After saving the Empress, I became the top scholar in the imperial examination.

The amount above is one thousand taels.

He chuckled and said, "I don't know how much it will cost. But we'll be printing every day, so I'll give this money to Mr. Chen in advance. We'll hold it for now, and he can just give me an account later. I'll pay him back when it's all spent."

Chen Ruhai looked at the silver note, paused for a moment, and after a few breaths, took the silver note and smiled, saying, "Thank you for your trust, Young Master Ning."

He sighed slightly... Anyway, this business is your family's, and he just hoped that the son-in-law wouldn't cause too much trouble.

As a seasoned business manager, Chen Ruhai thought for a moment and still asked a question.

"Young Master Ning, how much are you planning to offer for this newspaper?"

One thousand copies of the official gazette. Although the articles praising the emperor were beautifully written, the gazette was sold to various government offices or some merchants. If it were an official document, people might take a second look, but such articles—not that they were disrespectful to the emperor—were simply not worth the money.

The remaining two are in vernacular Chinese, consisting of unfinished short stories and an article whose subject is unclear... introducing cotton? What's the point of that?

Based on his years of business experience, he estimated that if the price was too high, probably not many people would buy it.

In fact, even if the price is very low, it would be difficult to sell all 1,000 copies.

Ning Nan frowned and asked, "Mr. Chen, what was the printing cost of this newspaper?"

Chen Ruhai said, "About ten coins, so a thousand copies would be about ten taels of silver." If we only use movable type and don't use woodblock printing, that's about it.

"Hmm, it's quite cheap," Ning Nan nodded, then remembered that he had also saved money on rent, so he waved his hand and said, "Then it's free, I'll give it to you for free."

"Um?????"

"Huh?" The owner of Changqing Trading Company seemed not to have heard clearly, and frowned as he exclaimed.

"Free of charge???" Chen Ruhai exclaimed in surprise, his eyes widening and his voice rising.

"Hmm." Ning Nan nodded and smiled, "Losing ten taels a day is definitely not a problem... Master Chen can print it as he pleases."

The waiter brought over a rather exquisite breakfast, which included light tea, braised duck noodles, jade buns, and pickled bamboo shoots.

Ning Nan's eyes lit up immediately, and he glanced at Chen Ruhai.

Chen Ruhai was still in a daze when he saw his son-in-law looking at him expectantly. He then realized what was happening and hurriedly nodded, saying, "Oh, this is a gift from our shop to Young Master Ning."

"Tsk tsk," Ning Nan picked up his chopsticks and said with a smile, "Thank you, Mr. Chen. Then I won't stand on ceremony."

I've had breakfast.

After wiping my face with the hot towel handed to me by the waiter.

Ning Nan then went out and got into a carriage to head to the school in Willow Leaf Lane.

Today, Old Huang will be discussing the ingenious ways of breaking down and developing the themes in several top-scoring examination papers from the Longchang era. This is not to be missed.

As I walked into the school, bathed in the warm, bright sunlight, I felt a golden glow.

The classroom fell silent.

Almost instantly, the eyes of more than twenty students turned to him.

Well, I am late, but does everyone have to be staring at me like this?

He went to the last row of seats with an embarrassed and shy expression.

Chu the Fatty's gaze was particularly strange.

He had a constipated look on his face, as if he wanted to say something but couldn't, and his eyes even carried a hint of sympathy and pity for him.

At noon, Zhao Jing, Tang Lianbin, and the others made up their minds and gathered around to ask him some questions.

Ning Nan suddenly realized... Oh, so some of his things had spread at yesterday's Xianyuelou literary gathering... He couldn't help but chuckle.

"Heh," he chuckled, "don't worry, fellow students, I'm neither crazy nor sick. It's just a minor matter. It'll be resolved quickly."

"A trivial matter?!" Fatty Chu jumped to his feet, his eyes bloodshot, and shouted at the top of his lungs, "A debt of two hundred thousand taels of silver is a trivial matter?!"

