Zhou Ziqiong was furious at this moment.
"Manager Hu, you know perfectly well whether he was sent by you or not, so don't pretend to be innocent!"
Manager Hu, however, didn't care at all: "Miss Zhou, you can't just say things like that; you need evidence!"
"Hmph! If Manager Hu insists on doing this, then don't blame me for not paying a single tael of silver!"
Zhou Ziqiong put her hands on her hips and said in a cold voice.
"Hehe, Miss Zhou is a smart woman, how come she's suddenly acting confused?"
Upon hearing the familiar voice, Zhou Ziqiong realized that the owner of the Qu Family Cloth Shop had also arrived here sometime earlier!
Only then did she fully realize that this was a conspiracy!
From the moment the Qu family started selling cotton-padded clothes, the Zhou family fell into their carefully woven net, and now, they're preparing to close it in!
At this moment, Master Qu sneered, "Everyone downstairs heard the rules of the riddle-guessing game. If Miss Zhou doesn't pay up, what will the people of Ruzhou think of the Zhou family's cloth shop? And Miss Zhou will also need to have a good talk with the government! Don't you think so, Prefect Liu?"
Prefect Liu nodded and said, "Miss Zhou, you are considered a trustworthy merchant in Ruzhou City. Since you and Manager Hu had already discussed this matter beforehand, you should be willing to accept the consequences! Manager Hu paid the same amount of money as you and didn't say anything, did he?"
"You're still too young; you should learn more from Manager Hu! But I must warn you upfront: if Miss Zhou really tries to renege on her debt, then this prefect will shut down your Zhou family's cloth shop!"
"..."
Hearing this, Zhou Ziqiong felt both angry and desperate.
The Qu family's cloth shop, Juxianlou, and the prefect of Ruzhou are in cahoots; how can she possibly defeat them?
"Manager Hu, since you're like this, then don't blame me! I know these riddles too, I'll go down and guess them all right away!"
"Hehe, I'm afraid that won't work."
"Why not?"
"To prevent cheating, neither the merchants nor their families may participate in the lantern riddle guessing game for any reason."
Manager Hu said with a smile.
"When...did this rule come about?"
"Do we even need to set rules? Everyone knows this, okay? Otherwise, I could just go down there beforehand and guess all the riddles, right? As merchants, we have to be honest!"
Manager Hu stroked his beard and said calmly.
"You? Honesty?"
Zhou Ziqiong sneered, "Then you wait, I'm going now—"
"Alright, for now, everyone can stop guessing the riddles. Let this young master finish first!"
Just then, the bald waiter's voice rang out from downstairs. Zhou Ziqiong looked in the direction of the voice and discovered that the person the bald waiter was pointing at was none other than Zhang Xiaoyu's husband…
Without saying anything more, I went downstairs to see what had happened.
"Manager Hu, you were careless! You should have found someone more discerning! Even I thought it was fake when that waiter was peeking through the paper!"
After Zhou Ziqiong left, Master Qu said.
"Hehe, I did it on purpose!"
Manager Hu sneered, "Doesn't Master Qu think it would be even more exciting if Zhou Ziqiong knew we were going to take down the Zhou family's cloth workshop, but she was powerless to do anything about it? And that way, it would be easier for the young master to help her, wouldn't it?"
"Manager Hu is truly amazing!"
Master Qu was taken aback, then smiled and said.
At this moment, Prefect Liu waved his hand, pointed downstairs, and looked extremely excited.
"Heh heh, that kid's taken the bait!"
"..."
...
After Zhou Ziqiong went upstairs, Jing Zhe watched as the man in the cotton coat solved four riddles in a row, and immediately felt a little itchy to try it himself.
That's it?
"You've been thinking for too long, haven't you?"
"Give me this much time, and I'll be able to guess it!"
"..."
So, Jing Zhe started his crazy rant.
Those around him, upon hearing this, largely echoed his words, displaying an attitude of "I could do it too."
"Does the young master feel there isn't enough time?"
The bald waiter squeezed in at some point, looking at Jing Zhe with a fawning expression: "Young master, if you were given enough time, could you solve all these riddles?"
"Of course!"
Jing Zhe patted his chest and said, "Back in my hometown, I'm known as a riddle-solving expert. What do you say?"
"Great, absolutely fantastic!"
The bald waiter boasted for a while, then whispered, "Young master, if you can really guess them, I can give you more time to think. How about you guess all these riddles?"
"OK--"
Before Jing Zhe could finish his sentence, he stared at the bald waiter with a suspicious look on his face and asked, "Why are you suddenly being so nice to me? Are you up to no good?"
It's not that stupid!
The bald waiter sneered inwardly, glanced around a few times, and seemed a little uneasy. He pulled Jing Zhe aside and cautiously said, "Young master is indeed clever. Then I won't hide anything! You can get fifty taels of silver for guessing a riddle correctly. Isn't that a great thing? If you can guess all two hundred riddles correctly, you can get five thousand taels of silver. Wouldn't you never have to worry about anything for the rest of your life?"
After listening, Jing Zhe nodded repeatedly.
"Yes, yes, if I guess them all right, I can get ten thousand taels of silver for nothing!"
Seeing Jing Zhe's eyes light up, the bald waiter chuckled to himself.
"Such a good thing, I'd love to guess too! It's just a pity that firstly, I don't have the talent of a young master, so even if I did guess, I wouldn't be able to guess correctly, and secondly, our Juxianlou has a rule that employees are not allowed to participate."
The bald waiter shook his head and sighed, "That's why I'm willing to give you time, young master. Just guess, but you'll have to give me five hundred taels after you guess correctly!"
"No problem!"
Jing Zhe said nonchalantly, "I already have over ten thousand taels of silver, so taking out a mere five hundred taels is nothing to me!"
"Okay, deal!"
The two then returned to the crowd, which led to the scene that Zhou Ziqiong and the others had just witnessed.
"Alright, for now, everyone can stop guessing the riddles. Let this young master finish first!"
The bald waiter waved his hand and said.
These words immediately caused an uproar. Everyone looked at Jing Zhe with different expressions, but most of them felt sympathy.
Everyone's smart enough to know there are nearly two hundred riddles in total. Let alone guessing them all, just look at Jing Zhe's constipated-like reaction when he tried to guess the first riddle – he probably won't guess a single one! In the end, not only will he not earn a single penny, but he'll also lose over two hundred taels of silver!
This silly kid has clearly been tricked!
Everyone shook their heads in thought, but at this moment, the man in the cotton-padded coat voiced his dissatisfaction: "No way! How can he guess everything by himself? I want to keep guessing!"
As he spoke, he ignored everyone else and reached out to tear off the note under the lantern.
"stop!"
Jing Zhe and the bald waiter shouted at the same time, and then the bald waiter pushed the man in the cotton coat aside to prevent him from taking it off.
————
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