Time rewound to more than ten hours ago.
In the Liu Garden, the late-night lights illuminated Xu Qinghuan's face, making it look a bit eerie.
She crossed her legs, slouching in the armchair without any regard for her image, peeling an orange in her hand.
Opposite her, Xue Hong was holding an abacus, her fingers flicking the beads rapidly.
"Sister Xue, stop calculating."
Xu Qinghuan casually tossed the orange peel, throwing it into the trash can three meters away.
Xue Hong stopped her hands, her brows furrowed: "Qinghuan, are you crazy? One hundred wen? Deducting labor and raw materials, are you doing charity?"
"And buy five get one free? Do you have a mine at home?"
Xu Qinghuan smiled slyly.
"Sister Xue, broaden your perspective, broaden your perspective."
She extended a finger and waved it in the air.
"For this piece of meat in Jiangning City, I won't take a single penny, just consider it making a friend."
Xu Qinghuan leaned forward, lowered her voice, and her tone was full of temptation.
"I only want the market in Jiangning City, even if I lose everything, I'll accept it. But outside of Jiangning City, the cloth business in the other prefectures of the Great Qian..."
"It's all yours."
Xue Hong's hand trembled, the abacus fell to the ground with a clatter, and the beads rolled everywhere.
She stared at Xu Qinghuan, her eyes changing from shock to horror, and finally to fanaticism.
This woman...
She wasn't doing business at all; she was using Jiangning City as a trap, setting a fire to burn the foundations of the Wang and Xie families to the ground!
As long as the price of cloth in Jiangning City was brought down, the Wang family's inventory would rot in their hands.
Once the capital chain broke, let alone whether they could repay the loans from the money shops, they probably wouldn't even be able to pay the severance pay for those three thousand weavers!
How was this lowering the price to sell cloth? This was clearly demanding their lives!
Xue Hong swallowed her saliva, only feeling a chill down her back.
This Xu family girl, looking harmless to humans and animals, actually had so many schemes!
How much courage must it take to come up with such a mutually destructive tactic?
"Deal!"
Xue Hong gritted her teeth, her eyes turning fierce.
"Since the County Princess dares to gamble, I, Xue Hong, will risk my life to accompany the gentlewoman! But you have to light the fire in Jiangning City yourself!"
Xu Qinghuan slapped her thigh: "Alright! Just watch!"
...
At the break of dawn in the Mao hour, a steamed bun shop on Zhuque Street was emitting steam.
The night watchman, Old Wang, had just gotten off work and was squatting at the door eating a steamed bun. Next to him was Aunt Liu, who sold vegetables. The two of them together formed an intelligence center.
"Hey, have you heard?"
Old Wang leaned over mysteriously, his mouth full of garlic almost knocking Aunt Liu over.
"That Lemin Hall of the Xu family is going to sell cloth today! I heard it's only one hundred wen a bolt!"
Aunt Liu curled her lips and rolled her eyes: "One hundred wen? Are you dreaming?"
"Cotton is so expensive now! You can't even buy good ones for eight hundred wen!"
"One hundred wen? I'm afraid it's made from burial clothes worn by dead people! How unlucky!"
Several diners nearby also joined in the laughter.
"Exactly! Cheap things are not good, and good things are not cheap! That's an old truth!"
"What good things can that wicked woman Xu Qinghuan come up with? She's probably treating us as suckers!"
"Whoever buys is a fool! I'm definitely not going!"
Everyone was very indignant, as if Xu Qinghuan was playing them.
But half an hour later.
A long queue had formed at the doors of Lemin Hall and the Xue family's cloth shop.
The queue was very long, stretching out of sight, directly blocking half of Zhuque Street.
The diners who were just swearing in the steamed bun shop that whoever bought was a fool were now mixing in the crowd, craning their necks to look inside.
"Hey? Aunt Liu, didn't you say it was unlucky? Why are you here too?"
"Ahem... well, my husband insisted I come take a look, so I'm just looking, I'm not buying."
"What a coincidence, I'm also here to watch the fun. What if the Xu family is playing monkey tricks?"
Although they scolded fiercely with their mouths, the price of one hundred wen was really too cheap.
