"How do you all know this song?"

Song Meiqin, cuddled up in Lu Yuan’s arms, looked at the three of them in astonishment.

Zhao Qiao’Er just smiled and rolled her eyes.

"Liyan and I were at the radio station all day, you know~"

When Lu Yuan was teaching Xiaotao Hong how to sing today, Zhao Qiao’Er and Su Liyan were right there listening.

After listening all day, of course we learned it.

Hearing this, Song Meiqin pouted, complaining.

"How come I always miss out on everything~"

Lu Yuan, with his arm around Song Meiqin, couldn’t help but grin.

"How about I teach you some other songs tomorrow?~"

’These old songs are a piece of cake for me.’

’Truth be told, Lu Yuan had tons of great songs stored in his head.’

’But after some thought, he figured it was best to use a classic oldie for the radio’s debut.’

’For one, it was just about the vibe.’

’And for two, classics are classics for a reason—they’re timeless.’

As the classic old song finished playing,

a female voice with a perfect broadcaster’s inflection came from the radio.

The delivery was spot-on.

It was nearly indistinguishable from the announcer voices of the 1980s.

If you closed your eyes and just lay there in the courtyard, ignoring your surroundings,

you’d truly get an indescribable feeling—as if this wasn’t ancient times, nor was it another world.

It was, for all intents and purposes, the 1980s.

The radio schedule for the day was packed.

It was the first day, after all.

First came the news, then songs, and then the most important segment: the weather forecast.

Of course, the weather forecast currently only covered Taiping City.

The method used for forecasting the weather here was still extremely rudimentary.

It was basically just a Stevenson screen.

Lu Yuan remembered them from elementary school, when his teacher had even assigned homework on them.

He’d had to go find a Stevenson screen and use it to measure the weather and so on.

Back in his childhood, Stevenson screens were quite common, but now they’ve basically disappeared.

As for its accuracy, well, it wasn’t one hundred percent.

He remembered how it would often predict rain, only for the next day to be bright and sunny.

However, the device wasn’t entirely inaccurate.

It could still manage an accuracy rate of sixty to seventy percent.

And that was a huge deal.

In an agrarian society like this one, people lived and died by the grace of the heavens.

The moment the heavens turned foul, you could starve.

For instance, if you planned to harvest your wheat tomorrow, but a downpour came instead, how could you possibly do it?

Besides the weather forecast, there were many other segments. Basically, it was a carbon copy of a radio station from Earth.

It was as if Lu Yuan had imported an entire radio station from Earth.

In any case, there was always something on, all day long.

Traditional opera, songs, news—it had all that and more.

’So, what was the point of setting up a radio station?’

’One, to make money.’

’Lu Yuan planned to sell a single radio for five taels of silver.’

’From the very beginning, Lu Yuan never intended for this to be a product for the masses.’

’After all, it was enough for just one household in a village to own one.’

’It was just like on Earth back in the ’70s and ’80s—if a village had a single television set, that was a huge deal.’

’Come evening, it wasn’t just the people from that village.’

’Even people from other villages would come over after dinner to watch.’

’Two, this thing was basically just an advanced version of a newspaper, wasn’t it?’

’It reached a much wider audience than a newspaper.’

’After all, listening didn’t cost a single wen.’

’Anyway, the future benefits were numerous.’

’And most importantly, there was the radio technology itself.’

’In the future, for instance, if one wanted to contact someone in Yandu.’

’Right now, it took at least two or three days for a message to get from Taiping City to Yandu.’

’But with a radio, communication would be instantaneous.’

’The benefits were simply too numerous.’

’Of course, beyond all that, the most important factor was Lu Yuan himself—a transmigrator who possessed Craftsmanship.’

’To borrow a phrase from Rise of Kingdoms: I came, I saw, I conquered.’

’Lu Yuan wouldn’t dare say "conquer," exactly.’

’It was just that his hands were itching to create, to make something a little out of the ordinary.’

’After all, making this stuff really wasn’t much trouble for him.’

’Since he was bored and had nothing better to do, he might as well build something.’

...

「Meanwhile, in Yandu.」

Inside Prince Yan’s Mansion.

King Yan’s family was gathered in the main hall, listening to the melodious song coming from the radio with looks of utter astonishment.

Gu Gaoxu, however, was leaning back in his chair with his legs crossed, a smug look on his face.

In all his life, he, Gu Gaoxu, had never felt so proud in front of his parents.

First, there was the matter of the factory.

Initially, especially after he had brought back several thousand refugees from outside the pass, things had gotten tense.

In those days, his father had been perpetually furious, scowling at him constantly.

But now?

The Qiaoyan Factory in Yandu was already up and running, bustling with activity.

Furthermore, the bicycles, tricycles, and washing machines that had gone on sale three days ago...well, the sales situation in Yandu was exactly the same as it had been in Taiping City.

They couldn’t keep them in stock. There simply wasn’t enough to meet demand!

And mind you, there were far more shops here than in Taiping City.

Dozens of shops across the dozens of prefectures and counties surrounding Yandu were basically sold out within a single day.

After all, the situation now was a little different from how it had been in Taiping City.

For the people of Taiping City back then, bicycles and tricycles were genuine novelties.

Most people had never really seen anything like them before.

So, back then, people were still hesitant, preferring to wait and see before buying bicycles or tricycles. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

But things were completely different now.

These things—bicycles and tricycles—had already become wildly popular.

Even before the factory was finished, people in Yandu already knew what bicycles and tricycles were.