"Young Mistress! Young Mistress!" Chunju rushed into the study, crying out in a panic, "Young Mistress! Something terrible has happened!"
Shen Qing looked over with a smile: "Why are you in such a panic?"
"Soldiers! Soldiers!" Chunju shouted, one hand on her knee and the other pointing outside. "The soldiers are coming!"
Officers and soldiers!
Shen Qing's face turned pale instantly, and he instinctively shielded Su Lan behind him.
Coming to his senses, he immediately led Su Lan to the wardrobe, bent down and instructed her, "Listen! No matter who comes in, don't make a sound! Hide well!"
After saying that, he pulled off the clothes inside and hid Su Lan's thin body inside, then closed the door.
She steadied herself, looked towards the door, seemingly calm, but her breaths betrayed a fear known only to herself.
Did the Qing government find out about what happened in Shanghai so quickly that they sent people to arrest her?
Recalling the dream from last night, Shen Qing's legs trembled.
She said to Chunju in a trembling voice, "I'll go out and see what's going on. You find somewhere to hide too!"
After saying that, he dragged his numb legs out.
She didn't see any soldiers along the way, and walked to the gate.
The servant looked over and said with a smile, "Young mistress, the officials from the Imperial Textile Bureau have arrived."
"The Imperial Textile Bureau?"
Shen Qing, her face pale, stepped out of the threshold, nervously descended a few stone steps, and walked up to an official dressed in dark blue robes.
The adult stared at her expressionlessly, his brows furrowed in a cold glare, and said, "Are you Gao Shenshi, the head of Gao's Silk Shop?"
Shen Qing bowed and said, "It is indeed I, a humble woman."
The official took out a letter from his sleeve and spoke in an official tone: "The Gao family's silk is of excellent quality and is deeply loved by the Emperor and the Empress Dowager. The Imperial Textile Bureau has now reissued a quota to the Gao family. The Gao family must take this seriously and send the silk to the Imperial Textile Bureau regularly and in the required quantity!"
Shen Qing was taken aback.
So they're not here to arrest her, but to deliver the silk quota to the Gao family?
The Gao family had supplied silk to the Qing court a few years ago, but because they lacked connections, their share was squeezed out. Now the Imperial Textile Bureau has given them a share again.
There's no such thing as a free lunch.
Shen Qing was afraid there was something fishy going on, so he kept quiet and didn't take the envelope.
Seeing this, the adult glared at her cloudy eyes with displeasure and scolded, "Gao Shenshi! What are you still daydreaming about? Hurry up and accept the share allocation document!"
Shen Qing snapped out of her daze, took the envelope with both hands, bowed deeply, held it to her forehead, and exclaimed, "This humble woman thanks Your Majesty and the Empress Dowager for your kindness! Thank you, Your Excellency!"
The official was satisfied. He raised his chin, flicked the hem of his official robe, and got into the sedan chair next to him.
Shen Qing watched the departing official sedan chair and suspiciously opened the envelope.
The Imperial Textile Bureau granted the Gao family an annual quota of two thousand bolts of silk, valid for ten years, and the document was stamped with the seal of the Imperial Textile Bureau official.
Shen Qing thought she had misread the number, so she closed her eyes and looked at it again.
It really is two thousand horses!
This is a huge business with hundreds of thousands of taels of profit every year!
Shen Qing screamed with excitement.
The servant peeked out from inside the door, knowing he had landed a secure job, and clapped his hands happily.
The Gao family has been struggling for three years; it's time to make the Gao family prosperous again!
Shen Qing carefully put away the share certificate stamped with the official seal of the Weaving Bureau and went to the factory's accounting office.
The records show that there are still more than 1,500 bolts of silk in the warehouse.
We are still more than 500 horses short of 2,000, and the down vests also require silk.
Shen Qing hurried to the shop to inquire about purchasing raw silk from the shopkeeper.