Even if it was slightly inferior cloth, buying it back to make a rag would be a profit!
At three quarters of the Chen hour.
Crackling—!!!
A loud burst of firecrackers sounded, and the doors of Lemin Hall opened.
Li Sheng was seen wearing a brand-new silk robe, his hair combed smoothly.
He held a tin megaphone in his hand, standing on the steps, his nostrils pointing to the sky, looking very imposing.
"Fellow folks! Brothers and sisters!"
Li Sheng cleared his throat, the sound coming from the megaphone was a bit distorted, buzzing.
"Welcome to the first Lemin Hall rock-bottom price exhibition!"
"Our Eldest Miss said, to give back to the people of Jiangning, all cotton cloth today is one hundred wen!"
"But!"
Li Sheng changed the subject, his sharp eyes sweeping over the people below.
"Because our cloth is too good, we're afraid everyone will squeeze the shop to bursting, so—"
"Purchase limit!"
"Each person is limited to two bolts! No more! Whoever dares to jump the queue will be thrown out directly!"
The crowd below instantly exploded.
"What? A purchase limit?"
"I knew there was a catch! There definitely isn't much stock!"
"It's just a gimmick! Don't believe it, everyone! Let's disperse, let's disperse!"
Although they shouted to disperse, their feet refused to move an inch.
Instead, they squeezed even more fiercely, and several shoes at the front were stepped off.
Just then, a middle-aged man with a sharp mouth and monkey cheeks squeezed out of the crowd.
This person was the Wang family's steward, Lao Liu.
He was acting on Wang Ruhai's orders, specially coming to scout the situation and incidentally crash the party.
Lao Liu adjusted his hat, which had been squeezed crooked, with a look of disdain.
"Make way, make way! Let me see what kind of quality this so-called good cloth is!"
Relying on the Wang family's power, he forcibly squeezed to the very front.
Looking at Li Sheng's smug face, Lao Liu sneered and shouted loudly.
"One hundred wen? Tricking ghosts!"
"Everyone keep your eyes peeled! How can there be such a cheap thing in the world?"
"I see, this cloth must be a flawed rotten good! Maybe it will tear with a pull! Or it's that kind of dyed poisonous cloth!"
"Wearing this kind of thing on your body will rot your skin!"
Lao Liu's voice was loud and very inflammatory.
The people, who were already somewhat suspicious, immediately began to beat drums in their hearts upon hearing this.
"Yes... one hundred wen is indeed too cheap."
"What if it really is poisonous cloth?"
"Steward Wang is an expert, his words shouldn't be wrong, right?"
Li Sheng looked at Lao Liu, who was setting the rhythm below, and a sneer hooked the corner of his mouth.
Is this what the Eldest Miss called a shill?
And the kind that didn't cost money to hire, but delivered himself to the door as a reverse shill!
Wonderful!
"Isn't this Steward Wang?"
Li Sheng put down the megaphone and cupped his hands with a fake smile.
"Since you don't believe it, then let's inspect the goods on the spot!"
After speaking, Li Sheng turned around and picked up a bolt of cloth from the counter behind him.
The cloth was rolled neatly, with a layer of oil paper wrapped outside.
Li Sheng, in front of everyone, with a swish—
Tore open the oil paper.
Then gave it a fierce shake!
Whoosh—!!!
A bolt of snow-white cotton cloth unfolded, gleaming in the sunlight.
The surroundings were dead silent.
Everyone's eyes widened, looking at that bolt of cloth in disbelief.
It was too white.
And the weaving was very fine, without a trace of impurities or loose threads.
Li Sheng held the corner of the cloth, walked up to Lao Liu, and shoved it directly into his face.
"Come! Steward Wang! Please appraise it!"
"Is this trash? Is this poisoned cloth?"
"If you can find a single hole in this, even a skipped stitch, I will eat this bolt of cloth right here and now!"
The sneer on Lao Liu's face instantly froze.
He reached out a trembling hand and touched the fabric.
The material was incredibly soft.
This texture...
Even the top-tier cotton cloth that the Wang family offered as tribute to the palace was only this good!
