Red Mansion: Picking up a Lin Daiyu

Chapter 177 Gambling, Scam
The woman was careful and attentive. The two concubines in Lin Ruhai's room seemed to have thought of something, but they just smiled and didn't expose it.

Lin Ruhai was still in the dark and had no idea what was going on in Lin Daiyu's little head.

"When she was at home, she was too lazy to go out and walk around in the yard. How come after a year or so, she is willing to go on a long journey?"

"Besides, I've also heard about the situation in Cangzhou. There have been a lot of floods in recent years, and the Grand Canal has become wider, swallowing up a lot of surrounding fields. The prefect of Cangzhou City is also a idiot. He has not been able to repair the water conservancy for many years. Cangzhou City has always been in great distress. Many people have fled south to avoid the disaster, and even our Yangzhou City has provided a lot of assistance."

"This is not an easy task. Why did Yue Ling volunteer to take it on?"

Aunt Zhou handed over some warm tea and asked, "Then the master is worried about Master Yue?"

Lin Ruhai took a sip of tea, warmed himself up, and frowned, "I don't know if he can calm the chaos, but Cangzhou Prefecture is already in chaos, and Yu'er shouldn't be brought along. What if something goes wrong with her?"

Aunt Zhou thought for a moment, then brought up another matter, explaining, "Didn't the young lady write to you before that she had some unpleasantness in Rongguo Mansion? It was Jia Baoyu, the son of the Jia family, who offended the young lady. Lord Yue must have been worried that it would be unsafe to leave the young lady alone in the capital, so he brought her with him."

Lin Ruhai's brows relaxed slightly, and when he mentioned the Jia family, he felt a nameless anger rise in his heart, "It does make some sense. That ungrateful kid from the Jia family really needs to be disciplined. I'm afraid the old lady wants to match Yu'er with that boy, so she indulges him like this. I should go to Rongguo Mansion to ask what's going on!"

When he thought of what happened in the Rongguo Mansion, Lin Ruhai felt that it would be better for Lin Daiyu to stay with Yue Ling so as to avoid being contaminated by the foul atmosphere of the mansion.

Picking up the letter again, Lin Ruhai said, "I just came back from outside and I have no time to rest. I have to help him deal with official business. It's really annoying. I only helped him this time for Yu'er's sake."

The two aunts smiled again.

"If the master helps, the young lady will also have face in front of Master Yue, which is just right."

Lin Ruhai shook his head and sighed, "How can it be that easy to develop the salt industry? The Zhejiang merchants are in charge in the south, and the Shanxi merchants are in charge in the north. It is not easy to pry some meat from their mouths. Even if we really produce salt, how to sell it is a problem."

Aunt Zhou asked, "Does the master have any solution?"

Lin Ruhai shook his head again. "I don't have any good ideas at the moment, so I'll just include them in my reply and ask him to think about it carefully. When governing a place, you can't rush it, you have to take it slow and steady."

The two concubines quietly accompanied Lin Ruhai as he wrote the letter, one grinding ink and the other adding tea.

……

Cangzhou Prefecture,
Inside the inn, Aunt Xue was sitting beside the bed, doing some needlework to calm her mood.

Her son was sent back to Jinling to suffer, and her most beloved daughter actually talked back to her again and again because of the marquis, which really made her unhappy.

When Aunt Xue thought of this, she lost interest, threw the needle and thread into the basket, and frowned.

"I don't know what's wrong with this precious girl. She seems to have become a completely different person. We can't let her go out casually from now on. Even the smartest woman can be deceived by men. When she loses the bet this time, I will ask her to stay in her room and listen to me in everything."

"I am her mother, how could I harm her?"

"A marquis, no matter how great he is, can't be better than the Duke's Mansion. What benefit can the Xue family get by working for him? The marquis must have promised Bao girl some benefits, making Bao girl think that the Xue family can make further progress, so she obeyed the marquis's words."

"What can a marquis who was born as a military officer know about economics? If money is so easy to make, why doesn't he make it himself and leave it to the Xue family? Can this be a good intention?"

"I have eaten more salt than she has eaten rice, yet she still thinks that my vision is too short-sighted."

It would have been fine if Aunt Xue didn’t think about it, but the more she thought about it, the angrier she became, and the wrinkles between her brows deepened.

"Tonggui, do you know what Bao Yatou has been doing recently?"

A simple-dressed maid came forward, bowed to Aunt Xue and replied, "The young lady has not been out for the past two days, but has been exchanging letters with people outside."

Aunt Xue tilted her head and asked, "Correspondence?"

"Yes, they are the shopkeepers of Hefeng brand stores in various places, as well as the government offices."

Aunt Xue sighed secretly and said, "Alas, it seems that the Xue family will suffer a heavy loss this time. Tonggui, go and write a letter to the shopkeeper in Jinling and ask him to reserve more cash just in case."

At the right moment, Tongxi ran in quickly and said to Aunt Xue, "Madam, our Xue family's boat is outside the city. It is the boat that is carrying grain for the young lady. But for some reason, it dropped anchor and took in the sails, and sold the grain outside the city."

Aunt Xue couldn't help but slap her thigh and laughed, "Bao girl is so stupid that she's possessed. It's still several miles from the dock to the city. Who would go outside the city to buy food? It's also one thousand taels. I don't think she can even earn ten taels."

