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

Seeing that the King of Qi held this Mr. Dou in such high regard, Zhu Xianze, with his handsome face, smiled slightly. His words were polite, but the smile on his face was somewhat faint.

While he wouldn't say he despised the chief advisor to the King of Qi, he certainly harbored some reservations.

It was indeed clever, but if it was truly clever, shouldn't they have sold everything when it was over 350 coins?

Why hold onto nearly two hundred futures contracts and refuse to sell, even though you know the price is going to fall?

It's like a mythical creature, stubbornly holding onto its shell, watching the price plummet to its current 250 coins. What good has it done? It's only dragged itself down with it.

The sun was setting outside the window.

Slightly displeased, Zhu Xianze stood up, smiled, and cupped his hands to the tall Prince Qi, saying, "It's getting late. Thank you for your hospitality today, Uncle. I'll take my leave now."

King Qi quickly stood up, took his hand, and said with a friendly smile, "Nephew, you're too kind."

After exchanging pleasantries, Zhu Xianze led his staff and guards out of Xianyue Pavilion, where a vast expanse suddenly opened up before him.

The main street was wide, with carriages and sedan chairs coming and going in an endless stream, and shops on both sides were bustling with people, making it a truly lively and extraordinary place.

With the Mid-Autumn Festival approaching, the streets are decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations. The lantern market in the Daqiao area is known as the "Silver Firework Tree," and this street is no less impressive.

Most shops have already hung colorful lanterns and couplets about the Mid-Autumn Festival at their entrances, and to attract talented people, they have also hung up signs that read "Striving for Success in the Imperial Examination".

After walking about ten steps, you'll see an old locust tree with lush branches hanging from its branches, adorned with delicate little red lanterns. Under the tree, a craftsman with gray hair is sculpting clay figures of the Jade Rabbit and Chang'e. A circle of children surrounds the stall, their eyes lingering on the lifelike rabbit figurines in the old man's hands.

These days, Baiyufang is bustling with activity, but it's mostly confined to the tables of wealthy families in the city.

For most ordinary residents, cotton futures contracts costing hundreds of taels of silver might be staggering, but they were not part of their daily lives; the Mid-Autumn Festival was the most important event.

As Zhu Xianze admired the prosperity of the capital, he smiled at his mustachioed advisor on the left and said, "Mr. Zhang, go and buy some more promissory notes. Stop buying when they reach 300 cash, and sell them when they rise to 350 cash."

Zhang Qingping, who had a small mustache, smiled and said, "I knew the young master wouldn't fall for Dou Yuan's trick."

"It's not that we were fooled," Zhu Xianze smiled. "Although Dou Yuan has some talent, his vision is very short-sighted. We don't need to be too harsh on him."

Cheng Qianqiu, the advisor to the right of the young master, tapped his white fan against his palm and said with a smile, "The young master is a man of great talent and ambition, far beyond the comprehension of people like Dou Yuan. We should not have followed his advice in the first place."

Zhang Qingping agreed, saying, "We spent 30,000 taels of silver to buy nearly 40 promissory notes, and the cost of each promissory note was nearly 900 taels."

"If the futures price of cotton falls below 300 wen, we will lose money. This morning, I advised the young master to sell some of the bonds, but unfortunately, Dou Yuan agreed with me, saying that the futures price would definitely fall. On the other hand, he also said that we shouldn't sell a single one. He's really contradictory."

Cheng Qianqiu snapped his folding fan open and laughed, "That's what you call being cunning. You say the promissory notes are falling, but you don't sell them."

"If the promissory note falls, it's because he's good with words. If the promissory note rises, it's because he's good with his hands. There's always one trick that works." Cheng Qianqiu winked and made funny faces, which immediately made everyone laugh.

Young Master Zhu Xianze smiled helplessly: "Mr. Zhang is right this morning. My problem is that I didn't listen to Mr. Zhang."

