Chapter 93 - 2#
The woman in red grabbed Tao Ran’s arm, took her to the door, and pushed her hard.
Tao Ran staggered out and stood in a daze at the bottom of the steps.
“You count, if you can count one, I’ll kowtow to you right here at the door,” the woman in red laughed playfully.
Tao Ran thought and thought, but couldn’t count even one. Those people were all saved by the Marquis’s residence, what did it have to do with her?
Her fair face turned red bit by bit, and she was so ashamed that she wished she could disappear. What was she?
The woman in red mocked, “What disgusts me the most is people like you who are full of benevolence, righteousness, and morality, but are actually full of male thieves and female prostitutes. Pui!”
A mouthful of spit landed on Tao Ran’s face.
Tao Ran felt disgusted and rushed up to beat the woman: “Who are you calling male thieves and female prostitutes? Are you from the Marquis’s residence? You are monitoring me!”
The woman kicked her to the ground and said coldly, “Run away quickly, the Qi family will send someone to kill you.”
Tao Ran, who was struggling to stand up, was stunned with fright, but quickly shook her head: “You are talking nonsense!”
“If you don’t believe it, just continue to live here. Qi Sifeng plans to kill you, strip the corpse naked, transport it into the Marquis’s residence, and throw it on the Little Marquis’s bed. Committing adultery with his father’s concubine and then killing her in anger, this move is enough to destroy the Little Marquis. At that time, to protect the Little Marquis, Qin Dehuai will definitely take out the minting rights and the death exemption gold medal. You, in Qi Sifeng’s eyes, are just a dog that can be killed at any time.”
The woman in red closed the courtyard door and said indifferently, “Whether you want to die or live, choose for yourself.”
Tao Ran sat on the ground in a daze, her mind in a mess.
The woman in red seemed to know everything. Who sent her? No, no, no, she was sowing discord. The young master and young lady are the most benevolent…
Her thoughts stagnated at this moment.
Mentioning the word benevolent, what appeared in Tao Ran’s mind was actually Qin Dehuai’s Maitreya Buddha-like smiling face, and then Qin Qing’s gentle profile. Those two were never stingy to her, nor to the refugees.
They did a lot of good deeds and saved many people.
And who did Tao Ran save?
Tao Ran got up, walked into Ci Ji Tang, looked at the empty courtyard, and finally cried out in shame. So this is what the Little Marquis meant by changing the world. Because the world has changed, women can also work to earn money, so Ci Ji Tang is actually unsustainable.
This is right. Ci Ji Tang should be empty.
Tao Ran cried and laughed, like a madwoman.
Late at night, Tao Ran lay on the bed, tossing and turning, listening to the movements outside.
Knock, knock, knock, someone was knocking on the door.
Tao Ran sat up in shock, looking around in panic.
Knock, knock, knock, the door sounded lightly again.
Tao Ran finally suppressed the fear in her heart and ran to open the door. She believed that the young master and young lady would not harm her.
“Mother Yang, you are here.” Tao Ran led a sturdy woman into the room.
“Miss received your purse; she asked you not to go back for now.”
“I know, I won’t go back. Did Miss know before that Ye Li is the Fourth Prince?”
“Miss knew, but couldn’t tell you, lest you reveal yourself in front of the Fourth Prince.”
“So that’s how it is.” Tao Ran lowered her head.
“Did the Marquis’s residence give you any bank notes when they kicked you out?” Greed appeared in Mother Yang’s eyes.
“No. My Ci Ji Tang is very short of silver. Can Miss advance some to me? After all, this is doing good deeds. Miss is the most benevolent; she will agree, right?” Tao Ran looked at Mother Yang expectantly, but her heart was pounding.
She was testing. This shouldn’t have been. Didn’t she know clearly what kind of person Miss was?
“Okay, I’ll go back and tell Miss.” Mother Yang agreed readily.
Tao Ran breathed a huge sigh of relief. See, Miss is a good person! Miss is not bad compared to the Little Marquis, just a bit stupid.
Tao Ran was thinking wildly.
Mother Yang licked her lips and said, “I’m thirsty, go pour me a cup of tea.”
“Ah, okay.” Tao Ran stood up and walked out of the room.
Mother Yang quickly untied her belt, deftly looped it around Tao Ran’s neck, and strangled her backward fiercely.
“Little bitch, if you hadn’t sent that letter to Miss, Miss wouldn’t have lost such face in front of the Fourth Prince! The stones were mixed by the Fourth Prince’s order. Did you know but not report it? Die. Only by dying can you help Miss.” Mother Yang whispered viciously.
