She's skilled in medicine, martial arts, and even understands animal language—the abandoned dau

Kong's sister-in-law stroked the wild silkworm silk with great affection, a look of delight on her face.

She immediately realized that these wild silkworms would become the signature product of her family's shop.

"I'll take all the silk you have, and I'll give you the deposit right now!"

As she spoke, Sister-in-law Kong took a hundred-tael silver note from the back of the shop and handed it to Lanxiang. "Although we are acquainted, there are some things I still need to make clear. If you sell the goods to someone else after I pay the deposit, you will have to compensate me double for my losses."

Upon hearing this, Shen Man quickly replied, "Don't worry, Auntie, we won't sell it to anyone else."

Lanxiang took the deposit from Kong's sister-in-law, carefully put it in her bosom, and then asked her, "When are you going to the village to pick up the goods?"

"I'll go when my husband comes back tomorrow," Kong's sister-in-law replied.

"Okay, then we'll be waiting for you at home tomorrow."

The mother and daughter returned to the village and couldn't wait to tell the village head the good news, and handed over the hundred taels of deposit from Kong's sister-in-law to him.

The village head was overjoyed to receive the silver notes and immediately summoned Jiang Qi to discuss the price of the goods.

"Dyed silk is already much more expensive than undyed silk, let alone wild silk that is not easy to dye, so it should be even more expensive."

Jiang Qi estimated that this batch of wild silk could be sold for at least three hundred taels of silver.

The village head nodded, feeling reassured. He instructed the villagers to prepare the goods and wait for the Kong family to come and collect them.

The next day, Mr. Kong and his wife arrived at Xiaoyao Village as agreed to pick up the goods.

Master Kong was very pleased to see the brightly colored wild silk. After some bargaining, they finally agreed on a price of three hundred taels of silver.

Master Kong paid the balance immediately and packed all the silk into a bag to take away. They didn't return to the town, but instead took the goods directly to a shop in the county town to sell.

Looking at the silver notes in the village head's hand, the villagers asked happily, "Village head, we made quite a bit of money from selling our silk. When are you going to share some with us? I'm waiting for the money to buy cattle!"

The village head smiled and said, "Don't worry, everyone. We'll be building a few more large silkworm rearing houses this year. Once they're finished, we'll settle the profits and expenses, set aside enough for next year's costs, and then distribute the profits to everyone."

"Oh, we still have to wait until the end of the year..."

"Of course, maybe we can harvest another batch of silkworms in the mountains. We can use the money from the year-end sale to buy cattle, and they'll be ready to be used next year!"

"That's true!"

"Work hard, and I will make sure you get your share of the money you're entitled to!" the village headman shouted.

Meanwhile, after Master Kong brought the batch of silk to his shop in Tongan County, he had just put it on the shelf when it attracted the attention of many customers.

This batch of silk is not only brightly colored, but also of superior quality and has an excellent feel to the touch.

More importantly, the price was relatively reasonable compared to other types of silk. As a result, all the silk was sold out in less than half an hour.

Master Kong was overjoyed; this business deal had made him a fortune!

However, the fact that the Kong family's shop was doing so well naturally attracted the attention of Geng Qingshi, the third son of the Geng family, who also had a shop on the same street.

He immediately sent someone to the Kong family's shop to inquire about the situation and learned that they had brought back a batch of dyed wild silkworm silk from Qiufeng Town, which was why their business was so booming.

So, Geng Qingshi quickly found an old customer and bought some wild silk from him at a high price, wanting to see for himself what kind of goods could make people so frantically buy them.

When he saw the wild silkworm silk in his hand, he was greatly surprised. He immediately got into a carriage and rushed back to the Geng family in Lin County, and told his elder brother Geng Qingsong the news.

"Brother, those country bumpkins in Qiufeng Town have not only learned how to reel silk, but also how to dye wild silkworm silk. This is silk I bought from a customer at a high price. Look how bright this purple is! Even our experienced dyers, with decades of experience, couldn't achieve this effect. I heard their dyeing master was brought in from the capital. If we could poach him from there..."

"Such a thing actually happened!" Geng Qingsong took the wild silkworm silk handed to him by his younger brother and examined it carefully.

“Indeed, as you say, their dyeing skills are superb, far beyond our reach. I had long anticipated they would become our rivals, but I never expected this day to come so soon!” Geng Qingsong sighed. “However, it’s not easy to find skilled dyers in the capital, and poaching them won’t be easy either…”

Geng Qingshi scratched his head. "What can we do? We can't just sit here and wait to die! We have to think of a way, otherwise they'll steal all our business!"

The two fell into deep thought.

Suddenly, a glint of light flashed in Geng Qingsong's eyes, "Perhaps there is a way to make all the money they've worked so hard to earn go down the drain!"

"What method?" Geng Qingshi asked, somewhat puzzled.

Geng Qingsong gestured for him to come closer and then spoke to him in this manner.

Upon hearing this, Geng Qingshi nodded repeatedly, a sinister smile appearing on his face: "Brother, this method is excellent. Tomorrow I will prepare generous gifts and go to the Tongan County government office to inform Lord Jin of this news."

“Jin An is the kind of person who takes every penny he can get. I don’t believe he’ll remain indifferent after hearing this news,” Geng Qingsong said quietly.

The next day, Geng Qingshi arrived at the Tongan County government office with generous gifts, requesting an audience with County Magistrate Jin An.

"Lord Jin, I have something important to tell you." Geng Qingshi said with a fawning smile when he saw Jin An.

Jin An glanced at him with her small eyes, secretly wondering what his purpose was.

"Just say what you need to say. I have many other matters to attend to," Jin An said calmly.

"It's like this, sir. I've discovered that some people in Qiufeng Town are using wild silkworm cocoons from the mountains to make money by reeling silk," Geng Qingshi said in a low voice.

"You can earn a few copper coins by picking up a few wild silkworm cocoons. Is this trivial matter worth my time?" Jin An's face turned cold, feeling that Geng Qingshi was wasting his time.

"Sir, that's not just a matter of a few copper coins. Do you know how much their silk sells for per pound?" Geng Qingshi deliberately exaggerated.

"How much?" Jin An was indeed intrigued and asked curiously.

"Five taels of silver per catty!" Geng Qingshi held up one finger, indicating "five".

Jin An's eyes widened. "So many?"

Geng Qingshi hurriedly said, "Sir, the laws of our Chiyan Kingdom clearly stipulate that all trade must pay taxes to the government. Their silk is so expensive, they make a lot of money..."

Jin An stroked his chin, lost in thought.

"If this is true, I might be able to make a fortune..." he thought to himself, his gaze toward Geng Qingshi becoming increasingly eager.

"You have done well. I will send men to Qiufeng Town tomorrow to investigate this matter. If it is true, I will punish them severely!"