Bai Zhiyi caught up with Lin Fei, who was crying and wailing, and picked him up, saying, "That's what you get for not listening to your cousin."

"Oh dear, my little darling," Madam Zheng, the mistress of the Lin family, ran out of the house and saw the account books scattered all over the floor. She shouted to the servants, "Quickly clean up!"

Bai Zhiyi, holding Lin Fei, smiled at Madam Zheng and said, "Aunt."

Only then did Madam Zheng look up and see Bai Zhiyi, saying, "Oh, it's Zhiyi. What brings you to visit your aunt? Come in, come in."

Lin Fei clung to Bai Zhiyi, refusing to leave. He pulled out a pen from somewhere and drew circles around Bai Zhiyi's eyes, saying, "Cousin, let me draw your eyebrows."

Madam Zheng glanced back, smiled wryly, and remained silent. Bai Zhiyi had no choice but to carry Lin Fei into the house, knowing her aunt couldn't control the little guy.

Once inside, Bai Zhiyi gave her maid a wink.

The maid understood and came to Lin Fei, saying, "Third Young Master, you keep a pack of dogs, right? They've all run away. Should we go look for them?"

Lin Fei immediately perked up, threw down his paintbrush, jumped off Bai Zhiyi's lap, and grabbed the maid's hand, saying, "Sister, let's go quickly."

Bai Zhiyi picked up a mirror and looked at herself. She saw two dark circles drawn around her eyes, which now really looked like dark circles.

Madam Zheng said with a wry smile, "This child, my husband and I have spoiled him since he was a child, he has no manners at all."

Bai Zhiyi put down the mirror and said, "Aunt, I heard you weren't very happy today? Is something wrong?"

Madam Zheng sighed and pointed to the account book on the table: "I shouldn't be talking about this, but it's fine in front of my niece. We've been losing money for two months in a row."

Bai Zhiyi smiled and said, "Doing business always involves both losses and gains. If you lose money for two months, you'll make it back next month."

Madam Zheng shook her head and said, "You don't understand. The Lin family is a large and wealthy family with many expenses. They spend tens of thousands of taels of silver every month. Moreover, this is not just a matter of losing money for two months; it may continue to lose money indefinitely."

Bai Zhiyi didn't dare mention borrowing money anymore and asked, "Isn't Uncle's business doing well?"

“It was fine before,” Zheng sighed. “Ever since the King of Xirong gave that Su Wan a fief, the feng shui has changed.”

It turns out that the fiefdom granted to Su Wan by the King of Xirong was located right on the main road from Youzhou to Xirong, and the Lin family's caravans had to pass through there to trade with Xirong. Now that place belongs to the General's Mansion, and the General's Mansion has set up a checkpoint there, levying a thirteen-fold tax on the Lin family's caravans.

"Thirteen taxes?" Bai Zhiyi was confused again.

“For every hundred taels of silver we sell, we have to pay thirty taels to the General’s Mansion, and we can’t delay payment,” Zheng complained. “Now that the Western Rong and the Great Jin have reconciled, other merchants can trade normally with the Western Rong. Our profits were already much lower, and now we have to pay the General’s Mansion. If this continues, we’ll go bankrupt in less than two years.”

Bai Zhiyi was taken aback.

The idea of ​​setting up checkpoints and collecting taxes in the fiefdom of Suzhou and Dongguan was clearly conceived by Wei Jingzhuo.

The prince she admired had actually started sucking blood from her aunt.