Tao Ran grabbed the belt and struggled desperately, but her breath was still taken away bit by bit.
So what the woman in red said was all true. How vicious!
The kind young master and young lady turned out to be such vicious people! What eliminating evil! Joke! A huge joke! Staying in the Marquis’s residence for so many years, she didn’t see great evil, only saw fatherly kindness and filial piety, and generosity and benevolence.
Only blame herself for being blinded by lard, thinking that the Tai’an Marquis’s residence was bad.
“So, sorry, Marquis.” When her life was about to end, Tao Ran’s eyes were red, and she spat out this sentence with difficulty.
To protect her, the Marquis sent her out of the Marquis’s residence. But the Qi family wanted to send her corpse back to harm the Marquis.
Ironic, really too ironic! Hahaha…
Tao Ran twitched the corner of her mouth neurotically.
When her last breath was about to be cut off, Mother Yang actually let go. Tao Ran coughed violently, then crawled towards the door at high speed.
“Crawl, crawl far away, don’t let the Qi family find you. If it weren’t for the Little Marquis’s weak body, and our master wanting to pray for blessings and accumulate virtue for him, you would have to die here tonight.” The woman in red walked out of the room stepping on Mother Yang’s corpse.
Tao Ran didn’t know how she appeared, but this was what made people fearful.
Tao Ran crawled out of Ci Ji Tang, without silver or identity documents.
Going outside, she would become a refugee. Whether she could live or not depended on luck.
Dawn broke, and the warm morning light covered Jiangbei City.
A carriage moved slowly on the street, with Li Suye and Qi Sifeng sitting inside.
Li Suye rubbed his temples one by one, his face full of fatigue. The courtyard prepared by the Qi family for him was very spacious, and the bedroom was extremely comfortable, but it made him sleepless all night. He knew that was because the Qi family was too far from Qin Qing.
“Fourth Prince, did you not sleep well? This official’s sister is good at blending incense. How about this official orders her to blend a box of soothing incense for you?” Qi Sifeng asked cautiously.
“Can the incense made by the Qi family be better than that of the Tai’an Marquis’s residence?” Li Suye asked lightly.
Qi Sifeng was silent for a moment and answered: “The recipe for making incense from the Tai’an Marquis’s residence has spread throughout Jiangbei City. My sister also has it. The incense made by both should be the same.”
“Oh? Already spread? Is it all handmade by women?” Li Suye asked in a deep voice.
“Yes, all handmade by women. Recently, many small incense-making workshops have opened in Jiangbei City.”
“With so much incense produced, can it be sold out?”
“It can be sold out. Nearby towns are rushing to buy it, and many merchants purchasing incense have also come from Jiangnan.”
Li Suye chuckled in a low voice and suddenly felt a bit more spirited. This is the change Qin Qing wanted.
The carriage suddenly stopped, and Ah Niu said from outside: “Master, the rice shop is ahead. Many people are grabbing rice.”
Li Suye immediately lifted the curtain and looked out. It was still early, just as night and dawn were alternating, but the people in the city had already surrounded all the rice shops with rice bags, blocking them completely.
Because they knew that the rice supplied by the rice shop every day was limited, and they couldn’t buy it if they went late.
After today, tomorrow’s rice price will rise again. Therefore, if they don’t buy today, they won’t be able to afford it tomorrow. But every today will welcome a tomorrow, and the rice price will keep rising until it is beyond everyone’s reach.
Li Suye frowned and looked at the anxious crowd.
Qi Sifeng also showed a look of worry and intolerance, but in reality, he was extremely excited.
He transferred the official grain from nearby cities and sold it in his own rice shop, and also bought a lot at a high price to hoard. After this winter, the Qi family will profit hundreds of thousands of taels of silver from it.
With silver, he can bribe his way up to a high position. If the Fourth Prince is unapproachable, aren’t there several other princes?
Qi Sifeng thought happily in his heart.
Li Suye jumped off the carriage, squeezed into the rice shop with the help of guards, and asked about the price.
He visited more than a dozen rice shops in a row, and when he returned to the carriage, his face had become extremely gloomy.
“Forty-eight catties of rice for one tael of silver, how can ordinary people live? The rice price must come down.” He said toughly.
Qi Sifeng lowered his head and reported: “Your Highness, the laws of Great Yan do not have such a provision. The prices set by rice merchants are too high because the rice produced in the fields is too little, and their purchase prices are also high. If they are forced to sell at a low price, they will go bankrupt. I am the parent official of this Jiangbei City after all; how can I drive people to a dead end.”
“It is these unscrupulous rice merchants who are driving people to a dead end.” Li Suye said in a deep voice: “Call all the rice merchants in the city to the government office. This Prince will talk to them personally.”
