Holding up the duck, Shen Qing explained, "I went to the duck farm in Huai County, but it rained heavily on the way back, so I didn't dare to go any further and rested at a nearby inn for the night."
With whom?
"If I'm all alone, who else can I be with?"
"Someone saw you get into a carriage with the owner of Chenghe Company!"
Shen Qing: "..."
She clearly remembered that Cheng Zhiwen did not get off the carriage at all yesterday morning. Who could have known that he was in the carriage?
Furthermore, they knew he was the owner of Chenghehao.
Chenghehao...
The main room!
The only person who knew that Cheng Zhiwen was the owner of Chenghehao was Grandpa Gao from the eldest son's family!
Last time, she and Cheng Zhiwen were cornered in the inn's room by Gao Laosan. Cheng Zhiwen took her back to the Gao family, but the eldest son of the family sent her away under the pretext of discussing business!
Therefore, the eldest son's wife knew the name of his business in Shanghai!
The eldest son's family must have secretly sent someone to follow Cheng Zhiwen!
So even Madam Gao knew that she had spent the night outside with Cheng Zhiwen!
Shen Qing was both angry and disgusted. Without explaining, she turned and left.
Madam Gao Liu said anxiously from behind, "It's not that I don't want you to remarry... but you should at least wait until the three-year mourning period is over before you look for someone else..."
Shen Qing spat and cursed as he walked away.
"They're all crazy! They're barely able to afford food and they still have the energy to be suspicious!"
"Looking again in three years? Can I even live for three years...?"
She got angrier and angrier as she talked, and punched the duck in her arms again.
"quack……"
Chunju was taking care of Sulan at the factory, and there were no extra maids in the central courtyard, so Shen Qing had to boil water and prepare hot water for her bath by herself.
She discovered that the soap in the bathroom was gone, so she went to ask the housekeeper for some.
The butler said with a worried look, "We can't buy pancreatic soap in the city lately!"
Why?
"There's a flavoring agent in pancreatic soap that's supposedly all been bought up by those foreigners... Now you can't buy that flavoring agent... Pancreatic soap merchants are being forced to buy it from the foreigners... And the price is exorbitant..."
The butler was an old man in his sixties who spoke without a clear focus, rambling on and on about this and that. It took Shen Qing some time to figure out what was going on.
Foreign merchants bought up all the spices in advance, forcing local soap manufacturers to import them, thereby achieving their goal of monopolizing the market and raising prices.
Once they have a monopoly, they can dictate the pricing.
Whoever controls all the raw materials gets to set the price.
Whoever controls all the duck feathers gets to decide how to sell them...
While the housekeeper was still complaining about how hard it was to buy soap, Shen Qing had already lifted her skirt and was running wildly toward the door.
She ran to the shop in one breath and demanded that the shopkeeper give her all the silver.
The shopkeeper emptied his pockets and gave her one hundred taels.
She returned to the Gao family home and stood at the gate waiting for Old Xu.
After noon, the carriage finally returned.
She immediately ran over and said anxiously to Old Xu, "Old Xu, do two things for me!"
"Mr. Shen, please tell me! I will definitely do my best to handle whatever you ask me to do!"
"Go to that duck farm from yesterday and tell the owner I want all the ducks from this year's spring harvest! I don't care which part I take, I want them all!"
Old Xu was stunned for a moment, then said, "Okay!"
"After that, help me find out where all the duck farms in the entire Jiangsu and Zhejiang region are! I want to buy up all the ducks in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang region!"
Old Xu was startled and asked cautiously, "Mr. Shen, are you sure you can use all this duck feathers?"
"I'll explain in detail later. For now, go and do these two things for me! Hurry!"
After saying that, he stuffed a heavy bag of loose silver into Old Xu's hand: "This is one hundred taels. If the boss wants a deposit, give it to him!"
Old Xu carefully put away the money bag, spurred his horse, turned the carriage around, and headed towards Huai County.
Shen Qing watched the carriage leave until it disappeared from sight before turning back to the Gao family.
She has already emptied her savings; success or failure hinges on this one moment!
...
Five days later, Old Xu returned.
He brought back an agreement, in which the Huai County duck farm received a deposit of one hundred taels of silver and promised to give Shen Qing this year's spring ducks. Old Xu signed it on Shen Qing's behalf.
There is also a list of spring feather conditions for all duck farms in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions.
There are about 10,000 ducks in Huai County. If all the spring feathers are collected, it will cost about 400 taels of silver.
There are dozens of duck farms in the Jiangzhe region, and to collect all these ducks would cost at least four or five thousand taels of silver.
In other words, if Shen Qing wants to take over the springs in these two regions, he needs to prepare at least five thousand taels of silver as a transitional measure.
She certainly doesn't have that much silver right now, not even fifty taels, let alone five thousand.
But this money is only temporary; she will get it back from the medicine merchant later.
So she decided to borrow money from a money exchange.
Previously, the Gao family father and son could not borrow money from local banks because the silk was not selling well and their capital chain collapsed. Now, she has rayon, and not only the whole of Jiangzhou, but even merchants from Tianjin in the north to Fuzhou and Guangzhou in the south know that her rayon is good.
She used the name of rayon to borrow money from banks, promising to repay it in three months and accepting high interest rates. Surely a bank would be willing to lend her money!
Having made these plans, Shen Qing immediately returned to the Gao family.
She washed off the mud, dressed herself up smartly, changed into a gorgeous orange embroidered gold-thread gown, and, carrying the contract for ten looms and customs declaration, headed straight for the money exchange.
The largest money exchange in Jiangzhou County was next to the pawnshop. Shen Qing had just transmigrated and pawned some jewelry there, so he knew the way well.
When the money shop clerk heard that she had come to borrow money, he eagerly welcomed her to the second floor.
"You want to borrow five thousand taels of silver?" The money shop manager held up five fingers in surprise. "But the Gao family still owes Master Zhao one hundred thousand taels of silver..."
The debt ratio is too high, so money lenders dare not lend.
Shen Qing smiled, straightening her gown as she slowly said, "The 100,000 taels I owe Master Zhao is secured by the house and land. To put it bluntly, even if I can't repay the 100,000 taels, I can still get tens of thousands of taels back by selling the house and land."
The shopkeeper stroked his goatee and nodded: "That's true."
"The five thousand taels I'm borrowing now can be settled with the machinery from my factory and the materials in my warehouse. It won't conflict with Master Zhao's loan. What do you think?"
"machine?"
Seeing the shopkeeper hesitate, Shen Qing handed over the documents and explained, "Those machines cost 30,000 taels to import from Germany. Even if I can't repay your 5,000 taels in three months, you can sell the machines to any fabric merchant and get at least 10,000 taels back."
The shopkeeper was somewhat tempted and took the documents into the inner room.
Shen Qing held her breath and waited, her knuckles turning white from nervousness.
The success or failure of this down jacket business depends on whether we can get this money.
She turned and glanced at the door to the inner room.
The person behind this money exchange must be the one inside. Although the manager is willing to lend her the money, that person may not agree.
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