Qin Wan's nose was still aching. She glared at him fiercely and said, "If you continue to do this without mercy, I won't forgive you easily."
"Hehe, I'm glad you forgive me." Xie Qing was forgiven and immediately smiled like a fool.
Qin Wan had no choice but to have a stack of snacks brought to him. "Mother won't keep you for dinner, and it's not convenient for me to keep you here either. You'll be busy back at the palace, right? Eat something first."
Xie Qing picked up some snacks and gave them to Qin Wan first: "Come, let's eat together."
Qin Wan didn't want to eat, but since he insisted, she had no choice but to take a small bite from his hand and then said with a smile, "Eat it quickly."
The weather was hot, so Qin Wan had Xie Qing served a cup of cold tea and some iced fruit.
Xie Qing saw the ice and thought of some recent events in Beijing: "It's been exceptionally hot in Beijing this year, so your milk tea shop is doing good business."
Qin Wan didn't deny it. Instead, she frankly talked about the ice hoarding: "Last year, people started digging ice cellars. Wherever there is space for ice storage, a lot of ice is made and stored. Some are edible, and some are useful."
After that, she looked at Xie Qing with a smile: "Didn't you stock up on some?"
Xie Qing shook his head: "I have too many things to do, so I didn't pay much attention to this matter."
In itself, a prince, no matter who is short of him, will not be short of his use of ice.
Qin Wan was not surprised. The two of them sat there for half an hour, one eating snacks and the other chatting. Only then did Xie Qing reluctantly get up and say goodbye.
Before leaving, Xie Qing raised his hand to hug her, but he didn't dare. He could only look at her pitifully: "When I go back this time, I'm afraid I'll have to run around to build the dam. We'll have less time to see each other."
"Okay, I can come to find you if I'm free." Qin Wan stepped forward and gently hugged Xie Qing. She let go of her hands and was about to step back, but Xie Qing grabbed her waist and pulled her into his arms.
Their bodies were pressed tightly together, and they could hear each other's heartbeats.
“Bang, bang, bang!”
The eardrum of the person who was vibrating felt a little pain.
Qin Wan whispered, "Your heartbeat is a little fast."
"Your heartbeat is fast too."
After Xie Qing finished speaking, he laughed again with a "puff" sound, the laughter coming from his chest. Qin Wan also laughed. She gently pushed Xie Qing away: "Okay, you should go."
Xie Qing waved his hand reluctantly, and was about to leave.
After the auction, the news that Marquis Pingyang owed money and refused to pay it back spread throughout the capital.
A full one hundred thousand taels of silver!
Money from the treasury!
What should the money in the treasury be used for?
Build bridges and roads!
When the people learned about this, they rushed to the gate of Pingyang Marquis's mansion and threw rotten eggs.
Even the seafood restaurant opened by Bai Wanyi, Huibinlou, was not spared.
Bai Wanyi rushed over and saw that all the guests in Huibinlou had been driven away. The door was littered with rotten eggs and vegetable leaves. He was so angry that his liver hurt: "What's going on?"
The shopkeeper, with rotten vegetable leaves on his head, wiped the rotten eggs from his face with a handkerchief in one hand: "The people say that the Marquis owes the national treasury 100,000 taels of silver and won't pay it back. Our restaurant is the blood and sweat of the people. They say that the Marquis has the money to open the restaurant but not the money to pay back the debt."
Bai Wanyi's heart skipped a beat. She had just returned from a paper mill outside the city. As soon as she entered the capital, she heard the news that Huibin Building had been smashed, and she rushed here without going to any other shops.
She quickly turned around and got on the carriage to go on inspection.
When Bai Wanyi was doing business, she used the name of Pingyang Marquis Mansion outside, so the people knew the locations of all her shops.
None of her shops were spared, not even the shops affiliated with Shuangxi Tea House and Haoyunlai.
All of them paid the franchise fee, originally thinking that they could lean on a big tree for shade. With the Pingyang Marquis Mansion around, who would dare to be jealous and make things difficult when doing business?
Who would have thought that within a few months, before I could even earn back the money I invested, this would happen.
They gathered together and ran to Shuangxi Tea House to demand to withdraw from the franchise and get their money back!
Bai Wanyi refused to agree: "We paid for the shop renovation and the raw materials. You've made money now, so there's no way we're going to refund you!"
"We only joined because you said we could make money!"
"That's right, the franchise fee for a shop is five taels of silver. We sold everything we had to join!"
As soon as this person said this, everyone looked at him and asked in unison: "Five taels? We spent fifty taels of silver!"
"I spent five hundred taels!"
Suddenly everyone glared at Bai Wanyi: "You cheated us out of our money!"
Bai Wanyi took a deep breath. "I don't have one! That's not a shop! It's just a cart. I had someone make it for her. It cost six taels of silver, and I even put in another tael. Besides, she has to pay for all the raw materials. I can provide you with your raw materials for free for three months!"
"Then why do you want five hundred taels?"
Bai Wanyi looked at him and asked directly, "Did you get a shop? The five hundred taels of silver are for buying the shop. Didn't I ask you at the beginning what level of business you wanted? You said you wanted five hundred taels!"
The man suddenly fell silent.
But others don’t do it:
"We spent so much money, and we only earned three taels of silver in the past few months. How long will it take to make back our investment?"
The guy who was doing business with a pushcart had really sold everything he had to scrape together enough money. Hearing this, she burst into tears, "You can still make a few taels of silver, but I've only made eight hundred wen these past few months, and the debt collectors come to my door every day. You said it was hot in the summer and many people drink milk tea, so I could make back my money in a month at most. I believed you! But now? I only make two hundred wen a month at most! Isn't this bullying us, an orphan and a widow? Give us back our silver!"
"Yes, pay back the money! Pay back the money!"
Everyone was clamoring with only one purpose, which was to get Bai Wanyi to refund the franchise fee.
How could Bai Wanyi agree?
She tried to explain, asking someone to produce the franchise store's account books: "All the money was spent on renovating the shop! There's no money to refund you."
"No? Fine, let's go to your store and make trouble! I'll see if you'll refund it!"
A group of people came with great fanfare and left with great fanfare.
There are so many people around, so it's easier to find out things.
What's more, when the wall falls, everyone pushes it down. Soon they found out which shops were registered under the name of Pingyang Marquis Mansion.
No matter whether it was true or false, no matter whether it was run by the Pingyang Marquis Mansion itself, they just rushed in and smashed things.
When the common people who did not know the truth heard that it was related to the Pingyang Marquis Mansion, they immediately swarmed over and threw rotten eggs and vegetable leaves at him.
In the heat of the moment, innocent people were inevitably implicated. The shop that was smashed filed a complaint with the Pingyang Marquis's Mansion, seeking an explanation. Old Lady Lu, who was involved in the incident, also received a report from the owner of her dowry shop, saying that the shop had been smashed.
The shopkeeper was also confused: "I only heard someone talking about paying back the money. I don't understand what I'm paying back either."
Old Lady Lu said directly: "Send someone out to investigate and we'll find out. Perhaps it's someone else's business that has implicated our mansion."
As he was speaking, the housekeeper came in and reported: "Old Madam, it's bad, there are a lot of people outside, all asking us to pay back the money we owed."
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