"Okay, okay, okay!"

Yu the Great's heir gritted his teeth and said "good" three times, then asked, "How much will you charge them for each cotton-padded coat?"

"Hui Shizi, thirty-five articles..."

"Thirty-five cents???!!!"

Upon hearing this, Yu the Great's heir went berserk.

"Your Highness, please calm down and listen to me first!"

Qu Wenlong laughed and said, "Young Master, thirty-five coins a piece may seem like we're losing money, but it's the only way we can do it! We've managed to keep the Zhou family's cotton-padded clothes piling up for so long, and it looks like the Zhou family's cloth shop will go bankrupt soon. We can't let them do business with foreign merchants!"

"Heh, but they've already started doing business!"

The Crown Prince of Yu said coldly, "I heard this morning that you did business with foreign merchants, but do you know where the cotton clothes and cotton they bought from the Qu Family Cloth Shop were transported?"

"Mr. Ollie said he's shipping it back to foreign lands early this morning!"

"Bullshit!"

The Crown Prince of Yu, unusually, swore: "They took the cotton-padded clothes from the Qu family's cloth shop and then immediately sent them to the Zhou family's cloth workshop and the Zhang family's winery! You've been cheated!"

"..."

Master Qu was completely stunned: "This... how is this possible?"

"How is that impossible! The current situation is that our Qu Family Cloth Shop has run out of cotton-padded coats, and even the cotton is gone! The only place in Ruzhou City that can sell cotton-padded coats is the Zhou Family Cloth Shop, so this morning they raised the price of cotton-padded coats again to two hundred coins each!"

"..."

Now, Master Qu's face turned completely green.

His first reaction upon hearing this was that he had been deceived, not by the foreign merchants, but by the Crown Prince of Yu!

But then he thought, why would the Crown Prince of Yu lie to him?

But foreign merchants... why are they deceiving themselves?

It must be said that the simpleton's debut was quite successful; at least until now, Master Qu is still completely unaware of what's going on.

"This...this is impossible..."

"Smack!"

The Crown Prince of Yu was already furious. He stepped forward and slapped him, saying coldly, "Impossible? Don't you understand now? From the very beginning, those foreign merchants—heh, I now doubt whether those people are even foreign merchants! Because they were clearly in cahoots with the Zhou family's cloth workshop, deliberately digging a pit for you to fall into, and you happily jumped in!"

"..."

Master Qu was stunned for a long time, then his eyes suddenly lit up, and he immediately took out a piece of paper from his bosom. "Young Master, please take a look at this document first!"

"..."

The Crown Prince of Yu suppressed his anger and took the document handed to him by Master Qu. He read it and saw that it stated—

"Qu Wenlong voluntarily sells 10,000 cotton-padded coats to Mr. Aolige at a price of 35 cash each. Mr. Aolige voluntarily agrees to cease all business dealings with the Zhou family's cloth workshop. If anyone violates this agreement, he is willing to pay a fine of 10,000 taels to the violator!"

"..."

When the Crown Prince of Yu was reading the document, his expression changed rapidly. After reading it, he wanted to tear it up, but at the last moment, he restrained himself.

"Fine yourself 10,000 taels? Fine who? Those foreign merchants left the city last night, who are they looking for?"

Upon hearing that the foreign merchants had left the city, Master Qu was startled, but he still forced himself to remain calm and said, "Young Master, we're not afraid of them leaving the city! As long as we have this written agreement, we can go to Zhou's Cloth Shop and get the cotton clothes and cotton back! Aoli is gone, but Zhou's Cloth Shop is still here! They either return the cotton clothes or accept the penalty and pay back ten thousand taels!"

"..."

This was the only solution Master Qu had left. After all, all the cotton-padded clothes and cotton came from his hands. If he couldn't divert attention, who knew if the Crown Prince of Yu would kill him in a fit of anger!

Upon hearing this, the Crown Prince of Yu agreed with the logic and immediately led Master Qu to the Zhou family's cloth workshop.

...

A normal long robe costs around one hundred coins, while a cotton-padded coat, due to the use of cotton and the complex manufacturing process, would cost between two and three hundred coins if the price of cotton were normal.

The reason why Zhou's Cloth Shop previously set the price of cotton-padded clothes at five hundred coins was because the cotton they bought from Prince Jin was too expensive. Even if they sold each piece for five hundred coins, they would only make a small profit.

Now, the cotton-padded clothes and cotton that "Aoli Gei" bought from Qu Family Cloth Shop were so cheap that, at Jing Zhe's request, Zhou Ziqiong set the price of the cotton-padded clothes at 200 wen each, because that was the price of cotton-padded clothes from Qu Family Cloth Shop before.

However, most of the people who wanted to buy cotton-padded coats had already done so, so there weren't many people in front of Zhou's Cloth Shop. Instead, the shop assistants were busy unloading goods in the warehouse behind the shop.

Just then, the Crown Prince of Yu arrived with Master Qu.

"Oh my, what brings you here, Your Highness? What a rare guest!"

Instead of entering the entrance of the Zhou family's cloth shop, the Crown Prince of Yu led Master Qu straight to the warehouse behind the shop. As soon as he entered, he heard a sound he never wanted to hear in his dreams!

What is he doing here?

However, I quickly felt relieved.

How could he not be here?

If it weren't for his direction, Prince Yu wouldn't believe that Zhou Ziqiong alone could come up with such a despicable scheme to cheat Master Qu from foreign merchants! No, it should be said that she could come up with it, but she certainly wouldn't have the audacity to do it!

"President Jing is here too!"

The Crown Prince of Yu said with a forced smile.

Then his gaze fell on the carriages that were unloading goods, and he looked at Zhou Ziqiong next to him and asked, "Miss Zhou, were the goods on these carriages purchased from the Qu family's cloth shop by foreign merchants yesterday?"

"That's it, that's the batch of goods!"

"..."

Before Zhou Ziqiong could answer, Master Qu, who had already stepped forward to check, shouted impatiently.

Upon hearing this, the Crown Prince of Yu frowned, glared fiercely at Master Qu, and wished he could slap him to death.

This good-for-nothing is more likely to cause trouble than to accomplish anything!

The meaning behind Yu Wang's son's question was that Zhou Ziqiong probably wouldn't know about the agreement signed between the foreign merchants and Master Qu. The reason he asked that question was to extract information from Zhou Ziqiong. As long as she admitted that the goods were purchased from the foreign merchants, he could then produce the agreement and catch her off guard.

But since Master Qu spoke first, the Crown Prince of Yu could only follow up by asking, "Oh? Is Master Qu sure?"

Master Qu immediately patted his chest and said, "Your Highness, I'm sure! Look, aren't the cuffs of these cotton-padded coats only sewn once? The cotton-padded coats from the Zhou family's cloth shop are sewn twice, whether it's the cuffs, buttons, or seams, to make them sturdy! But our Qu family's cloth shop only sewed one layer to speed up the production of cotton-padded coats! So, these cotton-padded coats are the batch that the foreign merchants bought from me!"

"..."

————