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

Sitting in Qian Duoduo's extravagantly luxurious carriage, Li Gefei felt like he was dreaming.

He was a poor scholar from Qizhou who couldn't even afford meat for a meal and could only eat coarse flour buns with scallions.

As it turned out, good fortune fell from the sky this morning. Not only did he learn that he had won the top score in the Jiangnan Road provincial examination, but he was also picked up by the head steward of Jingshi Academy in such a magnificent carriage.

"Manager Qian, where are we going?" Li Gefei rubbed his hands nervously, afraid that his shabby, faded clothes would soil the expensive Persian carpet under his feet.

Qian Duoduo smiled and handed over a plate of exquisite pastries: "Master Li, you are now a top scholar, so broaden your horizons and don't be so formal. Let's go to Jingshi Academy."

"The headmaster has spoken. From today onwards, you will move into the academy. The academy will take care of all your food, clothing, and daily necessities."

Li Gefei swallowed hard, still not daring to take the plate of pastries: "Jiang Shanchang... what exactly does he want me to do? Besides studying books, I really don't know anything else."

Qian Duoduo patted him on the shoulder familiarly: "Don't bother with Versailles. Our headmaster has a sharp eye for people, he's absolutely right. You'll see when you get to the academy."

The carriage came to a smooth stop at the entrance of Jingshi Academy by West Lake. Li Gefei followed Qian Duoduo off the carriage, looked up, and was completely stunned.

The gate is tall and majestic, and the four large characters "The Pillars of the Nation" on the plaque are written by the current emperor himself.

As you walk further in, exotic flowers and plants vie for attention on both sides, and several uniquely designed tall teaching buildings rise from the ground.

What made Li Gefei's heart tremble the most was that the windows of those buildings weren't covered with paper, but instead were inlaid with completely transparent glass. Sunlight shone in without any obstruction, making the rooms as bright as they were outside.

"What... what kind of magical artifact is this?" Li Gefei asked tremblingly, pointing to the window.

Qian Duoduo said smugly, "You've never seen anything like this before, have you? This is called Tiangong Liuli, and it was created by Mr. Shen Kuo and his team from our academy's Gewu class."

"Right now, all the high-ranking officials and wealthy people in Hangzhou are lining up and entering a lottery for this thing. This one piece of glass alone is guaranteed to sell for at least ten strings of cash!"

Li Gefei's legs went weak when he heard this. Ten strings of cash?! He had never even seen what ten strings of cash looked like in his entire life.

The two continued walking. As they passed a large pool, Li Gefei saw a young man with messy hair like a bird's nest and clothes covered in mud.

The other person was squatting by the pool without any regard for appearances, staring intently at several large wooden wheels and the water tank.

"Mr. Shen, working on your hydrological model again?" Qian Duoduo greeted him warmly.

Shen Kuo didn't even look up, his hand still scribbling furiously in a notebook: "Get out of my way, don't bother me! I'm calculating the stress limit of the Grand Canal's sluice gates."

"Jiang Shan has spoken: the error must be kept to a minimum; even the slightest deviation could lead to major problems."

Li Gefei was completely bewildered. What was this "force limit"? What was this "error"? Why were all the people at Jingshi Academy speaking in such jargon?

Qian Duoduo grabbed Li Gefei and pulled him away, saying, "Ignore him, he's a crazy researcher who's willing to risk his life for his work. Let's go to the backyard to see the headmaster."

Going around to the backyard, Jiang Lin was sprawled on a stone bench, playing chess with Zhao Lingjun.

"Headmaster, the person has arrived." Qian Duoduo stepped forward respectfully to report.

Jiang Lin casually tossed the chess piece in his hand into the chess basket and lifted his eyelids to examine Li Gefei.

Li Gefei felt uneasy under that gaze and knelt down with a thud: "Junior Li Gefei greets Chief Jiang Shan."

Jiang Lin waved his hand dismissively: "Get up, get up. We don't follow the custom of kowtowing in the academy; it makes me dizzy. Sit down."

Li Gefei got up cautiously, only daring to touch half of his buttocks on the edge of the stone bench.

Jiang Lin, not wanting to beat around the bush, cut to the chase: "Li Gefei, have you thought through what I told you at the dinner party yesterday?"

When the conversation turned to serious matters, Li Gefei immediately straightened his back and became solemn: "I will keep your teachings in mind. My method of 'pre-sale contracts' does indeed have huge loopholes in terms of physical delivery and insider trading."

"I am willing to stay at the academy and work under the headmaster to thoroughly understand these rules."

Jiang Lin snapped his fingers in satisfaction: "Get it right. Since you dare to do it, I'll tell you the whole story."