In fact... it felt even better than the tribute goods!
"How... how is this possible?!"
Lao Liu looked as if he had seen a ghost, his face flushing the color of pig liver, his lips trembling so much he could not speak.
"How... how was this woven?!"
Quality like this would sell for at least one tael of silver per bolt in the Wang family's shops!
And here... one hundred wen?!
Li Sheng looked at Lao Liu's expression, which looked as if he had eaten crap, and felt a surge of immense satisfaction.
With a loud laugh, he raised his megaphone again.
"Has everyone seen this?!"
"This is the garbage produced by our Jiangning Number One Cotton Factory!"
"Manager Wang said this is trash!"
"If this is trash, then what do you call the cloth the Wang family sells for eight hundred wen a bolt? Foot-binding wraps?!"
Boom!
The crowd instantly grew wild with excitement.
"I don't believe it! Let me see!"
"Give me two bolts! No! Use up the quota for my entire family!"
"Nobody stop me! This is practically robbing them!"
The commoners who had been hesitating just moments ago now had red eyes.
This was not buying cloth; this was clearly the steal of a lifetime!
Buying tribute-level cotton cloth for one hundred wen, only a fool would pass up a bargain like this!
Lao Liu was instantly sent flying by the surging crowd. Pushed back and forth in the sea of people, he could not even utter a word.
"Don't... don't push! Ouch, my shoe!"
"This is a conspiracy! Ah, don't step on my face!"
The scene momentarily spiraled out of control.
Behind the counter, over a dozen shop assistants were frantically busy, their fingers flying across their abacuses.
"Two bolts! That will be two hundred wen!"
"Here is your cloth, hold it tight!"
"Next!"
Through a gap in the crowd, a slender, emaciated arm struggled to reach out, desperately gripping the edge of the counter.
It was a young girl of fourteen or fifteen, her figure very frail. She wore an ill-fitting, old padded jacket with frayed cuffs. Her hair bun had been squeezed loose by the crowd, and the heel of her patched embroidered shoe had been stepped on and torn off.
She was sweating profusely, her cheeks flushed red from the lack of oxygen and exertion, her entire body soaked.
"Shop... Shopkeeper..."
The girl's voice was very small, carrying a hint of timidity and a crying tone. Trembling, she pulled out a floral cloth bundle, warmed by her body heat, from the innermost pocket of her clothes.
Unfolding the bundle layer by layer revealed a scatter of copper coins inside, along with a few pieces of broken silver the size of fingernails.
That was her life-saving money, scraped together over an entire year of washing clothes for others, freezing her hands until they festered in the dead of winter.
"Please give me... two bolts as well."
The girl pushed the money forward, her eyes fixed on the silver, extremely reluctant to part with it.
The assistant moved quickly, shouting a loud Alright as he took the money and tossed two bolts of snow-white cotton cloth into her arms.
The bolts were heavy, making the girl stumble.
But she could not care less about that. Hugging the cloth that was heavier than her own life, she panicked and struggled to squeeze out of the crowd, shrinking behind a stone pillar in the corner of the wall.
She had to inspect the goods.
This was the material to make winter cotton clothes for her bedridden mother. If she had bought defective goods, her mother would not survive this winter.
The girl squatted on the ground, her trembling fingertips untying the oil paper. Her fingers, roughened by years of washing clothes, felt a softness that seemed unreal even with just a light touch against the delicate fabric.
Good cloth... It really was tribute-level good cloth!
The girl's eyes grew hot, and her tightly strung nerves finally relaxed. She sniffled and was just about to wrap it back up.
Suddenly.
A bright red piece of paper, dislodged by the shaking of the cloth, fluttered down from the very core, landing right on the back of her chilblain-covered hand.
The girl froze.
Although born into poverty, her father had taught her to read before he was killed by the Wang family.
She picked up the piece of paper, squinted in the faint morning light, and looked at the flamboyant handwriting on it.
The girl subconsciously read it out loud, her voice turning sharp from extreme shock:
"Wishing... Wishing you prosperity? With this item... you can go to the counter to redeem... one finished thickened cotton coat?! A cotton coat?!!!"
