The private room of the street-side tavern offered an excellent view. With the lattice window half-open, one could take in the entire length of the street below, which had been renovated beyond recognition.
The tea on the table had long gone cold.
Su Ruoxu hadn't touched the cup. He held a folding fan, its ribs tapping restlessly against his palm.
He watched the "city guards" below—men clad in black, with rough, scowling faces, yet maintaining order—his frown deepening until he finally let out a heavy sigh.
"Your Highness, this is misgovernance."
Su Ruoxu turned to face the young man sitting opposite him.
"Using ruffians to rule the people is like drinking poison to quench thirst. This move by Miss Xu, while appearing to establish rules, is in essence extortionate exploitation. Those 'special operation fees,' 'sanitation fees'—the list is endless. It's clearly profiting at the expense of the people. The street vendors of Taoyuan County toil all year for maybe three to five taels of silver, and with one demand, she strips a layer of their skin. If this continues, a popular revolt is inevitable."
Xiao Jingyan sat by the window, idly toying with the crude cardboard sign marked "001."
He didn't rush to refute. Instead, he tilted his head, gesturing for Su Ruoxu to look downstairs.
"Master, look. Whose carriage is that?"
Su Ruoxu followed his gaze.
A carriage bearing a lantern with the character "Zhao" was passing smoothly through the center of the street, its wheels rolling over the bluestone slabs with little jostling.
It belonged to Squire Zhao from the east side of town, a family known for its fastidiousness. They would never have used this once-filthy main street, preferring to take a half-hour detour down smaller lanes.
"The Zhao family's carriage?" Su Ruoxu was taken aback.
"Before, this road was impassable—sewage flowed freely, beggars blocked the way," Xiao Jingyan said, placing the cardboard on the table and tapping the surface with his fingertip. "Now the road is wide, the ground is clean, and the carriages of the wealthy can enter."
A burst of commotion rose from below—not an argument, but the cries of vendors closing a sale.
Xiao Jingyan continued, "Where carriages can enter, the wealthy are willing to set foot. Where the wealthy go, the street vendors can sell their goods at higher prices. That three-hundred-cash monthly management fee they pay buys them doubled customer flow and profit in return."
"Three hundred cash?" Su Ruoxu frowned. "It's not an exorbitant price, but it's no small sum either. It's equivalent to half a month's living expenses for an ordinary farming family."
"That's precisely where her brilliance lies," Xiao Jingyan's voice was steady, carrying an undeniable force. "Three hundred cash—it's precisely calculated to be at the very limit of what the vendors can bear, yet it pains them enough to force them to operate more diligently. Using thunderous methods, Xu Qinghuan has shattered the originally lax and inefficient small-scale peasant economy, establishing a highly efficient commercial order."
He paused, his eyes gleaming slightly.
"Using evil to curb evil, using punishment to eliminate punishment, and calculating precisely down to every last copper coin of the common people. This Miss Xu understands the essence of Legalism, and even more, she understands the calculations of the human heart."
Suddenly, the sound of a gong echoed from below.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Three crisp strikes pulled the attention of the entire street.
Xu Qinghuan stood on a makeshift high platform at the street entrance, holding a simple megaphone made of rolled sheet metal.
She had no intention of appealing to these vendors' sentiments. She just wanted money, the more the better.
The previous batch of special permits had sold smoothly, but that was just the entry ticket. The real windfall was still to come.
As a villain, she ought to be hated, right?
Xu Qinghuan cleared her throat. Her voice, amplified through the metal megaphone, sounded somewhat distorted, carrying a sharp, greedy edge.
"Listen up, all of you!"
The street fell silent, hundreds of pairs of eyes fixed on her.
"The previous permits only allow you to set up a stall. Now let's talk about where that stall will be."
Xu Qinghuan pointed at the ground beneath her feet, then at a remote corner at the far end of the street.
"Locations on this street vary. The entrance has high foot traffic—that's prime real estate. The tail end, where hardly anyone goes—that's a godforsaken spot."
"Why should everyone pay the same fee, while some get the good spots and others are left to eat dust?"
The vendors below began to stir.
"So, this young lady has decided to change the rules."
The corner of Xu Qinghuan's mouth twitched, revealing what she believed to be a malicious smile.
"Zoning. Bidding."
"This street will be divided into three zones. Zone A is the prime spot, right here at the most visible part of the entrance, reserved for major businesses. Zone B is in the middle section. Zone C is at the tail end."
"Zone A stalls, starting bid: ten taels of silver. Highest bidder wins. Those without money can scram to Zone C."
Ten taels!
A collective gasp swept through the crowd. For vendors selling soybean pudding or mending shoes, ten taels of silver represented seven or eight years of savings, an astronomical figure they wouldn't dare dream of.
This was blatant discrimination against the poor and favoritism for the rich, an attempt to stratify the vendors into distinct classes.
