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

"Brother-in-law, you've worked hard." Zhu Boqing, dressed in a light blue casual suit, smiled at the two of them.

The maid, Lychee, with her slightly sunken nose, took a new set of bowls and chopsticks from the maid Chunyu and carefully divided the four dishes that Ningnan had brought over.

Inside the flower hall, even the tables had already been set up with two tables.

As Cui Cui's wife had mentioned beforehand, her brother-in-law was worried that his illness would infect others, so he never ate at the same table with other people.

But over the years, no matter who the family's servants, maids, or even his personal maid, Lychee, have ever infected his brother-in-law with his illness.

When the little girl was serving the food, she was extremely meticulous and serious, so Ning Nan and Cuicui waited patiently.

Today's dishes are very simple, even somewhat meager. Even in the countryside, if the brother-in-law is coming to his brother-in-law's house for the first time and only a few dishes are served, even the stingiest farmer would shake his head and say that you are disrespecting your wife's family.

But Cui Cui's wife insisted on this, so Ning Nan had no choice but to comply. Indeed, the other party was wealthy and was not there to freeload or for any good food, so he went along with her wishes.

During the meal, the other party was not feeling well and could not drink alcohol, so Ning Nan offered him a cup of tea instead.

Zhu Boqing smiled and raised the ancient rattan cup in his hand.

The cup contained what the other party called rock sugar pear soup, along with some white fungus.

Zhu Boqing smiled and said, "Brother-in-law, you're too kind."

He brought the cup to his lips and took a small sip of the pear water that had been simmering for half an hour.

The pear juice is warm and sweet, but not cloying. As you swallow, the warm pear juice moistens your lungs like spring rain.

The lingering cough in my lungs immediately subsided.

Zhu Boqing's eyes lit up slightly. He took another small sip before looking at the ancient rattan cup and saying with a smile, "Brother-in-law, you've gone to a lot of trouble."

Ning Nan smiled and said nonchalantly, "Brother, you're too kind. This prescription is a folk remedy for coughs. I've written it down and given it to Miss Lychee. If it works for you, you can try it, but don't drink too much." Just in case you develop diabetes or something.

The other party immediately smiled and nodded.

During our brief last meeting, I noticed that my brother-in-law looked unwell, and I knew he was in poor health. The smell of medicine suggested it was a chronic illness that he had been taking medication for a while.

Originally, I planned to go to Shangchuntang after the wedding to ask Doctor Jiang Sixue to come and see my brother-in-law. However, after hearing from Cui Cui's wife that my brother-in-law had gone to another place to do business, I put the matter aside for the time being.

After my brother-in-law came to visit, I heard him cough several times, which made me even more worried.

This coughing sound, as if he were about to cough up his lungs, definitely wasn't caused by a cold.

But in those days, there was no way to do blood tests or anything like that, so it was hard to tell just by looking.

He secretly asked Cui Cui's wife if her brother-in-law's cough was accompanied by hemoptysis. Cui Cui's wife's eyes widened in surprise, then her expression changed drastically as she asked him coldly, "Do you have a solution?" Her tone was stiff and urgent, but her eyes were indeed welling up with tears, indicating that she had been worried about her brother for a long time.

Ning Nan then realized that there was probably indeed hemoptysis, which made things rather difficult.

Although he knew how to produce penicillin, the conditions for this stuff were too demanding. He had spent several years trying his luck to finally get a tiny amount.

In the battle of Black Tiger Mountain, we were worried about the wounded getting infected, especially since Er Laizi was also seriously injured. Even though we were afraid of allergies, we used very small amounts, but we still used them all.

To produce it steadily and reliably, the preliminary technologies alone would be enough to give him a lot of trouble.

Moreover, even with penicillin, if the brother-in-law had tuberculosis, it would be incurable.