He stood up, walked to the middle of the courtyard, and pointed to the bustling city of Hangzhou outside: "These old aristocratic families in Jiangnan hold a lot of fertile land in their hands."

"Every year during a famine, they resort to hoarding and speculation, driving up grain prices to the sky and forcing people to sell their children. Prefect Su tried to use his official power to suppress grain prices? It was useless; they simply shut down the gates and refused to sell a single grain of rice."

Li Gefei clenched his fists. He had seen too many such human tragedies in the market; in the eyes of these vampires, the lives of ordinary people were not even worth as much as the weeds by the roadside.

Jiang Lin turned around, his eyes suddenly becoming extremely authoritative: "What I want you to do is use the 'pre-sale grain contracts' you created to build a 'Great Song Grain Contract Trading Center' for me."

"We're going to package the autumn harvest into sheets of paper that will fetch huge prices on the market. I want those arrogant, established grain merchants to beg and plead to empty their coffers to buy our worthless paper."

Although Li Gefei was a genius, he was ultimately limited by the limited perspective of his time.

He looked puzzled: "Headmaster, what are they after? They have plenty of ready-made food, why would they want to buy our paper?"

Jiang Lin laughed in anger. He turned to Qian Duoduo beside him and said, "Old Qian, you should teach this new top scholar a lesson and show him what the evils of capitalist greed are."

Qian Duoduo chuckled and skillfully pulled out a golden abacus from his sleeve, making a loud clicking sound.

"Master Li, please think about this from a different perspective. There's a famine going on right now, and the market price for grain has soared to three hundred coins per dou."

"If we were to spread the word now that we would open our doors and buy up large quantities of 'Maiqi' at the exorbitant price of 200 coins per dou after the autumn harvest in three months."

Qian Duoduo pressed a bead on the abacus, her eyes shining as she stared at Li Gefei: "What will those grain merchants think when they hear this?"

"They must think that once the new grain hits the market in three months, the price will definitely plummet back to 100 coins. Now that some complete fool is willing to lock in a position for 200 coins in advance, don't they think they're making a killing this time?"

Li Gefei's mind raced, and he slapped his thigh in realization: "Then they'll absolutely rush to sign contracts with us like mad dogs! Because in their eyes, this is a free money-making opportunity!"

"Brilliant!" Qian Duoduo gave a thumbs up. "They only need to pay a small deposit to get the contract."

"Three months later, they'll come and deliver the newly harvested grain to us for 100 coins, making a net profit of 100 coins. That's the classic example of getting something for nothing!"

Li Gefei was so excited that he suddenly stood up, but his joy lasted only three seconds before he discovered another blind spot.

"But...how are we going to fill this bottomless pit? If all the grain merchants in the city flock here to sign contracts, we couldn't afford to pay back that much cash even if we sold our academy!"

Jiang Lin strolled over slowly, reached out and pressed Li Gefei's shoulder, forcefully pushing the hothead back onto the stone bench.

"This is the first lesson in finance I'm going to teach you." Jiang Lin's tone was nonchalant, but his words were like a thunderclap: "Who told you we were really planning to pay?"

Li Gefei was dumbfounded: "Not paying? But it's written in black and white in the contract..."

Jiang Lin sneered, revealing his fangs: "The contract states that the grain will be delivered in three months. If the grain is not delivered on time, a penalty of ten times the amount will be imposed."

"Use your brain and guess, three months from now, will those old foxes be able to deliver even a single grain of food?"

Li Gefei was completely stunned, his mind racing. Suddenly, as if he had grasped something extremely terrifying, his face turned deathly pale.

"Chief, you wouldn't be thinking of... buying up all the available grain on the market before the delivery deadline, would you?!"

Jiang Lin snapped his fingers, his smile as smug as a villain's: "You're teachable. In my hometown, this is called 'empty' and 'forced emptiness'."

"I'll use their own greed as a trap to strip the entire Jiangnan aristocratic family bare, and utterly trap them to death!"

Li Gefei stared intently at Jiang Lin, feeling as if he were looking at a monstrous beast from the abyss that devoured people without spitting out the bones.

This kind of dimensional reduction attack, which sets up a scheme out of thin air and uses the wealth of the entire Jiangnan region as a bargaining chip to manipulate at will, is simply unheard of!

He took a deep breath, straightened his clothes, and solemnly bowed deeply to Jiang Lin.

"The headmaster is so powerful, he can turn the world upside down with a flick of his wrist; I am utterly convinced. I will immediately draft a foolproof plan for the trading center, ensuring they never return!"