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

The Crown Prince's Palace, the Ministry of Revenue, and the Inner Court jointly sent people to take over Baiyufang. It opened not long ago, and the young doctor managed it well, keeping the accounts very clear.

Within a few days of taking over, the three parties had figured things out.

Baiyufang owed cotton merchants from various regions more than 300,000 taels of silver.

However, it was indeed a golden goose, with daily handling fees alone amounting to several hundred taels of silver. After deducting the expenses of the numerous accounting offices within the workshop, the profits were quite substantial.

According to the strategy given by the young doctor, the profits would be even greater. The transaction fees alone would bring the court an annual share of 50,000 to 80,000 taels of silver. Moreover, these profits would be readily available in the capital, without the need to send anyone to collect taxes; instead, money would be delivered to the court by others.

The Emperor and Lizhi had very complicated expressions at the time. They sighed and said that if there were more businesses like this, the Northern Expedition might be possible.

The Emperor also said that he originally thought the young doctor's proposal of the ten major harms of Baiyufang was an attempt to invite the court to monopolize the Baiyufang business.

Unexpectedly, my brother-in-law was so selfless; of the ten percent of Baiyufang's profits, he didn't keep even half for himself.

Forty percent belonged to the Ministry of Revenue, forty percent to the Imperial Treasury, one-tenth to the six major cloth merchants of Jiangnan, and one-tenth to customers holding Baiyufang promissory notes.

If you really want to count, Sujinge is one of the six major cloth merchants, and Sujinge is also owned by her and the young doctor, so she can be considered to have a share in it.

Under the supervision of Lizhi, the Crown Prince, the Ministry of Revenue, and the Imperial Treasury calculated that Baiyufang still had four million catties of cotton futures contracts that had not been issued.

The silver raised from issuing these promissory notes, plus the existing handling fees in the cotton mill, plus the handling fees for the next two months, plus the deposits and handling fees that the cotton merchants in Jiangnan are already negotiating regarding the cotton mill's deposits and handling fees for next year, will be less than 50,000 taels of silver to fill this hole.

The cotton purchase contracts signed by the young doctor were thus voided. The Ministry of Revenue and the Imperial Court took over all the debts and signed new contracts with the cotton merchants.

At the young doctor's insistence, the Imperial Guards again acted as guarantors, and the Imperial Guards were given a 5% commission as a middleman fee. The cotton merchants were immediately moved to tears of gratitude.

If the Ministry of Revenue were to renege on its promises, the Embroidered Uniform Guard, for the sake of their own five percent of the silver, would have to go and see what was going on.

Seeing the young physician so readily hand over such an important treasure trove, the Emperor was deeply moved and ordered the court to simply take over the debts of Sujin Pavilion as well…

Under warm and soft lighting.

Zhu Cuiwei flipped through the silver notes with both hands, her delicate eyebrows furrowing more and more tightly, even showing a hint of bitterness.

"What happened? How could you earn so much money? Where did you get it?"

She asked a question, and the other person immediately launched into a long explanation, talking about things like "promissory notes," "comparative advantage," and "risk sharing."

After a moment, feeling a little dizzy and lightheaded, and not wanting to appear timid, she pretended to frown and nodded occasionally, deciding to wait until the young doctor finished speaking before asking any more questions.

Anyway, all these banknotes are hers now. Thinking about it this way, she didn't know whether to be angry or happy.

She carefully folded the banknotes one by one and pulled the brocade box toward herself.

clap clap!

Ning Nan slapped her hand that was clutching the silver.

"Hmm?" Her eyes flashed sharply as she swept over, indicating that all the silver was now hers.

Ning Nan ignored her domineering, puffed-out cheeks and glaring eyes, looking like she wanted to devour someone, and pulled the brocade box back.

With a swish, he counted out a pile of silver notes and casually handed them over: "Here, fifty thousand taels. This is yours to keep as household expenses."

"Fifty thousand taels...and what about the rest?" she asked, her eyes narrowing slightly.

Ning Nan got up, took a few sheets of paper from his desk, and laid them out in front of his wife.

Zhu Cuiwei took it and looked at it.

"..."

"Xu Longdao, the Crown Prince's Assistant, lives in Huakou Lane, and has two thousand taels of silver."

"Liu Zhi, the Imperial Secretary, lives in the west of Taiping Lane, and his salary is two thousand taels."

"Chen Yuezhi, Junior Chamberlain of the Crown Prince's Palace, lives on Phoenix Tail Street and owns a three-hundred-tael ancient yellow stone inkstone."

"Lu Machang, Director of the Imperial Secretariat... a Duanxi ancient inkstone from the Three Hundred Duanxi."

