Chapter 132 Poisonous Scheme

"mother……"

Xie Boyu said, "On the day Yuanxu took office, he greatly praised the manager of Jixia Manor. Yesterday, he took our goods in a grand manner, saying that he wanted to make sample fabrics for a competition."

"My son thinks this is a sign that Grandpa Yuan is dissatisfied with us."

Xie Boyu looked worried: "If that weren't the case, why would they allow Jixia Manor to act like this?"

Xie Chengzhi snorted upon hearing this: "Brother, you're too timid. If you ask me, you're just overthinking it."

“We have absolutely no connection with Lord Yuan, so how could we have offended him so badly?”

"Even if he really looked down on our proposal to marry the Jiang family's daughter, it wouldn't warrant such a grudge. It's just a competition with Jiang You, not like Xu Chuan stole his woman..."

Xie Chengzhi spoke very crudely, and Jiang Wansu was so angry that her vision went black, but she managed to pull herself together.

"If you ask me, if we had really offended Lord Yuan, it wouldn't have been such a roundabout warning. Does he think he'd be afraid of a mere merchant like us? Would he need to resort to such underhanded tactics?"

"The second brother is right."

Xie Sanniang looked at Xie Boyu: "Given Yuan Xu's status, if we really offended him, a simple statement that the Xie family would not be allowed to participate would be enough. There is no need for such a fuss."

"But you, we don't even have many of those brocade bolts in our warehouse. How did Jixia Manor get them?"

Xie Boyu said, "My son checked. A couple of years ago, he sent Jiang You several bolts of peony paintings."

Xie Sanniang waved her hand: "Don't worry about that. As long as Yuanxu doesn't explicitly state that he wants to remove the Xie family from the Suzhou Chamber of Commerce, we don't need to pay attention to it."

That's what they say...

Xie Boyu frowned: "But the crimson brocade is already our best craftsmanship. Anything higher..."

His discouraging words made Hua Nanzhi and Xie Sanniang frown, but they couldn't bring themselves to speak. Xie Jingyuan, as the youngest son in the family, couldn't disregard seniority or be disrespectful to his elder brother, so he opened and closed his mouth but ultimately couldn't utter a word.

Zheng Shu ignored all that and exclaimed, "Brother, why do you always boost others' morale while diminishing your own?"

“That stuff is our family’s traditional craft, but the fabric is from several years ago. The colors and patterns aren’t fresh anymore. Let’s weave another bolt and send it up. That’s better than the old stuff, isn’t it?”

She rolled up her sleeves, nudged Xie Chengzhi beside her, and said in a voice that could be heard by everyone in the family, seemingly in a whisper: "Tell me, tell me, I am absolutely not at ease handing over the family business to the eldest son's family."

“I, a woman, dare to take the plunge, but this future head of the family is so hesitant, handing over the family property to my elder brother. In less than five years, won’t we have to retreat back to our hometown?”

Hua Nanzhi glanced sideways at Zheng Shu, then at Xie Boyu's retreating figure, her expression indifferent.

Xie Jingyuan frowned, while Xie Xuchuan stared intently at Shen Yuanzhu and her husband, who were standing together in an embrace.

Upon hearing Zheng Shu's words, Xie Chengzhi let out a loud rant: "Ignorant woman, how dare you slander my elder brother!"

"The rule of our Xie family is that the eldest son inherits the family property. Even if the eldest son does something wrong, you have no right to say anything."

After saying that, he raised his hand and swung it hard, then lightly struck Zheng Shu's arm.

Zheng Shu cried out, "What's wrong? Why can't we talk about it? The eldest son's actions were more than just inappropriate! If Xu Chuan hadn't been unable to control himself and had gone off with the Jiang family girl before his marriage, would we have been disliked by the new Admiral of the Textile Bureau?"

"If Jiang Hong hadn't cheated our family out of our money, would we have suffered such a loss?"

"If it weren't for my sister-in-law's failure to properly raise Xu Chuan, would we have been able to gain Yuan Zhu's resentment and refuse to give us the dyeing certificate that rightfully belongs to our Xie family?"

"What if it weren't for..."

"I'll let you speak!"

Xie Chengzhi rolled up his sleeves and walked around the hall, pretending to hit Zheng Shu.

Xie Yingshou was so frightened by the sight that he burst into tears. Zheng Shu hugged him tightly and cried out, "This is going to force us mother and son to our deaths! Is this going to leave our second branch of the family any way out?"

The couple's back-and-forth banter prompted Xie Boyu to yell, "Shut up! How can you act so ridiculously in front of Mother?"

He looked at Zheng Shu, then at Xie Chengzhi, who looked embarrassed: "I understand what you're thinking, but I bear the responsibility for the entire Xie family. If I'm not careful, I might end up leading the whole Xie family into the abyss one day."

“I said I wouldn’t compete with Jixia Manor, but why don’t you think about how the brocade that was given to Jiang You a few years ago ended up in the hands of Jixia Manor?”

"Have you ever heard of this Jixia Manor before? It seems to have appeared out of Suzhou Prefecture overnight. If it didn't have a master behind it, how could it have gotten on Yuan Xu's boat when he first took office?"

"It's just a job from the Prince's Mansion, why take the risk?"

"no."

Xie San Niang said in a firm and powerful tone: "The cloth of my Xie family must be delivered to the Prince's mansion on the birthday of the late Consort Xian."

Making the Xie family a royal merchant family was her lifelong wish.

It's unknown how many high-ranking officials and nobles will attend the Empress Xian's birthday celebration. If even one person pays attention to Xie Family Brocade, they might be one step closer to becoming a royal merchant.

Xie Sanniang lowered her eyes and said, word by word, "We don't need to worry about things that haven't happened yet. The most important thing right now is for us to defeat Jixia Manor."

"The second son's wife is right. How can the old cloth from a few years ago compare to the new cloth of my Xie family? Not to mention the color, even the pattern is not suitable."

"Tell the weaving workshop to find the famous Tinghua Jushi of Suzhou Prefecture to paint a birthday picture for us starting today. The design should be in ink, and the color should not be crimson or purple, but peach color."

She was about the same age as Consort Xian, and she knew best that the older one got, the more one would like something new, dazzling, and beautiful.

"Mother……"

While others might not have grasped the deeper meaning of Xie San Niang's words, Hua Nan Zhi discerned a different significance within them.

The peach color contains a hidden bright yellow that is forbidden to use in folk customs, so the bright yellow silk thread must be replaced with peach red. However, the peach red dyed with madder is very easy to fade, so it is necessary to repeatedly soak and dye with safflower cake.

However, the results will vary depending on the proportions and the number of dips and dyes.

I've heard that the Shen family is particularly skilled at dyeing red. They even add gold powder to the dye vat to fix the color, resulting in a red that is both pure and vibrant, with a delicate sheen.

The Xie family, however, cannot produce such a color.

The jacquard looms that the Xie family currently owns can produce up to twelve colors.

To highlight the festive atmosphere, painters often use three shades of blue plus gold to create color depth or to depict children presenting peaches for longevity.

The Xie family's second most famous craft after Yunjin was "Embroidered Brocade," but in terms of the richness of colors, it was far inferior to that of the artisans in the capital.

The only thing in Suzhou Prefecture that could rival the craftsmen in the palace was the color produced by the Shen family dyehouse twelve years ago.

Mother is trying to force Shen Yuanzhu to give her the Shen family dyeing manual again.

Hua Nanzhi originally intended to say a few words in Xie Sanniang's defense to prevent them, as elders, from losing face, but she never expected Xie Sanniang to come up with an even more vicious method...