The weavers' school in Guoxiang outside the city was crowded with people inside and outside.
Li Jinzhu and Sister-in-law Yin stood at the door of the main house. Surrounded by them stood Sister-in-law Lu and other people in charge of collecting fine cloth from each village and town, the headmasters of various weaver schools, and the heads of families who came from various towns and villages.
A group of gentry in long robes.
In front of Li Jinzhu and Sister-in-law Yin, several women were sitting on the ground, crying so much that they could no longer cry.
"The price of this fine cloth cannot be whatever you say, right?" shouted a clan leader standing at the front.
People all over the courtyard responded in a flurry of voices.
"That's right! Now the price has dropped by half! How can there be such a reason!"
"We don't use your looms now. We buy our own looms. The price should be raised!"
"That's right! This price is definitely not good!"
"What price you say is the price? How can this be reasonable!"
…
Sister-in-law Yin stood next to Li Jinzhu and kept looking at Li Jinzhu.
A middle-aged gentleman raised his hand to signal everyone to be quiet, took a step forward, cupped his hands at Li Jinzhu and said: "Mrs. Li, your Li family is not what it used to be, so you should be more considerate of people's livelihood and be magnanimous. How can you be so mercenary?
Why are you squeezing these hard-working people to this extent? Doesn’t Mrs. Li think about your sister?"
"If this gentleman thinks that this fine cloth business is profitable, why don't you accept their fine cloth and make a huge profit back?" Li Jinzhu looked at the middle-aged gentleman and said calmly.
"Mrs. Li didn't make any money from this fine cloth business?" the young scholar next to the middle-aged gentry asked angrily.
"It's true that I didn't make any money." Li Jinzhu replied.
"Joke!" The young scholar didn't believe it at all.
"How can you talk to Mrs. Li like that?" the middle-aged gentleman pretended to blame, looked at Li Jinzhu and said: "The price of this fine cloth has always been like this, but Mrs. Li suddenly dropped so much, and after my sister married into the prince's palace,
,Did Mrs. Li always do it to gain fame for your sister?"
"That's right, your sister married into the prince's palace, and we all paid for it!" A woman next to Sister-in-law Lu said angrily.
"This fine cloth business does not belong to the Li family. If you think the price offered by the Li family is low, then sell it to someone else." Li Jinzhu ignored the middle-aged gentry and looked at the group of patriarchs.
"Other families have said that they will pay whatever price Mrs. Li pays." A clan leader said angrily.
"This is the price of fine cloth. If you don't want to weave fine cloth anymore, you can sell the loom yourself, or sell it to me at 20% off. That's it, let's go." Li Jinzhu motioned to Sister-in-law Yin.
"Dong Li's family." Sister-in-law Lu called.
Li Jinzhu stopped and looked at Sister-in-law Lu.
"I was the first to follow the Li Dong family to do this fine cloth business. At that time, the Crown Princess was still in charge. The business was doing well and getting better and better. The owner shouldn't be like this. Even if the price needs to be lowered, it can't be reduced so much all at once.
"This price is really not enough!" Sister-in-law Lu felt extremely depressed.
Li Jinzhu looked at Sister-in-law Lu for a moment without saying anything, then turned to signal to Sister-in-law Yin, "Let's go."
"Aren't you afraid that Mrs. Li will be unfavorable to your sister if she insists on going her own way?" the middle-aged gentleman shouted.
Li Jinzhu stopped and looked at the middle-aged gentleman, "I haven't read a book and I'm stupid. I can't speak to you. My fourth sister's reputation was not bought with copper coins, so I'm not afraid. This fine cloth business is business, business.
Please tell me what you say, my sister. I understand your intentions clearly, and I’m not afraid either. Let’s go.”
Li Jinzhu turned around and left.
Sister-in-law Yin hurriedly followed.
The two got into the car. Sister-in-law Yin held up the curtain and watched as they walked away. Then she lowered the curtain and looked at Li Jinzhu and said worriedly: "You really won't do anything bad to grandma?"
"If such a small thing can make Grandma unhappy, then if it weren't for this thing, Grandma wouldn't be well off either." Li Jinzhu said with lowered eyes.
"That's true." Sister-in-law Yin sighed, "I don't know how Grandma is doing. Grandma is in heaven now."
"Let's take stock of the accounts." Li Jinzhu took out the account book.
She couldn't let herself be idle. When she had a little free time, she would think about whether she had caused trouble to Grandma, how much trouble she had caused, whether Grandma could hold on, and how embarrassed Grandma would be...
……………………
Jianle City.
Zhou Chennian read the letters from friends in Jiangnan one after another, and the more he read, the tighter his brows became.
Alas! I need to talk to the prince about this quickly!
Zhou Chennian picked a few letters and took them to Gu Yan's room.
Zhou Chennian waited for Gu Yan to write several documents and handed over the letters. Gu Yan unfolded them, read them, and patted them on the table.
Zhou Chennian looked at Gu Yan's expression and was not sure whether he knew about the big price reduction of fine cloth or not. He tried to say: "The fine cloth business is doing well. Well, I'm afraid something happened."
?”
"A-nan told me that this is what A-nan meant." Gu Yan patted the letters.
Zhou Chennian raised his eyebrows high.
The Crown Princess is not a mercenary person.
Seeing that Gu Yan stopped talking, Zhou Chennian couldn't help but ask: "What about the price reduction?"
Gu Yan glanced at Zhou Chennian. He didn't say hello to Zhou Chennian about the price reduction of fine cloth because he felt that Grandma's reason for the price reduction was a bit unreasonable.
"A-nan said that weaving fine cloth is too profitable, so the weaving of fine cloth has been transferred from women's hands to men's hands." Gu Yan looked at the letters.
Zhou Chennian failed to react, "What's wrong with transferring it to men? Lower the price of fine cloth, and then no one will weave fine cloth."
"You don't have much experience in the detailed affairs of this state and county." Gu Yan said bluntly: "I have asked several clerks who are proficient in general affairs about this matter." Gu Yan paused, "You can handle this matter yourself.
Ask and see. Write a letter to Pan Shiyi and ask him to stay on Liangzhe Road for a few days to investigate the fine cloth matter."
"Okay. Where is Uncle Pan?" Zhou Chennian agreed.
"Think about it, we should reach Liangzhe Road in two or three days. Write the letter and give it to Shi Gun, and ask him to pick someone to go and deliver the letter." Gu Yan said.
"Okay, then I'll write a letter quickly." Zhou Chennian stood up and went out.
……………………
Liu Jingting looked at the roll of drawings given by Li Xiaonan and looked over it over and over again when she got back. She seemed to have an idea until she saw it was getting dark. Then she looked at it all night and saw that it was bright and facing the rising sun. She felt dizzy and confused. I understand, but I don’t seem to understand at all.
I was so tired that I slept for an hour. Then I got up and continued reading. I read it all night and day again. This time I really understood it. I danced excitedly and shouted for people to come in and ask for Awu to deliver a message. Only to find that they had already arrived at the scheduled time. separated.
Liu Jingting sat cross-legged and meditated, suppressing her excitement, and had a good night's sleep. Early the next morning, someone sent a message to Awu that he wanted to make the crown prince concubine.
