"Shh, be quiet." Zhao Yunyan pulled Boss Fang. "People are coming and going, but don't talk without restraint!"
"And in my opinion, the prince is such a noble person, why would he use his reputation to deceive us?"
"Going to sea to do business must be something real."
Zhao Yunyan's eyes were serious.
"...Boss Zhao trusts His Highness King Wu so much." Boss Fang teased. "Your family runs a rice shop. Your Highness, King Wu, must have gained quite a lot of wealth with his skills in the past few days, right?"
"If His Highness comes here again, won't your Zhaojia Rice Shop be bankrupt and expelled?"
"..." Zhao Yunyan's eyes darkened. What Boss Fang said is actually not bad. The previous "donation" of rice grains and the "doing business" of His Highness the King of Wu's shares really caused their Zhaojia Mipu to have a hard time.
Other merchants are hoarding grain because they see that the price of rice is going to rise, so they intend to hoard it and buy at a low price and sell at a high price. Although they have stored so much food, the family mainly relies on other businesses. For example, the Ma family, a salt merchant who was confiscated to store grain, suffered heavy losses, but it did not damage the foundation.
But the Zhao family is different. The main business of the Zhao family is the rice shop. The shortage of rice in the grain depot will inevitably affect the overall business operation of the Zhao family's rice shop. How can the rice shop open for business if there is not enough food in stock?
"...Boss Zhao, why don't you go and talk to the prince?" Seeing Zhao Yunyan's sad expression, Boss Fang felt that he was teasing a little too much. "Since the prince has taken advantage of the shipping business, it means he doesn't want to make things too serious."
"After all, he is still a young prince. How can His Majesty in the capital ignore him?"
"As long as you go to Shen Yuan and cry and beg, I think your rice will be returned. After all, your family is different from ours, so we can't really cause your family to be ruined, right?"
"No need..." Zhao Yunyan looked up at Boss Fang and shook his head. As the saying goes, we don’t worry about scarcity but inequality. If he alone asks for the food back, what will other colleagues think of him?
He is bound to be targeted and ostracized, so how can he care about what kind of rice merchant he is?
When a businessman does business, the most important thing is connections. If you lose your connections, even if you get the grain back, your rice shop will not be able to survive for a long time due to the rejection of many Suzhou merchants.
Moreover, Zhao Yunyan also has unknown ambitions in his heart... His Highness holds glass auctions and makes tens of millions of profits just by selling glass to the Shen family. How could he, Zhao Yunyan, not know about it?
How could such a person be so short-sighted that he would give up his integrity and only want tens of thousands of stones of food and grass... Your Majesty, if you want to raise food for disaster relief, what can you do?
Although everyone else didn't believe it, Zhao Yunyan believed that the "shipping business" that Prince Wu said was true.
And if it is true, it would be worth it to board this big ship of the palace with just tens of thousands of stone grains!
This is a big gamble. If it succeeds, the Zhao family will prosper from now on.
Failure is just starting over from the beginning.
He, Zhao Yunyan, had confidence in the prince who made glass and auctioned it.
"Hey, isn't that Mr. Chaxuan? How did he come here?" Boss Fang interrupted Zhao Yunyan's thinking. Zhao Yunyan turned around and saw several Confucian scholars led by Gao Guanbo at the door. With a calm expression, he was clearly the very famous celebrity Gao Qi in Su Song.
I saw Gao Qi, his eyes fixed, leading a group of Confucian students straight up the stairs.
"Did Mr. Gao also come to the banquet?" Zhao Yunyan was also surprised. Gao Qi was indifferent to fame and wealth, and did not admire glory. He would not be invited by ordinary people. He even refused to accept the post of Minister of Household Affairs given by His Majesty.
He actually came to this banquet?
"With Mr. Chaxuan here, there will be a good show tonight." Boss Fang chuckled and touched his chin.
"Mr. Chaxuan is upright and upright. If Prince Wu still wants to do nothing, he will definitely offend Yan Zhijian."
"Besides, Sir has brought so many scholars. With these scholars here, even if he is a prince, he will not dare to do anything wrong."
"If you offend these scholars, your reputation will be recorded in the annals of history!"
Zhao Yunyan didn't say anything, but quietly raised his head and looked at the guests upstairs from the patio. As Gao Qi went upstairs, many people stood up to greet Gao Qi: the prefect Wei Guan, the magistrate of Wu County Zhang Cai, the commander of the Suzhou Guard Yang Lu... almost all the famous people in Suzhou City had arrived.
"Hiss... After hosting such a grand banquet, is His Highness King Wu going to make any big moves..." Zhao Yunyan thought to himself.
As the night got darker, the atmosphere in this three-story restaurant gradually became noisy. Zhao Yunyan was listening to Boss Fang's complaints, when a high-pitched eunuch's voice suddenly drew his attention back:
"His Royal Highness King Wu is here!"
People did not dare to neglect and all stood up. They saw King Wu Zhu Su wearing a prince's python robe, surrounded by soldiers, appearing at the gate with a smile on his face.
"See His Highness King Wu..."
Everyone bowed to greet Zhu Su, with a faint smile on the face of the still young Prince Wu. He raised his robe sleeves and said, "You don't have to be polite."
"Tonight is New Year's Eve, and I would like to congratulate you all on the New Year in advance."
"Thank you, Your Highness!"
"Your Highness congratulates you on the new year!"
“The common people wish His Highness the New Year!”…
Remembering that tonight is New Year's Eve, the faces of the group of people suddenly became a little more joyful. He returned the gift to Zhu Su in a mess. Zhu Su nodded, passed through the crowd on the first floor, and stepped up the stairs.
This building is said to be a restaurant, but the internal structure is more like a large theater. Except for the lobby on the first floor, the second and third floors are all enclosed above the patio. Today, there is only one main seat on the third floor in the middle. The person occupying the main seat can overlook the overall situation and can be seen by the entire building.
Zhu Su went straight to the third floor and stopped in front of the main seat on the third floor.
"Everyone, please sit down. I have suddenly called you here tonight because I think that after I arrived in Suzhou, I have not yet had fun with you." The building also adopts an echo structure. The volume emitted by Zhu Su is not loud, but it makes people happy. Everyone heard clearly.
"To celebrate the New Year tonight, I will have a banquet with you all. I am here alone, and I feel really lonely during this festive season. I will trouble you all to join in the fun with you!"
"I don't dare to thank you for your service. I don't dare to thank you for your service. Thank you, His Highness, for the banquet..." It turns out that we were asked to accompany him to have fun, and there was another voice of gratitude below. As for how many people are secretly complaining, it is unknown.
"Well, I don't feel lonely anymore with all the eminent sages of Suzhou Prefecture as my companions."
“Today is a festive day, let’s not talk about official matters, regardless of our superiority or inferiority, and just drink and sing loudly!”
"Come on, play music for me!"
Following Zhu Su's order, the music troupe, which had already been in place at some point, began to play, play, and sing. The atmosphere suddenly became joyful, and then many waiters filed out and delivered delicacies to everyone's tables.
The words "No business matters, regardless of superiority or inferiority" immediately made all the worried businessmen feel relieved. After everyone thanked Zhu Su, they saw that Zhu Su had begun to tear the chicken drumsticks in front of them, so they also picked up their chopsticks and concentrated on enjoying the delicious food in front of them.
"Your Highness, you really just want to have a banquet?" Zhao Yunyan couldn't believe it!
There is something going on at home, Qian Qian will update a chapter first. Will update more tomorrow morning.
I'm really sorry! Pinecone kowtows!
(End of chapter)
