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

"Listen carefully, the current price is 342 coins, but the average price is 251 coins. What does this mean? It means the bubble is too big! The price is too far off from the average! Therefore, the volume has decreased in this hour, fewer people are buying, and even our number one big buyer isn't buying anymore. We can't push the price up! Why? Because everyone thinks it's too expensive!"

"From now on—what are we going to do? Smash, smash, smash! Smash like crazy! You guys just smash like crazy, smash all the chips they have! We'll go for anything below two hundred coins! No no no no no!..."

"One hundred and eighty coins! One hundred and eighty coins!..."

Inside the room, through the silhouette, you can see that the child's voice seems to be standing on a chair, waving his arms. The child's expression, posture, and tone all appear extremely excited.

Suddenly, the sound inside stopped.

Click!

"Who?!" came a scream from inside.

The bolt on the side room door was removed, and the door was suddenly pulled inward!

Several men who looked like accountants stormed in, carrying sticks.

But when the men saw Shangguan Xiu in his red flying fish robe, their angry expressions immediately turned into embarrassment. They quickly lowered their sticks, hid them behind their backs, bowed, and called out "Commander Shangguan" with nervous expressions.

"Hey! Brother Xiuxiu!" Twelve-year-old Li Xing jumped off the chair, ran over, and glared at him.

state!

Shangguan Xiu bent her finger and tapped the child on the head.

Li Xing suddenly recoiled, clutching his head in pain and letting out a cry of "Ouch!"

"What should I call you?" Shangguan Xiu asked, showing off his bent fingers.

"I...I...I stuttered. That's why I called you...Xiu...Brother Xiu..." Seeing he was about to get another tap on the head, Li Xing quickly corrected himself, "Brother Shangguan!"

"You're still stuttering... What are you doing?" Shangguan Xiu asked with a frown, too lazy to argue with the child.

He hadn't finished speaking.

He then saw a table inside.

There were stacks of scattered papers on the table.

The air is filled with the fragrance of ink.

Upon closer inspection, it became clear that both the panicked accountants and the mischievous Li Xing had ink stains on their cuffs, fingers, and even their lips.

The men looked pale and tired, and some even had bloodshot eyes.

"Nothing!" Li Xing shouted as he reached out to stop him.

But it was too late. Shangguan Xiu didn't care about anything else. She stepped inside, picked up the paper on the table, and looked at it...

……

……

"He'll never pay it back!" Inside the carriage, Lady Lychee stood with her hands on her hips and said angrily to Zhu Boqing.

"More than 300,000 taels! He thinks he can pay it off in just a few days? He's dreaming! How is that possible? Are there that many rich people in Nanjing? How much tax does a prefecture in Jiangnan pay in a year?..." The maid's face turned red with anger as she chattered on and on about the accounts.

Zhu Boqing smiled without taking it to heart. He knew that Lizhi had always been dissatisfied with her brother-in-law, and the more unexpected he was, the more dissatisfied she became.

Perhaps… Zhu Boqing's smile faded slightly… if he really married Lizhi, and she truly became Cuiwei and her brother-in-law's sister-in-law.

It's likely that this woman's attitude towards her brother-in-law will undergo a complete change, and she will adopt the demeanor of a sister-in-law, earnestly praising her brother-in-law with a smile.

Zhu Boqing leaned against the cushion prepared by the eunuch, frowning as he thought seriously.

He didn't believe his brother-in-law's claim that the more than 300,000 taels of silver would be repaid in just a few days.

Even if you calculate it to be nine days, it would still be extremely difficult for the other party to repay the debt in just a few days.

He did know that his brother-in-law's Baiyufang was planning to sell another million catties of cotton today. That would amount to 333 promissory notes.

The quantity is less than last time, but the price is much higher—one hundred and fifty coins. Last time the promissory note was sixty coins; this time it's so much more expensive. Will anyone actually buy it?

Lychee scolded, "I bet he'll be lucky to sell even half of those futures contracts today!"

Zhu Boqing was about to say, "Let's make a bet. I bet my brother-in-law will win."

But the carriage had already entered the palace through the Xihua Gate.

After the Eastern Depot was abolished, the Embroidered Uniform Guard could not enter the inner palace. During the reign of Emperor Longchang, feeling deeply inconvenienced, he ordered the Directorate of Ceremonial to establish an Intelligence Bureau, which was in charge of intelligence matters. However, its power and prestige were far inferior to that of the Eastern Depot.

In the beginning, the intelligence sources of the Bureau of Assassination were only from the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and later they gradually established their own information channels.

After the carriage entered the palace, a messenger from the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics reported outside the carriage that the promissory notes at Baiyufang were sold out.

Lychee lifted the carriage curtain and asked disdainfully, "How many did you sell?"

"Uh..." The little eunuch hesitated for a moment, then honestly replied, "Reporting to Lady Lychee, they're all sold out."

"I know they're sold out," Lychee said impatiently. "I'm asking how many they sold?"

Upon hearing this, the young eunuch realized that Lady Lychee thought the sale of promissory notes at Baiyufang was already sold out, just like the restaurant was closing down, but she meant that all the wine in the restaurant had been sold out.

