Chapter 163

As the Empress Dowager said, the Second Prince was keeping a close eye on the First Prince, and he would scrutinize him with a microscope whenever he caught the slightest incriminating evidence.

The servant in charge of purchasing for the First Prince's residence accidentally shortchanged a vegetable vendor by five coins during a large-scale purchase at the beginning of the month. The vendor noticed that the group was dressed in fine clothes, and since they had bought all the vegetables from his stall, he hesitated and didn't mention it. He returned home feeling conflicted, only to find out that his father had discovered the shortfall when he returned home to do the accounting. He woke him up from his half-asleep state, causing quite a commotion.

The vegetable vendor said that a servant from the prince's residence had shortchanged him. He hesitated and didn't dare to take the money, worried that he would offend the servant and that the servant would stop buying from them next time. The vegetable vendor thought his reason was very reasonable, but to his surprise, his father didn't believe him at all and insisted that he had taken the money to gamble.

—Don't let the small, shabby appearance of Jiutianyi Bookstore fool you; it seems deserted. In reality, its monthly revenue, even after supplying Jiutianyi Card Room, is quite substantial. Especially before holidays, shops of all sizes in the capital flock to it for restocking, doubling the printing staff just to keep up with demand. This speaks volumes about its success. Even with the low price of playing cards, it generates a remarkable profit every year.

The bookstore was deserted, but the shops that came to buy playing cards were packed with people.

When Cui Zui checked the accounts at the end of the first year, his first reaction was that there was a mistake. He couldn't help but laugh at the person who did the accounting in his heart: the profit of these ordinary playing cards is so low that it's almost like giving them away for free. Selling a thousand sets might not even be as profitable as the profit from a single membership recharge at Jiu Tian Yi Chess and Card Room. How many sets of playing cards would need to be sold to reach the amount written on the book? Does the person who did the accounting really know? It's too outrageous.

However, when Cui Zui finished checking the bills and found that every single item could be traced back to its source without any errors, he was completely stunned.

After realizing what was happening, he rushed into the palace, disregarding the fact that the palace gates were about to be locked, wanting to give his master a small surprise. However, Xue Jin'an was very calm and seemed to have expected what he was about to say.

"There are many sons of powerful and wealthy families in the capital, but there are even more common people, who make up 30 percent of the total population. Entertainment in this era was designed specifically for the upper class, while the lower class suffered exploitation and worked themselves to the bone to barely make ends meet. Their entertainment was extremely scarce, practically nonexistent."

At this time, a type of playing card appeared that was inexpensive and very easy to learn. You could buy happiness for just a few coins. Who wouldn't like that?

In fact, playing cards is a popular form of entertainment among the elite, but it's not the most popular. The most popular activity used to be pitch-pot, but now the most popular activity is playing real-life PUBG in Geely.

The difficulty of the Geely regular course is only half that of the professional course, making it more entertaining and fun. It quickly became a favorite spot for young men in Beijing after it opened, and they are very keen on spending money. When others see the unfinished new weapons on display, they take one look and immediately wave their hands and say they want to buy them.

The shop assistant tried to stop them and explained that the items were not for sale. After the price kept increasing, they reluctantly said they couldn't buy them. They then asked Geely to sell the related figurines and even ordered the whole set.

The guy was hired but had never been to Jiutianyi Chess and Card Room before. He had no idea what collectible figures were, so he could only hesitate and say, "We can't buy them."

"If you can sell nine plus one, why don't you? Aren't you also selling nine plus one?" The young masters were very dissatisfied, and their gazes toward the waiter made his scalp tingle.

In the end, it was Feng Yinshou, who was off duty, who saw this scene, came to the rescue of his employee, and also accepted a few deposits.

Minister Zuo expressed his disapproval, warning, "Geely doesn't do these empty and useless things, so don't even think about it."

"I took this order for the Third Princess, is that not allowed?" Minister Feng pouted in dissatisfaction with Minister Zuo's lack of understanding, and rolled his eyes as he spoke.

Minister Zuo asked in confusion, "No, what does this have to do with the Third Princess?"

Minister Feng chuckled: "Oh, you don't know? The Third Princess has been working as a sculptor for Jiu Tianyi for three years now. Her skills are quite good, and she can't keep up with the orders. Many ladies and young women even pay extra for her to make their sculpts."

The Third Princess's clay figurines still have many flaws in terms of appearance and details, ranking in the middle among the many masters at Jiu Tian Yi. However, the Third Princess's performance is among the top. She has a foundation in painting and can outline the charm of a figure with just a few strokes. The same is true for her clay figurines. Her clay figurines have very delicate features, and they can stand out at first glance just by their faces. They were immediately loved and sought after by ladies and young women.

This isn't to say that women are more concerned with looks; it's just that men are more interested in other collectibles than dough figurines, such as armor and weapons that are 1:1 replicas of cards. While some women do like these, their numbers are far fewer than those of men.

The Third Princess has recently been practicing sculpting objects to improve her skills. Because her technique is not yet good enough, her fees are relatively low, and Minister Feng did not want to miss this opportunity to take advantage of her.

Minister Feng was checking the accounts at the end of the month, and his fingers were almost smoking from typing. It was a painful but enjoyable experience.

