Chapter 129: Collecting 800,000 taels in three days
In late October, the weather became increasingly colder, the entire capital city entered winter, and everyone wore thick clothes.
As luck would have it, the rain that had been falling for nearly a month miraculously stopped on the day Jun Wenci led the Canglong Guards to Qingzhou.
The long-lost sun appeared in the sky, making people feel as if they saw the dawn of hope.
After the rain stopped, everything was in ruins and Deng Youning's wharf was also waiting to open for business.
Due to the previous rainfall, the cargo was trapped at the dock, and the owner was planning to come and inspect and take it away.
"Please come in, Shopkeeper Fan. I had my men carry your goods inside when the rain started a few days ago."
"Look, this floor is full of them."
As he spoke, Deng Youning led a middle-aged man in luxurious clothes into the house next to the dock.
There are dozens of huge boxes arranged in an orderly manner.
However, there are subtle traces of water around the box, which cannot be seen without careful observation.
Deng Youning felt something was wrong and asked the clerk to open a box at random. A faint musty smell spread everywhere and went straight into their nostrils.
"County Lady, this is bad. These cloths are all wet, and some are already moldy and spotted!"
The waiter's words were like a heavy blow to Manager Fan.
He quickly ran to the box, looked at the cloth inside, and felt so heartbroken that he almost cried.
He carefully took out a batch and tried to wipe the cloth dry with his clothes, but when he found that it was useless, he collapsed on the ground, feeling like the sky had fallen.
This is a valuable piece of floating brocade!
He had sacrificed half of his family fortune to get the money together, and had intended to transport it to Beijing and sell it at a high price. However, he did not expect to encounter a rain that was rare in a century on the first day he landed, and it was already January again.
But now, all his goods were soaked in water. How could he sell them? !
Deng Youning was also confused. She walked around the room and was sure that the roof was not leaking, so how did these cloths get wet?
Could it be that someone did something bad and spilled water on it on purpose?
She opened the other boxes one by one and found that almost every box was wet. There were seventy-three boxes of goods, each containing more than a dozen pieces of cloth, hundreds of pieces of cloth, but only three pieces were found to be in good condition!
Deng Youning was so angry that she laughed. Who wanted to harm her? Who dared to harm her?!
Shopkeeper Fan held the only three remaining pieces of cloth, heartbroken.
"Princess Youning, the goods cannot be shipped because of the rain, so I gave you an extra 200 taels of silver to help me look after the cloth."
"Now, there are only three pieces of cloth left out of hundreds of them. How can I sell them in the market?"
Shopkeeper Fan was crying and snotting, and he was so aggrieved that he couldn't even speak clearly.
Deng Youning also felt helpless.
"Manager Fan, you can see that all the goods are in the room, and the roof is not leaking. They can all testify that they were moved back the day it rained. Therefore, I even caught a cold."
"I suspect there must be a traitor among these workers. I have made countless enemies in Beijing, and they must be doing this for revenge."
Yinhuan and the others had reported before that Gu had secretly come to the dock, but he acted extremely cautiously, and Yinhuan and the others did not see who he met or what he did.
Deng Youning now seriously suspected that Gu was the one who bribed the laborers and deliberately sprinkled water on the goods.
"Please give me some time, Shopkeeper Fan. I will find out the truth."
Shopkeeper Fan stared at Deng Youning as if he was listening to a joke.
"Find out the truth?"
"What use is there for me to know the truth?"
"We businessmen only care about money. The cloth I lost now is half of my wealth. I will give you time to find out the truth. Who will give me time to raise the money as soon as possible?"
He shook his sleeves, his eyebrows raised in anger, "I don't care, you have three days to collect the purchase price of this batch of goods, 800,000 taels. Otherwise, let alone you are the county lady, even if you are a princess, I will definitely report it to the emperor!"
Ying Shihu stood in front of Deng Youning and said, "How can you be so unaccommodating, old man?"
"Once our young lady finds out the truth, the murderer will compensate you for your losses."
Shopkeeper Fan ignored Ying Shi completely.
Deng Youning shook her head at her. "In the transportation business, reputation is the most important. If we lose our reputation, who will use our docks and ships in the future?"
She closed her eyes out of exhaustion and could only swallow her anger!
"Manager Fan, no matter who the real murderer is, it's all because of my failure to supervise properly."
"I agree to your terms and will collect 800,000 taels in three days. I also ask Manager Fan not to damage the relationship between the two parties. I hope I can have the honor of cooperating with you again in the future."
Deng Youning smiled and performed the traditional martial arts salute.
Seeing that she admitted her mistakes with a good attitude and did not use her status as a county lady to pressure others, Manager Fan was very impressed with her.
"Okay, three days later at noon, in the elegant room of Tianxiang Tower in the south of the city."
After agreeing on the deadline for compensation of the money, Manager Fan left on his own.
Deng Youning's expression also changed instantly, and his face became terrifyingly gloomy.
"Call everyone here and tell them that this county lady has lost her silver and suspects that one of them stole it. Take the silver ring and the others with you and search every house." Deng Youning gave the order.
If you want to find out who has been bribed, just look for who has extra money at home recently.
Especially those who love to spend money on wine, women and gambling, they should be investigated carefully!
"Miss, what are you doing?"
Seeing Deng Youning was about to leave the pier, Ying Shi hurriedly caught up with her and asked.
"Raise money!"
Deng Youning replied indifferently.
Ying Shi was a little puzzled, "Miss, we know that this was done by Madam... no, Gu, why didn't you just..."
Before she finished speaking, Deng Youning hurriedly corrected her, "We have no evidence, so we have to catch the person who was bribed by him first."
After the words were spoken, Yingshi still didn't quite understand.
Since the criminal can be caught soon, why does the lady still need to raise money for compensation?
Deng Youning feels a little regretful now.
She shouldn't have let Gu get close to the dock, and shouldn't have thought about seeing what the mother and daughter were up to.
Even if the real murderer could be caught, even if their lives were taken, Gu and Deng Xuelian would not be able to collect 800,000 taels. In the end, it was the innocent shopkeeper Fan who had to bear the consequences of their game.
Deng Youning knew how difficult it was for a businessman to make his fortune, and did not want to treat Manager Fan like this.
What's more, she herself said that the business of the port is all about reputation.
So, it is reasonable and moral that she has to pay for it!
In the past few months since taking over the dock, plus the emperor's reward and the Deng family's monthly salary, Deng Youning has saved a total of 500,000 taels, but is still short of 300,000.
This incident was caused by her, and she didn't dare tell her family about her embarrassing incident.
When it was late at night and everyone was asleep, Deng Youning took Yingshi to sit on the beach and drink.
The starry sky is particularly bright after the sky clears.
With the sea and sky merging into one, it seems as if you can grasp the stars with just your hand.
"Gudong gudong~"
After drinking a jar of strong liquor, Deng Youning no longer felt cold even in the winter sea breeze.
"Ning Ning——"
"County Lady——"
Li Tianzhuo's Xiu Ming's voice came from another beach.
Deng Youning was a little surprised. Why did they come to find her?
When she suddenly looked at Sakura beside her, she knew that she had been "betrayed" again.
"Oh, Miss, Lord Li is not an outsider, he will definitely not tell the Duke and the old lady!"
Ying Shi saw that her master was worried about the last three hundred thousand, and there was really nothing she could do.
“You!”
Deng Youning smashed the wine jar.
The loud noise soon attracted Li Tianzhuo and his servant.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