"Eh," Cheng Qianqiu said with a refined expression, raising his folding fan in a gesture of obstruction, feigning disagreement, "This is not the young master's fault. Prince Qi highly praises Dou Yuan, so the young master, out of consideration for his feelings, naturally cannot refuse to give Prince Qi face."

Zhu Xianze let out a sigh of relief, then said with a wry smile, "In the end, it's still Xiao Wang's fault. He shouldn't have been provoked by Princess Jiamu of Tang the other day to go to Baiyufang to look at this promissory note and buy the first one. After that, he bought and sold even more due to its ups and downs."

"The second mistake was that last night we shouldn't have sent someone to ask Uncle Qi if he knew about the cotton futures... well... that led to Uncle Qi's invitation today. Because of Dou Yuan's words and Uncle Qi's face, we missed the opportunity this morning and turned our chance to make money into a loss."

"The money is not a concern; the main issue is that I'm afraid I've lost face in front of Princess Jiamu this time."

The young master, barely in his early twenties, wore a look of deep regret.

Zhang Qingping and Cheng Qianqiu exchanged a glance, their eyes filled with admiration.

A wise ruler is one who acknowledges his mistakes; a great ruler is one who can correct them.

Zhang Qingping shook his head and smiled, saying, "No, no. Your Highness is doing a good deed by taking remedial measures after the fact, which is not wrong at all."

"Princess Jiamu is exceptionally talented and beautiful, with unparalleled insight. She was able to foresee opportunities through the 'South City Daily,' and on the day Baiyufang opened, she amassed a hundred promissory notes, taking the lead. She is truly a female Zhuge Liang, and her boldness is no less than that of men."

Cheng Qianqiu also exclaimed, "Princess Jiamu's move has yielded tens of thousands of taels of profit in just a few days. She has also seen through the fact that this promissory note is beneficial to the country and the people, and to both cotton and cloth merchants. It is truly remarkable. No wonder the young master admires her."

The young master gave a wry smile and said, "I bought this ticket because I wanted to compete with her, but I didn't expect the price to rise so quickly. I lost the initiative and am now in a dilemma. I bought it at too high a price and am now in a difficult situation."

As he spoke, he clasped his hands in a fist salute to Zhang Qingping and exclaimed, "It was Mr. Zhang's words that awakened me from my dream; only now have I come to my senses."

Zhang Qingping chuckled and stroked his beard, saying, "I don't understand either. This promissory note is so simple, why is Dou Yuan so meticulous and calculating as if facing a formidable enemy?"

He said leisurely, "Sell when prices rise, buy when prices fall. It's a self-evident principle. We've already lost money; the price needs to rise to three hundred coins to break even."

"But if you buy some more when it drops to 290 coins, the cost will be less than 300 coins. For example, at 295 coins, you can sell it and avoid losing money."

"Not bad," Zhu Xianze nodded with a slight brightening in his eyes. "In the morning, although it dropped to 280 coins a few times, it subsequently rose back to 300 coins several times."

"If we hadn't listened to Dou Yuan, we would have bought at 280 coins and sold at 320 coins. We wouldn't have lost face in front of Princess Tang now."

"That makes perfect sense," Zhang Qingping praised. "The price has now fallen to 250 coins. If we don't buy now, and the price rises back up but is still below 300 coins, we'll be in agony again. If we buy now and lower our cost to 280 coins, we can break even in no time."

The old man's eyes were clear and bright. He smiled and said, "Dou Yuan bought his promissory notes early, so he's not worried about them falling in value. But this is ultimately a matter for merchants, and we don't need to get too entangled with it. Buying and selling early is the right thing to do."

Zhu Xianze sighed, "Mr. Zhang is right. I don't care about making a lot of money like Princess Tang these days. As long as I don't lose money or embarrass myself, that's enough. As Mr. Cheng said, cutting off the fuel supply is what I should do. Buying and selling promissory notes is a low-level approach."

As he spoke, he suddenly frowned, turned to Cheng Qianqiu, and said:

"Mr. Cheng, has the invitation to Ning Baixuan been sent?"