For wealthy young men who crave excitement, playing cards is a dispensable pastime, since there are many other alternatives. However, in lower-class circles, the popularity of playing cards is unparalleled, with almost all age groups playing it. It's no exaggeration to say that wherever there's a table, you'll see people playing cards.

This phenomenon is spreading outwards from Beijing. With such a large customer base, it would be difficult for playing cards not to make money.

Cui Zui's admiration for his master reached a new level. He felt that his master was indeed worthy of his trust, as he understood everything perfectly.

Of course, not all people at the bottom of society are the same. Just as some people dislike gold and silver, calling them "the smell of money," there are also people who dislike playing cards. They generally believe that playing cards and gambling are the same thing, especially since some people have already developed ways to gamble for money in private.

The vegetable vendor's father happened to be one of them. The old man was stingy. He worked hard all his life but couldn't bear to eat or wear anything nice. He was also reluctant to buy medicine when he was sick. Before the family was divided, all the money earned by the family was concentrated in his hands. He distributed living expenses monthly, but the promised monthly allowance was always insufficient.

After discovering that his youngest son was frequenting gambling dens, he became even stingier. He carefully budgeted each month, leaving his son only enough for food, leaving him penniless and too ashamed to even sit at the gambling table. Occasionally, he would also discover that his son would skimp on the daily grocery money, pocketing a mere 1 or 3 coins, but he didn't expose him.

But this time it was a full five coins! Enough to play cards all day at the cheapest stalls at the pier!

"You're back so early today, are you planning to go to the docks to play cards tomorrow?" The old man stared at her withered hand. "Hurry up and hand over the money, and I can pretend I don't know anything."

The vegetable vendor was utterly wronged, but no matter how he explained, his father wouldn't believe him and even scolded him, "How could a distinguished person like you be shortchanged by such a paltry sum? Stop lying and deceiving people here!"

The vegetable vendor was speechless.

The two started arguing and caused quite a scene. Somehow, the matter reached the ears of the Second Prince. The next morning at court, the Second Prince's men impeached the First Prince, saying that he had allowed his servants to bully the people and exploit them, causing discord between father and son and separation of wife and child... and recommended that he be severely punished.

It sounded intimidating at first, but when they heard that the amount involved was only five cents, not only the eldest prince, but all the officials were speechless.

There are many similar incidents. Whenever the Second Prince has any trivial matter related to the First Prince, it will be reported to the court and described as a catastrophe. The First Prince has never been angry and always has a smiling face. When he is slandered and accused to his face, he can only look at the Second Prince with a helpless smile.

The second prince's reverse move not only made the first prince's gentle and good-natured temperament known to everyone, but also exposed his own shortcomings, which reduced his competitiveness in the struggle for the throne.

When Xue Jin'an first learned of this, he remained silent for a long time. Although he had long anticipated that the Second Prince was a fraud, that his reputation was all built up and his true abilities were yet to be verified, he never expected that the Second Prince's abilities could be so bizarrely poor.

While it's common for political enemies to impeach each other in the imperial court, and memorials often contain exaggerated language, how can you exaggerate a needle into a golden cudgel? What's the difference between that and outright fabrication?

Although the Second Prince was foolish, he was born into a good family. He had Consort Min and the Eldest Princess as his advisors. The former summoned him directly to Yongchun Palace and reprimanded him, while the latter began to send out invitations to hold banquets. After these actions, the Second Prince's declining reputation was temporarily halted.

However, this was not enough. The second prince desperately needed an opportunity to establish his authority and wash away his previous troublemaking.

Without the Empress Dowager saying anything, Xue Jin'an knew what to do. He directly used materials from the database to write a play. There was a minor supporting character in the play who was directly based on Consort De, and the sense of déjà vu was very strong. In the last scene, the minor supporting character recognized the enemy envoy as her father in order to repay a debt of gratitude, went to the enemy country to select concubines, and eventually became the concubine of the enemy emperor and even gave birth to a prince.

The minor supporting characters have limited screen time, which is fragmented and interspersed throughout various scenes. Anyone with a bit of sense can quickly notice something amiss if they look closely.

The Second Prince was a sociable and friendly person who enjoyed banquets and fun. Every day after court, he would gather with people to have fun. As mentioned earlier, the most popular form of entertainment in the upper class these days was to go to Jili to play PUBG, and the Second Prince inevitably went there a lot.

Xue Jin'an had Cui Zui find a theatrical troupe to perform on a stage outside Jili. It just so happened that his personal guards had won a complete victory in the Imperial Guard's internal competition and had not yet celebrated, so setting up the stage was a perfect excuse.

However, Xue Jin'an had calculated everything, except he overestimated the Second Prince's intelligence. The Second Prince had been coming and going for several days without paying any attention to the opera troupe. Fortunately, not all the纨绔 (playboys) around him were only interested in PUBG; a few had ears. Finally, on the last day of the opera performance, just as Xue Jin'an was itching to forcibly connect to the Second Prince via Bluetooth and turn on the receiver, someone hesitantly tugged at the sleeve of the person closest to him, "This Yue Niang's story sounds so familiar...it seems to involve Consort De..."

He realized what he was doing before he could finish speaking and immediately fell silent.

The second prince finally stopped and looked at the stage that had been set up for him.

The drama that the Empress Dowager wanted to see was about to unfold, but unfortunately, the tragic outcome far exceeded her expectations, and even Xue Jin'an did not anticipate it.