"Three hundred coins?!"
The young lad's eyes widened drastically, tightly clutching the padded cotton coat in his arms, gripping it so hard that he nearly squeezed it into his own flesh.
Three hundred coins!
You have to know that in Jiangning City, decent cotton cost eighty coins a pound. Add in the fabric and labor, and a ready-made garment couldn't possibly be made for less than a tael of silver.
But now, three hundred coins?
Even if you just wore raw cotton directly on your body, it would cost this much, right?
Li Sheng looked at the shocked faces below, smiled smugly, and raised the large megaphone in his hand again.
"That's right! Exactly three hundred coins!"
"Furthermore, our County Princess Xu has spoken. This is the first batch of welfare goods. Regardless of whether you are tall or short, fat or thin, as long as it catches your eye, you can pay and take it away!"
"However..."
Li Sheng deliberately dragged out his words, his gaze sweeping over the people who were already digging out their money.
"Limit one per person! After all, we aren't running a charity here, we have to let everyone get a chance to warm up, right?"
That phrase about not running a charity sounded more genuine to the crowd than any sweet words.
Someone in the crowd took the lead, and a sudden, explosive roar erupted.
"Who the hell just said County Princess Xu was Bloodsucker Xu?"
"Step out here! I swear I'll slap your mouth to pieces!"
"That's not something a human would say! How is this bloodsucking? This is clearly a living Bodhisattva!"
"Right! County Princess Xu is the reincarnation of the Goddess of Wealth! She came specifically to save us poor folks!"
In an instant, the winds of public opinion inside and outside the Lemin Hall completely shifted.
The commoners who had originally harbored doubts and resentment were now brimming with tears of gratitude.
Some people even wanted to kowtow to God of Wealth Xu right then and there.
In these times, words were empty; only tangible, monetary benefits were real.
What noble families? What centuries of heritage?
In the face of a three-hundred-coin cotton coat and a one-hundred-coin bolt of cotton cloth, all of that was dog shit!
Behind the counter.
Xue Hong stood behind the folding screen, watching the frenzied purchasing scene outside, her entire body trembling.
The ledger in her hands was crumpled from her tight grip, and the numbers on it were climbing at a flying pace.
"Crazy... Everyone has gone crazy..."
Xue Hong muttered softly, but a frantic light gleamed in her eyes.
Even though she was the richest woman in Jiangnan and had seen oceans of silver, she had never witnessed such a brutal way of making money.
Small profits but quick turnover? No, this was practically robbing money!
Although the profit margin on every bolt of cloth and every piece of clothing was squeezed incredibly low, to the point where one could say they were losing money just to draw a crowd.
However, the astonishing sales volume and massive foot traffic gathered those tiny profits into an enormous fortune!
"Is this... the power of a divine artifact?"
"Quick! Pass down the order!"
Xue Hong suddenly spun around and growled at the manager behind her.
"Pull all the inventory out of the Xue family warehouses! Do not stop for a single moment!"
"Tell the workshops not to worry about fine craftsmanship. As long as it is sturdy and durable, make as much as they possibly can!"
"The sky over Jiangning is going to change today!"
...
Meanwhile.
Outside Jiangning City, at the Xue Family Cloth Shop.
There was no purchasing limit here like at Lemin Hall, which resulted in an even more insane spectacle.
Over a dozen carriages from out of town completely blocked the entrance to the cloth shop.
Those usually shrewd out-of-town merchants now had bloodshot eyes, waving their bank notes as they charged inside.
"One thousand bolts! I want one thousand bolts!"
"I'll pay double the deposit! Load my carts first!"
"Screw you! Do you understand first come, first served? I've been camping here since last night!"
Amidst these people, a special group was also highly active.
They were neither merchants nor ordinary commoners.
They had a resounding name: scalpers.
A burly man stood on a rock, holding high a bolt of cotton cloth he had just managed to snatch.
"Come, come, come! Don't miss out as you pass by!"
"We have the same items as Lemin Hall! Authentic Xue family goods, too! No queuing! No limits!"
"Original price one hundred coins, I only want one hundred and eighty!"
