"This..." After seeing those words clearly, Zu An was stunned. This seemed to be her signature move.
Chu Chuyan blushed slightly, turned her face to the other side and stopped looking at him, pretending to be indifferent as she said, "I'm just afraid that if you die at the hands of that Chen Xuan, no one will come to treat my injuries."
Zuan laughed and put the booklet into his pocket: "Such a precious thing, I will naturally keep it close to my body and take good care of it."
Seeing how carefully he accepted the item, Chu Chuyan nodded in satisfaction: "Take a look first. If there's anything you don't understand, just ask me. After all, I've studied it before, so I have more experience in this area."
Zu'an patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, what kind of talent do you think your husband has? There's nothing I can't understand. I'll definitely learn it in no time."
Chu Chuyan: "..."
Your qualifications are perfectly clear, yet you were assigned to the Yellow Class by the academy.
She assumed he was just a man who was proud and unwilling to admit defeat, so she didn't say anything. She thought to herself that she would find a suitable opportunity to help him out later.
"Oh, right, keep this manual safe, don't lose it." Chu Chuyan couldn't help but remind him, thinking about his carefree and irresponsible nature.
"What's wrong? Is this book a closely guarded secret of your Chu family? Isn't it a bit too hasty to teach it to me?" Zu An grinned and leaned closer.
Chu Chuyan shrank back, awkwardly avoiding the conversation: "Don't overthink it. After all, you are the son-in-law of the Chu family, so you're not exactly an outsider. It's understandable that we'd pass it on to you, as long as you don't... don't use it to teach those women outside."
Zu An raised an eyebrow: "Are you jealous?"
"If you have nothing else, I'll be going now." Chu Chuyan turned and left with a blush on her face, clearly not used to discussing these things with him.
"Wait a minute," Zu An hurriedly grabbed her hand, his smile fading as he said seriously, "The Chu family is facing such a difficult situation with donations. I wonder how much silver they need to donate? I have some money here that should be able to help the Chu family get through this crisis."
Chu Chuyan subconsciously shook her hand, but couldn't shake it off, so she had no choice but to let him have his way: "You should keep your money. Even if the Chu family is down on its luck, it's not like we need to use our son-in-law's private savings."
Zuan: "..."
This sounds so awkward, it's like those men in ancient times saying that no matter how difficult things were at home, they wouldn't use the woman's dowry.
Seeing his stunned expression, Chu Chuyan thought he had been hurt and hurriedly said, "Don't overthink it. After all, the Chu family is a large and powerful family. The reason why we are in a difficult situation this time is largely because the weapons industry has been severely impacted, affecting a portion of our income."
"In addition, the illegal salt trade has been rampant lately, which has made it impossible for the Chu family to sell their salt, so they are having a headache."
"Smuggled salt?" Zu An was taken aback, clearly not understanding what was going on.
Chu Chuyan explained to him, "According to the imperial decree, after salt is boiled by salt farmers in the salt fields, it is purchased by the government or its agents. Whether it is transportation or trading, salt permits must be purchased from the imperial government to be legal. Salt that is circulated through other channels is private salt and is strictly prohibited."
"Unfortunately, smuggled salt is cheap, so ordinary people are willing to buy it, which is why it is so difficult to stop. In addition, the profits from smuggling salt are huge, so many desperate people are willing to do it one after another."
She never used to talk about these things with anyone else, always bearing all the responsibility on her own shoulders. But now she subconsciously started talking to Zuan, probably because her experiences in the secret realm made her subconsciously believe that he was reliable and could help her share her worries.
Zuan couldn't help but sigh, "Their smuggled salt is so much cheaper than your official salt, yet they still make a huge profit. Why don't you just lower the price a little? That way, there's no room for smuggled salt to survive, and who would risk buying it?"
“It’s easier said than done,” Chu Chuyan sighed softly. “Do you think we want to set the price of salt so high? The cost of official salt is much higher than that of private salt. Not to mention the corruption and bribery in official circles, just take the salt permits for example. We need to pay 1.5 taels of silver to the government for each salt permit, and one permit only yields about 200 catties of salt. We don’t even know how much money we spend on salt permits every year.”
"In addition, sometimes we don't have enough salt permits, so we need to borrow the quota for the next few years. Borrowing a salt permit in advance requires an additional 2.1 taels on top of the original 1.5 taels. These are all costs that the imperial court adds to us."
"And the major expenses like donations are actually factored into the final cost."
"You can get a general idea of how expensive the cost of government-made salt is." Chu Chuyan spoke of this as if she knew it by heart. "We buy back the boiled salt from the salt farmers and pay them only 10 wen per jin from start to finish. After various costs are factored in, the price of the salt we sell will fluctuate depending on the situation, roughly between 100 and 300 wen. Only in this way can we make a profit."
“Since private salt doesn’t have to pay those high costs, they can sell it for 20 or 30 coins per pound, so naturally no one buys official salt.”
Zu An stared at her blankly, never expecting that Chu Chuyan, who was usually as elegant as a fairy, could speak so clearly about these business matters, even down to the smallest detail.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Chu Chuyan noticed his gaze and her cheeks flushed slightly.
Zu An gently took her hand and said affectionately, "You must have had a hard time managing this huge Chu family all these years."
Perhaps it was because of the serious injury I suffered during this period that I became more vulnerable, both physically and mentally.
Hearing the other person's words, Chu Chuyan felt a pang of sadness in her heart. She had never told anyone about her suffering over the years.
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