Shen Qing snapped out of her daze and instinctively withdrew her hand.
Qi Zhenheng looked at her with deep eyes and said, "Qing'er, I don't want to see you suffer like this anymore. Marry me."
Shen Qing was startled and moved back, her back hitting the back of the chair.
She had nowhere to hide and could only face Qi Zhenheng's confession.
After thinking for a moment, she said tactfully, "I don't want to marry anyone, I don't want to be anyone's woman, I just want to be myself."
Qi Zhenheng explained softly, "Now that we're married, I won't restrict you. You can still do what you like. And I will do my best to help you."
Shen Qing asked, puzzled, "If that's the case, then what's the point of you marrying me?"
Qi Zhenheng was taken aback: "What's the meaning?"
He tried to explain his impulse towards Shen Qing: "Because I love you...I want to be with you for the rest of my life..."
Shen Qing looked into his eyes and asked sharply, "Why do you love me?"
"I……"
Qi Zhenheng seemed stumped by her question, his face flushed red, and he was at a loss for words.
Shen Qing chuckled: "Alright, alright, I won't tease you anymore."
The man who had been so imposing just moments before was now as shy as a big boy.
Shen Qing thought he was quite cute.
But she didn't like him, even though he had thick eyebrows, big eyes, and was young and handsome. She just didn't have those feelings for him.
How can I reject him without hurting his feelings?
Shen Qing suddenly remembered a phrase—marrying and having children.
As a man of orthodox feudal society, Qi Zhenheng normally believed in the saying "Of the three unfilial acts, the greatest is to have no offspring".
Shen Qing had an idea. He glanced at the empty doorway and lowered his voice, "Lord Qi... let me tell you the truth..."
"you say."
"I've been married, but I have no children because I can't have any..."
Qi Zhenheng was shocked: "The doctor said that?"
"Yes! I went to Huai County to see a miracle doctor, and I also went to Shanghai to see a Western doctor. They all say that I..."
Shen Qing didn't continue.
Qi Zhenheng's face, which had been flushed, turned deathly pale, and his brows furrowed even more deeply.
The fact that the woman he loved could not have children was indeed a huge blow to him.
Shen Qing thought that he should finally give up now.
It's impossible to marry a widow who can't have children.
If it were a poor widower, he might be able to find a widow who couldn't have children to live with, but he was a promising official, how could he know that she couldn't have children and still insist on marrying her?
It's better to end his interest sooner rather than later.
Shen Qing didn't want to hold him back.
...
Three days later, the other merchants will deliver four million taels of silver to the Chamber of Commerce, but at present, the Chamber of Commerce's accounting office has not yet been set up.
Shen Qing and Qi Zhenheng discussed it and decided to establish the raw silk merchants' association within the weaving bureau, with the weaving bureau assigning a special person to supervise the funds.
Qi Zhenheng had a side courtyard of the Weaving Bureau vacated for the use of the Raw Silk Merchants Association. In the following two days, Shen Qing, Jiang Shen, and Lao Xu tidied up the place and simply added a few cabinets to store raw silk samples and account books.
On the day the funds were to be handed over, several merchants came to the Weaving Bureau. Seeing that the Raw Silk Merchants Association was located within the Weaving Bureau and that the funds were being managed by the officials of the Weaving Bureau, they felt very reassured.
Once the four million taels of silver were collected, Shen Qing immediately rushed to Nanxun to find a warehouse.
She required that once the silk farmers produced raw silk, they should pack it up and transport it to the Chamber of Commerce warehouse, and the payment would be made after the warehouse inspected and approved the goods.
Therefore, we now need to find a warehouse in Nanxun to store raw silk, as well as several warehouse managers, quality inspectors, and security personnel.
It was half a month later when Shen Qing finished arranging these matters and returned to Jiangzhou.
However, upon returning, he could not rest but immediately devoted himself to the reconstruction of the Gao family silk weaving factory.
The Gao family's previous quota was 1,000 bolts of silk per year, but now it is 2,500 bolts. In addition, the silk also needs to be supplied to shops for retail and for use as outer layers of down jackets, as well as for a certain amount of inventory. The remaining 1,000 to 2,000 bolts of silk will soon be exhausted.
Production capacity must be increased, but the small silk weaving workshop that the Gao family had previously abandoned is not enough.
Shen Qing faces the challenges of finding a new factory, buying spinning machines, and recruiting silk weaving masters.
The factory and machines are not the problem; the biggest challenge is finding skilled silk weavers.
The reason why Gao Family Silk was favored by the Qing court and received imperial funding was not only because it used top-quality raw silk, but also because the Gao family's silk weavers were all highly skilled master craftsmen.
The silk they spun was soft, lustrous, and breathable, which the Empress Dowager greatly appreciated.
Later, the Gao family fell into ruin, and the silk weaving masters all left to find work elsewhere. Now, Shen Qing wants to find all of them one by one.
She entrusted the task to the shopkeeper, hoping to recover as many items as possible.
Unexpectedly, the shopkeeper only managed to bring back one of the apprentices from back then.
"The other master craftsmen all went to work in other silk shops after leaving the Gao family. Everyone did well and no one would give up a stable job to come back to the Gao family that drove them away..." the shopkeeper sighed.
Shen Qing thought about it and agreed.
The Gao family has failed before and driven people away. Now they want to bring them back, but who dares to come back?
She then gave up on the idea.
The first batch of silk will soon be sent to the weaving bureau. The existing stock can make up for it in the short term, but it will eventually run out, and we will have to make new silk.
Shen Qing slammed his fist on the counter and said angrily, "Everything is ready now, and we've spent a lot of money buying raw silk, but we don't have any weavers!"
The shopkeeper hung his head and didn't dare to say a word.
Shen Qing glanced at him and suddenly realized that she had spoken too harshly.
The shopkeeper never left even when the Gao family fell from grace, so I really can't treat him like this.
After apologizing to the shopkeeper, she left the shop and walked through the bustling streets back to the Gao family home.
As they walked, he pondered the matter of the weavers in his mind and instructed Jiang Shen: "Tomorrow, I will have Su Lan set up a table outside the shop to recruit female workers. You will follow her; you don't need to follow me."
Two years ago, she set up a stall outside her shop to recruit female workers, and was bullied by local thugs several times. So, Su-lan can't set up a stall outside the shop tomorrow without someone to protect her.
Jiang Shen looked at her with concern: "I'll go with Su Lan, what about you? Should I have He Fei come back?"
Shen Qing waved her hand: "No need. He Fei still has to keep an eye on those girls in the Shanghai factory! They're all twelve or thirteen years old, and they want to date. If we don't keep a close eye on them, they'll be tricked right away. What kind of place is that concession..."
Jiang Shen nodded: "Okay, then I'll arrange for others to protect you."
As Shen Qing walked, he muttered to himself, "That guy surnamed Zhao is dead. Actually, no one will bother me now. Is it necessary for you to keep following me like this?"
Jiang Shen remained silent.
As Shen Qing walked, he thought about the Shanghai factory and the girls he had rescued from England.
"By the way, weren't there some girls under the age of ten who were sent to Jiangzhou back then? What's the situation now?"
Jiang Shen reported truthfully: "They are all arranged to study in the school. We plan to ask them which factory they want to work in once they can read and do arithmetic."
"It's been a year, how far have you progressed in your writing?"
"Writing about daily life is no problem."
Shen Qing nodded and said nothing more.
As she approached the Gao family's gate, she suddenly stopped, turned around, and said, "Let's go! To the Fan family!"
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