"One hundred and eighty, you can't be cheated, you can't be fooled! For one hundred and eighty, you can take it home immediately!"
The man had a loud voice and shouted his pitch rhythmically.
A few commoners below who hadn't managed to squeeze in heard that they could skip the line for just an extra eighty coins, and they were immediately tempted.
"Give me one bolt!"
"I want one too!"
Business was incredibly booming. In the blink of an eye, the five bolts of cloth in the man's hands were sold out.
Just then.
Across the street, the shopkeeper of the Wang Family Cloth Shop stood at his door with his hands behind his back, his face ashen.
He looked at the bustling scene opposite him, then at his own deserted shop, grinding his teeth in anger.
How glorious was this Wang Family Cloth Shop usually?
When did they ever open their doors without being packed with people?
But today, apart from a few flies buzzing around the counter, there wasn't a single soul in sight!
"Hey, hey, hey! You there, brother!"
Shopkeeper Wang's eyes darted around, and he waved at the scalper who had just finished selling his cloth.
"I can tell you know your stuff. Come, come, take a look at my cloth!"
Shopkeeper Wang pulled out a bolt of the Wang family's finest treasure from under the counter and leaned over with a fawning expression.
"This is our Wang family's premium product! Three thousand weaving girls worked day and night to produce this! This texture, this luster, just look..."
"Eight hundred coins a bolt, now at a rock-bottom price of six hundred coins! How about it? Will you take it?"
The scalper paused his money-counting and cast a sideways glance at the cloth in Shopkeeper Wang's hands.
Then, he did something Shopkeeper Wang would never forget for the rest of his life.
"Ptooeh!"
The scalper spat a wad of phlegm onto the ground and rolled his eyes in disgust.
"Six hundred coins? Are you robbing me?"
"Open your eyes, the times have changed!"
The scalper pointed at the frenzied crowd across the street and sneered disdainfully.
"Is your cloth made of gold or silver? Six hundred coins?"
"I can buy goods for one hundred and eighty and flip them for two hundred! If I buy your six hundred coin goods, am I supposed to enshrine them like my ancestors?"
"Premium product? Finest treasure of the shop?"
The scalper stuffed the copper coins into his robes and swaggered away.
"Keep it for your Wang family to breed with!"
"You!"
Shopkeeper Wang trembled with rage, pointing at the scalper's back, almost coughing up a mouthful of old blood.
"You ignorant fool! This is tribute-level craftsmanship! Tribute!"
However, the only response he received was the cold wind and the increasingly loud shouts of peddling from across the street.
Just then.
A beggar leaning on a dog-beating stick hobbled past the entrance of the Wang Family Cloth Shop.
Shopkeeper Wang hastily rushed out and grabbed the beggar's arm.
"Old man! Do me a favor!"
"Look at this cloth! So soft! So warm!"
"Six hundred coins... No! Five hundred coins! How about I sell it to you for five hundred coins?"
Shopkeeper Wang was also red-eyed with desperation. If he couldn't sell a single bolt of cloth today, the family head would undoubtedly skin him alive when he returned.
The beggar was startled, trembling as he looked at Shopkeeper Wang's twisted face.
He then looked down at the premium cloth that supposedly only cost five hundred coins.
Then, the beggar took a deep breath and looked at Shopkeeper Wang as if he were looking at an idiot.
"Five hundred coins?"
The beggar extended a filthy finger and pointed across the street.
"Great master, are you alright?"
"If I had five hundred coins, I could go line up across the street and buy five bolts of cloth! With the leftover money, I could even go next door and buy two meat buns!"
"Buy this one bolt of yours? Am I crazy or just stupid?"
"And besides, do I look like a rich man to you?"
The beggar shook off Shopkeeper Wang's hand, muttering about his rotten luck.
Shopkeeper Wang froze in place, the cloth in his hand dropping to the ground with a dull thud.
It was instantly coated in a layer of dust.
The Wang family had once stood high and mighty, but now they were being trampled into the mud.
This was using sheer cost-effectiveness to rub a prominent family's dignity right into the dirt!
