"Boss Shen, it must have been the county government officials who arrested them!" Old Xu said anxiously as he drove the carriage. "Prefect Qi is on good terms with Boss Cheng, so he certainly wouldn't come to arrest Boss Cheng's men!"
Shen Qing didn't speak.
She suspected that the corrupt official in the county government was targeting her, so he arrested the technician who came to help her assemble the machine.
"When the officers and soldiers arrested people, did they give any reasons?"
Old Xu recalled for a moment and said, "They said it was a tip from the people that they suspected foreigners were causing trouble here, so they were being arrested for investigation!"
Shen Qing's expression grew increasingly solemn.
The technicians came from Shanghai by horse-drawn carriage. They were in the carriage the whole way, and the carriage drove directly into the courtyard. They also took a horse-drawn carriage from the factory to the inn. There was hardly any chance for the local people to see them.
How could ordinary citizens possibly report this?
And is the pretext for stirring up trouble?
Shen Qing didn't believe that the simple and honest people of Jiangzhou could connect foreigners with causing trouble.
It seems this is a case of corrupt officials targeting them!
Shen Qing grew increasingly angry as he thought about it, secretly preparing his words in his mind, ready to have another big fight with that corrupt official later!
Old Xu rode at full speed and soon arrived at the county government office. Shen Qing lifted her skirt and got off the carriage, then ran up the stone steps.
Before one foot had even stepped into the threshold of the county government office, Cheng Zhiwen, the technician, and Qi Zhenheng came out from inside.
Shen Qing stopped in her tracks, still holding up her skirt with both hands, and took a few steps back, looking at them in astonishment.
Upon seeing her, Cheng Zhiwen stepped forward first and asked softly, "Why are you here?"
"Old Xu said the technician was arrested by the soldiers, so I came to check it out."
"It's alright, everything's been taken care of."
"That's good." Shen Qingsong breathed a sigh of relief and was about to go forward to comfort the technician when he saw Qi Zhenheng looking at him with a stern expression.
She swallowed her words back, nodded obediently to him, and instinctively hid behind Cheng Zhiwen.
Old Xu drove the carriage over, and Shen Qing invited the technician to get in first, before getting in himself as well.
She parted the curtain and looked outside.
Cheng Zhiwen and Qi Zhenheng were talking not far away, both of them with solemn expressions. Qi Zhenheng would occasionally glance at the carriage, it was unclear whether he was talking about the technician or her.
Shen Qing was certain that the prefect did not like her.
He pulled the curtain shut and sat back down.
Not long after, Cheng Zhiwen also got into the car.
Shen Qing asked, "Where is Lord Qi?"
"He went back to the prefect's office."
Shen Qing's tense nerves immediately relaxed, and he spoke more casually: "Then why did the county magistrate arrest the technician?"
"They said they received a report from local residents and were conducting a routine investigation."
"Pah!" Shen Qing said angrily, "Are the local people so bored that they would report a foreigner? He's clearly targeting me!"
Cheng Zhiwen frowned: "Targeting you?"
“That’s right!” Shen Qing then mentioned that he had been arrested and taken to court, and was almost beaten to death with a board.
She originally didn't intend for Cheng Zhiwen to know about her experience in court.
But the two of them now have a pretty good relationship, and since that corrupt official caused trouble again today, they decided to tell Cheng Zhiwen the whole story.
Cheng Zhiwen frowned as she listened, then analyzed for her: "These things seem to have all started because of the Gao family's house, but upon closer examination, it seems that's not entirely the case. According to your speculation, every owner of it, including the future owner, has died a violent death because of it, but there are exceptions."
Shen Qing was also very clever and immediately realized that he was talking about himself.
"So I can't understand it either. Logically speaking, now that I'm the head of the Gao family, if they want the Gao family's house, they should kill me, and my mother-in-law too; they should kill both of us. But the reality is, since I narrowly escaped from the courtroom that day, I haven't encountered anything that absolutely requires me to die, except..."
She suddenly thought of something.
Cheng Zhiwen also looked at her, seemingly having the same thought as her.
“Besides being drowned in a pig cage…” Shen Qing awkwardly looked away from Cheng Zhiwen, “but I think that matter was because the other branches of the Gao family wanted to seize the second branch’s property and tacitly allowed Gao Laosan to harm me.”
Cheng Zhiwen remained silent, deep in thought with a serious expression.
They soon arrived at the silk factory. Shen Qing got off the car first, while Lao Xu and Cheng Zhiwen escorted the technician.
Shen Qing asked Cheng Zhiwen, "Are you going to drop me off for a while and then turn back, or are you going to Shanghai together?"
"Let's go to Shanghai together."
A strange emotion surged into Shen Qing's heart. She was a little flustered, but she pretended to be calm and said "okay" before getting off the carriage.
Cheng Zhiwen got off the bus.
The two stood facing each other in the courtyard, neither of them speaking.
Shen Qing broke the silence first, asking, "After this trip to Shanghai, will you come back to Jiangzhou?"
Cheng Zhiwen gazed at her intently, saying, "I told you, I will definitely return to Jiangzhou to cheer for you on the day rayon hits the market."
Shen Qing was satisfied and smiled: "At this rate, the rayon will be on the market in less than a month! I'll be waiting for you!"
Cheng Zhiwen smiled and nodded, gesturing with her chin towards the door: "Go in and get busy."
Shen Qing smiled, turned around, and ran into the workshop, feeling refreshed.
She told Cheng Zhiwen that the rayon would be on the market in less than a month. In fact, two weeks later, the first batch of rayon that had been dyed and printed in Suzhou was sent back to Jiangzhou.
Shen Qing looked at the five hundred bolts of brightly colored rayon in front of him, which were in no way inferior to real silk, and his heart was filled with excitement.
She instructed the shopkeeper to lay out one hundred bolts of different patterns in each of the two shops to test the market response before deciding on the color scheme for the second batch of finished products.
I thought this process would take a few days, but to my surprise, the shopkeeper came to the accounting office the following evening.
"Young Madam, all one hundred bolts of rayon are sold out!" the shopkeeper exclaimed excitedly. "There's no need to worry about the pattern; they're all gone!"
Shen Qing put down his brush and stood up in surprise: "So fast? It's only been a few hours?"
After saying that, he asked, "Have you noticed which colors sell out the fastest?"
She wasn't particularly excited that 100 bolts of rayon sold out in two days, because she knew rayon would definitely be popular.
It's no wonder that cheap, soft, lightweight, breathable, and brightly colored fabrics are popular.
What she cares about most right now is what patterns to print on the next batch of rayon sent to Suzhou for printing and dyeing.
The shopkeeper thought for a moment and said, "Red, orange, purple, and green will be the first to sell out."
Shen Qing instructed Su Lan to write it down, saying, "For the next batch of printing and dyeing, use these colors, dyeing 500 bolts of fabric with each color."
Su-lan's obedient record.
After seeing the shopkeeper off, Shen Qing was about to turn back to the accounting office when Chunju ran into the courtyard, panting.
"Young Madam! Something terrible has happened!"
Upon hearing this, Shen Qing was startled and turned around, asking anxiously, "What happened now?"
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