Aunt Xue was feeling smug, thinking about how to manipulate Xue Baochai to facilitate her marriage with the Jia family, when she heard Tongxi struggling and saying, "Madam, that's not the case. I heard from people down there that many people went to grab grain because they only sell it for a hundred coins, while the price of grain in the city has risen to two hundred coins."

"Two hundred wen?"

Aunt Xue was shocked when she heard this, her mouth opened wide, "What kind of evildoer is this? Usually, grain is only fifteen or twenty cents, but he dares to sell it for two hundred cents?"

Tongxi crossed his index fingers and said, "Not only that, the price will go up tomorrow, by another ten cents."

"What? Another ten percent increase? Two hundred and ten coins? Why don't they go and rob?" Aunt Xue stood up in shock and asked, "What about the marquis? Why doesn't he do something about it? These people are raising the price like this and making money unscrupulously. Doesn't he see anything?"

Tongxi replied awkwardly, "Rumor has it that it was Marquis Anjing who asked the grain merchants to raise the price, up to 250 coins, and the grain merchants said that they sympathized with the suffering of the people in the city, so they raised the price little by little, only 10 coins a day."

"He is a black-hearted man. This Marquis is also a black-hearted person! My Xue family cannot be in collusion with him. If he gets into trouble one day, won't my Xue family be implicated?"

Aunt Xue was about to go out to persuade Xue Baochai, but was stopped by Tongxi.

Aunt Xue's eyebrows turned red with displeasure, "Tongxi, what's wrong with you? How dare you block my way?"

Tongxi's face was almost twisted into a ball, and he said in a tangled way: "Madam, our Xue family is the one that makes money now. I'm afraid that the young lady's ship of food will be robbed soon. And the young lady is not next door now. Just now, the young lady took a car to leave the city."

Aunt Xue woke up as if from a dream, "What? I'm going to lose?"

……

Outside Cangzhou City, at the dock,

The dock was unusually lively at this time, not because there were too many ships at the dock and it was too busy, but because there were too many people rushing to buy food, surrounding the Xue family's merchant ship in three layers inside and outside.

The Xue family's merchant ship had lowered its flag early, and on the deck was a retail boatman disguised as the owner of a Feng ship.

Faced with such a turbulent public sentiment, the shopkeeper of Fengzihao also felt it was difficult to deal with. He hurriedly followed the instructions of Xue Baochai, the eldest daughter of the Xue family, and said to the people below: "Thank you all for your help. If it weren't for everyone coming to buy this grain, I'm afraid it would have gone bad on the way, and this trip would have been in vain. I would have lost everything I put in."

The simply dressed people below completely ignored the boatman's words and continued to rush to the side of the boat, with noise rising in the crowd.

"Boatman, do you have any food in the cabin? Take it out quickly, we need to buy it urgently!"

"Yes, stop talking nonsense. How many kilograms of food can your ship carry? With so many of us, can we let your food go to waste?"

"Hurry up, hurry up, if too many people come soon, we won't be able to grab them!"

The shopkeeper raised his hand to appease the people below and maintain order in the field. "Don't worry, I have 5,000 kilograms of cargo in my ship's hold. It shouldn't be a problem for each of you to get 10 kilograms."

"What can ten kilograms do? There are seven people in my family, give me a hundred kilograms first!"

"Yes, I want 100 kilograms too."

Just as the quarrel was going on on the field, a group of people came from below, squeezed into the crowd, and caused a lot of shouting and cursing.

This group of people were all dressed the same, like security guards, holding short sticks in their hands and with the word "yellow" tattooed on their chests.

At the front of the team, a man revealed his identity and said, "Everyone, make way. I am the steward of the Huang family in Cangzhou. My Huang family wants this ship. One pound of food is 110 coins. How about that?"

Someone immediately retorted: "What's wrong with your Huang family? You have to follow the first come first served rule when buying things!"

The Huang family’s housekeeper said, “Business is all about mutual consent. I am willing to buy at a high price, and the boatman is willing to sell at a high price. Who cares? There is no such thing as first come first served. The one with the highest bid wins!”

The shopkeeper of the Xue family looked guilty, and he bowed to all four of them, saying, "I'm sorry, everyone. I was stranded on the river, so I had to sell the grain in Cangzhou. I have to pay for the breach of contract and repair the boat, so naturally the higher the price, the better. I'm really sorry, everyone."

"This distinguished guest from the Huang family, please come aboard."

Everyone was complaining, but only the Huang family's butler walked onto the deck with his head held high. He looked at the people around him with contempt, and curled his lips in disdain.

Turning back, he said, "You are a sensible person. Please transport the food on this ship. Five thousand kilograms of food is worth five hundred and fifty taels."

The shopkeeper said awkwardly, "Sir, it's not five thousand catties. I have fifteen thousand catties in total."

The housekeeper was shocked. "Your boat can hold 15,000 jin. Who are you kidding?"

"These two boats behind are also mine."

"Why are the two ships behind broken down as well?"

The shopkeeper stroked his beard and smiled, "No, we just wanted to sell them all at once. We said less would make it easier to sell. Isn't this a business tactic? You, the Huang family, should understand this when you do business."

The housekeeper swallowed his anger and said to the people around him, "Okay, my Huang family will take it all and give him 1,650 taels!"

The shopkeeper bowed and said, "Thank you very much, sir. The Huang family is very generous."

(End of this chapter)