Zhao Jing and the others also wore wry smiles, unsure of what to say.

At yesterday's literary gathering, upon hearing that Brother Bai Xuan had become the owner of Su Jin Pavilion and was in dire straits, everyone was filled with worry. All thoughts of the literary gathering and making a name for themselves in front of the county magistrate and prefect were thrown to the back of their minds.

Unexpectedly, at midnight, even more absurd and bizarre news came.

Ning Baixuan has gone mad—he bought two million catties of cotton at five times the price, incurring a staggering debt of two hundred thousand taels of silver! If he can't pay the debt in two months, his home will be raided and auctioned off by the Imperial Guards!

And this was even something Ning Baixuan had deliberately brought the Embroidered Uniform Guards to.

They may not be business-savvy, but they also know there's no reason to do business this way, so why would they voluntarily raise the price fivefold?!

"Ning Baixuan! Even if it were our Wuyue Money House—" Fatty Chu said through gritted teeth, "we would definitely not be able to come up with 200,000 taels of silver to pay off the debt!" He was furious at his incompetence.

The group looked at the white-robed scholar who seemed completely unconcerned, and who even had the mind to listen to Mr. Lizhou's lecture on such a day, and their expressions became complicated.

I don't know whether to say that Brother Bai Xuan is ignorant of his own limitations, or to say that Brother Bai Xuan is calm and composed in the face of important matters, truly showing the demeanor of a great general.

Ning Nan ate the bland and tasteless food prepared by the cook at the private school, and smiled helplessly, "Don't worry, don't worry..."

After finishing his outburst, Fatty Chu glanced at Brother Bai Xuan, who was silently eating with his head down, sighed, and sat down again, his face dejected. "What are you planning to do next? How are you going to raise these two hundred thousand taels of silver?"

Selling the house?

Or are they calligraphy, paintings, or antiques from the seller's collection?

Or should we just offer a price and sell Sujin Pavilion?

Fatty Chu let out a sigh of relief, his face showing signs of distress.

He was just the young master of a money shop. Without collateral, even if he worked himself to the bone at home, he could only persuade his father to lend the other party three thousand taels of silver, which was practically useless.

Rather than that, it would be better to bring Brother Bai Xuan to our home later, so that the whole family won't end up homeless after the house is sold.

"Hmm, don't worry, Sujin Pavilion still has 30,000 taels of silver in hand." Ning Nan said nonchalantly as he ate his rice.

Chu Pangzi and the others looked at each other, and in the end could only sigh deeply, not knowing what to say.

Cotton prices have gone up.

It used to be twenty coins, but yesterday it rose to twenty-five coins.

At dawn today, just as the flower market opened, the price jumped to thirty-five coins.

The flower shop was in an uproar, with all sorts of news pouring in.

Some say the disaster in Jiangnan far exceeded expectations, and the overall production reduction might be 50%, not 30%; others say the reduction in Jiangnan's production is at most 20%, with only Songjiang Prefecture being more severely affected; still others say that after 30% of the cotton in Songjiang Prefecture was sold off in a lukewarm manner, many cloth merchants ran out of stock, and cloth merchants in Songjiang Prefecture were scrambling to buy cotton, which had already tripled in price...

Large and small cotton merchants, cloth merchants, merchant guilds, and associations were arguing fiercely at the cotton market today, with cotton prices rising and falling rapidly, changing three, five, or even seven times a day...

The situation was bound to escalate. With Sujin Pavilion's five-fold price increase a certainty, especially with the cotton merchants in Songjiang Prefecture who had signed contracts, who would occasionally strut around the flower shops to check the market, cotton prices continued to rise in a pattern of three steps forward, two steps back, and then three steps forward again.

The same cotton merchant had just signed a supply contract with the previous cloth shop for 32 cash per catty, but in the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, he signed a supply contract with the next cloth shop for 35 cash.

