The sky is gray and gloomy. After the accumulation of clouds over the city yesterday, today's sky is even colder.
In the tallest building of Taiping Residence, the incense wind is lingering, the light in the hall is bright, the layers of light gauze curtains are flying, and the pretty beauties are twisting their waists, singing and dancing.
The huge banquet was full of delicacies, including seafood and mountain delicacies.
The wealthy businessmen were beautifully dressed, luxurious and wealthy, and they were laughing and chatting happily. There were many attendants and beautiful maids standing beside the table.
Separated by a wall, Zhao Ning was sitting behind calligraphy and painting, sipping tea. The gauze on his face had been removed, and the gap on his lip was obvious.
Zaichun was practicing calligraphy next to her, and she couldn't help but look over at her from the corner of her eye, wondering if it would leak when she drank water.
The wall is hollow, with calligraphy and paintings hanging on both sides of the wall. You can hear all the voices from the next door, but it's just too noisy. Rather than talking about business, it's more like bragging and showing off.
Zhao Ning took his time and drank only half a cup in an hour.
After a long time, the noise from the next door gradually became less and less. Several wealthy businessmen left the table one by one. They were still laughing and chatting as they left. We will meet again someday.
About a stick of incense later, there was a knock on their door.
Zai Chun put down his pen and stood up, took the veil and put it on Zhao Ning, then went over to open the door.
Manager Chu, Manager Li, and Shopkeeper Cheng walked in and said respectfully: "Madam."
"Thank you for your hard work," Zhao Ning said, "Sit down."
They sat down on the crescent moon stool. Although they didn't eat much, they drank a lot. Their faces were all red and smelled of alcohol.
Manager Chu was the first to say: "I'm afraid we can't negotiate the business in Fenghe County. Liu He beats around the bush and refuses to get down to business, so I won't count on it yet."
Manager Li followed: "The Silk Di Silk business is done, and the price can be lowered, because their business is getting worse and worse."
"The resources of sea goods are about to be exhausted. The area to the southeast of Youzhou is now ruled by King Dacheng who is no longer named Li."
"Grain cannot be harvested now. Due to the strict control of the imperial court, many grain-producing places have almost no harvest this year. Just now, the shopkeeper mentioned that the palace with the highest income this year only only has eighty-four shi."
…
The stewards said something to me one by one.
Zhao Ning basically heard what they said, but she didn't interrupt and looked at them quietly.
The stewards finished what they could say and stopped.
Zhao Ning tapped his fingers on the table nearby, very regularly, once, twice, three times... His nails collided with the table, making a crisp sound.
After a while of silence, Zhao Ning said: "I want all those silks and all the cotton outside. In the next ten days, I will open a shop to collect winter clothes. If you can still see the winter clothes that others don't want, you can come and exchange them for a good price."
s price."
"Collecting winter clothes this winter?" Manager Li said, "I'm afraid no one will be willing."
"Those who are willing will come, and those who are unwilling will be unwilling." Zhao Ning said slowly.
Manager Chu frowned: "I'm just afraid that someone will be obsessed with money and take off their clothes to change them for money. If that's the case..."
"Do the people who freeze to death because of stupidity have anything to do with us?" Zhao Ning asked.
Manager Chu paused and said, "That's right. If you do something wrong, you won't survive."
"Ignore the food," Zhao Ning continued, "gather what we need and leave the rest untouched. We need to harvest tea in large quantities, the best and the best, and within five days, you will try your best to get through the tea leaves."
Take the trade route to Youzhou and Huguang."
"Going to Youzhou and Huguang?" Shopkeeper Cheng couldn't help but said, "But Madam, there's a war there."
"That's why the wealthy families who have taken refuge in the new king are even more frightened and have nothing to do," Zhao Ning said. "If we open up this business road, the tea will be sold at twenty times the price, and people who can afford it will come to drink it."
"Okay." Shopkeeper Cheng agreed.
A gust of cold wind blew from the window, Zhao Ning's veil moved slightly, her fingers were still tapping slowly on the table, quite regularly, and she continued to talk to several stewards.
Zaichun was slowly practicing calligraphy when he saw something blowing outside the window.
She opened her eyes and saw a piece of paper.
Maybe it was that "letter of confession" again. Zai Chun curled his lips and looked away.
·
There are still many pages flying in the sky.
Yesterday, many pages were picked up by the strong wind and fell on the roof and treetops. Today's wind blew them down again.
The content on the page, both literate and illiterate, can now almost memorize it.
Zhu Xian looked at the crumpled pieces of paper in his hand that had been forcibly smoothed, with a serious look on his face.
Because it was too dim, Manager Wei lit a candle and put it in front of the case.
Zhu Xian didn't respond, and looked at these words one by one.
"There is news from the Ministry of War," Wei Zhizhang said, "Ali's crossbow is broken."
Hearing the word "Ali", Zhu Xian raised his head: "Bad?"
"Everything inside was destroyed. There should be a small mechanism. She deliberately touched this mechanism when she took it off and threw it away, and the internal structure was broken." Wei Zhizhang said.
Zhu Xian was stunned for a moment, then nodded.
"Isn't it amazing?" Wei Zheng said, "Isn't it amazing?"
"Ali?"
"if not?"
"Awesome," Zhu Xian raised his hand and touched the book of death and said, "She is actually not a bad person."
"Oh?" Wei Zheng said, "Didn't Mr. Zhu say that right and wrong should be determined by the law and not be acted on impulse? This girl is a person who cares about human life. Yesterday, seventeen soldiers died and more than twenty people were injured.
All these lives should be attributed to her."
"But she let Guo Chao go yesterday," Zhu Xian frowned and looked at the dim window, "Guo Chao was provoked by Lu Ronghui to seek death. If she hadn't acted quickly, Guo Chao might have been lying in the coffin by now.
And those soldiers... they also dealt a fatal blow to her, either you die or I die, there is no right or wrong."
Manager Wei also frowned, turned around and sat down in front of his case, saying: "That's all, it's too difficult to sort out right and wrong, so I'll ignore it, but you have to be careful, your life may be difficult.
"
"I have a clear conscience." Zhu Xian looked at him and said.
Wei Zhilang laughed out loud: "No shame, I seem to have seen these two words before."
He took out the folded paper in his hand, which was also crumpled, opened it and spread it on the table.
"You see, Duke Dingguo's government has no shame," Wei Zheng thought, then raised his head, "Master Zhu, why don't we go check it out."
"check?"
"Didn't you say that Ah Li came to complain to you? You have a clear conscience, but you didn't dare to accept it at that time?"
Zhu Xian was stunned.
"Do you dare?" Wei Cong said, "Master Zhu, this little girl dares to break through thousands of troops and lodge a complaint in front of you, but as the Shaoyin of Cong Jingzhao Mansion, you dare not even accept the call?"
Zhu Xian clenched his fists, frowned, and looked at him steadily.
"Dare you dare or not?" Wei Zhan raised his eyebrows, "Don't you have a clear conscience?"
