The Great Song Dynasty: You were put in charge of teaching, and you produced a whole bunch of prime

When Jiang Lin returned to Jingshi Academy, it was already dark.

The academy was quiet; most of the students were still waiting anxiously for news outside the examination hall, while others were fast asleep in the inn.

Only Qian Duoduo, that miserly fellow, was still in his accounting room, meticulously calculating how much he had made from selling "True Questions on Statecraft".

Jiang Lin kicked open the tent door.

Qian Duoduo was so frightened that she almost dropped her abacus. But when she saw who it was, she immediately put on a fawning smile.

"Headmaster! What brings you back? Did you settle the bill at the examination hall? Oh, you have no idea! This time, by securing spots in the intensive training program and selling genuine errata sheets, we practically stripped those powerful families bare!"

Qian Duoduo rubbed his hands together excitedly, his eyes shining: "I just finished tallying up the accounts, and I made a whopping 200,000 guan!"

Jiang Lin ignored his words, plopped down in the chair, and gulped down a mouthful of water.

"Never mind the money for now." Jiang Lin stared intently at him. "I have an urgent task for you. Go and do it right away."

Seeing Jiang Lin's expression, Qian Duoduo quickly dropped her playful grin and stood up straight: "Headmaster, please give your orders."

"Go and investigate someone. One of the candidates in this provincial examination, a native of Licheng in Qizhou, named Li Gefei."

Jiang Lin tapped his fingers on the table: "I need to know his whereabouts every day after he entered Hangzhou. Which inn he stayed at, what he ate, who he met, what he said. In particular, whether he did anything extremely unusual."

Qian Duoduo was stunned: "Abnormal? Headmaster, did this kid dig up your ancestral grave? Should I call a few of my brothers from the canal gang, put him in a sack in the middle of the night, and throw him into West Lake to sober him up?"

"I'll beat you up, my foot!" Jiang Lin cursed irritably.

"I want you to check if he has any... behaviors that are out of step with the times. For example, does he spout strange words you can't understand? Does he write from left to right? Has he ever come up with any weird or unusual inventions?"

Qian Duoduo was full of questions.

"Headmaster, your request is too bizarre. Writing from left to right? Won't that cause hand cramps?"

Qian Duoduo scratched his head: "But don't worry, our academy has spies in every inn, big or small, in Hangzhou. As long as this kid is still in the city, I'll make sure he goes to the toilet as many times as he wants each day."

"Get it done quickly, the sooner the better. Remember, absolutely do not alert him, keep a close watch on him secretly." Jiang Lin waved his hand impatiently.

Qian Duoduo accepted the order and ran away.

The accounting room fell silent again. Jiang Lin leaned back in his chair, his heart pounding.

If Li Gefei is indeed a time traveler, then this is going to be very interesting.

In the unregulated feudal Song Dynasty, a fellow villager with a keen understanding of finance was practically a human nuclear bomb. He could easily ruin the national economy through capital operations, or amass wealth beyond the reach of a nation by shorting and going long.

Jiang Lin raises his own money honestly through real economic activities, such as glass manufacturing, paper production, and infrastructure construction. At least those are tangible and visible.

But futures trading is pure leverage and credit trading! Play it right and you'll be rolling in money, play it wrong and the whole country will be lining up to jump off a building!

Jiang Lin closed his eyes, frantically reviewing the events in his mind.

If this guy really is from the same hometown, why would he reveal his hand directly on the imperial examination paper? Was he trying to catch the eye of the chief examiner, Su Shi, and then curry favor with the imperial court? Or had he already sensed the industrialization behind the Jingshi Academy and guessed that there was a modern person in Hangzhou, so he deliberately sent out the examination paper as a "verification code" to test the waters?

Jiang Lin felt increasingly uneasy as he thought about it.

No, we have to find out more about him. And we have to use code words that only modern people can understand to probe him.

If they were truly from the same hometown, Jiang Lin wouldn't mind bringing him along to make a fortune and becoming partners in the Great Song Dynasty.

But if this is an ambitious person who wants to create a monopoly, then the only option is to send him to the bottom of West Lake to keep company with the turtles.

Better to kill the innocent than let the guilty go free. Jiang Lin clenched his fists tightly.

The next morning.

As soon as the sunlight filled the courtyard, Zhao Lingjun, dressed in handsome men's clothing and holding an expensive folding fan, swaggered into the academy.

Upon entering, one could see Jiang Lin with huge dark circles under his eyes, slumped in a rattan chair like a useless person.

"Did Jiang Shanchang go off to steal something?" Zhao Lingjun teased, stepping forward. "I heard Su Shi is almost finished grading the papers, and our academy has won a great victory. Why are you, as the head, acting like your house is on fire?"

Jiang Lin lifted his heavy eyelids, glanced at her, and sighed softly.

"Lingjun, do you believe in people who are born with knowledge?" Jiang Lin suddenly asked, his voice hoarse.

Zhao Lingjun paused in his fanning.

"Born with knowledge? That's all Confucius's nonsense. I... I, the young master, never believe in such things."

She pulled up a chair and sat down. "What's wrong? Did you encounter a monster?"

Jiang Lin pulled the copied exam paper out of his sleeve pocket and tossed it to Zhao Lingjun.

"Think about this for yourself."

Zhao Lingjun spread out the exam paper and scanned it quickly. His previously nonchalant expression gradually froze.

Having worked alongside Jiang Lin in practical matters for so long, she was already very familiar with this system of money and supplies.

"Who...who wrote this?!" After reading the last line, Zhao Lingjun gasped sharply, his voice trembling.

"Using a small deposit to lock in grain prices after the autumn harvest? This is an absolute game-changer! If this method is implemented, the imperial court won't have to bleed a penny to firmly grasp the lifeline of grain production in the entire Jiangnan region."

Zhao Lingjun took a deep breath. "The person who wrote this exam paper is an absolute prodigy!"

"Too clever for his own good, isn't he?" Jiang Lin sneered.

"So I'm really at my wit's end. I don't know how this person's brain works. This kind of financial trick that is ahead of its time should not have appeared in the imperial examination hall of the Song Dynasty at all."

Zhao Lingjun keenly noticed the unusual emotion in Jiang Lin's mood.

"Are you afraid of him?" She stared intently at Jiang Lin.

"I'm afraid of trouble." Jiang Lin pinched his brow wearily.

"I've already sent Qian Duoduo to dig into his background. Once I figure out his methods, I'll have to go and meet this big shot myself."

Zhao Lingjun slammed the exam paper on the table, his eyes instantly turning cold and sharp.

"If this person cannot be used by us, or if he harbors ulterior motives, should I directly transfer people from the Imperial City Guard...?"

Zhao Lingjun's eyes sharpened, and he decisively made a throat-slitting gesture: "Let him disappear without a trace?"

Jiang Lin glanced at her and thought to himself, "Good heavens, this princess is becoming more and more villainous by following me."

"Open up the space, don't rush to draw your sword." Jiang Lin raised his hand and pressed down, signaling her to be calm.

"Wait for definite news about Qian Duoduo. I want to see just who this Li Gefei is."