Xu Qinghuan waited for the curses from below.
Instead, after a brief silence, the eyes of the wealthy merchants in the crowd—those clad in silk, with protruding bellies—lit up like hungry wolves.
Ten taels? It certainly wouldn't buy a shopfront, but to rent such a prime stall? If the customer flow held, they could recoup the cost in two months!
"Ten taels! I want that A-Number-One spot!"
Zhao Si was the first to jump out, waving banknotes in his hand, his face flushed and neck thick.
He was in the rice and grain trade. Though notoriously stingy, he was shrewder than anyone with accounts. That spot at the street entrance—just hang a sign there, and every wealthy household entering or leaving the city would see it. That wasn't ten taels of silver; that was a flowing gold mountain!
Moreover, Taoyuan County had a population of eighty thousand and sat astride several major transport routes.
It was a veritable minor transportation hub of Yuzhou Prefecture.
"I bid twelve taels!"
Old Wang, the silk merchant, refused to be outdone, pushing through the crowd to the front of the platform.
"I sell Suzhou-Hangzhou silks! Who would see them if they're placed at the street tail? This spot must be mine!"
"Fifteen taels! Don't anyone fight me for it!"
"Twenty taels!"
The scene descended into chaos.
The well-capitalized vendors, fighting over those few prime spots, were seeing red. To ordinary folk, it was an astronomical sum, but to these merchants with annual incomes of hundreds of taels, it was a strategic high ground they had to seize.
The small-scale vendors weren't idle either.
Though they couldn't afford Zone A, they still had to fight for Zone B. The starting bid for Zone B was only a few hundred cash, but it still required a scramble.
"Brother Liu, let's pool our money for that Zone B spot. One thousand cash—we'll each use it for half a day!"
"Deal! Let's do it!"
Standing on the platform, watching this scene, Xu Qinghuan was a bit dumbfounded.
Wasn't this supposed to sow discord?
Wasn't this supposed to create conflict?
How did these people, in their eagerness to give her money, even figure out crowdfunding and time-sharing?
In less than half an hour, the dust settled.
The final price for the A-Number-One spot was set at thirty-two taels, secured by Zhao Si. His heart ached with the expense, but seeing the envy in his competitors' eyes, he felt he had scored a great deal.
The entire street's layout transformed.
The entrance was filled with high-end stalls selling jewelry, silk, and antiques, their setups lavish and ornate. The middle section bustled with the most activity, featuring rice, flour, oil, and salt. The tail end housed snacks and sundries.
Clearly stratified, each catering to its needs.
Xu Qinghuan clutched a thick stack of banknotes obtained from the bidding, plus the scattered silver from before, totaling roughly four to five thousand taels.
It wasn't as much as she had imagined, but in this backwater of Taoyuan County, it was a colossal sum—enough to make the county magistrate faint from shock.
[Ding!]
The system notification in her mind rang out like a death knell.
[Detected group emotion: Fanaticism and awe.]
[Detected a high-status individual experiencing profound shock and recognition.]
[Task settlement in progress... Host has leveraged "franchise rights" and "land bidding" to pry open Taoyuan County's previously rigid commercial capital.]
[Although the cash flow is only a little over five thousand taels, the system judges: This action has activated the county's full commercial potential. The potential commercial value and brand premium created exceed one hundred thousand taels.]
[Congratulations, Host. Achievement "Profit-Obsessed" unlocked. Task over-fulfilled! Reward: 500,000 in pension funds.]
Looking at the skyrocketing pension balance on the system panel, Xu Qinghuan's heart, filled with a tragic indignation fit for an exile, was diluted by an utterly vulgar sense of joy.
Fine.
Even though her reputation isn't ruined, this "brand premium" sounds incredibly sophisticated.
Counting the money, her expression—a twisted mix of wanting to cry and wanting to laugh—appeared to outsiders as the arrogance of someone whose cunning scheme had just succeeded.
In the tavern upstairs.
Xiao Jingyan stood up, having watched the bidding war until its conclusion.
The light in his eyes grew brighter and brighter, finally even taking on a shade of respect.
"Sir."
Xiao Jingyan turned to Su Ruoxu, who was still in shock.
His tone was as solemn as if he were reading an imperial edict.
"This woman possesses great talent. To see her merely as a merchant or the daughter of a corrupt official would be a failure of our own perception."
"Her method of 'zonal bidding' appears to be wealth accumulation on the surface, but in reality, it uses price to screen merchants and uses zoning to segment customer flow."
Xiao Jingyan walked to the doorway, placed a hand on the frame, and looked back at the girl in red who was still counting her money.
"Currently, the Great Qian treasury is depleted. The court only knows how to increase taxes but understands nothing of generating wealth."
"Xu Qinghuan's approach might very well be the key to breaking Great Qian's deadlock."
"This is no 'spendthrift daughter'."
"This is a national treasure."