Qi Sifeng pretended to agree in fear, but sneered repeatedly in his heart.
The Fourth Prince’s coercion will not succeed. Behind those rice merchants stand local tyrants, whose courage is bigger than the sky. Everyone burns a few empty rice granaries and reports that there is no rice to sell. What can the Fourth Prince do?
For several days in a row, all rice shops do not sell rice. Can the Fourth Prince kill everyone?
The rice merchants didn’t violate the criminal law. The Fourth Prince doing so can only destroy his own future. At that time, a large group of people in the city will starve to death, and memorials impeaching the Fourth Prince will fall on the Emperor’s desk like snowflakes.
I could have assisted you and helped you handle the disaster in Jiangbei City, but you humiliated me first. This can’t be blamed on me! Qi Sifeng thought somewhat contemptuously in his heart.
Li Suye looked at the people rushing to buy grain in groups, and his fists clenched involuntarily.
He knew that those rice merchants would definitely not submit. As the saying goes, cutting off someone’s wealth is like killing their parents. To protect their wealth, they will definitely fight back fiercely.
Burn granaries? Close shops collectively? Deliberately starve people to death? Bribe officials to impeach him?
Li Suye gritted his teeth while thinking. If he doesn’t sit on that supreme throne and set a prairie fire to burn all the rotten things, the Great Yan Kingdom is hopeless.
If there were more people like Qin Qing…
Li Suye’s cold and stern eyes softened at this moment.
Outside the carriage, the crowd rushing to buy grain let out desperate cries because the rice shop closed.
“Proprietor, my child is starving to death, please open the door!” A man beat the door panel hard and shouted hoarsely.
But it was useless. The door was tightly closed.
Inside the door were piles of grain, but outside the door was a group of people about to starve to death.
On the way to the Marquis’s residence for the first time, Li Suye kept reciting a line of poetry in his heart—Wine and meat rot inside the vermilion gates, while frozen bones lie on the roadside.
As a result, he found that there were wine and meat inside the vermilion gates, but no frozen bones on the roadside. However, so many people about to starve to death were kneeling at the entrance of the rice shop.
“No rice to sell, get lost!” Several burly men came out from the back door of the rice shop, kicking and beating the crowd.
“But the rice bucket is still half full, we all saw it!”
Even beaten until their heads were broken and bleeding, the crowd did not disperse. If they leave today and come back tomorrow, the rice price will double again.
They are afraid! They want to live!
Cold light leaked from Li Suye’s eyes. Is there really no way to punish these unscrupulous rice merchants?
No way, Fourth Prince. As long as all rice merchants unite not to ship, not to open doors, not to do business, what can you do? After making a fuss for a while, the rice price will only be higher. You know, a strong dragon cannot suppress a local snake!
Qi Sifeng lowered his head, hiding the mockery in his eyes.
Just then, someone shouted on the street: “Don’t stand here stupidly. All the shops of the Tai’an Marquis’s residence have now changed to selling rice. One tael of silver can buy one hundred and fifty catties. Go quickly!”
“What? Real or fake?” The crowd that was crying desperately just now let out exclamations of ecstasy.
“Real! As long as it is a shop opened by the Tai’an Marquis’s residence, whether it sells rouge and powder or clothes and jewelry, they all start selling rice now. It’s this price every day, absolutely no increase. Go quickly.”
“Go quickly, go quickly! If we go late, it will close again!” The crowd surged immediately.
The man shouted again: “Don’t rush, don’t rush. The Little Marquis said that their family has plenty of rice, and they can’t finish selling it until next winter. You can buy it whether you go early or late. The Marquis’s residence is extremely wealthy, you don’t know that.”
The anxious crowd settled down immediately. The person who squeezed his shoes off just now was looking for shoes all over the ground with his butt sticking up, not anxious at all.
The Marquis’s residence is as wealthy as a country; who doesn’t know this! Since their family said there is endless rice to sell, it is naturally true.
The crowd dispersed happily.
Li Suye looked at that bustle, listened to the intermittent laughter, and fell into a daze.
Qi Sifeng’s face turned pale at this moment. If the Marquis’s residence keeps putting low-priced rice into the market, all the grain merchants in Jiangbei City will go bankrupt!
What a vicious method!
Thinking that his family also bought a lot of high-priced rice, waiting to sell it at a higher price, Qi Sifeng was angry and almost vomited a mouthful of blood.
Li Suye recovered from his daze, clapped his hands slowly, and laughed in a low voice.
Qin Qing, this Jiangbei City still has to rely on you…