By evening, the price of cotton had indeed reached forty cents.

"Ah, this is all thanks to my nephew Ning!"

Inside the private room of Fulai Tavern, Meng Shichen, a major cotton merchant from Suzhou Prefecture, raised his cup to Ning Nan with a smile and said, "Come, let your uncle toast to your nephew."

Being young is a disadvantage... Ning Nan thought to himself, but he also raised his cup and smiled as he toasted Meng Shichen and the seven or eight cotton merchants from Suzhou Prefecture sitting in the room, saying, "I dare not accept this. Bai Xuan respectfully toasts all my uncles and elders."

The cotton merchants were overjoyed and raised their glasses in unison, saying, "No, no, no... it is we who are toasting our nephew."

With the astonishing five-fold purchase contract signed by Boss Ning last night, the cotton supply contracts they signed today have generally increased by 30%! In their eyes, this young Boss Ning is already comparable to a god of wealth.

However, the goods that everyone has shipped so far are only small-scale; the large-scale shipments must be kept under wraps, and people are still being sent to the countryside to buy loose cotton from farmers.

After several rounds of drinks...

After a brief exchange of pleasantries.

Meng Shichen, as the head of the Suzhou Cotton Guild, smiled at Ning Nan and said, "Hehe, forgive my ignorance, but I don't know why you invited us to this meeting, my dear nephew?"

Meng Shichen's eyes flickered.

On the way here, they roughly guessed that Ning Dongjia probably felt that everyone had benefited from his taking the lead in raising prices five times, causing cotton prices to rise much ahead of schedule.

He wanted to curry favor with the cotton merchants in Suzhou Prefecture, ask them for a loan, and use the money to repay the 200,000 taels debt in two months.

Before coming, everyone discussed it privately and felt that since they had indeed benefited, it was not good to offend anyone, so they should lend a little if necessary.

They made a verbal agreement to pool together 10,000 taels of silver to borrow, with Meng Shichen, the guild leader, paying the majority of the amount.

"well……"

Ning Nan sighed.

Hearing this sigh of disappointment, the cotton merchants present remained calm, exchanged glances, their eyes flickering slightly. They realized that things had indeed gone as they expected. Fortunately, they had been prepared and communicated in advance, so they could stand together through thick and thin.

To be honest,

Ning Nan gave a wry smile and shrugged.

"I've come to purchase cotton from you all."

Ok?

Everyone raised an eyebrow, and after understanding what the other person was saying, their eyes slowly widened.

Looking to buy cotton?!

You're still buying it?!

"Uncles and elders, well, you don't know," Ning Nan said with a bitter expression, "this imperial merchant, this imperial merchant, sigh... This is my first time being a host, and I don't understand many of the rules... I only heard a little rumor... um..."

He stammered for a long time, his expression extremely complex, before finally downing his drink in one gulp. He still didn't reveal the gossip, only sighing and saying, "Um, um, it's a matter of great importance... I'd better not tell you all... Please forgive me, uncles and elders... Anyway!"

He wiped the wine from the corner of his mouth and said firmly, "I still need to trouble you uncles and elders to help me purchase some more cotton."

Meng Shichen's pupils contracted slightly.

Rumors?

He frowned. Could it be that this kid had heard that Mr. Dou was planning to deal with him or something? For example, that Prince Qi was determined to destroy Su Jin Pavilion this time, and had arranged for someone from the Ministry of Revenue to greatly increase the amount of cotton purchased by the imperial merchants, so that cotton purchases still needed to continue?

The other cotton merchants turned their gaze to Meng Shichen, who nodded slightly and then smiled frankly, saying, "Nephew, you are overthinking it. If you were in a difficult position, you didn't need to tell us this."

"I just don't know—"

Meng Shichen frowned. "Nephew, how much more do you wish to purchase?"

"And another thing is—"

His tone was low and slow.

"Nephew, what price do you plan to offer?"