The shopkeeper had worked for the Gao family for decades. Although the purchase of raw silk had always been handled by the third branch of the Gao family, the third branch of the Gao family was now ruined and dead, so Shen Qing could only ask the shopkeeper for information.
Fortunately, the shopkeeper knew a lot about raw silk and told Shen Qing everything he knew.
"The raw silk from Nanxun, Huzhou, is soft yet resilient, making it the highest quality of all raw silk! Every year, the silk supplied to the Qing court by the Imperial Silk Manufactory was made from raw silk from Nanxun!"
Shen Qing immediately took Jiang Shen and Lao Xu to Nanxun.
As evening fell, the carriage entered the city gate, and Old Xu immediately got off to inquire about local shops selling raw silk.
A passerby pointed him in a direction, and he quickly drove there.
Finally, we found a shop selling raw silk before dark.
Shen Qing entered the shop and explained her purpose. The shopkeeper immediately invited her to sit down and asked, "Where did you come from, boss?"
“Jiangzhou,” Shen Qing said, “have you heard of the Gao family silk from Jiangzhou?”
The shopkeeper exclaimed in delight, "I know! The Gao family used to get their raw silk from me! That man's name is... his third master Gao! Yes, we all call him third master Gao!"
Shen Qing was overjoyed, feeling that he was lucky today, as he had actually found the shop that used to supply raw silk to the Gao family.
The reason why the Gao family's silk was of better quality than that of the Wang family and other silk merchants—so good that even without any connections, they could win the favor of the Imperial Textile Bureau and be exclusively supplied to the Qing court—was truly because the raw silk used as the raw material was of superior quality.
Shen Qing smiled and said, "Master Gao was my father-in-law's younger brother, but he passed away suddenly two years ago, so I'm now in charge of purchasing raw silk."
The shopkeeper was startled: "What illness did Third Master suffer from before he passed away?"
Shen Qingqian explained, "It must be some kind of hidden illness... As a junior, I didn't dare to inquire too much."
The shopkeeper, upon recalling Gao Laosan's sleazy and lecherous nature, immediately understood and didn't ask any further questions.
Shen Qing got back to the point: "Shopkeeper, I've come today to order five hundred bales of raw silk. Could you show me the most recent batch of raw silk?"
"Alright! Mr. Shen, please have a moment, I'll go get it right away!"
The shopkeeper quickly brought over two packages of raw silk.
Shen Qing took it and opened it.
The moment his palm touched the raw silk, his brow furrowed.
This feels wrong.
She took the raw silk under the lamp to examine it carefully.
The luster remains soft, but the feel is not as supple as before.
Shen Qing twirled the silk with his fingertips, rubbing it slightly, and the silk rustled faintly.
This indicates that the raw silk was of coarse quality.
Only extremely soft raw silk will produce a rustling sound when rubbed.
Shen Qing looked at the shopkeeper and said, "This package of raw silk is different from the previous one; the quality is much worse."
The shopkeeper sighed: "Three years ago, the Gao family came to buy raw silk for the last time, and it was still top quality. But in recent years, the good raw silk has been bought up in bulk by compradors from Shanghai and Guangzhou and sold to foreigners. Before the silk farmers even pick the silk, they have already paid them, and once it's picked, they take it all away! So we can't buy the raw silk we used to have."
Shen Qing understood.
Anger surged within his chest.
Foreigners, through their compradors, bought up China's finest raw silk, settling accounts with opium. The compradors then sold the opium to opium dens, reaping huge sums of silver, leaving the silk farmers with only a pittance.
They took the finest raw materials from China, but then fed opium to the Chinese!
The Chinese people couldn't afford good things, and their bodies were being harmed by opium!
What a humiliation!
So when she first transmigrated and went with Cheng Zhiwen to meet foreign merchants to promote silk, those foreigners immediately told her—
China has an inexhaustible supply of beautiful things for them!
Recalling the bandit-like faces of those people, Shen Qing stood up angrily and said, "Shopkeeper, I will come again tomorrow. Can you take me to see the silk farmer then?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com