This requires a period of detailed observation to determine whether tuberculosis can be ruled out. Ning Nan expressed this idea, saying that he needed to stay with his brother-in-law for a while to observe his symptoms, such as night sweats, cough, and hemoptysis, in order to determine what illness his brother-in-law had before trying some methods.

Then Cui Cui's wife ran out.

When I returned, my eyes were red and swollen.

It's possible, but we'll have to wait until after August 29th, and then we'll talk about it in September.

Ning Nan frowned and said that this was no small matter.

With red eyes, Cui Cui shook her head and said that it was her brother's wish and she couldn't persuade him otherwise. Ning Nan had no choice but to wait.

During the meal.

The brother-in-law asked him a question out of curiosity: had his brother-in-law been planning this Baiyufang matter for a long time? Otherwise, how could he have such divine assistance, manipulating the cotton and cloth merchants so easily?

To say that someone could be manipulated at will... that's a bit of an exaggeration. Ning Nan was taken aback, only then realizing that his brother-in-law also knew about these things.

Zhu Boqing nodded and smiled apologetically at Ning Nan, saying that he didn't know that his second uncle's Sujin Pavilion had such a big problem. If he had known earlier, he would never have let his sister get involved in this mess.

Ning Nan smiled and said it was no problem, just a few minor matters, adding that the Baiyufang was naturally not something planned in advance.

"It's nothing, ha... If it wasn't planned in advance, how could you have orchestrated it so meticulously?!" The girl, lychee munching on sweet and sour pork ribs, glared at him with a slightly sarcastic tone and an unfriendly look in her eyes.

His own maid interrupted, but the brother-in-law seemed helpless and gave Ning Nan an embarrassed look.

Ning Nan didn't care much.

The brother-in-law is unmarried and only has this one maidservant by his side. His wife is quite affectionate towards this young girl named Lizhi, so she is probably at least his concubine, and might soon be promoted to a mistress. If the brother-in-law never marries, this maidservant will be his and his wife's legitimate sister-in-law.

Ning Nan, holding bamboo chopsticks in one hand and a white bowl in the other, smiled at the two of them and said, "Hmm... Brother, you flatter me. The reason it seems... so interconnected is simply because we had no choice but to take things one step at a time."

"For example, when we first faced the Songjiang cotton merchants, we wanted them to void their previous contracts, but we also wanted them to sell cotton to Sujinge at a fixed price. There was no other way but to raise the price."

"Then why is it five times? Not four times, or six times?" Lychee, her lips smeared with brown sweet and sour sauce, put down the ribs and frowned.

"no way."

Ning Nan shook his head.

"Cotton used to cost twenty wen per jin, but then it rose to twenty-five wen. I calculated it for a long time, based on the amount of cotton Sujin Pavilion purchased each year, the amount of cloth sold, the price of cloth, the imperial taxes, and the annual income of an ordinary family."

"Based on these data, even if cotton prices could soar to the sky for a while, they would eventually fall because the cloth sold by silk shops is sold to ordinary people."

"If ordinary people can't afford it, silk shops will rather go bankrupt than buy more cloth."

"Once the silk shops stop buying cloth, the cloth shops will also close down and stop purchasing cotton... Hmm, this is called... industry liquidation..."

"The price increase started with cotton and spread upwards level by level until the price of the fabric sold also increased significantly."

"Similarly, it will start with the fabric at the end not being sold, and then pass down level by level until the cotton at the very bottom can't be sold."

"So by then, cotton prices will definitely fall."

"...At that time, I calculated the final price of cotton based on the highest cloth price that the people could accept, and the final price was between 120 and 160 wen."

"so,"

Ning Nan gave a helpless smile and said,

"The price at the time... could not be four times, because cotton merchants could predict from experience that they would eventually be able to sell it for eighty or even one hundred coins or more, and they would be reluctant to sell it, or at least reluctant to sell it in large quantities."

"It can't be six times, which is more than 120 coins, because if it were, we would have no profit and would lose money completely, and there would be no way to save it."