She then carefully said, "Reporting to Lady Lychee, what I said is true. All three hundred-plus promissory notes from Baiyufang have been sold out, not a single one left."

Lychee's expression froze, as if she thought she had misheard.

Immediately, a tremendous sense of absurdity arose in her mind.

So much so that she felt the majestic scene of the palace outside the curtain was somewhat illusory and distorted.

"How is that possible?" Her chubby little face showed an extremely puzzled expression.

"Sold out..."

She quickly calculated in her mind that the Grand Prince Consort Ning had bought the cotton for 120 coins, and now he had sold it for 150 coins...

"Thirty thousand taels." Zhu Boqing sighed, then smiled gently and said, "Heh, he made a net profit of thirty thousand taels. Hmm, from buying to selling, it only took two days. That's really amazing." Zhu Boqing's eyes gleamed slightly.

Lychee pulled her head back into the carriage, gritting her teeth as she said, "Then he still hasn't finished paying off his debts, has he?!"

He still has four million catties of cotton left.

"Let him earn 30,000 taels from every million taels—no, 40,000 taels—no."

Lychee glanced at the Emperor, chin raised, and said, "Fifty thousand taels would be fine! But that's only two hundred thousand taels!... Ugh..." Lychee gritted her teeth and said, "If he could really earn that two hundred thousand taels, then Minister Yu should step down! Humph! But even if he did, he'd still be short over a hundred thousand taels of silver! How could he possibly pay it back in a few days?"

She had no doubt that the other party could repay the debt, after all, Baiyufang could make a fortune every day.

Even if I can't pay it all off, I can sell my share of Baiyufang's assets and wait a year. Even if I have to pay some interest, I can still pay it off.

But the other party said they could pay it back in a few days... which she just couldn't understand.

Zhu Boqing frowned, wondering how his brother-in-law could pay off so much money in just a few days. But for him, just hearing his brother-in-law say that he would hand over Baiyufang to the court through Grand Tutor Gu was enough to comfort him for the rest of his life.

"Since it was something my brother-in-law came up with..." The Emperor smiled, "the money will naturally go into the imperial treasury..."

"Let's make a bet," the emperor said.

Lychee's eyes lit up: "Bet!" She waved her little fist and asked with burning eyes, "What are we betting on?" Hmm... she wanted the emperor to help her ask him to let her see a set of the Tang Dynasty's "Wei Gong Ming Fu Yin Jing" that was privately kept in the family of the Minister of Rites.

"If I lose, I will marry you and make you my empress," the emperor said.

Lychee Lady's expression froze for a moment.

"And if you lose?" she asked, staring blankly at the emperor.

The emperor's expression was gentle; he smiled but did not answer.

……

……

The afternoon is the time to apply for a license plate.

The sun peeked out from the sky like an orange disc; the weather was cool, refreshing, and breezy.

The Moon-Holding Pavilion.

Inside a secluded private room.

"It really did fall! It really did fall! What a genius! What a genius!" King Qi's hearty and unrestrained laughter rang out.

"Mr. Dou, you are Zhuge Liang! If Kongming were alive today, your foresight would be unparalleled!" He laughed heartily, patting Dou Yuan on the back. "What a brilliant example of using a borrowed hen to lay eggs!"

Dou Yuan felt a sharp pain in his back and inwardly groaned, but on the surface he smiled calmly and said, "Your Highness is too kind."

Inside the room, seven or eight stewards from the Prince's mansion looked at Dou Yuan as if he were a bodhisattva who had manifested his power, their eyes shining.

In the morning, the price of this ticket was still over three hundred coins.

Mr. Dou ordered that they were not allowed to buy another one, but they were also not allowed to sell, saying that the price would definitely fall today.

At the time, no one paid much attention, but as noon approached, the price began to fall, and now it has dropped to 250 coins.

"May I ask, Mr. Dou, at what price should I buy?" a young man dressed in fine clothes, who looked like a nobleman, asked with a frown.

The price has dropped to 250 coins now. If you don't buy it in time, the price will go up again, and you'll lose a lot of money.

Dou Yuan pondered for a moment and said, "Your Highness, based on my observation and calculations, as long as the price of this promissory note falls below 220 coins, it will inevitably rise."

Actually, he calculated that it would be safe to buy when the price dropped to 200 coins, but the other party was an impatient person and mostly bought promissory notes above 280 coins, so he said 220 coins to ease the other party's anxiety.

Two hundred and twenty coins is about right.

"How is it, nephew?" At this moment, Prince Qi, Zhu Ensong, patted the noble young man on the shoulder with a smile and said, "Isn't Dou Zhuge of your uncle's household truly worthy of his reputation?"

The young master of the Gui Prince's Mansion, who had come from afar to attend the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet at the Prince Xin's Mansion and to congratulate the Prince Xin on his ascension to the throne, had a gentle expression on his face and greeted the guests with appreciative eyes.

"A great reputation is well-deserved; I, Wang, am truly amazed."