing with the little princess's braids. "Establish a special agency, like the Roads Bureau, to solicit donations from the public and merchants for road repairs. Those who donate can have their names inscribed on monuments by the roadside—larger donations in large characters, smaller donations in small characters; they can even name the road after something like 'Yinxun Road,' for example, if I donated, it could be named 'Yinxun Road.' That way, everyone will know they donated. Merchants don't lack money, but they lack reputation."

Empress Zhangsun listened from the side and spoke thoughtfully.

"This is somewhat similar to... charitable organizations in later times?"

While scrolling through her phone, she would occasionally come across content about modern public welfare projects. Although she only had a vague understanding of them, she had a general idea of ​​what they were.

Li Yinxun waved his hand, "There are similarities, but they are different. Charity is simply spending money to do good deeds, while fundraising for road construction is spending money to buy reputation. For merchants, reputation is money. Once the main road from Chang'an to Luoyang is completed, the stone tablets along the roadside will be inscribed with the donations from a certain merchant company. All passing merchants will see this, and the company's credibility and reputation will be established. Who wouldn't be tempted?"

Li Shimin's eyes flickered slightly, as if he was thinking seriously.

Li Yinxun didn't continue speaking. She looked down at her head, which she had turned into a bird's nest, and smiled silently.

After fixing the little princess's hair, Li Yinxun took out her phone, opened a spot-the-difference game, and handed it to the little princess.

"Let's go play with Chengyang."

The two little ones' eyes lit up, and they ran to a corner with their phones in hand, huddling together.

Li Yinxun gave Guo Qian a wink.

Guo Qian understood, took out his phone from his pocket, pulled out a video, and showed it to Li Shimin and Empress Zhangsun.

"Sister, brother-in-law, you can take a look at modern ways of thinking."

The screen was playing a documentary about modern fundraising for road repairs.

In the video, a brand-new asphalt road winds through the mountain village, with a stone tablet standing beside it, densely engraved with the names and amounts of donors.

The camera pans to a local villager smiling at the camera, saying, "It used to take half a day to get out of the village, but now it only takes twenty minutes by bike. We owe it all to the country and these kind people."

Next, there was footage of fundraising for the construction of overpasses in the city. Large corporations donated millions of dollars, and the company names and logos were prominently displayed on the monuments.

The video is short, only three or four minutes long, but it contains a lot of information.

After reading it, Li Shimin remained silent for a moment, then slowly nodded.

"This method may be feasible. Merchants seek fame, the court seeks access, and each gets what they need without costing the national treasury a single penny."

He glanced at Li Yinxun, his eyes filled with both admiration and emotion.

Every time this woman speaks, she manages to find a way out of what seems like an unsolvable dead end.

The conversation came to an end, and it was nearly noon.

Li Yinxun was invited to dine with Empress Zhangsun.

Li Shimin hurriedly ate a few bites and then went to the Liangyi Hall.

The road construction was urgent, and he wanted to strike while the iron was hot and finalize the regulations.

The little princess and Chengyang had finished eating and were so sleepy that their eyelids were drooping. They took a nap on the bed next to them.

The hall fell silent. Empress Zhangsun, holding a teacup, glanced at Li Yinxun and then at Li Lizhi standing at the door.

"Lizhi, how's the shop matter going?"

Li Lizhi stepped forward and bowed, smiling, "Mother, both shops have been completely vacated, the original tenants have moved out, and everything inside and out has been cleaned. Now we are just waiting for Aunt to finalize the renovation plan before we can start construction."

Everyone turned to look at Li Yinxun.

Li Yinxun scratched his head.

She really knew nothing about home renovation.

"I can't draw blueprints, but I can find renderings."

She took out her phone and searched online for a set of reference pictures of modern supermarket decoration, including shelf arrangement, cashier layout, lighting design, and traffic flow planning. She flipped through the pictures one by one and saved the most suitable ones.

"I'll go print it."

She got up and went back to the villa to print.

Before long, a stack of color-printed reference drawings was handed to Li Lizhi.

"Just follow this guide. You can make the decisions on the details. The height of the shelves, the width of the aisles, and the position of the lights are all marked."

Li Lizhi flipped through the blueprints, nodded, and put them away.

Empress Zhangsun leaned over for a look and frowned slightly.

"Xiao Xun, do you want to open a supermarket in the Tang Dynasty?"

"Yes, rice, oil, salt, cloth, clothing, pots and pans, and toiletries are all things that ordinary people need in their daily lives. If it can really be opened, it will definitely make money."

"What about the other shop?"

"The other one is a women's goods store run by Lizhi, selling items that women need in their daily lives."

Empress Zhangsun looked at her, her gaze shifting slightly.

"You do care about the people."

Li Yinxun didn't want to bear these titles. "Sister, I'm mainly doing this to make money."

As soon as she finished speaking, Li Lizhi ruthlessly undermined her.

"My aunt is all talk. She clearly gave away most of the profits, yet she still says she's making money."

Empress Zhangsun was taken aback. "Divided out?"

Li Lizhi then recounted in detail the equity distribution that had been agreed upon during the night tour of Qujiang.

"At the supermarket, my aunt will get 40%, I'll get 30%, Sizi will get 20%, and Chengyang will get 10%. At the women's products store, I'll get 80%, Sizi will get 20%, and my aunt won't get 10%."

Empress Zhangsun frowned more and more deeply after hearing this.

"The way you divided the profits, you didn't keep much for yourself. You provided the goods, you supplied the products, and you owned the shop, but you gave most of the profits to your children."

"Sizi and Chengyang are still young, they don't need so much..."

Before he could finish speaking, a rustling sound suddenly came from the direction of the bed.

The little princess woke up sometime earlier, rubbing her eyes, her hair all messy from sleeping.

"My nest has grown up!"

You need money to buy delicious food, and the little princess isn't stupid.

The little princess walked up to Empress Zhangsun, put her hands on her hips, looked sleepy but was full of confidence, and stuck out her little belly high.

"It's all my place, Auntie is here too."

Empress Zhangsun couldn't hold back any longer, reached out and pulled her into her arms, kissing her on the forehead.

"Okay, you've grown up."

The little princess nodded in satisfaction, yawned, snuggled into Empress Zhangsun's arms, and fell asleep again three seconds later.