Feicui pulled out an envelope from her bosom and handed it to Su Qingyu, saying, "This is what the Third Young Master asked me to give to Miss. He said that this is all he has found so far and he will continue to investigate in detail."
"There's one more thing. I came to the capital with the Second Young Master. He asked me to tell you that the Lin family has raised a total of 1.5 million dan of grain and has already entered the capital and stored it."
Su Qingyu nodded. It was 500,000 more stones than she expected.
She opened the letter from her third cousin Lin Wuchen, which contained the details of how the Cheng family was exiled.
At that time, Cheng Ruijin's grandfather Cheng Xuewen was the governor of Fujian, and his father Cheng Yu was the eldest son of the Cheng family. All the trivial matters in the inner house were managed by Gu Ruoyun, the mistress of the house.
In the summer of the 12th year of the Xuande reign, Fujian was devastated by floods, leaving the people destitute. The imperial court allocated funds for disaster relief and ordered Cheng Xuewen to purchase grain in Jiangnan for the relief efforts.
Things were going smoothly and the victims were almost all resettled. However, Chen Zheng, the then Minister of Revenue, made a secret visit to Jiangnan and discovered that the grain the Cheng family had collected was of the lowest quality, but was being priced at the price of second-class grain.
Before Chen Zheng could conduct a detailed investigation, Su Chengye, a doctor from the Ministry of Revenue who was then exiled to Fujian, presented detailed evidence, directly confirming the Cheng family's guilt of embezzling disaster relief funds.
Chen Zheng acted decisively and wrote a letter to the emperor, sentencing the entire Cheng family to exile.
Because of this achievement, Su Chengye was transferred to Xuanfu to manage military rations, and was transferred back to Beijing within a year.
He was able to plead for Gu Ruoyun and her daughter because of his great contribution to the Cheng family.
Su Qingyu vaguely remembered that Gu Ruoyun entered the mansion half a year after the Cheng family incident. She should have given birth to a child during that half year.
According to Su Chengye, the concubine Mo Yu conceived the child in Fujian and gave birth to the child in Xuanfu, which coincided with the time of Gu Ruoyun's birth.
She recalled Yue Tao's words, that Gu Ruoyun seemed to have some leverage over Su Chengye. Could there be more to the story behind the Fujian incident?
Seeing Su Qingyu in a daze, Feicui stood quietly aside without disturbing her. However, she was thinking about the scene she saw when she came to Beijing today, and always felt that something was strange.
"Fei Cui, you've been running all the way. I'm fine here, you can go back and rest." Su Qingyu's words brought Fei Cui back to her senses.
She said, "Miss, today when I was returning home and passed by our shop in the west of the city, I found a new grain store opened next to it, called Zhou's Grain Store."
"I felt something was wrong, so I went to look at other shops. Next to each shop, there was a Zhou's grain store."
Su Qingyu was stunned. Why didn't anyone respond to her about such a big matter?
"Send someone to find Mr. Lin and ask him what's going on."
As soon as she finished speaking, Zhenzhu opened the brocade curtain and walked in, "Miss, Manager Lin Sheng wants to see you."
Su Qingyu asked Feicui to go back and rest, and she took Zhenzhu to the study in the outer courtyard to meet Lin Sheng.
In the study, Lin Sheng paced anxiously on the floor.
As soon as Su Qingyu entered the door, he spoke anxiously, "Miss, there's a grain store next to our shops called Zhou's Grain Store. I suspect it was opened specifically to target our shops."
"Have you checked? Who is the boss? When are they planning to open for business?" Su Qingyu sat down in the main seat and signaled Lin Sheng not to be anxious and to sit down and talk slowly.
After Lin Sheng sat down, he took the tea handed to him by Zhenzhu and whispered, "Before coming to see the young lady, I sent someone to investigate. Now all we know is that this shop is related to the Zhou family."
"The Zhou business that makes medicinal herbs?" Su Qingyu asked.
"Yes, it's the Zhou family. The people who have been renovating the shop these days are all from the Zhou family. I originally thought they were going to open a medicine shop, but when they put up the plaque today, I realized they were going to open a grain store."
Su Qingyu's green fingers tapped the desk subconsciously. After a moment of contemplation, she said, "No matter who is behind this, we will do our business."
"It doesn't matter how much money you make these days, but you must keep an eye on the warehouse and the shop to prevent anyone from doing something bad behind your back."
Lin Sheng said, "The Second Young Master said that 1.5 million dan of grain will be sent to the capital. If our business is affected at this time..."
Su Qingyu waved her hand and said, "I have my own plans for the 1.5 million shi. Don't worry. If you have any questions, tell me immediately."
After Lin Sheng left, Su Qingyu sat alone in the study, recalling the disaster in her previous life. Suddenly, she thought of Master Yan San, wondering if he could have escaped.
The next morning, Su Qingyu was in the study, teaching Su Shunci how to check the accounts, when Zhenzhu came in with a letter and handed it to Su Qingyu, "Miss, this is from Mr. Lin, the shopkeeper."
Su Qingyu opened the letter and began to read. Lin Sheng's letter said that Zhou's grain store was opening today, and the price of all grains was lower than their shop, even close to the cost price.
Their grain store hadn't sold a single pound of grain the entire morning. Lin Sheng asked Su Qingyu what to do, whether to lower the price as well.
Su Qingyu frowned slightly, lowering the price was impossible.
She thought about it, picked up her pen and wrote a reply letter, instructing Lin Sheng not to lower the price, and to arrange people to buy grain from Zhou’s Grain Store, the more the better, but to keep it secret.
After writing the letter, Su Qingyu instructed Zhenzhu, "You deliver the letter yourself and ask Lin Sheng to do what I say in the letter."
An hour later, Zhenzhu returned from delivering the letter and whispered to Su Qingyu, "Miss, I saw Lu Ru, who was with my cousin's wife, at the Zhou's grain store. She was talking to the shopkeeper inside, and they seemed to be very familiar with each other."
"Later, I pretended to buy rice and went in to ask. The clerk casually said that the girl just now was a popular maid by the boss's side."
Su Qingyu raised her eyebrows slightly, "Oh? That's really interesting."
If that shop was related to Gu Ruoyun, then they were specifically targeting her. They probably wanted to take over the market by selling at low prices, bring down the original Su's Grain Store, and then replace it.
A smile appeared on Su Qingyu's lips. She was just thinking that one million and a half shi was not enough, and Gu Ruoyun came to give her a gift.
The next morning, Su Qingyu went to Songhe Hall early to pay her respects to the old lady.
As soon as she entered Songhe Hall, Gu Ruoyun came with Cheng Ruijin and Su Yuanche.
Gu Ruoyun couldn't hide her joy, and even looked at Su Qingyu with a hint of pride.
Su Qingyu's five-point guess in her mind increased to eight points at this time. The Zhou's Grain Store should be the work of Gu Ruoyun. She just didn't know if other people in the Su family were involved.
When the old lady saw Su Yuanche coming, she quickly hugged her grandson in her arms and told Madam Yuan, "Go and bring a bowl of sugar-coated cheese. Yuanche likes it."
"Please serve my cousin a bowl of hot almond tea."
Su Qingyu stood aside with an unchanged expression. The old lady had been indifferent to her these days, and she had almost no share of food or drinks.
Of course, she only came to pay her respects every day in order to maintain the appearance of filial piety.
Soon, the almond tea was handed to Cheng Ruijin. Just as she was about to drink it, her brows suddenly furrowed. She put down the small celadon bowl and ran out.
Su Qingyu listened to the retching sounds coming from outside and looked puzzled.
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