"Sun Chengshan, the Crown Prince's Chamberlain... a famous Tang Dynasty calligraphy piece worth three thousand taels of silver."

"Ou Xu, Chief Clerk of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Revenue... two thousand taels of silver."

"Huang Yu, Assistant Director of the Inner Court... three thousand taels of silver..."

"..."

Zhu Cuiwei was taken aback for a moment, then swept her phoenix eyes over and asked, "What does this mean?"

Ning Nan patted the brocade box on the table and said calmly, "Of the remaining money, about 50,000 taels of silver will be used to bribe officials at all levels, and I'll distribute some among them. As for the remaining 120,000 taels of silver, I'll use it to open a money exchange next to Baiyufang..."

Zhu Cuiwei was stunned for a moment before finally saying, "You bribed them?"

Ning Nan retorted, dissatisfied: "What do you mean by bribery? What kind of talk is that? This is called making friends, you know?"

...The inside stories and loopholes of Baiyufang will be discovered sooner or later. After bribing everyone, everyone will have money in their hands. Then, we will all prosper together and suffer together. There is no need to worry about being held accountable afterward.

"These officials, Xu Zanshan and Liu Zhongyun came to Baiyufang so late that night to have a late-night chat with me. Aren't they tired? They value us so much, of course we have to show our appreciation! You were there that night too... Suzhou Prefecture and Songjiang Prefecture are under the jurisdiction of the Zhejiang Provincial Administration Commission, so we naturally have to show our appreciation to Lord Ou..."

"And then there's Eunuch Huang. He's just a eunuch, and I had Qian Sijin check with him. He doesn't even have a nephew; he only has a few adopted sons. This time, he's most likely the deputy director of Baiyufang... We definitely have to show our appreciation..."

Zhu Cuiwei listened for a long time. The other party's reasoning was sound, but her expression gradually became complicated, and she stared blankly at the other party.

The principle that "water that is too clear has no fish" is naturally understood, and it is also known that an honest official is not necessarily a capable official, and that one should not be bound by conventions when employing people.

However, seeing the other party so blatantly trying to bribe his ministers, he felt somewhat complicated.

"There's no need for that. At least Xu Longdao and Liu Zhi don't need to." She lowered her eyelids, took a breath, and said, "Even if you go and give it to them, they might not dare to accept it."

Ning Nan scoffed and dismissed it.

That night.

Perhaps because she had received 50,000 taels of silver from him, Cui Cui's wife was very satisfied. After the Mid-Autumn Festival, the two of them enjoyed a full moon that night.

The next morning, Ning Nan felt inexplicably refreshed as soon as he woke up.

Cui Cui's wife gets up early.

He was just as impressive today.

As the sky begins to lighten with the first hint of dawn.

The two had breakfast together for the first time in a long time.

His three-day confinement period is over, and he can go out today.

Not long after he saw his wife out of the mansion.

He then ordered Uncle Ping to drive the carriage to the private school in Willow Leaf Lane.

I've written about five essays in the past few days, as well as three policy essays. I need to take them to Mr. Huang for a good look and help him revise them.

A light mist hung over Datong Street.

He thought about it while in the carriage.

Uncle Ping stopped in front of the Nancheng Daily.

At this time, the newsboys of the Nancheng Daily had already gone out with the newspapers.

He went into the newspaper office.

He went directly to the backyard to find the newspaper's editor-in-chief—Li Yanting, the "reading seed."

Yesterday, my mother sent a letter saying that my cousin is determined to break off the engagement, or she will jump into the river with Wang Erniu. Li Yi was so angry that she hanged herself.

Fortunately, she was rescued. After being rescued, her cousin said, "Mom, I'll marry you, I'll marry you," and the mother and daughter hugged each other and cried for a long time.

After crying, Li Yi seemed to have come to a realization and said, "Let's just give up, let's just give up," and stopped pressuring her daughter.

They then started discussing with their mother how to resolve the matter, as their biggest concern was that it would affect Li Yanting's scientific expedition.

My cheap cousin is so clueless; she actually handed me a "breakup letter." I can't hide it from the student anymore, so it's better to end things quickly and let him get away so he can focus on his exams.

His mother entrusted this task to him, and no matter how much of a headache he had, he had no choice but to bite the bullet and do it.

Fortunately, when we entered the study that had been prepared specifically for this kid...

The bookworm, who was about to be jilted, did not give up on himself. Instead, he seemed to be engrossed in studying a game of chess.

The black and white pieces are arranged in a staggered pattern, forming a chessboard with nineteen lines.

I glanced at it.

Hmm, it seems like a game in the end.